Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!

Flux

Being in flux is kinda like being on an unending vacation. I have decided to change sites and it seems as though everyone (Security Coordinator, Country Director, and APCD, Francisco) are all behind it. Just nothing has happened yet. So when I met with my boss and Security Coordinator last week, he suggested that I go visit my best friend in Peace Corps and spend a week with her. I reminded him that I didn’t have any clothes with me, so I couldn’t leave immediately as he suggested.

So on Wednesday night, I went up to my site, packed up my bag, furiously cleaned up my house and got a good night’s sleep before heading out to Cocle the following morning. By late afternoon I was skipping across the rocks of the river and up the path to Kayla’s house. I met her parents and so began my adventure for the next couple of days.

We left the following morning for Pedasi on the Azuero Peninsula and stayed there for two nights at a fun hotel called Dim’s Hostel with a great outdoor area. We took a boat out to Isla Iguana which is a wildlife refuge due to a huge breeding colony of Magnificent Frigate birds.

There were about 5,000 pairs with clouds of the birds hovering over schools of fish and squid in the ocean and more on the island. Their enormous black wings and pointed tails are recognizable from afar, but the inflatable red pouches of the males were a treat to see up close. To attract the females, the boys blow up the pouch in their throat to the size of a balloon while others around them held their beaks up high and made clicking sounds to regulate their temperature. It sounded like Jurassic Park with so much noise and otherworldly creatures.

Snorkeling and reading filled the rest of our day on the island which I wouldn’t mind being stranded on for the rest of my service. We then moved on to Las Lajas, my favorite beach in Chiriqui. The cabins on the sand were a perfect complement to bodysurfing waves, magnificent sunset, and innumerable starts.

I’m hanging out in David tonight before I head into the city tomorrow for two nights and then a training of trainers seminar. I’ll be back in my site in a while, but it sure has been nice to get out for a while and decompress! And heck, I’ll be back out again with my family whom I can’t wait to see!

Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!

Site difference

I arrived back from Panama safe and sound. Although the Ministerio Publico is your typical paper pushing government agency, it served for a trip to catch up with some friends in the city. I stopped at Kayla's site on my way back which is beautiful. She's got a big river flowing in the middle of town, unlike mine that is bordered by rivers. She also has a lot less agriculture, so there are more trees than sugarcane. Okay, enough comparisons...

I helped her ecotourism group design a logo. (Somehow the color is showing up weird when posted. It should have a black circle around it and colors not so florescent...) Kayla and I fiddled with a proto the night before meeting with the group. I'm sure glad they didn't like the one we did then! Haha. Although the one we did during their meeting was quick and snappy without a whole lot of thought or attention to detail, I think it turned out loads better than the nighttime tester. Their main trail, as I understand it, goes to a waterfall. They also have a cabin for tourists to stay in which just got a retrofit from a Biological Corridor grant. (That's the grant I am hoping my group will put their ducks in a row to get.) The tree is the namesake of their town, Barrigon, which means potbelly. See why? And then at the last minute, they wanted me to stick a swallow in there. After months of working with swallows in my hands, I still couldn't think of how to draw one without seeing one again. So the kindergarten rendition of a flying bird is their swallow. Lol They seemed happy with it, and even if not, I had a great time with Kayla.

I got back to my site all ready to get to work. When waiting at the bus stop for my chiva with some other folks in town, we realized there would be no chiva. Darn! I had a girl scout meeting in two hours, so I couldn't wait the 6 hours for the 6pm chiva. I decided to just eat it and walk up. Did I mention I bought a printer too? I took my little backpack and printer and left my backpacking pack (filled with books I just got from Kayla as well as two reams of paper) at the bus stop with the other folks from town who are either too old or too lazy to walk.

All of my girl scouts were at the meeting which made me happy. In addition, they had a great time first sewing frames out of wire and mesh and then making handmade paper in their unique shapes. We didn't get to talk a lot about their induction ceremony next week, well... tomorrow. But I figure I'll just wing it and they'll be happy. (This pic is from their meeting before when they were catching butterflies.)

I then trucked it up to the top of my community to make it in time for a conservation group meeting to fill out the paperwork for the Biological Corridor grant. When I got there, it was like a surprise. (It was to be held in the house of three of the group members since the “office” or caseta doesn't yet have electricity for a nighttime meeting.) Only the father, who is treasurer, was at home and told me he didn't know anything about the meeting. Well that's funny cause your son, Chicho, is the one who picked the date, time, and place... and he's not even here. Cheema gave him a call and he simply said that there wasn't a meeting and for me to go home. Man was my blood boiling. How dare he cancel yet another of my meetings without even telling me! We have had many talks about respecting me as a professional working in the community and the importance of communication. It just isn't sinking through though. (Did I mention it was his dad that told me I should marry his son so he could come to America? Yeah, shot that one down not because he's Panamanian, but because he is so arrogant!) Anyhow, I tried giving him a call and after it rang once, it went to voicemail. Aka, he rejected my call. There wasn't anything that could have made me more mad at that point. Eventually I left the house and started back downhill.

I called Kayla to tell her about it and ran into Chicho on my way home. I asked him what happened and he fained innocence. Moreover, he went into how all the groups in town fall apart when he is no longer leading them. They all need him. My goodness! I couldn't stand it and just smiled and knodded as he continued on and on until I could dismiss myself.

Saturday I had my third meeting with my English students to plan their graduation. The first meeting no one showed. The second only 5 of the 11. And this one only 3 showed. Plus, one of the three still hadn't brought her final assignment, consisting of 16 answers to questions that are basically yes or no about the environment of Cabecera. And they didn't bring money for the dinner they want me to buy the food for and cook for themselves and their families. Yeah, I'm not that generous to do it all on my own without some monetary help if they can't even show up for classes or meetings. So I ditched the meal at the graduation and some of they are upset about that. In fact, we were supposed to have this graduation before Christmas. Then it was supposed to be Jan 10th. I figure if they aren't interested enough in coming to a meeting to help me out with it, then they can't me holding their breaths to begin with about the graduation. I might do a little something for them, we'll see.

So goes life in Panama. I went to a birthday party today for Rosalina, an 11 year old forth grader. The invitation said it would start at 3pm. I got their at 3:10, but the mom didn't even throw on clothes until 4pm, so I didn't feel bad about my tardiness. Then in the best show of Panamanian culture I have seen for quite some time, one of my English students who is in his 50's, changed out of his regular t-shirt to get dressed up too. What did he put on? A mesh tanktop! Oh man, I wish I took a picture. I felt as though since I would only be taking the picture for a good laugh, I probably shouldn't. Next time... Until then, hope you all are doing well too!

Rainin´ Ants!

I´m all settled into my new house, but it seems the ants were quick to follow. I can´t quite blame them as it is certainly the only dry place around (if you don´t count the leaks in the roof) since it has been raining a steady 4 inches a day here. Oh the joys of the rainy season! But thankfully there is only a month more of really strong rain. Then summer will be coming! Then clothes can dry in just one day instead of three. Oh the luxury! But that of course means that my hair will probably dry in one day too, so I´ll have to go back to taking a shower every day. Shucks!

So I tried attacking the ants that have made quite a big nest on my front stoop. I boiled up some water, added my Dr. Bronner´s soap, and had at it with my machette as I poured the water into what was once their home. They started pouring instead out of the electrical outlet. What else could I do but boil up another pot of water and pour that into the outlet. Sorry Grandpa, but I don´t use that outlet anyhow, so I don´t care what it may have done to the wiring. hehe I also did the same to another big next just down from the first. (There are nests all around the foundation of my house, which actually leads me to believe that the whole house is sitting on a huge interconnected system of ant tunnels.) The next day, the nests were reformed like I hadn´t done a thing.

Ants are also crawling around my kitchen/dinning room/work table. (It´s still the only table I´ve got in the house.) I keep that thing spic and span, so what they are doing there I don´t know. My sponge is constantly covered in ants that I´ve killed, which is kinda gross, but hey. I know I´ve eated a couple too that have been crawling in cups before I realize it. I make sure all my dishes are food free and swimming in copious bubbles, but I guess there is still some smell the ants like. In fact, I saw them crawling over the cake of dishwashing soap in the sink outside. I don´t know. It´s a losing battle, so I figure I´ll just hold out until the rains pass and hope it gets better after that.

These suckers bit though!!! I don´t think there is such thing as a friendly ant in a tropical country. Every one I´ve ever encountered no matter the size or color bites like a mother. I end up with raised pus-filled bites every time. And they typically prefer my toes or underneath my watch.

You know when you get the tingles when you are sitting some times? I often do when I am sitting, reading in my hammock. Well, in the States, I wouldn´t think of it. Here, everytime I look at the location of the tingle, it´s always a bug. Be it an ant, mosquito, cricket, moth, you name it, it´s been crawling on me. At least moths and crickets don´t bite. Or sting... Every morning my ritual is knocking off the new growth on the window (decorative cement blocks) that the wasps make every day. You´d think they would get the point by now that they aren´t gonna be able to live there as long as I am here.

And so the fight continues...

Things are going well in site if you can count all the books I´ve been able to read these past few weeks. I´ve quite enjoyed myself actually. This past week in fact I knocked off two new books from my list and started a third. Thank god for electricity so I can read into the night, or during the midday storms that fill the sky with dark clouds and blow rain into the house if I don´t have my lovely, pink shower curtain-covered door closed.

To my defense, though I really don´t feel I need to defend myself... I have been working with one of the ladies to start a women´s craft group. There is interest... just no one shows up to the meetings. They blame it on the rain. I guess that gives me free reign to read until the rain stops! I have also started digging a test hole for fish tanks. You need clay to build them to keep the water in. Well, after digging through 16 inches of black volcanic soil crawling with great worms, I couldn´t help but think why they won´t just make organic compost. Instead we made it down the first 36 inches and stopped for the day. That was two days ago... perhaps next week it won´t be raining so much and she (as I´m only digging this with one other lady) will be up for digging some more.

I haven´t done much to coordinate a Panama Verde group in my site yet. I´ve had a lot on my plate, you know between the books and all. I would have to hold meetings after 2pm when the kids get back from school (the colegio cause the elementary school rarely holds class past 10:30am). And of course that is prime time for rain and nonattendance at meetings. Oye.

My Eco-English class is still going well though. Last class I did the Ïncredible Journey¨ from Project WET and it went really well. Basically all the kids become water molecules to learn more about the water cycle. Plus, now that I spent the time to make all the game parts, I can use it again in the future with other groups.

So I´ll be plugging away at much of the same and hopefully getting into a better blogging rhythm again!

Darn...

So just as I was coming back to my hotel after sending that last email... I got robbed. Damn. I've now got a new phone and number: 65944311. Since you may be wondering what exactly hapened, and I've had to tell the story about a billion times (and I just found out there might be other versions going around), here's an email I sent to my fam:

I got my ass kicked yesterday, literally, and of course robbed too.

It all boils down to me not making the best decisions. I didn't want to pay $5 for another taxi that I wouldn't be reimbursed for, so I took a bus most of the way to my hostel (Luna's Castle) and then went to grab a taxi from there (Plaza Cinco de Mayo). (Mistake #1) I tried to get one just feet from where the bus dropped me off, but was told by a girl I needed to catch one in the main plaza. That was where I could see all the taxi's going by, so I went with her. We chatted on the short walk and she said she was headed the same way as me.

I was out of site and in Panama for the first time since Swear-In and still coming off my of high of having confianza with my whole community. I trusted her. (Mistake #2) Two of her girlfriends were with us in the cab. We headed in the general direction I needed to go, but not quite.

The cab stopped in a now dusk-lit street and the girls got out. I stayed put and told the cab that he was going to take me to my hostel. He disagreed and the girl told me she would walk me there. Now I was in a quandary... the cab driver was acting like a jerk and she was offering help. So (Mistake #3), I got out of the cab with her helping me out. I take one step as the cab drives off and BOOM!

I'm on the ground with about ten people around me kicking, hitting, and pulling hair. I did my best to hold on to my stuff and put up quite a good fight if I do say so myself, but I was obviously outnumbered... Damn. So they snatched my PacSafe purse (irony) with about $140, phone, ID's, and bank cards, and computer with all it's paraphernalia, about 300 printed pages for my Eco-English class and community analysis, and new meds tucked inside (more irony that I was only in the city for a med visit and come out more battered than before!). At least they didn't open my purse right there, as I also had my Leatherman in there. That could have been bad!

I chased after the dude with my computer, only making it about a block or two with no shoes and realizing that I could be making Mistake #4 if I continued. I swung into a random house with people in it and they took care of me. I was obviously frazzled and they got me water and eventually I sat and waited with them while other members of the family or friends went looking for my stuff. I had on my official Cuerpo de Paz shirt on that they took as a religious mission. One of the guys there was a Pastor, so I didn't correct them.

After I finished the water bottle, I asked for ice for my hands and other battered body parts. Then another offered me a bottle of clear liquid I took as more water. I had it about up to my lips before taking a wiff of the rubbing alcohol. Nope, that would not be good! I poured some on my hands and dabbed my side which stung like no other. They then got some Vic's Vapor Rub which they applied to all my scrapes. It had the effect of Icy-Hot, minus the hot. I don't know if it was exactly a pleasant sensation, but at least it gave my body something else to ponder.

When Peace Corps tells you to remember the phone number to the Duty Officer, sure, it doesn't seem so hard. But put yourself in a situation when you really need it and all I could remember was that it started with a 6. (Before you give me too much credit, all cell phones in Panama start with a 6!) Someone found my purse which had the metal part securing the strap bent out of line (allowing them to yank it from around my body). It was emptied of my phone, cash and credit cards but luckily still has my Purple ID (Foreign Ministry card from the Panamanian government), and my yellow card with all my emergency phone numbers.

I called the Duty Officer, with Greg the Assistant Director on that night, and filled him in on what happened before the phone cut out. Unfortunately the cell phone I borrowed had a private number so he couldn't call back as is protocol. That guy left the house, so I waited... I eventually borrowed another phone (which you can't talk, only text) and got connected with him by him calling yet another phone. It turned out I wasn't in Casco Viejo and was in another shady
area next door. Since the plan of me taking another taxi back to my hostel was happening at a snail's pace, the Embassy security (aka Marines) were alerted and sent to find me.

My hosts were much more concerned about trying to find my credit cards (and shoes) than I was. Oh, in fact, they found a pair of golden sandals they thought were mine and offered them. Nope, those are from one of the girls who jacked my stuff! I really wanted to keep them as perhaps a recuerdo, but when they found my real shoes, I opted for the later. Peter, the Director of Peace Corps Panama, gave me a call letting me know I was welcome to spend the night at his house and also filled me in on the Embassy involvement.

I stressed that I needed to get back to my hostel where Greg was waiting and they finally took me to the street. As I waited with the Pastor, another family member gave me my remaining credit cards I was missing. (I found out later they used my credit card twice at a gas station before the bank canceled it within that hour which makes me believe the taxi driver was in on it...) He decided we were going to walk to my hostel. I nixed that idea after following him for a block and a half. I was no going to walk around in this area, even with an escort. Cab after empty cab drove right past us until one finally stopped. I guess they don't like this area either! We were only a few blocks away from the hostel, but I was relieve to get inside. I had a 10 bill that was evidently too well hidden in my wallet for the thugs to find which I had to break inside and used to pay the cab and the pastor's return fare. $7 left in my pocket.

When I got inside, I asked where Greg was, and bought a beer in the meantime. I located him outside with a phone call and he gave me a big hug when he got up the stairs. He reiterated Peter's offer of his house, though with all the people around the hostel, I declined. He also let me know the plan that I would be filling out paperwork the following day and then need to stay in the city until Monday for more paperwork and processing. He asked if I had any questions, and my only one was if I could still meet up with my friends in the Azuero since I'd have nothing else to do on Sunday. He gave me the green light and said I could even take off late Saturday after paperwork. Yay!

After he left, I he called saying I'd be picked up at 10am by a guy from the Embassy to walk me through the paperwork. Maria Elena, our Security Coordinator, called asking me if I spoken with the Embassy personnel. I told her not directly but would be meeting with them the following morning. Oops, evidently they were still looking for me and everyone was worried. She said she's call Greg and figure everything else.

I spent the rest of the night storytelling with the backpackers and finally finishing my beer that had been waiting for me. I took a shower to clean up my hair and wash the dirt and gravel out of my scrapes. I tried turning in at around 11pm or midnight and excruciatingly made it up the ladder of my bunk bed. Damn, they really got me more than I realized. I didn't sleep much last night for lack of finding a comfortable position on my sore butt. I think I may very well have bruised my tailbone and strained my neck. Well, I didn't do it, but you get the point. hehe

So I was up for good by 5am and just have to wait until 10am. This hostel's got free pancake breakfast and unlimited coffee, so I'll pass the time nibbling since the jerks also stole my new reading book. I think I'll be able to find a new one in the little library here and will pick up a lot more in both the PC headquarters' library and our better one in Chiriqui. I'll be doing lots of reading without a computer or tv! Oye!!! I guess that's probably the worst off I am, and that's not too bad. hehe Peace Corps definitely has your back on these things and I might even be reimbursed for some of my losses!

I´m Moving!

I’ll be keeping my address, aka Entrega General David, Chiriqui, Panama. Hehe. I love the mail system. They keep it so simple. My house is the first house you get to in the community, so that means my chiva ride is only $.75 instead of $1.50 to my last house family, or $1.00 for anywhere else in town. And my neighbor is the chiva drive, so I can catch a ride more often than the two trips a day. Or I cut about a half hour of my walk down to Potrerillos Arriba. Either way, transportation wise, it is better. It also means that it is a half hour walk back uphill to the center of town. Hmmm.

It has electricity, with a total of three bulbs inside and two outside. Plus it has a flush toilet, shower, and sink inside. The bigger sink to wash dishes is outside. You can think of the house as a square with a wall down the middle that divides the two rooms. The main room is your kitchen, dining room, seating (hammock) area. The lady I’m renting from switched the table on me, so now I’ve got one half the size to store all my pots, pans, dishes, cook, eat, and work on. I’ll have to find a better solution, as it’s not gonna fly. But I can’t blame her, my other neighbors got her to lower my rent from $40/month to $30/month since the going rate in town and what the previous volunteer paid was just $25/month.

The other room has my bed, complete with my mattress atop an old mattress. I feel like the princess and the pea as it is so soft. Maybe it is just normal and I’ve been used to an inch of padding over wooden boards or else springs poking through an ancient mattress. We’ll see if I feel up to moving the mattresses around again. I’ve got lots of hangers for my clothes which I can dry outside on hangers and then just hang them up inside. I’m gonna love it. And then the bathroom is in the back of that room.

All the interior “doors” are curtains. So you gotta be careful if the front door is open, the wind is blowing, and you are sitting on the toilet. I’m going to hunt for some weights I can sew onto the bottoms of the curtains. And I’ve got to find some brighter bulbs, cause these ones aren’t quite cutting it. Shelving is also on my list. Besides from that I’m all set to move in.

I splurged on my moving-in allowance. I bought a fridge for $230: the LG ExpressCool, and I love it! I also bought a $25 blender with a 3 year warrantee and a toaster over for $40 with a 2 year warrantee. I already cooked a bunch of cakes in it and it works fabulously. I can’t wait for pizzas, roasted chicken, and all the other non-fried food I’ve been craving. Then I bought Kirsten’s stuff (mattress and cookware) for $45. So out of my $300 allowance, I’ll probably end up spending $400 to be comfortable. I just don’t do the keeping meat on the counter for days thing that seems to be popular around here. My stomach has told me time and again over these last three months that it just doesn’t work. Therefore although I can get Pepto for free from the med office, I think the fridge is the wiser investment.

Oh man, I called the med office last Thursday asking for more Pepto. She offered sending it with Francisco during his visit yesterday. That sounded great at the time, as it was just because I was out, and not sick or anything. By Saturday though, my stomach was rumbing. I barely made it around town Sunday and stayed in bed all day on Monday. This was all leading up to the time when I needed to be out and about the most for my big presentation.

By Tuesday I had recovered with the help of my host fam’s bottle of Pepto and I took off to David with the chiva driver’s wife to buy my fridge. It turned into a shoe shopping trip, and after waiting in a hair salon, I split to run some errands and make it back to town. The 2:30pm chiva never left town, so the 3pm trip back up didn’t happen and I had to wait until 6pm for the chiva. I got back to my host family at 7pm and started baking at 7:30pm after dinner. I didn’t finish until 10pm popping my half sized cakes into the toaster oven one at a time. But I finished!

The cakes were a big hit. Super moist cakes (out of the box) are not only a lot cheaper than the cakes they all buy for birthdays, but soooo much more delicious than their thick, dry desserts.
My visit went great and my boss was very impressed with all the work I have been doing, especially since my visit was the earliest. Yes! Now I’m off to print out my 25 page analysis and to help my friends do the same since their visits aren’t for another month.

Goldfish and Gorillas

What do a goldfish and a gorilla have in common? Besides the first letter of the animals’ names, they both make me laugh.

I was waiting for the chiva and chatting it up with some of the ladies in town. One of them cleans the school and mentioned that she finally cleaned the fish tank in one of the classes. It was growing things on the glass, so she gave it a good cleaning with the typical Panamanian cleaners. Then she filled it back up and popped the fish in to swim in the clear tank. The fish decided it would show off a new stroke: the dead man’s float.

We laughed at the error… But then one of the other ladies who works for a family in Potrerillos piped in with her own fishy story. She cleaned the fish tank at her place of work with the same result that she demonstrated with her cheeks puffed out and her once flapping hands coming to a rest at her sides. The family, like any good parents, bought new fish for the tank. The next time she cleaned the tank, the fish floated once again. And the next time. And the next time. Five rounds of fish later, the mother of the household finally let her know that she really only needs to clean the tank with water instead of the harsh cleaners that don’t come out of the gravel bottom. Lol. I think I would have mentioned something after the first fish flopped.

Anyhow after I took the chiva back up to my house, I played soccer with the girls outside. We started off on the patio, roughly three feet by five feet for the four of us. Since obviously that was a little tight for a real game, we continued out onto the yard. Not much of my community is flat, so our field was once again limited. All I had to do was stand in place and kick the ball from one goal through the next. The girls chased after the ball when it went into the corn or by the pigs.

They eventually took off their shoes, and since I didn’t, I retrieved the ball. I ran after it, trapped the ball, and dribbled it back. Nothing to it, right? I’m playing with little kids. Well, that’s what I thought at least. The littlest one at five years old starts waving her arms in front of her like a gorilla, jumping up and down, and parroting, “Choing, choing, choing.” The middle one at seven years old then joined in with the same arm motions. Hmmmm.

The little one then asked me, “Why do they do that?” I was laughing too hard to reply by that point! Need I explain to them that when you don’t wear a sports bra, they bounce? Lol Oh little gorilla girls, you’ll learn.

Oink!

While I am always quite surprised when a rifle passes by me in my host homes, I know it means pork for the next couple of days. Sr. Omar brought out the gun, which I didn’t know I was living with, and headed out into the night to a neighbor/relative’s house. Sra. Cirila then left in the dead of night a few hours later to what I can only imagine was to butcher what was left of the pig. And without fail, we ate plenty of pork for the next few days. (The difference being that this house has refrigeration, so I didn’t feel as bad about eating the meat after days of gathering flies on the counter of my last host family.)

Ciri asked me if I ate tamales. This is always a tricky question. Sure, I eat them, but it is the hidden treasure inside that I might not eat. I knew I wouldn’t be surprised by pig feet again as they know I don’t eat feet. Visions of delicious pork nestled inside the tamales danced in my mind as I responded with an excited “yes!”

I guess I wasn’t thinking: People raise pigs by fattening them. Therefore the pigs are fat when killed. Therefore people eat lots of fat. QED.

My tamale was filled with a two inch by four inch by one inch chunk of pig fat. There was no meat at all, as you can be sure I poked the jelly-like form. Chorizo is palatable if only for it’s texture as you can crunch into the fried shell as your teeth melt into the nuggets of fat and rip through the skin. If nothing else, the work required to eat chorizo makes it tolerable, not to mention it is smaller. But this was just soft lard. I couldn’t do it.

The first night I ate around it and slid it onto the top plate in the pile of dirty dishes. The second time I was alone in the kitchen and tried to throw it out to door to the dog or whatever animal might find it more appetizing than me. “Tried” is the operative word here. I wound back and released… only for it to hit the overhanging zinc roof with a resounding thud. So much for being stealthy!

You’d think that would be clue enough to keep the lard off my plate the next time. But for breakfast the following morning I found a chunk of unfried, soft pig fat on my plate sans tamale. This time I threw it within inches of the dog that gobbled it up before anyone was the wiser.

Adjusting Nicely

On Sunday I moved into my third and final host family. It is like a combination of my first two, though only the best parts of each. I am living with a real family again, aka with kids which make for great conversation. The girls are 5, 7, and 11 years old. And my host mom is around more, which makes me feel like I don’t have to leave the house too. My host dad is awesome too and wants to take me to the waterfall on this side of the community as well as Cerro Punta on the other side of the national park. And his brother brought me home in his truck the other day when it was raining. Major points. hehe

I have my own room too. I have a double bed, instead of the single (not twin) beds I’ve been accustomed to. Plus, it is my first mattress with springs in my community. Granted all you can feel are the springs, since there isn’t any padding left in the mattress, but hey, what can you do. The first time I picked up one of the pillows on the bed, I felt like I was lifting a dead animal. I guess the best way to describe the filling is perhaps strips of jeans tied in balls, and just as comfortable… I really have no idea what it is made of or why on earth anyone would make a pillow using it. But I bought my own pillow back in Training, so I’ve got that base covered.



It is a further walk from the rest of town, but the chiva will still drop me off on that side. I´ve finally included a picture of the Toyota Land Cruiser that is typically filled with 20 people (made to carry just 10) and at times is packed with over thirty. It is our own version of those contests to see how many people you can pack in the car, only this is daily with a real purpose.

It’s pretty amazing what you get used to. By now I’ve taken for granted that I will eat whatever is served in front of me. My host families and other community members do ask me what I don’t like to eat. I try not to make my list of things I don’t like eating too long in case that is what they were planning on serving. I do let them know that I don’t eat feet. After a surprise of a piglet hoof in my tamale at a birthday party, I’ve been making sure the community knows that I do not eat feet. Pig feet, chicken feet (haha, it’s not a monkey paw Scott), oh, and cow’s feet are not to enter my digestive system. Honestly though, it is all just skin and cartilage, with hairs of the beasts prinking out. Typically I would say yuck, but I’m learning to recognize that it is yet another cultural difference. I mean, the kids fight over them, so there must be something appealing. I was pasearing the other day as one woman was cutting up a pig’s ears and plopping them in a pot of beans. I’ll have to remember to add that to my list of things I don’t eat.

I mention that they are things that don’t exist in the States, so I am simply not used to them. It seems to hold over most people, though some take it as an invitation to offer the gringo something new. After two months of warding off chorizo, I was finally served a slab for dinner tonight. In the States I would avoid the white of bacon. Here on my plate prepared by my new host mom was a half inch thick, inch and a half wide, and three inch long chunk of fried pork skin and fat. At least she was nice and gave me a small piece! I ate it, thinking of happy thoughts instead of where all that extra fat is going to pegar on my body. That’s another thing, the new question for me is “Have you gained weight?” or “You look más gordita.” Hmmm, yes I do. Could it be meals of pure fat? The fact that just about everything is fried? Or perhaps is the typical meal of top ramen and spaghetti soup, spaghetti with tomato sauce, and rice dinner? I think I’m certainly getting my fill of carbs here!!! So I can’t wait until I can cook on my own and choose what I eat again.

I start my English class on Saturday. I am a little afraid of who is going to show up. I’m labeling the class as Intermediate, but I have a feeling many beginners and little kids sent by their parents might try to sign up. Plus, I’ve decided that since I don’t really want to teach English, I am making it basically an environmental education class simply with lots of English words throw in. hehe I put in a lot of the past month planning topics, vocabulary, grammar, activities, and methods to evaluate the class. I’ve got my fingers crossed it will pay off and run somewhat smoothly. One of the gringo’s in town is going to help me with the first few classes too. After I finalize who I am going to let stay in the class and who has got to go, I’ll be making it official with the Ministry of Education. (At least that’s the plan.)

¿Qué más? Oh, speaking of school, it’s pretty much a mess right now. No construction has happened for the past month. The representante won’t show, and class is still in the rancho communal. The teachers pushed for suspending class completely (which thankfully didn’t fly), and another meeting will be held on Monday to see what they are going to do. People are supposed to come today (didn’t happen) or tomorrow to check everything out, including the possibility of holding class in the half remodeled school. Oye. I am pushing the Padres to go to the Ministry of Education and get something done about the amount of days the teachers are missing too. So many little projects…

I’m inventorying the vivero too. Admittedly, I stopped after the second day of getting through just four species and over 500 plants when I ran into a monstrous ant nest. I have the worst luck with ant bites, and boy do they hurt! The trees aren’t going to be planted any time soon, unfortunately, so I’ve got time. Man though, one of the guys in town got bit by a scorpion when I was at his house chatting with his wife. He said the pain shot right up his arm into his chest and didn’t go away as we watched his finger turned black. Note to self, do not touch any creepy crawlies around here!

Life is going fine here in Cabecera. Hope this latest update finds you equally well! I miss you all and hope you had a great Labor Day!

Movers and Shakers

In the United States, I would religiously watch the Olympics. With so many different sports, each day would bring new competitions. From gymnastics to baseball to volleyball, I would forward to each event. Okay, maybe I wasn’t such a fan of baseball.

This year in Panama, there is one sport: track and field. And at that, there is only one event: the long jump. Panamanian Saladino’s jump has been on repeat so many times that I think I could now make the gold metal jump. And what an important gold metal it was. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Panama won its first gold metal EVER. And this metal is the third metal of any kind after a 60 year delay when another Panamanian scored two bronze metals in the hurdles.

So what does this mean to the typical American? Probably nothing. But to the typical Panamanian, the metal is a source of great national pride. So much so, that the President declared a National Holiday on Thursday. A parade greeted Saladino’s arrival as well as festivities in Panama City. His home town of Colon celebrated as well. A popular neighborhood took his name. And he got a fat check from the government as well.

Early Friday morning brought more shaking to Panama as a 5.0 earthquake rocked Chiriqui. Yep, that’s where I live. I woke up to the rumbling of my bed and enjoyed the ride that seemed to last longer than the events in California. It could be that I am just out of practice. You’d think that after living in Earthquake country for a total of 15 years I would be used to them by now. My heart was definitely racing as I hoped that with as minor an earthquake as it was the block house enclosing me was constructed soundly.

My meeting on Sunday brought just seven participants. People told me later that they couldn’t come because of the aguacero. (I guess they forgot that the downpour started more than an hour after the meeting.) Oh but there were dark clouds in the sky… so they must have just known that they would get caught in it, since the meeting wouldn’t start until later because people don’t arrive on time. It was still good number to have, and mostly women, so they listened to me. I got what I needed to get done and can use the information they gave me as a jumping off point for the next meeting. A bit of a surprise came when they expressed interest in fish tanks to grow tilapia. This is an agriculture project, aka not in my sector, but I’ll see what I can do to help them.

I’ve got just one week left with my current host family. I’ll be moving to the other side of town next and am looking forward to getting to know that side better. Plus one of the ladies over there makes delicious plum wine. She’s going to teach me too! Mmmm, I’m salivating at the prospect of sipping the fruits of my labor in just three months.

I don’t think I can end it on a better note than that. I hope you all are doing well and I can’t wait to hear about what you’ve been up to! Shoot me an email or send me a letter at:

Kerry Piper

Entrega General

David, Chiriquí

Republica de Panamá

Patronales

Since I missed most of the festivities of Cabecera´s Patronales (Saint Day) in June, I was sure not to miss the Patronales in Potrerillos Arriba. Festivities started on Thursday the day before the official saint day, August 22nd with a procession of the Virgen. Yep, I stayed in town that day. I went down Friday to take pictures of the kids in town that were getting baptised at Mass. Only I ended up getting there a half hour after it started and thus remained outside of the church. (I was told it was to start at 11am, but it started at 10am. Oh well, I´m not complaining!)

I then waited around for the Cabalgata, a parade of horses. I was told it was to start at 3pm... at 4pm I waited anxiously with members of my community, and at 5:30pm it started. By that point it was raining and the horses ran by in one direction, returned and the riders got drunker and drunker with every pass. Hmmm. Okay. I can check that off of my list of Panamanian festivities I need to observe.

I headed back up in the chiva at 6:30pm due to one of the guys from town not leaving me alone. The other folks from town were great about it though and stuck with me dispite his drunken annoyances.

I headed back down late the following day to catch the Barrera. It is a Panamanian bull fight. Well, at least that´s what they call it. I walked with Abby and her host parents to the ring constructed hastily of bamboo. People were seated all around the top of the ring waiting anxiously for the bulls to enter. Now these bulls aren´t your typical American bulls. They come from the fields lining the hillsides of Volcan Baru. They eat the grass growing out of the volcanic soil! So when the first bull entered the ring, it was just as big and bravo as all the other bulls I´ve encountered here, which is to say that it is quite small and tame as a kitten.

The drunken men jumped into the rings and did what they wanted to the bulls: waving jackets in front of them, touching their backs when they came close, and pulling on their tails and ears, usually after they wrangled them and tied them to the ring. The true entertainment came when one guy who was so drunk he couldn´t stand fell over in the path of the bull. His friends helped him up and then he went back in and fell yet again. Also the rungs of the ring kept falling every ten minutes, making the ring shorter and shorter to the surprise of the seated observers.

There were also discotecas and bailes, but I figured I´d soaked in enough culture for one night. I headed back up in the chiva by midnight during a special run. And with that, I survived my first Patronales of Panama!

Group Work

My conservation group is lacking when it comes to meeting attendance. In fact, there have been a few meetings when I am the only one who shows up, despite the fact that I didn’t even call the meeting. Interesting. Anyhow, I decided I needed a little break and breather from my community and luckily other volunteers had the same idea.

We headed off to Las Lajas, a beautiful, sandy beach lined with coconut trees in Eastern Chiriquí on the Pacific Coast. Ten of us came together to trade stories, play cards, body surf, and plan out projects in each others communities.

I sold off 63 of the chickens at the school for a grand total of less than the amount I paid to keep those suckers alive. Argh. After speaking with the president of Padres de Familia on Saturday and stressing that we need to kill the remaining 10 asap since they were running out of food, she agreed to do it before the Monday meeting of the group. Monday rolled around and before the meeting I popped in to check on my feathered foes. They were still alive and clucking. So during the meeting (which the president didn’t attend), I laid out the loss of money from the project, the fact that there was now no food left for the chickens, and that we need to kill them and pop them in a freezer for the school kids.

Everyone was up in arms that the chicks were just too small to kill now and that we need to keep them alive for another whole MONTH. (That translates to another $60 in corn feed, after this round has already resulted in a deficit of -$65.) Yeah, that didn’t make me happy. Plus, no one would listen to me and everyone was talking over each other. I finally made my point that the project didn’t have the money to pay for more feed and that all the remaining chickens were much bigger than any of the ones people bought since they scrambled for the smallest (aka cheapest) birds. They decided that each family would take a bird and fatten it up themselves.

At the end of the FOUR hour long meeting, the padres came to the school to collect their chickens. In fact, only 6 people came (out of the 23 in attendance). Everyone exclaimed how big the birds were, and how they were ready to eat right now. Geesh, sounds a little familiar. I think someone might have said that in the meeting… Nah. Anyhow, they ended up divvying up the birds, and deciding to kill the four remaining. A small triumph!

(And another reason why the meeting lasted so long was that the Representante came to discuss the progress on the school. They had planned a remodel to let more light into the very dark classrooms. An architect drew up plans approved by MEDUCA (Ministry of Education) and all was set. The first wall was finally completed, perhaps two weeks behind schedule. However, it does not have bigger windows than the original building. In fact, it has NO windows! There was quite a scwabble over who was at fault, but the fact remains that the kids will be having class in the community meeting place for longer. Oh, and since that was the first day of class there, the teachers decided that it is too difficult to keep the kids in their desks and under control. So they proposed to the parents that for the safety of the kids, they need to build a fence around the new classrooms. It will be more difficult for the kids to get out of a barbed wire enclosure during class hours. I wish I thought of that!)

After hiking up and down the community on Monday, I requested a horse for the following day to GPS some points in the park. My wish is their command! At 6am I arrived at the Solis’s house with my horse waiting. Well, it took a while to get it ready, but by 6:30am I mounted the horse and took off into the hills with Chicho walking at my side. Hehe, yep, I am lazy. Anyhow, we traveled up the mountain for two hours at which time I had to dismount and make the rest of the trek on foot. Seven hours of hiking (aka bushwacking on the “trails” and sliding down eroding hillsides) later, we made it to the top of the peak closest to Cabecera de Cochea (8684ft), down to the refugio, and back to my waiting horse. I hiked down to the main road next to the horse, as it was pouring rain and advised not to ride it as I would get wet. Seriously? It is a downpour and my legs are going to get wet regardless! Oh well, I pretended not to be as lazy as I was only got back on the horse after my pants were soaked from an hour more of walking in the rain. It only took about 45minutes more to reach the house again where hot coffee and dinner were waiting. (Though another dinner at my host family’s house was also waiting…)

During our hike, I could see the drastic effects of the major logging campaign that occurred in the park just before its inception. Enormous trees like the kind you’d see in Redwood National Forest in the States were cut and moved with equally huge cables and sold to the US and France. The Solis family owns a big chunk that they used to clear and seed with grass for cattle. They are no longer allowed to do this in the vast majority of the park and those parts are slowly growing back. I sensed some bitterness that they can’t sell off the timber any more, but I didn’t hold back when asked if I thought it was a good idea to protect the land as a park. Along the way we spotted a scat and kill sites from big cats, fungi in all shapes and colors, a Three-wattled Bellbird (really bad pic), countless hummingbirds including the White-throated Mountain-gem, and a Two-toed Sloth. I was certainly please that this habitat is being conserved.

Next Sunday I have a special meeting to plan out the charlas (presentations) and workshops for the Producers group. They expressed a lot of interest in learning how to make organic fertilizers and insecticides. I hope that enthusiasm carries into this next meeting. They decided on both the time and date, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that at least someone will show up! Plus, they seem to be much better about meeting and I’m going to make more pretty signs to remind them. Hehe

Indoor Plumbing!

I switched homestays as planned into the lap of luxury… at least as good as it gets for my community. I have my OWN room, complete with bed, desk, and chair. Although the bed is still just wooden boards with an inch-thick piece of foam laid on top, it is my very own, free from coughing children and crying babies. As it is my own room, I now have space for my things, which I moved out of storage from another house in town. What difference to have my books at arms reach whenever I need to look something up! I bought a wooden shoe rack at the Do It Center which is the perfect size to hold all of my clothes and stay organized. (Although I’m still working out where I want to keep the clothes I’ve worn already but aren’t quite dirty enough to warrant a full days work to wash.)

Other improvements include a family with seating, a dining area with enough chairs for all of us, and a kitchen inside the main house. Plus all the floors are cement, as opposed to dirt. And best of all, there is INDOOR PLUMBING! Not only does the kitchen have a sink with running water, but there is a bathroom with both a flushing toilet and a shower with a drain! Yep, I’m livin’ the high life!

However, the first day I moved into my new home, I was greeted by a torrential downpour and thunderstorm. Moreover, within about a half hour of my arrival, the house was struck by lightning which burned out the TV. I didn’t have TV at the last house, so I am not complaining about missing episodes of Victoria like my host mom.

Two days later I managed to eat something that didn’t agree with me. I can’t decide if it was a sip of already fermenting juice or perhaps an empanada that I was given at the conclusion of my Producers Association meeting. Whatever it was, I was up all night with the worst gas I’ve ever had. And this is to say that every ten minutes I would sit up to release a fruity flavored, carbonated belch. I hadn’t drunk any soda or beer since I arrived in my community a month ago, so go figure. By about 3am, I decided that it wasn’t just gas coming up from my digestive system. I reached for my Nalgene bottle, and knocked it off my desk. Darn it! As it clattered on the floor, I dove for it and immediately released the building pressure from within. As it rapidly filled with the first two heaves, I fiddled with the lock on my door and emptied out the rest of my upper digestive system just past the front porch stoop.

I then took a walk into the sugar cane field to pour out my Nalgene and get some fresh air. I figured it probably wouldn’t be best to leave my little front door surprise, and used my water bottle to dilute it a little and prayed it would pour soon. I then unlocked padlock I put on the front door each night and made my way to the bathroom to finish emptying out my system, from the other end. However I was thwarted in my effort by my host mom.

It must be explained that Panamanian house construction in the campo does not involve any insulation to buffer noise levels. In addition, my host parents share a wall with my room. So needless to say, I must have made quite the introduction with my midnight symphony. She asked the obvious if I was feeling poorly. I wonder how she could have figured that out. And then proceeded to offer me an assortment of medications. No, really, I will be okay. Please, for the love of God, just let me use the toilet! She eventually let me past. Two trips to the bathroom later, I don’t think I had anything left in my system by the time morning rolled around all too slowly.

Though I ran through a mental list of all the possible parasites and bacteria that could have caused me such discomfort, I was as good as gold by the next day. So while my first impression probably wasn’t the best on this new family, I certainly gained some confianza with them...

Potty Talk

I don’t know quite why it happens… but I feel like every time I step across the threshold into a new room, I end up taking a deep breath and absorbing all it has to offer. Take note next time you enter a room. My favorite is the kitchen, as it typically offers fresh smells of what will soon be devoured.

However, when I turn back the curtain and take that same whiff of the outdoor latrine, it just isn’t the same. I now consciously take a deep breath before heading in that direction, but sometimes I can’t hold my breath that long or I simply forget. The resulting odor is as ripe as countless years of use of the same a poop hole can be.

With various gnats and flies forming a makeshift cushion over the wooden “seat,” I dare not touch any part of me to the wood. Hovering over the seat to go pee is no problem, just like camping only you have to maintain a higher stature to clear the seat. I drink plenty of coffee and chicha to use it quite frequently. However, the main foods I eat are fried (read fats) and mountains of platanos (plantains). With their powers combined, they create quite the digestive plug. After not going number two for about a week and knowing I was consuming way more food than I ever have in my life, I decided it was time. Squatting proved to be more exercise than I could muster with my out-of-shape quads burning at the end of each try. I tried with all my might to clear my bowels, but I couldn’t. From the stress of the hike the day before, my quads were burning and my bowels weren’t about to budge. I considered it and weighed all my options (which were few).

So I sat.

I tried leaning against the side and presumably less used part of the seat. At least there were fewer stains on the side I chose. After successfully completing my mission, I could become a spokeswoman for Purell and the new uses for their disinfectant after applying it liberally.

I am happy to report that by incorporating more food groups into my diet, or perhaps picking up a parasite, I haven’t had to sit since.

Swear-In

From Peace Corps website:
Peace Corps Director Visits Panama

Director Tschetter Honors the 45th Anniversary of Peace Corps/Panama
& Swears-in New Volunteers

Panama City, Panama, June 26, 2008 – Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter marked the 45th anniversary of the Peace Corps program in Panama and swore-in the newest group of Volunteers today. The 46 new Volunteers took their official oath at a ceremony attended by Director Tschetter, U.S. Ambassador to Panama William A. Eaton, Panama’s Minister of Agriculture Guillermo Salazar and Peace Corps/Panama Country Director Peter Redmond, at the Ambassador’s residence. Following the swearing-in ceremony, Director Tschetter delivered remarks during the 45th anniversary celebration.

The Peace Corps and the people of Panama have shared a strong friendship ever since the first Volunteers arrived in 1963. The 46 new Volunteers will be stationed throughout the country, assisting in the fields of agriculture, environmental conservation, tourism and English education.

In his remarks to the Volunteers, Director Tschetter said, “You are about to make a profound commitment of service – to the communities you will serve, to Panama, to the United States and to yourselves. For the agriculture Volunteers, you are on the front lines of addressing food security. The current global food crisis can be eased in Panama by supporting the producers and helping them to help themselves to increase production and learn sustainable techniques.”

During his visit, the Director met with the First Vice-President/Foreign Minister of Panama Samuel Lewis Navarro and participated in a reunion meeting with former Peace Corps Volunteers. He also visited the local Peace Corps office and met with the Volunteer Advisory Council. Tomorrow, Director Tschetter will visit a Peace Corps Response site on the Chagres River in Panama. For information about Peace Corps Response visit www.peacecorps.gov/response.

The Peace Corps has sent more 1,700 Volunteers to Panama since 1963. There was a program hiatus between 1971 and 1989. Since their return in 1990, Volunteers have been working in the poorest rural and indigenous areas to identify, develop and promote sustainable development projects. Currently, 174 Peace Corps Volunteers are serving in Panama. Volunteers mainly work in the areas of sustainable agriculture systems, community economic development, environmental health, community environment conservation and health and HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

To learn more about the Peace Corps/Panama, visit the Where Do Volunteers Go? web page.

The Peace Corps is celebrating a 47-year legacy of service at home and abroad, and a 37-year high for Volunteers in the field. Since 1961, more than 190,000 Volunteers have helped promote a better understanding between Americans and the people of the 139 countries where Volunteers have served, including Panama. Peace Corps Volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years of age. Peace Corps service is a 27-month commitment.

Moving On!

The last week of training was full of excitement. To finish off our training of appropriate technologies, we built both a Lorena stove and a trash incinerator. To build the incinerator, we used old metal drums. One of the drums had previously been used to hold rubber cement. So get those cogs a rolling, and think what might happen if you light that residue on fire. KABOOM! It was pretty amazing actually. hehe Note to self, pour out all flammable substances before using an incinerator to keep toxic smoke to a minimum. Lesson learned.

We organized a Despedida (going away party) for all of our host families and had that on Sunday. We got in our last games of ultimate Frisbee, slack lining over the river, and a game of capture the flag. I'm bruised up from the first two, but at least I didn't get clotheslined by barbed wire in the third like one of my friends did. Ouch! Then bright and early Tuesday morning, we left our training community (and beautiful garden... sorry for the unturned pic) behind and made it back to Ciudad del Saber.

The past two days have been filled with more meetings and admin matters. The whole office is in full swing with last minute preparations for our swearing in ceremony and big 45th anniversary celebration later today. Unfortunately that means that my laptop will remain a doorstop for a few months until I can get boot disks sent from the States and start over. (Courty and Mom, could you start searching for those for me? Thanks!!!) Updates might be a little less frequent until I get that taken care of. I was able to copy off my pictures before my laptop decided that it really didn't want to function, so I won't be losing anything when I erase the hard drive.

Later today we swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers at the Ambassador's residence. Then we've got two days to play with until we report to our communities on Sunday. My address there is:

Kerry Piper
Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General David
Provincia de Chiriqui
Republica de Panama

It's basically the equivalent of sending a letter to the capital of your state, and then retrieving it through a series of cubbies labeled by the first letter of your first name and the first letter of your last name. It's a good thing sending mail isn't too popular within the country! Although the David post office hasn't had many problems, it is recommended to put some religious insignia on things sent to add that little extra guilt factor in keeping people from opening mail that isn't theirs. hehe

I love and miss you all!

Site Visit!

I am looking forward to moving to a place with reliable power. I tried plugging my computer in at home last night since my host family wasn’t there when I returned, but it just kept turning off. I couldn’t figure out what was up, so I unplugged it from my surge protector. Then when my host dad was taking a shower, all the power in the house kept going off. So that explains it… I’m hanging out at Sally’s Café in Chorrera right now, which is like a little slice of America.

The eco-fair was a success! I’d be lying to say I wasn’t stressed out the week before with all the planning, but I was so happy to see it go well. We were very organized with the flow of the classes. The kids loved the activities, even the ones that didn’t quite work out how the aspirantes wanted them to. The teachers at the school were impressed and picked up some ideas that they can bring back to their classes. Carlos is even thinking about continuing it for next year. I’m so glad I brought my environmental ed guides, as many of the aspirantes thumbed through them to pick out their activities.

Following the fair, we had our community analysis presentation. That too went well. We had interviewed our families prior to learn more about the history of the community, environment, and problems they saw. Then we took their most pressing problem (water) and worked with them to find a solution to it (form a water committee to bring more of a voice to their problems). We’ll all be responsible for doing a similar analysis in our communities which we have the first three months to work on.

I love my community! It is on the base of Volcan Baru and looks out over Boquete, David, and the Pacific Ocean. The houses are separated by sugar cane or tomato fields, creating a very spread out town. I like to think of my town as a lollipop with the majority of the houses in the middle of the left side of the pop. During my first three months I plan to live with three different families: one above the center of town, one below, and another on the right side of the lollipop. Then I’ll be free to live on my own in probably either a bloque (cement) house on the lefthand base of the loop, or in a wooden house more toward the center. Both only have latrines a ways from the house, but they are closer to town or offer more privacy from neighbors than the two other options.

In town there are a ton of groups. I hope to work closely with the conservation group in town that has a vivero for their reforestation project and has made five trails up in the park of about 7km each. One of the trails has five waterfalls on it, which I can’t wait to see. They are also waiting on a $30,000 Biological Corridor grant to build an eco-cabana at a lookout along one of the trails as well as expand their vivero. They already received a grant from ANCON and built a little house to hold their meetings in next to the vivero. I’d love to decorate it with lots of pictures of Volcan Baru and all the flora and fauna found up there like Quetzals, Harpy Eagles, monkeys, sloths, and orchids. I’ll also be helping them map their trails so tourists can use them too.

There is also an abono organico group that makes compost, an association of the farmers in the area who the current volunteer, Kirsten, helped make an aqueduct with, and Padres de la Familia (Panamanian PTA) that she just started up a chicken project with. Each group also has a lot of big ideas, like building greenhouses for their tomatoes so they can harvest year-round, expand the aqueduct to the other side of town, etc etc. The community has potential for a women’s group, and youth groups like Panama Verde (Peace Corps started eco-group), Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts), and Boy Scouts. In the center of town there is also a basketball court that would make a great meeting place, but the roof was never completed. Perhaps that might also happen with a little support.

Needless to say, I won’t be without things to do. One of the teachers at the school (there are only two) wants me to be the sole English teacher for the kids. That is not going to happen. I’ll have enough on my plate without taking on that job. I will probably continue Sunday classes with the adults, like Kirsten is doing. I won’t be following in her footsteps with the rest of it like she did her first year.

I paseared (visited) all the houses in town over my first two days there. A word on pasearing… Panamanian culture is such that you can hardly ever stop to say hi at someone’s house without being offered something to eat or drink. Perhaps chicha, maybe coffee, even soda will be served. One family in town makes plum wine which was delicious. Another offered Kirsten and I a whole bunch of bananas. Now each offer taken separately is surely appreciated. Even taken all together, I appreciated the hospitality of my community. I sure was stuffed though! We each ate 8 of those bananas before we made it to the next house! And then we went back to my community guide’s house for lunch. Hehe On Father’s day we were offered lunch at one of the houses. After negotiating, we were only served a half plate of rice, beans, and meat. However, when I got back to Ada’s house for real lunch, I was served more rice, roasted chicken, and fried plantains in one bowl. …And I was also served another bowl the size of a dinner plate filled to the brim with sancocho, a Panamanian soup that contained yucca, name, two chicken legs, a chicken breast, and what tasted like chicken liver too! Boy was I stuffed!

All in all, I was very satisfied with my site visit and can’t wait to get back there on June 29th. (They’re having a big fiesta that day too, which I like to think it is for my homecoming. Hehe)

Eco-Fair!

Okay, so sorry that last posting-email was a bit of a teast. I was at an internet cafe where I had to prepay. (Aka, they kick you off after your time is up.) I promise I´ll fill in the details eventually...

On Tuesday we started in earnest to plan our Eco-fair for the school. After two weeks of being out of the community, we weren´t even sure if it was still goign to go through. (Oh yeah, and Carlos put me in charge of the fair too!) What a nice surprise! hehe We also had to give our community diagnostic presentation on Friday and were informed that we´d be in the city on Thursday (instead of working on any of it). Oye! I also started Ngabere classes on Tuesday which on top of everything else was stressing me out.

Even though the language class and teacher were awesome, I couldn´t rationalize sticking with it and maintaining my sanity. I did pick up some of the pronunciation and a few key phrases. (Ti ta koin! I am good. etc) I´ll be getting the manual to self study in site and talk to the Ngabe in my site. So on Wednesday I told my teacher that I was too busy to go to class. Instead I went with two of the other girls to interview the Representante on the water situation in town for our presentation, make a poster for that, write out my lesson plan for my activity for the fair, draw up a poster for the fair, and todo! Then we chilled at the chorro which was much needed!

Thurday we made it in to the city for an environmental fair. I picked up lots of posters to decorate my house as well as networked with some of the agency personel. And then of course we had lots more planning of the next day´s activities.

Friday morning I used the keys I got the day before to open up the Casa Comunal for everyone to start setting up our fair. Kids arrived later, rotated through our stations (with the aid of schedules and maps directing them), played games, and learned about soil, water, trees, and animals. It went really well, especially considering we only had three days to plan it! Most of the activities came out of my Project WET, WILD, and Learning Tree books or adapted from them. I´m so glad I brought them all!

Later on Friday we presented all the information we had gathered about the community to the residents and our teachers. We found that the biggest problem there was water, and took the town through an analysis of the problem leading to a recommendation of starting a water committee to have more of a voice and education about the issue. They really got behind it which was great to see. Afterward, we all felt like we had completed finals week with our main projects done for the moment.

That night we went into the next town over for a baile. One of the two best Typico bands in Panama was playing (something Negros). They came on at midnight and I stayed for a couple dances after that. The thing with typico and it seems most music here are that the songs are sooooo long. My host dad kept introducing me to others to dance with which is pretty awkward to dance with a random guy (for example a drunk old man with many missing teeth) for at least fifteen minutes while bumping into others in a crowded room... You get the picture. The music was good, but I have not yet heard enough to judge just how good. My host dad woke me up at 4:50am when he got home calling out to anyone and everyone in our house and knocking on my window. I got our of my mosquito net, unlocked the door to my room, and by the time I got to the family room, he finally figured out that the front door was unlocked! Oye! I love him though, but I sure was missing my sleep!

We got up bright and early this morning to come to Chorrera to learn about all the poisonous plants and animals here. Hmmm, I think it may have been more helpful to learn about them before we got our bites and rashes. lol Next week we are headed to our communities for site visits. I can´t wait to get to know some of the people I´ll be living with and working with for the next two years!