Distance

Franciso Abrego was unsure about me, and that made me a little unsure about him. The way his cheek bones jut out and his chin fades into his neck gives his thin face the shape of an upside-down triangle. His face looks all the more severe on the rare occasion you get a glimpse of his large teeth, one of which is gold. There have been friendlier faces.

One thing I tend to forget about QP is how much change has happened there in so short a time. Fifteen years ago, all transport out was by boat, meaning several hours of paddling in dug-out canoe. People left rarely, and when they did, it was to get essentials they couldn´t find within the community. The only people who came and left with any regularity were the Latino teachers, who taught Monday-Friday in the grade school.

Today Bocas´ highway (and only road) cuts through the center of the community. Many people go into town weekly, if not more often, and are used to seeing different faces in Almirante and elsewhere. That´s a lot of change in fifteen years, and naturally, certain residents of QP are more ¨old-fashioned¨and conservative than others. Francisco Abrego was one of them.

I shouldn´t have been surprised when he was a little reluctant about my presence in the community at first. His daughters responded to my greetings while he stayed silent. He cast his eyes downward as as I passed, and made himself scarce if I hung around talking to the girls for more than a few seconds. It quickly became clear he was mistrustful of me and unreceptive to the ¨Project Friendship¨campaign I was rolling out during my first few months in site. I chalked him up for a loss. I can ony woo so many people with my special mix of Miss Congeniality friendliness and Rosie the Riviter get-to-work gumption.

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Almost a year later, I looked up at Señor Abrego from a six-foot depth. I was inside his latrine hole, digging away with a work group of five others guys.

¨I bet you never thought you´d have a gringa doing this for you,¨ I joked. A chuckle burst out of him, and I caught a glimpse of that gold tooth. It is much less intimidating now.

At the next juice break, he, usually the quietest member of any group, started telling us a story. ¨My father was terrified of anyone who wasn´t Ngobe, becuase he´d never really known another race. He taught me to be that way too,¨ he said. ¨I remember the first time we ever saw a plane fly over. He told us all to run and hide. For sure a war would start. He thought the gringoes would invade.¨

Franciso can´t read or write and never went to school. He farms the same land his father did, and understands much more Ngobere than Spanish. Though he may be uneducated, imagine how much he´s allowed himself to learn, for his world view to shift. That has to be a greater idealogical jump than most Americans make in a life time, for to go from fear to greeting a gringa that morning with 15 happy ¨Kuin deka!¨s (Good morning in Ngobere), a smile sweeping across his face. And to a person who he once might have thought an invader or threat, he gave the best piece of fish at lunch.

From Panama Pura Vida

From Panama Pura Vida

From Panama Pura Vida

Fran, far right

When was the last time you felt so free?

This kid is mischievous, but he´s always blowing me kisses and yelling ¨Cuidate, Cati!¨ Take care of yourself! So I can´t hold a grudge, plus, he´s got some killer moves.

From Panama Pura Vida

Click on it to view. I wish I knew how to rotate videos. Sorry if you get a neck cramp. I uploaded a ton of other photos too, so take a look.

Panama Pura Vida

Water Seminars Cont´d

A volunteer couple, who by all measures were PC superheroes, conceived the idea of training water committees in a more organized, professional way and wrote new lesson plans and expanded on others to create a comprehensive seminar. In the last couple of years, it has evolved to the point where groups of volunteers are putting them on all around the country. We recently put one on out here in Bocas, with five communities participating. I could only get one member of my water committee to go, but I brought along two others who were grateful for the opportunity and seem motivated to bring some of their knowledge back to our wobbly aqueduct and wobblier water committee. It helped that all expenses were paid through grant money, and the food was spectacular.

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From Panama Pura Vida

(QP table... studying hard)

From Panama Pura Vida

Learning the basic principals of water flow with the moqueduct

From Panama Pura Vida

Learning what the writing on the tubes means

Here is how we fill out a receipt.


What´s a seminar without some icebreakers?


With my QP graduates

Off to Camp

Months ago, the Bocas coordinator of Panama Verde mentioned to me that she was planning a camp for local groups in a nearby community. I didn´t hear another word about it until a couple of weeks ago, when she arrived at my doorstep on a Wednesday afternoon. She said she had been trying to contact me for days, and I wasn´t answering my email. (Imagine!! The QP wireless must have been out...) Six spots were available for my kids, and the camp started that Friday.

I was miffed at the group because they all stood me up for a community clean-up day that very morning (in their defense, it was raining...), but I couldn´t let them miss this opportunity. I scrambled to print permission slips, track down the kids and gently coax them into three-days and two-nights away. The girls needed a lot less convincing. Two of them became so excited during my description of the camp, they began stroking my stomach and saying ¨I´ll go, Cati!! I´ll go!¨ We were only going 30 minutes down the road to another Ngobe community, but apprehensions among the rest were still simmering at a medium-high heat. Somehow we all arrived safe and sound, and by the time I had to leave them Friday eavening, they were giddy and busy making new friends.

From Panama Pura Vida

(waiting for the bus)

Practicing Leadership and Teamwork in Ropes Courses:



Our Group Became Official and took the Panama Verde oath:



Translation: I swear to love, respect, and care for nature, which gives us sustinence to live, and I promise to do my small part, together with others, to make a big difference.

Saturday, groups did clean-ups and mural paintings in public parks. Unfortunately, I had to miss it because I had other commitments in QP.

In between, they listened to talks about conservation, project ideas, and leadership. On Sunday, they were all presented with certificates, a sure-to-please staple of Panamanian cermony.

On Sunday, in sweltering heat, we boarded a bus that dropped us back off in QP. I thought the kids would be in a hurry to get home, but as we stepped off the bus, all of a sudden they were REALLY.EXCITED.AGAIN. They wanted to go back to my house to ¨debrief.¨ I sat awestruck as they animatedly recounted every moment, all the activities, songs sung, and lessons learned.

A fellow PCV recently made the comment that he´glad I like to do youth development work, beacuse he is much more results-oriented, and likes to see something tangible come of his work. In my experience, I have have been much more satisfied in my work with kids than adults. They seem to genuinely appreciate the efforts I make and value the intangibles-- leadership, communication skills, teamwork and community involvement. Most adults are less appreciative of the education I have offered, and only view progress as something to be seen-- infrastructure in the form of latrines, aqueducts, buildings, whatever. But these things have little value if the people lack the knowledge and initiative to do the work themselves. This is the second time I´ve taken kids out of the community for a camp (I wrote about the other time here.), and watching the quietest one emerge as leaders and dive into new experiences with complete willingness to learn and participate feels an awful lot like real progress to me.

Project Updates and FAQ.

How is the latrine project going?
It could be worse. It could be better. The hardest part is trying to secure funding.

I put about six months into trying to work with government agencies for . They are the Panama equivalents to our Department of Health, or EAP. These agencies are theoretically responsible for managing and/or funding projects country-wide. I say theoretically because due to a variety of reasons, in my experience at least, many tend to be unable or unwilling to do it. Despite all of the obstacles, I still thought working with local authorities was a more ¨sustainable¨option. My committee could develop the project with personel they could have lasting relationships with, and learn more about how to interact with formal governement agencies (I wrote a little about this before here.), which many are intimidated to do . At the outset anyway, it looked like we would have less trouble finding support, because I would be there as a liason for the duraction of the project.

The other choice for project funding is what is called a PCPP-- Peace Corps Partnership Program. Volunteers essentailly write a grant proposal, which is posted on the Peace Corps Web site, and rely on organizations, individuals, and other interested parties to fund the project. I was initially hesistant about using this option because I felt that the funding for a project with a resonable budget should come from within Panama. My community members cannot replicate the PCPP process after I leave, and I run the risk of having them view this project as something I did for them or brought to them, rather than something they acheived for themselves. To me, that is worse than not building any latrines at all. The upside of the PCPP is that it does allow us more control in the actual planning and managing of the project, which is a huge learning opportunity for me and my community members, and almost makes up for the funding aspects.

Up until last week, we were still trying to work with the agencies. About a month ago, I presented my latrine committee with the option of a PCPP, and they still chose to try the agency approach. On Friday, when the Ministry of Health (the most recent of the agencies we´ve tried to work with) s tood us up for a charla they insisted they give, we reached the end of the line. This came after months of cancelled meetings, ignored phone calls, and a complete lack of direction. My committee was unwilling to continue that way, and I was too. Most of our time was spent waiting, and we had little to show for the months we´d invested. There was no guarantee they would ever be able to fund the project anyway. So with a little prodding from me, they chose to go ahead with the PCPP, where the funding is a more sure thing. Furthermore, about half of participating families want composting latrines, which are more costly and harder to get agencies to support (This will be an explanation for another post).

So I have one more charla to do with them about the use and maintenence of latrines, then I will work the committees to teach them how to make a budget, work plans, and other necessary pre-planning. Then I will submit this with the rest of the PCPP and try to do as much fundraising as I can from here. It should take a few months to raise all the money, and then we can begin contruction.

People outside of the Peace Corps bubble sometimes struggle to understand this process. Why it takes a year to get this far. For better or for worse, that is what grassroots development is. I walked into a community that didn´t know what Peace Corps was, thought I was either a) rich or b) a bad guy, and had a heck of a lot to learn about latrines and project planning. Before even talking about projects, I had to gain their trust first, get to know them, and identify their real needs. After we decided on a latrine project, we established a committee, and I began the slow process of trying to start a project with them.

Other development agencies might have written the community a check or delivered the materials, without deciding who should participate, and whether the people knew how to use or maintain latrines. Ten years ago, the Minsitry of Health did something similar to this, and recipients used all the materials for latrines to build chicken coops. People in my community are used to going to the bathroom in the woods, or the creek, and the latrine use presents a lot of issues. They are not for everyone. Not yet, anyway.

It takes time to determine real interest, provide trainings about disease transmission, use and maintencnce, and see who is still interested at the end . Projects that hand things out and don´t do the groundwork first fail, especially in rural areas like mine. I don´t want this project to fail. So while it has been slow, I think it will be more successful in the end, and in the meantime, I have stayed busy enough with other side projects and work in other communities. But I look forward to actually getting this project off the ground when we start building. My counterpart organized our first work day to start digging latrine holes this Saturday to keep motivation and focus. And you know, that whole if you dig it, it will come thing.

What do people do for work?

Most people in my community are subsistence farmers and do not have other jobs. Their chief income is from their cocoa farms. Harvest time is October through early January, and that is when they make their largest profits (up to a few hundred dollars a month for someone with a well-maintained well-producing farm). As for where they get the rest of their money, I am still not sure. Some families sell oranges, lemons, or root vegetables for some extra income. Others also collect welfare checks each month, and use the scholarship money the government awards to students to make ends meet. The people are poor, but they are genearlly able to meet their basic needs. This complacency, combined with a lack of education and capital makes upward movement uncommon.

What are education levels?

People over 30 in my community mostly made it to sixth grade, some stopped earlier. Back then, there was no highway through the community, and to continue past sixth grade meant taking a boat to a community that had a junior high. This was costly and required that students stay overnight with family that lived where the school was, or madke some other arrangement. Few continued. Today, we have Pre-K through 9th grade in my community, which is more than most Ngobe communities have. Unfortunately, for those that make it to 9th grade, few continue on because that means traveling to another community by bus. This costs 50 cents a day and this cost, combined with uniforms and school supplies, is too high for most familist in my village. Last year, only two boys graduated high school from our community. I do think that education and schools are more valued now than they must have been years ago, but it is still hard to see families keep their kids at home due to a lack of money or hope that the investment is worth it.

Tell me if your heart melts...

In my free time, I teach my neighbors songs. Or rather just song. Now that they have mastered ¨Are you sleeping?¨others, like ¨Twinkle Twinkle¨ just seem downright impossible.

There is no way to be sure, but I think my neighbors are cuter than yours.