Party on the East Side

One of the aspects I love most about Panama is the incredible diversity you can find in such a small geographic area, and since Panama is a pretty safe and stable country, we have over 200 volunteers scattered through many of the different cities, towns, villages, and indigenous reserves.  

When volunteers move to and integrate into these host communities, we develop a sense of local pride and belonging- a feeling that we´re usually all too eager to share with anyone who will take the time to get to know the people and places we´ve come to love and identify with.  

So it´s probably no surprise that my favorite part of my job as Regional Leader has been to visit volunteers in their communities and get to know a little more about their local culture and customs- which can truly vary even amongst communities less than an hour´s walk away from each other!  

While I usually make one-on-one visits for work, I also really look forward to bigger events and festivities.  Peace Corps (Panama) volunteers are a really amazing group of smart, fun, and kind people that I love spending time with, so I was especially excited to participate in one of the biggest events we´ve ever hosted in my region- the Anniversary of the founding of the Emberá-Wounaan reservation in Panama.  

To clarify- Peace Corps didn´t host the event.  The locals have a lot of pride in their culture (as they should!) and celebrate this important milestone in a large indigenous community located a three hour boat ride down the Pacific coast and up the Sambu river.  One of my friends, Nico, lives there and has a talent for organization and event planning, so he invited PCVs from all over the country to come and celebrate with the village.  

Around thirty volunteers made the long trek out here to hang out in Sambu and I think it´s pretty safe to say a great time was had by all.  There was tons of festival food (jungle meat on a stick anyone? How about some home-made alcoholic corn beverage?), cultural presentations (historic music and dances by them, and a historic dance/wobble mix up by us), contests (breath holding contest, tug-of-war, barefoot running, and a drinking contest), and plenty of time to spend with friends both new and old.  The locals even took us under their wing and painted intricate designs on all of us with jagua- a paint similar to henna thats made from local fruits and lasts 1-2 weeks.  

Even though I spent most of my Peace Corps service with a completely different indigenous group (the Ngäbe) across the country in Bocas del Toro, I´ve come to look on Darien with a similar fondness and affinity.  I´m so thankful for the opportunity to share my new province with so many of my friends and fellow volunteers, and I´m especially glad that we were able to contribute to the sense of local pride and identity,  A friend of mine recently ran into an indigenous woman in Panama city who hadn´t been able to make it home for the celebrations.  Even all the way in the city she had heard about all of the volunteers who had come out to show their support, and told my friend that it made her and many fellow Emberá especially proud of their heritage.  How awesome is that?

Business on the Beach

As I wrote about a few months ago, in addition to working as a community volunteer, I was also selected to serve as Peace Corps Panama’s Agribusiness Coordinator for the west side of the country.  It’s no secret I love to travel and meet new people, so I’ve really been loving my new job, which is essentially that plus business education- great, right?  I get work-related leave + travel expenses to visit volunteers on the west side of the country (Bocas del Toro, the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, and Veraguas) and help out with any type of business or finance education/projects that are going on in their communities.

One of the four Peace Corps programs currently working in Panama is Environmental Health, which builds aqueducts and latrines and works in health & sanitation.  Many of those volunteers (there are about 50 in Panama and 15 in my region alone) are required to hold Water Committee Seminars in their site to teach community leaders organizations and basic skills in water system construction, maintenance, and basic finance.  Since I’ve been begging asking people to invite me to their sites, I’ve gotten to help with the organization and finance sections of several different seminars in my region. 

A few weeks ago my friend Colleen stayed with me on the way to help out with my neighbor, Travis’s, site and brought her pup, Oso (“bear”).  Of course, when she invited me to spend a weekend in her site, Massy couldn’t be left behind. 

Our gas station brought a whole new meaning to "on the water"

Since he hates being left behind, he loved actually getting to go along this time.  He was such a champ with the boat ride and new environment, and he loved the beach.  The seminar was two days, and while Colleen, Dylan (a new Environmental Health volunteer), and I taught different topics during the day, Massy and Oso waited patiently for the afternoons which they knew would bring walks to the beach.  

Colleen's site is awesome- it's situated on a peninsula between a bay and the beach, and thanks to it's convenient location there are several community groups working on establishing eco-tourism programs.  There's even a restaurant on the beach!  Our charlas went really well and I'm looking forward to returning and seeing how I can help the tourism groups.  

In the meantime, you should check out Colleen's blog.  It's a beautifully written blog full of photography and intriguing  posts about life in her community that really captures the essence of being a volunteer in this part of Panama.  

Visiting My New Home

After two months of torturous waiting while in Panama, I finally found out that I’ll be spending the next two years working in a small indigenous community in Bocas del Toro,  and I couldn’t be more excited.  My community members grow cocoa, coffee, and bananas and my primary responsibilities will be to help them improve their products, identify buyers, establish contracts, and teach basic business and financial management skills.  

I’ll also be working to support a women’s artisan group, improve community gardens, potentially start a small agro-tourism project, and facilitate English/ngäbere language classes (English for them and  ngäbere for me!)

This past week I actually got to visit my community, and it could not have been a more exciting or humbling experience.  During an introductory meeting, each person in attendance stood up one by one, introduced him or herself, and then told me how thankful he or she was that I had come to live and work with them.  They told me that since I had made the sacrifice of leaving my family and culture, they wanted to be a new family for me, and that they promised to protect me and help me throughout the next two years.  Hearing such encouraging sentiments almost made me cry- it was like I had gained a huge family of aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins in less than half an hour. 

 Cocoa trees

 Viveros (Tree nurseries) for local plants

Not everyone in my community was able to make it to the meeting though, so one of my neighbors offered to take me “pasearing” in order to start trying to get to know more people.  To pasear means to walk around, let yourself in to a neighbor’s home or porch, and have a little chat with them.  Whereas Americans might consider this type of behavior inconsiderate, it’s seen as rude if you don’t pasear here in Panama.  Each family I visited offered me some type of food or drink, and by the morning’s end my belly was filled to the brim with locally grown coffee, hot chocolate, bananas, rice, and other delicious snacks. 

 

A fish tank project sponsored by MIDA, the national agricultural development agency

While the entire week was filled with fun moments and good conversation, my favorite memory was a prayer I overheard while in bed one night.  One of the community members who had graciously offered me a room for the week was saying his evening prayers, in which he thanked God for bringing me to them and asked that He keep me safe and happy over the next two years and beyond.  I don’t think I can put into words how that simple prayer made me feel because it is I who is truly blessed and humbled by this experience. 

I’ll be permanently moving to my site in two weeks, and I can’t wait to get to work and to share with you what the next two years hold!