So, it's been a while, I realize (Thanks Mom for spell-checking for me!). Here is what's happened in the last month or so since I've written:
1. I have a house! I'll update pictures on it and give a little digital tour when I've organized it and it looks pretty. It's AMAZING having my own house. It's true that it's not really my own though, because as soon as you have a house, visitors start pasearing to it, and you're really never alone. But, it's okay. I get to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself, and I'm thrilled about that.
2. I have a dog! Okay, this was kind of an accident. The mom stopped nursing her, and no one wants girl puppies because they have babies, so I became the default owner. She's only about 6 weeks old, so she shouldn't be away from her mom yet, but, like I said, the mom's not nursing. I'm doing my best with her right now, but it's hard!
3. I've got a couple potential projects coming up. There's a possibility for some money from an indigenous NGO to work on a project of the community's choice, so I'm going to help them figure out what that project might be. I'm also (hopefully) going to work on developing a community garden project in the coming months, which will be a great way to get some work started and reestablish myself as a professional in the community.
Okay, pictures will come when I get through the city next weekend, I promise. I'll post pictures from the house building, the puppy, and whatever else I have sitting on my camera.
Love and miss you all!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Photos!
Here are some shots of my last 7 days. I've been visiting my friend Kayla in Cocle. We had some friends from college in town: Emily Naftalin, Katherine Ketter, Micaela O'Connor, and Ben (who's last name I've totally blanked out on! Sorry!) Some of these are taken in Cocle, and some in Panama City. I've added CAPTIONS! I'm learning about technology veeeeerrrryyyyy sloooooowly. Sorry...
Love and Happy New Year!
Love and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Happy New Year!
Coming up on the new year, I was reflecting on where I was last year at this time, and it´s strange to think how different my life was. I´m looking forward to what this upcoming Panamanian year will provide/offer/spring on me. It´s been an interesting four months already, so it´ll be amazing to see what happens when I get under way working in my community.
I´ve been remiss at adding photos to the blog, I´m aware. But I have a whole bunch that I´ll update when I head into Panama City this weekend. The network connection is just so slow out here that I don´t have the time to upload all my photos. It´ll be much faster to do it all at once this weekend. I promise there will be photos!
The holidays haven´t felt like the holidays here. Mostly because instead of wearing sweaters and eating cookies, I´m wearing flip flops and (still) eating rice. Not much changes for the holidays here. Which means that I haven´t had time or reason to miss home, which is good. We´ve entered "summer" in Panama, which means that it´s windier and cooler at night. Which is a blessing. I´ve had some nights recently where I can actually say I got a little cold under just my one sheet. "Cold" is a relative term here.
What have I been doing lately...? I´m learning how to pasear (walk around and visit) with my neighbors and friends like a Panamanian. I´ve paseared to everyones house at least once now, which sounds really easy to do when there are only 27 houses, but it´s hard to do in another language when you´re not entirely certain what the protocol is. I´ve figured it out though, and now I´m pretty comfortable walking into anyones house, sitting down and talking with them. It´s harder than it sounds, I promise.
Other than that, I´ve been hanging around and working with my family a lot. We went out to Puerto Lara (a nearby town where my friend Karen lives) for Christmas Eve day for a soccer tournament. That was an experience. I witnessed the Wounaan´s tradition for celebrating quincenera (a girl´s 15th birthday celebration): apparently they get the birthday girl absolutely plastered (the girl in Puerto Lara was so drunk she couldn´t hold her head up or keep her eyes open), then dance her around while friends and relatives support her physically. It was actually very disturbing for me to see someone, much less a fifteen year old girl, that drunk. I talked to some of my community members, and they said that they do that as well during Semana Santa. That upset me a little, but after talking one-on-one to some of the parents, I realized that they don´t all participate. Some of them recognize that it´s not safe or smart to inebriate a 15 year old to the point of passing out. I´m hopeful that I can have that discussion with most of the parents, because it was very jarring for me. I may not be able to stop it, but I can at least try to discourage the forced intoxication. Alcohol abuse is already a pretty prevalent problem throughout Panama, so I do what I can to set a good example.
Tomorrow will be another big party, and I´m having a community meeting with the women during the day, so it´s a big day for me. I have to prepare for that, and prepare for all night partying and drinking. It should be fun! I´ll take pictures and get them up this weekend.
That´s all I have to report right now. Happy New Year to all! I love you and miss you all, every day!
I´ve been remiss at adding photos to the blog, I´m aware. But I have a whole bunch that I´ll update when I head into Panama City this weekend. The network connection is just so slow out here that I don´t have the time to upload all my photos. It´ll be much faster to do it all at once this weekend. I promise there will be photos!
The holidays haven´t felt like the holidays here. Mostly because instead of wearing sweaters and eating cookies, I´m wearing flip flops and (still) eating rice. Not much changes for the holidays here. Which means that I haven´t had time or reason to miss home, which is good. We´ve entered "summer" in Panama, which means that it´s windier and cooler at night. Which is a blessing. I´ve had some nights recently where I can actually say I got a little cold under just my one sheet. "Cold" is a relative term here.
What have I been doing lately...? I´m learning how to pasear (walk around and visit) with my neighbors and friends like a Panamanian. I´ve paseared to everyones house at least once now, which sounds really easy to do when there are only 27 houses, but it´s hard to do in another language when you´re not entirely certain what the protocol is. I´ve figured it out though, and now I´m pretty comfortable walking into anyones house, sitting down and talking with them. It´s harder than it sounds, I promise.
Other than that, I´ve been hanging around and working with my family a lot. We went out to Puerto Lara (a nearby town where my friend Karen lives) for Christmas Eve day for a soccer tournament. That was an experience. I witnessed the Wounaan´s tradition for celebrating quincenera (a girl´s 15th birthday celebration): apparently they get the birthday girl absolutely plastered (the girl in Puerto Lara was so drunk she couldn´t hold her head up or keep her eyes open), then dance her around while friends and relatives support her physically. It was actually very disturbing for me to see someone, much less a fifteen year old girl, that drunk. I talked to some of my community members, and they said that they do that as well during Semana Santa. That upset me a little, but after talking one-on-one to some of the parents, I realized that they don´t all participate. Some of them recognize that it´s not safe or smart to inebriate a 15 year old to the point of passing out. I´m hopeful that I can have that discussion with most of the parents, because it was very jarring for me. I may not be able to stop it, but I can at least try to discourage the forced intoxication. Alcohol abuse is already a pretty prevalent problem throughout Panama, so I do what I can to set a good example.
Tomorrow will be another big party, and I´m having a community meeting with the women during the day, so it´s a big day for me. I have to prepare for that, and prepare for all night partying and drinking. It should be fun! I´ll take pictures and get them up this weekend.
That´s all I have to report right now. Happy New Year to all! I love you and miss you all, every day!
Monday, December 7, 2009
6 weeks in site and still strong!
I'm pretty good at keeping up with this bloggy thing. I thought I'd be terrible at it, but it gives me a good excuse to go in and use the internet, so I'm actually quite excellent at it.
I'm still alive and well, in a new house in my community, making headway every day (except to day, of course, because I escaped to use internet and eat yogurt). This last week actually was a busy, busy week. I was a little low on Tuesday, and paseared (walked around and chatted) with my community, and then found out that there was a water committee meeting that night. So, I ended up getting to go and see, first hand, what the problems are surrounding the water in the community. Turns out there are a lot...
First, they have an old aquaduct that only supplies water maybe half the time. So as a result people have to fill up big buckets of water to have a store for when there is no water. That's a common problem in Panama, and one that I already knew they had. They are actually pretty good at storing their water safely, so that's not a huge problem.
They also have a metered system, which in general Americans would see as a good thing. You'll know exactly how much you're using, and you'll pay for what you use. Except when you pair that with people filling up big buckets of water, letting them sit for a week, then dumping them out because the water's "dirty", you end up with people wasting a lot of water and still paying for it. And it's the paying-for-it part that they're dismayed by. I suppose if I went from a fixed rate of $2/month to a metered rate of $8/month in the course of a month, I'd be pretty dismayed, also. Especially considering that a day laborer's average pay is $8/day. That's a big difference.
There's also one other big problem that they have. There's a new aquaduct that was built by the "government" (I'm actually not sure who it was built by; I've gotten mixed reports, which leads me to believe that I'll just have to figure it out on my own) that's going to pump water from a river nearby, through a treatment plant, up to the aquaduct, chlorinate it up there and feed it to all 4 communities that are attached to this aquaduct system. They'll have clean, potable water 24/7. Sounds good, right? Wrong. If this aquaduct gets finished, someone else will be maintaining it, meaning there will no longer be a local Water Committee collecting money, checking meters, and more importantly, deciding when to cut people's water off because they haven't paid in three months. The deal with the water committees is that they're assembled from the communities, and all the communities are related to each other. Basically that means that they elect people that aren't going to cut them off. People want family members on the committee because then they won't run the risk of having their water supply cut off if they're delinquent. Which they often are. It's disfunctional, to say the least. But, how do you convince someone that it would be better to have an outside agency managing their water supply, even if that means they're water could get cut? Yeah...dilemma.
Other than that, I'm also working with a women's artisan group that is starting a cooperative to sell their artisan work. They actually just voted on a name yesterday: Mujeres Artesanas Unidas de Pueblo Nuevo or United Women's Artisans of Pueblo Nuevo. I'm going to help them work with an agency named IPACOOP to start their coop and help them through some of the finer points once IPACOOP steps back a little bit. We'll see how that goes...
As always, I miss and love everyone at home. It's still hot here. It's eternally summer here, which I thought I'd love, but I find myself looking for the coolest spots and the coolest times of day and taking advantage of them. Although, I never have to "work" on my tan. Which is a nice little perk. And everyone has a hammock, which is also wonderful. Whoever created the hammock is a genius.
Til next time!
Molly
I'm still alive and well, in a new house in my community, making headway every day (except to day, of course, because I escaped to use internet and eat yogurt). This last week actually was a busy, busy week. I was a little low on Tuesday, and paseared (walked around and chatted) with my community, and then found out that there was a water committee meeting that night. So, I ended up getting to go and see, first hand, what the problems are surrounding the water in the community. Turns out there are a lot...
First, they have an old aquaduct that only supplies water maybe half the time. So as a result people have to fill up big buckets of water to have a store for when there is no water. That's a common problem in Panama, and one that I already knew they had. They are actually pretty good at storing their water safely, so that's not a huge problem.
They also have a metered system, which in general Americans would see as a good thing. You'll know exactly how much you're using, and you'll pay for what you use. Except when you pair that with people filling up big buckets of water, letting them sit for a week, then dumping them out because the water's "dirty", you end up with people wasting a lot of water and still paying for it. And it's the paying-for-it part that they're dismayed by. I suppose if I went from a fixed rate of $2/month to a metered rate of $8/month in the course of a month, I'd be pretty dismayed, also. Especially considering that a day laborer's average pay is $8/day. That's a big difference.
There's also one other big problem that they have. There's a new aquaduct that was built by the "government" (I'm actually not sure who it was built by; I've gotten mixed reports, which leads me to believe that I'll just have to figure it out on my own) that's going to pump water from a river nearby, through a treatment plant, up to the aquaduct, chlorinate it up there and feed it to all 4 communities that are attached to this aquaduct system. They'll have clean, potable water 24/7. Sounds good, right? Wrong. If this aquaduct gets finished, someone else will be maintaining it, meaning there will no longer be a local Water Committee collecting money, checking meters, and more importantly, deciding when to cut people's water off because they haven't paid in three months. The deal with the water committees is that they're assembled from the communities, and all the communities are related to each other. Basically that means that they elect people that aren't going to cut them off. People want family members on the committee because then they won't run the risk of having their water supply cut off if they're delinquent. Which they often are. It's disfunctional, to say the least. But, how do you convince someone that it would be better to have an outside agency managing their water supply, even if that means they're water could get cut? Yeah...dilemma.
Other than that, I'm also working with a women's artisan group that is starting a cooperative to sell their artisan work. They actually just voted on a name yesterday: Mujeres Artesanas Unidas de Pueblo Nuevo or United Women's Artisans of Pueblo Nuevo. I'm going to help them work with an agency named IPACOOP to start their coop and help them through some of the finer points once IPACOOP steps back a little bit. We'll see how that goes...
As always, I miss and love everyone at home. It's still hot here. It's eternally summer here, which I thought I'd love, but I find myself looking for the coolest spots and the coolest times of day and taking advantage of them. Although, I never have to "work" on my tan. Which is a nice little perk. And everyone has a hammock, which is also wonderful. Whoever created the hammock is a genius.
Til next time!
Molly
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving from the land of humidity and palm trees!
Hello All!
As always, I hope everyone is healthy and well in the States. I thought that I'd give my list of things I'm thankful for down here. I'll keep it short and sweet, since I have limited time in the office to use the internet!
1. My health: Minus a broken toe and some mild digestive issues, I've been healthy down here. No malaria, no dengue, no yellow fever. Definitely thankful and grateful for that.
As always, I hope everyone is healthy and well in the States. I thought that I'd give my list of things I'm thankful for down here. I'll keep it short and sweet, since I have limited time in the office to use the internet!
1. My health: Minus a broken toe and some mild digestive issues, I've been healthy down here. No malaria, no dengue, no yellow fever. Definitely thankful and grateful for that.
2. My wonderful community: My family in the community is wonderful and they're very protective and possessive of me--in a good way, though! I really like my community a lot and feel very fortunate.
3. My new and old friends: By "old" I don't old. I just mean previous. But, I'm thankful for the support and love from home and from within the country. That makes this whole experience easier, and more enjoyable. I love you all!
4. Every moment: I don't mean that in a sappy way, but it's going to come out that way. It's hard to explain, probably because this experience is so intense and unique, but I am so grateful for every single minute that I get to enjoy with people I care about, and every up and down that I have in my experience. I'm increasingly convinced that life is just supposed to be a big mess, and you have to just own the mess. I'm owning and loving my messy, beautiful life every day.
5. My family: I love all of you more every day. I know that you think I stand alone and I'm totally independent and don't need anyone, but I wouldn't be who I am, and I wouldn't feel free to do what I'm doing without you behind me. I miss you each day, and look forward to the day that we can sit down together and eat some turkey and cranberry sauce together.
That was nice and corny, wasn't it? Well, regardless, I mean all of it. I love everyone at home, and wish you the very best for Thanksgiving.
Love,
Molly
Monday, November 9, 2009
As promised, here are a bunch of photos of my community. A couple notes on them.
1. The pigs head was dinner one night. Dalys is my home stay sister and the one modeling the head.
2. Last week was a holiday week celebrating Panama's independence from Columbia (in 1906, if you're interested). That's what all the schoolchildren marching in red, white and blue is about.
3. The pictures of the women cooking are also from the Independence Day festivities. The skirts that they're wearing are called parumas, and they're the traditional clothing of the Wounaan and the Embera tribes. The women are cooking arroz con pollo. Yum.
I think that's it. If you have any questions, post them! I'll answer, if I can!
Much love!
1. The pigs head was dinner one night. Dalys is my home stay sister and the one modeling the head.
2. Last week was a holiday week celebrating Panama's independence from Columbia (in 1906, if you're interested). That's what all the schoolchildren marching in red, white and blue is about.
3. The pictures of the women cooking are also from the Independence Day festivities. The skirts that they're wearing are called parumas, and they're the traditional clothing of the Wounaan and the Embera tribes. The women are cooking arroz con pollo. Yum.
I think that's it. If you have any questions, post them! I'll answer, if I can!
Much love!
Friday, November 6, 2009
At long last...I'm in the Peace Corps
Okay, the long awaited post about my first couple weeks in my site. I know you've all been on pins and needles, so I won't delay any longer.
I got into town almost 2 weeks ago, and I'm staying with my first homestay family. I'm living in a little thatched roof hut with six other people (yes, six). It's cozy, actually, and I mean that in the best possible way. The family is very sweet. Emel and Jenny are the parents. Dalys (who's actually sitting next to me right now reading over my shoulder) is their 15 year old daughter, Yaneth is the 19 year old girlfriend of Claver, Jenny and Emel's 17 year old son. Then there's Miladys, their 3 year old. I actually really like all of them, and they've been very generous and helpful. They're teaching me how to make shakira (beaded necklaces and bracelets), and another woman in the town is teaching me how to weave canasta (baskets). The canastas are the main type of artisan work in the Wounaan communities, and they're beautiful. I don't have any pictures of them right now, actually, because as soon as they finish one they sell it. It's pretty quick turnaround, and they need the money so they set up buyers ahead of time. When a professional one gets finished, I'll take a photo of it and post it.
The town has about 120 people living in it (that's a really rough estimate from a super quick census that I did--don't trust it). They're mainly agriculturalists. I've been out and harvested rice with them a couple times. I have yet to harvest yuca, mostly because I hear that it's really hard work and I'm just not that ambitious right now. But, I'm here for two years so I'm sure I won't be able to avoid it. I have started working on my own garden with a couple women in the town. I'm converting an old chicken coop into a garden. It was an abandoned project of someone in the community, and it already has a chicken wire fence and posts, so that's a nice deal. I'm just really looking forward to eating food that has color and nutritional value. I sustained some pretty intense blisters from cleaning out the garden yesterday (of which I posted some photos...of the garden, not the blisters).
Other than that, I've been trying to make the rounds through all the houses in the community, which wouldn't be hard, except that whenever I stop by people want me to stay and talk for hours. So I can only hit a couple a day. I have noticed some interesting dynamics though. There are two big families living here--the Gonzales' and the Carpios. The Gonzales family is Catholic, and lives on one side of the street. The Carpios are Evangelical and live on the other side. There is some definite animosity between the families, which I find crazy! It's a town of 120 people-how can you afford to have a gripe with someone, let alone half the town?! I haven't yet figured out what the disagreement arises from, but I'll probably figure it out in two years. Vamos a ver.
Other than that, I've just been settling in mentally and emotionally. As you can imagine, some days are good, lots of good conversations and interactions. Other days are not so good. But I think that'll all even out after a while. I'm just getting into the swing of things, and I know that it takes some time.
I'm going to post pictures next time I have the opportunity! I spoke prematurely. The internet access is REALLY slow. I'm working on it, but this country is always finding new ways to make it impossible for me. Sorry! I'll get on it next time!
I got into town almost 2 weeks ago, and I'm staying with my first homestay family. I'm living in a little thatched roof hut with six other people (yes, six). It's cozy, actually, and I mean that in the best possible way. The family is very sweet. Emel and Jenny are the parents. Dalys (who's actually sitting next to me right now reading over my shoulder) is their 15 year old daughter, Yaneth is the 19 year old girlfriend of Claver, Jenny and Emel's 17 year old son. Then there's Miladys, their 3 year old. I actually really like all of them, and they've been very generous and helpful. They're teaching me how to make shakira (beaded necklaces and bracelets), and another woman in the town is teaching me how to weave canasta (baskets). The canastas are the main type of artisan work in the Wounaan communities, and they're beautiful. I don't have any pictures of them right now, actually, because as soon as they finish one they sell it. It's pretty quick turnaround, and they need the money so they set up buyers ahead of time. When a professional one gets finished, I'll take a photo of it and post it.
The town has about 120 people living in it (that's a really rough estimate from a super quick census that I did--don't trust it). They're mainly agriculturalists. I've been out and harvested rice with them a couple times. I have yet to harvest yuca, mostly because I hear that it's really hard work and I'm just not that ambitious right now. But, I'm here for two years so I'm sure I won't be able to avoid it. I have started working on my own garden with a couple women in the town. I'm converting an old chicken coop into a garden. It was an abandoned project of someone in the community, and it already has a chicken wire fence and posts, so that's a nice deal. I'm just really looking forward to eating food that has color and nutritional value. I sustained some pretty intense blisters from cleaning out the garden yesterday (of which I posted some photos...of the garden, not the blisters).
Other than that, I've been trying to make the rounds through all the houses in the community, which wouldn't be hard, except that whenever I stop by people want me to stay and talk for hours. So I can only hit a couple a day. I have noticed some interesting dynamics though. There are two big families living here--the Gonzales' and the Carpios. The Gonzales family is Catholic, and lives on one side of the street. The Carpios are Evangelical and live on the other side. There is some definite animosity between the families, which I find crazy! It's a town of 120 people-how can you afford to have a gripe with someone, let alone half the town?! I haven't yet figured out what the disagreement arises from, but I'll probably figure it out in two years. Vamos a ver.
Other than that, I've just been settling in mentally and emotionally. As you can imagine, some days are good, lots of good conversations and interactions. Other days are not so good. But I think that'll all even out after a while. I'm just getting into the swing of things, and I know that it takes some time.
I'm going to post pictures next time I have the opportunity! I spoke prematurely. The internet access is REALLY slow. I'm working on it, but this country is always finding new ways to make it impossible for me. Sorry! I'll get on it next time!
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