The one with the Turtles

Hello all!

I just wanted to post an article that was in the most recent “Bocas Breeze.” The Bocas Breeze is the monthly print of local news and happenings on and around the main island of Isla Colon (aka Bocas Island.

Here is the situation:

Critically endangered turtles "Challenged"

by Allene Blaker
fotos by / fotos por Allie Dennis & Allene Blaker

¨Leatherback turtles can grow to the size of a double bed and weigh more than a ton. Air-breathers, they can dive more than a kilometer into the sea, and ocean-dwellers, they can maintain body temperatures as high as 18 degrees C above the surrounding water temperature. They mostly eat only jellyfish, although they have also been known to feed on squid, mollusks, fish and sea urchins. They are born in South and Central America, are the world’s largest reptile and one of its most mysterious. They are the only species representing a family that has been around for more than a million years. It is an extremely endangered species and every nest, every egg, each hatchling, juvenile and adult is important for the continuing existence of this magnificent animal.

Leatherbacks can live upward of 150 years. Most don't however, due to threats against their survival – the majority of which are due to mankind. The most common causes of death at sea are gill netting, longline fishing and shrimp trawling. Ingestion of plastic, which may look like jellyfish to a turtle, will obstruct its digestion system, causing it to die of starvation. Net entanglement usually leads to death by drowning. Many turtles have died due to entrapment in marine debris such as plastic sheeting, nylon ropes and fishing lines torn from boats and left to float at the sea's surface.

If a female leatherback can live to the age of 7 to 15, she will begin to breed. When she is ready to lay eggs, she will, ideally, return to the beach of her own birth, haul herself ashore and slowly make her way to an area she feels is safe enough for a nest. Using her front flippers she makes a pit, and then uses her back flippers to make a deeper cavity in which to deposit her 60-120 eggs, called a clutch. When the eggs have been laid, she covers the nest again and, after wandering around a bit presumably to confuse predators, heads back to sea. The whole process takes up to two hours, almost always late at night. She will only nest every two or three years, making an average of six nests between March and August. The eggs will hatch in about two months.

When a baby turtle is ready to hatch, it uses a temporary egg tooth to crack its eggshell open. Usually, the entire nest hatches almost at once, so there is a little protection in numbers. If not scooped up by gulls, dogs, raccoons, ghost crabs, coatis, vultures and hawks, they have a chance to reach the sea, where from then on their lives will be threatened by large fish, sharks, octopi, killer whales, and man. It is estimated that less than 2% of each clutch survives the nesting and the short trip to the sea.

The males never again return to land. The females will do so only to nest.

The world population of leatherbacks has declined by more than 75% in the last 20 years. On one important nesting beach in Mexico, there were 6,500 nests recorded in 1986, but only 50 by 1993. It is estimated that less than 34,000 females of nesting age exist in the world today. Faced with these alarming statistics, naturalists around the globe have called for total protection of the leatherback turtles, with their primary focus being the safeguarding of their nests and nesting beaches.

For years, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), Greenpeace, EarthWatch, WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and dozens of other conservation organizations have all been working to increase public knowledge and awareness of the plight of endangered species, including leatherbacks and other sea turtles. More organizations, such as The Honu Project, Save Our Leatherbacks, Turtles.org and Free the Leatherbacks, were formed exclusively in attempts to save the declining sea turtle populations.

Panama has signed numerous international treaties in a show of concern for this important natural resource. In signing such agreements, the country expressed its commitment to protect sea turtle nesting habitats, monitor sea turtle mortality and nesting activities. One article of the IELP Treaty goes so far as to say that if violations are occurring at nesting beaches, "This Agreement makes clear that citizens have the right to enforce the provisions of this Agreement."

With so much of the world, including Panama, trying to protect sea turtles and their nesting habitats, it was astonishing to Bocas residents that a "Survivor"-type television show from Colombia, called "Desafio" ("Challenge" in English), was erecting towers, ramps and large platforms (one turned out to be a heliport!) for its "games" right on the sands of Bluff Beach. Not only is this one of the most popular beaches in Bocas, it is the nesting ground of several species of sea turtles and the set was being erected in the middle of the leatherbacks' nesting season. Fresh nests were being made nightly, some between the structures, some beside them, and a few days later it was observed that one structure had been built on top of a nest dug the previous night.

Photo: One of the large structures built in the nesting grounds on Bluff Beach

What followed were outraged residents' numerous trips to Mayor Jose "Dr. Joe" Anderson's office, photographs and petitions sent to various Panamanian officials and organizations, postings on FaceBook and YouTube, and finally, on the first day of the show's filming, a physical protest at the site, with about 25 participants disrupting the show's "opening ceremony." The police and sheriff were ordered out to the set to stop the protestors but there was a dilemma. All beaches in Panama are public, meaning the protestors had every right to be on the beach, regardless of issued permits. And nobody had the right to order them off.
Many of the protestors, however, knew Sheriff José Acuña personally, and politely stated their case, then allowed him to explain his. Everyone left the beach after the two-hour demonstration when the sheriff said the mayor would welcome everyone to another meeting in his office the following day.

Those in attendance at that meeting said the mayor was polite, newly informed of the violations occurring at the site, and even apologetic that the filming had not been more closely supervised. He asked for suggestions and was given many.

Photo: Structure posts and stakes driven deep into the sand

It would be nice to report that after that meeting the show's producers, directors, crew and contestants moved their location as quickly as possible. But this wasn't the case. While they were actually willing to move to an area of the beach where no turtles are nesting (the sand mining area, where the sand has been mined down to the fossilized coral), they were not issued permits for that location because that area is now being "protected."

Photo: Game hurdles, flags and protesters on the first day of the show's filming

As this paper was going to press, a week and a half after the protest and subsequent meeting, the show is still being filmed but they now are using TWO large stretches of Bluff Beach, all of which is the turtles' nesting territory.

We don’t know how much harm has been done to the eggs in the nests already in place before the film crew came. We can't predict how many more are still being harmed with the construction and activity. The turtles will continue to attempt nesting through August however.

Or maybe not. They may just give up and go away for good.

That would make a few very greedy people very happy.

(Sincere thanks to Kathleen Martin, Leatherback Sea Turtle Working Group, Underwater World, and Bagheera for permission to use statements, facts, figures and findings from their organizations.)¨

Unfortunately, as a government employee for the United States I am strictly permitted from getting involved with any political issues. So, because I can’t go publicly protest or refute on behalf of the turtles…. I am doing my part by spreading the word! I think the more people that know this is happening the better.

And because I hate to just give you bad news…. Here is a little sneak peak into what you have to look forward to in the next blog post =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9XbHWoswBg

Until then,

Michelle

The one with the boat, the wheelchairs the dock and more

Hello hello!

First let me warn you that contrary to how the title of this blog my come across, there was not one such event that included a boat, a dock and a person in a wheelchair all together. I am sorry if this disappoints some of you and I understand you don’t continue reading =)

The Boat:

Check out my new pimped out ride. That’s right, I have decided that once you paint your boat, it goes from being a floating tree trunk, to a “pimped out ride.” I really was never planning on painting my boat, I was never actually rather fond of the natural look. Let me tell you how I was pretty much forced into it.

One day, I came home after a day of grocery shopping on the island to find my boat missing. I knew no one in my community would steel my boat, so I didn’t panic. On my way to my house I asked a few people and they said they knew nothing. As soon as my house was in sight I saw my boat propped up underneath my house. Ok, now how am I going to use my boat when it is all the way up the hill under my house? It was still a mystery as to how it got there. Only after a good full 3 days did I figured out that one of the community elders had instructed to guys to move it. When I spoke with the community elder he expressed his worry about the damage the sun was likely to have on my boat over my two year stint. He then gave me two options:

1.) Leave the boat under my house in the shade and simply carry it down the hill when I want to use it. (The fact that is weighs 200 plus pounds didn’t seem to matter)

2.) Paint it

I started painting the next morning.

My paint supply consisted of half empty cans of 5 different colors so I really didn’t know how it would come together.

Cultural Note: Dientes (teeth) are a traditional Ngobe pattern that they usually stitch onto their traditional dresses.

In an effort to boost the Ngobe pride, which is seriously lacking, I had the idea of putting this diente pattern around the boarder of my boat. I was told by a community member that it would take me 4 months to finish painting, with the idea I had in mind… 2 days later it was ready to go in the water. The 2 days I worked on it, I honestly could have been charging admission, I had a constant audience. No one offered to help, they just wanted to be present. This was the “big event” that week in Buena Esperanza so everyone wanted to watch. Initially I would converse with my audience, but as the hours passed conversation topics grew thin and we would fall into hours of pure silence. In the Ngobe culture, there is no such thing as “awkward silence.” Also, the patience these Indians have is incomparable to any other culture I have seen (the reasons for this are extensive). I could never imagine an American sitting under my house with me the way they were, and spending so much time watching my every stoke with the paintbrush. I guess we all value our time differently.

Here are some photos of the process….. (the camera was brought out once the audience was gone, or else I would have been solicited to take pictures of all of them as well)

Ngobes going Hi-tech:

I have recently introduced a new technology into my community. Something they have never seen before, and therefore had absolutely no knowledge of prior to my introduction of it. It is an MP3 player.

We received a donation of 6 MP3 players for my English students to use. The MP3’s were uploaded with construction and gardening lessons and intended for ESL students. For some reason I was extremely nervous to introduce these MP3’s in the community. So I held on to them for awhile, contemplating the best method of introduction. Finally I decided that I had waited long enough, and it wasn’t fair for me to be holding on to something, that was going to help them learn!

So I handed them out in my English class, and attempted to give them instructions on how to navigate it. Once they had the MP3 in their hands it proved to be very challenging to hold their attention. So, I sent them off with there MP3 and an instruction booklet and told them to come by my house if they had questions on how to use it. To my surprise they all did very well learning how to use the MP3s. The next day, a few of the guys stopped by my house with the dead battery, they said they were so excited about it that they were up all night listening and learning. I asked them what they learned how to say. One of them answered ¨give me the rake¨ another said ¨help me with the ladder please.¨Ha ha

They absolutely love this way of learning, and as my English Class draws to an end, it will be a great way for them to continue learning, without me having to teach a class (that is the best part).

Change is universal

My First family came by the other day to tell me that they had just finished rearranging their house, and they invited me to come see it. They seemed so excited about this, so in an effort to humor them, I promised I would come see it soon. I ended up putting it off for a few days, but eventually it came up on my to-do list, “visit Palacio’s to see rearrangement.¨ So, without any expectations I made my way over to their house while wondering how they could have possibly rearranged their house when they hardly had any furniture to speak of. As I entered the house, I was reminded, yet again, of another cultural difference between the Ngobes and myself.

The idea of rearranging a house is not a foreign concept to me. My Dad use to rearrange our house constantly while I was in high school. These subtle changes keep thing new, different, exciting. However, the Ngobes take rearranging to a whole new level. While we Americans rearrange our “stuff,¨ wall hangings, furniture, etc. The Ngobes rearrange their actual walls. I was surprised to see that they had taken down the entire interior structure and re-organized the walls. The invented 3 new rooms and moved the kitchen from one side of the house to the other. This was indeed something to be excited about!

This made me think. First of all how narcissistic it was of me to assume that the way Americans do things are the way things are done everywhere. But more importantly, is showed me that even if the way in which one “rearranges” differs culture to culture, the underlying premise is the same. That is change. Be it big or small, it seems to be in human nature to thrive change. And even in a place like Buena Esperanza where things have been relatively the same for three generations, rearranging your house will easily satisfy that need for change. ….. Plus, it helps that there is no indoor plumbing or electrical wiring to worry about.

The Robbery

Here is a picture of our community dock (or lack thereof). It went from being there to NOT literally overnight. I asked a community member what had happened and she told me “it was robed,”

Excuse me? What so you mean someone robed our dock!?! How does that even happen???

Apparently what happened was the word spread that we were planning on rebuilding the dock so different families within the community decided they would whatever wood was still good to use for their own home improvement projects.

Unfortunately, forwarding thinking is not taught in the schools here. So without even thinking about it, they all raped the dock of the wood (or robbed it) before we had all the other supplies together to rebuild the new dock. So it has been like this for nearly 2 weeks now, and God only knows how long it will remain so. And it was extremely bad timing because the government has just sent a contractor with 5 construction works to our community to build a new cement classroom (they have been waiting for this for a long time). However, the nonexistent dock makes it awfully difficult to receive all the supplies! Plus it sure does not help with my already existing transportation issues. Humph

The Wheelchairs

For all of you that supported me either financially or emotionally during my senior project last year, thank you!! And I have great news! The second half of the distribution is finally happening here in Panama!!!! Hooray!!!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about here is the brief. In order to graduate, Cal Poly (the school I went to ) requires each student to complete a senior project. I chose to be apart of a student run non-profit organization called “Cal Poly WheelChair Foundation.” We were a team of 26. Each of us with our assigned roles. I acted in a duo as “Community Relations”, with my better half being Miss Elizabeth Tracy.

Anyway, we put Cal Poly’s “learn by doing” philosophy and adapted it to “learn by doing good.” We spent a full year creating awareness of the needs of wheelchairs around the world. Our chosen destination for the Wheelchairs was Oaxaca, Mexico. Our efforts really paid off, because when all was said and done we had raised enough money to send 840 wheelchairs to Mexico and we still had some money left over. By this time, I had already known I was coming to Panama with Peace Corps, so it was proposed that we use the extra money to send a half of a container here!

Now, the Panama distribution is finally happening, the second week in June! So excited!

Of course I will do a follow up Blog to let you know how it all goes!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for all of you who supported our team last year. Unfortunately the Cal Poly wheelchair foundation is no longer in existence, but the national Wheelchair foundation is. Here is a link to their website if you are interested in learning more about their efforts.

http://www.wheelchairfoundation.org/

Rope Jumping

I have launched a jump roping epidemic with the children in Buena Esperanza. I was thinking how jumping rope is such an easy, fun and cheep toy with endless possibilities, you can always learn a new trick with the same rope. So, I thought it would be something the kids would enjoy. Turns out I was right!

Here is a video of my best buddy Osias jumping with his homemade rope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdWJfcHaYA

If you haven’t jumped rope in awhile, I highly suggest it! It will fool you into thinking you have pigtails in your hair and braces on your teeth. You will only be reminded of your actually age after about 10 jumps when you can hardly breath.

Until next time!!

Peace from Panama,

Meti