Acción Comunitario

We are finally moving from community analysis and needs assessment into community action!

What, action? Heeheehee.

My community will be working with me on a latrine project in the coming months. Few of the families have latrines (25% have latrines, but most of those are just holes with sticks placed over the top which can be difficult/unpleasant to use). Latrines help prevent intestinal worms and diarrhea, both of which are really common here and are transmitted by contact with feces. Most people here currently "do their business" in the bushes or in the creek, which make feces more prevalent in the environment (people wash their clothes and bathe in the same creeks, at least in the section of the community that doesn't have an aqueduct water piping system). Working with Peace Corps Panama's Environmental Health program, we are searching for outside funds to help with the cost of making simple concrete pit latrines. These are basically just a small slab topped with a concrete seat over a pit, and enclosed with an outhouse that the family will construct. Community members will be doing all the labor and contributing many of the required materials for the project. We are hoping that half the monetary cost of latrines will be funded by a nonprofit organization with which Peace Corps Panama collaborates. The other half is for me to raise.

Constructing formwork for a latrine slab in another community, which I visited to gain more practice with latrines.

We are currently holding meetings which cover logistics and educate about using latrines to prevent diseases. The idea is also to give community members practice in grant-writing and organizing a project. We will be putting together a proposal in October once we know how many families are interested (probably between 20 and 60). Around December, if things go as I hope, I will be able to send a link to the Peace Corps website where interested people can donate to the project. We hope to construct in the dry season, January through March. The goals of this process are: improving community health through accelerating cultural change towards latrine use, empowering the community to design and manage their own project, and hopefully, inspiring families in the future to continue building their own affordable latrines.

In addition to the latrines, I've had the opportunity to travel around quite a bit during the month of June, collaborating and learning from other volunteers. Here are some of the activities I've been a part of this month:

I've visited communities to help with water committee seminars. These are several-day seminars put on by Peace Corps volunteers, to train the citizen committees that run Panama's rural water systems. Our trainings include skits, visual presentations, silly games, and food. I've helped out with 3 of these trainings and plan to organize one in my area with nearby volunteer Erica in September.

I helped Volunteer Laura F. construct a "toma" or water intake structure for an aqueduct. It was a long process and I was only able to come for one day, but what I saw was a valuable learning experience.  We had to build a concrete structure that would capture the water coming from a hillside spring. The first step was to build a low concrete wall on the downhill side, into which pipes are set to carry water to the community.

The water is flowing out of the layer of soil at the upper left side. It will run down this layer of bedrock into the structure.

Laura is building a clay dam to direct water into the pipe so that the concrete wall can be poured.

Good for art as well as aqueduct construction!

On another subject, but also related to clay/mud, I  learned about Lorena Stoves - made of clay and straw.  Here's one at the house of Jason C. (Iyo in Ngabere); he uses it to cook things that take a long time, like beans and baking bread in a cookpot.  I would like to help construct stoves to learn more about them. There are many different designs of homemade stoves that aim to increase fuel efficiency, helping both with deforestation and with respiratory problems caused by breathing smoke. If combustion is more complete, there is less harmful smoke. I admire the idea but don't yet know if it's the right thing to promote in my community. Others working with stoves include Aprovecho in Eugene, OR, and family friends John and Flip Anderson of Corvallis, OR.


I want to build a Lazy Circle compost pile in my house. That means sowing plants in a circle around my compost pile. I'll let you know how it goes. I'd like to grow hot peppers, tomatoes, string beans, okra, and millet.

Lazy circle of Alvaro, an organic farmer in Jason's community

I just finished a 4 day class on Ngabere, the native language. This latest training from PC aimed to get us more comfortable with the grammatical structure and even move into using the past tense(!) I have a long ways to go, but I look forward to improving more and more during my time in Panama. Spanish is the language that I speak most in-site but everything I can learn in Ngabere shows my respect for the people and their culture, and helps me understand what's going on around me.

In the coming months I'm looking forward to:

• Attending a 4-day Peace Corps seminar on Project Management and Leadership with a leader/organizer from my community
• Meetings to kick of the latrine project
• Doing some talks on nutrition and health topics
• A trip to the US the last 2 weeks of August (14-21 in Portland, 22-28 in Boston)
• Organizing a water committee seminar in my own area for September

As always thank you for your thoughts and prayers! The work is slow, but I hope fruitful.

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
    establish the work of our hands for us—
    yes, establish the work of our hands." 
Psalm 90:17

Puerco en la Playa

Every 4 months, all volunteers in a region get together for a meeting and, afterwards, a celebration.

Add caption

In our case we celebrate on the beautiful beach Las Lajas. This time around our coordinator Erin (a volunteer finishing up her 3^rd year of service) organized roasting a pig in a pit in the sand. It involved a lot of carrying logs for firewood the first night, chopping it up with an ax, digging the pit, building and monitoring the fire all night long, and epic cooking the evening of the following day. Once we exhumed the pig from its fire at 9 pm the second day we decided to debone it and stirfry it to ensure it was cooked all the way.  We dined at 11 pm on pork with BBQ sauce, seasoned salt, and boiled green bananas. It was a good thing to have a way to expend our efforts, but a challenge that I don’t think I’d want to organize myself. Once is enough for a meal that takes more than 30 hours of hard work to prepare.  This isn’t a traditional Panamanian way of cooking things either, so there were a lot of unknowns, but it turned out well.

Erin models a traditional bag

Some volunteers decide to stay on for a third year of service, either continuing with what they were doing in their initial site or doing a different project. Each region of the country has a regional leader. I appreciate the service of those who decide that they just aren’t ready to leave Panamanian food, music, and people behind after 2 years of service. I don’t think I’ll be in that situation, but bless those who do.  It means a lot to have a strong support system and leaders you can trust. Our regional leader and coordinator Erin will be taking off in a few months and this was something of a good-bye party for her.

Erin also organized a meeting with the ministry of health, specifically the department that works in water and sanitation systems (just like us!). The technician for my area happens to be holding a training for members of my larger community in a couple weeks, on June 13. He’ll be talking about how to make repairs to existing water systems as well as dropping off some supplies  for small concrete repairs to aqueducts. I hope to attend this and provide some more lasting follow-up and technical expertise in certain communities near mine. (Though within my exact community, we don’t yet have a water system at all.) I also hope increase my collaboration with the ministry of health (which I haven’t really done so far). Some volunteers choose to work more with Panama’s government agencies and some work nearly entirely with nonprofits.  Increasing collaboration with Panama’s agencies ensures that our work makes a more lasting effect, but the bureaucracy and tight schedules of the employees can be a frustrating challenge. As for me, I’m just starting.