World AIDS Day Mural Project

Hola, Here is an entry Alex wrote for our Peace Corps Panama newsletter about a World AIDS day project we did in San Juanito. Enjoy!

"World AIDS Day 2012 in happy, little San Juanito of Cocle will be
forever remembered in the community mural folks painted on la casita
de los voluntarios... or will be remembered at least as long as the
mud wall stays standing. The day kicked off at 9:00 a.m. with a charla
from Vida Sana, Pueblo Sano facilitated by Voluntaria Lorena that was
widely attended by two young women and a five year old girl. As the
day wore on and the arroz con pollo started to smell better and
better, more folks trickled in until a respectable size junta ranging
in age from five to seventy four was crowded on the patio avoiding the
rain and getting their artwork on the wall. Five year-old Juan
Bautista Hernandez can be credited for laying the foundation of the
mural days earlier as he and Voluntario Alejandro covered the mural
spot with white cement. The first addition was a giant red ribbon
painted boldly in rojo intenso. The junta slowly added a Panamanian
and U.S. flag, two flowers, a bright yellow sun, and some grass. When
asked, "Que hace falta?" Abuela Chola scratched out an excellent
reply, "Una pareja, claro!" The masterpiece was signed '-San Juanito-
1 diciembre 2012 dia internacional del SIDA,' the arroz con pollo was
eaten, red ribbons were pinned super-prity on sueters, and as an
unexpected treat leftover, fake vampire fangs from Halloween of
various neon colors were carefully sanitized and handed out to the
youngsters. To slightly redeem the poorly attended charla portion, a
week or so later one of the three charla attendees was asked what she
learned the day of the mural. After a long, thoughtful pause she
replied, 'No lo haga con una persona que no conoce muy bien.' A
successful World AIDS Day 2012? Como no, como no!"

A Different Perspective

Here is a blog post from our first visitor Shelly Masarie and her experiences during her first few days in Panama. more to come later!

Yes Everything is Slow, But Two Things were Fast, and the Spider Plop...

Alex and Lauren are fine. In fact they are at their finest. Lauren's photos are a big hit. We receive many delegations at the mud house and sometimes we deliver them. Alex and Lauren sometimes rest by sitting facing each other in the single hammock in the evening. I loved learning about what they have accomplished so far with their community meetings..The campesinos have committees for water, the school, the church. There is talk of forming one for the road. It is fun to see how Peace Corps work gets done. Topics come up in an offhand way when we are visiting. Both Lauren and Alex are conversing all day long in Spanish. I watch and smile. They translate. If I try to say a sentence, it comes out silly. In telling a dog to go home I say “Let's all go to Koiker's house.”

Life is rougher here than I expected – think one giant step harder than camping in the US since you arrived there on a crazy crowded and noisy bus and then walked in – but also think one giant step easier because of the little house and running water. Alex told me their little house rocks. And it does. I am sleeping in the tent in the kitchen. Rephrase that. I can sleep because I am in the tent. See spider plop story below. It took 48 “person days” to make this room and I am grateful that the people here helped them – and me. The little kitchen has a two burner propane cook stove, a concrete sink with a washboard surface for laundry, a wooden counter and a table. The chairs are 5-gallon buckets that also hold food so the dogs do not come in and eat the food. You can buy two slices of American cheese for 30 cents to make toasted cheese sandwiches. The people here (including Lauren and Alex) have so little and make do. The kids are making yummy meals for me. Lauren explained that she and Alex have gotten used to this life and it seems harder to me than it really is for them. Remembering that will help me go home.

Here are the slow things: walking up crazy steep muddy paths to houses; conversations; on Christmas day, the slow climb up the beautiful Mt. Mirador to call our peeps then the religious service complete with the play where Baby John the Baptist and Baby Jesus are real babies; doing laundry in the sink; walking “in” to San Juanito, walking back out this morning because the bus didn't come. Everyday life. Trying to get myself to put parts of my body under the hose-water shower.

Here are the highlights – swimming in the river in San Juanito! Lush like an Oregon river but warm. The girls shampoo their hair and rinse in the river. Some things are universal – the girls at the swimming hole know the best water-slide stones, they were jumping off the high rocks and skipping stones. Families love each other, the babies are great – but oddly quiet. Some families have electricity. I had a mango popsicle made in a baggie. I got a great hug from a flirtatious four year old girl just by going down on one knee. The host family is fun – I found a way to play with 5-year old Baukti and 12-old Maudy even though I do not know any Spanish! I drew pictures of body parts and asked for the names and pretended to sleep only to jump out of the tent seven times to get items “uno momento, uno momento” and got them to laugh. Silly Aunt Shelly stuff – but my name here is Chelli! The waterfall and swinging bridge in El Valle.

We have the critter of the day – the black snake that slithered across the mud path in front of me, the black tarantula at the up the hill neighbor's house. Lauren and I were invited up to see it – I think because we are good screamers when the spider runs. Iguanas in cages, pigs, chickens, butterflies, birds, bugs, bugs, bugs (did I mention bugs?), the toad that will startle you on the way to the latrine in the night. Every time. Roosters that start crowing at 4:00 am shuddup already. “Shovel” the mama chicken who comes by most days with her 7 baby chicks.

Birthday parties are strange – we have attended two. The first one was for a 14-year old. We sat in the ante-chamber in the semi darkness with horrible music blaring from the CD player placed there just for our entertainment and were each handed a bowl of tamales, rice and a spoonful of birthday cake on top. We occasionally received visits from the real party going on in the next room. Mom told us her troubles while the birthday girl stood silently by. It was sweet when the older brother sang along with one of the songs and then we were asked to sing Happy Birthday in English. The second one was for a one-year old where again we sat mostly silently and were served a meal. I held the birthday girl for a minute. I never know if I am behaving properly. I smile and say no hablo espanol a lot.

Here are the two things that went FAST. A bug I got from some food exited my body as quickly as possible through all possible orifices; I got exactly eight paces from the front porch in the dark. Alex, being Alex, was gallantly one hour ahead of me in this adventure so I knew what was coming next. Lauren kindly called the Peace Corps doctor who said, “There is nothing you can do to stop it from coming out.” Indeed. It is out now and we are better. In the mud house I hear a plop and see a little spider (little is relative, Brenda) drop from the ceiling onto my yellow backpack. I cussed a lot and grabbed Lauren. She told me I could get under the mosquito net. I did that VERY fast.

Weather Update

December has been a lovely month in Cocle with all kinds of delightful changes in weather, it got SUPER hot and everyone thought the winter, wet season was over, but then it started pouring again. There have been some SUPER nice days in the mix, when the temperature is tolerable and the light is shining and pretty and I feel like I am in some sort of dreamland paradise!

That's the weather. Life has been pretty good too. Pretty slow, but we aren't complaining! The elementary school has closed its doors for the summer, which means the kids will be running wild and free in the jungle for the next three months, which should lead to some mischief. The work season is slowing too almost as if there was a big gasp in the last few months that is now being exhaled forcefully. Our Peace Corps work is chugging along at an equally slow pace. We are idea machines and have all kinds of schemes and plans for great community activities and projects, but the bigger challenge becomes sifting through them all and looking for people and energy to make one or two stick.

I have been a running intermediary, literally jogging at times, between two parties involved in a conversation and using particularly nice water source. On one side is a community who gets hard pressed for water in the summer and on the other is a land owner who is trying to reconcile the kindness in his heart with that little voice in his brain that says, "Stand up for yourself and your family." Whoever said water is gold in these times was right. Being thirsty is no way to live at any time of the year.

We hardly believe it is December. If someone told us it was still May an time had just been joking with us in Panama, we would believe them. The main sticking point has been the weather I guess. One gets used to the four seasons and when they don't change how we feel in our hearts that they should, one feels a little mixed up at times. We miss home for sure, but this remains the adventure of a lifetime! In my opinion, if you only get to go around once, this is a great way to get some kicks and learn about love, life, people, and good ole Mother Earth!

Rock on everybody.

Peace Corps families and consumerism (two separate topics)

Allie Hayes can be said to be credited with the topics of this entry!  She has given us TWO incredibly interesting food for thought things.  One, being the family member of a Peace Corps volunteer.  And two, she has been reading and studying the story of Chris McCandless and his "Into the Wild" adventure so consumerism.  I will address them each in turn.

One, being a family member of a Peace Corps volunteer has got to be incredibly hard!  We are Peace Corps volunteers so we have no idea what it is like to be family back home.  We know all the unknowns, we know we are safe, we know how to eat, we know what bugs are bad, we know our bosses are cool and helpful, in essence we know how we are because we are us!  But, you all playing the home game of Peace Corps have an unending list of unknowns.  We are just in some far away place doing indeterminate things.  All these worries stack on top of your busy lives professionally, socially, artistically, whatever.  Furthermore, it may be of little help when we give updates like, "killed a giant spider today," or "traveling to the city" because that just brings up more questions, like "did the spider bite you first?" and "will you get robbed today?"  So, our dear family members and friends, rest assured that we are doing well.  If we have a home away from home anywhere in the world it is San Juanito, Cocle.  We feel safe and valued (sometimes for the wrong reasons) and life is good.  Keep on fighting the good fight as valiant members of Peace Corps volunteers.  We love you and respect your struggles.

Two, consumerism.  To put it bluntly, we are smacked in the face on a daily basis with our own consumerism here in the campo of Panama and what it means for the environment, our bodies, our minds, and our friends.  When we buy a food item, for example, all the consequences are taken into account in a very real way, more real than we ever experienced in the United States.  We carry that food item and its wrapper into the jungle.  Should it be a heavy food item and we are hiking, the consequences for our bodies, namely our legs, are immediately apparent.  When the food item is consumed, a new problem arises... what to do with its by-products.  Should it be a meat item, the bones are fed to dogs, should it have a shell or peel that goes back to the earth directly or by way of a chicken's digestive system.  Should it have a plastic wrapper we are faced with the storage and disposal tasks.  Storing means attracting cockroaches, dogs, and other even nastier critters.  Disposal means carrying the wrapper back out on the bus and looking for a depository in the city (illegally we think) or, gasp, burning it.  Yes, environmentally conscious readers, we burn trash.  Not just a newspaper or two, but bottles, plastic bags, Q-tips, everything.  This affects our health in a VERY real way!  It also affects our neighbors, who consequently are our friends, because the toxic smoke wafts along with the breeze.  It is amazing how much energy we spend here dealing with our own consumerism.  The difference in the United States seems to be that the consumer is not always responsible for doing the work to clean up their own consumerism.  Is this a sign that Panama is more backwards than the U.S:?  We think not.  How better to put a bridal on your own consumerism than deal with the consequences on all levels every time you buy something?

Anyways.  Thanks Allie Hayes for these deep thoughts.  What wisdom for a soon to be 13 year-old!  We love you all out there, stay strong, recycle, and compost!

Don't do tomorrow what you can do today

Hello! I have been wanting to write a day-in-the-life type blog, but kept coming up with excuses why it wasn't a "typical" day. But that draws the deeper philosophical question of what is a typical day anyhow. So according to the age old adage, "don't do tomorrow what you can do today" I am writing a day in the life for today, November 8, 2012. My excuses for it not being a "typical" day are various. At the top of the list is that Lauren isn't here, she is at training already in Santa Rita. I will join her on Sunday and then later I will write another typical day entry. Here goes.
2:38 a.m. I stagger outside in the dark and pee off the side of the porch, then struggle back into the mosquito net. I always have to pee at night here, the current theory is that our bio rhythms have changed so that we digest at night because it is so hot during the day, who knows.
5:42 a.m. Alarm 1 sounds. Roosters have been sounding for some time.
6:10 a.m. Alarm 2 sounds and I get up. As its getting light I can't pee off the porch so I put shorts on and walk to the latrine.
Until 7:00 a.m. I prepare and eat breakfast. I can't just eat any old thing because I might have gastritis. I make pancakes and syrup saving three cakes in a Tupperware for lunch today. I am still hungry so I fry a guineo with cinnamon on it. It wasn't quite ripe enough.
Before I head out the door at 7:20 a.m. I get my things together in a little backpack that I carry almost everywhere. Machete. Sharpener. Water bottle, full. Mosquito repellent. Sun screen. Cell phone, double wrapped in plastic bag for rain. Three large branches to contribute to the day's work.
7:22 a.m. Pass the store and wave at Dario, he's super nice.
7:47 a.m. I have hiked pretty fast so I reach Anacleto's house before I planned to. No one is there so I venture a "Buenos dias" and this sets his dog, ironically named Horse, to barking. Now everyone knows I am here. I see Anacleto's mother up the path and she waves. I ask where Cleto is, to which she responds, "I am fine thank you!" this is all the better, I must remember my manners. I ask her again where Cleto is and she says he went up already.
8:10 a.m. I arrive at the spot where Cristino showed me the route to the fence that we are going to be cleaning around the land that contains the community's water source.
8:16 a.m. I second guess myself and turn around.
Until 10:35 a.m. I wander aimlessly in the mountainous jungle looking for the workers. I eventually set my sticks down, I do not return for them later.
At 10:35 a.m. I find the work group. It's Cristino, Dionicio, Raulin, Ermogeneh, Antonino, and Adolfo. Cleto is out of San Juanito visiting his sick nephew. I spend some time explaining myself and they spend some time chuckling and telling me if I had passed by this and such point at this and such time they would have saw me.
We work cutting vegetation away from the fence until 12:10 p.m. I get a few cuts on my hand from razor sharp grass. Ermogneh tells me that it isn't even the sharpest kind. He tells me about a forest fire that burned down much of the hillside jungle about 10 years ago. I have hear of this event and am immensely interested.
At 12:18 p.m. I detour to the Granja property on my way down with hopes of clomping to the mirador to call Lauren as se would be on her lunch break. In a combination of fatigue, dehydration, the ever changing plant life here and sheer dumbness, I can't find the entrance to the mirador and descend in frustration because I hear and see rain coming.
12:55 a.m. I reach the house again and take my sweat soak clothes off before I even unlock the door.
1:04 p.m. I get my shower tote and swimsuit on, the typical shower-in-the rain gear. Someone else is down at the shower so I turn around hastily for fear it is my 70 something year old Panamanian grandma.
1:17 p.m. I finish up eating the pancakes I had packed for lunch with chocolate frosting on them and was down to shower for real.
2:23 p.m. I sit down to a lunch of rice and tunafish and cucumber. The dog that we call Sir Pees-A-Lot sits with me, but I don't give him anything.
4:21 p.m. I finish hand washing some clothes and hang them up to dry doubting they will dry on this rainy, cloudy day.
It's now 5:02 p.m. And I just flocked an ant out of my chest hair as I am sitting writing this story on my iPod on the front porch. The iPod has been warning me that it will run out of battery soon this whole time. I plan to call Lauren from our neighbors porch soon. I waited around this afternoon because Ermogeneh told me he would come down and play some guitar because his guitar is at the church. I don't know if he will. I am soaking another load of laundry right now too. The extra dirty stuff. I thought I was going to make chicken noodle soup from scratch tonight, but I see that turning quickly into Top Ramen. And that's it. Life's more fun with Lauren around so I will do another one of these. I promise.

At least we didn't have to eat the cat.

This Panamanian birthday party we went to was both a wonderful and terrible experience at the same time and here's why. We felt special to be invited so far in advance to an event, a little over a week notice. That a family in our community would think of us in their invites is pretty neat. Being a slight bit clever and increasingly culturally sensitive we showed up a casual 2 hours late, which seems to be very much the norm here. The event was at the other end of town so we had hiked pretty far, but we did our best to arrive clean and spiffy. La Señora looked a slight bit terrified to see us and while we were awfully late in our culture, we were quite early in hers. The house was a bustle of activity; a dance of cooking, rearranging, and doing what needs to be done in a household of 8 people. The Señor of the house, a four foot nothing strong man named Clemente, informed us his son went to collect a cake from the city, a good 3 hours travel time away, and his daughter, the cumpleanera or birthday girl, had gone to collect the image of the Virgin from the next town. We sat dutifully confined to the front room for a while, but felt restless in the heat. Lauren had to use the latrine so she ventured into the house. In a flurry of barking the household pack of ankle biting dogs did their duty and bit Lauren's foot. Luckily she had hiking boots on. As she passed the kitchen she couldn't help but notice the partially skinned animal that resembled a tiny pig that Senor Clemente was working on. This mystery would continue to develop so stay tuned. As we weren't really interacting with anyone directly we felt okay to duck outside and take advantage of the cell phone service that the outskirts of town enjoy and went out to call home. As we crossed the threshold we startled another of the ankle biting dogs and noticed a long black furry tail in his mouth. This deepened the mystery of just what kind of animal was being prepared for us in the kitchen. Just as I was engaging in a conversation with my dad, Clemente shuffled out to talk. Lauren asked him what the animal was in there to which he responded a gato del monte or mountain cat. And to our further duress he informed us that the meat is bien rico or pretty rich and they do eat it. As the minutes turned to hours we sat. Clemente wandered in and out and we managed to get him talking about the history of the school. He told the story in a quiet voice that was barely a match for the blasting tipico music in the background. At about five the image of the Virgin, which to our untrained eyes resembled an ultra tacky statue of the Virgin Mary, arrived and there was a ten minute labor to position it among the other Virgins that had been there all along. The cooking continued and we sat watching the sun move lower and lower quietly resigning ourselves to walking back in the dark, which is not overly fun and through snake country not overly safe either. Around about six thirty la Señora
came in and asked us if we had to go soon. As politely as we could we responded with a firm yes. As it turned out, we were the only guests invited so much hinged on us enjoying ourselves. To our great relief she brought us heaping plates of arroz con pollo or chicken and rice, the jungle cat was left smoking for another day. They watched us eat. As we finished up and made ready to say goodbye, Jose, the son who had gone some 4 hours earlier for the cake, returned with the cake. Being the only guests, we felt obligated to stay so sat again as lengthy cake preparations were made. As the family gathered around the cake we were prompted to sing the birthday song in English, then we sang in Spanish, then Jose put in a CD, which blared a 15 minute birthday ballad. Its chorus said roughly, "everyone at this meeting hopes your birthday is good." A match was stuck in the cake and blown out by the cumpleanera. They watched as we ate cake. As we finished up and once again made ready to say goodbye the birthday girl asked for some pictures with her family. All of the sudden a skinny guy we had never seen before emerged from the shadows and draped his arms over the 19 year old cumpleanera. After many photos were taken and retaken we were left guessing who this lucky suitor was and why he all of the sudden appeared to grope the cumpleanera for photos. We said our goodbyes, slightly shell-shocked by the whole event and left. It had been a long afternoon, but hey... at least we didn't have to eat the cat.

La gente nos cuida

This is Alex writing this from Lauren's account.

For our final community analysis meeting Alex changed the lyrics of one of his songs and played it in appreciation of all the support we have received in our first three months in San Juanito. I'll do Spanish and English.

Cuando llegamos aqui
No sabiamos nada
Ni como usar in machete
Estabamos perdido en la selva
Pero la gente nos cuido
Nos cuido bien
Es por ellos estamos feliz
A veces andamos en los senderos
A veces andamos en bus
A veces andamos a su finca
Pero siempre encontramos con sonrisa
Y la gente nos cuido
Nos cuido bien
Es por ellos estamos feliz
Anacleto como guia
Irenes y la familia
Raul como cordinador de la casita anexo
Benigno construyo la ventana
Guadalupe a la granja
Abuelo Cholo quiere mas cafe
Muchas gracias

When we arrived here
We didn't know anything
Not even how to use a machete
We were lost in the jungle
But the people cared for us
Cared for us well
It is because of them we are happy
Sometimes we go on the trails
Sometimes we go in a bus
Sometimes we go to your farm
But we always find a smile
And the people cared for us
Cared for us well
It it because of them we are happy
Anacleto as a guide
Irenes and the family
Raul as the coordinator of the house annex
Benigno built the window
Guadalupe at the farm
Grandpa Hillbilly wants more coffee
Thanks very much

It was a pretty big hit. As proof of Alex's words Cleto then sang a beautiful decima of welcome to Cuerpo de Paz that he wrote especially for the meeting. As if you needed more proof that la gente nos cuido bien here is a copy of the bill we drew up for the house annex project.

Our cash expenses = $272
Value of donated materials = $73
Number of organized work groups = 5
Number of unofficial work groups = 3
Number of workdays accrued = 48
Cash equivalent of labor = $480
Total value of all donations = $557

The result is a fantastic new room with three beautiful windows, a lovely smooth floor, a zinc roof to keep us dry, and fine mud walls to keep the scary night out.

Sometimes we wonder who are the true volunteers?

Regardless, you can see the people care for us well.

And then...The New Home Owners.

We have officially moved out of our host family's mud hut and into our very own mud hut. The construction is mas o menos finished...one of our windows is nailed shut because the hinges aren't on yet, our little concrete sink's drain isn't finished so we use a 5 gallon bucket to catch the water and when it reaches it's capacity of dirty agua we throw it out the window...

Our first night in the house, after a delicious American dinner of garlic pasta and chorizo, Alex spotted our first scorpion in the house. He cut the tail off with his machete and the pinchers chased him around before he was able to completely kill it. And then...we saw it. A HUGE white tarantula, the size of a dinner plate, on the eave of our roof. Lauren screams and says we have to kill it. But we can't reach it with our machetes. Sooo Lauren goes to the neighbors to get a Panamanian that has experience in killing this giant dangerous spiders. They tell us to be careful because they jump. We stand there looking up at it as it creepily moves around debating what's the best way to kill it...when it disappears..
:bad words bad words: then Raul shows up and asks what's all the commotion about? We tell him there's a arana blanca and we lost it. He says there's probably a hole in the wall and it crawled inside. He leaves and comes back with a ladder. He climbs up to the hole and starts poking sticks in it to get the spider to come out. When it finally comes out its mad and Raul screams and almost falls off the ladder before slicing it with a machete. But it falls back into the hole. He quickly mixes up some more mud in the dark and fills the hole. Right now as I'm writing this there's still a dead tarantula in the wall of our house. Yay. Needless to say we're thankful for our mosquito net and we tucked it in extra tight that night.

As new home owners in Panama, the night times are full of challenges, but there are day time challenges too.

Day numero dos en la casa.

Theres all the daily things that seem simple, like doing laundry, showering, cleaning the house, watering the plants, cooking meals, and taking out the trash. But in Panama nothing is easy. For example, when you live in a mud hut, there's endless amounts of uh...mud. After multiple times of getting on our hands and knees with a brush and scrubbing the entire floor, we've barley made a dent, and when the water goes out it makes showering, cooking, doing laundry, and watering the plants pretty hard. Since there's no public waste system in the rural communities of Panama, taking out the trash has a different meaning. There's two options 1) burn it. (who likes the smell of burning trash near your house?) 2) dig a big ass whole and bury it. As you can see both are great environmental friendly ways to dispose of garbage. As it gets dark at 7'o clock and the water returns we can start cooking dinner. This is always fun with no electricity but it's great that there's two of us, one of us to cook, and one of us to patrol the house with a machete and can of Raid. As it turns out neither on of us has a solid understanding of how to prepare chicken in the campo, because we've always prepared chicken out of a nice little package cut into perfect pieces ready to go. So when we have a pound of campo chicken from la tienda. (a bloody rib cage with the breast and wing still attached) we are at a loss. Lauren could be heard saying " I need my daddy to show me how to clean this chicken." As we started to figure out the chicken and got it cooking, the smell attracted a mama dog looking for food. She just walked right in the house. Lauren and Alex having a soft spot in their hearts for animals, feed her later. During all of this Alex emptied a can of Raid on the invasion of over ten thousand ants. The rain forced them out of the ground and onto our walls. At first it was just little lines of them, but soon it turned into what looked like a six lane highway of ants.

Like usual were keeping our spirits high and laughing it all off. In truth were excited about our first house together in the jungle of Panama. We've finished our community analysis and at the end of October well have been in Panama for 6 months. It's time to start in on those projects and for people to come visit us! :)

Hola de nuestra familia anfintriona

We asked our host brother Baukti (Juan Bautista Hernandez, a precocious 5 year-old who talks nonstop from dawn til dusk and sometimes in his sleep too, says his mama) to tell us what to write to the United States. Here is what he told us:

<<Tu haces mucho trabajos en la casita como naranjas tu y Lorena tiene miedo de los bichos en el rió y que Alej come todo lo que la mama cocina para los niños, un niño que se llama Juan Bautista Hernandez, y que Lorena come papas y aquí en la casa de Baukti hay papas y que Alejandro come yucas, un cuarto amarillo que le dieron a Alejandro y Alejandro toma foto y Lorena también toma foto. Los patos que tenemos en la casa (Mama lo interrumpio y mando que el persiguiera las gallinas, el las persigo del patio)... y la casa de la Mama de Baukti, también tienes que hacer el mapa TU, y Lorena y Alejendro comen tajadas y macarrones con pollo y chicha de pina y que Alejandro me enseno muchas canciones. Ahhhha yo se, ellos fueron a la Granja. Una paisana que tenemos en la casa de Juan Bautista Hernandez (salto de la mesa y casi se cayo, pero acabo de bañarse así este seria una cosa muy mala), Lorena casi se comió un pollo de Milton y que iba a comerla frito y que Lorena se duerme temprano porque Lorena tiene mucho miedo de los bichos. Mas nada. Que Maudy hace tembleques para ella que le hagan una pollera. Ya mas nada. Y que a Lorena no le gusta el ligado y que le encantan los macarrones. Quiero conocer a las amigas de Lorena. Y que también quiero conocer a sus padres. Y que mas? Que mas? Mas nada. Que mas? Que mas? Que mas? Y que Lorena come pipas y huevos y torta de huevo y le encanta toda la comida pero no come mucho, solo come un parte y Alejandro come el restado.>>

...which I will translate to English for you all, without correcting any grammar because this is how he actually talks, nonstop...

“You do lots of work at the little house like your oranges and Lorena is scared of the bugs in the river and that Alej eats all that the mother cooks for the kids, a kid named Juan Bautista Hernandez, and that Lorena eats potatoes and here in Baukti's house there are potatoes and that Alejandro eats yuca, a yellow room that they gave to Alejandro and Alejandro takes photo and Lorena also takes photo. The ducks that we have at the house (Mama interrupts him, which she often does because he talks nonstop, and tells him to chase the chickens, he chases them off the porch, returns, and resumes talking as if nothing happened)... and Baukti's mom's house, also you have to make the map YOU, and Lorena and Alejandro eat tajadas and spaghetti with chicken and pineapple juice and that Alejandro taught me lots of songs. Ahhhhha I know, they went to the Granja. A pheasant that we have at the house of Juan Bautista Hernandez (he jumps from the table and almost falls, but he just took a bath so this would be a very bad thing because there is a dirt floor), Lorena almost ate herself Milton's chicken and that she was going to eat it fried and that Lorena falls asleep early because Lorena is really scared of the bugs. That's it. (At this point we begin writing Maudy's part, see below, but Baukti cannot contain himself and sporadically asks to add more and more to his part, which I faithfully do). That Maudy makes tembleques for herself so that they make her a pollera. Okay, that's it. And that Lorena doesn't like liver and that she loves spaghetti. I want to meet Lorena's friends. And that I also want to meet your parents. And what else? What else? That's it. What else? What else? What else? And that Lorena eats fresh coconuts and eggs and omlettes and she loves all the food but doesn't eat much, she only eats a part and Alejandro eats the rest.”

Maudy our host sister (an elegant, bright-eyed 12 year-old who loves to swim and do crafts) saw that Baukti was writing to the United States and she decided she wanted to as well. Maudy says,

<<Alejandro le gusta jugar fútbol y es el arbitro (se rió). También juega béisbol con Baukti. Lorena le corta la barba de Alej. Y Alejandro le corta el cabello de Lorena. Que mas, que mas, que mas? Lorena es muy bonita. (Baukti dice, “Y Alejandro tiene mucho pelo”). Baukti y Alejandro tienen una banda. A Baukti le gustan mucho las canciones de Justin Bieber (Baukti dice, “También diga que no me gustan nada las canciones de Justin Bieber porque Maudy las llevo para la casa de Diana”). Esperamos a conocer a la familia de Alejandro y Lorena. Y que yo quiero conocer a la hermana de Lorena y la de Alejandro. Desde ya les queremos decir Feliz Navidad y que traigan dulces de Halloween. Ya chao!>>

...which translates to...

“Alejandro likes to play soccer and he is the referee (she laughs). Also, he plays baseball with Baukti. Lorena cuts Alejandro's beard. And Alejandro cuts Lorena's hair. What else, what else, what else? Lauren is very pretty. (Baukti says, “And Alejandro has a lot of hair”). Baukti and Alejandro have a band. Baukti really likes Justin Bieber songs (Baukti says, “Also say that I don't like Justin Bieber songs because Maudy took them back to Diana's house!”) We want to meet Alejandro and Lorena's family. And that I want to meet Lorena's sister and Alejandro's too. From here we want to tell them Merry Christmas and that they bring Halloween candy. That's all bye!”

Upon hearing how much fun all this is Irenes (our 31 year-old host mom, a wise and powerful young woman with a fierce kindness in her heart) flees to the kitchen and Maudy adds a message from her. Irenes says, through Maudy,

<<Alejandro y Lorena se portan muy bien y que han aprendido muy rápida en Panamá. Ella esta muy encantada que ustedes estén en la casa de ella.>>

...which means...

“Alejandro and Lorena behave very well and have learned very quickly in Panama. She is very pleased that you are in her house.”

Having fun bringing us messages, Maudy runs to her dad Jeronimo (our 32 year-old host dad, who has been playing accordion all afternoon in the living room) and delivers the following message from him, again through Maudy,

<<Dice que se siente contento de tenerlos aquí en la casa y entre ustedes y mi papa han compartido muchos momentos especiales y que entre Alejandro y Jeronimo (mi papa) han compartido canciones Panameñas y de los Estados Unidos y se siente muy contento de tener un amigo mas en Panamá.>>

...which means...

“He says that he feels happy to have them here in the house and you guys have shared many special moments and between Alejandro and Jeronimo (my dad) you have shared Panamanian songs and songs from the United States and he feels very happy to have another friend in Panama.”

Milton (our 14 year-old host brother, who is probably the most reserved young professional man we have ever met) politely declined to comment.

And that folks, is our lovely host family. Sorry if this post has been confusing, but there is SO MUCH in here that sums up our lives right now. You have no idea.

Git outta here with your dirty beard!

Hi Everybody!

We hope you all are doing well in whatever it is you are up to in good ole 'Merica Norte. We are down here in 'Merica Central still and thought we write about what kind of trouble we are getting' up to. Right now we are huddled under our mosquito net on our wooden plank bed listening to Bright Eyes and the rain falling. Apparently it is going to start raining a lot here as invierno approaches, which has some up-sides and down-sides. On the up-side, the nights are cool and fresh and when it rains all day we get to rest a bit from the physical labor side of this job. On the down-side, our clothes will likely not dry from now until January. The work will be replaced with playing guitar, reading, and drinking coffee, which isn't all that bad. Speaking of which, Alex got his hands on a halfway decent guitar for free so that is pretty good. Our regional leader Aaron's house has a guitar that sort of just lives there, but since he is a banjo player it was sitting in the corner with a broken string. Alex went out and bought a new string, tuned it up, and Aaron just gave it to him for two years! An extremely nice gesture from an extremely nice person.

Lauren's Spanish is rockin' along nicely. Lauren of four months ago wouldn't believe the Lauren of today can communicate so well here. Lauren says she has learned more Spanish in four months here than in four years of high school. Alex is feeling good too and has moments where Spanish feels super natural. We are going to come out of this whole thing speaking a pretty backwoods, campo version of Spanish. It's kind of like Alabaman English, no offense to any Alabaman reading this. In some respects it is easier because the emphasis is more on getting your point across than being flowery or grammatically correct. On the other hand, some of the stuff that gets said around here is nonsensical in any language. Abuela Chola told the dog to, “git outta here with your dirty beard.”

Continuing on the topic of our cultural integration, we seem to be pretty hungry quite a lot of the time. We kinda feel bad about this because we are getting three meals a day and everyone is always careful to give us the biggest, best portion of whatever is being served. We chalk it up to our gringo metabolisms. The amount of hiking and pick-axing and sweating we do makes our bodies crave vegetables, whole grains, and substance; we just aren't used to living this type of lifestyle on rice, boiled bananas, and yuca. As a result Lauren is feeling like the saggy, baggy elephant cuz none of her pants fit and Alex's cheetah metabolism can't be kept up with. In a short month we will be on our own and can do our best to get the food that makes our bodies work the best so we can come through for our community.

Speaking of moving out on our own, we have undertaken a pretty significant annexation of our future house. Panamanians like to go big and we barely know what we are doing so the new part of the house pretty much doubles our livable space. Panamanian campo construction techniques are borderline insane. Anacleto felled a tree that he was in, climbing around and hacking away at it with his machete. Abuelo Cholo climbed around the rafters wrestling 16-foot sheets of razor-sharp zinc barefoot. He'd yell down to Lauren every now and then to bring more nails or make him some coffee. As we were closing up the day he told us we owed him a thousand bucks... we bought him an ice cream today, hope that works instead. Everyone is not only donating their time and expertize to the remodel, but also all kinds of wood. It makes us really revved up to pay them back over these next two years by doing our best for their community and working our Peace Corps volunteer tails off for them.

In the work arena, we have elected to do a thorough job of the community analysis. During Pre-service training we were trained pretty extensively in something called PACA tools. PACA stands for Participatory Analysis for Community Action, and is used as a world wide Peace Corps tool for getting to know the community in a way that sets the stage for project work. We've cooked up a scheme of 4 meetings in which we talk about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the community. They are called “Una tarde divertia con Alejandro y Lorena” and we try to have fun and be really friendly and open and laugh. We have gone through two meetings so far and the reception has been pretty great! Counting men, women, kids, and babies we had 74 people packed into the Casa Comunal for the first meeting. Popcorn is a big hit and people really seem to dig talking about their town and what it means to live it up in the campo. It is A LOT of work for us because we are hand-making invitations and prizes, carrying benches and tables every Sunday meeting morning, but the idea is if we climb a big hill at the beginning, we will get to build up a lot of steam on our way down with projects and stuff. We explain at the meetings that this work is with our mind and our hearts so we can know what we are working for when it comes time for cement, shovels, pick-axes, and machetes.

Life is good! We are enjoying ourselves and feeling good about where we are at both geographically and Peace Corps wise. Take care everybody! Keep being awesome!

Lots of love,

Alejendro and Lorena

Some Days

Some days I realize where I am. Sometimes the realization comes as I help Irenes knead the morning's hojaldras on her wooden batea, the smell of coffee drifting from inside her yellow, mud hut. Sometimes I realize where I am as I stand sweating and dirty with Anacleto, hiding from the Panamanian sun noticing how puny a 500-pound pile of sand and gravel looks in comparison with the mountain of effort it took three people, hacking through the jungle, stepping over snakes and tarantulas to dig it from the river and haul it over slippery, moss-covered rocks in plastic saccos over our shoulders to get it there. Sometimes it hits me when we are out pasearing, “Damn, I am in this random Panamanian house, listening to this guy with only a couple of visible teeth who seems older than the hills and actually understanding what he is telling me about this palm fruit that he harvested this morning.” There are times when nothing on my plate is from a package. There is hand-ground maiz from the monte that Jeronimo carried home yesterday on horseback, packed in the husk and boiled to make bollos, guineo-chinos from the tree in the bottom corner of the property, yucca pulled from the rich Panamanian tierra negra, chicha made from lemons plucked off the tree this morning, or a sweet lemon tea from the limoncina plant that grows near the shower. Oh yeah, and then there is the chicken that I saw earlier that day with feathers still on it. Sometimes as I walk by the blue tienda with its new ceramic-tile bench in the morning and hear the friendly, “Buenas,” from Maria-Eugenia as she looks up from her sombrero-making, the fibers wrapped around her toes as she tightly weaves them into a ribbon to wrap around her wooden mold I think to myself, “No one would believe what I am doing right now.” No one would believe just how loud the rain is on the zinc roof. No one would believe how everyone here knows how to put every single different natural material to use. This type of wood makes better embers in this type of stove. This preparation of mud cured my son's auto-immune disease. This plant is for headaches. That plant makes peppers hotter than habeñeros and they look exactly like those from this plant that makes the sweet peppers we use in every single dish, don't mix them up. Sometimes I realize where I am when Panamanian folks start arguing about the best phase of the moon to cut wood. It seems silly to ask which is the best phase of the moon to visit Home Depot ™, which is how I “cut” wood. The stories we hear about the lives of people in our community are often of incredible hardship, but told with a smile and a selflessness that I won't ever forget. Parents harvesting a coffee plant, drying, grinding, and packaging fifty baggies to sell six hours away on horseback at the market. “Thankfully we sold a lot so we had enough money to buy our son's school supplies for first grade.” We even start losing our grip on science and proof and fact. It seems so logical that Baukti was born with a weak right leg because he was conceived after his dad almost died from an equis snakebite on his right toe. It is pretty weird. I can just be going about my day when I get one of those feelings of realization. I live in Panama now. I speak Spanish now. I drink coffee now. I still don't like rice now. Maybe the feelings of realization mean I am a little bit more conscious of just how different life can be around the world. Maybe they mean something else. Whatever they mean, the feelings are good and I like them.

A Beautiful Day

Wake up. A beautiful day is. Is it a beautiful day? What is a beautiful day? Today was a beautiful. Here it is. All of the day and what lies therein which made it a beautiful one. There was that sense of dirty accomplishment as you dove into the cool, cleansing Rio Mula to wash the mud off. The mud came from the house and the fresh smell of wet mud was not far at all. Because do you know how the muddy walls of a freshly muddied house smells? Smells like dirt. Dirty like all our friends working with us, our friends and our teachers because here in San Juanito they are often the same people. Our teachers are actually teachers but also kids and their smiles, laughs, and games. Our teachers have boots that squish tarantulas. All this they do for us because they have that deep kindness, that kindness that wakes up with our campesino friends in the morning and goes to bed with them at night. But you had better wake up early because it takes a long time to mud a house, even just the inside, which was all we did. The kindness is also given as a drink. Cane coffee cut with machete and served with a smile. All the time watching Nena with her perico and how happy that little green bird made her and how it laid on her lap as she laid on the lap of her smiling father as he laid in the hammock held together by a thin, thin, thin cord that won't ever break... ever. But you've gotta be SO careful. Oh so careful. Should you dare someone to collect the oranges you need to be prepared and well-prepared to help them down after they have collected you more than you can carry. When oranges are eaten here, they are peeled in one swift chop, sometimes victims of machetes, and then the juice is sucked out from a pool, deftly formed atop the orange. It's good. Trust us. We won't ever go back. Just like we can never go back from what we are experiencing second to day to second that we would never trade for anything in the money world. I can never understand Baukti's accent. Love it all the same. It hit me as I was walking down the road and carrying the oranges down the hill in my sombrero and I was having a conversation with them in Spanish and they were laughing and the sun was shining and it was just one of those weird moments. Yeah it itches! Hell yeah it itches! Sometimes so much that I can't stand my skin and no matter how much alcohol I spritz upon the bites they just don't subside. And then there is the wisdom of our current Panamanian mom and her slow careful assessment of just about everything. What pain she takes to put our lives right with chica. It got ironic at that point because we listened to the “Everybody in the Club Getting Tipsy” song in the deep campo jungle. But that will fade. What remains is the beauty of the day. A beautiful day. Go sleep.

What is Pasear

Once upon a time there was a particularly great man with a particularly great fondness of tweed jackets and loafers. He greeted each new day with song. He would sing, “It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, it's a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be miiiinnneee?” Unbeknownst to Mr. Rodgers his song would ring true for two particular voluntarios del Cuerpo de Paz in the interior of Panama as they too awoke to greet each new day. In order to be particularly great voluntarios and shoulder the grand pursuit of “giving voice to the voiceless” and/or “becoming an agent advocating positive change in the eyes and faces of a community” and/or “facilitating change by empowering the people themselves” said voluntarios must first know the voices, eyes, faces, and people. We must first, in the face of many bugs, much mud, and countless awkward silences, fly Mr. Rodgers' shimmering banner of friendliness and pasear.

Let us first place some caveats on Mr. Rodgers' famous sing-song to transition into some of the challenges our two particular voluntarios face on the road of pasear. Take “a beautiful day in the neighborhood,” for instance. If we carefully tweak this first stanza to read, “a muddy, wet day in a neighborhood that values clean dress and orderly appearance,” then we better capture pasear. To emerge onto someone's doorstep in a presentable state is a large portion of the overall battle. Proper footwear choice is paramount as are slow measured steps. During pasear one must avoid, at all costs, the sickening slide of sandals, which can change a lovely pair of khakis into a significantly less lovely pair of khakis. Jeans, while durable and fingernail-cleanable, can choke sweat from the very pores of one's body resulting in a similar disaster.

Considering “a beautiful day for a neighbor” we must empathize with the gracious hosts of our pasear visits and ask: for them, is it really a beautiful day for these particular neighbors to come calling? Is now a great time to stop whatever work you have and receive guests who speak an odd form of your language that you barely recognize? Do they like to sit or stand? Are they going to want a drink? Why are their khakis always so dirty? Sometimes these particular voluntarios jokingly hum the theme song to the critically-acclaimed, shark horror film Jaws as they walk up the path to an unsuspecting house. However, the cultural reality seems to be that these supposed fears are our own projections onto our hosts because we see through the lens of our locked door and window society where each unknown person to pasear is coming to sell us vacuum cleaners and/or convert us to their religion. After all, here in the campo, it really is a beautiful day for a neighbor and the result is a pretty great feeling for everyone involved in pasear. Visiting someone's home is very special here and whatever there is to share—be it bread, coffee, a great view, seeds, words of wisdom, gardening lessons, stories, or silence—will be shared with a smile and a genuine “gracias por su visita” as you part ways.

This graciousness introduces the tiny asterisk these particular volunteers wish to add to Mr. Rodgers' words “would you be miiiinnneee?” Making a new friend involves a name, a face, an experience, and a place. These “new friend qualifiers” seemingly so simple and innocuous, morph into significant challenges in the campo for these particular voluntarios. For the following, fictional names have been substituted, but the situations are all to real. Parents often press their children to say their own names. To our untrained ears, the first time around sounds like, “Hard in mania de (mumble) have landed,” which we repeat diligently, yet punctuated with that pathetic question mark of validation, “Hard in mania de de de have landed?” After a couple rounds of pardon-me and otra-vez the response elucidates to “Yariminia de Santos Hernández” or a similar name that moves the tongues of these particular voluntarios in new, gymnastic-like ways. From there the name is either immediately lost from memory, written down hurriedly somewhere to be lost later, or tried later only to learn that everyone actually calls her “Lila.” Faces are usually our best bet, but when someone gets a haircut or is wearing a different sombrero or sunglasses this becomes a pitfall. This pit is further deepened by the triplets named “Juan Edwin” (who goes by Jorge), “Jorge Edwin,” and “Edwin Jorge.” Experiences are perhaps the most valuable tool; they bring friends together on a daily basis. A wide spectrum of experiences will populate the typical afternoon of pasear from an unlucky kid with a broken leg to wild monkeys in the yard to a special gift of some delicious food to a tarantula on your boot. These are great for the memory because stories are the glue that hold people together. Pasear is also about places. Our neighborhood stretches over hills across rivers and through the jungle so these particular voluntarios never lack a beautiful view or a new type of tree or a path less traveled. The path twists and turns often so much so that hours are spent aggregating a reference community map. Discussions are heated and belabored as we argue switchbacks, river crossings, and which junctions go to which houses; this environment is far from suburbia with its cute shoebox Clinton Courts and 6^th Avenues. Names, faces, experiences, and places help these particular voluntarios get out on the beat and ask, “Would you be miiiinnneee?”

There it is. Plain as muddy waters. Pasear. Take that Mr. Rodgers.

The first few weeks in site

Wow! Time is flying by in our new home of San Juanito. Alex and I have been doing lots of different things in order to get to know our community better, and we have already started some mini projects. I'll list some highlights to give you some idea of what we are up to!

1. We had our first English lesson with the teachers at the school.  Alex and I decided that we are going to team teach the class, but switching off who creates/teaches the lesson every other week. Alex took the first class and used music as his first teaching tool. He brought his banjo to the school and played an Avett Brother song in English and Spanish. The teachers LOVED it, and it was so cool to hear them singing along in English! It's fun to be the teachers of students that actually want to learn. The teachers are so enthusiastic and are looking forward to the classes to come.  In exchange for English the teachers want to help us with Spanish so on Tuesday afternoons we have Spanish class and on Thursday afternoons we teach English.

2. On Thursday mornings we also spend our time at the school working in the school garden.  The garden is really cool and includes a variety of plants and projects, including bell peppers, green beans, yuca, bananas, rice tanks, fish tanks, pineapple, cucumbers, (I'm sure I'm forgetting some here) they even have chickens for eggs and for meat. Needless to say there is lots of work to do at the school.  La escuela also has an organization called Madres y Padres de La Familias. This includes all the moms and dads that have children in the school. They are all required to do some type of work at the school and if they don't, they get fined. The moms come during the week and make lunch for the kids and the dads come to the school on Saturdays to do work in the gardens, we've started working with the dads on Saturdays too.

3. We've continued with the stove project of the previous volunteer, making more stoves for families in the community. Alex may have touched on this in the previous  blog, but I'll add my thoughts too. The stoves are really neat because they are more efficient than the traditional stoves (which includes a fire with 3 rocks around it for a pot to sit on top.) The traditional stoves smoke A LOT, use a TON of firewood and take a LONG time to cook anything. The new stoves are made of all natural materials, use less fire wood, they smoke less and they boil water muy rapido!

4. We planted banana trees and platino trees with a community member on his property, unfortunately a lot of his banana and orange trees are dying from some bugs/bacteria.  I was able to share some of my agricultural knowledge I learned in training about some organic pesticides. He is very interested in working with me in the future with agricultural techniques so I am looking forward to that.

5. We started collecting some plants for our garden we are going to make at our permanent house. So far we have basil, celery, and some lemon grass. The lemon grass is sooo delicious. Our host mom makes tea out of it every morning for us. We also started talking about the improvements we want to make on our house. The community has been so awesome and they are willing to add an addition for a kitchen to our little mud hut. I'm looking forward to the construction, because then I'll know how to build a house out of mud.

6. We really have no idea what kinds of projects we will end up doing because there are SO many opportunities. Some ideas so far have been: a girl's group led by Lauren and a boy's group led by Alex, an environmental youth group called Panama Verde, trash clean-ups and disposal systems, composting at the school, bettering the soil for local farmers, some people still are not connected to the water system so they drink from creeks, very few folks wash their hands after going to the bathroom/before eating, raising bigger fish in fish tanks, enhance the community farm because prices are rising in the markets, getting the older kids to train for a running race in Panama, improving the school's computers, showing movies at the school for a fundraiser and to talk about movie ratings, and on and on and on.  "Gracias a Dios" we don't really have to decide, it will be the community that tells us what to focus on!
I think that's about it for work related stuff...I'll share some things/quotes from normal everyday Peace Corps life tambien!

1. On average I see at least one toucan every day.
2. "I think I am slowing starving to death on rice." - says Alex
3. "Who invented indoor plumbing? They should be a Saint." -says Lauren
4. Our host sister got stung by a scorpion and our mom had to call an ambulancia because the venom was traveling up her arm. Pobrecita!
5. "That drink tasted like a tootsie roll ran through a car motor" - says Alex
6. "I wish I had a bomb collar for the roosters, and it would go off every time they crowed, and they'd get blown into a million little pieces."- says Lauren
7. We've been playing with the same three pieces of paper with Baukti (our 5 year old brother) for four days, they always say the same thing... treasure maps.
8. Lauren-"Remember when you picked the ants out of your jello?
Alex- "Yep."
Lauren- " I just ate the ones in mine."
9. After a hard days work we venture to the river for a relaxing swim...it's like the Jungle Book. If Alex and I get a cat to keep the bugs away we are going to name it Bageera or Sherkhan. haha!
10. It's been way too long since I've had chocolate.

Well that sums it up for now!  We have been working on a detailed community map so that we can include everybody in future work and it is a great challenge to hang onto the names we learn.  The trail system is pretty complicated and we aren't allowed to go on some routes because there are perros bravos!

Check Facebook for some updated pictures! :)

Todo bien

Hi everyone!

We have been officially sworn in to protect and defend the constitution and such as PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS!!!  Wow.  It has been a long road to start a long road, but we are incredibly grateful to be where we are at right now.

So... WHERE ARE we at right now?

We bought a mattress in Penonome today so we are here to stay.  Our new address is:

<<One of our names>>

Cuerpo de Paz

Entrega General-0229

Correo de Penonome

Panama, Rep. de Panama

And don't forget to put that Holy Cross or "Jesus is Watching" sticker on any packages you send to make folks think twice about getting sticky fingers, hahahaha!  It's uncommon, but it can't hurt to take a precaution if you are going out of your way to send us something!

HOW are we right now?

Great!  Here in the campo they often say, "Aqui en la lucha," which translates to "Here in the fight" and has the rough meaning of "Fighting the good fight, but in a way that makes me happy."  Lauren has gotten some bug bites, had a nasty cold that made her weak with fever for a whole day, and she dropped a shovel on her toe yesterday at La Granja (remember La Granja from our last post?)  San Juanito folks like to work and work hard so to start integrating, we have simply started working hard too.  Here is our first week happenings:

Domingo - We arrived and got settled in our room.  It is a super nice room and our hosts are SO gracious, we have the BEST luck with host families!  Mud walls, cement finished floor, zinc roof, wood plank bed, a small desk lamp for nighttime, shower next to the kitchen, and latrine next to the chickens and ducks!

Lunes - Went pasearing (a Spanglish word that means visiting folks) in Santa Cruz (a neighborhood in San Juanito) with Anacleto (our ever-valiant and kind community guide).  Afternoon meeting with the ever-vibrant and super-amazing school teachers about our first mini-project of English classes, teaching the teachers English so they can provide their students the best quality English classes.

Martes - Lauren was sick and held down our hamaca (hammock)... THANKS MABEL!!!  In the afternoon she felt better so we went up to our future house and Abuelo Cholo and Abuela Chola helped us clean it up and we discussed possibly adding a kitchen in the back and finishing the mud walls to lock out those scorpions and tarantulas for good!

Miercoles - We worked with Pastoral Social at the property of some community members who just lost their father.  Pastoral Social is a church group that helps those in need around San Juanito, which is really cool and shows the kind of attitude they have here.  This involved much sweating as we hacked away on the mountainside with our machetes from 9 to 3.  The first task was a hillside of yucca, which is tricky because you have to hack everything EXCEPT yucca, hahaha!  Then we watched in awe as the six guys with us sped through an even bigger mountainside clearing everything there (trees, bushes, grass) as we ourselves got about ten feet up from the bottom!  Hahahaha!

Jueves - We worked at the school in the morning planting and cleaning parts of the school gardens.  Alex ended up helping some guys to unload two palettes of cement bags and giant pieces of zinc roofing... whew!  The afternoon was reserved for a celebration of "El Dia de los Ninos" or "Kid's Day," which involved raucous games and the questionable decision to load the kids up on ice cream AND Jello AND cookies AND candy!  Isn't every day kids day?!?!?!  Hahahaha!

Viernes - We worked at La Granja.  Lauren could be heard saying, "I wish my parents were here!'  Alex responded with, "Yeah!  So they could see you filling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt!"  To which Lauren replied, "No, to HELP because they LIKE doing stuff like this!"  Much laughter.  In the afternoon and evening we completed our first Peace Corps construction project with Jacobo (the volunteer we are replacing) and built a pretty nice looking fogon (or stove) out of mud, cement, and sand.  We will likely be cranking out many more of those in the coming month.  We ended the day watching an ultra-violent movie at El Rancho and reflecting on the affects of violent media on the youth of San Juanito, not to mention the U.S. and rest of the world.

That was the week in all it's glory!  Fun, hard work, some hassles, reflection, constant Spanish improvement, beautiful toucans, and so on.  We are thinking that this sort of schedule will be indicative of the coming few months as we stretch our legs in San Juanito and get to know everybody and work til we can't get out of bed in the morning!

Much love,

Alejandro y Lorena

First impressions

We are looking forward to becoming true Coclesanos, citizens of the Cocle province, but man does it feel like a long way off. There's the language challenge that we face on a daily basis. Even though our Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds, there are still too many moments when someone will say something, or worse ask something, and our blank stares reveal we haven't the faintest idea in the world what was just said! We typically just laugh it off, smile and nod, and suffer whatever consequence of what we just blindly agreed to. Usually that just means another helping of soup, but now, the language barriers seem more important to overcome as we try to get into the Coclesano culture.

Oh yeah, Alex will have to learn how to dance, which is perhaps a far more immense barrier than language deficiencies! Hahahaha!

But we think integration is a challenge well worth undertaking. Sit back and relax as we take you on a little tour of the places we have gotten to know so far in San Juanito. Remember we are on the start of a journey here and these are first impressions full of our gringo biases and such.

Abuelo and Abuela Cholo's Rancho... A of all, these folks are our host grandmother and grandfather. B of all, the closest translation we came up with for cholo was "hillbilly." C of all, a rancho is like an outdoor gazebo with a roof made of penca palm fronds. This rancho is incredibly large and serves as kind of this downtown hangout area. We watched a pirated version of Men in Black 3 here. On the far end there is a light-switch that turns on the latrine light, which is a short walk up the hill from the rancho. At night, this walk must be made while carefully avoiding sizable toads.

El Mirador... This is the look-out and boy-howdy what a look-out it is. If you haven't navigated over to our Facebook album, do it, now! There are pictures of El Mirador there. Consequently, this is also a zone of great cellphone reception. It's about a 30 minute hike from town.

La Granja... Lauren will likely have a lot of work here. On the route to El Mirador, you can take a detour into La Granja or community farm. There are all kinds of things growing here including organic fruits and vegetables, pigs, fish, and recently bread in the ovens they have on site! There seems to be a lot of interest in San Juanito for increased productivity in their fish tanks, which falls into Lauren's area of expertise. A fish tank system is essentially a way to grow fish for food. There are typically several pools for different stages of development in the life of a fish, seems like an easy concept, but to cross the T's and dot the I's there are LOTS of details to consider. At some point during the day we were visiting the fish tanks of the town Lauren got some chiggers on her and they ATE HER UP pretty well!

La Toma Principal... It is looking like the community will be looking to Alex for troubleshooting and enhancement of the water system or the community's aqueduct. A first pass San Juanito seems to have a pretty rockin system of providing potable water to its residents, which is quite the feat as it involves taking spring water from the hills above the town and delivering it to the households below in a way that won't get everyone sick. Like the fish pools the devil is in the details so to speak. Alex's advantage is that the committee in charge if the water system is well organized.

Casa de Irenes and Geronimo... This will be our first home-stay family and we are super excited to live here! They have three kids and our host dad plays the accordion like a magician.

La Escuela... San Juanito is home to a national-award-winning primary school. It boasts over 40 kids, two computers, three delightful and dedicated teachers who jumped for joy when they learned we were moving in for two years, an equally dedicated parent's group, awesome facilities including flush toilets and a kitchen, bright, beautiful classrooms supporting grades K-6, and a school garden system that garnered the aforementioned awards. Needless to say, we arrive on a Sunday and Monday we plan to get to work acquainting ourselves with La Escuela de San Juanito.

That brings you up to speed on our new digs! Hopefully you feel a little more oriented and keep these places in mind as we start the road to becoming true Coclesanos!

Hugs and kisses,

Lauren and Alex

Pictures

A quick post for those of you that don't have facebook, here's a link to some pictures that I have been able to post! Enjoy! :) 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151848567350077.871590.661385076&type=3&l=23a433231b

A town called San Juanito!

Not to posttwo blogs on the same day... but we have SO MUCH NEWS!!!

Site placement was on Friday! Laurenand Alex are stationed in the town of San Juanito in the province ofCoclé! Wow, wow, wow! We are so incredibly excited about it. So far wehave only tidbits of information to share with you all, but by golly,we are going to share:

• It's a rural, Latino community in the mountains with about 45 houses and 240 people.
• We are the first Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Health volunteers in the town, but we are getting to follow up 3 other volunteers from the conservation sector (meaning PC has been there since about 2005)
• There is some electricity in the town (not in our permanent house, but yes in our host family for the first 3 months)
• There is an aqueduct that provides running water, but there are lots of problems with it (hence, Alex's presence as an EH volunteer)
• There is a road (meaning 4wd road) into the community that is currently being improved upon.
• The people are extremely nice, welcoming, and excited about having a volunteer couple.
• They make really sweet Panamanian sombrero hats!
• We are excited about the music and dancing scene there and being close to Penonome and the beach at Santa Clara (who knew we would be close to where Lauren's great aunt Irma lived?!?! Crazy!)
• Lauren has options to work with kids and school gardens and the community is thinking about a fish pond project!
• The climate is hot, but not too hot and we hear there is more rain there than other parts of Cocle so the area was described to us as “jungle”

Weare so excited to learn more during our site visit coming up onWednesday. We will move most of our stuff on that day, participatein a community entrance conference with our counterparts (these willbe people from San Juanito), and stay for a week in order to get toknow folks in our community and present ourselves. This will involvelots of broken Spanish and hand gestures!

Wecan't tell you how excited we are to get this site and we feel it isa great match for us! Thanks Aimee and Leo (our Peace Corps bosses)and to anyone reading this, get ready for the adventures to come inSan Juanito!!!

And...Happy Father's Day to our fathers and fathers around the world... theword father starts to sound weird if you say it a lot.

Love,

Alexand Lauren

Learning in the campo

Peace Corps Panama puts the traineesthrough a field-based training week called Semana Tecnica. Oursemana tecnica started on Lauren's 23rd birthday. The day before weleft we hustled to make a delicious banana bread birthday cake withchocolate frosting and hustled equally fast to eat through half of itthe same night. We hung out with our friendly 9 year-old neighborand her cousin, who quizzed us on English words and then conducted apretend, but astoundingly exhaustive, interview about our lives.

We broke down and got our cell phonesituation sorted out before we left because (a of all) it isbasically a must for logistics here and (b of all) Lauren and I'ssemana tecnicas were within our own programs so we were splitting offfrom each other... sigh. I will talk about my experience and thenhand you over to Lauren so she can describe her time, I will makesure to remind her to tell you about her rapper-remix talent showact...

La semana tecnica for Salud Ambiental(Environmental Health) was in a campo town called Chichica in theConmarca Ngobe-Bugle. I learned a lot about the transportation herein Panama on my way down. I hopped two buses to split up the tripand, all told, it took roughly 6 hours to get to the base of themountains and meet up with the rest of the group. From there we rodechivas, which are large size pick-up trucks with the flat-bedsconverted to passenger areas and covered in tarps, for roughly 1 hourup a road that reminded me a little of the 4-wheel drive roads up tosome of our more remote 14ers at home.

The highlight of the week was my hostfamily in Chichica. The powers that be placed myself and anotherclimber-enthusiast trainee with one of probably only a few dozenPanamanian climbers. His name was Ruben (or Tochi in Ngobe) and Idoubt if I will ever meet a tougher dude. As a sustenance farmer hiswork week is physically tough, he lives in one of the most ruggedregions in Panama and transports most everywhere on foot, AND findsthe drive/passion/energy to summit mountains and rope-climb! Hebegan his climbing career in Boquete where he completed every climbthey put in front of him. His guide, needless to say, was impressedand gifted him a rope, harness, and zapatillos (climbing shoes). That was eight years ago and he now climbs at a few local spots anddreams of more gear to match his passion for the sport.

Not only did I make a new friend inRuben, but I felt like I got to befriend his whole family. He liveswith his 5 year-old son Aton, 22 year-old sister Ibeth and her sonGabi, his 15 year-old brother Otto, and 6 year-old brother Demetrio. During our stay, Ruben's mother was also in the house to help mindthe children because it was a holiday week. Although this family waslikely far below the poverty line for the region, they were rich inlove and closeness. One thing that struck me was their attentivenessto one another. The tiny zinc and wood-plank house was situated on apretty large property and all Mom had to do to call anyone was speaktheir name a few times and they would show up. Never yelling, neverleaving texts and cell phone messages, no white-board in the kitchen. The day wound down when the sun went down and we lit a single candleand sat around the main room talking about the day, trading Englishand Ngobe lessons, and telling stories. They gave Jordan and I Ngobenames (I am Ticho and Jordan is Conchi) and I bought a traditionaldress called a nagwah for Lauren's b-day. If you thought thingscouldn't be more precious, at the end of our visit Ibeth gave Laurenher Ngobe name Eddy and Mom invited us both to return in December fora festival they have nearby. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Back in the Peace Corps world... ourgroup learned all kinds of cement-working techniques that we willhelp teach at our sites should folks express an interest in some ofthe Salud Ambiental construction projects. Ferrocement is anespecially astounding technique in which you can build any sort ofconcrete object that you can make a chicken-wire form for. We, forexample, made 80 gallon water storage tanks. It is cheap and funbecause it uses lots of local materials, which I dig (hahaha get it?because we used mud). We built some latrine planchas and tazas(platforms and bowls) from cement over incredibly deep pits; yougotta make em deep so that you don't fill up until after about tenyears of use! Technical training in this way was great for mebecause I feel a little more capable heading into a community thatmight ask me to help with a construction project.

The last day we got up at 3:30 am.,Jordan (my roommate at Ruben's place) helped Ibeth make hojaldres andfour of us aspirantes (trainees) joined Ruben on a hike of the localpeak Pena Blanca. Fifty-one hundred feet is a pretty big deal whenyou can see the ocean from the top. It was a breathtaking day! Wetook a shortcut and our intrepid guide Ruben bounded along ahead witha machete to cut the way as us aspirantes slip-slided up the peak. We got down around 2 pm. and lucked out with a chiva on the way back,the scariest chiva ride I have taken to date. After a hustledgoodbye with Ruben and the family we traveled to the Pacific Oceanbeach Las Lajas and I finished the day body surfing in the waves,eating a monster cheeseburger from the American place there, watchinggame 7 of the Heat-Celtics series with Peace Corps friends, andstarting to fret about the diarrhea that I had been having on and offfor 5 days at that point. I would later go to the doctor and getthat issue fixed!

Let me hand you over to Lauren now:

Well...my tech week wasn't as cool asAlex's, but it was still pretty neat! My Sustainable Agriculturalgroup went to two different places. The first was "Finca de LosPerezosos" which translates to "Lazy Farm" in English.The property is owned by a gringo that served in the Peace Corps inPanama about 8 years ago, and he now lives in Panama and dedicateshis time to helping other PC volunteers and Panamanians with organicfarming methods. We stayed in a little cement house on his propertyfor 2 nights. While we were there, we learned how to build a fishpond for families to grow their own tilapia, which is great becausethe typical Panamanian diet is pretty awful nutritionally (and in myopinion tastefully as well). Building the fish pond was some of thehardest work I have ever done and I got so dirty because you have totromp around barefoot in mud mixed with chicken shit to pack itdown... yuck! At the farm we also built a "Circulo Magico"(A Magic Circle) which is basically a hole in the ground with varioustypes of plants planted around it in a circle. (Banana trees, papayatrees and otoe) You fill the circle with organic waste and over timeit decomposes and gives nutrients to the plants around it. It's avery simple way to teach families to compost and gives them fruitfrom the trees to eat.

Side note, while we were hiking to finda place to build the fish pond, I almost stepped on a GIGANTIC snake. It was longer than I am tall and I cried a little because it washuge and brown with red triangles and nasty bahahahahaha! Mytraining manager Jorge told us that it was most likely poisonous...cool. Oh, and there was a scorpion in my room, pretty much on my bedso I killed it and about a million ants were carrying it awaylater... even cooler.

Back to the training, the second placewe visited was INA. INA is a government agency whose goal is toincrease the number of organic farmers in Panama. While we were therewe learned how to clean and smoke tilapia, build rice tanks, plantspecific crops and how to make organic pesticides and fertilizers.Needless to say I have never been more dirty and sweaty in my life. Ibasically spent the entire time in mud up to my knees, I am going toinvest in a pair of rubber boots before heading back to the campo forsure.

I was so happy to return to Mabel'scooking after eating chicken and rice for 8 days straight. Let meexplain chicken and rice a little better. It is more like a chickencarcass rib-cage thing with little feathers and hairs still on itwith more dried, overcooked rice than I could usually eat. It is notjust for dinner or lunch, it is for all three meals sometimes. Ohyeah, we did break that diet with fried hot dogs and barbeque sauceand American cheese on corn mush for breakfast one day. Mabel and Imade pancakes when I first got back and I was SO happy!

Alex is reminding me to talk about myrap too. We had a trainee talent show and a group of us did a rapmontage, so obviously I rapped Eminem (this was for you Dan Mager),it was really good and not embarrassing at all.......

Despite all the nasties and the superhard work, I am ready to get out there and help!

Everything's louder in Panama.

Loud dump trucks...blaring Spanish music "Chiva! Chiva!" Dog fight...HONK! Chickens...Way too loud Spanish soap operas...BASS! More honking. Birds singing. Weed eaters! ROOSTER. Buses. Men yelling...HONK! Firework! "Cock a doodle dooooooo!" "BUENAS!!" Dogs barking! Motorcycle roar! Pig snorts! Music. LOUD semi! HONK HONK!! Screaming children! Dirt bikes! More honking! Broken fans. BANG! Lizard squeaks. More stupid roosters! Rain on a tin roof. Honk! Loud horrible pop music. Sirens! Rihanna. POP! Did I mention honking?

Oraciones

We are cruising right along. I have decided to just write a handful of sentences and some run-on sentences to sum up some of the most recent adventures here in lovely, loud Panama!

When visiting the buggy beach at Las Lajas, don't sleep shirtless.

There are many, many amazing sites here in Panama; when you can see the Pacific Ocean from your mountain side home or when your arrival involves a moonless, night dug-out canoe ride through a photo luminescent bay you know you are in one of them.

When the dogs of the town roam free their lives become an intriguing melodrama of triumph and tragedy.

Lauren would rather not have a bat fly right at her face in a narrow hallway.

Lauren says, "No me gustan los bichos, pero los bichos les gusto a mi! Los murcielagos y lagartijas son mis amigos porque comen bichos!"

Lauren's Spanish is leaping and bounding forward because she is really speaking like the above.

One can prepare a chocolate chip banana bread here...if one were so inclined.

Rural aqueducts are predominantly gravity fed, which makes for some very interesting physics.

One time this week I got under the sheet at night!

One time this week we read a temperature of 92 degrees Fahrenheit...in the shade...where we have class four hours a day.

It is quite common for volunteers in the mountain regions where we could end up to go through 4 to 5 pairs of chacos because they hike so much.

Patty, Andrew, and Allie are already invited to come visit Mabel with us!

There is a place in the Darien where you take a prop plane into a lodging catered to bird watchers that is known as the best place to be a bird nerd in the entire world.

I bought a 75 dollar pair of Kenneth Cole dress pants for 16.99 at the mall.

Happily from Panama,

Alex :)

Volunteer Site Visit

Hello all,

Sorry I haven't posted on here in a while, so much has been happening, it's hard to know what to write about. Everyday brings a different story and a different emotion.  Today, I arrived back in my training community Santa Rita, from a 5 day visit with a current Peace Corps volunteer.  I tried to write in a notebook about what was happening so I could remember to keep you all updated.  Here are some things that I wrote.

May 17th

Right now I am sitting in a hammock in a little town called Pague. I arrived here yesterday after many hours of traveling. I took a bus from Santa Rita to Panama City then another bus from Panama City to Penenome then a "chiva"(for those of you that do not know what a chiva is, it is basically a pickup truck with a roof on the back of the truck with seats.) from another little town, then finally ANOTHER chiva up a very steep four wheel drive mountain road to the community, Pagua. Her house is made of mud with a zinc roof and concrete floors. It has 3 small rooms. There is no electricity, but she does have running water (sometimes) outside the house. Somehow she has made her house cozy, she has colorful fabrics and pictures covering the walls, and she has a big comfy bed.

I think that she has done a good job of integrating herself into her community, when I arrived to her site, everyone in her community came out of their houses to meet her friend (me) and help carry my bags.  When I arrived yesterday she took me around introducing me to some community members, I struggled through my broken Spanish as I try to communicate with them. Everyone was very nice, offering me fresh pineapples, mangoes, crackers and juice. Everyone makes comments about how my white skin is so beautiful. Hahaha! Anytime I was in the sun they told me to get in the shade because they don't want my skin to get darker. Haha! After meeting some people we hiked back to my volunteer's house where we made dinner and I passed out in my colorful hammock.

Today we woke up early and went to help a man in the community named Ricardo. We planted about 30 yuca plants. Ricardo is apparently 70 something years old,  I would have never guessed by the way he hiked up and down the mountains planting yuca. When we were finishing up planting the yuca we heard Ricardo's 2 dogs barking like crazy, they barked for about 30 minutes before Ricardo picked up his machete and told us to stay where we were while he went to check out what his dogs were barking at... he comes back with his 2 dogs, both of which have porcupine splinter things ALL over their face, nose and inside their mouths. The dogs had been attacking a porcupine! It was awful to look at, those poor dogs! We quickly hiked down to his house where he tied the dogs down and pulled out each splinter one by one as the dogs yelped and bleed all over the place. When he was finished the dogs looked like nothing had ever happened to them. Ricardo looked at me, laughed and said "look at all the things you are learning to do in Panama!"