An Unexpected Ending
“In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices.” -Elizabeth Gilbert
On March 19, 2014, my friend Ken, a fellow PCV visiting my site to help me form an Ultimate Frisbee team, woke up at 6AM and went out to my porch hammock to read. I laid in bed half sleeping, half listening to the morning noise of my community- people walking to the river for their morning bathe, kids chasing each other with buckets sent to haul water for the house, the sounds and smells of my neighbors cooking. It was a cold morning, I was curled up in my fleece sleeping bag. It was probably 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the dry season's lack of humidity, that was pretty cold! I finally got myself out of my warm blanket and mosquito net, stumbled out to my porch, tripped over my cat and started boiling water for coffee.
I sat on the bench and watched the morning activity of my community for a few minutes, then we had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. My neighbor boy Josecito stopped by for a few minutes before I shooed him off to go get ready for school. I was sweating by the time the Colombian kids crossed the soccer field headed to the school. Ken and I talked about all the things I needed to do that day. A few of my project guys showed up at 8AM telling me they wanted to work. I reminded them that I had my frisbee workshop and that while I couldn't work, that they could continue without me. They grabbed my tools and started working on the latrine behind my house.
I visited Claudia and reminded her that I would need to get her parumas later in the day to sell them at my Close of Service Conference (a week long seminar to prepare us for the last three months of our service in our communities). She asked me about the recent drug trafficking incident in another community, and I told her what I knew. She told me stories about what it was like living in the midst of FARC in Colombia, and why her and her husband chose to come to Panama as refugees. She was concerned that after everything they went through to get away from it, to get out of Colombia, that it would come back to haunt her again. I told her that it was one isolated incident, that PC had already told me that I could stay in my site, and that I had never felt unsafe in Playona. She agreed with me and smiled.
I spent the morning fixing the tubes on the composting latrine in the center of town, and resealing the back door after we took out the compost. I also went and visited the guys working- after a week of only having 1-2 people willing to work, I finally had 7 people working. We talked about the incident and they all reassured me that I was safe and then continued telling stories and making fun of each other as we worked on the latrine. I went to my host family's house and spent half an hour playing with the toddlers, holding my one month old baby brother, and talking to my host mom. We made plans to stitch together when I came back from my conference and the latrines were finished.
At 11:30, I went to the school during their recess and asked the principal if I could use her classroom for my frisbee workshop at 3. She gave me some chocolate candies and told me that would be no problem. Then Avelino, another teacher, stopped me and gave me a page long, handwritten letter asking me to be a guest of honor at the school's first ever student elections in April. He asked me to talk to them about what leadership is and what it is like being a role model. I told him I wouldn't miss it!
I returned to my house and had some phone calls from other PCVs in the area, they were all very concerned about the situation in the area and asked me to come to Meteti that night where they would all be. Since I had been planning on leaving at 6AM the next day anyway to get to Panama City, I decided that one more night wouldn't make a difference in the long run, and I would have a chance to see some PCVs from the west side that were visiting that I rarely ever saw. I agreed to come out, even though that would highly complicate my to do list. Ken started making lunch for us- fried plantains with guacamole, as well as a stir fry. I went and checked up on the latrine progress, finished the office latrine, and started packing my back for a week out of site. We were out of water, so we decided to bathe before lunch. I grabbed my empty water bucket and soap and went down the crooked cement stairs to wash a couple layers of cement and dirt off. Josecito was already out of class so he came over and climbed on us until we agreed to throw him a few times. Not wanting to be left out, Grismaldo swam over and joined in. I talked to a few of the women, the usual Embera conversation:
Hey Friend! Are you bathing?
Yes, I am bathing.
Good, bathe then.
Ok, are you bathing?
Yes, I am bathing.
Good.
I filled my bucket with water, put it on my head, and we walked back to my house. We ate lunch and I made some posters for the workshop. At 1 when school got out the kids started coming to my house every 10 minutes to ask when we were going to play.
Ken did dishes after lunch, and I cleaned up my house and hurriedly packed everything away into my little room. I left out a bag of cat food for Jaguar and her kitten, Rey Leon. (Lion King)
At 3 I grabbed my posters, tablet, a disc, camera, and whistle and walked to the school. I rang the bell at the school and blew the whistle, waiting for the kids to show. Two toddlers wandered over wanting high fives. We spent the next hour trying to round up kids. When we got 4 kids, we sat down to watch the videos about ultimate teams and to talk about what 'Spirit of the Game' is. They didn't want to participate so getting answers out of them was like pulling teeth, but we survived. We went to the field to start playing shortly after 4. We did huck drills, cutting drills, and played a game called 'Big Box'. We ended the practice with a spirit circle and talking about the upcoming frisbee tournament in Meteti. The last thing we did was a giant group high five, then the kids ran off scattering to the wind.
Just after 5, I walked into my house to see I had a missed call from my taxi driver saying that he was almost there. Javier showed up in the moment to work on my latrine, and I told him that I had to leave for my conference, but would be back in a week. I ran to Claudia's to get the paruma's from her and when I started leaving she gave me a hug- something that never happens in Embera land. At that point the taxi was there so I ran over, tossed my bag in the back and hopped in. As we pulled out of town a bunch of kids ran down to the road to wave me off. We literally drove off into the sunset.
That was my last day living in Alto Playona.
On March 19, 2014, my friend Ken, a fellow PCV visiting my site to help me form an Ultimate Frisbee team, woke up at 6AM and went out to my porch hammock to read. I laid in bed half sleeping, half listening to the morning noise of my community- people walking to the river for their morning bathe, kids chasing each other with buckets sent to haul water for the house, the sounds and smells of my neighbors cooking. It was a cold morning, I was curled up in my fleece sleeping bag. It was probably 78 degrees Fahrenheit, but with the dry season's lack of humidity, that was pretty cold! I finally got myself out of my warm blanket and mosquito net, stumbled out to my porch, tripped over my cat and started boiling water for coffee.
I sat on the bench and watched the morning activity of my community for a few minutes, then we had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. My neighbor boy Josecito stopped by for a few minutes before I shooed him off to go get ready for school. I was sweating by the time the Colombian kids crossed the soccer field headed to the school. Ken and I talked about all the things I needed to do that day. A few of my project guys showed up at 8AM telling me they wanted to work. I reminded them that I had my frisbee workshop and that while I couldn't work, that they could continue without me. They grabbed my tools and started working on the latrine behind my house.
I visited Claudia and reminded her that I would need to get her parumas later in the day to sell them at my Close of Service Conference (a week long seminar to prepare us for the last three months of our service in our communities). She asked me about the recent drug trafficking incident in another community, and I told her what I knew. She told me stories about what it was like living in the midst of FARC in Colombia, and why her and her husband chose to come to Panama as refugees. She was concerned that after everything they went through to get away from it, to get out of Colombia, that it would come back to haunt her again. I told her that it was one isolated incident, that PC had already told me that I could stay in my site, and that I had never felt unsafe in Playona. She agreed with me and smiled.
I spent the morning fixing the tubes on the composting latrine in the center of town, and resealing the back door after we took out the compost. I also went and visited the guys working- after a week of only having 1-2 people willing to work, I finally had 7 people working. We talked about the incident and they all reassured me that I was safe and then continued telling stories and making fun of each other as we worked on the latrine. I went to my host family's house and spent half an hour playing with the toddlers, holding my one month old baby brother, and talking to my host mom. We made plans to stitch together when I came back from my conference and the latrines were finished.
At 11:30, I went to the school during their recess and asked the principal if I could use her classroom for my frisbee workshop at 3. She gave me some chocolate candies and told me that would be no problem. Then Avelino, another teacher, stopped me and gave me a page long, handwritten letter asking me to be a guest of honor at the school's first ever student elections in April. He asked me to talk to them about what leadership is and what it is like being a role model. I told him I wouldn't miss it!
I returned to my house and had some phone calls from other PCVs in the area, they were all very concerned about the situation in the area and asked me to come to Meteti that night where they would all be. Since I had been planning on leaving at 6AM the next day anyway to get to Panama City, I decided that one more night wouldn't make a difference in the long run, and I would have a chance to see some PCVs from the west side that were visiting that I rarely ever saw. I agreed to come out, even though that would highly complicate my to do list. Ken started making lunch for us- fried plantains with guacamole, as well as a stir fry. I went and checked up on the latrine progress, finished the office latrine, and started packing my back for a week out of site. We were out of water, so we decided to bathe before lunch. I grabbed my empty water bucket and soap and went down the crooked cement stairs to wash a couple layers of cement and dirt off. Josecito was already out of class so he came over and climbed on us until we agreed to throw him a few times. Not wanting to be left out, Grismaldo swam over and joined in. I talked to a few of the women, the usual Embera conversation:
Hey Friend! Are you bathing?
Yes, I am bathing.
Good, bathe then.
Ok, are you bathing?
Yes, I am bathing.
Good.
I filled my bucket with water, put it on my head, and we walked back to my house. We ate lunch and I made some posters for the workshop. At 1 when school got out the kids started coming to my house every 10 minutes to ask when we were going to play.
Ken did dishes after lunch, and I cleaned up my house and hurriedly packed everything away into my little room. I left out a bag of cat food for Jaguar and her kitten, Rey Leon. (Lion King)
At 3 I grabbed my posters, tablet, a disc, camera, and whistle and walked to the school. I rang the bell at the school and blew the whistle, waiting for the kids to show. Two toddlers wandered over wanting high fives. We spent the next hour trying to round up kids. When we got 4 kids, we sat down to watch the videos about ultimate teams and to talk about what 'Spirit of the Game' is. They didn't want to participate so getting answers out of them was like pulling teeth, but we survived. We went to the field to start playing shortly after 4. We did huck drills, cutting drills, and played a game called 'Big Box'. We ended the practice with a spirit circle and talking about the upcoming frisbee tournament in Meteti. The last thing we did was a giant group high five, then the kids ran off scattering to the wind.
Just after 5, I walked into my house to see I had a missed call from my taxi driver saying that he was almost there. Javier showed up in the moment to work on my latrine, and I told him that I had to leave for my conference, but would be back in a week. I ran to Claudia's to get the paruma's from her and when I started leaving she gave me a hug- something that never happens in Embera land. At that point the taxi was there so I ran over, tossed my bag in the back and hopped in. As we pulled out of town a bunch of kids ran down to the road to wave me off. We literally drove off into the sunset.
That was my last day living in Alto Playona.
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