Questions
Whether it’s while I’m pasearing
or while I’m chilling with my host-family, I find the questions I get asked to
be extremely amusing. Below is a mix of
questions, some that I get asked frequently; some that I simply found so
entertaining I had to write them down:
“Are there mountains where you’re from?”
“Are there poor people in your country?”
“Do people live in the campo
(countryside) where you’re from?”
“Are there Chinese people there? What about black people?”
“Is the Chinese way of speaking the same as yours? Can you understand each other?”
-
“No. Chinese is
a different language.”
“Are babies in your country born knowing English or do they
have to go to school to learn it?”
-
“All babies are born not knowing how to talk. They learn to speak the language of their
parents.”
“Have you traveled by airplane? What is that like?”
“Have you traveled by boat?”
“When people go swimming, do they wear lifejackets?
-
“Not usually.”
Not even in the Olympic games?”
-
“Definitely not.”
“Is it true that the U.S. sent the first people that walked
on the moon?”
“I’ve heard some say it’s the earth that moves and not the
sun. Is that true?”
-
“Yes.” (I proceed to use pifá fruit to show how the
earth rotates on an axis and also rotates around the stationary sun)
“I’ve heard thunder comes from God’s trident. Is that true?”
-
“I don’t believe so.”
“How many siblings do you have?”
-
“One older sister.”
“And brothers?”
-
“None.”
“It’s just you two?!?!”
“Is it hot like this where you’re from?”
-
“Yes, except it almost never rains. It is very dry there.”
“How do women stop having babies over there? Do they all have operations?”
“How much did your ______ cost?”
-
“I don’t remember.
I got it years ago.” or: “I don’t
know, it was a gift.”
“Did you fall down today?”
-
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
-
“…”
“What are you reading?
A dictionary?”
-
“No. I’m reading a book.”
“How much water did you drink today? Why do you drink so much water?”
-
“Because I sweat a lot.”
“Are you going to get a dog like the last volunteer?”
“I know you are here to work on agriculture, but can you
also help us get latrines, a health center, stoves, another aqueduct, etc.?”
“When you leave in 2 years, are you going to sell your stuff
like the last volunteer? Can I buy the
mattress you haven’t bought yet?”
“Do you like it here?”
“Do you find yourself / feel at ease here?” ß I love how they phrase
this question. In Spanish they say: Usted se halla aquí? It took me a minute to realize their use of hallar, which directly translates “to
find” means something more like “are you comfortable here?” I always answer “yes, of course! … but I’m
still trying to get used to walking through mud …”
Mud (mom,
you may not like this part)
Before coming to Panama, I had of course heard that it rains
a lot and that I would need good footwear to combat the mud. I knew that the rain would be annoying – it
results in the cancelling or postponing of planned events and makes outdoor
work somewhat uncomfortable. I didn’t
think much about the mud issue, because I just assumed that since I don’t mind
getting dirty (who am I trying to impress here?), I wouldn’t mind dealing with
it. I was naïve.
The paths around my community coming off the main road are
narrow and steep. If you have experience
hiking, you have probably already noticed that going downhill is harder on the
joints, etc. than going uphill. Add rain
into this equation and going downhill becomes the most challenging thing ever. I try wearing good boots; I try using a
walking stick; I try going ridiculously slowly.
These things certainly help, but they are no guarantee. I fall down a lot. Most of you know that
I’m a huge klutz and somewhat injury prone.
So far I’ve only suffered from a sore butt, a few bruises/cuts, and of
course getting my clothes pretty dirty, but I’m constantly terrified that one
of these falls will result in something worse.
My host-family assures me that I will get used to this kind of walking,
but they also tell stories of people who’ve fallen and seriously hurt
themselves to show that it’s not just me.
They tell me to take it slow and to not rush myself just because others
are walking faster. Ayayay.
There are different types of mud. Some mud is so slick it reminds me of trying
to walk on ice. Some is so sticky that
after walking in it for a few minutes I find I am walking on a platform of
heavy mud that is really difficult to remove from the bottom of my shoes. And some is like quicksand in which your foot
begins sinking in and gets completely stuck.
I had some rough times working on a fish tank project in this third type...
 |
| sooo slippery |
 |
| Chaco sandals = no match for sticky mud |
The fish tank I worked on was mostly dug out already but we
needed to finish it up and add in the tubing.
The guys immediately went to work trying to remove the sludge from the
bottom of the tank. Shovels didn’t work
well because the mud stuck to them. Bare
hands let much of the mud slip through our fingers and so also proved
inefficient. After struggling for a
while and trying to decide how much I should intervene considering I had
already admitted I know little about fish tanks and was there to learn how to
make them, I finally decided to say something.
I suggested we try to dry the tank out before continuing to dig deeper. We set up some tubes to drain out the water
and sludge into the nearby creek. The
work was still really difficult and felt somewhat futile, but I feel like I at
least contributed something and they said it was a good idea.
 |
| Barefoot and attempting to dig out a fish tank in quicksand mud. |
Keeping Busy
I have now located and visited all of the 41 households that
make up El Harino. Pasearing has proved a great way to get to know people, and I am now
beginning a second round of it in order to both catch people that weren’t home
the first time and also to gather more information for the community analysis
project I have to complete during my first three months here. Now that I have more experience pasearing, I feel I know better how to
direct the conversations to get the information I want.
 |
| Busting out my camera is always a great way to get in with the kids as I pasear |
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| More fun with cameras |
I am lucky to have a host-dad who includes me in his work
plans. Many SAS females struggle with
machismo and are not taken seriously when it comes to field work. My host-dad on the other hand, has already
invited me to machete fields, harvest coffee and yucca, dig a fish tank, and
most recently plant plantain.
 |
| Planting with my little host-brother :) |
One interesting character very involved in the community is
a retired nurse named Diny who lives outside in a nearby city, but owns a
coffee farm in El Harino and is the main facilitator for our women’s group Mujeres Unidas. She is clearly self-motivated, but seems
capable of bringing in some useful resources for the community. She coordinated with a renewable energy
government project and was able to bring in a solar kiosk to charge cell phones
and a special kind of lamp that was donated to all members of Mujeres Unidas. I am not convinced that these lamps are
actually convenient for the large quantity of members that live in communities far
outside of El Harino, but hopefully they will work out somehow. Also, the solar kiosk was placed right under
a very tall tree. Hmm.
 |
| Solar kiosk grand opening. The kiosk is in the background and the tall tree is just to the left. |
Diny is also interested in working on capacity-building to
train El Harino community members on best practices for planting and harvesting
coffee. While she wants to do this in
order to increase her options of finding cheap, local labor (she pays about
$1/hour), I also want to see this training occur so that community members can
better their own coffee farm production.
It seems that we have different motivation, but perhaps can still work
together to some degree…
 |
| Group of coffee experts Diny gathered to tour her farm. I tried to ask as many questions as possible about low-cost, organic techniques, but these particular experts didn’t quite seem to have the same priorities. |
I am lucky to have an unusually high number of volunteers
living in nearby communities. There are
two girls and one guy all living within about a one hour hike away from
me. We coordinate some of our trips out
of our communities to use internet and also visit each other when we are in need
of an English break. Last weekend we
gathered at my friend Siobhan’s community to check out her prime swimming spot.
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| Playing in the water with my PCV neighbors. |
Records!
I’ll leave you with some notable records I’ve been keeping
track of just for fun:
- Maximum number of falls in one day: 3
- Longest rainstorm I had to wait out: 3 hours
- Earliest the roosters have starting crowing: 1:00 am
- Number of pifá fruit I’ve eaten in one sitting: 21
- Number of boiled bananas I’ve eaten in one sitting: 5
- Number of nights spent sleeping on a tiny REI air
mattress: 30 and counting (I’ll lug a better mattress out here at some point)
- Number of marañon curazao fruit (related to cashew) I’ve
eaten in a day: 3
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| Delicious marañon curazao fruit |
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