Biggest Success to Date!

            GAD Camp…I’ve been talking about GAD Camp non-stop since November 2012. GAD stands for Gender and Development and is an organization, composed of and run by current Peace Corps Volunteers. Its mission is to educate and promote women's rights and the awareness of gender issues among the women, men, and youth of Panama through training, conferences and workshops. The group also focuses on educating Panamanians on health and social problems that touch men, women and families. And, GAD Camp plays a major role in GAD’s work in Panama.

            One objective of the camp is to provide the students with the knowledge and tools needed for the development of future leaders. Students will learn about self-esteem, goal setting, decision-making, conflict resolution, and project design and management, often using well-known Peace Corps Panama tools like "EMART" and "POCA". The planning and development of a project to be carried out in their communities will further enhance the participants’ leadership skills. Another key objective is to teach sexual education in a manner that highlights family planning, HIV/AIDS, and sexual health. In the end, the hope is that the students will be able to utilize their decision-making tools to make healthy decisions as it relates to their sexual health and future.

            Back at the end of November I found out that my community’s youth applicants were not accepted to the January conference in San Felix. In response, I immediately began to plan a second GAD Camp West (two already existed in the country, but this would be the second western regional GAD Camp for 2013). My determination did not wane and I submitted a Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) proposal with Jacy Woodruff, whose site would host the weeklong camp.

            In April we hosted a Training of Trainers (TOT) for the facilitators in Jacy’s site, Quebrada el Bajo, during which we discussed all the material to be covered during the camp. My mind also raced through all the possible scenarios of disasters and accidents that could happen. My mind continued to race as I thought of the appropriate and reasonably feasible responses to said mishaps, considering we were hosting almost 35 students from other communities in Bocas del Toro, the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle, Veraguas, and Chiriqui in a community located 20 minutes up a river by boat from the nearest “town,” 45 minutes from the nearest hospital, and over 3 hours from the nearest decent hospital. I should say that, despite all my worries, I think my first-aid kit was only touched by a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who was not used to Bocas food or water.

            Once we discovered that the kids desperately wanted to shower (or rather bath in the river) in both the morning and evening and that they needed to do so in order to even begin thinking about enjoying the conference, everything in the conference went well. Despite only having one urinal and one flush toilet, that clogged one morning forcing Jacy to purchase a plunger in the nearest town, Chiriqui Grande, the sanitation system went fairly smoothly. Meanwhile, the PCVs happily used her composting latrine. Sleeping in the school on thin foam mats posed no problem. And, no one complained about the food, as often these participants would consider themselves lucky to be eating three whole meals daily. I cannot speak highly enough about the PCVs that helped make the camp the fun and energetic conference that it developed into. The student groups enjoyed a photo scavenger hunt, water balloon fight, and relay races during the Olympics. The final evening saw some brave participants share their gifts in the talent show. 

            In the end, 44 youth participants, ranging in ages from 12 to 18, were educated in self-esteem, self-image, values assessment, realistic goal-setting, personal development, along with HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy awareness. Finally, the participants divided into groups according to their communities and formulated a plan to execute a community project. In Quebrada el Guabo, Sarah’s community along the Changuinola River in Bocas del Toro, the participants have decided to start a school garden. In time, they are hoping to sell the products to fund various student activities. On Isla San Cristobal, the participants from my community, Valle Escondido, and San Cristobal have already reenacted the self-esteem and self-image presentations given at the camp. This weekend we will be deciding on an August date to visit the San Cristobal middle school in order to cover the remaining topics related to sexual health.

            For the many PCVs never hear “thank you” from community members, I want to share a Facebook message (yes, a Facebook message). During the camp we not able to cover the internet objective of visiting an internet cafe, so I taught one of my youth participants how to open both Gmail and Facebook accounts afterwards. The youth participant, Luis, had wanted to open a Facebook account for many months, and upon returning to internet on his own he wrote this message to me:

“Quiero darte las grasias por dame la oportunidad da participar en la conferencia. Te aseguro que voy a luchar por lograr lo que quiera. Fue impresionante. Nunca lo olvidaré. Gracias por pensar en mi futuro. Dios te bendiga.”

This Facebook post translates to:

“I want to give you thanks for giving me the opportunity to participate in the conference. I assure you that I will fight to achieve what I want. It was impressive. I will never forget it. Thank you for thinking of my future. May God bless you.”

            I want to give one final shout-out to everyone that made this camp financially possible. Thank you for contributing to the PCPP! The kids learned a lot and had a lot of fun in the meantime. Finally, thank you to Hostel Heike in Bocas del Toro for funding the t-shirts that we gave to the kids. It all meant a lot!

Partying with the Parents in Panama

            It's been far too long... The title might be a little misleading, because I consider "partying" now to be enjoying the comfortable life, such as good food, a nice bed, and few extra touristy destinations. This past April was dominated by a whirlwind road trip of Panama with my parents. Starting in Panama City, we both cruised through the locks of the Panama Canal and watched other boats cruise across the Canal from the Panama Canal Museum. Most people would only do one, but then again they probably were not traveling with two civil engineers and one very obliging wife and mother. After a few nights in Casco Viejo, the old part of Panama City with the colonial architecture, my parents and I rented a car and headed toward the Azuero Peninsula, the heartland of traditional Panamanian culture. En route, we stopped in La Pintada, Cocle, where rolling cigars and weaving sombreros pintados (painted hats) are good sources of income. We visited Joyas de Panama and learned about the cigar making process, and we learned about the variations in quality and designs of sombreros pintados from a local artisan. One hat had a price tag of $300, and supposedly the finely woven hats can be flipped over and will hold water.

Arriving late at night in El Puerto in the province of Los Santos near Guarare, we found a gem at the Casa del Puerto. The owner, Bonnie, is an Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) from the late 60’s who worked in the neighboring town with the artisans. She has now returned to the area where she runs a hotel and leads personal tours to homes of pollera artisans, some of the same women she worked with some 40 years ago. The pollera is the traditional dress of Panama for big cultural celebrations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollera).

After extending our visit to El Puerto for an extra night, we loaded up the car and headed on to Boquete. Now, a very, very popular town for tourists and retired ex-pats, Boquete is a town with a cooler climate, set among the mountains of Chiriqui, the main food-producing region of Panama. Among the highlands of Chiriqui, many coffee farms produce high quality coffee beans. As I sit here writing this in my hut, I ‘m enjoying the coffee given to us at the end of our tour at Casa Ruiz.

After Boquete, we had a small adventure taking a “shortcut” across the mountains, or rather the continental divide of Panama, to the province of Bocas del Toro. Dropping the car off in Changuinola, we arrived in Bocas in the early evening, and the moment we stepped back in Bocas Town on Isla Colon I felt as if I were home again (despite the impressive amount of tourists that walk the streets daily). The tour of Panama, while only skimming the surface, still showed the great diversity of Panama and its various cultures. Having visited all the key beaches last year with my parents, we opted to enjoy one day of walking around, one day in my site, and one day at the Örebä Chocolate Tour. Again, my community loved seeing my parents and as my dad’s fourth visit, he had an extremely hard time saying goodbye. In the end, he admitted that he hoped to return yet.

What a Great Start to 2013: University of Nevada-Reno in Valle Escondido

Wow, it's been a while...As every Peace Corps Panama Volunteer knows, November and December bring holiday after holiday, and in Panama, or at least in our communities, the holidays last for more than just one day and the extended holidays mean little to no work is going to get done. For Valle Escondido, composting latrine construction had been put completely on hold. The community needed a jump-start.

            Last May a group of Hydrogeology graduate students from the University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) came to Valle Escondido as a service trip for their student group, Student Association for International Water Issues (SAIWI). The group, which I knew through a classmate at Notre Dame, had a wonderful time working with the community learning about life as a Peace Corps Volunteer and life in general in the developing world. The three students enjoyed the experience so much that they recommended a second group to come back during their Winter Break. From the same student organization came three more students interested in water resources and public health protection. Having fundraised the previous year to pay for flights and materials, the group arrived eager to work, to build two composting latrines, and to learn about Valle Escondido.

            Frankly, I started out worried because I had just arrived back at my site after a trip home to the States for Christmas and because New Year’s festivities in my site seemed to still be going strong three days later. I didn’t know if I would have gasoline, let alone a boat and boat driver, available to go pick up materials on Isla Colon, where the group was waiting for me. Luckily, in the late afternoon the tienda owner, Renato, was able to pick up more gasoline and transport materials back to the community.

            The following day my community had magically recuperated and together with the UNR group we broke ground on the first latrine of the trip. From day one the group worked hard to communicate in Spanish and to build relationships with my community members, and they did so flawlessly. By the third day, we had my counterpart, the obligatory worker on the part of the latrine owner, a third worker found by my counterpart, and three more young men that simply enjoyed working with this UNR group. With each increasing day the community fell more in love with the outgoing, charismatic group. Community members invited us to go swimming in the ocean, to visit their fincas, and to learn about the cacao process.

            Within four days we had the first latrine base built and plastered with the frame of the privacy structure in place. The afternoon of the fourth workday happened to fall on January 7, the day of the College Football National Championship between Alabama and Notre Dame. The entire group went to Isla Colon to watch the game. Although it turned out to be a sad day for Notre Dame fans, I was happy to be able to share the game watch with my dad. After a day of much needed rest for the group in Bocas we quickly started the second latrine. With an excess amount of workers, we divided duties so that some worked on ferrocement toilet seats, some finished another latrine that simply lacked the seats, and some continued working on the principal latrine. I primarily worked with the ferrocement seats and taught the group and community members the details of forming the seat shape, plastering the inside and outside of the seat, and making the urine diversion piece. On the other hand, Poli, my community counterpart, led the construction team at the principal latrine. Each member of the UNR group synched well with the community members and the assigned work. More importantly, younger community members, or the future community leaders, were freely giving their time and simultaneously learning both construction and project management skills.

            Peace Corps has three main goals: (1) to help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women, (2) to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served, and (3) to help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans. This UNR SAIWI group did an impeccable job at achieving Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3. The effort they put into practicing Spanish, getting to know the names of everyone they met, and showing flexibility with food and work schedules demonstrated some of the best qualities Americans can portray here in Panama. My community members felt comfortable talking with each member of the SAIWI group and walked away from the experience with good memories and new friendships. Also walking away with new friendships, the group felt proud what they accomplished while working “shoulder to shoulder” with my community. They took away a better understanding of the developing world, international development work, and the strong sentiments felt by my community for them. The group took pieces of Panamanian and Ngabe culture back with them: photos of dancing tipico, balls of cacao, the traditional woven Ngabe bags (chakra), and memories of all the small children coloring in my house. Finally, the cultural sharing will continue because before leaving I set up e-mail and Facebook for their three closest friends in Valle Escondido.

            In the end, the trip resulted in three fully completed composting latrines, one Tippy-Tap presentation, new friendships, and three community members with Facebook. I’d say it was a pretty successful start to 2013, and I can only hope that the group members might add some of their own stories to my blog…