Madagascar, Well Worth the Wait!

            Brace yourself. It's a long one, and it's all about my trip to visit Brad in Madagascar. After more than 30 hours of traveling, I had passed from Panama through the States through France to Madagascar. Waiting for my luggage in order to pass through customs seemed like an eternity, but finally I had arrived in Antananarivo. I couldn’t have been happier when I cleared customs and saw Brad waiting for me outside the airport.

            We only stayed two nights in Antananarivo before heading north, but Brad introduced me to the beauty of the French pastry. My question is why. Why didn’t the Spaniards or Americans leave behind something so appealing to the taste buds like that in Panama? It’s unfortunate for Panama. While in Tana (the capitol’s nickname), I met Jonathan, Brad’s NGO counterpart who graduated from the MI program and returned to Madagascar to work for CARE. I was happy to start putting faces with the names Brad had mentioned for the past year.

            So, I thought transportation was bad in Panama, but in reality it’s beautiful. Busses in Panama actually leave within a half hour of the time they say they are going to leave. Buses in Madagascar do not. Brad and I spent over 24 hours in a bus as we traveled north towards Ankarana. Ankarana is a national park with interesting geologic features and a plethora of interesting animals. Tsingy are limestone formations that spike out of the ground to form what looks like a maze of limestone valleys and crevasses. Here, we also saw the baobab, the trademark tree of Madagascar. In other parts of the park, we saw a ring-tailed mongoose and, of course, lemurs. Only found in Madagascar, the lemurs were the main attraction, but while eating our lunch we might have been the main attraction for them. These lemurs liked to get up close and personal as they almost managed to steal Brad’s and other visitors’ food.

            I think Panama has some of the most beautiful Peace Corps sites to offer, but I’m not sure any of them can really compare to Brad’s friend’s site, Ampasindava. Megan lives in paradise. A few steps from her house one can see a fantastic view of the beach, water, and islands in the distance. Having received funding from French ex-pats, the community had built two separate sets of bungalows, and we the ones with a view. Essentially unknown, not on any map, this community is gorgeous and full of very welcoming people. Hanging out with Megan’s host family, I smiled and nodded to any Malagasy spoken to me, but I sincerely enjoyed playing with the kids in the water and on the beach despite the language barrier. Eating fresh fish with coconut rice, smelling ylang-ylang, and seeing a massive turtle just strolling on the beach made this stop on our trip a one of a kind experience. In short, her site was a major highlight of the trip.

            From Megan’s site, we took a two-hour boat ride with her host family to Nosy Be (let’s just say it was a small motor). Despite Nosy Be offering a large tourist market, her community rarely makes the trip to the island. I couldn’t resist comparing how my community is so heavily influenced by the nearby touristy island, Isla Colon. Landing in Hellville, we took a taxi to our splurge spot of the vacation, Andilana Beach. The crescent-shaped beach was breathtaking with the picture perfect sunsets. To top it all off, the town offered more amazing French food. Simply put, Andilana was a picture of paradise.

            After paradise came another very long bus ride back to Tana and onward to Moramanga, Brad’s banking town. Although sad to leave paradise, I was excited to meet several of Brad’s good Peace Corps friends: Corey, James, Sam, and Travis (or Peace Corps Bob...). They had been in the city to help translate for a Habitat for Humanity group, and we caught them on the tail end of their stay. Brad and his friends seemed more than happy to show me around to their favorite pastry shop, internet café, and restaurants. You can begin to see a theme in this vacation…

            From Moramanga we moved on to Brad’s site, Lohariandava. Situated on the rail line, the town is much larger than most Environmental Health sites in Panama, but it also serves many communities in the commune. I was surprised to find stores that sold food, clothing, and other household itesm. Besides the standard necesitites, the food sold included mufugasy (Malagasy bread, which is actually fried balls of rice), heavily sugared coffee, and other “street food.” The clothing sold included lambas, a sheet of brightly colored fabric that traditionally serves as a wrap skirt or baby carrier if tied around the waist and chest. My tiendas that sell the rice, sugar, cookies, and sodas (I’m lucky to say one sells cold sodas) paled in comparison. Other highlights of the stay in Brad’s site included a visit to a neighboring community, about an hour hike away, and a dinner with the doctor who lives next door to Brad.

            Because of the crazy, sporadic schedule of the trains (counter-intuitive, I know), we chose to backtrack to Andasibe, a national park closer to Moramanga. Andasibe is truly an amazing national park with a wide variety of animals, especially lemurs. The main attraction is the indri, which Lonely Planet describes as looking like “small children dressed in panda suits.” And, you could hear the indri calling from our bungalow in the evenings and mornings.

            I’m going to brush over the mess that was the disappearance of my camera. I don’t want to dwell on the bad memories or on all the beautiful photos that were lost. But, from Andasibe we headed to the east coast, specifically Tamatave and Foulpointe. In Foulpointe, we spent one night at in a beachfront bungalow, but after killing 10 cockroaches in one night we decided to make a move. Even as Peace Corps Volunteers, we still have some standards (but we may have been OK with only 5 cockroaches). Anwyay, after the move, we ate shrimp, mussels, and coconut treats on the beach as vendors walked up and down the sand offering their tasty treats. Wooden dugout pirogues painted brilliant colors dotted both the beach and horizon. We were again amidst a Malagasy tropical paradise.

            We realized that Frenchmen like this tropical paradise for another reason when we sat down at an Italian restaurant in Tamatave. Older Frenchmen sat at the tables with multiple young Malagasy women at their side. Dinner became quite the experience as Brad and I were directly confronted with Madagascar’s sex tourism.

            From Tamatave we made the sad trek back to the capital. While cherishing my last moments in Madagascar, I couldn’t help but be thankful for car emission standards in the US and Panama. Brad and I said each night that we had to get Tana out of our noses. Gross! While in Tana, I met more PCVs and I was also lucky enough to meet up with Meghan, another USF MI student, and her family. Brad and I toured the city a bit, which included a visit to the Queen’s Palace and to several markets in order to shop for gifts. While this has been a long-winded entry, I’m happy to finally tell everyone about my visit to Madagascar. I had a wonderful time with Brad, and I only look forward to when he will come to visit me in Panama at the end of our Peace Corps services.

Reno to Panama: Building Latrines and Friendships

            So... It’s been a while. Thinking back to May and June, I had the wonderful opportunity to host a visit from University of Nevada – Reno’s Student Association for International Water Issues (SAIWI). Headed by my friend from Notre Dame, Lindsay, the group consisted of two other Masters students, my dad as their advisor, and my uncle as a short-term volunteer. Having raised money throughout the year, the group funded their trip to Bocas del Toro, two latrines, the aqueduct survey, and some water quality tests. The arrival of family and friends to work alongside both my community and me was a welcomed adventure and certainly a learning experience for all. For the first week before my uncle left, I hosted the five visitors in my house. Sadly, they came at a time when the sand flys and mosquitoes were relentless. Despite wearing DEET and using these incense spirals that locals call mechita, the girls, my dad, and my uncle all got eaten alive. One of the major learning experiences was the change of pace for the visitors. Anyone stepping off the plane from the US in a Caribbean locale will notice the change of pace, but coming to terms with the slow pace of materials transportation, community participation in construction, and communication during a project with a finite timeline will certainly test the patience of the unaccustomed. I now have a better understanding as to why people may think I am crazy for doing Peace Corps. For them, my living conditions are like camping for two years (and I like to think that I have a pretty nice set up).

            During their two weeks of camping, the group did an excellent job of adjusting. They learned to cope with the heat, the ever-present children, the slow pace, the cold showers, and my less than perfect composting latrine whose urinal seems to clog fairly often. In the end, the girls played an integral role by constructing the ferrocement toilet seats for the two latrines, while my dad and I managed other aspects of the construction. During this visit, the importance of learning the language became especially clear to me as I translated for the girls and sometimes clarified my dad’s misunderstanding of my community’s Spanish. For instance, when you look up “ahora” in the Spanish-English dictionary, the translations says “now,” but in my community “ahora” or “now” really means like “five hours from now.” If you want to say “now” you better use “ahorita.” Have to love the linguistic intricacies of Panama. In short, the time in my community was an excellent learning and cultural sharing opportunity that, fortunately, was also very productive.

Despite the challenges faced by the group, sharing my Peace Corps experience was extremely gratifying. Finally, I have a group of family and friends that know exactly what my life is like in Valle Escondido. On the final day that the girls were in my community, they were able to work with the women as they toasted cacao, peeled the shells, and ground the cacao. The time in Valle Escondido culminated with a despedida, or a going away party, filled with smiles, dances, and a movie. A group of youth danced in their polleras and guayaveras for the group, and then they turned the tables on my dad and the Reno girls. Forced to the dance floor, my dad wore a hilariously small straw hat, while Lydia, Cassandra, and Lindsay put on the little girls’ polleras that barely reached their knees. With dance partners from the community, the girls and my dad had their first lesson in folkloric dance. Everyone enjoyed the show, and I’m grateful that the Reno group was such good sports! They were champs!

I can’t thank them enough for the time they spent in my community. My community members still ask about them and thank them for their donation of time and money repeatedly. I’m extremely, extremely happy to say that the SAIWI group is thinking of making a second visit to Valle Escondido in January! I only need to work on getting those darn sand flys and mosquitoes under control! Wouldn’t that be nice?!

Finally, I should mention that the one woman who received a latrine from this group has already put it into use. This latrine gives me hope that he project can be salvaged and is worthwhile. And, I have just received the funding for the continued work on the project. Thank you for your support!

How's Life?

            Life is good. Since my birthday I feel like life has kicked itself into full gear. Immediately after my birthday I traveled to Farallon, Cocle, where Peace Corps often holds training sessions for PCVs. In this case, I was there for Reconnect In-Service Training (or what we call IST). Did I mention that this training site is a convenient 20-minute walk away from the beach? And, yes I do feel like a spoiled Peace Corps Volunteer. Despite its close proximity to the beach, I learned a great deal at IST. For instance, I started off with a little refresher of the Spanish subjunctive and Ngabere. Then, the veteran EH PCVs went to work teaching us more about water committee seminars, aqueduct trouble shooting, rainwater catchment, ferrocement, NeatWorks, and latrines. NeatWorks is a computer program that can design a gravity fed water system, or what PCVs usually call an aqueduct, for you when provided with the surveying data, or essentially the change in altitude recorded using a water or abney level. Call me a nerd, but I thought it was cool, and I’m looking forward to using it to help both San Cristobal (my closest PCV Kim’s site) and Valle Escondido. Then, Louis, or Tolichi in Ngabere, talked about his work on composting latrines. Now is your chance to really call me a nerd because I am fascinated and extremely impressed with Louis’ composting latrine work in Bahia Azul. He has managed to adapt the compost latrine design to account for certain cultural factors of the Ngabes. In response to the water-washing habits of his community, Louis invented the Ngabe Bidet that utilizes a rainwater catchment system and retrofit toilet seat over the unused composting chamber. He has worked on other aspects of the design as well, including ferrocement seats, in lieu of the insanely heavy concrete seats. The lightweight seats will not be sealed with concrete to the base as is customary with the concrete seats, so these seats can be moved to allow for easier mixing of the compost. Now, the challenge for me is to get my community to accept a few changes to the design that they have been building for the past year and a half. Anyway, at the end of the training, I felt energized and excited to get back to site to get to work.

            After enjoying the rare chance to video Skype with Brad and a Sunday full of baseball between my community and Bahia Honda, a community on a neighboring island, I went to work at Kim’s site. Both Eric and Ben from my training group, Group 69 Environmental Health, joined Kim and me in San Cristobal to investigate her aqueduct. Accompanied by four community members, we hiked to the spring source. First, we discovered that something (What? We don’t know…) is growing rapidly in the catchment tank. Second, fist-sized holes have formed in the catchment tank but had gone unnoticed because of the mud and debris surrounding it. I have to admit we are still troubleshooting all the possible issues with the water system, but I’m hoping that we’ve made it clear that poking random holes into the pipe is bad. Yes, they may have issues with trapped air, but they clearly don’t need holes that now have nice fountains squirting out of them. You know, just a thought. We also began surveying the mainline of the aqueduct with a water level. Unfortunately, the water level can only measure 15 m at a time, so for a system that is about 1.5 km, you can understand it may seem a little tedious. Plus, the community members probably now think all gringos, including their Volunteers, are crazy. On one occasion, I actually had to be pulled out of (or what I would consider to be rescued from) thigh-high mud. I’m sure I’ve never looked and smelled so lovely in all my life. Oh, and Ben took a video of it. Overall, the surveying was a good experience of working directly with the community and its water committee. Last week Kim and I finished the survey with a few community members and I hope that in the next week I can report back saying that I have written up an informe (one-page description of suggested improvements).

            After working in Kim’s site, Ben made a little visit to my site. He recorded a video of Hipolito (or Poli), my counterpart, describing a composting latrine. I loved watching Poli advertise the composting latrine as if he were trying to sell it. He would make such a good Peace Corps Volunteer! I don’t know what sparked the sudden movement, but that following Monday Poli and I began working on the half-finished latrines. Using the damaged, or let’s say less than perfect, cement, Poli and I attached toilet seats to the base, sealed concrete doors to the base, and built the frame of the casita (the privacy structure on the composting latrine).  Other odds and ends involved installing the urine diversion tubes and collecting several sacks worth of dried grass to line the base of the latrine. Poli really enjoys making jokes about putting the grass there so that the poop doesn’t plop down and stick to the concrete base. Gotta love campo-style potty humor!

            I need to jump back in time a little bit to say that while I was at IST, Ministerio de Salud (MINSA) came to my community and talked with some of the community leaders about dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases. The result was a push to clean up the trash in the community that often pool water and become mosquito breeding grounds. So, Sunday April 7 I was picking up candy wrappers, tin cans, bottle caps, and more candy wrappers. I made the mere suggestion that we have a trash collection competition amongst the youth for a prize, and a few signs and prizes later, we had 25 kids collecting mountains of trash from all over the community. Seeing the success of the competition, Rogelio, a community leader and my first host dad, wanted to reward the kids with more prizes. The following Monday he went to Bocas with two letters, one in Spanish written by the Kindergarten teacher and one in English written by yours truly. He took these letters to various businesses, restaurants, and hotels to ask for a few dollars of support. He received about $10 in total and couldn’t have been happier with himself. Additionally, some people gave him their phone numbers for me to contact them. As a result, that Thursday three Canadians came to visit Valle Escondido. I played the role of tour guide, but luckily they just wanted to see how the community lives and to take pictures.

            I should also mention that the previous night the Artesanas (artisan group) met for the first time in three or so years. The Artesanas have decided to use the $60 that I got as a Volunteer Advisory Council (VAC) Grant to buy cacao from neighbors. The, the group toasts and grinds the cacao. From this ground cacao, the women form 4 oz (or there about) balls of cacao. Ultimately, these cacao balls are sold on Isla Colon for $1, so slowly but surely we are collecting money to buy poplin to make naguas. I hope to talk about the Artesanas more in a later blog because a lot of artisan training opportunities have recently developed.

            Back to the afternoon that the tourists left, I left with them and took the direct overnight bus from Almirante to Panama City. This visit to the city was for Training of Trainers (TOT). Sounds silly doesn’t it? Regardless, I am very excited to help train the incoming Group 71 Environmental Health Volunteers. Funny thing about this trip, afterwards I realized that Panama has changed me…I can’t even live in air conditioning. The overnight buses are notoriously cold, so I simply froze. I arrived in Panama City at about 5 am and hung around the terminal until 7 am when I took another bus headed in the direction of the Peace Corps Office.

            Probably only my dad and those who know my dad’s sense of direction can appreciate this story as pure evidence that I am his daughter, but I can say that I got on one of the right buses. The bus said “Gamboa,” as in Gamboa Rainforest, and this bus would pass the Peace Corps Office en route. Unfortunately, I learned that Gamboa is an hour away from the city. Standing in a packed school bus I couldn’t see out the windows as we passed the offices and continued on for another 40 minutes before turning around. I like to look at this little adventure as a nice tourist visit to Gamboa. From what I saw it looked quite beautiful! Plus, I still made it to my meeting at 9 am.

            Overall, life is just wonderful and in the next blog entry I’ll talk more about my most recent adventures.

Birthday Bocas-Style!

            I turned 24 on March 16…and I had just gotten used to saying I was 23. My original plan was to be out of site in Panama City for a medical appointment before going to Farallon in Cocle for Group 69’s In-Service Training (IST). So, I hadn’t told many people in my community about my birthday. But, because of continued protests, the same ones that kept me in David for five days with the GAD Camp participants, Peace Corps told me that I should not leave my site. Let me clarify that we were not supposed to travel on the Interamericana Highway, but luckily, roadblocks can’t stop the boat that goes from my community to Bocas. J

            Kim, my closest PCV, and I celebrated my birthday on Bocas with the owners of Lula’s B&B, who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. In short, the day was very relaxing. I talked with Brad and my parents, and of course, I used internet to my heart’s content. For dinner we went to a restaurant that was hosting an event to promote awareness of lionfish, or rather awareness that you can eat lionfish. Throughout the Caribbean, the Bocas waters included, lionfish are a poisonous invasive species, but apparently they also make a nice ceviche.

            I had debated and debated with myself about how I should go about sharing my birthday with my community. I worried about too many people showing up and not having enough cake or sweets for them, and I also worried about buying too much and my community thinking that I have an excessive amount of money. In the end, right before leaving Isla Colon for my community, I bought the largest cake that the bakery had. I’d recommend looking at my Facebook photo album so you can decide for yourself how many people this cake should have served. For a Ngabe community they take dividing treats seriously. Mainly, I informed my host families and a few of my closer friends from the community that night that I was celebrating my birthday with cake. I would say that at least 30 people, including children, arrived at my house, and then we even sent out several plates of cake to other families. It worked out perfectly as a mini-surprise for them. You may even call it a reverse surprise birthday party. Whatever you call it, the celebration was perfect.

I should say that before any cake was even cut, everyone was given the opportunity to say a little word. Many stepped forward with well wishes and blessings. And, each person gave me a hug. How much better can it get? Well, the Panamanian tradition is to smear icing from the cake on the face of the birthday boy or girl. Knowing this tradition might happen, I nipped it in the bud. Knowing the very chistoso (funny, joking) nature of my counterpart, I eyed him the entire time they sang “Happy Birthday” in Spanish and then in English. He smiled a mischievous smile (I wish I could have gotten a picture of it) but he held back in the end. Some of you may say, “Oh, that’s no fun,” but seriously I just wanted to eat some icing. Basically, I was happy to not have a cake and icing facial. In the end, I was very happy that I let one of my host sisters take over the camera, because the resulting photos are priceless. I’ll certainly cherish the silly photos of kids stuffing their faces with cake.

Then, the following night I showed “Happy Feet 2” on my laptop, so I had another 15-20 people in my house. In short, I just had a wonderful weekend with my community.

Mamá y Papá en Bocas

Just like the last blog post, this one is long overdue, because my parents visited in February. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for a better visit. Between beach time and community time, I introduced my parents to Bocas del Toro, the tropical paradise that plays host both to tourists and indigenous alike. Just to remind you, my Peace Corps site is about a 20-minute boat ride to Bocas del Toro, the town, on Isla Colon. This small city is the main hub for the second largest tourist destination in Panama, the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. Did I win the Peace Corps lottery, or what?

            For the first time since arriving at my site in October, I was a tourist in Bocas del Toro. Up until my parents’ arrival, my sole purpose to go to Bocas was to use internet, charge every battery that I own, and to shop for groceries. Unfortunately for my parents, I could only recommend the $2.50 cheap eats, but also fortunately for my parents a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) had recommended that they stay in Lula’s B&B. With the owners’ help, I can now be an excellent tour guide in Bocas. Hint, hint to all my family and friends…Visits are welcome!

            I just want to a give a brief overview of their visit and the wonderful experiences we had inside and outside of my community. Isla Colon has two beaches to offer within a bike or bus ride, while all other beaches require a boat ride to another island. So, our first stops included Playa Bluff (Bluff Beach) by bike and Playa Estrella (Starfish Beach) by bus. Playa Bluff is much quieter and the bike ride is fairly easy, minus the sand beach part of the trail. But who can complain when you sit down to a delicious fish sandwich after an hour bike ride? Then, Playa Estrella will forever live in infamy for my dad. Only he would be able to sit down at a table on a Panamanian beach and find a Spaniard that could talk about his beloved Benavente, a small town that has a Purina mill where my dad worked in the ’70s. On the other hand, I think my mom and I appreciated the crystal clear water through which you could numerous large starfish. So they weren’t kidding when they named the beach!

            Probably my favorite day of the trip was brining my parents to my community, Valle Escondido, for the first time. We visited several families, and a few of the women showed my parents how they were making the traditional Ngabe bags (what my community calls mochilas, but the Comarca calls chacras). Another woman showed them how they moler (spin the fibers into threads) the natural fiber that comes from kiga (I have no idea what the translation could be from Ngabe to English) in their fincas (farm land). We also climbed the hill to have one of the best views of the community, the Caribbean, and Bocas in the distance. The day culminated in a community-wide meeting to introduce my parents. As is necessary in an Ngabe meeting, we did some dinamicas (the energizing icebreaker activities I’ve talked about previously). And, each person in attendance had the option to say a few words to my parents while I translated for my mom. They’re words were heartwarming as they reassured my parents that the community was looking out for me and as they wished my parents safe travels. At the same time, they told my parents they should stay here in Valle Escondido forever as well. One of the elder leaders, Charlie, who feels more comfortable speaking in Ngabere, got up and announced that even though he felt nervous he wanted to give my parents his well wishes.

            Returning to Bocas, we also visited some of the beaches that required boat transfer. Wizard Beach on Isla Bastimentos is known for its surf, but I loved it for the fact that even during the high season we had this white sand beach practically to ourselves. Additionally, we went on a daylong tour with a boat driver from my community. First, we stopped at Dolphin Bay, where we did not see dolphins. Instead, we saw dolphins on our way to the next stop, Cayo Coral (Coral Caye). This was our snorkeling spot. While very shallow, this area had many brightly colored fish and because of the shallow waters, the coral showed its vibrant colors. After lunch we continued on to Cayo Zapatillas, which consists of two very small islands that are halfway between Bocas and Peninsula Valiente, on which many PCVs live. One side of Zapatillas faces the open sea, while the other faces the more protected waters within the archipelago. Unfortunately, the open sea had brought in trash from everywhere to Zapatillas. I don’t know if we caught it on a bad day, or what happened, because every Panamanian says it’s the most beautiful beach in the Bocas area. Plus, each visitor has to pay $5 at least to just step foot on the islands because it is protected by Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM). I guess I will have to give it another chance.

            My parents visited my site two more times and I put them to work. On the first of the two visits my dad and I accompanied the Water Operator, my first host dad, Rogelio, to the water source. The water source consists of three springs that have a few rocks around them to pool the water and a pipe sticking into that pool of water. Each spring is simply covered by banana leaves. Let’s just say that it could be better protected, especially because when it rains heavily for a few days a lot of sediment enters the aqueduct such that the water coming out of my tap has a high turbidity with an opaque yellow color. Mainly, my dad wanted to check it out because he will be coming back with three students from the University of Nevada-Reno and my uncle at the end of May to survey the water system. As a side note, they will also be constructing a composting latrine.

For my parents’ third and final visit to my site, we started constructing a composting latrine. Using some of the materials left over from the previous Volunteers’ composting latrine work, we laid the bottom layer of the box-like base. I certainly gained a re-newed respect for the physical strength of both the men and women of my community when I realize I can only carry a half-full cubo (5 gallon bucket) of water, sand, rocks, or cement. My counterpart, on the other hand, is approximately 5 feet tall and maybe 110 pounds, but his physical strength astounds me. If nothing else, I now know that I serve as a better weight to stabilize wood while someone is sawing through it. When my counterpart stands on the wood to stabilize it, he jokes that he is using his “toilet paper-like” weight.

Overall, I just can’t express enough how good it felt to see my parents. I could go on for ages about the excellent meals we had in Bocas, but I’m sure a conversation with my mom or dad would do it better justice. Otherwise, do I need to mention anything more than fresh seafood and waterfront dining? I also do not want to underplay how great Lula’s B&B was. Interestingly enough, at the hotel we met the man who started Spill the Beans, a coffee and ice cream shop in Clemson and Greenville, SC, both of which I had visited with Brad. Those six months was the longest period I had gone without seeing them. To sum everything up, my community loved meeting my parents. Despite being the third PCV in Valle Escondido, I was the first to bring her parents to the community. My community shared in my excitement, and now they always ask me, “When are your parents coming back?”

Ok, so maybe that wasn’t such a “brief” overview as I had hoped, but I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it was a decent marketing pitch for a visit to Bocas within the next year and a half.

GAD Camp and David

I’ve been meaning to write about my Gender and Development (GAD) Camp experience for now two months. My apologies for the delay! GAD Camp was a weeklong seminar for junior high and high school students from Peace Corps communities. The camp has grown so much that coordinators divided Panama into two regions for two camps, East and West. My GAD Camp, West GAD Camp, hosted the regions of Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, and the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle. We had 53 teenagers and about 10 or so Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in San Felix for the week.

            For most, this trip to San Felix, which is just an hour and half from David and approximately 7 hours from my community (if every transportation connection goes your way), was the farthest they had been away from home. And, for one girl who lives on Bastimentos Island in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago, this was her first experience riding in a bus. Simply put, this camp was a huge adventure that meant a great deal to both the participants and the communities from which they came.

            The key purpose of the camp is develop young leaders within Peace Corps communities. So, the camp followed a program that started with the participants thinking about their auto-imagen (self-image), or who they saw themselves as. Then, the second subject was auto-estima (self-esteem), and the PCVs presented skits to show how others can both positively and negatively affect one’s self-esteem. Afterwards, the participants evaluated their valores (values) to understand what they viewed as important to them. The fourth subject was establecer las metas (establishing goals) and built upon the previous theme by using the participants’ values as a foundation and reasoning for their goals. At the same time, the teenagers thought of different professions they want to be. Next, the PCVs introduced pensando en el futuro (thinking about the future), and for many they may only see their boyfriend and family as their future. Like many sex ed classes in the States, the camp provided an imitation baby, and in our case an egg. Each teen colored an egg and glued on yarn for hair, and each had the responsibility of guarding their egg as if it were a baby. Let’s just say that many “babies” were cracked or stolen by PCVs if left unguarded. During this activity we also presented toma de decisions (making decisions) with a tool that will allow the participants to weigh their options in the future. Then, the seventh theme was conocer mi cuerpo (know my body), because many of these junior high and high schoolers lack the education to know what is going on in their bodies as they go through puberty. With a better understanding, the hope is that they will be able to control their decisions. Finally, como protegerme (how to protect myself) ended the camp with an explanation of how to protect themselves from STDs and how to avoid pregnancy.

             While these subjects were the important take-home messages, we also had down time for movies, runs to the tienda (store), introductory computer classes, and a half-day of sports competitions. Quite frankly, seeing the difference in levels of education between the Chiriqui participants (manily Latino) and the Bocas and Comarca participants (mainly Ngabe) was a bit disheartening, but seeing the mixing and sharing of knowledge and culture was reassuring. And, ultimately, the participants were given the assignment to carry out a project within their community. Previous example had included trash collection days, general community cleaning projects, youth artisan classes, sports clubs, and reforestation projects. Nicely put by the GAD Coordinator, “The goal of the camp is to offer the youth knowledge and skills to help them make healthy life choices and for them to share their knowledge and experience upon return to the community via the implementation of a community project!”

            So, the week of camp was great, grand, and wonderful. Then, Thursday night arrived, and protests in San Felix along the Interamericana Highway threatened our departure. To fully understand the situation, I would recommend looking at Regional Leader Ian’s blog ("Protest II") at this link: http://lirobbins.blogspot.com/2012/02/protests-ii.html He does a great job of explaining the political situation that has led to Ngabe communities protesting foreign mining in the Comarca.

            Midday Friday, we got the news that we should leave San Felix, where the protests started, and head to David. We essentially walked through three roadblocks, and with the help of other PCVs along the Interamericana, we transported the westward participants by bus between each roadblock (as some regional transportation buses had gotten trapped between the roadblocks as well). By Friday evening the Chiriqui teens were in their homes while the Bocas and some Comarca participants landed in hotels or hostels with their PCV chaperones. So, this is when I would say that GAD Camp Part 2 began. Upon hearing that they would not be going home, some girls cried, but upon stepping foot into the hotel, one girl said she wanted to live there for three years. GAD Camp Part 2 taught me how to feed 13 Ngabe teenagers and 3 PCVs with $6.50/person/day while living in a hotel without a kitchen and how to entertain the participants for five days. As a group we went to a movie, played soccer on a nearby field, made beaded bracelets, and played cards and dominoes. Because we were in the Standfast Phase of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP), other Volunteers were also stuck in the city, so we were lucky to recruit new help. While the five days were a bit of a test in patience, I appreciated the learning experience and the resulting friendships. In the end, the five day experience in the city set another goal for the participants as well, so I would always say, “You can always attend college in David.”

            To conclude this post, I want to say that I’ve been very proud of the two girls I took. A month after we returned, the three of us plus last year’s participant hosted a community-wide meeting to share what they had learned. Essentially, we went through the eight subjects presented at the seminar and sprinkled in dinamicas (energizing activities that are similar to icebreakers). The meeting was a huge success, and at the end they proposed their plan for a trash collection project. Since then, I have asked Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM) to donate trash bins, and the three teens have participated in the Saturday workdays. Couldn’t be happier with the results of GAD Camp 2012!

To check out a video of the camp created by PCV Matt Tansey (he did a great job!), click on the following link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFEYRI61Gbs&feature=share

Navidad and My House :)

Currently I am stuck in David under the Standfast Phase because of protests blocking the Pan-American Highway, the only and therefore most important highway in Panama. In other words, I have plenty of time to catch up on my blog, so a month and a half late, I am going to write a bit about Christmas, my new house, and Gender And Development (GAD) Camp. I should also forewarn you that my “s” and “3” buttons no longer work, so I am currently copy and pasting each s and 3. You don’t realize how many plural words you use until you are missing an s. So, please pardon any misspellings.

I’ll be honest and say that Christmas was one of my lower points here in Panama. I can only say that spending the holidays away from family and friends confirmed my love and appreciation for family in my life. I was very homesick, and really only wanted to be at home visiting with all of my extended family and friends. I also wanted to hear Graeme, my nephew, singing Christmas carols in person rather than over the phone.

Finally at 9 pm on Christmas Eve, the church service began.  The service was nice. It was their typical three-hour long service with a few Christmas songs in both Spanish and Ngabere. To the delight of many children, or at least the ones that hadn’t fallen asleep by midnight, Santa arrived after the service finished. Santa was my 16-year-old host brother, Roger, dressed in a red pants, a red sweatshirt stuffed with a pillow, white socks to cover his hands, and a white cloth to cover his face and to create a beard. Santa handed out some presents, but only to kids whose parents had purchased the gift in advance. No freebies here.  Afterwards, we exchanged Secret Santa gifts. The trick was that you had to guess who gave it to you by the description that the crowd gave you. Luckily, I went next to last and my host sister, Armani, had my name, so I didn’t have to worry about knowing the person’s name. That could have been embarrassing. At about 2 am we ate a very delicious soup of bananas, yucca, and other root vegetables. Finally, we went to sleep and I felt content and uplifted after seeing the community celebrate together in the church.

The following morning, Christmas morning, hosted another three-hour service. The specialty of the day was eating fish with bread, which they call Johnny cakes. This bread is amazing because it incorporates coconut milk. They are essentially round, but flat rolls that are baked in what we call a “doble paila,” a big, covered pot with a fire burning on top and below it. On the whole, Christmas was a good day to experience the culture, but I couldn’t help but miss my family and friends back home. You should look at the pictures I posted on Facebook. Let me know how they match up with the description I just gave.

Following my New Year’s Eve adventures I spent 10 wonderful days with my second host family. This family is the most forward-thinking family in Valle Escondido, in the sense that their son is the only community member attending college and they plan to send their youngest daughter to live with the oldest daughter in order to attend the last three years of high school. I also enjoyed playing with the two-month old grandson, David. Another major factor in my happiness there was being fed regularly, because in my previous host family, meals were sporadic on an unpredictable schedule or simply skipped. Simply put, I had a wonderful time with this host family, and I especially enjoyed the conversations with the family and the many visitors that would stop by.

After 10 days I moved into my beautiful, beautiful house. Some may call my house a hut, but I consider it a very beautiful wooden house on stilts with a corrugated metal roof. Moving into your own house and out of a host family is unbelievably amazing and rewarding. While I enjoyed my time with host families, five months with host families is a long time. Additionally, being able to cook for yourself makes a huge difference for a Peace Corps Volunteer. I can now eat as many vegetables (especially non-root, non-starchy vegetables) as I want, and it is glorious! Furthermore, I have many visitors stopping by just to say hi and to see the many pictures of family and friends on my wall. They often ask me if my nephew is my “chichi,” or my baby. Then, I get to explain that I am waiting to have children. But, my three-year-old friend, Chela, tells me daily that I should go to the big island to “comprar un chichi,” or buy a baby, so that it can “tomar mi chuchu,” or drink my breastmilk. Gotta love three-year-olds. J So, I had another funny experience when I was showing a few girls the photos I had recently printed. They brought along their little two-year-old sister as well. Cutting to the chase, the little girl pooped on my floor. While we weren’t paying attention, she pooped in her underpants and because she wasn’t wearing any pants, the pooped just plopped out onto the floor. On the bright side, I view this experience as a validation of my service, especially the latrine project I’m working on.  

Wow! I’ve written a lot so I’ll save my description of GAD Camp and road blocks for another blog post.

Saying “Sí” to Things You Just Didn’t Quite Catch the Whole Meaning of in Spanish

            So in the past few weeks I have been working at integrating myself into the community, which means I’ve been trying to get involved in a lot of community events. December was cholk-full of various events and holidays. December 8 was Mother’s Day. December 14 was the sixth grade graduation, what they call their “despedida”, in Valle Escondido. December 15, I was invited to a despedida for a community member’s first grader in Bocas, the tourist town. December 17 was the high school graduation in San Cristobal, the community that is a 45-min to hour hike (depending upon the amount of rain that has fallen recently, which corresponds to how deep your boots sink into the mud along the path). December 21 was the Kindergarten graduation in San Cristobal, which my community attended because Valle Escondido children danced in their polleras and guayaveras as part of the celebration. December 23, I was invited to “pasear,” or take a trip to visit another community called Aguacate. Finally, December 24 and 25 brought the Christmas celebrations. Now that you know what my schedule was in December, such that it looks like I was fairly busy, I can say that I said “yes” to a lot of things this month, whether I understood the situation entirely or not. Sometimes this tendency put me in an embarrassing position and other times I truly lucked out with a great experience.

            Exhibit A: High School Graduation

            From Valle Escondido, two men were graduating from the Panamanian equivalent of 9^th grade (or what they call 3^rd year) and another was graduating from 12^th grade (or what they call 6^th year). For the past few years these men have been attending night school in San Cristobal to work towards a high school degree. In other words, this day is a big moment for them, thus I am, of course, invited to take pictures of the entire event. I gladly accept well in advance.

Confusion comes about only a bit when I don’t know how I’m going to get to San Cristobal. On foot involves a muddy hike, but boat involves, well, someone else’s boat. Luckily, I hitch a ride with one of the men graduating from 3^rd year. I show up and am very excited to see my neighbor PCV, Kim. We make our way to the school for the graduation, and I am eagerly greeted by the mother of the man graduating from 6^th year. She had been worried that I wouldn’t be coming, because earlier that morning her son had come by my host family’s house to pick me up on his way to San Cristobal. My host family said I was still asleep, but really I was just getting ready in my room. Anyway, the graduate’s mom eventually asks me about being “madrina,” or godmother, as if I should be prepared with something. Godmother for a graduate involves getting a gift…I did not have a gift. I showed up empty handed. I wracked my brain searching for the moment that I said yes to being a madrina for this graduate. I’m still searching for it, because I think I misinterpreted a conversation involving “madrina” and a small child that was present. Thinking he was talking about this child’s madrina, I had noooo clue that I was saying yes to being a madrina for him at his high school graduation.

Embarrassed and feeling horrible, I took as many pictures as I could and apologized profusely. They reassured me that it was ok. I told him that I owed him. So, on my next trip to Bocas, I came back with a very nice shirt for him, which my host family told me was a great gift. You’d think that I would have learned my lesson about saying yes to something that I don’t understand 100%, but I didn’t…

            Exhibit B: Kindergarten Graduation

            Leaving Bocas one night to return to my community, our boat is stopped by another boat near the dock. The other boat pulls up along side of the Valle Escondido boat. The other boat happens to be a San Cristobal boat, and the driver leans over to me and asks me to be the madrina of his child for the Kindergarten graduation, on December 21. I had met this man once before when I was visiting Kim in San Cristobal. Kim said he was a good man, and it’s good to note that it’s always useful to have a boat driver’s phone number in your cell phone. Sitting in the boat, I was a bit confused, but I agreed, knowing that I was planning to attend regardless to take pictures. I enjoyed the drive by request for a madrina.

            This time, I knew I was madrina, but for whom? I had never met his children, and a few words were lost among the waves. This was going to make picking out a gift a little more difficult. Boy? Girl? 50/50 chance… It was time for a little investigation, because Kim didn’t know if his Kindergartener was a boy or girl either. First, I tried asking other Kindergarteners. They were no help. They don’t know the name of the parents of their classmates. So, we asked some of the women in the community. They didn’t really know either. Finally, we went to the woman making the cap and gowns that the Kindergarteners wore for graduation. She explained that boys had madrinas and girls had padrinos, or godfathers. Ok, great. It’s a boy! What’s his name? Adrian. Mission accomplished.

            I may not have known all the details initially, but slowly but surely I was able to piece things together. I had a great day as madrina, and this time I was ready with a fun airplane and GI Joe as a gift for my godson. While Adrian was a very quiet boy, the best part was his smile and his thank you at the end of the day for the gift. Plus, just watching a bunch of 5 year olds parade around in cap and gown is worth a bit of initial confusion.

            I should also mention that I was very happy to be taking photos of my community’s dance group. Check the photos out on Facebook. J

            Exhibit C: Visit to Aguacate

            Let’s just say I didn’t know I was going to Aguacate until I was on my way to Aguacate. The day before Christmas Eve, I woke up in the morning and walked into the kitchen, which is a separate structure in my host family’s house, to see if anything was going on. Well, anyone walking by can see into this kitchen, so my neighbor asks me if I want to pasear today. Still kind of asleep and in my pajamas, I am a bit confused. She mentions something about aguacate, which means avocado in English. She asks, “Conoces Aguacate?” “Do you know Aguacate?” or “Are you familiar with Aguacate?” (Or, at least that’s how I translated that in my mind.) I thought, “Yes, I love avocado.” Other bits of the conversation included a request for me to take photos and to come to the dock between noon and 1 pm. I’m thinking, “Great! I’ll take some pictures. Maybe she’s coming back with some awesome avocado that she wants pictures of.” (Wouldn’t put it past them. I’ve taken pictures of pigs, squash, dogs, parrots, and chickens for people.)

            I went on with my plans for the day. I was going to help clean the church with my host mom in preparation for Christmas services. Then, at 1 pm, Edvin comes up to the church and says Angelina, my neighbor, is ready to go. I had forgotten, but I quickly changed because as I walked back Angelina asked me if I was ready to leave. So, I thought, “Ok, I guess we are going to Almirante, one of the bigger cities that people often go to with produce.” I ask Edvin, “When will we be back?” “Late,” he says. Where are we going??? Almirante is relatively close. We are going to Aguacate, a community located on the other side of the Bocas del Toro Archipelago.

            I climbed into a small boat, borrowed from the American that Angelina works for. Camera in my purse, I am ready to take pictures. I’m ready for an adventure. We passed this island and that island. We passed many houses that had their own island. We got drenched from sudden rains. Multiple times. (I had not come prepared with my rain jacket or umbrella, unfortunately.) We passed the major communities along the islands. We passed many men and boys fishing. We even saw a dolphin as we sped across the water.

            The trip was great. It was a wonderful adventure to be seeing Bocas by boat, but why was I on this trip? Who were we seeing? Slowly I got the entire story that my neighbor had a daughter in Aguacate living with her paternal grandmother. This daughter was half black and half Ngabe, and my neighbor hadn’t seen her daughter in a year or two at least. Nicole, the daughter, was now three, going on four, and we were delivering Christmas presents. My role was photographer. Despite having nooo clue what was going on until the last moment, I was extremely happy to be able to take this beautiful boat ride to capture moments that are clearly very important to members of my community. Her daughter has beautiful dark brown eyes with the same smooth straight black hair as any Ngabe. Opening her toys, Nicole was happy to be playing with new dolls, and when asked which she liked more, she responded that she liked all of them. When asked if she loves her mom, she said, “Yes.” When asked if she loves her grandmother, she said, “Yes. Both.” She was adorable, and I’m glad I said yes to the invitation.

            Well, that was a long one, and I’m still hoping to put up a blog about Christmas in site soon. Hope you enjoyed it!