Why My Peace Corps Staff is Better Than Yours
I could also name this post, 'Sometimes Good Things Fall Apart so Better Things can Come Together'.
(Marilyn Monroe said that, I just stole it.)
I lost a check. Of the money you all donated. I'm sorry. It was an accident, shit happens. I live in the jungle. The beauty of have $1,924.15 in a check rather than in cash, is that when it gets lost, you just go to the bank. They might charge you a fee, but then they void it and write you a new one. At least, that's how it works in the United States of America.
That's not how it works in Panama. Due to the extreme corruption within the political and banking systems in the country, the process is significantly more complicated. But I get ahead of myself.
On January 2, I got to the Peace Corps branch of Banco General. (It's not JUST for Peace Corps, but it is the one nearest the office that we always use.) I sit down with the same man who wrote me the check the previous month and explain the situation. He tells me that there is nothing he can do. I push him, and ask him to understand- clearly there is a language barrier at play here- and he walks away and talks with his manager. When he comes back he writes me a sticky note telling me to go to the police station to file a 'Juicio de Anulacion y Reposicion' and to come back when I had that. He tells me the process will take months. I'm internally flipping out.
I go to the Peace Corps office and talk to our Assistant Country Director, Kristin. She is amazing and has been supporting me all throughout this project and was incredibly invested in helping me find the right people I needed to get this resolved. We talk to Raul, the APCD of Volunteer Support who is Panamanian. He assures me that the man at the bank was incorrect. All I need to do is file a police report the next day and it should be able to be resolved.
On January 3, I get ready to go to the police station, and realize that I do not have any of the information about the check- I don't even remember the exact amount of the check Nineteen hundred something. So I go to the bank and get the details from the man at the bank again. I take a taxi to the police station.
It is 1:15 in the afternoon and they are on lunch break. So I sit on the front steps for 45 minutes waiting for them to come back. Then the guard at the door tells me I cannot come in because I am wearing a tank top. It's true, there is a dress code in places like this in Panama, I should have known better. But I left site thinking I was going to be going to a beach for 4 days, not navigating the Panamanian Judicial system. I start on a rant about how I came form the Darien and didn't bring anything else with me and...and...and...He stops me mid sentence and asks, Are you a gringa? Are you from the US? I said yes and he agreed to let me in. Sometimes, racism works in my favor.
I go through a metal detector, they scan my passport, and send me to the 2nd floor. On the second floor I talk to someone in the window who says that I am in the wrong office. I talk to someone else who searches in the computer for awhile, then sends me to the building next door. Outside the gate of the building next door, I explain to the armed guard what I am doing and why I am there. He sends me to the inner guard. I explain again. He gives me a visitor badge and sends me inside the building to the reception desk. I explain the man at the desk what I am doing there and he gives me directions to another office. I try to follow the directions but got something confused and ended up in the Homicide Department. Whoops. I ask them for directions and they escort me to the 'Division of Panamanian Crimes Against Public Faith'.
In that office, I explain the receptionist and 3 officers in the area my situation. They call out their boss and we re-explain it. (I've lost count of how many times I've told the story at this point.) The boss is sure that I just need to file a police report, but that does not correspond to what it says on my sticky note. She calls the bank, asks to speak to the manager, asks to speak to his manager, and asks to speak to her manager. The guy says that he will look into my situation and call her back. 45 minutes later he calls back to say that I need to go to 'Juzgado Civil' to file the 'Juicio de Anulacion y Reposicion'. I don't know what 'Juzgado Civil' means so I text Ben and ask him to Google Translate it for me while 2 officers drive me over to the other building. He texts me back, 'It means Civil Court. Are you being tried for something?'
Good. Question.
The officers drop me off and wait for me outside. The security guard inside the building reads my new sticky note and tells me that I am not allowed inside until I have a lawyer write up a legal document and schedule an appointment with a judge. Then the judge will issue me this Juicio.
I go back outside, the police officers drive me back to the Peace Corps office. I find Raul and we go talk to the head of the Administrative Department, Cicely. I retell the story, and she has her assistant Elizabeth helping. They tell me they will see what they can do and will get back to me on Monday.
On Monday, Elizabeth arranges for me to go file a police report with Raymond, another person from the Admin staff. Tuesday, January 7th, he picks me up at 9am and we return to the police station. The office (#1) to file police reports has been moved so they send us to the new office a 20 minute drive away on Calidonia street. (Office #2) Office #2 sends us to the office next door (#3). Office #3 tells us that it is actually the one a block down the street (#4). #4 tries to tell us it is #2, but then send us across the street to #5. #5 doesn't know but thinks that #6 will know. #6 is SURE that it is office #2 or #4. When we refuse to go back to either, he says we better check out #7 on the other side of the block. #7 knows where it is, in the office right next door. We walk in office #8 and the form we need is right there on the counter.
I swear, you can't make this stuff up.
I fill out the police report and we place it on file. We go to the main branch of Banco General and Raymond talks to a manager there. No luck. I need a lawyer. Bad. News. Bears. We return to the PC office where Headquarters in DC is waiting to ask me some questions. I help Cicely answer some of the details about the legal process and the structure of my project and we hope that Washington will be able to front me the money while I go through the 2-3 month legal process.
Then I wait for an answer from Washington and for Peace Corps to find me a lawyer. IF they can find me a lawyer. IF they can find a lawyer that someone can afford.
On Friday January 10, I get a phone call from Kristin, very early. She tells me that Peace Corps has found me a lawyer. However, he said, even with his connections and him pushing the system, it will still be 5-6 months before I will see my money. I leave Panama in 5-6 months. Additionally, Washington is not excited about fronting the money, it has never been done before and would be setting an uneasy precedent. However, she says.
However, meanwhile back at the bank, the admin office, namely Elizabeth, had been talking to the account managers she works with to set up Volunteer accounts, and she talked to someone, who talked to someone, who talked to the Vice President of Banco General. They explained to him my situation, where I live, what Peace Corps is, that the money was donations, what my project is, etc. and he agreed to cut me a new check if I wrote a letter on PC letterhead explaining what happened. I came in to the PC office right away and Elizabeth had the letter waiting. She was jumping up and down excited and hugged me, I signed the letter, and next week the office will bring me a new check to Regional Meeting. But here's where it gets better.
Meanwhile, I have been here in the city (we're at 19 days and counting...) while an aggressive fungal infection on my leg heals. It doesn't hurt anymore, it doesn't really bother me anymore, but since I have no water in site and its not raining that means I can only bathe in the river and so it needs to be completely gone before I can go home. While I waited for my skin to heal, I have been talking with my Program and Training Specialist for Environmental Health Ben and my APCD Antonella to plan an In Service Training week for the most recent group. Since I am the only PCV in country right now with a major composting latrine project in process, they asked me to facilitate the training. But the training was scheduled to be in a different Volunteer's site where environmentally and culturally, composting latrines are a bad idea. So we were trying to get create to develop activities that would give these new PCVs the technical construction skills they needed for a composting latrine project, without actually building a composting latrine. Nothing was working.
Then we had a light bulb. Because of the check setback, I can't start building until the end of February anyway. Why don't we just move the IST to my site, and have the new kids help me finish my project? They would get the hands on skills they need, my latrines get completed, and my community gets the self-esteem boost of being able to showcase their new skills and train others.
Everyone wins. It will be a little bit of a logistical nightmare for me to coordinate everything in such a tight time frame since I am going to be gone the 2 weeks previous to this doing youth camps, but I am a stage manager. Logistical nightmares are my thing.
My skin infection sucked, but it allowed me to be in the office for long enough to make this come together. And now not only will my project be finished and 15 new families will have latrines, but 6 other PCVs will learn from my experiences to be able to grow this project into something bigger than me and my service.
Wow.
p.s. A HUGE and public thank you to every single person in the office- admin, medical, and otherwise who have been positive and supportive these last few weeks. You. All. Rock!!!!
(Marilyn Monroe said that, I just stole it.)
I lost a check. Of the money you all donated. I'm sorry. It was an accident, shit happens. I live in the jungle. The beauty of have $1,924.15 in a check rather than in cash, is that when it gets lost, you just go to the bank. They might charge you a fee, but then they void it and write you a new one. At least, that's how it works in the United States of America.
That's not how it works in Panama. Due to the extreme corruption within the political and banking systems in the country, the process is significantly more complicated. But I get ahead of myself.
On January 2, I got to the Peace Corps branch of Banco General. (It's not JUST for Peace Corps, but it is the one nearest the office that we always use.) I sit down with the same man who wrote me the check the previous month and explain the situation. He tells me that there is nothing he can do. I push him, and ask him to understand- clearly there is a language barrier at play here- and he walks away and talks with his manager. When he comes back he writes me a sticky note telling me to go to the police station to file a 'Juicio de Anulacion y Reposicion' and to come back when I had that. He tells me the process will take months. I'm internally flipping out.
I go to the Peace Corps office and talk to our Assistant Country Director, Kristin. She is amazing and has been supporting me all throughout this project and was incredibly invested in helping me find the right people I needed to get this resolved. We talk to Raul, the APCD of Volunteer Support who is Panamanian. He assures me that the man at the bank was incorrect. All I need to do is file a police report the next day and it should be able to be resolved.
On January 3, I get ready to go to the police station, and realize that I do not have any of the information about the check- I don't even remember the exact amount of the check Nineteen hundred something. So I go to the bank and get the details from the man at the bank again. I take a taxi to the police station.
It is 1:15 in the afternoon and they are on lunch break. So I sit on the front steps for 45 minutes waiting for them to come back. Then the guard at the door tells me I cannot come in because I am wearing a tank top. It's true, there is a dress code in places like this in Panama, I should have known better. But I left site thinking I was going to be going to a beach for 4 days, not navigating the Panamanian Judicial system. I start on a rant about how I came form the Darien and didn't bring anything else with me and...and...and...He stops me mid sentence and asks, Are you a gringa? Are you from the US? I said yes and he agreed to let me in. Sometimes, racism works in my favor.
I go through a metal detector, they scan my passport, and send me to the 2nd floor. On the second floor I talk to someone in the window who says that I am in the wrong office. I talk to someone else who searches in the computer for awhile, then sends me to the building next door. Outside the gate of the building next door, I explain to the armed guard what I am doing and why I am there. He sends me to the inner guard. I explain again. He gives me a visitor badge and sends me inside the building to the reception desk. I explain the man at the desk what I am doing there and he gives me directions to another office. I try to follow the directions but got something confused and ended up in the Homicide Department. Whoops. I ask them for directions and they escort me to the 'Division of Panamanian Crimes Against Public Faith'.
In that office, I explain the receptionist and 3 officers in the area my situation. They call out their boss and we re-explain it. (I've lost count of how many times I've told the story at this point.) The boss is sure that I just need to file a police report, but that does not correspond to what it says on my sticky note. She calls the bank, asks to speak to the manager, asks to speak to his manager, and asks to speak to her manager. The guy says that he will look into my situation and call her back. 45 minutes later he calls back to say that I need to go to 'Juzgado Civil' to file the 'Juicio de Anulacion y Reposicion'. I don't know what 'Juzgado Civil' means so I text Ben and ask him to Google Translate it for me while 2 officers drive me over to the other building. He texts me back, 'It means Civil Court. Are you being tried for something?'
Good. Question.
The officers drop me off and wait for me outside. The security guard inside the building reads my new sticky note and tells me that I am not allowed inside until I have a lawyer write up a legal document and schedule an appointment with a judge. Then the judge will issue me this Juicio.
I go back outside, the police officers drive me back to the Peace Corps office. I find Raul and we go talk to the head of the Administrative Department, Cicely. I retell the story, and she has her assistant Elizabeth helping. They tell me they will see what they can do and will get back to me on Monday.
On Monday, Elizabeth arranges for me to go file a police report with Raymond, another person from the Admin staff. Tuesday, January 7th, he picks me up at 9am and we return to the police station. The office (#1) to file police reports has been moved so they send us to the new office a 20 minute drive away on Calidonia street. (Office #2) Office #2 sends us to the office next door (#3). Office #3 tells us that it is actually the one a block down the street (#4). #4 tries to tell us it is #2, but then send us across the street to #5. #5 doesn't know but thinks that #6 will know. #6 is SURE that it is office #2 or #4. When we refuse to go back to either, he says we better check out #7 on the other side of the block. #7 knows where it is, in the office right next door. We walk in office #8 and the form we need is right there on the counter.
I swear, you can't make this stuff up.
I fill out the police report and we place it on file. We go to the main branch of Banco General and Raymond talks to a manager there. No luck. I need a lawyer. Bad. News. Bears. We return to the PC office where Headquarters in DC is waiting to ask me some questions. I help Cicely answer some of the details about the legal process and the structure of my project and we hope that Washington will be able to front me the money while I go through the 2-3 month legal process.
Then I wait for an answer from Washington and for Peace Corps to find me a lawyer. IF they can find me a lawyer. IF they can find a lawyer that someone can afford.
On Friday January 10, I get a phone call from Kristin, very early. She tells me that Peace Corps has found me a lawyer. However, he said, even with his connections and him pushing the system, it will still be 5-6 months before I will see my money. I leave Panama in 5-6 months. Additionally, Washington is not excited about fronting the money, it has never been done before and would be setting an uneasy precedent. However, she says.
However, meanwhile back at the bank, the admin office, namely Elizabeth, had been talking to the account managers she works with to set up Volunteer accounts, and she talked to someone, who talked to someone, who talked to the Vice President of Banco General. They explained to him my situation, where I live, what Peace Corps is, that the money was donations, what my project is, etc. and he agreed to cut me a new check if I wrote a letter on PC letterhead explaining what happened. I came in to the PC office right away and Elizabeth had the letter waiting. She was jumping up and down excited and hugged me, I signed the letter, and next week the office will bring me a new check to Regional Meeting. But here's where it gets better.
Meanwhile, I have been here in the city (we're at 19 days and counting...) while an aggressive fungal infection on my leg heals. It doesn't hurt anymore, it doesn't really bother me anymore, but since I have no water in site and its not raining that means I can only bathe in the river and so it needs to be completely gone before I can go home. While I waited for my skin to heal, I have been talking with my Program and Training Specialist for Environmental Health Ben and my APCD Antonella to plan an In Service Training week for the most recent group. Since I am the only PCV in country right now with a major composting latrine project in process, they asked me to facilitate the training. But the training was scheduled to be in a different Volunteer's site where environmentally and culturally, composting latrines are a bad idea. So we were trying to get create to develop activities that would give these new PCVs the technical construction skills they needed for a composting latrine project, without actually building a composting latrine. Nothing was working.
Then we had a light bulb. Because of the check setback, I can't start building until the end of February anyway. Why don't we just move the IST to my site, and have the new kids help me finish my project? They would get the hands on skills they need, my latrines get completed, and my community gets the self-esteem boost of being able to showcase their new skills and train others.
Everyone wins. It will be a little bit of a logistical nightmare for me to coordinate everything in such a tight time frame since I am going to be gone the 2 weeks previous to this doing youth camps, but I am a stage manager. Logistical nightmares are my thing.
My skin infection sucked, but it allowed me to be in the office for long enough to make this come together. And now not only will my project be finished and 15 new families will have latrines, but 6 other PCVs will learn from my experiences to be able to grow this project into something bigger than me and my service.
Wow.
p.s. A HUGE and public thank you to every single person in the office- admin, medical, and otherwise who have been positive and supportive these last few weeks. You. All. Rock!!!!
Comments
Post a Comment