Jumping Worlds

Culture Shocking

I experience culture shock every time I come to Panama City and see Panamanians that look, dress, talk, and act differently from my humble neighbors in El Harino.  As I travel out in the back of a chiva I watch as the green jungle scenery gives way to concrete and buildings.  Houses change from thatched roofs to zinc to tile.  Electricity lines appear.  And suddenly (after about four hours of travel) I’m dumped into the hustle and bustle of the capital city.

I came home to Los Angeles for two weeks in November.  Beyond the generic “I’m in a city” culture shock described above, here are some observations that amused me during my trip.

- Whenever I hear a siren, I expect to see a truck driving through town selling fish, chicken, or vegetables.

- I was surprised every time courteous drivers stopped to let me, a pedestrian, cross.

- I am better at coping with L.A. traffic than I used to be.  Waiting hours for chivas and buses has made me more patient.  I think the reverse is also true (L.A. traffic helps me tolerate inefficient Panamanian transportation).

- Two Panamanian gestures seem to have adopted me.  1) The lip point.  When asked where something is, Panamanians point with their lips instead of their fingers.  It looks silly.  I have been caught doing this several times.  2) Measuring from the tip of your index finger.  To show size, Americans hold their hands apart the given distance.  Panamanians hold out their left arm pointing their left index finger, and use their right index finger to measure along that left, extended arm.

- Typing on the iPhone I borrowed from my mom was terribly difficult.  This was my first experience with a touch screen phone, and boy did I struggle.  In general, I am bad at communicating via text messages and noticed myself accidentally waiting days to respond to people.  I’m pretty sure that’s unheard of in the states.

- It was hard to not smile and say, “Buenas, Como está?” to everyone I passed and to resist the urge to offer them a limp, Panamanian handshake.

- The peacocks found all over Palos Verdes are prettier and less noisy than roosters, but roosters are friendlier and have more personality.

- Radio stations play such a variety of music! Even my favorite reggaeton station in Panama for some reason only plays the same few songs over and over again instead of all the new good stuff on the radio in the U.S.

- It was weird to blend in and not get stared at everywhere I go.  It was weirder to dress up, put on make-up, and blend in better.

- Materialism bothers me even more than it used to.  Our culture just focuses so much on stuff.  I’d rather focus on people and human interactions.  I laughed watching my little cousins open numerous Hanukah presents only to prefer playing with the wrapping paper instead.  What a waste of material.

- I am more empathetic than I used to be.  People-watching out at a fancy LA bar, I saw individuals that looked rather superficial to me.  But what do I know?  Getting to know people in my community has taught me that everyone has a story beyond what you might guess.  You never know what people are dealing with.  I’m sure no one who saw me at that bar suspected that I live in a hut in the jungle with no electricity.

- The two electric appliances I miss the most are refrigerators and laundry machines.  I loved eating leftovers while I was home.  In Panama I can’t do that ever.  And I loved how clean my clothes got with such little effort.

- Shaving my legs is much easier when I don’t have to worry about avoiding the mosquito bites.

- Unpacking my backpack in my parents’ living room, I was horrified to find I accidentally brought home a few cockroaches. If you hear about an outbreak of Panamanian cockroaches in Palos Verdes, you know who to blame…

- I spoke to two Environmental Science AP classes at my high school about sustainable agriculture and the life of a Peace Corps volunteer.  This was extremely rewarding and I could tell some of these teenagers were genuinely interested and excited to listen.  This also made me feel very old.  I was “that adult” that comes in to talk to kids about what they can do when they grow up.  Weird!

- I really appreciate my friends and family in the states and miss you all a lot.  It’s amazing how easy and comfortable it is to slip back into that world and feel at home, even coming from somewhere so different yet that also makes me happy.

Here are some photos of my time home:

Celebrating my 27th birthday

Friends from high school

Out at a fancy LA bar

Thanksgivukah with my family

Hiking around Palos Verdes

Pretty downtown LA sunset view from my house

I landed in Panama City at 8pm on a Saturday and hopped on a bus to my hostel.  Walking across the small park between the bus stop and the hostel, I completely ate it in a mud puddle.  I noticed the mud and tried to walk around it, but my foot slipped out in front of me and I fell backwards on my butt.  Thankfully I didn’t hurt anything and no one saw me.  If they had, it would’ve been quite a sight to see a tall Gringa struggling to pick herself up from a mud swamp while trying to keep my backpack and other bags from getting completely submerged in the muck.  I like to think Panama was just telling me, “You look too clean to be here … Welcome back!”

Back to the Grind (sort of)

It is acknowledged that very little work gets done during November or December in Panama.  In November there are something like four separate holidays relating to Panama’s independence (from Colombia, from Spain, and I’m not sure why else).  In December, in addition to Christmas, Panama celebrates Mothers’ Day and various graduations around the middle of the month when schools break for summer (they start up again late February).

So I am back in site, and quickly booked up my calendar with fun community events and not much real work.  But hey, community integration and cultural exchange is a critical part of my job too, so I’ll keep at it just the same!

Mothers Day celebration at the school

Taking a pic with this year's "Queen Mom"

Xmas school procession

School nativity scene equipped with live goats and real baby

Pretty sunset view from my hammock on my porch

Last Thursday I Helped Dig a Grave

La Semana de los Muertos

On Sunday, November 3^rd, a man in my community drowned in a river.  The Rio Indio divides the province of Panama Oeste from Coclé, and the community El Harino from Vallecito (where my close friend and neighbor volunteer Siobhan lives).  November 3^rd is Panama’s Independence Day, which means a lot of parties go on.  Teodoro was partying during the day in Vallecito, but planned to come back to El Harino in time for the big baile at our cantina that night.   Crossing the river (whose depth varies from knee-high to neck-high depending on the rains) drunk and in the dark is an obviously bad idea, but many do it regularly.  Teodoro’s family began to worry on Monday that he hadn’t come home.  Frantically organized search parties found his body downstream on Tuesday morning.

The loss to his family and to the community is tremendous.  While I personally did not know him well (he’d attended a few of my charlas but never invited me to work with him), his family has always been very kind to me, and I know they are a family that has already suffered many hardships.  One of his daughters is only 16 and has already had two babies, the most recent of which died as a 1-month-old in August.  The husband of one of his older daughters (who is a good friend of mine) died years ago in a mudslide.  She is one of the strongest women I know.

Leave it to Panama’s bureaucracy to make death all the more painful to deal with.  When the body was found Tuesday, the law is such that he had to be taken into the city for an autopsy.  The ensuing paperwork lasted longer than 24 hours and the body was not returned to the community until late Thursday.  By that time, I had helped a large group of men dig his grave (definitely a first for me, and hopefully a last), but his family preferred that he spend one last night at home.  Friday morning the coffin was carried to the church (about a 20 minute hike) for a short prayer session and then to the cemetery (another 15).  His family retained composure throughout the morning, but as soon as the coffin was lowered into the grave they lost it, and so did I.  Panamanians very rarely show strong emotion, which made their grief all the more powerful and saddening (the word “wailing” came to mind).  A few relatives spoke, mostly saying thank you to all the community for showing support.  On behalf of the immediate family they asked that support continue to be given either in the form of money, food, or work (fields of the family’s rice need to be harvested as soon as possible).  I heard people talking about how even the cheapest of coffins cost more than $100.  This amount of money is extremely hard to come by.

On November 2^nd, much of Latin America celebrated El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).  We had celebrated that day with a service at the cemetery.  These are Teodoro’s daughters paying respects to their recently lost baby.  Less than a week later, they buried their father here as well.

Procession from the church to the cemetery.  The coffin is being carried up front

Every evening for nine days following the death of Teodoro, a prayer session is held at his family’s home.  This altar was made for this occasion.

Siobhan, who crosses this same river regularly, has been working with Engineers Without Borders groups on a bridge project so that people and horses will be able to cross safely at any time.  We are hopeful that construction of the bridge will begin as early as April.

 

Surveying a possible bridge location

During this same week I received news from home that the father of two close friends from high school passed away.  These friends have stayed in my thoughts and heart and I wish them all the strength and love in the world as they get through this hard time.

On a Happier Note

Aside from such significant challenges, life and work have continued to go well for me in El Harino.  Here are some highlights:

- I helped facilitate a workshop called “Choose your life” for school kids in Siobhan’s community.  The workshop focused on helping teenagers develop goals and identify resources and steps to help them achieve their goals.  A session on sex-ed is also included.

Explaining different types of resources they might have available and that money isn’t everything.

They did an activity where they had to guess if HIV could be transmitted or not transmitted.  Alex went through and explained that actually no, you can’t get HIV from somebody coughing, sneezing, sharing a cup, etc.

Practicing how to put a condom on.

- During Panama’s Independence Day, I accompanied the school kids on their annual parade down the main road.  That night some neighbor volunteers came over to hang out and we made a brief appearance to dance some típico at the baile.

School parade

Baile at the cantina

- I hiked the long way out (through Siobhan’s community on the Coclé side of the river) to make it to a Peace Corps Halloween house party in Coclé’s capital city Penenomé.  The hike took close to three and a half hours.  The party featured costumes, dancing to American music and playing the American game of beer pong.

Pretty hike

Halloween sheriffs.  Don't worry, my gun was 2-D

- I collaborated with Panama’s Center for Environmental Development to host a talk on reforestation and tree-nursery management with our 7^th grade.

Filling seed bags with a good soil mix

Watering in a small tomato plant

Wanderlust for Life

 Comarca Ngobe-Bugle

At the beginning of October I had the opportunity to visit the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle for the first time.  The term “Comarca” refers to an indigenous reservation.  People who live inside comarcas are citizens of Panama, but also follow a separate set of rules established by their tribe.  About five tribes have such status throughout Panama, and the Ngobe (pronounced no-bay) are one of the biggest groups.

A good friend said that the group of farmers turned gardeners he is working with could use some help with agribusiness, so he invited me out to give an informal talk to his group.  After getting off a six hour bus ride in a city called Tole, Reid met me and together we hopped on a chiva which took us across the line into the Comarca.  After that, we began what Reid warned me would be a two hour hike.  “The good news is that the hike is half downhill,” Reid said cheerfully, “but that means the other half is uphill.”  He was not kidding.  Down one mountainside, across a bridge over a river, and up the other mountainside was quite a trek that my asthma was not so happy about.  Luckily it was gorgeous the whole way.

Shortly after making it to the community La Tijera, the daily afternoon downpour began.  We hid inside and Reid taught me how he makes chocolate from the cacao found around the area.  Yum!

The next day, five of the seven members of Reid’s group turned up for the charla (pretty decent turn out!).  The talk went well and the group seemed interested and caught on pretty quick.  I had heard the stereotype that many Ngobe are stone-faced and reserved.  While the people I encountered throughout this trip did seem a little more reserved than the louder Latinos I live with, and I did notice I was getting openly stared at by serious-looking eyes everywhere I went, Reid’s group had no problem participating in the session and even laughed at our jokes.  Whenever the conversation slipped into the local Ngobere language, I said the one phrase Reid taught me, meaning: “I don’t understand what’s going on at all,” and that seemed to go over well.

I really enjoyed this visit.  While I fully believe I would have been happy wherever I ended up and that each site has advantages and disadvantages (physical, cultural, etc.), I was struck by how different my life would have been for these two years if I had as intense of a hike in as Reid does.  Leaving for appointments, bringing home groceries, having friends visit … These things are complicated enough for me as it is.  A two hour sweaty, wheezy climb would add a whole new level of challenges.  Additionally, it was hard to imagine how this community functions so far off the path.  People must haul in heavy materials like zinc sheets for roofs and food for the small stores.  If someone gets sick, they are carried all the way out in a hammock.  One advantage of the higher altitude community of La Tijera is cell phone signal everywhere.  Overall I feel lucky to live where I do, and lucky to have the chance to travel and experience sites like Reid’s.

Reid and I talked a bit about what the future holds.  We still have eight months here, and sometimes that seems like a lot, but time does fly.  Reid says he has really enjoyed this experience, but he thinks it may have satisfied his wanderlust and that he will now be ready to settle down in the U.S. permanently.  I have to say that I do not feel the same way.  It is true that I am looking forward to spending time stateside and plan to attend business school somewhere in my native country.  However, for me this experience has confirmed that I want to continue working in international development and has strengthened the connection I feel to Latin America.  Right now I cannot imagine myself in a long-term lifestyle that does not involve traveling abroad.  So we’ll see what the future holds, but something tells me, my wanderlust may not be curable.

Fútbol-Mania

I made it to the Panama vs. U.S. soccer game and it was a pretty awesome experience.  I had carefully planned my schedule so that I would be in the city at just the right time.  Several things almost went very wrong that could have led to minor disasters, but somehow it all worked out great.

I came out of site on a Monday to go to a city called Penonome in order to give an agribusiness training session to the government agriculture organization MIDA.  My volunteer team powered through the all-day training session on Tuesday, cutting off Panamanian tangential rants left and right, and somehow wrapped things up by 2pm.  From there we hopped on a bus and after just over four hours we’d made it through rush hour traffic to get to the hostel in Panama City.  A quick change and a few beers later we were en route to the stadium, again with much traffic and the added pleasure of a totally sexist cab driver transporting four independent female volunteers.  Ayayay.

MIDA employees taking the stage

Explaining how to calculate production costs with small scale farmers

Finally made it to the stadium before 8pm for an 8:30 kick-off (although the tickets said 9:00) .  For some reason, they split the entering line male/female and only females were required to get an invasive pat-down (by female officers), so as always, the girls line was insanely slow while the boys walked straight in.  The women started getting pushy.  I am usually a wait-in-line kind of person, but by this point, I was in dire need of finding a restroom, so I pushed my way in and made a run for it. 

Girls line to enter the premises

Disaster!  They seemed to have oversold my section and had closed the doors.  I waited with angry Panamanians who tried to bully the security guards into opening the door.  I let it be known that I was just trying to get in so I could pee, and the Panamanians instantly supported my claim and called the security guards out for their shameful treatment of foreigners in their country saying things like, "I bet the U.S. wouldn't do this to people at their stadium!" (a little extreme, but then again, seriously, put some bathrooms on the outside!).  A door squeaked open and all rushed in.  I saw security guards pulling out the pepper spray.  AHH!  I approached one and calmly asked where the bathroom was.  She looked sympathetic and pointed where to go.  Finally! Relief!  And then … Uh oh, where are all my friends?  I had bolted and left my large gringo group somewhere behind.

I made some phone calls, but no one was answering / signal was not so good (of course).  I started watching the game.  I got a few weird looks since I was a white girl by myself in a sea of Panamanians.  A couple people nearby started making conversation and once I told them I was rooting for Panama, all were instantly friendlier and invited me up to get a better viewing spot.  And then Panama scored. GOOOOOOOAAALLLL.  Beer rained down and the energy was contagious.

I spotted a few volunteers walking by.  I latched on and we explored a different section (supposedly you were only allowed the sit in your assigned section, but I found this was not totally the case, especially considering they’d oversold mine), and we were thrown free Panama jerseys along the way.  Eventually we made our way to where a large group of volunteers had congregated.  Many were decked out in vibrant U.S. apparel and were very loud in supporting the stars and stripes.  I personally kept rooting for Panama just because I think a win would have meant more to Panamanian citizens than to Americans who generally barely care about soccer.  After a few more goals and beer rains, the game was approaching its end and Panama was up 2 to 1.  So exciting!  Then the U.S. scored.  Woah!  It’s tied.  The score board had not even caught up and then BAM the U.S. scored again!  It was done.  Just like that the U.S. came through 3 to 2 and Panama’s hopes were destroyed.  I felt bad, but the excitement of the other volunteers was hard to resist.  U-S-A! U-S-A!

Overall, the soccer game was an extremely disorganized adventure that could have gone terribly wrong at a few different points, but ended up being one of the coolest activities I have experienced in Panama City.

Agribusiness Grant Update

I again wanted to thank everyone who contributed or considered contributing to my Agribusiness Seminar Project.  My grant has been completely funded!  Over the next months I will begin planning these three seminars to take place within the December to May time frame.  These seminars will present all kinds of new logistical challenges for me to conquer and will certainly keep me busy working on something I really care about.  I will keep you posted as the project moves along!

That Time Came Where I Asked All You Awesome People for Money

**UPDATE ON THE BELOW REQUEST FOR FUNDING**

**Update!** Just about two weeks after my project proposal went online, it has been completed funded.  I feel humbled by and incredibly grateful for the support of all who donated and all who thought about it, but found it was already done.  Thank you all.  Panama's farmers and future businessmen say "Gracias" as well.



Have I mentioned how nice you look today?

Yes, that time has come where I ask all you awesome people to support one of my more capital-intensive projects.  As you might recall, I first got involved with Peace Corps Panama’s Agribusiness Initiative back in November, by helping co-facilitate a three-day agribusiness seminar for farmers participating in a government-sponsored program in the province of Veraguas.  Since then I have continued teaching agribusiness topics both within my community and throughout Panama.  I applied for and was selected to be this year’s Agribusiness Coordinator back in May.

So what does it mean to be Agribusiness Coordinator?  For one thing, I travel on request to other volunteer communities to help them train farmers in agbiz topics.  I also train new volunteers on how to present this material in their communities.  I long ago realized the Peace Corps Agribusiness Manual was not user-friendly enough for our standard audience that, at best, received up to a sixth grade education.  I significantly edited this document, simplifying its dense paragraphs of text and trying to clarify in local terms how to keep inventory records (people here are not used to using formats like spreadsheets).  This Initiative has caught the attention of local government agencies, and I have been invited to provide agribusiness training sessions in regions lacking a Peace Corps presence.  Additionally, I work with Panamanian agency professionals to teach them how to present this material themselves.

But none of those things are what your money will go towards.  As Agribusiness Coordinator, I am responsible for organizing and facilitating three agribusiness seminars in different regions of Panama.  These seminars will be made available to farmers all over the country in areas where they are working with Peace Corps volunteers and will take place sometime between December and May. 

Here are the benefits of helping me fund these three agribusiness seminars:

- Farmers will be trained in critical skills like: farm planning, keeping inventory records, problem identification and prioritization, setting goals and making calendars, group organization, supply chain management, financial record keeping, production cost calculation, value-added products, price fixing, product quality, customer service, market analysis and strategy, money management and setting budgets, use of calculators, etc.

- Some of these skills may seem like common sense to those of us with a formal education or other relevant experience.  These skills ARE NOT COMMON SENSE to people who stopped going to school around age 10, have never kept records, have never practiced the idea of planning things out before they plant crops arbitrarily throughout their never-been-measured plots of land, have never calculated the cost of production to see which of their products result in a profit, and which ones result in a LOSS, and have the deeply-engrained tendency to spend money as quickly as it comes in without thinking much about the future.

- Farmers will be able to use the previously mentioned skills to increase their income generation and sustainably improve their quality of life.

- By putting on three different seminars, Peace Corps is expanding the impact of this initiative to reach farmers whose communities I might not otherwise have a chance to visit.

- By making the seminars available to farmers from Peace Corps communities, the volunteers from those communities will be able to provide necessary follow-up to help farmers implement the skills they learn during the seminars.

Want to know what, specifically, your money will be spent on?

- Travel costs of the farmers to get to the seminars.

- Food for the farmers to eat during the seminars.

- Paying local cooks to prepare the food for the farmers to eat.

- Paying local families to host farmer participants in their homes during the seminars.

- Basic seminar materials like poster paper, markers, notebooks, pens.

- Travel costs of volunteers like me to get to the seminars.

- Believe it or not, this stuff all adds up fast.

Let me put it this way—many of you know I like to think of myself as a “practical environmentalist.”  I want to protect natural resources, help people, and do so in an economically feasible, sustainable way.  The farmers I work with have the chance to profit from their sustainable agriculture businesses; they just need some help developing the skills they need to make it happen.

Please help me help them to make this happen.  Any size donation is welcome!  Also FYI this tax deductible donation will be acknowledged by an official email from the Peace Corps, and they will not put you on any lists for future solicitations.

In case you are more motivated by pictures than words, here are some of those as well:

Farmers selling yummy produce

Practicing arithmetic

One of last year's agbiz seminars that the coordinator put on out in the Darien

My community members doing an activity that teaches how to break down the steps involved in a production chain

More arithmetic practice

What I look like when I explain how to set goals and put activities on a calendar to make sure you accomplish those goals

So here’s the link to donate:

https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=13-525-035

Gracias.  You really do look nice today.

In Other News

Aside from my outside Agribusiness Coordinator duties, I continue to be busy in El Harino as well.  Some families are finally coming around and only now inviting me to help them start compost of a home garden.  Others are already pro’s and now asking for help expanding and adding beds to the gardens I helped them start months ago.  MIDA, the national agriculture organization, continues to be a pebble in my shoe.  I have visited their office and called their regional director countless times to check on the progress of getting us the PVC tubes we need to bring water to the fish tank projects that some six families are waiting to complete.  MIDA continues assuring me the paperwork is in process and they will let me know when the tubes are purchased … patience … so much patience …

More compost making

She's so happy with these two garden beds that we made a third one last week.

This family started from scratch a month ago making compost and now are finally ready to start planting

The Sustainable Agriculture Systems Peace Corps program trainer recently visited my site and requested a meeting with my community.  At the meeting, we reviewed my community analysis and action plan from when I first arrived (remember this? http://lilabailapeacecorps.blogspot.com/2012/09/community-analysis-report-given-to.html).  We agreed that we are indeed making progress toward the goal of improving nutritional variety, and that some families are further along than others.  We discussed that I should keep doing what I’m doing and following up to support people with the projects we’ve been working on.  We also highlighted some areas that clearly need reinforcing and some that will be new to everyone, but that people expressed interest in.  Such areas include: organic insect repellents, worm composting, developing a seed bank at the school garden, etc.  I heard people say out loud something that I’ve realized, but is bothersome: people would rather me go house to house teaching things than attend a charla on a given day, at a certain time.  They said sometimes they can’t go to my charlas, and that even when they can, they don’t, so it’s better if I work with families individually.  I acknowledge this seems to be true, but tried to emphasize to them that in this case, they need to take the initiative to tell me they are interested in trying something like organic insect repellent.  Only then will I come to them.  I cannot give such lessons at every single house in El Harino because there is not enough of me to go around and I cannot read minds to know who is truly interested.  With about nine months left, we’ll see what I can do …

Action Plan from last September.  Only a couple check marks.  The rest is still in progress.

Action Plan Part II

Community members who gathered to talk about the work I've done so far and what we can do with my time left.

I was banished during part of the meeting so the SAS program trainer could ask my community to evaluate how I’m doing.  She told me later they asked if there was any way they could request Peace Corps to have me stay an extra year.  Cute.  No, but still cute.