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.