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?"

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!

Volunteer Visit

Since you can only learn so much about Peace Corps in a classroom, trainees are sent to visit volunteers in the campo pretty early on so that they can get a taste of what life is really like.  For many, this may be their first time living in such basic conditions in such close proximity to extreme poverty, so it can be a little overwhelming.  Thankfully, that's what us volunteers are there for- to provide a nice little gateway!  

Last year I spent my trainee visit with Carly in what would eventually become my province of Bocas del Toro, and this year I was excited to host my very own trainees- Whitney and Megan!  

Like me, both Whitney and Megan have much deeper backgrounds in business than in agricultural production, so they too will be serving in a site more focused on agribusiness.  Though we packed the week full of activities, I made sure to warn them that life as a volunteer isn't usually that busy :)

During our first day, we spent the morning visiting my neighbors Juan and Lucia, who let us help take the fibers out of pita, a plant grown for just that.  Once she dries the long fibers, Lucia will then color them and wind them into thick strings which will be used to make the traditional chacara bags.  

After that, we hiked up to my host family's house, where I showed them the reality of life here- no water, electricity, or bathrooms.  Since that's always a little tougher to see (especially when you know that you're getting ready to be living in just such a place), we kept things light and then went to bake a cake with the grandma of one of my favorite families.  

To continue on with the baking trend, we used our sugar high to lead one of my baking and business classes, where we made coconut cake.  The huge slices afterwards almost made up for skipping lunch... almost.  

On Day 2 we focused on preparing and giving Part 1 of my Agribusiness Charla Series: Personal Finances.  Even though the rain gave us a small turnout, it was great to have help from not only Megan and Whitney, but also my neighboring volunteer Travis and his trainee, Nick.  I don't think my people have ever seen so many foreigners all together at once!  

The next morning we heated up our newly toasted cacao and made some delicious chocolates with some of the random stuff on hand.  If you can think of a delicious combination of chocolate, PB, coconut, carmel, coffee, sea salt, honey, and/or maple syrup, chances are we made it.  Best morning ever.  

We spent that afternoon hiking through cacao farms to get to our larger neighboring town where the girls purchased artisan goods from the group I've been working with the last few months.  

To send them off, we spent a rainy Saturday morning baking birthday cakes for a birthday party which, sadly, they had to miss in order to catch their bus back to Panama City. 

All in all, it was a great week filled with awesome food and good company.  I'll be looking forward to visiting Megan and Whitney in their future sites, wherever they may be, though of course I'll be crossing my fingers for Bocas :)

IST and Chocolate Week

In February I headed to Cocle, a province in central Panama, for our in-service training. During the first week everyone from Group 73 was reunited as we went to sessions related to grant writing, youth development, gender and cultural issues, and dealing with domestic violence. The SAS program also had some time together to cover ag-related topics and take a few field trips to visit agencies and a pretty dang cool organic farm. Though the days were long and packed full of activities and information, it was great to see volunteers who are normally so far from me, and the information couldn't have come at a better time; I'm feeling much more inspired for my work in site!

Getting ready to drink some locally grown and processed cane-sugar juice

Cane sugar "honey" and the farmer who made it

Since we all work in such diverse projects, we split up for the second week of training so that we focus more on the topics that matter most to us. Lucky for me, that meant spending a week learning all about cocoa, complete with cooking experiments and a "Create your own chocolate bar" activity. Have I mentioned that I love the perks of my job?

 home-made chocolate chips

Carly, the volunteer I visited during Pre-Service Training last year, is actually the National Cocoa Coordinator and hosted the majority of Cocoa Week in her site in Bocas del Toro. Since there were only 6 volunteers in training and 2 volunteer trainers, week 2 was also that much more intimate and laid back, which was a welcome break.  Though I was anxious about staying with host families again, I got paired with a super nice family who remembered me from my last visit. Not only did they cook me awesome food and provide good company, but they even sent me home with a bag of homegrown veggies, chocolate, and coffee!

In the mornings we focused on the various agricultural aspects of cocoa- everything from grafting and pruning to harvesting and a-sexual propagation, and in the afternoons we spent more time on the processing side of things. Obviously this mandated cooking projects and plenty of taste testing. The best part is, that kind of stuff isn't just for fun. This coming week I'll be using one of my new chocolate recipes to teach women in my site how to bake (and sell) birthday cakes!

Visiting COCABO, the local Cocoa co-operative, and learning about bean quality

Apparently the week was going a little too well for me though, because 2 or 3 days in I got sick with parasite-type symptoms and had to go to the doctor to get it checked out. Though I certainly never want to be sick, there's some sort of an odd satisfaction you get from getting a diagnosis of something other than "Maybe you just ate something bad." At least that's certainly how I felt when I got to add a new notch to my internal parasite belt, this time with a pretty nasty Protozoa. Thankfully, a few days worth of pills and I'm all recovered... For now.

Overall, Cocoa Week was a big (and welcome) catch-up to many of the knowledge and skills I was lacking, and I'm looking forward to putting what I learned to use in my site. I now have a small but dedicated group of farmers that I'll be focusing a little more time and energy on, and we're planning to do farm inventories and an introduction to record keeping in the coming months. Seeing as though this will be completely new information and ideas to everyone, it sure looks like I have my work cut out for me!

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!