The One with Work (aka play)

Let me catch you up on some work related stuff.

First of all let me say that I feel incredibly fortunate that I have a “job” that when I say a sentence like the one above, people will actually continue reading…

Even though my families visit was and still is the hot topic in Buena Esperanza, A LOT has been going on since they left.
Here is the run down.... hold on it´s a long one!

D Dental and Doctor Clinic

Mid March we had Dentists and Doctors from Washington State come to do a free all day clinic for my community. They were cleaning teeth, pulling teeth, treating parasites, doing some preventative education and so much more! While I know my community appreciated this part, I know that years from now what they’ll remember is what was going on when they were not being seen by the doctor.

What could have easily been a boring medical clinic with everyone dwelling over being “sick” was magically transformed into something that better resembled a carnival. This group of volunteers obviously had experience with clinics such as this because they came fully loaded: We had balloon animals, bracelet making, face painting, temporary tattoos, coloring competitions, a digital photo printing station, Frisbees, a travel size DVD player and to top it off, each kid received a brand new pair of Crocs shoes after getting his/her teeth cleaned. Not only were there enough shoes for all the kids in my community, but I was able to deliver bags full of the leftovers to three other Peace Corps volunteers in surrounding communities.

At the end of the day, the only thing missing was a farris wheel and cotton candy (which really would have defeated the purpose of the teeth cleaning, so never mind)

A BIG Thank you to this group of volunteers! Your were all a pleasure to work with The Community of Buena Esperanza (including myself) is deeply touched, and appreciative of the time you gave to better the health and lives of our people.

I look forward to working with your group again next year.

Running water????

A few weeks ago I was approached by a community member that told me about this hole of water he has in his farm and that years ago the community use to have running water. It surprised me that this was the first time I had heard about this. Or maybe they had tried to tell me before and I just didn’t understand so they patently waited until my Spanish got better and tried again. Whatever the case, we made plans to hike up and check it out. Turns out I understood correctly. We found a beautiful looking water hole with three natural springs that keep the hole full year round. This looked like a great possibility to use this hole and make a functioning aqueduct to have running water in the community! But before we formed a water committee or started looking for funding we needed to check the elevation of the terrain between this potential aqueduct and the community to make sure gravity could do its thing.

The program of “Environmental Health” with Peace Corps has a water level that we were able to get our hands on. My closest Peace Crops volunteer, Harold, and I set aside a few days to do some field work with this level.Here are some pictures of us working with the water level------

Unfortunately, about 3 hours into our first day of field work it was already apparent that it wasn’t going to work. There was a hill that we would have to go over that exceeded the elevation of our source of water, and we all know water does not flow uphill without something pushing it. So, we packed up the water level, and hiked back to the community with our tail between our legs. We were all so optimistic and excited about the possibility of having running water, so it was a bit of a disappointment.

But on the bright side, about 7 guys from my community were exposed to this new water level tool. They learned how it worked, and more importantly the importance of taking the time to do some research before we go through all the labor of building and laying tubes just to find out that it wouldn’t work. Another positive, we live in Bocas where clean water falls year round straight from the sky; we just have to catch it!!!

That being said, In the near future I may be soliciting for some funding to build more rainwater catchment systems in Buena Esperanza… keep it in mind =)

PML
Peace Corp Panama held a week long conference in mid March called PML (project management Leadership). Each volunteer form my training group was suppose to bring a member from their community that they thought would benefit from this conference, someone that shows real leadership potential. I asked my community counterpart months ago and continuously reminded her each time I saw her. However, in true Ngobe fashion she canceled on me the day before we were suppose to leave and had chosen someone to go in her place.

So, without much choice we set off on our adventure to the province of Cocle. Which is approximately 18 times further then this woman had ever been in all her 45 years. Imagine never traveling further than 3o minutes away from the place you were born!!!

It took us 2 full days of travel to get to the conference. Our first leg of the trip was a boat ride to the mainland where about half the way there the boat driver tells us he thinks we are going to run out of gas…. Turns out he was right. We ended up shamelessly having to paddle this huge fiberglass boat into the gas station. Luckily this was not a sign of what the trip was going to be like.

We stayed the first night at a hotel in David. This was her first time staying in a hotel, and being away from her family, so we were walking on fragile ground. Here we were able to meet up with a few other volunteers and their counterparts. My counterpart became BFF’s with another Ngobe woman. That afternoon they timidly approached me and asked if I would take them out in the city to go shopping. Each had brought what little money they had to buy a little souvenir along the way, but they were scared to go out alone. Of course I agreed.

EVERYTHING was new to them. They were scared walking down the streets and stayed so close to me that if I would have suddenly stopped they surly would have slammed into my back. Once we got into the shopping center, they nearly started a dominos effect when getting on the escalator, even though I coached them on it before hand. I felt like I was a mom taking some teenage girls shopping, and they even ended up buying matching shirts… it was so cute! That night we treated our counterparts to some American culture with delivery Dominos Pizza.

We traveled in style on our second leg of the trip. We managed to get the 4 most prime seats on a Double Decker bus, 2^nd floor right up front above the driver. Now, that is the way to really see your country! Generally, Ngobes don’t show much emotion so I expressed my excitement double time by continuously saying “wow isn’t this beautiful? You are so lucky to have such a beautiful country.” I learned that I really need to increase my Spanish vocabulary in regards to nature and scenery, but I think she got the point.

The conference went fairly well. I found out that my counterpart has trouble reading and writing, but I still think she got something out of it. There were people from all providences of Panama, and it was the first time I felt like my counterpart was truly proud of her culture, proud to be a Ngobe Indian, that was the best part for me to see. Here is a poicture of my counterpart (vilma) Her first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! And the other picture of the only three Ngobe women at the conference, showing their pride with the traditional dress!

Quick story:

In Panama there are two very vivid contrasting economic realities, that of the rich and that of the poor. The World Bank reports that Panama has the 2^nd highest inequitable distribution of income in the hemisphere. The Panama Canal generates over 700 mill each year, and still of the 3.2 mill inhabitants 65% of the rural population and 95% of the indigenous population live in poverty ($2 or less a day). What they make in one month, a typically family in Panama City could easily spend going out for one meal.

That being said, you know how in the Sates we will occasionally have a day or an allotted amount of time were you participate in something just to see what it would be like, or I guess to feel empathy for the people who have to do or live like that forever? For example; A day where you don’t wear shoes, wearing a blind fold and attempting to complete a task, 30 hour famine, or my personal favorite is when Men dress up like women and put on High Heals to promote women’s right. Anyway, I think you get the idea.

Apparently, this is not just an American why of promoting the needs of the world. During our travels to the seminar, the night we stayed in David, we discovered that the upper class or “privileged” Panamanians nationwide had scheduled their very own “put yourself in their shoes” day. Unfortunately, all of our community counterparts had been wearing those metaphorical shoes their entire lives.

The deal was that national, from the province of Darien to the Province of Bocas Del Toro, everyone was supposed to voluntarily shut off any item that uses electricity starting at 8:00pm.

Of course word had not spread to our already dark communities about this programmed event. We were only informed of it when we ordered a pizza and they told us we would be the last pizza in the oven before they had to turn off their oven.

Hmmmmm great, now how in the world do I explain this to my counterpart? She was so excited to be in the light and watching T.V and I had to tell her that we would be eating our Pizza by candle light, just like at home. I tried my best, but I don’t think she fully understood the concept, and I don’t blame her. We were all still very grateful to have pizza, lights or no lights.

Lion Fish:
Over the past year, the waters around Bocas region have had a new and unwelcome inhabitant. That’s right, the Lion Fish! Originally indigenous to the waters of the Pacific Ocean, it was introduced into the waters off the shore of Florida some years ago and has now made its way to Panama. This fish are bad news, and I will tell you why:

1. They can eat other fish up to almost 75% their own length.
2. Their stomach can grow to 30 times its natural volume.
3. They feed on more than 40 species of fish.
4. The reproduce at the amazing rate of every 55 days … with a single female releasing 30,000 eggs at a time.
5. The toxin from their spines can be extremely painful, they say similar to a scorpion bite--- Great, just what I need!!!
6. They have no natural predators.

Needless to say, they are a hug threat on the ecosystem! So the locals on Bocas Island are trying to encourage the local community to kill any Lion Fish they see in an attempt to maintain the population.

In Buena Esperanza, I am not exaggeration when I say everyone (man, women and child) dive and fish on a daily basis. So I figured I would get them on board with this population control.

So, I went from house handing out an informational sheet I made that explained the problem, and how to safely kill, handle and cook the Lion Fish. I explained, to the best of my ability, the threat of these fish on the environment and how if we don’t try to limit the population size now, they soon may be the only fish we see.

Across the board, house to house, person to person, I received similar responses. Their first question would be “ well you can eat them right?” I would tell them yes, and then they would say something to the extent of “ Oh Meti, that is not a problem then. We need more fish that we can eat. It really does not matter what type of fish it is as long as we can eat it. Right now, I go fishing for hours and hardly catch anything, pretty soon there will be millions of Lion Fish for us to eat, this is great news!”

I think I need to work on my approach with this one, but until I figure that out it looks like I will be spearing Lion fish solo.

Here is a link to a good article about the Lion Fish problem if you are interested in reading more about it!

http://www.thebocasbreeze.com/previous-issues/march-marzo-2010-volume-7.shtml

Escuela de Campo

Sometime in Mid march, or maybe April ( I am loosing track of time). I went over to Shark Hole, Harold’s community to participate in a ¨Escuela De Campo¨ that the other volunteer, Lee, was putting on. We taught (or I should say, Lee taught) how to do tree grafting with the Cacao trees. Lots of fun!

Here are some pictures form that.

The Rollercoaster of Teaching English

I have been teaching English for over 4 full months now. I agree that it is a very useful, sustainable and important skill for my community, but I have to admit that it is not my favorite thing to do. This is mostly because there are so many other potential projects in the community that I am anxious to get working on, and my English class has proven to be pretty time consuming. Also, the lack of resources for me as well as my students makes it an extra challenge.

So…. A few weeks ago I went into my class fully prepared to drop the news that I was going to stop teaching class for awhile. I had my explanation all written out in Spanish, to make sure they fully understood the situation. My plan was to break this news at the end of class. However, sometime during this class I changed my mind. Until this point, I think I had been blind to how much progress the students were actually making. So, at the very last minute I went from planning on saying “class is canceled” to actually saying “ we are going to start a 10 week course.” It was my fault anyways that I didn’t set a time limit when I started teaching 4 months ago. It wouldn’t have been fair to just cut them off like that, and I didn’t want to loose the momentum they had.

So, here is the deal with the course: 40 total hours, 10 weeks, 2 times a week, 2 hours each class and “tests” ever Tuesday. We are going into our third week, and I have 13 committed students and a good 20 others who just come occasionally.

I figure Peace Corps is two years for a reason, and once this course is over. I will still have a good 16 months to get involved with other projects. But for now, this is my main focus. I spend a good amount of time on my lesson plans and working one on one with the students outside of class. I try to make the classes as interesting and fun as possible. This is very different to traditional education in Panama, which largely consists of simply memorizing verbatim what they teacher tells you, repeating it back to them and then forgetting all about it; no creativity, no critical thinking and rarely any fun is associated with learning. So far in my class when have learned by playing Bingo, hangman, Simon says, and countless team commutations which can get a little rowdy sometimes. I have also started an awards system where I give out star stickers for participation and occasionally give out prizes depending on how many stars one has. It is also a requirement that in order to “graduate” from this course you have to take each test. They don’t have to pass it, but they do have to take it, but of course I didn’t tell them that. Panamanians historically love getting certificates. So I plan on presenting a certificate to each student that completes the 10 week course. Graduation date is June 12^th (not that I am counting or anything)

Books by Sea

We recently received a book donation for ou new library that passed through many hands to get here. I believe this was the sequence:

1. The books were donated and collected by the Rotary Club of Parole (Annapolis, Maryland) through the Rotary International project B.I.G. (Books for International Goodwill)
2. Next the books were passed to Ann-Wallis White who is a Yacht Charter consultant
3. Ann-Wallis then coordinated with Captain Mark Drewelow´s organization- Yacht Aid
4. The Boxes were then placed in the hands of Phil Wade, captain and owner of the beautiful sailing vessel the TIMONEER. They were given instructions to find a good home for the books during their travels.
5. Their Yacht made its way down to Bocas and the Books were left in the trusted hands of and Ex- pat Janis.
6. And Ultimately, Janis got a hold of me and at least 1 book ended up in the hands of every student at my school! Success!

Wow, that sure was a mouth full! Thanks for reading!

Here is a video I took the other day form my Bay looking back at my community to give you a better idea of where I am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIIzqvFeWE

Also, check out my Picasa Site for more pictures from the Health Clinic, Escuela de Campo, Water Level, and PML.

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

Life is good,

Miche

The One With the Fam.

I think it is a known fact that most people don’t really like hearing about other people vacations.
So, to accommodate the majority of my readers (all 10 of you) I won’t recall ,day by day, all the fun that you missed out on =) You already saw all the pictures anyway….
However, to accommodate those of you that actually do want to know about my families vacation I present you, in easy to read format, what I thought were some of the highlights of their visit…..

• It had been raining, hard, for at least the 5 days preceding my families arrival. The night before they arrived I was starting to get nervous. However, someone must have been looking after us, because from the day they arrived until the day they left we had clear blue skies.

• Their Plane from Panama to Bocas was a good 3 hours late (welcome to Panama). When my Grandma asked them why it was late, the airline told here “El Avion Esta Enfermo “ The Plane is sick =) I hope whoever answered that question was not the same person who was flying (or fixing) the plane.


• In order to live up to its name, we had a large family of Dolphins come greet us as we were entering Dolphin bay to go to my Community. Like a dream!

• I am/was so proud of the fact that my house now is equipped with a water catchment system. I was so excited to present my mom with a tank full of fresh clean rain water upon her arrival. Unfortunately, we were greeted instead with the news that there was a dead bird in my tank and it smelt terrible! Trying to get this bird out turned into quite a spectacle, the entire school decided they needed to help out. A good 2 hours later, we were left with an empty tank, a broken pipe and buckets to fetch water from elsewhere. I guess my mom got a good insight as to what my life is REALLY like, always unpredictable.


• My Mom “camped” out with me for 2 nights, My grandparents stayed in luxury at Daivd and Linda’s home, next store. I noticed that my mom conveniently managed to time her bathroom and shower times when we were visiting next door (cheater?)

• My Grandpa Da taught one of the school boys how to tie his tie. It was priceless. Sometime that I will never forget!

• The first Fer-de-lance Snake (very poisonous snake) that I have seen since I have been here, decided that a good time to come into the community was when my family was visiting… This did not help the image of security that I was trying to illustrate. Lucky one of Community members killed it before it caused any harm.

• A few women in my community showed my mom the process of making their traditional Chakras, from the plant to the bag. Check out Miss Vanna White...

• My Mom loved all the kids! I think she wanted to take some of them home with her. One woman in my community got all dressed up to come visit us with her newborn baby, just so my could hold her.

• Back on Bocas island now, I took my family to a beach called Star Fish beach. My Grandpa Da tells us, as we are walking along the beach “This place, right here, is the best place I have ever been in my entire life.” I loved seeing him so happy!

• We meet a guy named Kali on Bocas Island who is a famous Djembe drummer from Africa. He was staying at the same Bed and Breakfast with us, so we got the chance to hear him practice daily. One time, a handful of little local girls came over to dance to the drumming…. Of course without hesitation, my mom joined in the dance party…. Classic! We also received private lessons from Kali…. Of course now I want a Djembe =)
• Our time up in the mountains in Boquette turned in to an international culinary experience. Argentinean the first night, Middle Easterner the next, and then Peruvian to finish the trip. My Birthday celebration dinner was complete with humus, pita bread, tubule salad and baklava… I was a happy girl!

• My Grandma took my mom and I on a sort of scavenger hunt one day in Boqete. She was all excited about something she saw walking back to the hotel. She gave us a hint that it was something that “everyone knows about but has never seen in real life.” It turned out to be and Airplant..Pictured below. After noticing this one, we started seeing them everywhere. Now, I see them daily and it reminds me of my grandmas excitement that day.
• When I asked my mom what she is going to miss about Panama she says “Being able to let me hair dry naturally”…. Oh mom.

• The night before I returned back to my community and left my family in David we stayed in a suit at the Gran National Hotel. Equipped with Jacuzzi tubs, flat screen TV’s, and California King size beds that made me feel like I was sleeping on a cloud.
The next day I returned to my site, and reality, I was feeling a bit lonley and sad. Then, I started unpacking and I found the high class, fluffy and fragrant toilet paper that I had taken from the Gran National Hotel the night before. And suddenly, everything was better….Hey, that stuff is to expensive for the Peace Corps Budget.

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Thoughts from Mom
Seeing Miche in her community was a highlight for me. I spent two nights with her and was able to see her up close and personal with the adults and children. It is quite obvious that the kids love her! We arrived by boat and she pointed out to me that we were being watched from behind the trees as we began to carry my luggage up the hill. It didn’t take long before one of Miche’s friends came to help. We changed clothes and I was scolded for not closing the window before changing. I told Miche no one was out there and she said “oh yes they are, they see everything”.

Right away we put on the ever so important rubber boots (mine were two sizes to big) and took off into the jungle. It was hot, muddy, steamy and beautiful! After about 20 minutes we ended up at Dave and Linda Cerutti’s house (where Mom and Art stayed for the two nights). Talk about “from one world to another”! David took us on a tour of the cacao farm and Linda’s beautiful garden. We had a wonderful dinner with them overlooking Dolphin Bay.

The next morning Miche made me coffee and oatmeal (with fresh Cacao) for breakfast and I had to keep pinching myself to remind me where I was. I visited with the kids as they were on their way to school and met the Teachers. We went in search of chakras, the purses that the local women make from the pita plant. I was able to purchase three that were made by two different women. I also saw a pita plant and the fiber that is used to make the chakras.

Some time was spent removing a dead bird from Miche’s rain water catchment system. This involved about four men actually doing the work and about 20 kids watching. Mom and Art painted flowers on the doorways and windows of Miche’s house.

We had lunch with Carl, Mary and Sharon who also live on Dolphin Bay and dinner at the Cerutti’s. George and Sue took us into Bocas the next day where we met more of Miche’s friends.

She has met some wonderful people in Panama, both American and Panamanian. I was amazed at how fluent her Spanish has become and how comfortable she is communicating in her new language. It was a wonderful trip for me and I hope to go again next year. I am so proud of my precious daughter.

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Thought s from Grandma T and Da
We land at the Bocas airport and I see Miche standing behind the chain-link fence with a big smile on her face. I remember how she and brother Nick always stood in the window at the Reno Airport when they were little.

Taxi to the Buena Vista Restaurant where we will spend the first night. Owners Kelly and her husband rented us the apartment above the restaurant and we are dazzled by the view from the veranda. This place has a Caribbean beat from the minute you step off of the plane. Sleeping there was another matter. Downtown Hongkong would have been more quiet!

Lunch the next day with " The Gringos" and then off to the Cerrutis slice of paradise where we will be treated like royalty for the next two days. Even the dolphins came out as the boat entered the bay! What a welcome.
We loved seeing Buena Esperanza, where Miche lives and works. The people were shy at first but warmed to us quickly. She has such a presence there and we were proud to be her grandparents.

Our time in Bocas was filled with beaches that surpass expectation. Driving to Bocas del Drago with a taxi driver named David, who serenaded us with Ragge Rap was an unexpected treat. Staying at Cocomo By The Sea was the best choice and we thank Miche for arranging it. People from all over and great conversations around the breakfast table, and in the heat of the afternoon. And believe me there was heat, and humidity!!

After six days " The Gypsies " flew to David, the first leg of our trip to the highlands, and cooler weather!
Miche's friends Karen and Willy met us at the airport. They are a great couple and we spent an evening with them later in the week. From David we were driven to Boquette by Horatio, cab driver and next door neighbor of Karen and Willie. Are you beginning to see that our trip was made very special by the people that were so willing to help us? Instead of feeling like tourists, we felt like adventurers.

Boquette, the highland area, is beautiful in a completely different way. The complete opposite of Bocas. You get a mountain feeling there. The mixture of flowers; trees; rainbows and cool breezes, all set at the foot of a volcano is quite magical. The area is changing and I did hear the term " gated community", spoken like a swear word! Why do we gringos have to be so exclusive??

While there, we visited Paradise Gardens, an homage to both beauty and the humanity of man. The animals that live there have all been rescued from sad situations.

We spent our last day as a foursome in the town of David. That is where people go to do big shopping, but other than that it has nothing else going for it. Hot and way too crowded.

Miche headed for the bus station at 6AM. Peg, Art and I flew to Panama city in the afternoon. We visited the canal the next day. It truly is the 8Th wonder of the world. Picture taking in Cosco Viejo shows ancient buildings that are being restored and used as apartments and shops. The skyline is becoming enormous. But it is not that Panama that I will remember and hope to revisit. It is the rhythm of Bocas-- the vertical farming at the base of Vulcan Baru--- the Ngobe women in their traditional dresses--- the Gringos that have found a good life there.
That is what impressed me. Our trip far exceeded our expectations!!

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My Final Thoughts (really just so I can add the picture of me with the Flower....)

Now that my family has come and gone, I kind of feel like it was a dream. It was all so surreal. It was the first time that my “two lives” came together. The best thing about them being here was seeing their first time reactions to things and places that have become part of my daily life. It was a wonderfully reminder not to take this experience for granted, to enjoy, learn and experience as much as possible.

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And because a Blog post is not complete without a good scorpion story….. I leave you with this:

In preparation for my Mom to come stay at my oasis of a home, I decided I needed to do some serious scorpion crackdown. I was already asking my mom to live without water, showers, bathrooms etc. I figured the least I could do is attempt to rid the scorpions. What lead me to start this so called "scorpion hunt" in the first place, was I came across another bugger in my clothes, this time in my rain coat. Partly my fault, I will agree. Because I had promised myself to shake out my clothes before putting them on, but this time I failed, and I paid and arm and leg for it. Actually just an arm…. He was in the right sleeve I figure maybe having been stung in the eye for the first time was actually a blessing in disguise, Now all the other stings I get won’t be able to compare. Oh, but don’t get me wrong, it still hurt...bad!

So after this, I decided that instead of the scorpions finding me (or my mom), I will go looking for them, machete in hand of course. So I went through everything in my house, all my clothes, everything in my kitchen... ok well, I guess I dont really have THAT much stuff but it still took me awhile, and guess how many scorpions I found..... 10!!! Ten Scorpions in one day, all within the same quarters of where I either sleep or eat.

So needless to say, I am becoming a professional at scorpions killing. I admit that I had my favorite little boy from the community helping me. After I got stung in the arm by that one, he killed another one, tore off the tail and told me that in order to make the pain go away I needed to spread the insides of the scorpion on the spot I was stung. It didn't take me much time to politely refuse what would have been a great chance for some real cultural exchanged. But the idea of having scorpion guts dripping down my arm was less appealing than simply taking some Ibuprofen to dealing with the pain. I must be American… Just pop the pill to make the pain go away =)

So after finding and killing all those scorpions, my mom tells me after her visit " I am actually kinda disappointed I didn’t get to see a scorpion."
Don’t worry Mom, I will start saving them all for your next visit =)

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LOTS has been going on since my families visit, so I will try to do another update soon.

Thanks to the Hemmings here is the Rain report for March:
"We recorded 11.0 inches of rain for March. Rain was recorded on 10 days with a period between of no measurable rain between March 7 - 19. The year to date total is 34 inches. "
We are entering what is the “wet season” now…. I hope I don’t get washed away.

Peace,
Meti

Picture this.....

They say a picture is worth 1000 words right?

Well, here is a link to 423 pictures from my time with my family =)
That is a lot easier than writting 423,000 words.....

http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/FamilyComesToTown?feat=directlink

The pictures are for the most part in order of their trip. I will do another post later with some of thier thoughts and experiences while here, but these pictures should keep you busy for now =)

Peace,
Meti