The One with the 3 month mark

January 26 ^th marked the anniversary of my first 3 months in site!!! That means I only have 21 months left as a Peace Corps volunteer, Wow! I totally understand now why Peace Corps has a strict 2 year commitment!

As Peace Corps staff encouraged during training, my first 3 months have been mostly dedicated to doing my “Community Analysis,” finding my role in the community (explaining that role to the members in the community), and figuring out where my efforts need to be focused.

I took it upon myself to start a list that I titled “potential projects.” I started this list the first day I arrived in site 3 months ago. Whenever I saw a need for something in the community that I thought I possibly would be able to help with, I wrote it down…..That list has grown and grown to span more than 2 ½ pages now. It is a bit overwhelming to tell you the truth. Now that my 3 month mark is up, I need to start prioritizing those potential projects based on effectiveness and feasibility.

I was brought into Buena Esperanza as a CED (community economic development) volunteer. However, because I am the first volunteer in this community there is some ground breaking that needs to happen first. There are some basic things in the community that I feel need to be fulfilled prior to focusing on economic development. It is reassuring however, that Peace Corps most likely will put a follow up volunteer in my site once I leave.

Anyway, Hooray!!! Happy 3 month anniversary to me =)

Moving on…

My last blog post was dedicated to my new housing situation…. While simply trying to survive does take up most of the day, I actually have been doing other things as well:

Here are some of my adventures that top the charts this time…

The Boat: During those big storms I talked about in my last blog post, I had a scheduled visit from my boss from Panama City. This was a routine 3 month visit that they are required to do with each volunteer. Basically to make sure we haven’t fallen off the map, or gone completely insane… yet. Anyway, the morning we were suppose to go pick him up was rainy and windy (just like the 3 days preceding). Normally, I would have spent the day hunkered in my house trying to stay dry but on this day I really had no choice.

So myself, along with 7 other community members (who were just going along to take advantage of a free ride to town) loaded into a large-ish cayuco with a 15 horsepower engine. I was dressed in my full out rain suite… rubber from head to toe and bright yellow, I was not joking around! When they pulled up to my dock to pick me up I announced “Ready for an adventure” to the passengers, assuring them that, yes, I did know that I looked (slightly) ridiculous…… And oh boy, an adventure is exactly what we got!!!

Leaving Dolphin bay was fine. It was raining and windy, but we were still fairly protected by the islands. That all changed fairly quickly. Once we got out to more open ocean the swells grew to 5 plus feet, the wind was howling, and the rain was coming down so hard we could barely see the front of the Cayuco. Do I need to remind you that we were in a dug-out canoe, a hollowed out tree trunk….Not the most stable thing, especially when you have 5 foot swells coming at you. Each wave that hit us, it felt like someone was throwing a 5 gallon bucket of water straight into my face from about 3 feet away. Then the cayuco would drop straight down, leaving my stomach dangling in the air. Of course my Peace Corps issued Life jacket was left under my bed in my house (incase I ever need it in the middle of the night…? I don’t know). So during the boat ride, I was constantly checking my surroundings, the land was always within a mile, so I knew that if we did flip (which I thought was almost certainly going to happen) I would be able to swim to land. Unfortunately however, I was the only one on the boat who knew how to swim. I saw complete terror in the eyes of the Indians on that boat. It broke my heart to see how scared they were! In their minds, if that boat flipped they were going to drowned, no question. So I started think seriously about what I would do if we capsized…. I remembered back to PC training when the staff taught us how to make floatation devises out of our pants. Suddenly, I wasn’t as ashamed anymore that I had chosen to wear my yellow rain suit over my other pants… I was going to be able to save 2 people!!! =) Attempting to overpower the sound of the fierce ocean and howling wind, I tried to give the Indians some reassurance by yelling to them “ Don’t worry, I can make a life jacket out of my pants!!!!”…. But they just stared at me blankly; they probably just assumed I didn’t know what I was talking about. I confuse words all the time and I am sure they just thought I was doing it again… Looking back on it, it does sound a bit ridiculous.

Fortunately, we didn’t flip. We ended up maneuvering over to one of the islands and anchored behind it until the water calmed a bit. They said, “you were right Meti, that was an adventure!”

Needless to say, “teaching them how to swim” has made it one to my “potential projects” list. Aside from the whole raw sewage in the water issue, there is really no good place to learn how to swim right by our village, so I need to put some thought into this one…. It is really something that needs to be done though! These people are around water all the time, they need to learn how to swim!!!(or how to make a flotation devise out of their pants)

The Farm Part of my attempt to get to know the community and their way of life, I will often join them when they go working in their farms.

On this particular day, I joined my first host family. We loaded up in 3 different Cayucos, because of all the kids of course. The first half of the trip to their farm we were weaving through the jungle on a narrow river. It was just like going through a ride at Disneyland (isn’t it kinda strange when you are experiencing the real thing and it reminds you of a theme park… I guess that is a complement to the design team at Disneyland). Anyway, about 30 minutes later we pulled off on the bank and began to hike inland. I was struggling on this hike… I was all set with my knee high rubber boots and all I was carrying was a little backpack with my camera, water bottle, and Machete. But with the combination of mud, very thick and slippery ground vines and the extremely steep incline, it was not easy! It didn’t help my self esteem that my host mom was pretty much skipping up the mountain! Especially because she was carrying a 30+ pound bag of corn wrapped around her forehead and draped on her back, on top of the hand woven bag was her youngest son, holding on like a little monkey, and in front she was carrying her youngest daughter in her arms, and to top it off, she wasn’t wearing any shoes and had a skirt on!!!

Their farm was gorgeous! They were anxious to show me their new house they just finished. My host mom made a big meal, complete with more starches than one could ever want. She unloaded the 30lbs of corn at the house to make room for putting her son actually inside the bag, istead of having him hanging on, and we all went for a walk through their Caoco trees. We came upon a fresh river with a swimming hole. All the kids jumped in, while their mom waited on the sideline with a bar of soap in hand. One by one they took a break from splashing around and ran over to her to get scrubbed down. At first I sat watching and taking pictures, but I couldn’t resist joining in the fun. All the kids went absolutely crazy when I dove in with all my clothes on!!! We played in the water for what felt like hours. I was launching the kids through the air the way my dad use to do to my brother and I when we were young. After all the bathing/playing was done, we returned to the farm house, played with a dead snake for while and then made chocolate balls out of some dried Caoco seeds they had…. If was a wonderful day in the “finca.” I think I concluded that I appreciate this host family soooooo much more now that I don’t live with them =) Here are some photos of the day...

The Book One of my favorite little boys in the community came to visit me the other day. He knew I was heading into town the next day so he was stopping by to ask me to buy him something. Unfortunately, this is something that the Ngobes do often, they will ask you do buy them something or give them money. So I took this opportunity to lecture my little friend on how it is rude to ask people for things all the time, I really gave him an ear full!! When I paused he said, “But Meti, I have been helping you a lot with your garden and it is my 10^th birthday tomorrow. “ And it actually was his 10^th birthday. I sighed and asked “If I were to get you something, what would it be?” I assumed of course that he wanted some sort of toy or candy. After a long pause, we looked down at the ground and explained “I am going to be 10 years old tomorrow, and I don’t know how to read. Will you buy me a book so I can learn how to read?” Needless to say, my heart pretty much melted! I feel like books and any sort of educational material is something that is worth buying for them! I returned the next day with “Peter Pan.” He was truly grateful! He said “Thank you” like I have been working so hard to teach him, and ran off to learn how to read…..=)

The World Kind of a similar story….

One of the first things I put up in my house was a poster of the World. I had a little girl visiting me one day (age 13). I brought her in front of the map and asked her if she could point out where Panama was. After about 5 minutes of thinking, she confidently pointed to Russia (because it was the largest). Once I showed her Panama, and how small the country is in comparison to the world, she tells me that she wants to be able to visit all those other countries. I told her that the best way to be able to see the world is to study really hard in school. I said that if you have a good education you have a better chance of seeing the world. She just kind of nodded, I wasn’t really sure if she understood. A few days later, I saw her pass by my house. Like I always do, I asked her what she was planning on doing that day, she looked up at me in my window and said “I am going to study all day so I can visit the world!”

I guess she was listening.

These were just stories that warmed and brook my heart at the same time so I thought I would share them with you. The more I think about it, I think a lot of my work is going to be focused on the children of Buena Esperanza. After all, they are the future right?

The knowledge My community members heard about the earthquake in Haiti from the radio program they listen to. The number of people affected by this tragedy and the immense poverty that the Haitians live in is something that my community has trouble grasping. A few of them have come to me asking if I know anything about it. I take the opportunity of explaining that the people in Haiti are among the poorest in the world. Their initial reaction usually is disbelief that there are actually people in the world that are poorer than they are. In attempt to put it in prospective, I try to explain that the Haitians don’t have the rich natural resources that the land of Panama provides. They don’t have their own farms where they can grow food, and a lot of them go hungry. I also touch on Haiti’s lack of a solid infrastructure, where here they can grow trees that are as solid as steel. I think it made them appreciate and be proud of what they have here in panama. It was one of those lessons of life that we all have had…. No matter how bad things seem in your own life, someone always has it worse.

That’s all I have time for now.... is there 10 feet of Snow in Tahoe yet?

Love,

Me

Ngobes Say the Darnedest things

I had a family of 7 visit me one afternoon. I was showing them some photos of my friends and family. I showed them a picture of my good friend Julie who just moved to Switzerland. The father of this family says “Are California and Switzerland neighbors? For example, like “Shark Hole” and Buena Esperanza?” (Shark Hole is a 30 minute hike away.) I answered. “ No Switzerland is on a different continent, and it is a different county than the United States.” He gave me a long “mmmmmmhhhhhhhhhm,” and says, “so it would be more than a $5 taxi ride to visit her?”

Uncle Tim's words to the not to wise “Take what you got and work with it to get what you want…Don’t blame the wind, get the sail out to catch more of it!