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.