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!