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.