Stakeholders & Ice Cream

I think it's pretty obvious that I love my job as a National Agribusiness Coordinator for Peace Corps Panama.  So far I've spent most of my time doing community visits, training new volunteers, and developing materials.  A few weeks ago I had another great work opportunity- I was invited to be a part of the semi-annual Stakeholder's meeting for Peace Corps Panama's Sustainable Agricultural Systems program! 

About 20 stakeholders gathered for 3 days in Santiago, Veraguas to talk about how we can work together and plan projects for the upcoming year.  There was a great group of people present that I was really excited to work with- my boss, Aimee, the other coordinators (Zoe for Cacao, Jed for Fish and Rice Tanks, and Elena for Agribusiness,) a few other volunteers to represent all regions of Panama, several community members, and representatives from many of the Panamanian agencies that we work with.  

Zoe and I with our Bocas del Toro MIDA Representative

After Elena and I presented a short informational session on Peace Corps' agribusiness program, we were excited to talk to various representatives from the Department of Agriculture, MIDA, about the many ways in which we can work together.  We even solidified a great work plan in Bocas in which I'll get to co-facilitate 11 agribusiness seminars in communities that MIDA is financially supporting.

  

And it wouldn't have been a Peace Corps gathering if certificates weren't handed out and copious amounts of ice cream wasn't eaten- so we made sure to take care of both of those things.  Can 6 volunteers put away 2 half gallons of ice cream and 6 frozen snickers bars in one setting?  Why yes, yes we can.