Stove project and Panama Verde

As I wrote last February, I have been working on re-forming the Panama Verde youth group that I was ready to leave in tatters at the end of last year. I am glad I didn´t because I see that the group means something to the few young people who are involved and have been pleased by the dedication and motivation of two new members. In Febraury and March we held bake sales to raise money to help support a stove project.

PCV Michelle recently alerted us about a new model of stove, called the Bliss Burner, invented in part by Steve Bliss, a humanitarian worker based in Panama. This stove is a simple design, and an improvement on the other model I´d been considering last year. The two are compared side-by-side at the Deadwheat Foundation´s blog.

The prefered means of cooking in my community is on a three-rock stove, which basically amounts to a camp fire, which is often in someone´s kitchen, in their home. It releases incredible amounts of smoke, I usually can´t stand to be near one, and makes preparing a meal hellishly hot for the cook. The Bliss Burner burns more efficiently, releases very little smoke, and requires a lot less firewood. Its benefits are two-fold-- reducing deforestation and improving air quality, and thereby health.

I met Steve recently and wanted to get a stove built in my site and see how my Panama Verde group felt about taking this on as a project. Steve´s wife Jennifer came by this week and build a model stove at my neighbors house. It involves a 2:1 mix of clay, sand, and 1/3 bag cement. The mix is put in a mold, left for five hours, and the finished stove is ready to pop out.

It occured to me before the team got there, I didn´t have a screen to sift out the rocks. That´s okay, that is what sassy five-year-olds are for! She went at this for well over an hour before politely asking me to inspect her work. Shortly after, the team arrived with a sifter. Sorry Rosibel!

I rushed over to their house early this morning to snap a photo of the finished product, hence the grumpy faces. Julio is going to make a new surface for the stove to sit on
People have responded very positively already to the idea of these stoves. Several people came by yesterday to watch us make it. The cost to make one is very low and the benefits high. The youth group and I plan to continue make them on a house-by-house basis, charging for materials and an extra dollar or two to fundraise for a future group trip or activity.

In which Cati tries to admit failure and is then informed that is not allowed.

A few months back, I sent my youth group, Panama Verde, to a camp which they completely enjoyed. They came back energized, motivated, and with a better understanding about how the chapters of this group functioned nationwide. I thought we had a breakthrough. Unfortunately, right after the camp, I had to spend a few weeks out of site for other work-related reasons and missed the chance to really take advantage of their enthusiam.

As soon as I returned, though, I held a meeting so we could talk about all our grand plans for the future. They had returned to the borderline catatonic states they were in pre-camp. Only two members participated or showed much desire to be there with me. So many people came late to the meeting, that we didn´t have any time to accomplish what was on the agenda before they had to leave to go to class. I talked to them briefly about I want them to feel ownership of the group, and if they want to accomplish anything, they need to take more initiative and leadership. I asked them to think seriously about whether they really wanted to be in this group and were ready get to work. Because if we continued having meetings in which nothing was accompished, activities which no one attended, the group would go nowhere, and eventually flicker out completely.

One of the motivated members was charged with the task of talking to the other members to see where they stood, and if they wanted to continue, coming to me to plan the next meeting date. I heard from her later that no one else besides her and one other sometimes-member wanted to continue with the group. I could hardly believe it, but was glad at least to have a definitive answer. I could stop wasting my time and refocuse my energies somewhere else.

Then, the regional coordinator of Panama Verde came to me, saying there was another camp in the mountains, and two members from my group were invited. I explained what happened in my community, and that the kids explicitly said they did not want to continue and the group disbanded. We hadn`t met in months. She immediately sprung into a long-winded explanation about how my group is not allowed to fail because of this, that, and the other thing, mostly involving about how it would be an inconvenience for her. She handed me the camp permission slips and told me to call her when I had two jovenes, young people, who would go. I had two days.

This rubbed me the wrong way. Panama Verde was a side project, not my main one, and she was asking me to pour a lot of time and energy into re-forming the group in the next few months. She had no idea how difficult it was to organize people in my community, and who says the group can´t fail if all the participants essentially said they didn´t want to do it? I was tired of feeling like I was begging people to participate in their own development, tired of getting hopeful about something that materialized into nothing, tired of feeling foolish when no one showed up to something I spent hours preparing. I felt like cutting my losses.

I huffed and puffed, but then decided I shouldn´t take away two kids´ chances to go to a camp in the mountains of Chiriqui. The two jovenes that were always interested in the group were out of town, so I looked for two others to send. I found them, and off they went.

They loved it. They love Panama Verde. They met other group members, heard the work they did, and were enchanted by the idea of doing something good while also having a whole lot of fun. They want to continue with youth development and environmental work in QP. It was great. More than I could have asked for.

Now I am re-forming the group, trying to attract kids a little older than the ones that made up the first group. We had our first activity-- a bake sale-- last week to raise money for a bag of cement to make an eco-friendly stove for the school. A brand new model of stove that uses less wood, makes less smoke, and cooks more efficiently than the three-rock camp fire style that is so popular in homes here. It is a project that improves air quality and health. I hope it will give them something tangible to contribute to the community, and be something sustainable they can continue, if they choose, after I´m gone. I wanted to do a similar project with the other group, but it obviously had to be put on hold. The sale was a huge success, and also helped to get the word out about PV and also a potential stove project. (Annnnddd it made people really jealous of my mad baking skillz.)

Here´s to hoping it works out this time. I am apprently not allowed to quit, so I guess it has to. (haha) But I really love doing youth development stuff, and it usually ends up being more fun and rewarding than a lot of other work. I´ll give it another go.

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.

The value of a book

One of the greatest parts of Peace Corps is the open-endedness, and the fact that we can work on any side project we see fit. A few months ago, I approached my school´s principal about creating a library for the students. I have never seen a story book in anyone´s house, and until this year, the student´s weren´t even allowed to bring their textbooks home after school. Panamanian education is still on the rote memorization mode. Children copy from the board, fill in blanks, and have little chance to be creative. Because of this, and a lack of resources, many kids read below-level. The school allocates its small funds to the bare necessities, and the children come from poor families who make big enough financial sacrifices geting their children to class each day.

Kids haven´t had the chance to love to read.

I am asking for your help, to make a small donation to my project with the International Book Project. They collect donated books, and ask us to raise only the cost of shipping. If I raise $200, a 35-pound box of Spanish-language books will be sent and we can start the library. The principal has promised me a space in a spare room and her support to keep the library going after I´m gone. When the books arrive, I will organize a work day with parents to prepare the room, and set up a schedule for book lending.

You all know me personally and know that reading is a big part of who I am, and a huge part of my Peace Corps service. I´ve started reading stories to kids in my neighborhood with some books I´ve bought, and their interest is genuine and lasting.

¨But Cati, how can Peter Pan fly? Can we fly?¨

No one´s read to them before, and most of them have never seen story books. The potential value of the library is obvious.

If 20 people make a 10-dollar donation, I´ll meet my goal. Here is how you can donate:

You may donate by sending a check to:

International Book Project
1440 Delaware Avenue
Lexington, KY 40505.

You may also donate online via credit card by going to www.internationalbookproject.org and clicking on the “Donate” banner at the top of the page. Please indicate in the memo of the check or the notes section of the online giving screen that the donation is made on behalf of Catherine Basham, Peace Corps Volunteer. All donations are tax deductible.

Thank you to everyone who donates. I´ll be sure to send pictures when the books arrive.

We Heart Seminars

In the last month, I´ve helped out with three seminars in three separate volunteer sites. We PCVs have become savvy to the fact that our community members respond better when we call something a ¨seminar¨ instead of a charla, and invite a few other volunteers along to help out over the course of a few days. I think they like the idea of a one-time commitment and a more formalized environment of a seminar or workshop . Oh, and the free food. The PCVs always get a kick out of the fact that participants LOVELOVELOVE the visiting volunteers when they seem so luke-warm about the ones in their own sites sometimes.

In mid-July, my friend Dan held a two-day health seminar for the women in his community. I came for the second day to do a charla on S.T.I.s and HIV/AIDS.

Here is a woman receiving her certificate of particpation:



More interestingly, Dan has a monkey:



This is his house:
From there, I headed straight to the Comarca, and after a 90-minute hike, arrived in Aleah´s site to help with a water seminar. They are becoming very popular activities for EH-volunteers. Over the course of a few days, we educate water committee members on virtually everything they need to know about their systems--the nuts and bolts of how the water travels through the tubes, how to clean the tanks, how to repair damages, how to decide on a quota, how to run better meetings, you name it. Aleah has a beautiful site on a ridge, and this is the view from her house (sooo jealous):

One of my favorite participants:

Another PCV Dan, leading a session on thermoforming-- a method of molding tube using hot vegetable oil. Creates tighter fits and is safer than the more popular burning-PVC-over-open-flame method.


Then, last weekend, I went to other PCV´s Myles site, close by here in Bocas, to do a PML with his junta local and water committees. Here I am talking about how to work in teams!



On my side,I have been continuing with the sex-ed and life skills charlas with the 8th and 9th graders in my school. It´s going well, and they´ve impressed me with their candor and willingness to ask questions. More on this to come.

I´ll be bringing whoever I can convince to go from my community to a water seminar in nearby Punta Peña for them and three other volunteer sites in mid-September. They are daunted by the overnight stay and the four-day length, but with my diligent persuasion techniques,I hope to wrangle in a precious few. Sigue la lucha...

Not exactly the 9-5 Dolly was singing about

I am in David today and tomorrow, doing a lot of work on the computer that I haven´t had time to take care of earlier. That, and I hadn´t taken a ¨personal day¨out of site since vacation in March, and I found myself getting grumpy with some of my near and dear community members. When I get grumpy, I know it´s time for a time out. I think I just needed some ice cream.

So anyway, the end of April was busy, and May is shaping up to look like more of the same. Here´s a summary of what I´ve been up to.

1. On the latrine front: Last Monday, my latrine committee and I met with a representative from ANAM, the government´s environmental agency, to complete a community diagnostic activity. It is the first of several steps we will complete in order to plan our latrine project and obtain funds. ANAM itself won´t provide them, but our contact with this agency can help us obtain money from another, or a private donor, and the documents we complete with them can be used as jumping-off points for future projects. They were incredibly pleased with the committee, and said they did a great job participating. This of course made all my community members beam with pride, and many of them came to talk to me afterward to see if I agreed that yes, they did a great job! I also invited a representative from the Ministry of Health (MINSA), who was very helpful and enthusiastic.

Our next step from here involves filling out a detailed project plan, which I will do over the course of several weeks with my counterpart at ANAM´s office in Changuinola. I would like to involve the rest of the committee members in this process as much as possible, but I´m still thinking about how I can best do that.

2. On the water front: My latrine committee held its ¨elections¨ on Friday, and I came to brief them first with a charla about the roles and responsibilities of each member of the board. It went well, and they seemed grateful for the information. It seem the President has given the laws that the committee must follow no more than a cursory glance, and everyone was prepared to vote for and fill positions they weren´t entirely sure about.

The biggest obstacle I have had in working with my water committee has been that the group is extremely dysfunctional. They have all of these internal issues, grudges, family histories, gossip, whatever, that prevents them from communicating, working as a team, or well, working at all. I also presented a few notes on the virtues and vices of good team work, and tried to offer some motivation for the future. After having just completed six months in service, only now are the members starting to tell me the true past of the aqueduct committee, and everyone´s story is different. The common themes are: corruption, selfishness, rule-breaking, lack of responsibility.

The other obstacle I have been met with is that, until recently, no one seemed willing to work on the problems. But sometimes you just have to give people time. After months of gentle, and sometimes, not-so-gentle prodding, the President and the Vice President seem more willing to listen to what I have to say and the charlas, trainings, and work days that I have offered. They see now that neither the committee nor the water system is functioning as it should. The biggest problems I have seen since arriving here in Panama among water commitees are people issues, organization, motivation, or conflict issues. The technical stuff is easy once you have a strong team. Now I just have to get them to believe me.

3. The kids: A few weeks ago, I went around to the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades to talk about Panama Verde. It is an environmental group that was founded by a Peace Corps volunteer, but is now managed on a national level by Panamanians. It promotes conservation projects and the development of leadership skills among youth with equal emphasis.

In my community, all of our biggest creeks run directly to the ocean. They are contaminated with chemicals, trash, and human excrement. Candy, cookie and food wrappers litter the ground. People burn trash-laden with plastics, and the breeze blows it all back into their house. Most families cook on fogons in their houses, which are essentially indoor campfires which use use copiuous amounts of firewood (deforestation). The thick, black smoke blows right back at them. The lungs of all of my neighbor´s children rattle. (I am hoping that my group will be interested in a stove project I plan to suggest... more coming on this) Obviously there are dozens of opportunities for environmental education and projects in my QP. Panama Verde empowers the jovenes (youth-ish 12-25) to take it on themselves. I am a counselor for the group. I give them ideas, help them fundraise, teach them through charlas, activities, and games, but they also form their own governing board (directiva), and take on more and more as time goes on. One group that was started by a Peace Corps volunteer a few years ago in a neighboring town is now run entirely by the jovenes without any help from adults.

That for me is the most exciting part. The development of self-esteem, problem-solving, and leadership skills. These kids have very few opportunities for that, and in fact, have very few opportunities to just hang out and be kids. If they are not in school, they are working in the finca or taking care of younger siblings. Panama Verde is a real opportunity for them to think about personal development, all while helping out their community.

I had a list of 73 kids who said they wanted to participate. So, I invited the regional coordinator for Panama Verde to come and help me with a charla to explain more clearly what PV is and what sort of work we would do. I was hoping for a group of 10-15. That meeting was Saturday, and six students came. But, as the coordinator pointed out to me, those are the ones who really wanted to be there. And they seemed genuinely excited and dedicated. I plan to recruit a few more members, and we´ll have a swear-in at the end of May.

4. Project Management and Leadership (PML)! Peace Corps invites all of its volunteers to bring a counterpart to a PML conference after five months in site. I was unable to attend mine because I was held up in the clinic with that bothersome foot infection, but my counterpart did attend, and loved it. The conference focuses on the following themes: Identifying Personal Goals, Values, and Missions for Groups, Time and Money Management, Forming Effective Groups, Facilitating Group Interaction, Formal Letter Writing, and Interacting with Agencies.

The information seems fairly basic to us, but for many of the Panamanian or indigenous peoples we work with, PML might be the first time anyone told them to write down their appointments in an agenda, or that to offer someone positive re-inforcement is better than negative, or even how keeping close track of your monthly expenses can help you save money. The ideas are simple, but many have never had opportunities to properly learn and practice them. Many of the counterparts get a lot out of it, some of it is over their heads, but at the very least, it is a reward away from the communities, and a chance for them to feel special. The idea is that they can help their PCV present these concepts in their communities at a later date.

Enter Cati! I am bringing PML to QP this month, condensing three days of material into two, and presenting it all with the help of three other volunteer friends. I invited all the members of my latrine and water committees, and so far, everyone seems willing to come. I typed up formal letter invitations and hand-delivered each. I think this helped, they respect a formal letter. I am trying to obtain some donations of materials from a local bookstore in Changuinola, and will be busy prepping the materials in the coming weeks. I am super excited to work with my counterpart Lucas and my committees in a new capacity, and one that will empower them and provide them with some legitimate tools to continue forward. And, it´s always good to bring in back-up volunteer reinforcements. (Three other people are saying what Cati is saying... maybe now I´ll consider it!)

5. Spent two days surveying for a new aqueduct system in a nearby PCV community. The tool we use to survey is a water level, which provides measurements that are much more accurate than a GPS or abney level or whatever other tools other professionals might use. Water levels have been used in various forms for centuries, and work on the principal that water always looks for its own level. Picture: a reservoir tank out of which exits a clear plastic tube which extends for 50 feet of length, and then another 10 feet up a straight pole, with a measuring tape attached. As you move along the terrain, you maintain the reservoir higher than the pole, and move from point to point. The water level gives you the change in altitude between the two points, and the marks you´ve made on the length of the tube tell you the distance. This, combined with measuring a source and doing basic population forecasting, are the first steps in planning for an aqueduct system. The water level is a PC favorite because it is something we can do with our community members, and helps them understand some of the basic principals of gravity-flow water systems.

So that´s what I´ve been up to.

The days we surveyed were HOT AS HADES, but it was fun to do some real dirty work, and the company of other PCVs is always appreciated. This is kind of a ridiculous pose I am striking but que va...

So on Tuesday, I am leaving for three days of aqueduct technical training in one of our group 64 volunteer´s sites. I am excited to see all of my EH folks again, since I felt robbed and socially-deprived after missing PML in March.