Jungle Juggling

I spent so much time trying to get the ball rolling on so many projects- over a year developing relationships and planning this women's group, almost 6 months fundraising and preparing construction for latrines round 2, and 3 months discussing and scheduling the Ultimate team with my kids. Now, all of a sudden, the gravitational forces acting on the earth have shifted and all three projects are happening! Instead of trying to defeat inertia I now find myself trying to juggle all of my projects at once- and I love it. I am, after all, still a stage manager who knows how to multi-task like a boss.

Let's talk latrines first, since they are my primary project. On August 11^th, I got confirmation that I was going to be fully funded. On August 28^th, that money was in my account and on September 18^th, I paid for the materials for the first 5 latrines. Materials arrived on Monday, September 23^rd, kept arriving Tuesday, September 24^th, and because a rainstorm took out all the power and cell phone service and got the delivery truck stuck, materials continued arriving amidst a lot of confusion through Wednesday the 25^th. On Thursday the 26^th we had nearly 20 men and women workers, and we poured the FIVE foundations for the latrines in under FIVE hours.

Friday the 27^th got a late start because 4 men came to my house at the beginning of the day to tell me that the women should not be allowed to work on the project because ‘women don’t know how to work like men’. I am sure you know how well that went over with me. An hour of arguing later, they realized two things: that the gringa knows how to ‘hablar duro’ and get sassy, and that she can be as stubborn as Embera men when she wants to be. Friday we laid the concrete block walls for all 5 latrines and 4 women learned how to lay block. WHAT. NOW.

If the rain is merciful and keeps allowing us to work, we will have all 5 of the latrines for this round done within a week and may even be starting the next 5 before November. Who knows. Either way, as frustrating as it can be to get the workers to be nice and work together, I consider our work to be wildly successful. Unprecedentedly successful. (A good rule of thumb in project planning is to build 1 composting latrine a week. We’ll build 5.)

I have also been working with Ultimate Without Borders through Danielle. She one of the country coordinators in Panama and is promoting ultimate teams in the Darien. She is even coordinating an Ultimate camp for youth this February. Her camp needs funding though, so if you are excited about Darien kids playing ultimate, learning sportsmanship, learning how to BE NICE (see my troubles working with the adults on latrines), and learning how to play with the opposite gender, not to mention things like responsibility, teamwork, community volunteering, future planning, and all those wonderful things that make kids into good people, check out her camp! Let’s get Embera kids playing Ultimate instead of making babies!! I hosted a workshop that PCVs Ben and Aja assisted me with and we taught skills, drills, and the concept of bucket filling to 60 kids in my community. I actually have a problem forming a team in that TOO MANY kids want to participate, and I can’t handle a practice on my own. (Imagine 40 kids with 9 discs ages 9-16. It’s a nightmare.) My plan once I get the 5 latrines built is to divide the kids into two teams and see if I can make practices more manageable that way.

Finally, my favorite project, the one that makes me the craziest because it is definitely the hardest but is also the most inspiring. My women's group. I meet with the women of Playona under the guise of a crafts group the first and third Wednesday’s of the month to teach them about self-esteem, leadership, public speaking, and really, just to give them something that makes them feel special. Our first meeting in September we talked about values and what we value in our lives, as well as the kinds of topics they wanted to talk about in our monthly meetings. I learned when I gave them a worksheet to fill out that over half of them can’t or won’t read and write. So I thought the meeting was a fail. But the feedback at the end of the meeting was only positive and they are super excited about our October meeting the 2^nd. This month’s topics are self esteem and goal setting. Hopefully the lovely Chelsea (the one with the famous cave site!) can come talk to my group about tourism at the end of the month.

For the first time in maybe a year, I have no out of site plans for the entire month of October. My goal is to use that time in site to get all three of these projects out of their infancy and develop them into sturdy, functioning, happy toddlers...to make that weird analogy work. Also, my stairs were rebuilt, the hole in my roof was more or less fixed, again, and my cat might be pregnant. No one is really sure.

Also, my family is coming for Christmas, and that can't come fast enough!