There are bats living inside the latrine.

Host-Family Switch

Peace Corps Panama used to require volunteers to live with 3 families in 3 months.  Since Washington set stricter rules on host-family housing requirements (walls, a door that can lock, etc.), Peace Corps Panama decided we should only stay with 1 family for 3 months (less housing inspections for them to do).  Since my community had a previous volunteer and was used to the first idea, they decided to compromise by having me stay with 2 families during my 3 month starting period.  So after being in site for 1.5 months, I switched families.

Moving is always draining, but exciting.  With the critical help of a couple horses I had to schlep all my stuff on a 20 minute hike and spend a day figuring out a livable, new room set-up.  In some ways I really miss living with my old family: playing soccer with the 4-year-old, listening to típico music with the 17-year-old, talking and listening to the news with by host-dad, and joking and laughing with my host-mom.  I had some near-tears moments talking with my host-mom and saying goodbye to the kids the day I packed up.  They are only 20 minutes away now, but this is still a big change from living with them.

Poor horse.

I moved to my 24-year-old host-brother Santiago’s house with his young wife Eudocia and 3 children under the age of four: Benilda, Besaida, and Israel.  Incredibly good people, really adorable kids, and I’m excited to get to know them better.

Besaida is still pretty camera shy.

As with everything, there are some advantages and disadvantages to this change.  First, the good stuff.  I am now right next to the main road which makes coming and going so much easier since the chivas (small buses) pass right by.  It also makes it easier to pasear since I’m in general closer to all other houses and worry less about making it back before the afternoon rains when the muddy paths get ugly.  The couple owns a small store, which means I get to talk to a lot of people without even having to leave the front porch.  My room is now much larger, allowing me to unpack a little more and find things I knew I’d packed somewhere.  Since there are less children here, that means less crying and less singing of loud Jesus songs.  Not none, but less.  My new bed is a little longer and has a foam mattress!  Sleep has improved greatly.

And now a couple of the character-building characteristics.  Yes, there are bats living inside of the latrine.  I can’t think of a worse place to want to live, but there they are.  It took me a while to realize it.  I kept hearing strange noises down there.  At first I thought there was a toad (there might be that as well), then I thought squirrel (but have never actually seen one around here), and then one evening I caught them.  There were a couple flying in and out of the latrine pit.  I shined my flashlight through the floor-boards and could see more.  So weird.  On the plus side, this latrine is not nearly as fly-infested as my last one.  Maybe the bats are eating the flies.

I now have to walk down the main, public road and down a steep muddy incline to get to the water that I use for my filter, to wash clothes, and to bathe.  I’ve already fallen along the way, but thankfully so far the falls have been before doing laundry or taking a bucket bath instead of after.

Overall, I am happy with the switch, but still looking forward to moving into my own place in October!

View of a gorgeous sunrise from my new family’s house.

Amoebas

I survived my first bout of amoebas.  It wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it would be, which is why I waited longer than I should have before telling Peace Corps and getting treatment.  I’ll spare you the details, but know that I’m doing fine now. 

City vs. Campo

Between getting sick and attending a few Peace Corps meetings/get togethers, I’ve been spending more time out of site than predicted.  I tend to feel guilty leaving site for a couple reasons.  I want to show that I am part of the community, and don’t need city breaks all the time.  I’m a work-aholic, and even though I often spend a significant amount of city-time on Peace Corps work, I still feel like I’m ditching just a little.  But the reality is, I will spend the majority of my life for the next 2 years here, and these little trips aren’t going to make a difference.

The culture shock I experience leaving site is interesting.  My community members often ask me about things in the U.S., and I realize that these same things exist in Panama, albeit a part of Panama they may never see.  The economic disparity within Panama is extreme.  City Panamanians share priorities and attitudes of any developed city, and are completely unaffected by the campo Panamanians that seem to live in a different world.

The agricultural organization MIDA continues to amuse and frustrate me.  I recently attended a capacity-building event called an Escuela de Campo that was supposed to cover the topic of seed collection and storage – extremely important and difficult in such a humid climate.  The event started late because they were waiting for an important figure, the Minister of Agriculture, to show up.  When he and his posse finally arrived around 11, the first thing they did was eat breakfast while the campesinos continued to wait.  We then sat through several speeches about how great it is to get campesinos out to events like this so that they can exchange knowledge and ideas with MIDA’s technical experts, and so they can receive hands-on field training in techniques that will help them back at their farms.  The speeches lasted until lunchtime.  After lunch a couple people talked about seed-saving in very general terms and asked for a few anecdotes from audience members.  This maybe lasted an hour, and all the while MIDA employees were scuttling about the premises, carrying on distractingly loud conversations, paying no regards to the presentations taking place.  Afterwards there were more speeches about how important food security is and how important it is for producers to work their land instead of the current trend that is selling land and migrating to cities.

The press even came to see the Minister of Agriculture speak

So during a full work-day missed by producers, they received an hour’s worth of mildly relevant information, and the rest of the time listened to MIDA employees pat themselves on the back for all the good work they’re doing.  Hmmm.  In my opinion the theme of the day was all talk and no action.

Coming Soon – Community Analysis

On September 17^th I will be presenting in front of my entire community.  Peace Corps provides a rigid structure for what to cover in this first meeting, and while I find some of the topics to be irrelevant, I am treating it like a research project and trying to prepare myself.  My boss (who will be there) only gave me three weeks’ notice on the date, which is pretty tight.  In addition to getting materials ready, I have been ‘power pasear-ing,’ which is much more intense than power walking and also involves more eating.  I am trying to personally invite everyone, which means visiting every single household.  My record is visiting 10 households in one day, which meant eating 3 cups of rice soup, 1 bowl of pifá, and 2 cups of coffee.  It will be very interesting to see who actually shows up and participates.  Ideally, we’ll all come out of this meeting with a better understanding of community priorities and specific goals to work toward while I’m here for the next two years.

I put up signs like this at each of our four little stores.  Sort of reminds me of the publicity work I did for Environmental Club in college, except without the benefit of a copy machine or a facebook event.

Wish me luck!  I’ll let you know how it goes next time …