Abril

Here's a summary of some of my recent activities.

I presented my community analysis to the community itself in a meeting (that is, the things I've learned about them in my first few months). The meeting started an important conversation about our water, sanitation, and health priorities and goals. What are we going to work on together for the rest of my time here? As I see it, education is a given: on topics such as hand-washing, watershed protection, and latrine use.  It is also possible to do a latrine or a water system project. In some ways it is easier to put in physical infrastructure such as latrines or water systems, as expensive as they are, than to change peoples' behavior.  People in my community, and others too, want (outside-funded) latrines and aqueducts; however they generally don't understand water borne diseases to be a problem.  With the training I've received from Peace Corps, I see preventing water and waste borne diseases such as diarrhea and worms to be a big part of my mission here. Especially after our community analysis meeting, I know it'll be a long process from going to simply hearing about healthy practices to actually doing them.  One of the most basic healthy practices is hand washing, to prevent disease transmission. Without washing hands, using latrines or piping water to the house won't make much difference in health. Education is going to be a long haul. The government does some health education, which usually goes in one ear and out the other. So how can I present the information differently?

Community Analysis meeting

The rains have started, with some days of pouring rain followed by other days of sunshine. People are hurrying to finish up their dry season tasks- finishing construction on new houses or kitchens, before the rains become more frequent and make the work harder.  For those that were late to slash-and-burn, it's too late because you can't get a good field burn going in the damp. The "monte" or scrub will continue growing for next year unless treated with herbicide as a precursor to planting.  It's also time to sow corn, rice, and yucca.  Some families in my community are working a field together to raise money for a community fund for celebrations. I helped sow corn with them the other day.

sowing corn

Arriving at the Easter conference

I also attended a church conference for Easter (April 8) with my church in Cerro Iglesias. We chartered a pickup truck from our town, which forded the same river- twice- on the way to the campground where the event was to be held. About 1000 Ngabe gathered to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord with worship and Bible study for 3 days.  I think I was the only non-Ngabe there! About half the proceedings were in Spanish and half were in Ngabere (They use hymnals in both). I was very impressed with the organization of the conference.  Unfortunately, every afternoon we had torrential rain that swept around and under my friends' rain tarps, threatening to wet their possessions and dampening our moods. I came back early, by myself, because I wanted to spend more time in my home after traveling a lot in March.  Someone's cousin was going the same way and gave me an hourlong ride on his horse (my first ride)!  My new friend led the way up steep trail, holding the rains on the horse and urging me to "Agarrelo duro!" or "Hold on tight (to the pommel of the saddle)." I could only reply "I am!" as the horse scrambled up the slick clay slope.

Fellow Volunteer Winston worked with community members in Cerro Iglesias to put on their annual agriculture and cultural Fair  mid-April. I enjoyed attending with other volunteers, and we got a special visit from Chief Sylvia Carrera, an influential Ngabe elected leader who has been negotiating with the national government about mining and hydroelectric rights in the Comarca, or native reservation. She is a hero for the people, and a rare thing in this culture, a woman politician. I finish today with some photos from the Fair:

Chief Sylvia Carrera

"Se roto!" It broke. Too bad it's also raining.

Fellow volunteer Erica, who works in a neighboring town, contemplates a stuffed squirrel decoration at the Fair

Niyo & Begui

Well, March has been a big month for me. Ken came to visit from Boston on his spring break. We spent 4 days in my site and 4 days split between Panama City, David, and points between. In my site we visited neighbors, measured the flow of some springs of water, and sang Ngabere hymns at church. Ken's Spanish enabled him to strike up lots of interesting conversations with the locals. Ken even started picking up some Ngabere language.  My community gave him a name in their native language: Niyo, pronounced "NEE-jo."  The last name is Kubabo, which means a person from Kubade, my area. It was so much fun in my community, Ken wanted to stay there rather than leave for a vacation at the beach! I, however, was ready to take a break away so we headed to the Gulf of Chiriqui on the Pacific Ocean. Ken got a mild bacterial infection so we had to leave the next day, but at the medical clinic we ran into some friends. Jim and Emma I. are a retired couple living in David, Panama, who work with missionary teams that visit my area. I'd met them a few months ago in my site! They generously invited us to spend a night with them; something that we didn't plan but God did. It was fun and encouraging to talk with them about their life and work. Finally we visited historic Panama City, observed ships passing through the Panama canal's locks, and encountered iguanas and a baby sloth at a park.

There's a lot to think and pray about in regards to the trip. It'll give us some strength to draw on in the coming months of long distance dating! It's also neat to be able to share my Peace Corps experience more fully.

Also, I and the other volunteers in my training group met for a week of classes in late March. Coming up in the next month, I'll help give a seminar on aqueducts,  host a frisbee event for kids in the area, and I'll present my community analysis to my community itself in a meeting on April 14.

Here are some photos from the trip:

ñänä nire (hot sun)

Hello friends! Happy March! For those who remembered me on my 29th birthday with emails and cards, thank you! I spent the day with community members- at a church Bible study where I brought some stovetop banana-oat cookies, and later making popcorn with my neighbors.

Neighbor Federico and his puppy Lobita "little wolf"

Thank you to all of you who’ve been praying for the protests and unrest in Panama. Negotiations about mining and hydroelectric continue, and the atmosphere is watchful and waiting. Since that first week-long protest things have been much calmer. But the threat of protests, and police response to them, is still present. Groups of indigenous Ngabe are standing by the side of the highway keeping watch, ready to block the road if called upon to do so.

March is springtime in the States but in Panama it’s the height of “summer”, the dry season. It feels a lot more like August with scorched grass and blazing sunshine (in Ngabere, that’s “ñana nire”, hot sun). Summer is also the time of school vacation but now kids are heading back to school in their freshly pressed blue and white uniforms and government assigned backpacks. The teachers are back, after several months’ absence for vacation, commuting to and from our neighboring town’s school in the back of a covered pickup truck that serves as our bus.

The groundwater continues to dry up in summer. In the last 3 months the quantity coming from our principal spring has halved each month. I measure it every month with a group of kids as willing helpers. Knowing how much water is flowing in summer is essential information should we want to do an aqueduct, a piping system, in the future. And now is the time of the year to get the most helpful data. We assume according to WHO guidelines and Panamanian’s water use that 30 gallons a day is needed per capita.

March is also significant for me for a couple other reasons: my boyfriend Ken is visiting me here in the second week of March for his spring break. We’ll be spending some time at my site and also at a tourist resort/hostel. After months of talking on the phone as our main communication, we’re really looking forward to this visit!

Once he leaves, I’ll be joining the other volunteers in my training group, those that started with me in August, for a week of classes near Panama City. We’ll be sharing our community analyses with each other and learning how to plan projects and write grants. In the process of preparing my analysis including my health surveys, I’ve learned some interesting things about my community:

There are around 190 residents in 28 houses, plus me! This is more than I’d realized.
7 of those houses, or 25% have constructed and use their own latrines. The rest go in the bushes.
The median number of children for mothers to have is 5.5. Family planning is rarely used though it is readily available at the health center.
Out of 190 people, fully half are under age 15, and only 6 are older than age 60. Life in the Comarca is hard on the body.

The most common illnesses are
Intestinal worms (everyone has them always, though some times are worse than others)
Colds and flu
Diarrhea
Headaches and migraines.

Most people visit the traditional healer first when they get sick, and the doctor second. They take pride in their culture including the traditional medicine.

The worms and diarrhea are problems based on unclean water and poor sanitation- in short, when we ingest poop it makes us sick. This means that the job the PC has trained me to do, is very relevant for my community.

In April, when I get back from my training, I’m going to share the results with the community in a general meeting. We’ll talk about their needs and priorities and decide what programs and projects we want to tackle first. The community puts a lot of trust in me, assuming that I know what I’m doing! I am learning a lot and hope to be worthy of that trust. Often the Peace Corps will send several volunteers in a row to a location- not just 2 years in a site but 4 or 6 years of PC presence.

Man makes a traditional hat like the one he is wearing. First he makes a braid then sews it together in a coil.

I’ll end with some stories and photos from February (more on my Picasa to the right).

I had the chance to visit a model organic farm in another town. Regina, a friend and elementary school teacher from the neighboring town of Cerro Iglesias, took her family and me on an hour and a half hike to reach Finca Esperanza, Hope Farm. Owner Leandro is an enthusiastic proponent of all things organic. He gave us a tour of his medicinal and edible wild plant garden, fish ponds, okra, forest, and compost. He even cultivates a beneficial fungus in a barrel: he sprays a solution of fungus and water on crops like cacao and coffee that are prone to fungal infections. He says the one fungus combats the others. This is new to me! Winston, a nearby agriculture volunteer in Cerro Iglesias, will be doing some work with him in the future. After the farm tour we cooled off with Leandro’s kids by jumping in a beautiful nearby river and hunting crayfish (we only caught some tiny ones).

Leandro and his daughter show off their okra. They use the seeds to make a delicious "coffee."

beneficial fungus



hunting crayfish



Cooling off! I swam in my clothes as did everyone else...



I also visited volunteer Kayla in another Comarca town to help out with some latrines she’s constructing. I learned a lot from how she’d organized her community in work groups to accomplish a large project of 50 latrines! After spending 1 day working with her, I hiked back down the steep hill with Kayla’s friend Eusebio and horse Jaguar, who was carrying a metal mold to make a concrete latrine seat. Kayla didn’t need it anymore and another volunteer did, so we were helping courier it to another location.

A scaffolding of wood, bamboo, and plastic is laid directly over the pit in order to pour the concrete in place.

The horse prefers to ford the stream rather than cross on the bridge, where I'm standing

Eusebio let me hold Jaguar's reins for a photo

Some final photos represent the harvest of guandu, or pigeon peas, a delicious bean that can be harvested green or allowed to dry on the stalk before harvesting. They lay out the dried beans on some plastic and stomp and sort them- the beans themselves fall to the bottom and the pods can be thrown out.

Aguantar, "to endure"

The last week in Panama has been a difficult one. I have been safe, up in my mountain home. But down below there have been country-wide protests that shut Panama down for a week. As a result, the national Assembly is revisiting the mining and hydroelectric laws that are disputed by the Ngabe protesters. We are all waiting to see what will result from the dialogue! Here's an article describing the situation, from Panama's La Prensa newspaper.

A little excitement

Ngäbe-Buglé close highway in Chiriquí | Locales-Ultima Hora | Prensa.com

The tribe is protesting a proposed copper mine in the Comarca, their reservation. Or more specifically, the laws governing mineral rights. The main and only highway across the country has been closed for 3 days by protesters, and the radios, which are on in every house, blare stories of spoiled produce and pregnant women in the stopped vehicles. Happily where I actually live, in the mountains above the highway, is more calm, or "todo tranquilo" as they say.  Though many community members are down at the protests. Prayers for a peaceful and just resolution to a long standing dispute are appreciated.

On another subject, I'm definitely not an early adapter of technology. Nor is my family, as I typed most of my high school papers on a typewriter. But thanks to the generosity of friends who've donated a smartphone (thanks Ken and Katherine) I am now able to cruise, or rather,  slowly crawl the internet from my mountain village, at least "de vez en cuando," once in a while. Thus I'm able to share this with you today!

La vida en fotos

 

Here's a video of traditional hegi dancing at an agricultural fair in the town of Salto Dupí, where another volunteer lives. A voice is describing the dance, then enters into a traditional song. There are many different types of hegi dances, of which I only know a couple. The Feria was a fun chance to travel to another town and see the work there! About a dozen volunteers showed up for the event on Jan 15 which included sales of artisan crafts, vegetables and agricultural products from the Organic Producers' Association (which the PC works with), home cooked meals, and a dance in the evening. Volunteers, Ngabes, and children danced together late into the night at this dry event, a very special occasion in a culture where the tradition is to get smashing drunk at all celebrations.

I put a number of new photos on my Picasa (see right side of page) with notes. Take a look through them!

My house is finished as well, though I have yet to move in. Here's a slideshow of the rest of the construction process.

El nuevo año empieza (the new year begins)

Preparing food for the church´s Christmas celebration

Finishing making the piñata for another Christmas celebration in the community

The piñatas were a smashing success, both of them, in two separate Christmas parties. After 8 days of work, we finished the house. Party to come this Friday, complete with traditional dancing that some older community members are putting together.  I hope to get my wooden latrine seat put together tomorrow so that part of the facility can be open to inspection and use! 

The next task, something I´ll be working on in the next 2 months, is to do a survey of the community, all 28 households. The survey I´ve designed should provide some baseline data before we start any programs, as well as start more conversations about community health.  I´ve also got a checklist (standardized with the other Environmental Health projects) about things I´ll just observe. For example, in their house I´ll look for  how they store their drinking water.

Some example survey questions and my thinking behind them:

What are the names and ages of household members?

Most community members are children and teenagers, with a sprinkling of grandparents. One person pointed out what the presence or absence of elderly indicates for health. Average family size is likely around 5 kids.  In the earlier generation, polygamy was common. The two main family groups, upper and lower sections of the community, are each originating in a patriarch with several wives. There are a few complicated situations with second marriage in the present day, and one man with two wives. Due to the influence of outsiders, in the form of increased education and efforts of Christian missionaries, few women are interested in a polygamous marriage nowadays. They used to get married early in the old days, and quite a few still do.  One friend got hitched at age 15 and had her first child at 16, with a man 15 years older. I don´t know how she could have had discretion at that age to make a good choice but she seems to have made it- the father is a hard worker and devoted to the family. I need to look past my own prejudices and filters to understand and empathize with people in a situation very new to me. Many volunteers teach seminars for teenagers using  a PC developed curriculum about life choices and sex education, to start addressing these important issues.  The sheer numbers can speak to how many people a latrine or aqueduct project could serve in the present day, and make projections about the growth of the community. 

For what reasons might you go to the health center? The curandero (traditional healer)? What do you treat in the home?

Community members will often treat things in home that I would go running to a health center for- an infected pus pocket on a child´s face, a nasty two week long cold, persistent diarrhea and lack of appetite.   I don´t understand this, but I think it has something to do with keeping power in the home vs taking them to an outside source where any of the following may happen: absent doctor (come back later), they may have to wait in lines, spend money, or experience disrespect from staff.  Many people will wait an illness out and see if it worsens. Not so bad in our site where an ambulance can drive up at midnight to evacuate if need be, but in more remote communities waiting to seek treatment may have disastrous consequences.

How many cases of diarrhea has your family experienced in the last 3 months?

Often caused by unwashed hands or dirty water.  As far as I can tell, they think all diarrhea is caused by foods that don´t agree with the stomach, or don´t mix well together. 

Where do you go to the bathroom?

The most sensitive question on the survey, and one that some other Volunteers have found easiest to have an accompanying community member ask. I am expecting, for the most part, one of two answers: in the monte (hills or fields) or the quebrada (creek). Many Ngabe communities prefer to wash rather than wipe, which has been an obstacle to latrine introduction. There are some water based (pour flush) latrines used in the developing world but   they are much more expensive.  I am feeling out the attitude of the people in the community; several disused latrine pits speak to the complexity of the issue.