I Introduced Tacos to Panamanians

Seed Saving = Sustainability

At some point I realized that people have been asking me not only for new seeds they want to try planting for the first time, but also for seeds of plants I’d seen them growing previously.  It turns out that people here have not been saving their seeds!

So I gave a training session on seed gathering and care.  This topic may seem obvious, but it is no easy feat out here.  First, when seeds are harvested they must be thoroughly dried, without getting burned.  Some types of seeds are more delicate to sun exposure than others, so while a few can be dried sitting up on a hot, zinc metal roof, others must be kept out of direct sunlight.  After the initial drying, staying dry remains a challenge in this humid, equatorial climate.  Glass or plastic jars that seal tightly are ideal, but when farmers save large quantities of seeds in sacks, the bare minimum they should try for is to store the sack up, off of the ground and away from places where water comes into a house.  Insects eating seeds in storage are yet another challenge mitigated by adding ash and strong-smelling herbs to the seed containers.

  

Group gathering to learn about seed saving

I explained that seeds should be harvested from healthy, high producing plants.  For example, the current practice for growing new coffee trees is to let the cherries fall to the ground, wait for baby trees to sprout, and then transplant these to new areas.  Using that method, farmers have no idea from which tree the sprouts are coming and so have no way of knowing if the parent tree is a strong seed donor candidate.  I also explained that seeds found locally are better than those brought in from the outside.  Seeds here have adapted to the climate, are resistant to diseases, and are generally better suited for this environment.  We have no such guarantee when buying seeds from other sources.  I put up a list of seeds people ask me for regularly and another list of seeds I know people have grown or are growing within this community and watched the light bulbs click on.  If people in El Harino exchange seeds with each other, they will be able to get local seeds at low cost.  And they will be able to do this time and time again.  In theory, no one should have to ask for free seed handouts again!

Example of my presentation papers

I told everyone that I would help get seeds from the outside only if they were truly hard to find locally or in extremely high demand.  I also set some requirements for receiving free resources from me.

1) They have to show me the place they have in mind to plant.

2) At said place, there must either be good soil already, or they must begin to compost in order to improve soil quality.  I told them if they need proof of the magic of compost to come see my garden.  My terrible, clay-based soil is producing wonderfully thanks to compost!  I reminded them that I am always available to come help families get their compost piles started (I have already done this for five households).

My garden growing wonderfully

3)  They need to practice some form of seed starting, whether it be a seed table like mine or little seed bags.

My idea with these requirements is that if families receive seeds to plant or fencing to protect their gardens from chickens, I want a guarantee that they are really going to try to make this work.  No excuses of bad soil and that the seeds just didn’t sprout.  Not on my watch!

Try, try again.

I had to give the above training session twice.  The first time only six people showed up.  What went wrong?  It’s hard to say.  Maybe I didn’t pasear enough, but there had recently been many community wide events where I’d announced the training publicly, so I’m sure everyone knew about it.  Maybe there were too many community wide events around that date, and people were just too busy.  Maybe the topic didn’t seem exciting.  In any case, after the first run-through went well with the disappointingly small group, I had to think about how to proceed.  At the next big community thing, I asked a few people what they thought.  The consensus was that the timing was bad, they’d all been busy, and that I should give the talk again.  They decided Sunday afternoon would be the most convenient time and so we re-set the date.  Talk number two had a much better turnout and reassured me that people are indeed interested in working with me and hearing what I have to say.  Whew.

It also may have helped that I’d promised to provide lunch … tacos!  Yes, a gringa introduced tacos to a Latino community.  Although a brand new concept for them, my low-budget tacos were a success.  The only complaint was that the mild salsa I used was a little too spicy.

Tacos!

A few all-stars stayed after the talk to help with some school garden work.  I gave them the washed salsa glass jars for future seed saving as a reward.

I have now hosted three reading club sessions.  Kids here learn to read in school up to a 6^th grade level, and many do not continue past this, practice at home, nor are they ever read to by their parents.  So I’ve started a weekly meeting on my porch where I spend part of the time reading to the group, and part of the time passing books around for them to practice out loud.  During my first session only one 10-year-old boy came accompanied by his 15-year-old sister (I suspect she may have benefited as well).  But again, I did not let this discourage me much.  Many parents said they’d forgotten and would send their kids to the next one.  Sure enough attendance has greatly improved and I’m having a lot of fun with the group, ranging in age from six to 15.  It seems some project ideas are worth more than one try.

Kids books en Español

#Third World Problems (of a first world girl)

I have a feeling this segment may repeat in future entries.  Enjoy!

- I can’t wash my hair at night because if I go to sleep with it wet, my pillowcase will mold over.

- I hike 45 minutes to ask someone a quick question.

- Those roosters are so loud.

- I finish showering and step out into mud.

- My housemates are toads, cockroaches, ants, and spiders.

- I mow the lawn with a machete.

- I don’t refrigerate things that say “refrigerate after opening”

- Vomiting into a latrine is even less fun than vomiting into a toilet.

- The flat board on which I hand wash my clothes gets them dirty.

- I don’t want to burn my trash, so I carry it out with me to trash cans in the city.

- The floor of my house gets wet when I shower outside.

- My tan lines are so weird.

- When the wind blows, my shower curtain flies open.

- It’s 2am and I really have to pee, but it’s pouring rain.

Misc. Photos

So many kids in line for so many free toys from random politicians

The mom tried so hard to get this kid to smile.  No way!

My favorite baby.

Pretty pineapple

Meeting about reducing the price of our chiva (public transit consisting of glorified pick-up trucks).  This got quite ugly at some point.

Harvesting coffee in a Panamanian fanny pack called a churruca

New Year, Same Blog

Navidad

I had a lovely Christmas.  Christmas Eve or “Noche Buena” seems to be more important out here than Christmas day itself.  Families typically stay up making food and enjoy a big meal when the clock strikes midnight.  My up the hill neighbors invited me to share this night with them.  Despite my usual sundown bedtime, I fought my sleepiness and made the vertical climb to celebrate, and I’m glad I did.  Several of the couple’s sons who live and work out in the city were home visiting for the holiday.   There was plenty of food (apparently grapes and apples are a typical Christmas treat here), a few cold beers (the sons brought in a cooler full of ice!), and the traditional abundance of deafening fire crackers.  At midnight they recited a short & sweet prayer and shook each other’s hands, wishing all a feliz navidad.   I even witnessed a few hugs and kisses, which were really nice to see considering how little physical affection campo Panamanians usually show each other.

Xmas with the neighbors

They kept asking if Christmas is celebrated on the same day in my country.  I replied “yes, and many people there celebrate Christmas, but my family doesn’t because we’re Jewish.”  Blank stares in return.  Sigh.

I’d heard that there would be some activity at the church on Christmas day, but that didn’t happen for whatever reason.  So I spent some more time with the up the hill neighbors and then set to work on my garden, taking some breaks to talk to the occasional visitor passing by.

For Christmas, I made myself a garden!

A few days later the preschool/kindergarten kids had a Christmas party.  Why?  Because there was money leftover in the budget that needed to be spent.  So instead of using the extra funds for school related resources, which are forever lacking, the parents decided to spend it on what they do best: awkward parties with excessive amounts of food.  So they all got together, cooked all morning, served lunch with the special treat of cake brought in from the city, and gave the kids presents.  These consisted of bags chock-full of candy bought with the school funds and donated toys from some random nice guy who felt like delivering gifts to the campo.  Among the goodies included Rubik’s cubes.  People asked me what this was, and I had no idea how to say Rubik’s cube in Spanish, but I explained the general gist of what you do with it.  I saw a few of the preschoolers break the cheap plastic before the event was over. 

Preschool Xmas Party

"What is this thing?"

People kept asking me what I thought of the event.  I politely told them I liked to see the kids enjoy themselves.  I didn’t tell them I thought the whole thing was a waste of money, providing the kids with toys and unhealthy food they don’t need (they receive plenty of other Christmas toys from various campaigning government officials).  Perhaps I can relay my thoughts in a more appropriate manner when I give my upcoming presentation on money management.  I’ve been working on a new slogan to counter the common practice of immediate spending: “Ahorre ahora, y le servirá para siempre,” which translates to something like: "Save now, and you'll have for forever.” -- Thanks for the idea, Erica :)

(Mis)-Communication

Multiple times recently I attempted to take on the role of town crier, hiking all over the hills to deliver time-relevant information.  When local events involve the participation of people coming in from the outside, there is always a chance that these people simply won’t make it.  Possibly due to rain, illness, or whatever other reason they have to be no-shows.  When they realize they can’t come out, communicating this to all who expected to meet them is nearly impossible.  Examples include meetings with government officials to receive free Christmas gifts for all students enrolled at the school (cancelled twice, rescheduled finally for January 3^rd), meetings with a social group helping to advocate for lower public transport costs (cancelled the day of, rescheduled for a week later but with record low attendance), and meetings with the first lady’s organization to work on the school garden (cancelled twice, rescheduled for January 8^th, again with low attendance). 

Sometimes, I am on the tail end of receiving these communications.  I left my house and started walking toward the meeting on transport costs and was met by a few people who said they’d heard it wasn’t happening.  They didn’t know where the information came from, why it was cancelled, or if it would be rescheduled.  Many were not as lucky as me and waiting at the meeting spot for hours before realizing the meeting was a no-go.  When the meeting did take place a week later, much of the original group did not go because they weren’t convinced that it was a sure thing.

The first lady’s organization communicates directly through me, but also fairly last minute.  The afternoon before a scheduled school garden work day I was contacted to change the date.  So I tried to tell as many people as I could and hoped the message would spread to those I didn’t reach.  It’s not just that I feel bad if they waste work time to walk over to a meeting that’s not happening, but also that when the actual event does happen, I want people to have faith and show up.  My fear was validated on January 8^th when the garden program coordinator finally arrived about two hours late and was met by a very small group who was willing to risk another wasted day.

The garden crew weeded while waiting for the coordinator, 2 hours late

It’s just so crazy to me that so much communication relies upon happening to run into the right person at the right time with the most accurate, up-to-date information.  It’s times like these when I miss cell phone signal…

Medical Care

I recently saw an old woman being carried on a sheet held up by two branches and two strong men from a neighboring community about 45 minutes away.  An ambulance was called and without too much of a delay the woman was taken out to a hospital.  Thankfully she turned out to be okay (she’d had some form of stomach virus), but seeing that made me really realize how hard it is to access medical care out here for some people.

An adorable two-year-old girl has been hospitalized for three weeks due to a scorpion sting.  This girl belongs to one of my favorite families.  Awesome, hard-working, nice parents.  Good kids although I’ve seen the young teenage guys a bit too drunk a few times.  The scorpion was hiding in Meliza’s little shoe when she went to put it on.  While scorpion stings hurt adults worse than a bee sting, they can be lethal for small kids.  So out she went to the children’s hospital in Panama City.  We got inconsistent updates due to lack of cell phone signal on both ends.  We were very relieved when word came that she was finally beginning to recover after days of no improvement, but she has yet to be released.  Hospital stays like this hit families hard.  Hospitals can charge about $30 per night, and out here that is considered a lot.  Additional tests and procedures add to the bill.

I will soon be giving a money management seminar here and will emphasize the need to save for emergencies like this.  People here are not future thinkers.  There is a Panamanian saying that translates to “when there’s food, you eat.”  This explains why people here eat ridiculously large quantities at some meals even when it’s impossible that they’re still actually hungry.  They also seem to follow this way of thinking when it comes to alcohol where there is no such thing as moderation or just getting tipsy instead of plastered and finishing the whole bottle of hard liquor, as well as for money.  When money comes in, it is quickly spent without hesitation.  I’ve informally discussed money management with a few families.  One couple newly expecting a baby girl showed me a piggy bank recently acquired to start saving up for the coming arrival.  This made me so happy I immediately donated to the fund to show my support.  Without bank accounts, piggy banks are about as good of a substitute as I can expect.

For New Years I got an Erica Goldman!

Welcome 2013!  I can’t believe how fast time is flying.  I’ve been living in Panama eight months now with a year and a half to go.  The last year had some crazy ups and downs, especially during the time when the Peace Corps cancelled last-minute my ecotourism assignment to Guatemala and left me in limbo for weeks before offering me Panama’s sustainable agriculture program.  But I’m happy here, and find that things always manage to work out, and that I can always make the best out of whatever comes my way.  For me, the entire year of 2013 will be spent living in Panama.  A little daunting, but mostly exciting.  I feel like it’ll all be over before I know it.

I got to bring in the New Year with my second adventurous visitor, one Erica Goldman!  Erica has been travelling the world for months and I’m honored she squeezed me in to her busy agenda before her next big stop, three months in Israel.

NYE in Panama City

We started the trip doing something I rarely do down here: being tourists!  We toured the Panama Canal visitor’s center, wandered around Casco Viejo, and then headed out of town to the beach.

Canal  Miraflores locks

Casco Viejo

Beach

After the mini-vacation, we trekked back to site.  We spent the week attending community events, playing with kids, promoting my upcoming training sessions, and of course pasear-ing.

playing with the neighbors

hiking to a nearby community

Visiting host-family #1

Fitting right in

I am SO GRATEFUL to Erica for her open-minded attitude and willingness to go with the flow of my campo life.  To read about her recent adventures check out her blog: http://readdancebliss.blogspot.com/.  I miss you already, Erica!  Thanks for a "Panamazing" week :)