A Day in the Life: April 17, 2014

Today was one of those days that made me realize that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I don’t believe that there are necessarily any wrong or right paths in life. However, I do feel that in all of the forks in the road that I have faced in my life, I made choices that brought me right here. I made decisions that one by one led me to be here and I just know that I am where I am supposed to be. Some days are rough, some days make me want to give up because I feel like I’m not making any progress and “these people” just don´t understand why I´m here, but then, days like this one come along and everything comes together.

I started the morning off by saying goodbye to my wonderful guests. A fellow volunteer who works in an indigenous community came to visit Membrillo to see our recycling project because they want to start their own. I feel like they left inspired and full of fantastic ideas that they can bring back to their community to get started on designing a sustainable trash management project. In addition, I believe that they had a wonderful time in Membrillo and really liked the people and all the artisan work that they do here.

(I am  sitting on a pile of dirt that leaf cutter ants carried out. Unbelieveable! I watched them carry it out one by one. Now that's what I call inspiring and motivating. Hardest workers around.)

It’s wonderful to see how Peace Corps volunteers have inspired Membrillo community members over they years, how these community members now inspire others, and hopefully over the years these newly inspired people will continue to inspire others. Inspiration through actions, example, and education is one of the most important things that we as people have to offer to others. This morning when I reflected on all of this it put me in a great mood and led to a wonderful day! The reflection was quick however because it was time to bake a cake! 

Monday morning the school director invited me to an Easter celebration for all teachers and staff. Every teacher had to bring something. So of course I went with my tried and true grandma's chocolate, cinnamon, berries of the forest marmalade cake. With visitors in my house since Monday I didn't have time to buy ingredients so I quickly ran to the store to get some sugar and flour, then I ran over to some nearby neighbors to borrow a baking pan because my friends never returned mine,  I got home made the batter stuck it in the oven, showered and changed and ran to school to get in on some of the religious celebration of the 14 stations. I then ran home to make sure it hadn’t burned down yet. You’ll be glad to know, not only was my house still standing, but also smelled delicious all the way from the road! I finished the cake with a rich chocolate glaze and ran back to the school. When I walked into the classroom with the cake, these teachers basically cheered. If I haven't mentioned this in previous posts, Panamanians love cakes! And it was one of only two. Most other people brought crackers and things of such. The cake was a big hit, first thing to disappear. People even asked for the recipe and some lessons on how to make a cake! Inspired! Thanks grandma! The party had a large religious  focus since it was an Easter party in a Catholic country it made sense. However I did enjoy how it was spiritually focused in a simple yet interactive way. They had ice breaker type activities, karaoke, and some game where you have to “get low”. the large vice principal went first and man did he shake his booty. I looked away so that they wouldn’t choose me, and of course with my luck out of forty some people I was chosen third. I was bright red, but got some compliments after, haha. Panama. It was a fun event during which the Panamanian teachers treated me as an equal, a big change from last year, one that I’m still getting used to.

After this I went home and relaxed for a bit as a waited for the water to come back on so that I could cleanup the big mess that I had made while speed baking. Soon enough the 9 year old form next door came by. We looked at a book together about insects. Coolest book ever! If I would have had this book as a child I would have studied entomology without a doubt, but my bug collection and insect photograph obsession is where it ended at instead. Probably for the best.

Before I knew it. 4 pm hit and it was time to start “collecting” the kids. Salsa practice was scheduled for 4:30 If I wouldn't go and get them myself they'd arrive at 6. So I grabbed the mattress and baking pan that was borrowed to me and headed out. As I walked to the house to return the things the kids found me instead - made my kid collecting task a lot easier :)  100 feet later and as I arrived to the woman’s house with a gang of about a dozen kids! 

Salsa practice was incredible. It was the third practice for some but the second for most, and they rocked it. They all have the basic step down as well as basic turn, both the boys and the girls. And these boys are actually leading. When I walked them back home, they pretty much danced all the way back. Looks like they’ve caught the salsa bug! For those of you who know how much I love salsa, and understand how disappointed I have been by the fact that nobody in this country dances it, even though they all listen to it, you will understand why I consider this not only to be a successful day but pretty much accomplished one of my life goals. I have inspired kids to want to continue to learn how to dance to the music that they all already love and have all the words memorized to. I was so proud of them that I promised them that when they are all adults, I will come back to Panama and we will all go out salsa dancing together. Since my youngest student is 5, that wont be for another 13 years, but I plan on sticking to my word. The feeling of influencing a child is one of the most empowering feelings in the world. The way that I treat these children, the example that I set, the things that I share with them and teach them will help mold who they become, and it already is. I could see it only after only being here for a year. I hope that I really do influence them in all the best ways, and I hope that I am able to stay a part of their lives because these kids have inspired me even more than I could ever inspire them. 

As we all walk-danced back, we decided together that we wanted to go on a hike to see the new road that they were making in our community to another sector. Up until a week ago there was only a small path through a forested area, now there is a legitimate dirt road. I told the kids that if they get permission from there mom’s we could all go. Lucky us, all the mom’s were together because they were all playing bingo, something they do every evening now.  We were ready to go on our adventure but first I had to take a count. 15! The youngest two were both 2 years old. “Oh my, I’ll be lucky if I come back with 15 whole children” I thought to myself. “But here we go!” What are we going to sing?! I yell. And of course, before I knew it they were all singing “Happy Birthday to you” It was hilarious really. A parade of kids celebrating nobodies birthday. So I suggest an easter song instead and the five year old got super excited and started singing “Quiero ser un nino diferente...” 5 more joined in “un nino diferente” and then we were all singing “un nino diferente”. The song was about how they want to be a different child, one who supports others, does favors, gives warm hugs, and loves others, just as Jesus does. Sometimes when I’m with these kids I honestly have to pause for a moment and  stand still and just take it all in. As these kids marched on singing and skipping I just stood their and smiled as my brain processed how lucky I am and recorded this moment to form it into an ever lasting memory. We continued on marching on down the dirt road singing. I and 15 kids, one in my arm.  We then stopped and played a game that included chasing. Man do these kids know how to cheer their peers on. The rest of the hike was pretty much these kids running up and down the hills of this new road with there arms open as if they were birds and me chasing up and down the same hills with a two year old bouncing up and down in my arms and me telling her that she’s on a horsy. Forget lonely jogs. From now on I should just take these kids on hikes. Leg, arm and even ab workout from all the laughter. We entered back onto the main asphalt road singing and laughing together. A very successful day I’d say. 

Enjoy your Sunday everyone, and Happy Easter to those that celebrate it! I love my friends and family here in Panama but I do wish I was with my family on this holiday full of beautiful traditions. 

2013 Project Wrap-Up

February 20th I hit 1 year in the country, and this April 28th I will have spent one complete year in my community. When I was applying to be a peace corps volunteer I thought that two years was a relatively long time. Taking into consideration the generally slower pace of life in Latin America, I figured it would feel even longer.  Well... I don’t know if it’s just my personality but the time has flown by. Only one year to go and there are still so many things that I want to do and want to learn to do. 

Here are some of the things I’ve been up to last year in addition to teaching at the school and managing and improving the recycling program and planning the big end of the year field trip to the national park. 

After my parents left the country I went straight to a two week training. Its called In Service Training, because it takes place after you’ve been in your site a few months. The training is more specific to the community needs and potential projects that we will be working on. 

We got to make bricks and build eco-stoves. These stoves serve as an alternative to the “fogon”s people use outside of their homes. A “fogon” is usually a few large rocks with some wood underneath and a very large pot on top. These fogons are not very efficient, a lot of heat is lost and so a lot of wood is burned and a lot of smoke created. The eco-stoves address these issues. 

We also saw some great examples of recycled crafts, did some garden work, and worked in the “monte” chopping all the weeds with machetes. My favorite part however was  a muddy hike during a downpour! It was a good 2 weeks, that now seem like a century ago. 

After I got back I started working with a community group on getting a plant nursery started. Surprisingly enough, this group came to me and invited me to their next meeting to talk about the plant nursery because they were so excited to get started. This is something incredibly rare here. I am still working with this wonderful group, however at times they do not do so well with follow through. After sitting down and discussing the objectives of the plant nursery and the desired outcomes we came up with a plan. 

Our first activity was seed collecting. Due to the time of the year we had to collect fruit tree seeds because almost all other trees only produce seeds during April and May. They decided on orange trees because that is what they wanted to reforest with in the community so that the animals could benefit to when they search for food. We went out into the “monte” and drank an excessive amount of orange juice and collected all the seeds. These seeds were then washed, dried, and the thicker skin was peeled off of them to prep them for planting. 

Our next activity was the seed bed construction. We used all local materials, such as bamboo and palm leaves. We mixed fertile soil with river silt, and some organic material and filled the seed bed. Finally we planted the 200 strong seeds. 

The step that followed was learning from our mistakes. After about a week the group was not very consistent in watering the seed bed and the beautiful little plants soon all dried out. This was very unfortunate, however I believe that it was a lesson well learned. They themselves realized that they needed to come up with a more strict watering schedule and be more responsible when it comes to that. 

Another one of my activities this past year was attending a Leadership seminar. I was invited by my counterpart from the Mayors office and I was told to invite potential leaders from my community. I did exactly that and for the next 8 weekends every Saturday and Sunday I sat in a seminar 8 hours a day. It was long! Very very long! However, I do think my community members got a lot out of it. And I got a lot of networking done. The participants were leaders from small communities but also from Penonome itself so I got to do group work with the mayor himself and many other important people. Establishing these good relationships with important people was definitely worth the price of losing all my weekends, especially these relationships proved to be very beneficial later on.

During this seminar it was established that the lack of the ability to speak English limits people's ability to have success when working in the tourism industry. This over time led to me starting a program called Eco-Ingles. This is an english class offered to adults from all around the province who work with eco-tourism, or would like to work on eco-tourism in the future, but have not had the opportunity to recieve English language education due to economic barriers. I have a man waking up at 3 am and leaving at 4am just to travel across the province and to get to the class on time by 9 am! It is incredible!  I think the program is very beneficial and I am glad I was able to get it going, but my oh my did it take a lot of work. From designing the program and getting the and planning all the logistics it was quite the job. However, after writing many professional funding letters in Spanish and many meetings with the mayor for which I usually had to sit outside of his office for  at least 4 hours just waiting, I was able to obtain the funding to pay for the lunches, transportation and materials for all the students! From there part 2 of the work started, running the program. I believe that getting the funding to start the program was one of my major accomplishments of last year. The program is now well under way and I will post some more details about it soon!

In addition, as part of the leadership seminar the participants were required to do 6 hours of a replica of some of the sessions in their own communities. This was a great opportunity for the participants to really serve as leaders in their communities. I was excited to see how the the community members that I invited to the seminar would take on this task. After many hours of preparing we did a 3 hour workshop with  60 students from the 9th grade, and a 3 hour workshop with the artisan  tourism group. Both went very well and it made me so proud to see them stand up in front of so many people teaching what they learned and leading discussions. 

I finished off the year by conducting a study on trash generation rates in my community. I found out that the community produces an estimated 200 tons of trash per year of which nearly a quarter is inorganic and not recyclable. All of this is burned and the toxins are released into the air that we breathe. Not even mentioning that a significant amount of recyclables and most organic matter is burned as well. I have been asked to present on the study and on the topic of trash management to the mayor's office this Wednesday for Earth Day. Considering that they have absolutely no trash management system implemented in rural communities, likely due to the fact that they have no idea how much trash is generated since no body has ever attempted to measure it, I think this information will be the first step to getting them to think about what more they can do - an important step since trash management is their responsibility. In addition, I have been invited to speak on a radio show  about this on Earth Day itself. It's like I've become a local expert on the issue! I'm excited to be on the radio but also slightly nervous about being interviewed about serious issues on air and in Spanish. We'll see how it goes, or honestly if it even happens at all. Things change quite a bit here last minute but keep your fingers crossed that all goes well.  

Parent's Visit

Obviously I have failed to stick to my new years resolution of posting regularly. Honestly,  I don’t why its so difficult for me to do so regularly. But here I go again. Many people have asked me about my parent’s visit here and particularly wanted to see some photos, so I am dedicated this post to my wonderful parents. Kocham Was!!!

We started off day 1 by going to “Casco Viejo” the old part of the city. Its, right on the coast and although it is a bit worn down it is still full of beautiful architecture. My parents enjoyed this part of the city very much. Especially after they saw the real city. Let’s just say that coming from Chicago, it’s a little disappointing. So here are the photos of my parents being silly in Casco Viejo and enjoying the parks, the streets, the architecture, the restaurants, and even their first Panamanian license plate. 

In the afternoon we headed to the Panama Canal, dad’s request. It was my first time their as well and I must admit it was pretty interesting. They have a nice museum at the Mira Flores Locks Center, it does a nice job of explaining history, technology and really just about everything the canal affects, including the wildlife, down to the insects. Now thats my kind of museum! We then went out onto the balcony to see the enormous cargo ships pass by. It’s a slow process, but compared to traveling around an entire continent it’s definitely a lot more effective. 

In the following pictures you will see my dad continuing to act silly, like a boy on christmas morning, or christmas eve for some of us. 

That same day we also went out to eat on the cosway/causeway (same idea as the Florida Keys. It was gorgeous out there. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, and some dessert too. I can’t tell who enjoyed it more, me, being the dessert deprived peace corps volunteer that I am, or my parents on the first real vacation out of the USA and Poland. We wanted to walk around a bit after dinner, however the downpour caught us, good ol’ rainy season.

The following day we ventured out to an indigenous community. To be exact it was an Emberra community in which Brittany, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer lives in. A small community of about 100 people it really redefines the word community.  Apparently everything is done together there. On her first day there Brittany discovered that she would be bathing in the river, together with her host family, her naked host family. Now that’s what I call an Ice-breaker! There exists no such thing as refusing to participate in community events (Quite the opposite of my community in which diffusion of responsibility is an extremely common and unfortunate phenomenon).

The women of this community are often the leaders, and pretty fierce ones so I’m told. In the best kind of way of course.  It was interesting to hear from them about the different struggles that they have faced over the decades such as holding onto their land. They also shared their culture with us including their beautiful artisan work, their food and of course their traditional dances. My mom and I had a blast dancing with all the women and the cutest little girls in the world! Not my opinion. It’s a fact. Just look at the photos. In addition to the lack of clothing, I think my parents were most intrigued by their housing. The log staircase to my friends house was what got my dads jaw to drop. At first he couldn’t believe she lives like “that”. But then I think it grew on him. I for one loved it!

Finally we headed towards my community, about 3 hours outside of the Panama City. We first stopped off at the beach for a few minutes though so that my parents could see the ocean. We finally made it home. Home sweet home. We spent the last days here in my community where we when on hikes and visited all my families, saw some of the cool sites like the soap stone mine, fixed up my house and drank coconut water. My parents really loved my community, the mountains the nature and especially the people. It makes me happy to know that they now understand why I love this place as much as I do.