Fiestas Patrias

November is a holiday. Panama separated from Spain in 1821 on the 28th. It separated from Spain in 1903 on the 3rd. Flag Day is the fourth. Bocas was founded on the 16th, Changuinola was founded on the 17th. The Uprising of Los Santos happened on the 10th. Panamanians celebrate each and every holiday, and for that reason, there is little more to do in November than attend parades, school activities, and other patriotic events.

On the 16th a parade was held in Bocas town to celebrate the province's founding. Dozens of delegrations from junior and high schools marched in the parade. Quebrada Pastor's marching band was among them. I have been hearing them practice since July, and have supported all of their various fundraising events, so I had to be there to see them make their big debut.

I woke up at 5:30 and by 6:15, boarded a bus filled with parents, students, teachers and drums. We arrived at the docks in Almirante just before 7 a.m. There are two ways to get to the island. One is the water taxi-- which costs $4 for each half-hour trip. The other is the ferry, which takes 2-and-a-half hours as it trudges across the bay, but only costs $1.

By 8, we were all aboard the ferry, where we stood for the duration of the journey until pulling past all the gringo yachts into the port on Bocas Island. For most of the kids, it was their first time there, and they all felt particularly special to be arriving for such an official purpose.

Whenever I go to the island, I get culture shock. High prices, tourists everywhere, people who speak English. Bocas Island is an international tourist destination. On the 16th, traveling with everyone from my community, I got to see it through their eyes. They are used to Almirante and Changuinola, run-down frontier towns filled with other Ngobes. Bocas is more polished-- fresh paint, nice restaurants, rich people who eat at them.

It was a hot day. No clouds, little breeze and bright, beating sun. The kids marched for three hours, dressed in breathless polyester uniforms. Parents and siblings who were lucky enough to go along followed faithfully along the parade route. Street vendors sold meat sticks, ice cream, slushes, and cold drinks. No one had any money to buy any of it. They budgeted all their money on the ferry fare, with maybe a dollar or two left over to buy a big jug of water.

That day, to me, Bocas didn't seem like a tourst destination. It looked imaginary. From my community, it's only 90 minutes, but it seems like a different world.

But we marched.

1) First-grader Deisy bravely leads the baton twirlers.

2) The tiniest drummer, a third-grader among all the junior-high drummers. Wearing a traditional sombrero and shirt

3) A seventh-grader dressed in the traditional Panamanian pollera outfit.

4) Some gringa on the ferry who met some boys from Finca 30.

Help us build latrines in Quebrada Pastor

The time has come. The last year in my site has been spent preparing for and planning a latrine project. The participants began with no knowledge of what was required, and little understanding of how better sanitation can help them improve their health. Since then, we have worked to provide better education and management skills to create a project that truly belongs to this community. This is their project, and with my help, they will continue to learn how to manage the funds, buy materials, and build the latrines. We are starting with 28 latrines, which will improve community latrine coverage by about 30 percent. These 28 families have proven their committment to this project, and will act as examples for others.

The community, through manual labor and use of local materials, will contribute 40 percent of the project´s cost. We must now raise $5,377 to pay for materials and transporation. PC Panama has an existing relationship with an organization which will donate 50 percent of that budget, which leaves $2,688.50 to be raised by friends, family, and other organizations in the United States. We hope to start construction in late January for February, when the weather is good and the big cocao harvests are done. You can help, by reading about the project and donating here. All donations are tax deductible. Similarly, if any of you have tips of organizations or companies who would be interested in making a donation, please contact me.

As always, thanks for reading and for your support.

Cati... Quiero Pintar

You have to love the kids. If you don´t, your Peace Corps service will be maddening.

Kids will be your first friends, and you might be surprised to find, often offer more thoughtful conversation that the adults. You gotta love them, because they love you, and they´ve got nowhere else to be.

It is 7 o´clock in the morning. I have just sat down to eat some breakfast, and my first visitor arrives.

¨Cati, que está comiendo?¨ Cati, what are you eating?
¨Huevos.¨ Eggs. I shoot her a look, I generally find visits before 8 a.m. an assault on courtesy.
¨Eso está rico para usted?¨ That tastes good to you? They are unimpressed with what I eat. It lacks rice, boiled plantains, and any kind of meat. They say I eat simple. My neighbors enjoy telling me they have a higher standard of living than I do, because they actually know how to eat. Cati no sabe. What´s more, the portions I chose for my self are far too small. How can I be full if I have not consumed 3 pounds of boiled starches? How does one survive?
¨Hay más café?¨ Is there anymore coffee?

And that´s when I tell them to go away. It is too early.

But if I am home during the day, they arrive constantly, and most time it´s usually easier to let them in than to try to explain. Elementary students only have school until noon, and many nearby four and five year olds aren´t enrolled yet, so their mothers are happy to send them my way as soon as the sun rises. After reluctantly realizing shortly after moving into my house that these children would not be leaving anytime soon, I started offering them some crayons and paper. I bought them a couple of puzzles, and was delighted to find that they will generally play quietly and let me read or get some chores done.

The parents call what I do ¨giving class.¨ One woman saw the completed coloring book sheets I had taped up on my wall (gifts from adoring students) and very quietly asked if I draw all of those by myself for the children to color in. How wonderful she would have thought I was if I had said yes! Instead, I soberly explained what a coloring book is.

It can be annoying, having kids arriving all day long and demanding to color. But I´ve always loved kids, and sometimes they brighten my days immeasurably. One day, I was sitting in my hammock planning an English lesson for my adult class while two brothers, 5 and 3, drew at my table. They suddenly thought it would be a good idea to start yelling ¨Hola Cati,¨ come running over, and give me kisses on the cheek in quick succession. Hola Cati! Kiss. Hola Cati! Kiss. Repeat. They did this several dozen times until I remembered the values of good classroom management and told them to please go back to their seats.

I always try to encourage them, because positive reinforcement is not something they get a lot of in the house. At Cati´s, every picture is beautiful, and every child is an artist. However, they love it so much, that they literally will make one small mark on the paper and hold it up for my approval over and over. I have started asking them to please complete the entire picture before asking my opinion. As they get ready to go home, they always say, ¨Calíficalo, Cati!¨ Grade it! So I do, and they all get 5s, the Panamanian A.
Papito, the newest and most enthusiastic member of Cati´s Coloring Club.

When was the last time you went to visit someone with only your underwear on, or better yet, nothing on at all? I told him if he expects to sit on my stools, he will need to come in some undies next time. He hasn´t forgotten!

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.

----------------

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.