Friday, April 20, 2012

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

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: