Mi Vida

Above is a shot of my homestay mom Lucia's canasta. Beautiful design, colors and technique. She's selling it for between $150 and $200, but to give you an idea what they're worth in a gallery in the states, check out this link to Michael Smith Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. It's actually a fair trade gallery, but it'll give you a better idea of what this kind of high quality, indigenous art is worth on the private market. There's also a gallery called Rain Forest Baskets that showcases some lovely work, and is worth it just to look at the incredible photos of some massive baskets, but also has some really good information on the Wounaan people an the process of basket weaving.

Okay, that's enough for canasta for the time being. I pour myself into that particular project mostly because my women make my Peace Corps experience so rich. It's definitely helped to provide me with a sense of purpose and direction in my community at times when all my other efforts come to nothing. There are times when I just want to give up on everything related to water and sanitation and just work on this project, but the water and sanitation projects are so important and so vital to the health and wellness of the community, that I just can't give it up. Speaking of water and sanitation, I'll give you an update on what's going on with that.

IDAAN (the agency that provides potable water to communities of more than 10,000 people) has been working on this huge project in the Darién for almost 6 years, and they've finally finished it and are laying the connection tubes. I talked to a contractor that's laying the pipes, and he told me that they have projected completing the project by October, which means that my community would have totally potable water, 24/7 beginning in October. If they agree to the IDAAN contract.

Turns out that "if" is a big one. I had a conversation with my women's group about the possibility of having this water by October, and I anticipated modest resistance, but I was met with outright refusal to accept this water. Their reasoning was that they want "their" water (as in the water that passes through cattle grazing lands about a 3 hour walk from the community), and that they already have chlorination tanks, so why couldn't they just use those and let Arimae and La Lomita (the neighboring communities currently using the same aqueduct) have the IDAAN water? I understand their desire to keep control on their system, but it's essentially rooted in a fear that someone is going to cut them off if they're delinquent on their payment.

On top of that fear, there is also the more problematic issue of their limited understanding of water borne diseases, and the dangers that come with having contaminated water. They also have no idea what a parasite is, and what makes it different from bacteria or a virus, and, most importantly, what's so bad about having them floating around their system. There are definite health issues related to constant infections by amoebas, parasites and bacteria, especially in children. But a lot of the adults in my community have probably developed a pretty healthy resistance to the bugs floating through my system, so the difference for them would be pretty minimal. The difference for them would be availability of water (no one would have to run up to the house and fill all the buckets when water finally comes back in the pipes) and they wouldn't have to ration bathing and drinking water. Furthermore, they would have more time to do their own work, or things they want to work on because they wouldn't constantly have to have meetings and entreat people to go out and fix the line where it has various breaks and punctures. Man power, money, and time would all be saved if they switched over. Even after I made all these logical, totally brilliant and articulate arguments in favor of the other system, they were still pretty set against it. La lucha.

I'm in the city for the next five days. If you have time and want to Skype, let me know what time and I'll make some time to get a hold of people. Much love to all!

Canasta

Here are some photos for everyone to amuse themselves with until I have time to pull together an actual blog post. These are all of the women in my town and their art wares. I've put some info about the canasta (baskets) in the photos for your better understanding. Let me know if you're interested in any of them, though, because they are all for sale.

Take care!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mpetersen84/Canasta?feat=directlink

(This link should get you there, but please tell me if it doesn't!)

Culturally shocked

I'm enjoying some much needed vacation time in Minnesota with my family through next Tuesday, and I have to say, Minnesota in the summer is much cooler than I remember it. There was one night when I slept under a quilt and comforter with socks, sweatpants, a tank top and a sweatshirt on. Pathetic, I know.

Other than the circulation problems, Minnesota is proving to be just what I needed after a really frustrating and difficult month. This month was plagued by inefficient and non-responsive agency (as in government ministries) employees, and a series of health emergencies in my community. As a result, I ended up feeling really useless, which only fed my negative productivity. My trip home could not have come at a better time! I'd like to outline the things I love most about coming back home after 10 months in Panama.

First of all, I'd like to comment on how polite Minnesota men are. I've not once been hissed at, catcalled, touched, provoked or hit on by a single man (which could also be construed as a major failure, but coming directly from Panama, it's refreshing). I went running the other day, and instead of having every car and truck honk at me while drivers and passengers lean out the windows and yell what, because I have my headphones on, I can only imagine are sweet nothings at me, people smiled and said "good morning". And it was a good morning. It was so pleasant, in fact, that I kept walking for another 45 minutes after I finished my run.

Food is my first love. My mom's refrigerator is always stocked with delicious food, restaurants have such a decadent array of food available, it's staggering, and there's always dessert. I've already eaten spaghetti and meatballs, brownies, ice cream, pizza, cobb salad, tuna, fruit salad (most of the fruits probably originated in Central America), pulled pork, gluten-free beer (several different kinds), and more delicious things that I can't remember. Oh yeah, now I remember: lemonade, rice krispy bars, muesli, and fudge. There's probably more.

Other things I love about America: sidewalks, crosswalks (that drivers adhere to), cool breezes, dogs on leashes, dogs that don't have bones showing, English, WiFi, family dinners, porches, bars (especially with outdoor seating), customer service, driving cars, shopping (or window shopping, in my case), yoga classes, and public radio.

Okay, now I have to do a list of things that I miss about Panama to even this out. I miss pasearing, hammocks, thatched roofs, my dog, Spanish, fresh mangoes, pineapples, and guanabana, salsa music, racataca outfits (think lots of spandex, glitter, sequins, animal prints and strategically placed tears), my fellow volunteers, my neighbors and home stay families, a sense of purpose and direction. I have to say, I don't have much to do in Minnesota, so it'll be nice to return to a place where I have a purpose and goals.

Here are some photos of when I went out and fixed a leak in the line with my water committee. I added captions this time, so I hope you know what's going on.

Back to Panama on Tuesday. Happy 4th of July to all!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

I decided that I needed to write a blog post, but once I sat down to do it, I couldn't think of anything to write. I'm going to make an effort, though, since it's been a while.

First, personally this has been a challenging week. My substitute grandmother (my real grandmother's identical twin sister) passed away on Wednesday. I was going to come home to visit this weekend, but her cancer was very advanced and moved too quickly. I love her, and am sorry that I didn't get to see her one more time. I'm also sorry that I can't be with my family right now. I love all of you and am looking forward to seeing you at the end of the month.

As far as work goes, I'm helping my water committee organize an election for a new water committee in the next week or so. Hopefully there will be a MINSA (Health Ministry) representative there, but frankly, I'm not holding my breath. If the vote actually happened and went even moderately well, I would be thrilled. My standards are pretty low for this particular group.

On the other end of the spectrum, my women's coop has arranged dates for a training to recieve their Personeria Juridica (legally establishes them as a group and makes government funding, as well as other types of funding, more accessable). During the meeting with IPACOOP (the agency that handles coops in Panama), we even convinced three more women in the community that were initially on the fence or leaning towards no, to join the group. It was a great meeting, and working with these women continues to be the joy of my service. If only I could figure out a way to replace the water committee with all my coop ladies...

I have a BUNCH of photos that I will, eventually, post. I might do it when I go home. Although, my school is supposed to be recieving internet (WIRELESS, no less) soon, so when that happens, I can post from my house. I didn't even know that this crazy newfangled technology existed! Next thing you know, they're going to figure out a machine that you can just throw food into and cook it in 1 minute and call it a microwave. Crazy, crazy world.

I am going to bring home a few of the best canasta (baskets) when I come home. They're little, but they're from the best artisans in my community, and they're beautiful. If you're interested, let me know and I can send some pictures.

That blog post came easier than I thought it would. Once I forced myself to start typing, it turns out I did have things to say.

One last thing: to all my family, I love you and miss you and will see you soon. Lori, my thoughts are with you. I'm sorry I could not be there, but I look forward to spending some time with you soon.

Ugh, setbacks.

SOOO, I was supposed to have a water committee meeting last weekend, and it looked like it was going to happen, until tragedy struck on Friday. My water committee president's son was killed in a car accident on Friday night, and his body was brought back to the community on Saturday. Obviously, we didn't meet, and probably won't meet this week either. So I'm going to try to do some small training sessions and repairs with the plumber of my aqueduct. We'll see how that goes. He's the one person that's kind of resistent to having a gringa help out.

It's been freaking HOT here. I know what you're all thinking, "Isn't it always hot there, Molly?" The answer to that is yes. However, there's hot, and there's HOT. Right now we are experiencing the latter. I'm kind of stuck in the house when it's really hot, because I melt (literally, just like the Wicked Witch of the West sans water) when it's hot like this. I went out to the Embera-Wounaan Comarca to visit a future community with my APCD and my regional leader last week, and that was amazing. The community is really organized and excited to have a volunteer. They seem really pulled together and I just got a really good vibe from them. If it weren't for the 50 chiggers that I pulled of my legs and stomach the next day and the ungodly heat (I had soaked my shirt, bra, jeans, underwear in about 10 minutes), I'd want to move out there. I'm kind of frustrated with the standstill I'm experiencing in my community, so I'm prone to romantacizing other communities. They have problems too, I know. I just thought it was a really great community.

Other than that, I've been hanging out with my neighborhood kids, collecting rainwater (there's a major leak in the system somewhere, so our aqueduct hasn't had water for a week; don't worry though, Mom, we've had plenty of rain!), and plotting ways to engage my community. It's such a wierd thing to feel like I'm not making progress but not actually ever be at a standstill. Very confusing.

That's all for now. Hope everyone is well!

Comarca Tech Week, 2010

Here are some shots of the tech week that I just completed out in the Comarca Ngabe Buble in my friend Austin's site. It was a wonderful week full of great information and practice. A lot of the technical skills I felt I had already learned, but we did a lot of brainstorming as a group about how to strengthen the information channels and share the resources we've discovered independently of one another. A lot of Peace Corps in independent work, and it's easy to forget that there are other people in the country, in your sector, even in your province that are working on the same things and sharing resources and information would be easier than struggling through a project solo. There are often some issues with communicating that information, so we're trying to improve that situation.

On the technical side, we built a tap stand for Austin's house, installed a valve box and poured the cement for another one, and did some PVC connections for the water installation in Austin's house. We also worked on thermoforming, which is using hot oil to mold PVC tube, and talked about more efficient ways to make these things using the resources that we have readily available in our communities. Next month I'm going to experiment creating valve boxes using plastic buckets as the mold with another volunteer. She and I just don't have access or the technical skills to create these complicated molds for a valve box, so we're trying to dumb it down (or "campo" it up, as it were) so that it's more accessible for the average volunteer and community member. Hopefully we'll find some interesting and useful solutions.

We also discussed the water committee trainings and where we want to take those as a group. I'd love to train my water committee, but it does require that they participate, which I can't force them to do. I'm supposed to meet with my water committee this week, so I'll let everyone know how that goes.

Hope everyone is well. Take care.

Back at it!

After a very frustrating few weeks in site (with the exception of Sondra's wonderful and distracting visit!), I made a little progress yesterday. The dirigente (mayor, sort of) of my town came over yesterday to let me know that they were going to have a meeting at 5pm, and what did I want to contribute. I asked what the meeting was about, and he told me that we were going to discuss a fight that had broken out a few nights earlier in front of my neighbor's house (and by extension, my house). The fight was between two men from a neighboring community. One just lost his son, a 14 year old boy, during Semana Santa. (Without giving too many details, the boy was killed in my town by people that had come from the city to celebrate Semana Santa. No one has been arrested, sadly.) The other man was apparently being accused of the death, although he wasn't the perpetrator. I asked Crispulo, my dirigente, how he wanted to address this in the meeting. He said that he wanted to talk about the fight, but I suggested that he talk about what happened during Semana Santa instead, since they're related incidences. He agreed, so we wrote up an agenda, and I added a charla I wanted to give to the end of it. (The agenda was a new format for him, and it was like pulling teeth teaching him to do it. But he did it!)

Anyway, so the meeting rolls around, and we start talking about the first point, what happened during Semana Santa. Immediately someone says, "I didn't want to talk about what happened during Semana Santa, I wanted to talk about the fight the other night. I don't like the way that's written on there. What happened during Semana Santa wasn't our fault." (emphasis ADDED) At this point I interjected. I said, "I wrote that on there, and I did it because these are related incidences. Cause and effect. Furthermore, everyone in the community is responsible for the safety of every child. Not just your own children, but your neighbor's children too. What happened was unacceptable. I feel culpable, and you should as well." It was the first time I'd regañared (scolded) my community, but it needed to happen. It was the first time I'd even voiced an opinion in a meeting, but it seemed like they were just going to tackle the effect, not the cause.

After that, I didn't need to say anything else. The community realized the effect that having big, dangerous parties in their town has on their neighbors and decided not to host any more fiestas. I told them, if it's a matter of preserving the cultural aspect of Semana Santa, there are ways to do that without risking anyone's safety. They just decided not to have them anymore, which I think is a good idea, but I didn't say that.

Needless to say, I didn't do my charla, but I did announce that I'm going to do it today at 4pm, and that I expected to see everyone there. Not to be pushy or anything. I'm going to go over my program today and then do an analysis of an environmental health problem with them. We'll see how that goes. I'm optimistic!

Alright, that's all I have to share right now. Hope everyone is well. Love and miss you all!