Ngabe Navidad

My town- my host family house is on the right

I've been thinking about relationships and connectedness lately. A Boston friend takes comfort in the fact that the same moon is shining over her loved ones on the other side of the world. I think of that sometimes. Of greater comfort is that the same God is Lord of all. And in this season we celebrate the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, in the person of Jesus. The God of the Bible is not a distant creator who set the laws of the universe in motion and then left it alone, but a Person who desires to have relationships with his creatures just as we desire relationships with each other. We are invited, at Navidad (Christmas) to worship Jesus as King,  in a form as small and fragile as a human baby.

Baby blanket, stitched by Florentina, my host mom

My parents are a constant support for me, even offering to send me socks from the US as a Christmas present. (Thanks, but no thanks).  Sometimes I take their support for granted, but I am really blessed to have them. As well as all the extended family and friends that pray for me and read this blog.

Ken is the guy at home. We've been dating for nearly a year now, and long distance since August. Had I entered the Peace Corps in February 2011 as I was expecting to, we wouldn't be having long cell phone conversations. I'm grateful to be living in this age of cell phone and internet communication because otherwise, this connection would probably be impossible. While life as a Harvard grad student is very different from life in the campo, we try to share our experiences and pray through the events of the week. Distance has slowed down and changed the way we interact, but we've been growing in friendship.


My community is all about connections. My weekly trips to town have been my alone time- because in my community of Alto Nube my days are one continuous social interaction. That's a big change from my life in the states, which was often solitary and punctuated by social engagements.

We are starting to construct a house for me to live in & rent for the next 2 years, and to be used by any Volunteers that may come after me as well.  A large team of people- men, women, and children- have been working to transform trees and living materials into a house.  On our first work day we had 28 people, and we've had 3 work days so far. Our first task was to cut 20 large stalks of bamboo, each of which was cut into 2 sections of about 15 feet long for carrying.  We carried them somewhere between half a mile and a mile, on a muddy footpath on our shoulders. The 10 year old boys, accustomed to carrying water and firewood, surpassed me in strength! The next day the team went in search of posts and beams for the house: sturdy trunks of laurel and palm trees. Also, we harvested "penca", palm thatch. Meanwhile another team split the bamboo into strips to use as siding. The posts were buried in the ground, to form corners, windows, and a door. My house will be a 14 by 14 foot square, half of which (7 by 14 ft) will be enclosed in bamboo with a corrugated metal roof, and the other half an open air porch roofed with palm thatch. Labor and most of the materials for the house are being donated by the community, as well as a significant amount of food and firewood for our work parties.  I just show up to work and provide most of the food. The work is their gift of cooperation and of friendship. Another gift that I must receive with gratitude.



In my community itself, they're not throwing much of a Christmas party- there's not the resources this year to have a celebration as they sometimes do.  After talking with Ken about a subdued Christmas eating rice and beans ("ka ulire," sad times), I realized I'm in a position to invite people to celebrate. It'll be small scale- a homemade piñata and hopefully some games.  On Christmas day I'll be going to church.

Piñata construction

About a month ago I mentioned a little girl, Melissa, who was severely sick with pneumonia. She recently returned after over a month in the hospital and looks great. In times of need the whole extended family chips in to provide. Here she is (in the blue dress) with her mom and cousin.  Something to be thankful for, indeed.

Diciembre, esta pegando verano! (It´s turning summer!)

Tomorrow is Mother´s Day here in Panama!  And summer is just about here! It´s like I´m in a time warp… is this really December?

Florentina ( my host mom) and I successfully baked cornbread and chili on our fogon cookfire!  We used my recipes from the States. We used a small pot placed inside a larger, covered pot, to create a buffer of hot air around the baked goods.  This was the first time Flora has done any baking.  Some other communities make a coconut flavored yeast bread, but not here, it seems.

Here I am wearing my new nagwa dress, with friends Franklin and Marceliano.

We had a second community meeting on Nov 26. This time we included an additional half dozen houses located above the road which divides the community into Arriba and Abajo, Upper and Lower. The lower community is larger and it organized to bring me here, but the upper section is also interested in collaborating. We discussed my role here, their expectations, and shared some ideas. We had a good discussion that went on until it clouded over and the rains came (predictably) in the early afternoon. We shelved for a future meeting one of the activities I´d planned, making a seasonal calendar, but all in all it went very well with positive attitude and a great turnout of 28 adults.  In the coming weeks I´ll continue doing analysis activities with small groups and designing a house to house survey with some members of the community.  

presenting a community map done at the previous meeting

Ladies´side. In meetings people typically informally group by gender.

We are also making preparations to construct a house for me to live in for the remainder of my time here. As I write from town, my backpack is heavy with nails for the work! We will be tentatively starting construction with cutting the wood and bamboo for siding during the week before Christmas. The group is very motivated and I appreciate that so much! 

Gracias!

As a follow up to my last post, what I find most disorienting are not the outright strange or different things, but the interactions that are just slightly different, like a different organization of goods at the market or not understanding the dressing room attendant in the department store. 

Thanksgiving dinner

I spent Thanksgiving with a group of 16 other Volunteers in David: my training group. We have now been just over a month in our work sites! Spirits were generally good, despite one person with diarrhea and another with giardia, which required a hospital stay. It was fun to check out the stores and restaurants in David, the second largest city in Panama and the provincial capital of Chiriqui.  We ate Thanksgiving dinner at an Italian restaurant and enjoyed sharing lots of stories from our month apart.

With a Thanksgiving theme, some of the things I'm thankful for are:

• The cell phones and the internet that connect me with loved ones and friends far away and nearby.
• A group of other volunteers to share this experience with.
• A community that's friendly and excited about working with me.
• The generosity of that community, even when it seems they have so little.
• The beautiful natural world that I live and work in.
• My own access to financial resources and opportunity, which is far beyond that of my community here (this disparity is not something to be thankful for, of course, but I am thankful for what I do have.)
• The presence of churches in my area, including one that I think I'd like to continue attending (after visiting most of them).
• I pray that God would increase my understanding of the Gospel, that I would be more thankful to Him for all he's given me, and for the way he's redeemed this life.
• Finally, I'm thankful that my community has good access to a road and government-run medical facilities:

A little girl in my community is sick with severe pneumonia, and is in the hospital with a tube in her side. It's a good thing she's in the hospital and receiving, we hope, the best of medical care. It's too bad the family didn't take her earlier, but they thought, as did I, that it was a severe chest cold. While I'm working in health, I'm not trained in medical care and it's humbling.

On a different topic entirely, the economy works in really interesting ways here.  People are connected to each other and the outside world in many complex ways. It's going to take a long time for me to understand more fully what's going on, but here are some of the ways my family gets by:

In- the current season's agricultural crops

Rice, Yucca, Coffee, Cacao, Otoi (root vegetable), Squash, Bananas, Plantains, Chickens

In- money

Govt welfare (dependent on the kids' enrollment in school and the health center)
Selling coffee, cacao, and chickens informally to neighbors
Work for pay on others' farms (a few days here and there)
Sewing dresses (on a hand cranked machine)- something many women in the community do

In- Sharing

The grandmother, who works in a distant town as domestic help, sent plantains and smoked beef one day.

Outlays- I have a very incomplete picture here.

Food
Supplies such as soap, matches, string
School supplies, uniforms
Clothing
Travel
Sharing food with other families
Expenses related to medical care (the care itself is subsidized)

People in my community also practice several handicrafts:

Some women in the community make "chackras," net bags. They start by twisting cordage, either out of unravelled plastic rope, or natural fibers (which is a whole process of preparation unto itself). Then the bags are crocheted, either by hand or using a crochet hook, depending on the size. It's very labor intensive. Bags are used for firewood, babies, bananas, purses, and cell phones, in descending order of size.

This is a giant bag for firewood! Or maybe just for show... imagine an old lady twisting this cordage on her thigh, to make the rope that this bag is made out of! Dyed with natural "tintas."

A handful of men in the larger community make sombreros, also out of natural fibers. This is traditionally men's work, while the chackras are women's work.

To make the distinctive dresses, "nagwas",  ladies generally use hand crank or foot pedal operated sewing machines. Quite a few of them have a side business of sewing clothes to order for other families.  I really like the dresses and I ordered one for myself, which turned out really nicely... I hope to have a few. I hope to take a picture soon of me wearing it.

Enjoying "normal"

Iguanas, reported to be quite tasty (haven't tried yet)

It hit me when I walked into the supermarket. I breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, I was still in Panama, but things were familiar here, even American.  There was the cereal aisle, over there the vegetable section and the baked goods. This made me very happy, in a way that walking into a Safeway never does in the States.  On other days, I'd been navigating the Panamanian world. When it came to shopping, I wasn't sure what kind of store sold what kind of thing, nor, when I got there, how goods were organized. I realized that I like being in an environment where I know the social and cultural norms.  So, as an estadounidense (United-States-ian) I really like being American.

Some of my many American traits:

Craving and eating vegetables.
Requiring "alone time" to think and process (a foreign idea to the family-oriented Panamanians).
Reading for fun.
Traveling far away from my loved ones and connections to have an adventure of service and self-discovery in another country.

I feel a new respect for immigrants to the US, as well, who may be coming from a very different context, to a new world with a vast array of options to choose from, of decisions to be made on a daily basis.  I and a Volunteer friend were imagining what it would be like for a Ngabe to move to the US. What would they think of us, and how would they manage so far from their family? I think I can never really communicate my US world to them; it's a real privilege to be acquainted with more than one way of life and to share in theirs. Most aspects of Ngabe life are really different from mine in the US: traditional, even ancient in some cases. Other aspects are just the same- many Panamanians have cell phones too, for example. To me, the cell phone feels like an interloper from my other life, something that doesn't belong here with the palm thatch huts and the chickens. But I'm glad that we both have phone access.

I've received some questions about my diet, so I'd like to share a bit of that so-important part of my day. I eat with my host family.   We eat rice, fried or boiled bananas, white yams, and yucca. These starches are topped with chicken, egg, greens, instant soup, squash, or beans. I bring dried beans, spices, and vegetables from town every 10-14 days to supplement what the family grows.  The family also grows coffee and chocolate, which they prepare and drink themselves or sell informally to neighbors. I'm actually eating a better variety of foods than I did in my training period (a typical meal was rice or spaghetti with chicken in a ketchup sauce).  Food for the most part is plentiful but if a meal falls between the cracks I eat from a secret stash of peanut butter and crackers.

Bush Meats I've tried (generous, hunter neighbors)

Don't worry, this conejo pintado is a pet... I ate a different one.

Conejo Pintado, or Paca
Wild Boar
Deer

New Fruits & Vegetables in Panama

Nance- small, cherry like fruits with a tart flavor, reminds me of rhubarb
Pifa- palm nuts, dry with a tasty, meaty flavor
Custard Apple- a fruit with oddly gooey, white flesh
Bananas- Some really tasty banana varieties which we don't see in the States.
Chayote-  summer squash; you can eat the leaves too.
Zapayo- pumpkin-like squash
Boda- a wild flower, harvested in the woods when it's still in the bud.
Cacao-  cacao + water is the traditional, and ritual drink, though coffee is more common everyday now.

I'll close with a few photos:

The family cow gave birth on Sunday Nov 13.

Baby calf, several hours old

Making an "organic pesticide" with local teacher & environmentalist Regina and agriculture volunteer Winston

Creating a map  of the community with a group of men and a group of women, a step in my community analysis

Drawing a map with a different section of my community

Harvesting coffee with my host family

Harvesting my host family's coffee. These are "coffee cherries"- the bean is inside a fleshy fruit

Ti blite Ngabere chi. (I speak a little Ngabere)

Well, my first week on the job has been interesting!

My first host mother, Chabi, has been outside the community working in the city. Consequently we moved up the timeline to move into my second host family house:  this involved constructing a latrine, a shower enclosure, and a room within their one-room house. 

I expect to be living with the host family through Jan or Feb. As there are no spare houses available to rent here, the plan is that the Water Committee will build me a home to rent for the remainder of my stay. The Peace Corps requires that we live with host families for the first  3 months.  I'm looking forward to having more of my own space, schedule, and diet. Still, like my host family during training, they are more than accommodating and very glad to have me.  The immediate family consists of father Mindo, mother Florentina (about my age), two grade school boys, Alvaro and Omar, and baby Ede. The community as a whole consists of a couple of extended families and  they, and I, are frequently visiting other homes. The work party's effort to build my new accommodations was very encouraging for me. It also felt humbling to accept it as a gift.

My host family, Mindo and Florentina Montero, with children Omar and Ede. Not pictured is 10 year old Alvaro.

I had the chance to visit one of several area churches this Sunday, a Baptist church with the service partly in Ngabere and partly in Spanish. It was encouraging to meet with other believers, though the service felt disorganized for me. I followed along in my Bible as the sermon was in Ngabere, and they were using the Ngabe Bible.  I hope to visit other churches in the coming weeks and choose one to attend regularly. Earlier in the week I chanced upon a missionary trio, two Panamanian Kuna (another indigenous group) and an American, that were there to support the local Baptist church's efforts.  It was neat to meet them as well!

At the same time I'm learning a little bit about the syncretistic religion, Mama Chi, practiced by some members of my community. I don't know much yet; but the traditional rituals are more frequently in the "summer" which starts in December.  Also there is a "curandero" or traditional medicine/plants healer who lives in the upper section of the community.  I pray that I will be able to walk well in a complex mixture of cherished cultural rituals, spiritual, and health practices.  Understanding what's going on here is going to take time and "confianza": confidence, or trust.

On October 28 we had a festival day in the large town nearby. Many schools' percussion marching bands competed.  Everyone turned out in their finest clothing, some of it made or purchased for the occasion.

Three other volunteers from the wider area were able to attend: Erica and Emma from my training group, and Carolyn who has been here one year.  We are all environmental health workers.

Susan, Carolyn, Emma, Erica

Here we are: some wearing the traditional dresses, nagwas. I have a chackra, a net bag made from natural cordage.  I'm ordering my own nagwa this coming week from a seamstress in the community. Little girls have been asking, "why don't you wear a nagwa?" They are beautiful and striking.





The community continues to be pleased that I am making an effort to learn their language.. as small as my current vocabulary is. Heaven knows there's a lot to absorb.  This past week has been mostly visiting around the community to know people better. There's a community meeting on Saturday Nov 5 as well, and my work here is part of the agenda.

To close, here are a couple of pics from Panama City, two weeks ago when we were there for swearing in.  Panama City is an interesting mix of "first world" skyscrapers, cultural attractions, shopping, and slum neighborhoods.

Ti ka Begui (My name is Begui)

My group of 16 Environmental Health volunteers was sworn in on Thursday October 20th at the elegant and spacious home of the US Ambassador to Panama. The ceremony was pretty short and was attended mostly by Peace Corps staff, some other volunteers, as well as some representatives from the Panamanian government. The head of ANAM, the Panamanian environmental agency, was an honored guest. The Ambassador administered the oath- as a group we held up our right hands and swore to uphold the US Constitution and do the duties of a Peace Corps volunteer.  I and other volunteers have had two days to relax in Panama City prior to heading to our work sites on Sunday Oct 23.

My site, in the native language Kubabo, is in the first set of mountains facing south towards the Pacific ocean. From the village's ridgelines we can see broad plains dotted with farms and the distant ocean with islands on the horizon.  Around 120 people live in Kubabo. In general they are subsistence farmers, cultivating the steep slopes with rice, fruit trees, cacao, coffee, and root vegetables.  They may sell to outside if they have a good crop but generally they eat what they produce. Some members of the community work outside, or "afuera" in agriculture, housekeeping, or manual labor.  The people speak their language, Ngabere, at home, but are also fluent in Spanish. The women and girls wear homemade, brightly colored cotton dresses called nagwas. Some women make traditional style clothing to sell in town. The community is located near many services, but has no infrastructure within itself (no running water, electricity, or latrines).  Students attend a primary school a short walk away in one direction and a secondary school 20 minutes walk away in the other direction. In the large town with the high school, there's also a government run health center staffed by some passionate Ngobe nurses and a doctor, and the district government offices.  There are also several churches in the larger area that I would like to visit, both Catholic and Protestant. I have yet to discover what kind of Christian community there is here but I'm hoping for some fellowship.

The view from Kubabo

I will be just a 20 minute and 40 minute walk away from my two closest other volunteers: Winston who works in agriculture, and Erica, in my same Environmental Health group, who also keeps a blog (link on the side).   I'm excited about the opportunity to collaborate, both on Environmental Health projects and learning about agriculture. Our main focus will be on our respective communities. There are also other volunteers in the wider area. Several will be visiting our area in one week for a marching percussion band festival/ competition hosted by the high school, which should be both fun and loud.

The first 3 months in the community is called "Proyecto Amistad"- Project Friendship. It's a period of time to ask questions, visit around, participate in festivals and harvesting and whatever else is going on in the community, and to survey their health situation. During this time I hope to use a set of community analysis tools developed by the Peace Corps in order to learn more about the community.  During the first three months we are not to start any major projects- this time is meant to be the foundation on which successful projects and activities are built.

Francisca and Mindo pound homegrown rice to remove the husks.

Mindo shows off a bundle of rice while holding his rice harvesting blade. This rice is very flavorful and nutritious.

My site visit last week was good; the people were welcoming and excited to both work with me on health projects and teach me about their culture.  I'll tell a bit more about how this visit played out.  The Peace Corps hosted a one day conference for the new volunteers and a representative or guide from each of the community.  We talked about the work of the Peace Corps and our expectations for each other, as well as safety and security details. My guide, Chitoj, takes his responsibilities very seriously. He is my first counterpart, the Peace Corps term for an individual in the community with whom you work closely.  I hope to have others, too.The next day after the conference we set out for Kubabo. My site feels like a remote mountain village, but it's not that hard to get to. From San Felix, the large town on the highway, I just need to take a chiva (small, pickup truck bus).  The journey takes about an hour on a windy gravel road uphill. For how much stuff I brought, I was very glad that I didn't have a several hour long hike like some of my compañeros.

The Water Committee called a community meeting for me to introduce myself and for my guide to share the details of the conference. They also voted on a native nickname for me: "Begui."  (Most people in the community have both Latino and Ngabere names.)  The remaining days of my visit were spent visiting different homes in the community as well as the local offices and schools. 

home!

For the first few months, I'm staying with a host family: Chabi, a lady in her 50s whose kids are studying away from home. She has a great sense of humor. I look forward to a better Spanish level so I can capture everything she and the others say. She's also a great cook.  Her relatives dug a pit latrine out back for me to use (the only one in the community). There are also 7 neighbor children that live across the street (6 of them siblings), who like to come over and color with some crayons I brought. On another occasion,  kids showed me how to dance the hegi, a traditional line dance.  It is really fun to be with them. I'm working on learning the names of children as well as adults- it's going to take a while!  One challenge was that most of the time everyone talked in Ngabere. I definitely want to learn more of this! They were really happy that I was trying to speak it, fumbling as I was, and happy to teach me new words.

We are discussing holding a weekly English class for members of the community- there's a lot of interest, mostly from children and young adults. They do take English classes in school but have a long way to go towards holding a conversation.  I plan on doing this in order to build relationships; I'm not an expert teacher, especially of kids. But I think it'll be good from a friendship and cultural exchange point of view.

Well, I'm heading back to the community to live. I'm excited to spend more time with my new Ngabe friends.  I do think it'll be complex and challenging to find out more about what's really going on in the community and work with them to improve their own health- but that's why I'm there. 

I'm planning on checking email about every 10-14 days when I spend a day doing errands in town, so it remains a pretty good way of being in touch.  I also enjoy connecting by cell phone. Email me your number and I'll call you! And for those of you who are praying for me, thank you so much.  I was so encouraged to have a positive site visit. It'll take longer to understand the community and what God is doing there, but I hope to connect with other believers in the area soon.

Comunidad Hermosa

We are swearing in as Peace Corps Volunteers tomorrow, October 20th. For me, that'll be my new reference point. Since August 16th, our group of 17 has been together as Trainees. Tomorrow, we will be called Volunteers. Also starting tomorrow, everything is measured from October. This commitment, God willing, will last 2 years until October 2013. There are medical check ups and training events, and evaluations throughout at 3, 6, 12, and 21 month marks.  It's strange to look at a tentative schedule so long in advance.  I can look forward with anticipation to hoped-for visits of loved ones.  Time passes a bit differently in the campo (countryside)- I hear that while the pace of each day is slow the two years feel very short. I pray that I will be able to live fully in the present, with patience, humor and perseverance.

I'll be writing more about my experiences in my week-long site visit later this week, before I head back on Sunday to live there. Today I'd like to write an appreciation of our host community where I've spent the last few months. I appreciate very much the love and care of my host family, Jilma and Amadis. I dropped in on them after a last minute change of plans but they took it in stride and welcomed me right in.

Host mother Jilma was person at home number-one for me. She is an expert multi tasker, often caring for her two baby grandchildren while cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry.  She definitely expresses her love and care in service to other people. For instance she would wash my clothes frequently, even when I didn't consider them exactly dirty, and wouldn't rest until my white socks were brush- scrubbed very clean.  If she were to see my white socks a few months from now, she might be disappointed in my washing efforts because I don't have her high standards for undergarments.  She also cooks each simple meal from scratch and dishes up individual plates. It's true that compared with the other women in the house, I don't really do housework, but they have their schedule and don't seem to mind... Well, I appreciate how my family has cared for me in many ways.

My host father Amadis always conducts himself as a gentleman. He keeps busy with lots of work- from his full time job in maintenance at the hospital, to weekends freelancing in construction, building furniture out of scrap wood, or cutting hair for the neighborhood.

My host parents displaced their 13 year old son, Edward, from his room in order to give it to me, and when he came home from school he didn't even grumble. He's a bright and funny child with an enthusiasm to learn.


21 year old host sister Jeidi is very loving and serious, taking after her mother in many ways. She is studying early childhood education in college and definitely wants a career rather than starting a family young (which is very popular here).




Host brother Eli was a bit of a tease. He likes to share about sports and is on the town soccer team. Eli's wife Sujeidi invited me to a tiny home church on Thursday nights, which I attended twice. It was nice to study the Word together. Their baby Elian learned to walk during my stay. He's a growing boy, and he doesn't even cry that much. Or, at least, his room was on the other end of the house.

Edward and his nephew Elian

There's more family outside the house- grandpa Julio, brother Julio and his wife Omira and son Jair. They are friendly and quiet, and their 8 month old baby serious and exploratory.

Aunt Mary, Uncle Samuel, and cousins Anet and Glorisel would often stop by and visit. Generously they invited me to come and visit more at their house as well. One Sunday we cooked a meal together with a home grown chicken "gallina de patio" which I helped to clean and prepare. We also made banana bread together. Even though I didn't visit them that much, they were always very welcoming.

making cinnamon rolls with Glorisel, Edward, and Anet

The rest of the community, too, was so inviting. It can't be easy to have a bunch of foreigners drop in on your tiny town for classes, asking questions, and so on.  But they opened their hearts and their homes to us and for that, we are very grateful.  They have invited me to visit them again, and I would like to do so.

Preparing arroz con pollo with another host family for our goodbye party

Pinata time at our goodbye party!

Take a look at my Picasa albums (link to right) for more photos.