Let's Recap, Shall We?

Hey friends. It has been 365 days in Panama, and as my second year in Panama begins, I thought I would give you a quick recap, particularly since the last few months got a little crazy,

I left Nebraska on May 1st, 2012 and landed in Panama on May 2nd. Ten weeks of a special kind of hell called training where everyone pretends like they love it all the time later, I swore in as a PCV on July 5th, 2012. I quickly found myself learning how to be a Djabwera, an Embera sister, living in the remote village of Playona. After 3 months of living in survival mode experiencing the ups and downs of living with a host family in the height of the rainy season of the Darien, I got to move into my own hut. I was supposed to be living alone but have had many uninvited roommates of the wildlife variety. In those months I became close friends with the fellow PCVs of the Darien, particularly the 3 down river of me. Let's just say the first 6 months in country are tough and I am not sad to have them behind me.

In November I went to In Service Training and then the all Volunteer Thanksgiving where we prepared for the next stage of our service and then celebrated the traditional America holiday.

December was a month of waiting as my community pulled itself together to start the latrine project and after a Christmas in the city with other orphaned Volunteers I came home to a whirlwind of materials transport and construction that lasted well into the new year.

In January I sent 2 kids from my community to a leadership camp, I spent a week volunteering for a group of missionary doctors as a translator, I helped every house in my community do a self analysis of their family's health, and we continued building latrines.

In February I went all the way to the other side of the country for a Field IST to learn how to build the composting latrines that I had already been building, I did a water committee seminar in Chris's site, helped the US army as a translator for a medical tour in a Kuna village, and prepared for my health seminar.

In March I held an epic health seminar for all families that wanted to enter the project, we finished all 4 of the latrines AND they built another one with their own money, I did a water committee seminar in another Embera community that doesn't have a Volunteer yet, I went to Danielle's community to help her build a composting latrine, I was invited to be a trainer for the next group of EH Volunteers in July and went to training for that, I celebrated the turning on of electricity with a party in Ben's site, and I celebrated Easter with my host family by teaching my host brothers about decorating eggs and hiding them.

In April I helped my new water committee figure out their new jobs, I submitted the paperwork to 'close' or finish out my grant from USAID, and then I got my community to help me with the paperwork to submit a proposal for a different kind of grant, called a PCPP, to fund another 15 latrines. I went to another Volunteer's site to do a seminar on logos, brochures, marketing, and mission statements, and they gave me a tour of their one of a kind, world reknowned caves. It was so much better than I expected. I spent a week at home in site being harrassed by rats and hanging out with my people, then attended a facilitator's training for another youth camp that I will be a counselor for in a few weeks. I finished up the month in my community tutoring kids with English homework, playing soccer and UNO with them, teaching them how to use a puppet, and continuing to struggle through every night of rodent torment. On the bright side, my PCPP application was approved, now all I have to do is get it funded!

Coming soon in Amber's Adventures in the Jungle-

Finding funding for that PCPP! A leadership training for community leaders! Getting a cat, and therefore maybe some sleep! GAD Camp for kids! Visitors from America and my first Vacation in country! Another medical tour- this one at a waterpark! One year meds, just how many cavities do I have?! One Year Since Swear In Celebration! Training G73 during tech week! Hopefully building 15 more latrines!

Stay tuned ladies and gents, Season 2 is only going to get better!

A Month in My Flip Flops

Yes, all activities were done wearing flip flops. Unless I was barefoot. :-)

Sunday, February 3rd

Wake up at 6AM when the girl next to me starts elbowing me repeatedly with as she brushed her hair. The bus takes a pit stop for breakfast but I am too tired and cranky to buy anything. Two and a half hours and a boat ride later, Ben and I finally arrive on Bocas Island, our 26 hour cross country bus ordeal finally over. We find out our next boat doesn't leave until 6pm so we catch a ride to Starfish beach and spend the afternoon in paradise. Our ride back shows up late so we get back after 6, terrified we missed the boat. Turns out the driver is still in the casino so we meet up with Tricia and Grayce and watch the Super Bowl until he is ready to go at 8pm. We get to Tricia's island in the dark, get to her hut, make dinner, and go to sleep immediately, about 9.30. I haven't been this tired since college.

Wednesday, February 7th

We start moving at 6.30am and Tricia makes oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. The 4 of us Volunteers are ready to start working by 8.30 when we meet up with some of her community members to throw the top floor of the latrine. We spent a few hours building the forms and support tables and mixing cement. We get the floor and back doors thrown just in time for lunch of rice and stewed hot dog. We clean up and haul materials back to Tricia's house, arguing over who gets to shower first. The water is out so I decide to wait. A few little boys come over and ask me to read them the book 'The Lion King' and I do, but it is in English so I have to translate it to them as I go along. I adapted the story according to the parameters of my vocabulary! I took my phone up the hill to check for messages, came back to shower. Tricia made us a batch of brownies on her stove out of locally grown cacao. It was so delicious. We made an early dinner of some kind of tomato paste, pasta, and chopped veggies then settled down for movie night. Tricia kinda burned the first batch of brownies so she made us a 2nd batch that were super gooey this time. We plugged her laptop into the car battery and watched Inception. Partway through a neighbor came over selling lobster tamales and we each bought some. My stomach was starting to hurt so I saved mine for later. After the movie we talked about how inception is basically our job, then set up beds and went to sleep about 10. Tossed and turned with a stomachache. Probably due to too much chocolate!

Thursday, February 14th

Alarm went off at 7, got up at 7.30 and helped myself to the hostel's awesome breakfast bar of coffee and toast. Checked the internets, dressed, and caught a cab with Sarah at 8.30am into Panama City morning traffic to get to the Peace Corps office. Picked up a Christmas care package from the secretary I didn't expect to be here yet! It is full of chocolate! Melinda is awesome! Worked in the Volunteer Lounge until a medical officer could see me about the stomachaches and nausea I have had for a week. (Apparently Bocas is famous for its bad water. I didn't know that.) She orders a series of tests for me at the lab. I go back to the lounge and finish my paperwork then catch a metrobus from the office to the main terminal, transfer buses, and take it to the hostel. The driver goes passed my stop even though I hit the button so I have to get off at the next one and walk back. At the hostel I find some Volunteers from G71 that I haven't seen since our IST in November so we chat for a bit, then I set off walking for the lab. I find it within half an hour and guys on the street try to sell me flowers and balloons for Valentine's Day like 3 times. On my way back, the same guys try the same thing all over again. Back at the hostel I shower, start a load of laundry (2nd time I have used a laundry machine in country!) and put on something that is kinda clean. Get invited to dinner with the girls. I am not hungry but the idea of Greek food sounds good so I get a gyro anyway. I eat part of it and feel terrible after, but it tasted really good at the time. On the way home I get myself some Sprite and the groceries I need for site. I get 2 months of city food for less than $30! Back at the hostel again I hang out with other Volunteers swapping stories and share a bit of the christmas chocolate since it is Valentine's Day. At 11 I get my laundry, repack, and am in bed asleep by midnight. (The next morning I find out from my labs that it was probs just a virus so by noon I am on a bus headed back to the jungle.)

Saturday, February 16th

Monique gets me off of her floor where I am sleeping in Meteti at 5am with coffee and we pack up the stuff for the seminar and are out by the road waiting for a taxi by 5.30. 2 hours later, we still haven't found a driver willing to take us to Port El Salto. The aqueduct engineers agree to pick us up when they finish their breakfast. They get us, we go to Port Lajas Blancas so they can pick up some stuff, and we eventually get to Port El Salto, only an hour late. We meet up with another PCV, Chris K and 2 of his family members there, then hop in the canoe. Pena Bijagual is 45 min down river, so we get there about 10am, unload our stuff in Chris M's hut, and get the water seminar started. We begin with a name game followed by selection of the water committee and water system technicians, I give a lesson on how bad water can make you sick and how to prevent the contamination of water in the home, and then we have lunch of rice, lentils, and sardines. After lunch the engineers take us on a tour of the system where they teach everyone about the intake, the solar powered pump, the water filtration house, the storage tank, the air release valves, and finally the spigots all over the community. We even got to climb to the top of the 48,000 gal tank! After the tour we jumped in the river and I watched the boys race the kids down the muddy river bank and then throw themselves into the water. Back in the hut Chris M made us great spagetti and campo garlic bread from homemade bread. He made an adobe oven under his house that a youtube video taught him! The food was so good and I was hungry for the first time in well over a week. At 7.30 we hung up 3 hammocks for Chris K and his family and the other 3 of us crawled into mosquito nets below them. Chris M took his dishes to the river to wash them and I was asleep before he got back.

Wednesday, February 21

My alarm goes off at 6am, the normal hour to wake up in my community. I hit the snooze button until 7.30, and then continue sleeping. At 8.45, I berate myself for being a lazy pile and get out of bed. I mix powdered milk, oatmeal flakes, cinnamon, hot chocolate powder, and water in a bowl and it eat uncooked and sit in my hammock and watch the community for a while. I decide to be productive so I start writing the play for my health seminar. Suddenly I am starving. I look up and it is almost 2pm. I make an egg-veggie-pasta dish for myself and finally get to eat at almost 3. I remember that I should go visit some people but I am sweating sitting in my hammock and don't want to leave my hut. I work on posters for my health seminar instead. At 4 I go visit Elpidio but he is not home so I play jump rope with the girls for like 5 minutes, buy some garlic from my neighbor, and go home. I sit in the hammock stitching my plate and watch the teenagers play soccer. At 6 I realize I am almost out of daylight so I quick clean up the hut, do dishes, clean the stove and countertops, lock up the food in rodent and roach proof buckets, and head to the river to bathe. I get home as the last of the daylight goes away at 7. Inside my room I sit in my 'inside hammock' and read on my tablet until 8, then call Deanna in the US. My phone runs out of money on it within half an hour, so I go back to reading for a bit. I tuck myself into bed at 9 and listen to 1 song on the ipod before I go to sleep. (Minstrel's Prayer, in case you were wondering)

Thursday, February 22

Again with the alarm at 6am, and I continue to test the snooze button until 7, when I finally decide it is working properly. I get up, repeat the oatmeal concoction, boil some coffee grounds in a pot of water with a lot of sugar, and settle down for breakfast. Victor shows up to declare it is a work day so I tell him I will be over in 5 minutes. I finish breakfast, wash dishes, change into work clothes and head over to Misa's latrine. We spend the morning cutting lumber, framing the house, and putting the zinc roof on top. (Keep in mind these are all hand tools! Power tools don't work so well without electricity!) When we finish Misa's we go over to do David's. We finish that one at 1.30 and I go to Misa's for lunch. It is my favorite dish in Panama- stewed tomatoes and scrambled eggs on rice. SO GOOD. I can't believe my luck. We find out Avelino is short some lumber for his house so we can't build it today and it is really hot so we call it quits. I go home and grab my laundry then head to the river to wash it and bathe. I get home about 4, hang up the clothes to dry on the line, change, and sit in the hammock. I start to compile my survey results and fall asleep for about half an hour. At 5.30 I quickly fry a few plantains and sautee the last of my peppers and onions, then do dishes and bathe in the river again. Once home I bring my laundry in, make some tea, and sit in the 'inside hammock' to read. The battery on my tablet dies with just 60 pages to go before the end at 8pm so I plug it into my backup battery to charge overnight and go to sleep early. About 10 minutes after blowing out the candle I hear rustling in my roof. It sounds like my old roommates are back. I tell myelf I should probably get a cat.

Tuesday, February 26th

Danielle's alarm goes off at 5am and her and her parents start moving and packing up their stuff. I get up about 10 mins later. We catch a taxi from Meteti's 'hotel' to the main gas station where I get in a car with 3 other Volunteers and someone from the Department of Health drives us down the road to the restaurant and drops us off with 4 guys from the South Command of the US army. They drive us in SUVs 2.5 hours to the reservation of the Kuna de Wargandi, we drive through a river, and arrive in the community of Uala. A few minutes later a double propellar helicopter arrives and a medical unit climbs out, and then 2 black hawk helicopters land on the other side of the soccer field. We all hike across the community to the school where they set up a medical tour to treat the community members and I meet the army doc I will be translating for. He was a reservist on a 4 month deployment about to finish up and is an emergency surgeon in his normal life. I had translated for a medical tour before, one done by some missionaries in January in a Latino town, so I knew the process, but I had no idea what I was really in for until the first patient sat down. She only spoke Kuna. The doctor only spoke English. I spoke English, Spanish, and some Embera, but Embera is nothing like Kuna. We quickly found Kuna translators in the community. Thus began the most frustrating game of telephone of my life. The doctor would ask a question about the patient's symptoms in English, I would translate it as close as I could get it in Spanish, the Kuna guy would repeat some version of it in a language that has a tenth the vocabulary of Spanish, and the woman would answer. The kuna guy would give me her answer in Spanish, I would repeat it in English, and then the doctor and I would try to reconcile the answer with the question because often times it was very clear that something was lost in translation. Or the doctor would say things like 'tell the kid I am going to put this needle-less syringe in his ear' and we had to attempt to get that idea across to him before he started screaming. Our most exciting patients were a kid with a bug in his ear, a one week old baby with a cold that was painted blue, and a 4 year old that was 16 pounds.

At 12.30 it was lunchtime. We each got an MRE. First, they are really hard to open, but I got to take advantage of that to use a switchblade, which was fun. Secondly, they are delicious. I had meatball marinara with mashed potatoes. The army guys were fascinated by how excited the PCVs got by things like powdered butter, jalapeño cheese spread, turkey nuggets, and dried peanuts. Seriously. DELICIOUS. It was like Christmas. If anyone tells you that MREs are gross, they lie. Give them a bowl of chicken feet on rice or stewed pig heart or a cow's stomach lining or dirty river crawdads or boiled green bananas. MREs are delicious. I mean, of all the things in this post I just gave them an entire paragraph. Now that it is 2 months later, sometimes we still remind each other, hey, remember that one time we went to Uala? Remember when we got MREs? They were so good! Anyway.

After lunch Natalie and I went back to the river to find out that the SUVs had gotten full and gone back town without us, but would be back for us later. At 1.30, we sat on a rock and laughed at the soldiers trying not to get wet as they got ferried across the river in canoes pulled by small naked Kuna children. At 2.30 all the helicopters were gone and we were the only 2 left and we were hot and cranky and getting bug bitten and the joke about getting left behind by the army was no longer funny. At 3.30 we were swimming in the river fully clothed playing with kids. At 4.30 our ride finally got back to pick us up and the driver was like, '¿What? You went swimming?' And we were like, 'What? We're PCVs. That's how we do!' 2 hours later as we are shivering in the backseat of the car because we are wet and the guys have the AC cranked like Americans in the jungle would, one of them asked us, 'So what is it you guys do every day? Like, what is a typical day?'

I just laughed.

Hey G73! A Better Packing List!

So now is the time tht most of the next crew, G73 is starting to seriously prepare for their arrival to Panama in June. For those of you using the welcome book to pack, here are my suggestions based on what I have experienced in my first year in country. Hope it helps!

6 days a week in training you will wear:

 

-Long pants or skirt (cargo pants, khaki pants, nice jeans, quick dry pants. Of those, I recommend really only 1 pair of jeans. It is too freaking hot!) Skirt should be about knee length, lightweight cotton or sturdy material, and not tight fitting)

-Collared shirt or blouse (could be a button up or polo, long or short sleeved. Again, not too low cut or tight fitting)

-Business casual shoes (Almost anything not a flip flop, not open toe for men. Could be tennis shoes, flats, sandals with ankle straps. In good condition.)

-Socks if aforementioned shoes require them.

-Comfy shorts to hang out at home in, sleep in, wander around the community in, play sports or do homework or play cards with other Trainees in.

-Comfy tshirts or tank tops for above mentioned activities.

-Flip flops or crocs (roll your eyes at crocs now, but everyone in Panama wears croc knock offs all the time. You can buy them for a few bucks right there in your training community)

-Lots of underwear. Panamanian underwear is terrible. Bring 2 weeks worth and make sure your US mom knows your favorite kind so she can send you some in a care package in 6 months. Also be aware that EVERYONE will see your underwear. Your fellow trainees, your host family, your host community, the PC Staff doing training, and everyone in your future community. Your host mom will ALWAYS hang it on the front gate to dry just before any of them pass by.

-5 bras. At least 1 sport bra, and one nice bra. Maybe a strapless, there might be a handful of times when you want it, but you can definitely do without it. Again, everyone will see it, fyi.

 

Your laundry will be done (by you and/or your host mom) probably 2-3 times a week, so you do not need lots of different outfits. While you wear these clothes a lot in training, you will rarely wear them in site.

 

At other times in Training you will want or need:

-1 or 2 long sleeved outdoor work shirts (I highly recommend dryfit anything and everything!!!)

-1 hoodie (you MIGHT get cold depending on your site visits, they help protect from bugs, and they double as good pillows)

-1 p. lightweight long pants (see hoodie comments. think scrub pants or yoga pants or lightweight sweatpants)

-A swimsuit to wear at the beach. (the waves in the ocean are, well, waves in the ocean. You want a swimsuit that will er, stay in place!)

-1 p. of tennis shoes (playing soccer, basketball, softball, or ultimate frisbee, travel, etc.)

-1 p. of Chacos/Tevas /Keens. An absolute necessity. Chacos and Tevas have a PC discount of about fifty percent if you buy them online. These are great for hiking, travel, when you have to use boats, when it is rainy, walking around your community, and walking around the city. I wore mine 87% of the time, until I broke them. Currently anxiously awaiting new ones!

-1 or 2 shirts for going out (to wear with aforementioned jeans or skirts)

-1 swear in outfit (dress pants, collared button up shirt, and tie for men; dress or skirt or pantsuit for ladies; dress shoes)

 

Other Stuff:

-Shampoo and conditioner and soap for at least a week. You can get more right there in your training community. (They won't have herbal essences, but they will get the job done)

-Razors and refills for at least a week

-Toothbrush and toothpaste

-2 towels (one travel sized, another beach sized)

-Sturdy waterproof watch

-Backpacker's backpack. Spend the money and get the nice one. You will use it ALL THE TIME. Rolling suitcases and duffel bags, even military canvas bags suck. Get the big backpack!

-Smaller backpack for short trips

-Sleeping hammock OR thermorest sleeping pad OR lighweight sleeping bag

-1 sheet and pillowcase from home (they won't come home, btw)

-A notebook or journal and pens.

-Pocketknife and/or multitool

-Ipod or mp3 player. extra headphones. You will die without it.

-Digital camera and extra memory card

-Laptop. Just do it. You will thank me later. If you dont bring it you will end up buying one in country. Also know it will break. Panama hates electronics. It WILL get smashed on a chiva, rained on, stolen, a virus from downloading illegal movies, or it will just randomly stop working. Bring it anyway. You will not want it, you will NEED it for your sanity and your job. Even if you live without electricity. I brought a tablet to country thinking it would be a lightweight, cheaper alternative. It has been a nightmare. Just bite the bullet and bring the laptop. No matter what Peace Corps tells you.

-Kindle. it can hold over 14,000 books and weighs like 2 lbs. You can get book files from volunteers all over the country. Seriously. We have a kindle library of over 9,000 titles. I don't know anyone in country with a Nook.

-USBs and an external hard drive for movie and music swapping

-Headlamp and LED flashlight

-Deck of cards

-Frisbee

-Tampons (No such thing as too many. They are expensive and hard to find in country. Pads are abundant.)

-Good hair clips and ties. Panama has lots of cheap ones but they break a lot.

-Good sunscreen. PCMOs will always keep you stocked with OFF! and knockoff SPF 30, but if you burn easily, bring yourself some good stuff at least to start out with. And if you are allergic or don't like DEET, you are on your own for bug repellant. Good luck.

-Limit yourself to 5 things that you are dying to take but are not on the PC or my list. You will bring too much anyway.

-Don't bring an umbrella, they are cheap and easy to get here. Don't bring a poncho. You will never use it.

-If you wear contacts, bring 2 p. of glasses. You can wear the contacts through training and whenever you are in the city. If you are in a site without good water like me, (and being EH that is almost guaranteed) you will get eye infections if you wear contacts. You might get eye infections without wearing contacts, so lets not go looking for trouble.

-If you really like hiking, you will want hiking books. If you like snorkeling, snorkel gear. If you are a big surfer, a surfboard. Better yet, get them sent to you later after you have sworn in so you do not have to haul them all over the country.

 

This will get you through training. As far as Volunteer life, you have plent of time to get things sent, buy them, or find them here in country. Remember you aren't packing for 2 years, just for 9 weeks. I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you do a better job packing than I did!

 

 

 

 

 

Crusty Confessionals

That is what Chelsea calls them. Stories or anecdotes or quips about yourself or things you have done or things that have happened to you in your peace corps service that are...gross.

The reigning king of the crusty confessionals is a Volunteer who, while using his pit latrine in the rainy season, managed to get splash back in his mouth while dropping the kids off at the pool.

I have a crusty confessional.

It was 3:41AM last Saturday night. I was laying in bed, tucked into my mosquito net.

Let me tell you about mosquito nets. The inside of one's mosquito net is holy ground. A mosquito net is like a  superpower force field, protecting you from all evil in the world- mosquitoes, rodents, wildlife, pumas, kidnappers, rebel armies, small children. That is what we believe. That is what we tell ourselves to live our crazy jungle lives in peace and serenity. In my mosquito net, nothing can hurt me.

So here we are. Safe. Secure. Tucked into my mosquito net and absolutely dead to the world like only Amber can be. And then I feel something scurry over my head through my hair and brush passed my ear. I pull my hand up and feel nothing. In one swift motion I am awake, alert, and I have my lit flashlight in my hand.

It was right there in the corner, about 2 inches from my pillow. A rat. A small one, admittedly. Not Wolverine, the giant monster on steroids that is ransacking my kitchen. This is probably one of his little girlfriends. But she is INSIDE my NET climbing over my HEAD while I am supposed to be ASLEEP.

I screamed. Let's be honest, who wouldn't? Then I threw the contents of my net at it, which is actually a substantial amount of things. An alarm clock, a journal, a game of thrones book, a nalgene, and eventually my flashlight. It escaped. I got out of my net, grabbed the machete I keep within arm's reach of my bed and went after it. My coordination and reflexes are not so good at 3AM and I didn't get it.

It took me an hour to fall asleep again even once I more securely tucked myself in.

The next night I woke up 2 times because of the noise the rats were making.

Then Monday night. I went to bed at 9 and they were out immediately. Running up and down the corner post of my house right by my bed. I tried the machete again. I sprayed it with roach killer. (It doesnt make much sense, I know but it is what I had) Then I tried to sleep again. No luck. I would close my eyes, convince myself all was fine, start to drift off, then feel something brush against my arm or hair and would wake up in a panic looking for my flashlight. It was nothing. The first 3 times.

The 4th time I found the rat in my net again. I screamed again. I went after it with the machete again, but I think we can conclude from the mountain of evidence in front of us that I am a terrible rat killer. Rambo would be very disappointed.

After the rat left again, I retucked myself in, with my machete INSIDE the net this time and slept with my head at the foot of the bed, to put some space between me and what apparently is rat highway. It was a terrible night of sleep, waking up in a panic at least 6 different times. I don't know that I ever really fell asleep.

When I woke the next morning, I was leaving site to turn in a grant and I had a new resolve. When I came home, I wasn't coming home unarmed. I wasn't going to waste time with piddly weapons either. The rat killer pills, the powders, no. I am not messing around. I am not going home until I have a cat.

I have yet to find the cat yet, but once I catch him, photos of my new roommate coming soon!

The Epic Health Seminar, The Epilogue

The results of the seminar were apparent immediately. An hour after the seminar ended, more than half of the 27 families came out to help finish the first four. The brand new president of the health comittee, Victor, took note of the number of hours each person worked. That night he scheduled work days for Saturday and Sunday, and then sent my host mom, the Vocal, out to spread the word to everyone in the project.

On Saturday as I walked around the community I noticed that 5 rainwater catchment tanks had new covers on them. One woman showed me the new lid on her trash can. When I had lunch with my host family on Sunday, my host mom scolded my little brother for eating food off of the floor. In my 3 months living there, that had never happened. Just before I had to leave on Sunday we finished the handwashing station on the first completed latrine. 1 down, and 3 more oh-so-close.

I left on Sunday after the seminar to do a water committee seminar and to help Danielle build a composting latrine in Lajas Blancas, the next community down river from me. When I called my community to check in on Wednesday, Misael asked me when I would be bringing the latrine seat mold back. When I asked him why, he told me the following, and I was so shocked I couldn't breathe.

The new pastor of the church had attended my seminar and asked if we could build a composting latrine for the church. I told him yes, the one we built in his name could be there for the church. He asked if we could automatically put it in the next group since so many people would use it. To that I said no, because it was not fair to those who already have the work hours put in. He understood that, and we agreed that those who wanted could choose to put their hours or part of their hours towards the church latrine to help it make the top 5 sooner.

Apparently as soon as I left, the church discussed and decided they did not want to wait even that long. Last February they had held a big fundraiser to make a concrete church instead of the wood plank church with a dirt floor that we currently have. Pulling the funds from that, they bought the materials needed and have ALREADY BUILT another composting latrine for the congregation.

To anyone not a PCV the magnitude of that might not be immediately apparent. We focus on creating sustainable projects, things that the community can maintain and replicate after the Volunteer has left. Moiz and I succeeded. They built a composting latrine with their own money, their own tools, their own knowledge and experience, and they organized themselves enough on their own to do so.

In my creating change research, it told me over and over to create a strong beginning and define a strong ending, and the rest will fall into place. If that is not a strong beginning, I don't know what is. There are still many challenges and unforeseen frustrations ahead, but I'm not worried about it. Poco a poco, Playona will get there.

The Epic Seminar, Act III

By Friday morning, the 5 PCVs heard the alarm go off at 6AM, and we knew we should get up, but it was more like 6:45 or 7 before any real movement was accomplished.

The community met us there at the meeting hall right at 8 so we were able to get started ahead of schedule. Again, this is UNHEARD OF across Panama in general, especially in my region. So epic win. We started by breaking into small groups to outline the jobs of a president, secretary, treasurer, technician, and vocale. Based on the characteristics and responsibilities of each office, we then elected a new health committee since the previous one was choosing to resign. The outgoing Health Committee VP/treasurer spoke about some of the challenges of the pilot phase and his recommendations for the future groups. In the end we elected a new committee that even has TWO women on it! (My host mom is one of them :) )

After the new committee was elected we discussed how the next families will be chosen. We are only going to continue the project by building in groups of 5, and in order to decide who gets to go next, we are going to use whoever has the most work hours already invested in the project. We had set this rule early on in the pilot phase so we jsut reiterated the details of that and unveiled the tally of work hours, anouncing the next 5 families up for the project. I was crazy nervous about this point and was expecting lots of arguments and a long drawn out discussion, but it was accepted wholeheartedly without contest. Amazing.

Finally, to close out the seminar, we had them do a goals activity. On a piece of paper with 4 quadrants, I had them write or draw...
1. what they are going to do TOMORROW to improve the health of their family
2. what they are going to do in the next WEEK to improve the health of their family
3. what they are going to do in the next MONTH to improve the health of their family
4. what they are going to do in the next YEAR to improve the health of their family

We all took the 'Eat No Poop' Pledge, which was incredibly solemn for a bunch of people promising to no longer consume fecal matter, and everyone received their certificates. We took a group picture, signed a posted I am going to hang up by the river to remind them of their pledge, and YA! We were finished....sortof!

Although the seminar ended, within an hour there were people gathering to finish work on the pilot latrines so while every fiber of my being wanted to spend the afternoon playing in the river and laying in the hammock, we set to work!

The Epic Health Seminar, Act II

At 6:30AM the PCVs in (and under) my hut started moving, a little slower than the day before. We made what I think was a metric ton of eggs and at 8AM headed out to start ringing the bell. Everyone was assembled and ready to go by 8:15. Well, the participants were. The PCVs were banking on them taking a little longer to round themselves up!

By 8:45 we were ready and started off by teaching them Simon Says. They LOVED Simon Says and we played it 3 more times before the end of the seminar. The plan for Thursday was to go through the 4 main health lessons of the seminar but didn't want them cooped up in a meeting hall the whole time. We divided them into groups of 4. I sent one group with Danielle to a woman's house to discuss Casa Limpia. Ben took a group down to the river to discuss Clean Water (for drinking, the various ways to treat and filter it and for goodness sake WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT), Chris took a group to the existing Composting Latrine in the community (the only finished one at the time, the one I use at the town office) where they discussed composting latrine use and maintenance, and Andrew met with a group to discuss handwashing where we meet for snacks.

They loved the round robin and moving around the community style of the seminars although we were all STARVING by the time lunch break came around. After a long lunch we met up all together to see just how much they learned that morning.

It was an EPIC game of Jeopardy, dividing them into four teams, coming up with Embera team names (each team name had to be an animal, to answer each team had to make their animal noise) and the questions were intense. We were happily impressed with how many of them they were able to answer correctly with no hesitation, although we did throw in a few tricks. I thought they might throw us in the river at one point! (I asked, which of the 4 Ls is the MOST important? The answer was all of them. They were not amused!)

After 2 hours of intense competition, our winning team was the Michis, the cats, who meow-ed their way to gold medals.

After the afternoon session the PCV headed out to the soccer field to play frisbee with the kids and I went around figuring out the logistics of the next day's meeting, which was rollercoaster in and of itself. Tribal politics, not a fan.In the end I got what I needed agreed to and headed home, where I found 4 students in my hut, waiting for me to help them with their homework.

One of the teachers had made my play part of their homework. They had to do a write up of what they thought of the play, what they knew before the play, and what they learned from it. Pretty complex stuff for some 4th graders in the jungle. Danielle and I talked them through it and sent them away after awhile. Sometimes you just need some space to yourself and when you have tiny hut with 5 people living in it for 5 days, there just is not a lot of room for extra kids!

That evening we had fabulous fried plaintains and guacamole for dinner. I love avocado season. Sometimes the avocados are as large as my forearm!