Chiriqui!

On Wednesday we all gathered in Chorrera to find out our site announcements. I’m headed to the mountains of Chiriquí, just below Volcán Barú National Park. That means the climate is cooler and a great place for people to visit. Hehe, actually, I’m not kidding! Come visit! Chiriquí Province is located next to Costa Rica in the western part of Panama. Above it are Bocas del Toro Province (think lots of islands) and Comarca Ngobe Bugle (a reservation for the Ngobe Bugle peoples). It is considered the bread basket of Panama, as the climate is great for growing all kinds of veggies and coffee. I’m looking forward to starting a garden of my own. I think the school has a garden and chicken project too.

My community has 300 people, 70 houses, and electricity! I’ll be headed out to a site next to mine for Cultural Week where the Aspirantes of each Province gather together to learn more about the food, language, housing, etc that each has in store for us. My main projects are reforestation, environmental education, ecotourism, and aqueducts. I’ll need to have an EH (Environmental Health) volunteer come visit to help me with the aqueducts as I know nothing about them and won’t be learning anything in this first ten weeks of training. We do have IST (In-Service Training) where we can get specialized training on topics relevant to our work, but that won’t be for quite a while.

The school in our training community has been closed all week as the community leaders decide what to do about the fiberglass panels that make up the ceilings of most of the new classrooms. The decision has been made to start class up again next week in various locations around town (four in La Casa Cultural, some in churches, some outside…). The school won’t be used until August since they’ll fix the problem in the two week break in July. “Fibria del vidrio”, as it’s known, is a hot topic throughout Panama with some schools without class for over a month. Kids go to school for about 4 hours a day in the morning or afternoon, so hopefully they’ll get them back and learning again soon.

We were going to be doing an Eco-Parade with the kids at the school, but since we haven’t been able to sit in on any classes and pump the kids up about it or anything, we’ve canned that idea. Hopefully we’ll still be able to do more of an Eco-Festival. I’m heading it up, so cross your fingers for me!

Last night a bunch of us were hanging out after dinner. It turned out that all six of us who went swimming earlier in the day were there, plus another CEC and one SAS. (After checking out another finca, aka farm, and riding horses for tech class, Carlos and Francisco took us for a break at the chorro, aka waterfall. Three guys and three girls jumped in while the rest just sat on the rocks around the pool. And boy was it nice to cool off!) Anyhow, we’ve got a great group of people down here!

Our garden is looking amazing too. We’ve got it all fenced off with chicken wire complete with a swinging and locking gate made with some bamboo and other materials. Our seeds have sprouted in our semillero. We’ll be transplanting the tomatoes later tonight before we head off to a baile in the town next door. Our beds are sprouting too with cilantro, peppers, beans, some natural insecticide, and a bunch of tuber plants. We just planted some pineapples yesterday so I can’t wait to see if that takes. Our medicinal plants are just about ready to transplant into our double dig beds, made with our very own compost. We’ve also built a huge structure to shade all of our little plants until the rainy season really takes off and the sun isn’t quite so harsh on them. We were going to try to make a whole Swiss Family Robinson-style watering system for all the beds with bamboo, but we decided that it might be too much work for the one day we have before we take off for two weeks. Hopefully one of the families in town will water everything while we’re gone or the rains will start!

I leave early tomorrow morning, perhaps 4:30am or 5am, to catch a bus into Panama and then another bus and chiva to Cultural Week, followed by Tech Week in the middle of the country. I’ll try getting online between the two, but I can’t make any promises! Oh, I have a phone too now. So if you want, you can call me at: 011-507-6602-9142! (That’s complete with country code, cell phone 6, and my phone number.)

Week 3

I finally plugged in my computer today to charge it for the first time. The extension cord hanging into my room just can’t handle it. I bought a surge protector and have it plugged into the main extension cord that comes in through the living room window and feeds the tv, the fan (when it’s not in my room), and another extension cord. That cord is connected to the kitchen/family room/dining room light bulb, the mini-fridge for the kitchen, and an extension cord into my host family’s bedroom (parents, baby, brother). That cord feeds a light in their room, a fan that I think broke, and an extension cord that runs into my room. While the only thing I have plugged into my room is another light bulb and the fan (from the family room at night), you can probably see why it wouldn’t charge my computer and why I was hesitant to force it without a surge protector. Grandpa, you can rest assured that I’m not fearful of an electrical fire, as our house is made out of cement! So to make a long story short, I am typing up this update before I get to Chorrera. (I´m posting it today in Arrejan as I didn´t make it to internet then. The pic is of my ranchito behind my house along with some neighborhood kids I play with.)

We’ve been busy in Tech class as we’ve prepared double-dig beds, made and planted our semillero (seed growing house), took cuttings of medicinal plants and have those growing in our vivero in little bags, made special soils, 14-day compost, learned community assessment tools, leadership skills, and more! Currently we’ve split into three groups to continue work on the garden, implement a community environmental activity, and coordinate a school eco-parade. I’m in the eco-parade group, yet we are all helping each other with our respective projects. We’re also going to be do a big community assessment complete with maps of the community according to different perspectives of residents, calendars related to holidays/crops/etc, daily schedules of different types of residents, biodiversity surveys, etc, etc, etc. One part is FREESOP which includes family (f), economy (e), politics (p). Another is more specific to our sector which has been dubbed BADCEG (pronounced Bad Keg) which includes water (a), soil conservation (c), and environmental education (e). It will be great practice as we’ll be responsible for doing this assessment in our own communities once we’re on our own.

Spanish class has improved by leaps and bounds. We’re practicing a lot more and even giving mini-charlas on topics we’ve learned about in tech class. Mine today was a little disorganized as I skipped out of class just as she called me to give it. Then I jumped right into it after Carlos dropped me back off. She still had lots of compliments, and my errors included things like Islas Caribes instead of Islas del Caribe or something like that… You see how much I retain new information! My biggest problem is I know the grammatical rules, but I still don’t use them all when I talk. Poco a poco…

So as I mentioned, I went on a volunteer visit last weekend. My volunteer had a site up in the mountains of Chiriqui on the border of Costa Rica. It is coffee country up there with lots of plantations everywhere. The weather was leaps and bounds colder than here, as I don’t think I took off my polar fleece the entire time! Okay, so it was probably just around 60’, but I’ve become a wimp to the cold. I do know that it never gets above 80’ there and that’s saying something for a country so close to the equator. Her community was rather small (or at least going by the number of houses in the town center where we pasear-ed which is basically just small talking neighbors. I think the population is actually around 300. However it skyrockets during the coffee harvest when at least 500 Ngobe Bugle (an indigenous group) arrive to work in the plantations.

We peaked into La Amistad National Park which straddles the two Central American countries. It is a beautiful park filled with rolling green mountains shrouded in clouds. Howler monkeys could be heard in the distance with their bellows echoing at the start of the rains. We hiked up to an eco-lodge (pictured) an eco group in town received funds to build. However, it was a little disappointing to see parts of the park, especially surrounding the ANAM ranger station, clear cut and planted with more coffee or tomatoes. I suppose that’s part of the reason why I’m here. Teaching environmental education and developing alternative economies in my community will be an uphill battle. We’ll find out next week where we will be placed. I have my second interview with Francisco, my APCD, to help determine my placement as well as take tabs on my progress in Tech class. I think he decided many of the placements before we even got here. Many of the kids in my group already know where they are going. But at least I can put in my two cents after what I liked and didn’t like about the site I visited.

I’ll wrap this up for tonight. I’m dying to take a shower, but I want to wait until the water comes on instead of taking another bucket bath. I have no clue when that will be, but I know it’s sometime after it’s dark and the sun is setting right now. Until next time! Keep the emails coming as I love hearing from you all. And if you haven’t written yet, know that I can receive emails about once a week when we come to the city. I miss ya’ll and have been decorating my room with your pictures.

First Week of Training

Buenas!

We took two busses to our host family community and boy did we need it with all the luggage I brought! Though we were each dropped off at our new homes, I still had help carrying my bags from the roadside my house. Packing was pretty easy, as I don’t have any drawers or a dresser, so all my clothes are pretty much in a mess on the ground. I do have a table, but I basically just keep my hairbrush and a backpack that I don’t even open on there. I should probably change that…

My host family is great! I’ve got a mom, dad, 12 yr old brother (Mario, aka Piro), and 2 month old baby sister. (She doesn’t cry at all though!!!) I also have a 10 yr old brother (Juan) but he doesn’t live with us. (I still haven’t figured it all out.) And I’ve seen the 15 yr old brother only once. I have no clue where he lives, as I don’t think he lives with all of our neighboring uncles, aunts, cousins, or grandparents. So basically everyone who lives nearby is related to our family. That means that I hang out a lot with the other volunteers in those families which is nice.

I’ve got my own room with a light (yep, I’ve got electricity!!!), a FAN!, and a DOUBLE bed. I still haven’t set my mosquito net up but don’t tell anyone! My house has an indoor bathroom complete with a flushing toilet! We’ve got a shower with a showerhead and everything, but we only have water for a few hours everyday. I can never seem to figure out when, so I usually end up taking a shower by pouring a cup of water over my head from the bucket, lathering up, and pouring another cup over. I definitely invested in a bottle of Pert Plus to cut half the time out of washing my hair. We also have a minifridge which is great because I get ice in my drink for lunch and dinner. (Breakfast is of course coffee.)

Speaking of meals, did you know that you can fry baloney? That and fried hot dogs are perfectly acceptable for breakfast along with fried cornmeal, or fried dough, or fried (you fill in the blank). Some of it is quite good, and I especially liked the lunch of fried platanos (think French fries) and fried egg with ketchup!

Training is going well. I´ve learned how to properly sharpen my machete, limpiar el monte (cut down everything in sight to plant crops), and start a fast compost. And it´s only been the first week! Today we met in the bigger city for our weekly training on culture and general PC matters. Tropical diseases was probably the highlight of this one. Yes, a lot of us will be getting Dengue, so we have that to look forward to!

Last night I played soccer with my extended family (brothers and cousins). Man, I seriously never gave enough credit to those who play on the dirt with sharp rocks BAREFOOT! I could barely run as it hurts so much. By the end of these two years I´ll be an expert though! Then again, most of the kids only come up to my waist, so perhaps it´s not too high of a goal to reach. Hehe

That´s about it for now. I should be getting on the internet each week after class in the city. I still need to figure out a way to charge my computer as the pealing electrical extension cord hanging from my ceiling for power does not like my charger. (Popping sounds and melting plastic smells are NOT a good sign when dealing with expensive electronics!) Once I figure it out, I´ll try getting some pics up.

Also, the address is game to send me things. Mail is really slow coming through Panama City, so nothing big is needed at this point. (Letters may even take multiple months to get here.) Once I move outside of Panama (as the province is called), mail should be better.

First Steps in Panama

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

Landing in Miami, I found some fellow volunteers at luggage claim. Ha, a guy on the plane (not PC) mentioned how it is rediculous not to travel light on an airplane anymore. Little did he know that in addition to my backpacking pack carry-on, I also had another, bigger pack in addition to a rolling duffle that I checked! So I definitely brought more than necessary, but do I regret it? No. In fact, I already snuggled in my sleeping bag as everyone in my villa froze when we couldn't find where to turn off the AC. Perhaps I'll never use it again, but at least it served me well. (I probably won the prize too on the first day of introductions our partners had to introduce us to the group with the weirdest item we brought with my taxidermy kit!)

I've had people come up to me not only asking if I was the one with the weird stuff, but also thanking me for setting up the facebook group. Little do they know, until now, that I wanted to find out who was in the group too! Everyone is really cool though. They come from all different backgrounds and have some type of experience in their program area.

After hours and hours of lectures, group work and presentations, we loaded onto two busses for a ten minute trip back to the airport. A couple hours later we boarded the plane and a few more after that we landed in Panama. As we approached Panama City, the sets of waves made perfectly straight lines across the coastline. The buildings of the city rose out of the surrounding lowlands accompanying the famous canal. An egret on the tarmac greeted me as my first Panamanian bird. And the humidity didn't waste any time with its welcome.

Beside the Miraflores locks is where we are currently staying along with PC headquarters. We are still being oriented to the country and PC with full days of presentations and interviews. Our country director is an amazing guy and even jumped into the pool after our swim test with all of his clothes on to teach us how to make a floatation device out of our pants. Yes, that means he stripped down in the pool too. All the girls had a bloodtest to check if we were preggers. (Some of the guys got a kick out of thinking how big a surprise that would be now that we've made it here!) Then we had out language interviews where I didn't spit out all of my conjugations. I've still been placed above the level I need to be sworn in as a volunteer, so I'm happy. In my medical interview I found out I only need one shot (Hep A booster). That is great news as one guy needs eight shots!

And finally I had my project interview where I probably confused my director more than helped him in placing me in a site. I started out by saying that I would prefer to have a primary project other than environmental education because I feel I could always pick it up as a secondary project and combine it with other things. But then I got really into talking all about EE for the rest of the interview, so who knows! Truth be told, I'd be fine with EE as a primary project. So what happens, happens. :) During the medical interview I found out that you have to take Larium if you are in the eastern part of the country... So as neat as living in the Darien would be, I don't know if I want to do that. (Mom and Dad probably wouldn't be too happy about it either! hehe) So tomorrow everyone goes to get Yellow Fever shots while just a handful of us get to watch. Then we meet in our Spanish groups, have some more presentations, and head off to the mall for dinner.

I'm still really excited and any nerves I may have had keep drifting away day by day. We'll be moving in with our host families this weekend. Boy does time fly!

Too Much!

So I am just finishing up packing and have way too much stuff. To my credit, I am bringing less than I did to Alaska or Florida or South Carolina. It's probably about 1/4 the amount I had at UCLA. I am probably bringing the same amount I did to Argentina. But I still feel like it is too much for the Peace Corps, as it's much more than recommended on the Panama Welcome Book. But alas... I think what matters most is if I will regret bringing too much, more than not enough. I doubt it.

I'll bet that I won't end up using quite a bit of what I bring. Perhaps I still won't use my tent to camp out on the beach. Perhaps I won't really be chilly enough to use my sleeping bag. Perhaps I'll never need to sew anything or feel the need to try my hand at taxidermy again. But what if I do? Granted I could have the over abundance of socks that I am taking sent by mail to me once I get there. Or I could have more shirts sent. Or my Carhartts. But what if I just brought them now? From experience in Argentina, by the time it arrives by mail (IF AT ALL), I might not need it anymore. True, I could probably purchase things in country. And if you know me, I probably will. (Definitely will: I'm keeping my rubber boots here and buying new ones in Panama already.)

The way I figure it, I know I'll have to move quite a bit within the first few months. I'll need to fly it to Staging in Miami (1), get it to Ciudad del Saber for the start of training (2), move into a home stay (3), move to site home stay(4), move into my own housing (5). I imagine I'll still be able to roll things for the first two moves. Then when we go on volunteer visits, technical training, and cultural training, I am praying that we only have to pack for that week and not take everything we own with us. And when I move into my own house, I figure I'll be in the same general area, so I can make a couple trips if need be. So that really boils down to just two moves (aka two days of my entire service) that I could potentially be moving everything at once, on my own. If I had to, I could do it... even if that means that I'll be taking Tylenol the next day. Hopefully I'll make friends and get helpers. Perhaps I'll wear a pink shirt on those days, as I seem to always get more offers of help when I am wearing such a color. lol. All my luggage is a type of backpack, so it is semi-manageable. Plus I'll be bringing locks for my luggage in case I need to leave one bag behind for a bit. We'll see!

So what exactly am I bringing? Here's a list. Okay, so it's not exact, but that's about it. Some things I want to bring but just can't for the life of me find them. (Binoculars??? They've gotta be around here somewhere!) And undoubtedly, I'll throw in some things last minute. Last minute? Me? lol

Mail!

I know you've been holding your breath waiting to know where to send me letters. I trust Panama mail much more than Argentina mail. It doesn't have as far to go, right? In fact, just yesterday I received my Christmas presents that never reached me down in Ushuaia. To keep it safe until I get to know the mail system better, please just send things in envelopes. Boxed items tend to get opened more often or assessed fees by customs. So here's my address:

Kerry Piper
Cuerpo de Paz/Panama
Edificio 104, 1er Piso
Avenida Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panama, Republica de Panama

Thanks in advance!!! :)

It's Official

I am headed to Panama for the Peace Corps in April! I accepted my invite a few weeks ago and sent in more paperwork. My assignment is Community Environmental Conservation which I'm really happy about. Before I go further into all that, I figure I better tie up some loose ends from my previous post since it's been awhile.

I'm happily back in the States and enjoying getting ready. I'm still working on tying up loose ends with Golondrinas. I updated this blog a bit with some more pictures and some editing. I've been traveling between North Carolina and Delaware as the wind blows, shopping, and attending environmental education workshops.

For those interested, here's a timeline of my progress toward becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer:

8/28/07: Submitted online application
9/11/07: Received email from recruiter to set up interview
9/17/07: Final reference submitted
         Interview in DC, Fingerprinted
         Nominated to Environmental Education (but asked for different nomination)
9/18/07: Nominated to Protected Areas Management in Central/South America leaving mid-May 2008
9/24/07: Medical packet received in DE (I left for Argentina 9/22/07)
10/25/07: Received medical packet, scheduled appointments
10/31/07: Doctor's appointment (Labs completed entire month of November)
11/1/07: Dental appointment, Women's health appointment
         Departure date moved up to mid-April
11/9/07: Eye appointment
12/5/07: Sent in medical packet after final doctor's appointment (missing one lab)
12/8/07: Mailed and emailed results of remaining lab
1/7/08: Re-emailed results of remaining lab
1/8/08: Medically cleared!
2/12/08: Received invite!

Below is the information regarding my invite:

Country: Panama
Project: Community Environmental Conservation
Job Title: CEC Extension Agent
Staging: Miami, 4/14/08-4/15/08
Pre-Service Training: 4/16/08-6/26/08
Dates of Service: 6/27/08-6/24/2010

I'm working on a packing list and hoping that I'll be able to stick within the 80lb luggage limit. Geesh! I don't think I've ever kept under that this past year with all my jobs and travels. And I now have three huge curriculum manuals that I want to take. Perhaps I can squeeze those into my carry-on along with my laptop. Yes, I probably won't have power... but even if I use my laptop just a few times, I'll be happy. :) I just bought an mp3 player too since I doubt I'll be able to play music off my PC. I still haven't taken it out of the box, but that will be for another day. So that's it for now. I better finish up my taxes. (Who woulda thunk that I even made enough to pay so much back to the government this year? And thank you all for paying your taxes too, thus funding my Peace Corps adventure. lol)