A Motivated Community

(More pictures will be added in the future)

Just a few months back, before I had any idea what community I would serve in, and right after I visited a volunteer at her community, one of my biggest fears was that I would be working in a community where the people were either unmotivated or just truly did not want to work with a Peace Corps Volunteer, and therefore it would be a huge struggle for me to get anything done, since really as a volunteer all my work depends on the people, their needs, and their willingness to work with me.

Now when I look back at this time I can’t help but laugh because I honestly couldn’t have been more off. The majority of community members are extremely motivated and until now I have only heard wonderful things about all the Peace Corps Volunteers that have served here, and how much people enjoyed working with them. People here are really excited to get started on things. For example today I ran into one of my distant neighbors. He informed that a bunch of people on the other side of town have been asking about me and when they can start working with me. Since they do live in another sector I have not yet had the opportunity to meet them, but I hope to meet them soon.

However, in a community like mine, a volunteer does walk a fine line. As new volunteers the first 3 months in our community are really supposed to be designated towards community analysis - getting to know the people and the needs.  However when the community is this ambitious, and this anxious to get started you have to really learn how to explain this to people well. Overall people have been very understanding of the process, but some things can not be avoided or pushed back any further.

For example since the current volunteer is leaving in the beginning of June, the transition of her recycling program at the school to me has begun. Beginning June I will be in charge of it. Luckily we have held our Recycling Committee meeting and all the parents that serve as part of the committee have up until now been reliable and very helpful so I hope our work together goes well.

In addition to this there is a group in my community that really wants to get ecotourism started here. They really want my help, but I am almost uncertain with what because they are extremely organized. They have been coworking with a number of governmental agencies. They are currently in the process of becoming a legal entity as a group, and also in the process of developing a hiking route with a number of other communities. I have been attending all their meetings and am very impressed by them. For now I have been helping in the small ways that I can. The other day, my neighbor and I painted most of this Artisan workshop that will be used as one of the stops on the tour guide of our town. I have been talking with my host sister who is the secretary of the organization and am slowly learning about more ways in which I will be able to assist them in the future. Although indirectly, I believe that the recycling program at the school which will hopefully soon be expanded to include the whole town, will certainly aid the cause as will.

ANAM is the national environmental agency and serves as one of our counterparts here in Panama. Before I started I heard many mixed opinions on what it is like to work with the agency. Once again, I have been very fortunate. Their is a group in my community that works directly with ANAM. I have worked with them a few times thus far. One of the days we gave a tour of the artisan sector of our community to a tourism students from a high schools. This allowed me to learn a lot about how things are currently done and what can be improved. 

Another day I helped them mix up dirt with organic fertilizer, and then pack over 300 small bags with the dirt, and then plant a tree seed in each one. This group has a vivero or..... it is working on reforestation. I hope to work with them on this. With all of the community members depending on the rivers for the water, and the animals depending on trees for food, it is extremely important that they reforest the watershed, and hopefully with native trees.

In addition to all of these projects already in the making, my community proves its motivation in yet another way. Community working days. These are days on which community members get together to work on an immediate issue. For example this past week they were pouring concrete on part of the road. The road to the sector that I am currently living in is a gravel road. One that is very unstable in the dry season as the stones just roll and the tires of the cars, nor my shoes really can get any traction on all the hills. During the rainy season I incredibly grateful for the gravel and wish there was more as the roads quickly turn into a muddy slippery mess.

About 20 of the men got together on the Sunday to work. My sister and I got together with two other women to cook lunch for the men. We cooked all this wonderful food for them. Unfortunately the man did arrive a few hours later then expected so a lot of the food was already cold. However most of them gobbled it up anyways. The only downside was that they did not arrive sober. Serving food to 20 hungry drunk man.... can be an interesting experience to say the least. All went relatively well though. They all appreciated the meal, and we appreciated the work that they did for the community. And considering that there are no cantinas (bars) in my community, and it is illegal apparently to sell any alcohol in my community ( which I am extremely grateful for) I guess it is no surprise that when 20 men get together they will want to have some seco once in awhile.