Building People, Not Monuments

I really like building things. Whether that is with Legos in the middle of my mom's livingroom floor with my little brother, or with matboard and tacky glue in the drafting classroom with my fellow techies, or with 2x4s and power tools in the scene shop with a crew, or with concrete blocks and rough cut lumber in the jungle with Embera guys. But there is something cooler than building Lego Forts, pretty models, moving scenery, and composting latrines. It is a lot harder, a lot messier, and definitely more complicated, but infinitely more rewarding and fun. And that, is building people.

            It's a Peace Corps catch phrase, 'We build people, not monuments', and as a trainee, it is one of the many things tattooed to your brain, along with the symptoms of intestinal parasites and the importance of community integration. Like the symptoms of parasites, you don't really realize what that means until it happens to you. 'Ohh, so THAT is what they mean by explosive!' or 'I didn't realize when they said frequent they meant more often than you think is humanly possible!' However unlike parasites, you often don't really realize the effect you are having or the amount of construction you are doing until much later. With parasites, you KNOW it is happening. There is no mistaking that for indigestion or a touch of the flu. Building people is like community integration where you spend months feeling like an outsider until one day a group of Americans comes to your site and you realize that you are more like your Emberá friends than these weird foreigners. You have suddenly become integrated. It wasn't sudden of course. It was the daily effort of getting out of bed and living your life among this community for months and months, deprogramming and reprogramming yourself to live in this other culture in this other lifestyle. But the realization hits you pretty much like parasites. Building people is like that.

            The first week of May I took Rosa to PML. She is the secretary of my new health committee, the vice president of the women's artesan group, owner of a store and a bar, and mother of 4 (that I know of, there could be more), and one of her children is severely autistic. If you can imagine a tough, no nonsense tavern wench without a sense of humor, that's Rosa. She is sassy and says what she thinks and will let you know if you cross her. It also makes her a hard person to be around or try to be friends with. However, the president of my health committee couldn't go and she was by title, the next best person. She is also a woman and taking a woman to a leadership seminar was very important to me. So I decided to risk it and invite her to come to PML.

            PML is a Project Management and Leadership Conference. It was held in the middle of the country (aka REALLY FAR AWAY for all the Darién Volunteers) and every Volunteer from my group was in attendance, along with 1 counterpart from each of our communities.

            After a rough 13 hour bus trek, we arrived late to the conference just because it isn't possible to get there any earlier. We ate dinner and then walked to the beach so that Rosa could see the ocean for the first time in her life. It was dark and she was not impressed, at least not as far as I could tell. Definitely an anticlimactic moment, and she complained about how far we had to walk to get there. The first day we broke into our teams (YEA EQUIPO VERDE!) and set to work on our sessions. We discussed how leadership has 4 levels: individual, group, community, and institutional. We talked about how the base of the leadership pyramid sits on your values, and then identified the values of our own team (YEAVERDE!) (friendship, respect, religion, family, responsibility, community cooperation). Our activities included setting SMART goals, (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and timely) learning how to sort and file documents, and using a calendar. To be honest, most of it was way over her head and by the time we broke for lunch I was convinced she hated me for bringing her to this seminar. The afternoon was somewhat better, but sitting in a classroom focusing on brainwork for 8 hours is really different from life in the campo and was hard on all of us.

            Wednesday we finished up discussing individual leadership and talked about group leadership, about making agendas and sticking to schedules for meetings,  and assigning appropriate roles to committees. Then we did a game changing activity. We talked about how we see ourselves and how inside each of us is a bucket. When we feel good about ourselves it is because our buckets are full, and when we feel bad it is because our buckets are empty. When a person says nice things or does nice things for us, it fills our buckets, AND it fills his or her own bucket too. When we say bad things, it empties other people's bucket.

            After discussing this concept, we went outside with a bucket. We took turns ladling water into each other buckets and giving our partner a compliment. I told Rosa I had selected her for this seminar because she was a strong, intelligent woman that was never afraid to speak up and make herself heard, and such a caring and hardworking mother to care for her autistic son Waldo so tirelessly. She thanked me for bringing her to this seminar and said she was so grateful that I came to Playona and was willing to work with the women there. It was a short moment, but it changed everything. First, I was relieved to know she was actually enjoying herself and was glad she came. Second, up until now she had been fairly quiet, not participating too much, but in every session afterward, she was eager to present, always ready to share her answers with the group. Rosa, the only Embera woman, in the minority of the minority by her gender and ethnicity, became the loud, proud, smart, and sassy lady I knew she was (and sometimes feared!).

            We spent the afternoon designing a team flag and preparing a team skit for the Culture Night. We presented a traditional Ngobe dance and an Embera dance. After dinner we all got dressed up according to our respective cultures. One of the Embera guys there found some black markers and we even marked ourselves up like jagua, the Embera body paint. Rosa was the only Embera lady there, but with Danielle, Bridget, and I we had enough experienced Djabaweras to lead a 'dansa', the traditional choreographed dance Embera women do. With a few women from the other indigenous groups and even a guy, we presented the Dance of the Monkey pretty well. We even won the contest for best flag!

            The coolest part of the evening was seeing our Embera counterparts, significantly outnumbered by the Latino and Ngobe counterparts, take so much pride in their culture. Understanding the importance of and appreciating one's own culture is a very hard thing, but seeing them realize the value of their own culture, and being excited to share it and represent it well, was awesome. Not only that, but they managed to do this without being snobby or acting superior. There is a lot of racism here in Panama amongst all race/ethnic groups so watching Rosa become such good friends with a Ngobe woman from Bocas was totally awesome.

            Thursday was a short day with work on designing a group logo, writing letters to government agencies, and practicing how to present oneself to an agency. We finished the sessions in the morning, had an award ceremony in the afternoon to hand out certificates and show a slideshow of the week, and took a group photo. We then all headed down to the beach, Volunteers and counterparts, to celebrate one Volunteer's birthday at a local bar that hired a DJ for the evening, made a massive bonfire, gave us discounts on drinks, AND even baked a birthday cake! If you ever find yourself in Farallon, hit up Mrs. Woodys Canadian bar. I promise it will be an experience you won't forget.

            Friday we said our goodbyes to all our new friends and the Darien crew went East while the rest of the country headed out west. I needed to do some work in Panama City (and see Iron Man 3!) so I got Rosa to the Darien bus and sent her off. In the second before she got on the bus, she hugged me and thanked me again. You have to understand, the Embera don't hug. They never show affection. A mother might cradle her baby, but as soon as that kid hits schoolage, ya. That's it. Rosa HUGGED me. It was pretty awesome.

            Legos are great, but building people rocks.