Changes

Welcoming our new volunteers after their Swear In Ceremony

Three months ago I said goodbye to my sweet little community in Bocas del Toro and moved across the country to start my new job as the Regional Coordinator for Darien and Panama Este. 

My days have been filled with site visits, meetings with communities and development agencies, adjusting to life outside the campo, and so, so many smoothies. While I'm still getting used to the loud noises of "city life" (there's a busy road right in front of my house) and miss my friends and nearly endless supply of fresh chocolate, life in the Darien has gotten off to a good start. 

As an update to this blog about accepting my new position a few months back, here's what I'm up to nowadays:

Visiting volunteers-  Volunteer support is a big part of my new role as Regional Leader, so I make a point to visit volunteers in their sites and listen to whats going on- the good, the bad, and the ugly (Peace Corps volunteers can have some of  the grossest issues imaginable.)  I also like to meet a few community members while I'm there, since seeing their love and respect for their volunteer is one of the sweetest things to brighten up my day. 

Hosting volunteers- Since I live in the regional hub, many volunteers stay at my house on the way into or out of their sites.  It can  be really challenging and stressful to serve as a volunteer in remote access sites, so I love to surprise visitors with homemade dinners or a package of cookies to go.  Massy has taken to his role as house dog quite well and also likes to encourage volunteers with ample snuggles and excited tail waggles. 

 

He seems to be adapting quite nicely.

Developing relationships with development agencies and NGOs- Peace Corps volunteers come into their communities with little to no money for projects, with the goal of obtaining locally sustainable projects and funding.  Oftentimes we work as the link between our rural communities and Panamanian and/or international development agencies.  When campaigning for your cause, it always helps to have an in with the people that make decisions about what communities receive projects, so another big part of my job is building relationships between Peace Corps and these gatekeepers and decision-makers.  I've had to completely re-learn how to network, since many of the things that would be a definite "No" in the United States are very common here.  For example, it is very common to text about business , use personal email addresses and phone numbers, and to start a meeting without asking all about the other person's family, children, birthday party that happened last week would be considered rude.  My personal secret weapon to Panamanian agency relations?  Bringing a home baked cake.  It works every time.

Planning regional events- In addition to quarterly meetings for all regional volunteers and office representatives, I also plan agency visits and fun volunteer activities.  Peace Corps Panama volunteers generally get together after each regional meeting to do something fun and spend time together.  Regions like Bocas del Toro and Cocle (and essentially every province except for Darien) have beautiful beaches, but out here on the East side we have to be slightly more creative.  So, every few months we host a big goat roast.  It's a fun day filled with cooking, friends, and so much food, and it  was my job to plan it.  I kept waiting on something to ruin it (there's no way I could get lucky enough for it to turn out well the first time...) but other than our goat arriving 3 hours later and 30 pounds heavier than promised, it was a great day. 

 The Darien + Este volunteers

 

Goat Roast Time!

Scouting for future Peace Corps communities- One of my favorite parts of this job has been to see all of the work that goes into preparing a community before the volunteer even arrives in country.  In Panama, communities must formally request a volunteer and then host town meetings to present the future host family and community guide to Peace Corps representatives.  Seeing their anticipation and calming their worries has been one of the sweetest and most eye-opening experiences thus far.

"What if they don't like our food?" 

"You're sure it's okay we can't give them electricity?" 

"Can the blue-eyed ones see in the dark like cats?"

"Are they going to get married and have babies and live here forever?"

Oftentimes I feel like volunteers (myself included) can get so wrapped up in their own experiences that we forget that our new neighbors and community members have also worked and sacrificed so that we can be part of their families and homes. As I help to prepare communities to receive volunteers, I appreciate so much more my own community.  I may have a new house across the country, but my sweet village will always be my Panamanian home.   

Hiking into a new Peace Corps community

3 Years in Panama

A few weeks ago I wrote about visiting the Darien (you can read about it here, here, here, here, and here), which was one of the coolest trips that I've gotten to do here in Panama.  In my blogs I talked about hiking through the infamous jungles of the Darien, visiting cool beaches and eating tons of delicious food, teaching about chocolate and business (2 of my favorite things) to the wonderful gente, and learning about the interesting and beautiful culture of the Emberá and Wounaan indigenous tribes.  What I didn't mention is that I had somewhat of an ulterior motive for the trip...

Peace Corps has volunteers in just about every region of Panama and though the country isn't much bigger than South Carolina, it takes a lot of work and travel to support over 200 volunteers in 9 very different and distinct provinces.  Since our office staff is limited in both personnel and location (the office is in Panama City, which is up to 14 hours of travel from the most remote sites), each province has a Regional Leader.  

Regional Leaders (RLs) are 3rd year volunteers selected by the Country Director to work in a variety of roles within each province.  RLs locate and prepare communities to be future Peace Corps sites, offer organizational and emotional support to volunteers, assist with safety and security issues, act as liaisons between Peace Corps and partner government and NGO agencies, and host regional meetings for volunteers, staff, and agencies every four months.  

Though I have always loved working with the Bocas RLs, I didn't start considering the job for myself until a few months ago.  Similar to the thought process that led me to Peace Corps in the first place, I began outlining what I wanted for myself personally and professionally when my service ends in July/August of this year.  

I love living in the jungle, but I'm also quite ready to have some modern amenities back.  Electricity? A refrigerator? Smoothies?? Internet?! Ah, yes.  I'm quite ready for those.  But am I ready to give up this beautiful, multi-cultural experience I'm having? Not quite yet.  

The more research I did, the more I realized that the Regional Leader position was just what I wanted.  I would get to live in a regional capital with access to most of the amenities that I'm missing, work in a more official and professional role with the national office and local and international government agencies, and still have frequent travel to the remote Peace Corps and potential Peace Corps sites I love so much.  

So how does the Darien play into that?  Once I decided to apply, I knew that during my interview I'd be asked about what region I wanted to work in.  While they obviously prefer to have RLs work in the same region they served in, there's usually some shifting around due to candidates and their work styles and preferences.  Since I knew one of my best Peace Corps friends from Bocas was also applying and wanted to stay in Bocas, I took that as an opportunity to look around and think a little more about where I would want to spend my 3rd year in Panama.  

Panama's cultural diversity beautiful ecological landscape make that quite a hard choice, but when I thought about which province intrigued me the most, it became quite easy- the Darien.  However, having never visited the area, it seemed pretty naive to ask to move there, hence my tour of the area.  

And herein lies the big news- An incredible week of travel and a great interview later, I'm very excited to accept my new position as the Darien Regional Leader and can't wait to move out there and get started in July.  Though my new job won't affect my current position at all, it does mean that I'll be in Panama a year longer than I thought.  I know that that's bittersweet news to my friends and family back home, but I'm sure that a month long US trip in December will help that a little bit.  

Accepting the new job has made the end of my service in Bocas feel a lot more concrete, and that's bittersweet for me as well.  I have loved the time I've had here and look forward to another great year!  

From Bocas to Darien- and Massy's coming too! 

Darien Part 5: We did some work too

Charlie and I teach about how you can use your cook fire as an oven

Charlie's community was awesome- over 40 people came to our Baking & Business class!

"So now we wait?" ... "Yes, but it's worth it."

Since my trip to the Darien was work-based, we made sure to plan some charlas in local communities.  After talking to the two agriculture volunteers, we decided to do an Introduction to Cacao/Baking and Business hybrid for Charlie's community and a Personal Finance session for the women in Sam's.  

Since both were sessions that I've taught multiple times, I was able to relax a little bit more and get to know the communities.  Since I generally work with groups of people that tend to be a little more shy and reserved, it was awesome to introduce topics to the outgoing Emberá.  As it turns out, they have cacao trees, but almost nobody knows how to care for them or process the beans into chocolate.  

And then this perfect Peace Corps moment happened:

Older gentleman: "There's this fungus that grows on my cacao and burns it.  Does anyone else have that problem?"

Me: "Actually, it's a fungus called Monilia and it's all over Central America."

Older gentleman: "Well I want to be better, so what can I do to control it?"

Me: "You can cut the damaged cacao pods off the trees because they're permanently damaged and can spread the disease to other pods."

Older gentleman: "Hm.  Well if they can spread, shouldn't I also bury them?"

YES!!!

Though it may not seem like that big of a deal, I can't put into words how frustrated I've gotten trying to get cacao farmers in my area to adopt simple techniques in the past year.  It's a fight just to convince them how beneficial cutting damaged pods off their trees can be- so to have a farmer come up with the idea of then burying them (which is ideal!!) was super encouraging.  

Panamanians love skits.  They think we're hilarious no matter what we do, so when Sam came out in a women's paruma skirt and I came out in a men's loincloth, they just about lost it.  

Cash flow practice

One of the ice-breakers we played was telephone... though I'm not sure they quite understood how to play since we ended up with the phrase (in Emberá) "What do we say now?"

Darien Part 4: And Then They Painted Me

One of the aspects of my Darien visit that I was most looking forward to was getting to experience an indigenous culture so different than the one I live in.  I had heard tons of great things about the Embera and Wounaan people from other volunteers: that they're friendly, open people, the women still don parumas everyday, they feed you a lot of food, and that you can (especially on special occasions) get painted with jagua- a dark blue dye made from a small fruit.  Similar to henna, these faux tattoos last 1-2 weeks before fading away on their own.  Said to have both medicinal and bug repellant properties, jagua was originally used as a type of camouflage to aid with jungle hunts.  Today this tradition is used mostly on special occasions and holidays and can be quite intricate and beautiful.  

Since I didn't know if I'd have the chance to return to the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan, I was determined to get painted during my short visit.  Though I'm sure the guys were tired of my daily inquisitions of the who/when/how/how much of jagua, it finally paid off and I talked a sweet Emberá woman into painting me on my last day. 

The local women's group making tortillas for a fundraiser

Jagua paint

The jagua is painted on with small sticks, cloths, and/or fingers.  While at first the design doesn't appear to be very dark, it deepens into a deep navy overnight.  Since I don't have any tattoos- and especially not full sleeves or leg pieces, I wasn't used to the range of reactions I've gotten since getting painted.  I've seen everything from disgust to looks of being intimidated to outright impressed. While sometimes it's been a little trying to be so obviously judged on a superficial element in which the observer usually doesn't even understand, it's been both eyeopening and quite entertaining.  As your mom always told you, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."  :)

My sweet little Bocas neighbors modeling some of the handwoven masks I bought in the Darien.

If you want to learn more about the Emberá or see cool photos of life in the Darien, you should check out Nick's blog here.

Darien Part 2: Taimati + Cemaco

It didn’t take me very long to experience the beautiful yet frustrating transportation situation that faces many of the Darien volunteers- boats, and unreliable ones at that.  On our first day we knew we needed to take a ~2 hour boat ride to Taimati and were told that the boat, which leaves only once per week, would likely leave around 8 am.  Shortly after 9 am, we set off… only to purposefully beach ourselves about 30 minutes from our destination so that we could wait for high tide to roll in.  A 2 hour mid-trip delay isn’t exactly convenient, but when you spend that delay stuck at a beach exploring mangroves and drinking fresh coconut water with friends, it doesn’t seem too terribly bad. 

Shortly before 2 pm we arrived in Taimati and the massive food onslaught began.  Having spent my first few months in site going hungry most days and losing 15 pounds from not getting fed, getting this type of treatment from host families and locals was great.  Austin even told me that sometimes he gets two lunches a day! 

After exploring the beaches of Taimati and getting to know some of the neighbors, we spent the next day visiting Matt in Cemaco.  Even though the two towns are only a 30 minute walk apart, they’re really different.  Whereas Taimati is a mostly latino town that’s slightly more developed with cement houses, electricity, and parks, Cemaco is a Wounan village that reminded me a lot of what mine might look like if all of the houses were centrally located. 

Before we knew it, it was December 8- Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day is arguably one of the biggest holidays in Panama and many towns celebrate with communal dinners, dances, and gift giving.  I was a little sad to be missing out on my own site’s Mother’s Day festivities, but most of that sadness went away when Austin’s host sister brought us back a plate of food from the party- fried rice with beef, potato salad, apples, and cake.  And that was on top of the already large lunch and dinner that had already been cooked for us! The locals gave us a good excuse for eating all that food though- we were going to need the energy for our big hike coming up the next day! 

The Other Side of the Jungle

Before I moved to Panamá to become a Peace Corps volunteer, I never would have guessed how incredibly diverse such a small country can be.  Panama possesses a wealth of both ecological and cultural aspects that could keep you busy for years just trying to get to know.  I’ve loved being able to take advantage of any opportunity to see the many different sides of Panama during my past year and a half year, and this past week got to experience one of my favorite regions so far- the Darien. 

Darien is the province that borders Columbia and is notorious for being one of the only countries in the world without a (legally) passable land border.  The roads literally just end, and if you want to explore the vast jungle on the eastern side of the country, you’ll have to go by boat, foot, or plane. 

The Darien also contains two Comarcas- Panama’s indigenous reservations.  While they technically are not a part of the Darien, since the Comarca Emberá-Wounan regions 1 and 2 are surrounded on all sides by the province and can be referred to as being “in the Darien.” 

Having spent much of my time in Panamá getting to know the language, history, and culture of the Ngäbe people in the west, I was especially excited to finally meet the notoriously outgoing indigenous people of the east- the Embera and the Wounan.  Though I do love my sweet Ngäbes, I was blown away by the hospitality and friendliness of my new eastern friends. 

From great hosts (both volunteers and locals!) to productive work days and the most food I’ve ever eaten in Panama, the time I spent in the Darien might just make up one of my favorite trips so far.  After all, how could it not be- just look at the week! 

Friday: Bus to Meteti to stay at the Peace Corps Regional Leader’s house

Saturday: Boat out to Taimati, a latino town overlooking a beautiful bay

Sunday: Visit Cemaco, a neighboring Wounan site

Monday: Mother’s Day celebrations in Taimati

Tuesday: Hike to the Embera town of La Chunga

Wednesday: Boat to Rio Indio and hike to Daipuru to give a seminar on chocolate

Thursday: Hike to Bayamon to give a personal finance seminar

Friday: Spend time with a women’s artisan group & get painted in Rio Indio

Saturday: Begin the 29 hour journey back to Bocas with a 3 am boat ride…

So maybe that last day wasn’t so great, but other than that I had great trip that I can’t wait to share!  Tons of thanks to the volunteers out there who helped me all along the way: Austin, Matt, Nick, Charlie, and Sam- you guys are awesome!