Matt and Heather speak!

A blog post from our friends Matt and Heather who came to visit us for 10 days. Enjoy!

Getting ready for our trip to Panama, we had a mixture of excitement, comfort and uneasiness. We were excited of course because were going to have a 10-day break from work and we got to travel and see our friends we missed so much. Not to mention the place we got to visit them just so happened to be a country blanketed in rainforest. It’s always hard not being around close friends like Alex and Lauren for long periods of time and so we just couldn't wait to see them and get the chance to experience their Panamanian lifestyle (there’s a good spoof on a Cake song in there somewhere). Since we had just recently taken a trip to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, we felt comforted by the fact that we thought we knew what to expect. We had already had to live in a hut with no electricity or amenities, and we knew we could survive on our limited Spanish. The uneasiness stemmed from the natural nervousness you get when you are traveling somewhere foreign. There are always things that can go wrong, and those possibilities increase when you leave the country.

For the most part though the nerves only lasted until we had made or 3am bus to the airport and we got through airport security and made it to our gate. From there on we didn't have bags to worry about or missing a flight as we had lots of time in our layover. Plus we knew there wasn't much to worry about once we made it to Panama since Alex and Lauren are considered diplomats at the airport and would meet us at the gate. Then we would be in their hands and we wouldn't have to worry about anything. The one thing we learned however about Panama, is that it always keeps you on your toes and you will find yourself being surprised countless times. The surprises weren't always bad, they weren't always good, but they definitely made for some good stories and we would like to share a few of them.


The Weather in Santa Catalina

Matt says "The first thing we did in Panama was to go to this cool little surf town called Santa Catalina. When we arrived by bus we went straight to a scuba dive company and booked a trip out to Coiba Island to go scuba dive the next day. She was a very enthusiastic woman who got our hopes up to see some really cool fish, including possibly seeing a whale shark that has been spotted in the area recently. Full of excitement we then went to find a place to stay for the night, which required walking down one of the two roads in the town and stopping in a few places until we found what we liked. The first one we looked at was pretty neat with little bungalows and an ocean front view. Heather and I thought they looked really cool but Lauren and Alex were not impressed saying, “Don’t worry, you’ll basically be living like this back in San Juanito for the rest of the trip” and so we said no and continued on our search. We ended up deciding on a place that had air conditioning, comfortable beds and wifi (also with an ocean view) that felt like a cross between an American hotel and somebody’s house. After dinner was when our first Panamanian surprise hit us. We were back at the hotel, and we had decided to just relax for the evening, take some showers and Heather and I read the books we brought with us while Alex and Lauren surfed the web to catch up on the latest world news or check emails/facebook. When Alex (being the last to go) was about to go take his shower the lights flickered and then eventually went out. We all kind of chuckled and Alex decided to go take his shower anyway in the dark. His shower was very brief however because it turns out there was no water either. Alex and Lauren explained to us this is what they call being Panamanian’d, which simply meant things never go as planned in this country. Heather and I laughed at the situation, not really fully understanding how precious simple things like a hot shower, electricity and A/C meant when you are used to living in San Juanito (we’ll talk more about that later). Apparently the thunderstorm that night knocked out the power to the whole city. It was out for only and hour or so, thankfully, and during the interim we were able to sit out on the porch and look at the dark night sky which was full of stars.

The next morning we woke up early to gray skies and rain, leaving us wondering whether or not we would still be going scuba diving that day. After breakfast we headed down to the dive center where we were advised that today would not be the best of days to go diving since it was an hour and a half boat ride to the dive site and the waters would be really choppy. We all decided we would wait until the next day, with the hopes that the weather would get better. This turned out to be a great decision because we were still able to go play in the ocean and the next day turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day without a cloud in sight. We had a fantastic adventure out in the ocean scuba diving where we saw schools of beautiful fish, sharks and a HUGE sea turtle! Unfortunately we saw no eels (they must have been tired from recharging during the thunderstorm the previous day – A good Abuela-ism you all should ask Alex and Lauren about). We were very thankful that Panama decided to alter our plans; it made for a great trip out to the little surf town."


San Juanito living

Matt says, "We weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived in San Juanito. We both had our own visions of what it would be like in our heads, but they never quite match the real thing. We knew we would be living in a mud hut. We new there would be a lot of farmland around, though the word farm in Panama is drastically different than the typical corn and hay fields you find in Colorado and we knew we would be living in close proximity to a lot of bugs (Heather was really excited about that part). What really surprised us was how hard, and yet calm life was in the campo. Most mornings we would get up early and make breakfast and then do the dishes before heading out to work. The work would be anything from digging out a rice tank (more later) or hiking in/out sand and concrete that would be used to make a clay stove or just simply hiking around to talk to someone in the town to help plan an event coming up. After working during the hot and humid day we would usually come home and shower. As Alex and Lauren have mentioned before, the shower is an outdoor shower, which was always cold. On a hot day the cold water was welcome but it was still always hard to initially step into. It was also pretty weird being able to see into the Abuelo’s “living room” while you were soaping up. Even though we seemed to work hard during the day and feel exhausted by the time we got home to make supper, Heather and I agreed that we have never felt so well rested. This partially might have to do with going to bed when the sun went down and not staying up until all hours of the night, but it was also due to not being so plugged in to the rest of the world. Without our calendars and busy schedules or our phones with constant news or sports updates to constantly check in on, I think our brains were at ease. They were able to just think about the day or maybe the next one to come. We weren’t constantly visually stimulated by computer screens or iPhones. This is something I strive to incorporate in my life back home and it’s something we should all try and do. Heather says,"Yet as soon as we got back to America, the Panamanian lifestyle slipped out of grasp. Almost immediately we returned to emails, texts, phone calls, over-booked weekends, and in generally hurrying everywhere. Just look how long it took to write this blog. While we both talked about “putting a little Panama in your day” it is so much harder to do than we thought, we were both surprised in fact how immediately the Panamanian lifestyle vanished.

Another surprising thing about life in San Juanito was how enthusiastic the kids there were to read. I swear they must have just sat around waiting all day for us to get home because it felt like every time we got home, the kids swarmed. Do they stake lookouts and signal the village? How do they do it? Every kid in San Juanito is shy, and incredibly polite. Several of the little boys preferred a handshake on arrival, and wouldn’t turn their books in until they greeted every one by handshake. The kids were so cute and patient, they waited their turn to turn in their books, have their homework reviewed, and pick out new books. One day both Alex and Lauren were gone, but the library had to stay open of course! I received their books and checked them in with my broken Spanish and they never batted an eye. I could read the younger kids’ homework, but Matt had to take care of some of the more complex ones. My favorite was counting with them from uno to diez to see if they got a prize for turning in ten homeworks! While we were out helping build a stove we even saw a mom (Maria) eagerly reading the books and wearing the hair clip her daughter had picked out from the prizes earlier that day! The library is such a huge success that the new books we brought were in the hands of the first five eager kids to arrive and got picked out every time they came back. I’m pretty sure there are kids that have read every book in that satchel!"

Peace Corps

Heather says, "On their wall, Alex and Lauren have the goals of Peace Corps. We were shocked to learn that two of the three goals involve getting Panamanians and Americans to know each other better. I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that, that means visitors are important to fulfilling their goal. All of a sudden I really wished I spoke Spanish. The more you think the more it makes sense because people who understand each other don't tend to fight each other. We were pleased that our presence as well as our labor would be used to promote peace. Another surprise? How hard it was to dig a rice tank and how out of shape we were compared to a sixty year old local. Not only were we drenched with sweat, but I found a need to stop more often than I thought Clemente did. I was really thankful for my big Panamanian working hat (thank you Abuelo!) in that hot bright sun. A whole day of digging passed and the progress was stunning and disheartening simultaneously. You could see the immediate impact but there were clearly plenty of man-hours left in constructing the tank. For those of you who don't know what a rice tank is, you should Google it. It doesn't seem like much until you dig one by hand. Another shock. All of this came with great surprises. Wherever we worked or visited we were fed fresh squeezed juice, delicious lunches, and coffee juice (coffee with lots of sugar). The people were so curious about us, so eager to pitch in, and genuine. Yet for being eager we would sit and wait to start a project while they made coffee juice and just... sat. It was a strange contradiction that these hyperactive Americans had a hard time adjusting to. In a week we saw so much progress. One stove built and one rice tank started but there was so much to do. The patience Alex and Lauren have to build these working relationships but wait for the locals to take action is incredible. Who knew two people could make such a huge difference in the world?"

Matt and Heather both say,"Holy cow we had a lot to say! If this all makes it into the blog, well, sorry it’s so long. Turns out when you wait a month and a half to write you think of a lot more things to say! In conclusion, we are thankful our puppy has no functioning baby-making parts and she’s clean and pettable. We are thankful our food is cricket-free (still one of the funniest things that happened, don’t apologize!). But we loved Panama to the bone and found ourselves (Heather) crying when we left Alex at the bus station. Thanks for a great trip guys, keep up the good work, you make us proud!"

Help out our Spay Panama Project! (and tell your friends!)

Hi everybody!

For those of you that don't know I am a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural Panamanian village called San Juanito (province of Cocle). I wanted to take a minute to let you know about this awesome project my community members and I are trying to pull off. We want to spay and neuter a minimum of fifty pet dogs and cats. We are working with a non-profit organization called Spay Panama to host a low-cost spay and neuter clinic in San Juanito. Spay Panama is an amazing group of veterinarians that travels all over Panama offering clinics where they charge $25.00 per dog and $15.00 per cat to not only spay and neuter, but also provide flea and tick treatment, de-worming, an ear cleaning and a vitamin injection.

Spay Panama's services are greatly needed by pet owners in the rural communities here. Spaying or neutering your pet, not to mention any other type of treatment or procedure is not quite as easy here as it is in the United States. Vets here are notorious for cutting corners on proper cleaning of their instruments and use of antibiotics. Many animals die after the operation. There are a handful of good vets in Panama, but they charge as much as $150.00 for spaying. As you can imagine this is literally impossible for my people to pay, because the average working wage is $10.00 per day. Even if they were to find a good vet and save the money, the good vet is still hours away in public transport. They would have to convince and probably bribe the bus drivers on at least two different buses to make the trip. How do I know all this? I have done it. Once for my cat and another time for a dog I rescued.

As you can see Spay Panama is probably the only way San Juanito will ever see their pets healthy, happy, spayed and neutered.

I held a informational meeting with my town to talk about the program and discuss their concerns. We talked about how their dogs don’t live long because they suffer from an STD. We talked about the chaos and noise when a female dog goes into heat and a dozen male dogs follow her and fight to mate with her for days. We talked about how its tough to keep your dog around your house and so many dogs are loose, pulling garbage into the street. We discussed how most female cats in the tropics are pregnant their whole lives and the male cats are known to leave home for weeks looking for a female only to come back injured and skinny if at all. We talked about when the pregnancies come to term and most of the litters die because there simply is not enough food. The sustenance farming lifestyle makes it hard enough to feed one's family, farm animals, and pets, let alone litter after litter of kittens or puppies. The community sees this as not only a problem for their pets, but also a human health issue. The meeting ended in a unanimous vote to try to raise money to bring the clinic to San Juanito.

To raise funds we cooked over 120 tamales and sold them for 50¢ a piece (some people bought theirs on credit because they didn’t have a spare dollar in the house). After covering our costs we earned $40.55. the project leadership group wants to use these earnings to put together another fundraiser to try to earn more money, but I foresee at $25.00 per dog and $15.00 per cat that they are going to need some help. That’s where you all come in!

If you do the math (fifty dogs at $25.00 a piece) our fund-raising goal is $1250.000. Spay Panama is offering us a direct donation option where they will earmark your donation specifically for San Juanito. This is great because as a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, your donation to Spay Panama will be tax-deductible.

To donate please navigate to http://www.spaypanamasanimals.com/index.html , click on “donate” in the right hand corner, fill in your name and information and make sure to specify that your donation is for San Juanito. Or visit www.spaypanama.org and click on the American flag in the right hand corner and follow the steps to donate. Also PLEASE take a screen shot and send it to spaysanjuanito@gmail.com so I personally can keep track of your donations.

Remember every $25.00 donation sponsors another dog's costs, which means another lucky dog will receive the health benefits from the spay and neuter clinic. For every $15.00 donation another lucky cat will stay closer to home reducing the number of stray animals in San Juanito. With every donation you are helping a community realize its health project and motivate more people to be responsible pet owners in the future. All of us here in San Juanito are thankful for your consideration and your support. There is so much compassion in this world for animals, all you have to do is reach out and you will find it!

Sincerely,

Lauren Hayes

Peace Corps Panama

San Juanito, Cocle

Aquí en la lucha

The late John Belushi once said, "when the going gets tough the tough get going." This rings true for me lately.

Put simply and simply put, it is easy to be a fire starter, but somewhat less easy to harness the fire, keep it stoked and productive, all the while ensuring it burns clean and true to its original goals. As an eager young-buck-Peace Corps volunteer I have started more than my fair share of fires and my butt is hot. But in a good way. I won't delve too deep into the specifics because frankly, I doubt you have the time, but here is a tiddle-bit to put you on the wobbly abouts the stats.

The water project is going at a medium pace overall, but it is medium in the average, globally medium pace if you will. Look locally and you will find one side of town working themselves to the bone to prepare anything and everything to within a microfiber of perfect for when the project comes. For this side I must choose my words carefully for what I say today will be done en junta tomorrow by noon thirty. For instance, I may have said in an off-the-cuff sort of way that when the time comes we may need to create a small plano/clearing for the future tank. Before I could say a whole lot of nothing and a bo-diddlin' hot-n-tot I was being encouraged to pasear donde va el tanque. To my chagrin, up there I saw, beaming back at me through the machete smoke, a clearing the size of big mama's britches with the stumps still oozing sappy tree-blood. Note to self: do nothing to trigger the machetes of Bolivar and the super-charged boys. Flip the record to the b-side and thou shalt see the stagnant side. Ad nauseum, at the risk of nausea, I have suggested we put a river rock on the floor of the existing tank to curb the chip-chip-chipping away by the little falling cascade that enters the tank from above. Under minor personal peril and risk to my health, I selected such a rock from the river, carried it through town up and up to the tank and placed it lovingly on top. It is about 18 inches from its goal. To this writing, there it remains. I love my people. I will see this project through to whatever end befits it. But, I'll be a gawl-darn, hootin' and hollerin' pick-a-nanny crumblin' cookies from my flea-ridden bearded toucan if I can't get these folks to take it down or step it up a notch, whichever the case may require.

(Reese's Peanut Butter Cup TM break)

 

Lauren has taken up an entertaining little hobby. Every time Carmencita, our tag-along campo dog, does something that annoys Lauren to the slightest degree, she releases a torrent of curses that would make even the nastiest of dirty-mouthed sailors wither and wilt like frozen daisies. Carmencita typically responds by doing the same thing again or a slightly different, more annoying thing. This starts the whole process over again. Good times!

But in all seriousness we are having a dog problem. Ask Matt or Heather Bergren or possibly the ever-vibrant Aimee Hartwell which word or phrase first comes to mind when they think about the dogs in San Juanito. I highly doubt it will be a word or phrase you want to use around your grandmother unless she is herself a dirty-mouthed sailor. Early September was full of lovely visits from our friends, well-timed to alleviate our sore backs and blistered hands and boost our spirits, but ill-timed to catch Carmencita in heat. To make a longish story shortish there was a whole heck of a lot of noise, more than a few near misses with the lust-crazed males and two chiva departures from our entrada that felt more like busting out of a theme park overrun by flesh-obsessed zombies than our typical "hop on the chiva, see you later" goodbyes. Our only plea to our poor guests was, "we SWEAR it isn't always THIS bad." Coming soon to a campo village near you... A spay-and-neuter clinic... FOR FREE! Just do it.

(Reese's Peanut Butter Cup TM break)

In the face of such adversity and heart-wrenching developments, what say ye, the strong and the faithful? How do we overcome? Well, for tonight we are just focusing on enjoying some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups TM that just HAPPENED to ACCIDENTALLY fall in our most recent package from Mama Shelly. I have just happened to accidentally buy some ice from the store and just happened to accidentally rig up a campo-cooler using a five-gallon bucket and two Thermarests TM as insulation. All this so we can enjoy the treats here in the hot campo as if they were being pulled out of a trick-or-treater's bag on a brisk, Colorado Halloween night. Honestly, probably the best train-rumblin' bulldog-snortin' quarter I have ever or will ever spend on ice in my po-dunk little life.

But in all seriousness people. The little things maintain one sane. A little bit of breeze. Guitar strummin'. Cute babies that don't cry. A good hard belly laugh. An especially potent song lyric on a fully charged up iPod. Fabric softener. As his visit wound down Matt, unbeknownst to him until now, struck me with the wisdom, "Wow. I felt like we got a lot done," he said reflecting on our five or so campo days. Gosh darn a hay penny's worth of whiskey on a rickshaw Matt, we DO get a lot done 'round here! Aimee's turn came next. She told Lauren, "Props to you guys, I had no idea it was this hard." I don't know if she is here reading this blog, but thanks Aimee! A little bit of empathy goes a long, long way. Here we are in fightin' the good fight and it's a trumpet-bender of a hoot-n-nanny and yet we are livin' and lovin' as if the dirt under our nails was pixie fly dust! Heather had an observation of equal profundity as she exclaimed ever-so-politely, "Um. I think there's a cricket on my food." And by gosh-to-howlin' at Jupiter's moons there was! Sorry again Heather.

"It's peace through books!" -Lauren

"Placing her library books carefully in a plastic bag that her mom had saved from town especially for her, Eve made ready to begin the trail to the library. Checking once again that her book homework was safely tucked in the covers, she tied the bag closed and set off down the muddy track to the river and hopped deftly across on the stones her father had placed in the crossing for her, her sisters and brothers. The books bounced gently on her head along with each step as she held them high aloft from the river as if protecting a fragile treasure from a frightening dragon. She climbed the embankment steadily and took a left towards the road. Heat radiated from the rocks even though it was not yet midday; it was a good decision to wear shoes today, usually she made the journey to the library barefoot. She held the books up again to shade herself from the hot, hot sun. Through the old soccer field and past her friend Lori's house at the top off the big hill she chanted silently to herself, "I hope they're there, I hope they're there." Sometimes she walked the whole way just to find Alejandro and Lorena were not at home. She jumped to get up the big log across from the store and begun the trail to the library. Her heart skipped a beat as the three dogs from the corner house ran out barking. She knew they were harmless, but it gave her a fright all the same. The dog you don't want to meet is the one that always hangs out at the library. It doesn't belong Alejandro and Lorena, but it is often there and Eve heard it chased Andy away the other day. Clutching the books to her chest she smiled widely. The door was open! She was greeted by Lorena's bright smile from the porch, Alejandro smiled at her too as he softly played guitar in the hammock. Lorena signed in the returning books in a notebook where they wrote down all the books that go out on loan and noted with another smile that Eve always takes such good care of the books. Lorena carefully took her book homework out of each book, read them in turn and handed each to Alejandro. They told her she had handed in eight pieces of homework, but this she already knew because after ten they would let you choose a prize. She had chosen a pencil last time and had her eye on the pink and green toothbrush for next time. Alejandro passed the book suitcase to Lorena, she opened it and Eve began flipping through the books. She paused at many of them remembering when she had read them. Others she opened briefly to see if she might like them. Eventually she chose a fact book about whales and a storybook that had a duck riding a bicycle on the cover. Lorena checked the books out to Eve and passed her the pen when it came time to sign for them. Alejandro picked out two new pieces of homework and Eve tucked them excitedly inside the covers. As she turned to start back she remembered and turned back around. "Lorena? Are you going to be in the house tomorrow so I can come borrow more books?" Laughing, Lorena said they would be home in the afternoon. As she left to return home she called out, "See you tomorrow," even though she knew if she finished the books and homework before dark, she would make the trip to the library again today."

Although the names have been changed, this story and the happy feeling it brings are true. We started up this library thing on a whim without any of the tedious planning and community analysis that the Peace Corps volunteer should do. From April to date we have loaned out over 300 books to the dozens of kids that come to our porch to look for them. San Juanito loves to read! We have seen a book passed around the entire family before it is retuned. The ten homework/prize plan was developed to get some critical reading going on too, but we now realize it should be 25 or they are going to break our bank. The girl from the story read eight books in a single day one time, presumably walking from her house to ours to replenish. Kids who are too shy to utter a word around us have braved out porch to get books and submitted wonderful homework with answers like, and I translate/quote, "All the animals that appear in this book beautify our environment and we should care for and protect them. Their way of living is beautiful." Wow. During a meeting last week, a serious conversation about organizing a permanent library system took place. It was all men and Lauren. To sift through the cultural norms for you, THIS IS A BIG DEAL!

We need books! At the rate we are going everyone in town will have read everything we have in a couple of months. Books in Spanish are preferable. Lauren's grandma found that school book fairs are a gold mine and sometimes even have dual language Spanish/English books. Shipping boxes is indeed quite pricey, but you can wrap up a couple books in brown paper and qualify for a media shipping rate, which is more economical. Remember our address is:

Alex Masarie or Lauren Hayes
Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General 0229
Correo de Penonomé
Panamá, Republica de Panamá

This is a call for books. Let's unite the world through reading!

Today

Here is our day in grueling, glorious detail.  To give you some context, we have just come out of a reasonably jam-packed work week with Lauren walking an hour each way each day to the neighboring Papayal to monitor a stove project there.  Alex joined three out of the five days and attended rope driven water pump seminar at the university in Penonome the other two days.  There you go.  Context. Enjoy!  Oh yeah, some of the entries are overlapping and simultaneous.

7:12 am – Lauren and Alex, your ever faithful voluntarios, awake in their mosquito net covered bed to the sound of Goma the Cat meowing.  Lauren notes, not for the first time, how close the bat poop on the mosquito net is to her head.  Alex grumbles and rolls over.
7:47 am – Lauren occupies the net style hammock and on request of Alex, who remains occupying the bed, looks up the word “bellaco” in the dictionary.  She finds it means rascal comma scoundrel, which causes an uproar of laughter as we think back to how our campesinos used it throughout the week.
8:21 am – Alex bajars (Spanglish for goes down) to the store and purchases $3.00 worth of breakfast items: a can of milk, 4 pieces of cheese, 4 hot dogs and 6 eggs.
8:29 am to 9:31 am – Preparation and consumption of desayuno (breakfast).  Lauren's artful cooking skills result in a lovely breakfast burrito with above ingredients as well as a spinach like plant called chaya*, onions and sweet peppers.  The milk is used with tons of sugar in their coffees.
9:31 am to 9:40 am – A discussion ensues about whether or not chaya* is poisonous because mixed messages have been received.  Lauren consults “Where There is No Doctor” and learns about how it is better to give birth standing up, but little is revealed about chaya*.
9:40 am – Estefani comes to the porch and returns PVC glue, which her mother Nilka had borrowed on behalf of her father Juan the evening before.
9:52 am to 11:22 am – In the net style hammock Alex reads “Yo, Robot” a Spanish translation of “I, Robot” and continues his marveling about how different the movie is from the book.  He learns completely useless vocabulary about robots.  Lauren occupies the cloth hammock and studies Spanish; she reviews the uses of the verb “decir,” which means to say or to tell.  She learns the phrase, “Dicho y hecho” means “no sooner said than done.”
10:16 am – A boy named Saul comes silently to the porch to return a library book, hand in his homework, check out a new book and receive new homework.  He doesn't speak a solitary word during this entire transaction.
11:13 am to 11:19 am – Alex briefly turns on his iPod to consult the tabs for the Sublime song, “Smoke Two Joints,” which he plans to cleverly alter to “Eat Two Yucas” as a parody of how much yuca we eat.  He makes little progress and ends up running through “Blame it on the Tetons” by Modest Mouse a couple of times.
11:30 am – Alex collects his computer and notebook to go down to use the electricity at the rancho but is stopped in his tracks when he notices Abuela Teodora is showering.  Not wanting to see a seventy something year-old naked, he delays his journey.  This happens often.
11:32 am to 4:15 pm – Alex bajars (again, Spanglish for goes down) to the rancho.  During this time period he sits at the table working on the aqueduct project designs.  This involves working with all the data he has collected in San Juanito about terrain and water usage, putting them in a freeware program called NeatWorks that can be used to answer various design questions about the system such as where and what size of control disks need to be placed as well as tubing sizes for proposed additions.  The work is tedious, but the company is splendid as Abuela Teodora is alone at home and in a particularly rambunctious mood.  Lauren comes and goes as well.  Throughout the day, a dog soap opera unfolds.  Abuela has Cucarchita tied up because she is in heat.  Her older brothers Pinto and the dog we call Super Ugly have taken to protecting her during this sensitive time and growl viciously at any and all suitors that come by.  Tuto manages to get close enough to pee on the kitchen wall, but that's it.  Alex finishes the “day at the office” drawing up a work schedule for the coming water tank construction at Santos Lorenzo's house with local NGO Cosecha Sostenible.
11:46 am – Sisters Yesi and Ida pass through the rancho with a bucket full of undetermined pig parts.  Upon questioning Abuela, Lauren learns that these were from a pig killed early in the morning.  Benigno left early to sell the rest of the pig.
12:02 pm to 2:40 pm – Lauren and Abuela dedicate themselves to the preparation of arroz con coco, fried guineos and Kool-Aid.  Much time is spent looking for a not-too-large, not-too-dull machete to open the coconut.  Neighbor Efrain ends up having the just-right machete and the coco is opened successfully.  Lauren and Abuela set about to grate and strain the coco.  Lauren notices that the tool being used in the process is a Mercedes-Benz hubcap with nail holes in it.  (There you have it folks, the combo coco grater and strainer brought to you by the luxury and comfort of Mercedes-Benz.  What more can we say?  Style in the campo is EVERYTHING.)  The result is absolutely delicious.
12:20 pm – Lauren notes an armadillo skin hanging outside the kitchen.  Apparently it was messing with Benigno's crops so they killed it and ate it.  Efrain cleaned it and saved to skin because Adrian wants to make a headdress out of it.
12:56 pm – Birthday girl Luzmilda comes by with her dad.  On her one-year birthday she has a fever.  Alex tries to take a photo of Luzmilda and her sister Katerin, but can't get a good angle that avoids having a dog butt in the picture.  This is actually an enormous challenge in our photo-taking (see Facebook for example, there is often a dog penis or butt prominently featured).
1:48 pm – First-grader Pichin runs through the rancho eating a guineo.
1:49 pm – Pichin runs back through, finishing up his guineo.
2:32 pm – Benigno shows up on the bus amarillo trashed.  Abuela comments, astute as ever, that he must have sold all the pig and used the money to get trashed.  He is super endearing when drunk and mentions several times that he is trashed and the only crazy in San Juanito.  He gifts Lauren and Alex a cold beer, but ends up drinking Lauren's.
3:02 pm – Alex goes into the kitchen to wash the dishes.  No water appears in the faucet.
3:03 pm – Alex walks happily behind the kitchen to turn on the water.  The Abuelos have 4 damaged faucets and have the conscientiousness to turn off their own water to conserve the leaks.  This makes Alex proud and happy.
3:11 pm – Benigno tries to shoulder a 65-pound saco of chicken feed and in doing so knocks over a table breaking the mirror it was holding.  Alex tells Benigno he can carry the bag up to his house later.  Benigno refuses, but asks Alex to help him get the bag situated.  Weighed down with the bag, Benigno walks surprisingly steadily across the street over to his brother's store.
4:01 pm – A gaggle of kids led by Madi walk into the rancho looking for a bunch of DVDs that her sister had last night.  After a short exchange with Abuela, who has no idea where they are, they deduce that the DVDs are inside by the DVD player.
4:08 pm – Jorge, the grandson of the Abuelos, comes back from work early, he has been working from 6 am to 6 pm for weeks now.  He becomes disgusted when he notices Pinto's spine is showing (Pinto is the dog).  This is a wound he recently obtained from Abuelo's machete at La Mula (Abuelo's finca or farm).  It is a wonder he is alive.  Lauren throws up a bit in her mouth whenever she sees it.  He suffers from the dog version of AIDS too.
4:18 pm – Back at the house, Alex washes a giant rock he collected from the river yesterday and sets out for the community's water storage tank.  The rock is to protect the floor of the tank from further damage from the gush of water that enters through the pipe in the ceiling, an integral part of Alex's 8-Point Aqueduct Improvement Plan, which was announced to the water committee in last Sunday's meeting.
4:19 pm – As Alex passes by the church Octavio sees him from the store and dashes over to ask if anyone is in house.  To this Alex replies yes because Lauren is still there.
4:20 pm – Lauren receives Luis, Manuel, and Octavio on the patio.  They exchange books and homework.  Manuel, a new addition to town as his family now lives with Octavio's family over in Santa Cruz, is more talkative than before with Lauren.  She asks if the books were good to which he replies yes and explains what they were about.  He also mentions that he wants to take some books for his sister, which is fine.  Octavio tells Lauren that his family is excited about the new spinach plant chaya*, but they just don't know how to prepare it.  He asks if they can just toss it in the soup.  Lauren replies yes and gives him an informational brochure all about chaya*.  Lauren agrees to pasear to their house tomorrow.
4:23 pm – Alex sees Benigno's chicken feed bag upside-down, but thankfully unbroken, in the middle of the trail on the way down to the creek.
4:38 pm – It starts to rain pretty hard, thankfully because it hasn't rained in 9 days.  Lauren brings in the laundry from the line at the house and above on the mountain Alex stands under tree.
4:44 pm to 5:22 pm – Anacleto receives a wet Alex on his porch.  He gets him a cup of coffee.  They talk about the rock and how it should be placed during the next tank cleaning.  Anacleto tells Alex that his worm compost now has an estimated 600 worms and he has learned how to move them from one side of the box to another by placing food to attract them leaving the other side free to harvest as fertilizer for his plants.  As Anacleto is renowned for being wise and fair, Alex asks him about a proposal Raul Hijo and the new health committee have made.  At the beginning of their time in San Juanito Alex and Lauren looked for a way to pay rent in the community, offering a small monthly sum to one of the successfully operating groups or the church.  These offers were refused, but now this new health committee, whose main goal is to make a community health center, could use a start-up boost.  The idea is to enter into a contract with the committee and pay them the rent as long as they are active.  Anacleto is skeptical at first, but upon learning who is on the committee, seems to change his mind.  He gives Alex much sound advice in the matter (in his indirect campesino way of course).
5:24 pm – On the trail back down Alex checks to see if all is clear and pees in the bushes.
5:31 pm – Alex sees Benigno's chicken feed bag under the roof on Santos Gonzalez's porch.  He breathes a sigh of relief that it didn't get wet in the rain.
5:44 pm to 5:59 pm – Lauren and Alex catch up on the time apart and decide to write a blog about the day.
6:09 pm – Alex takes a shower.
6:33 pm to 6:46 pm – This period sees the opening and consumption of a coconut and a package of cookies.
7:15 pm to present – Alex types on the blog (the computer is charged up from earlier) and Lauren helps from the bed.  Goma the Cat sleeps on Lauren's suitcase.  A bowl of popcorn is made.
8:53 pm – Alex wakes up Lauren, who has fallen asleep in the bed, to read the blog aloud.  She likes it.  They debate adding a conclusion.

*Context for the chaya: There is a strange happening right now in San Juanito that the local NGO Cosecha Sostenible has handed out dozens of these chaya plants to the campesino families telling them it is very healthy.  Some time later we were presented with Cosecha documentation that says the plant, while super healthy and amazing, is poisonous when eaten raw and when it is cooked in an aluminum pan.  We are trying to debunk the poison rumor because (a of all) we eat it raw AND cooked in an aluminum pan several times a week, (b of all) the only pans campesinos have here are aluminum pans, and (c of all) we just plain don't believe it.  Obviously the internet is needed... or Patty Hayes.

At the dentist

Hey all,

Life has been treating us well lately. We have been viajando (traveling) a lot in the last couple of weeks. To the point where I have even developed a campo home-sickness. In the four walls of the air conditioned hotel rooms we land in I feel claustrophobic and dream of being back home where the jungle is green, the air is fresh and my friends are all around!

At the beginning of last week I made an epic excursion into the western reaches of the country to collect stove molds in preparation for a stove project we are scheduled to begin on July 29. I met with Steve Bliss, the founder of the Bliss Burner stove that we make, and he was gracious enough to let me have anything and everything I wanted from his stock. Bewildered by the options I was limited by what I could carry: 3 stove molds. I carried away a lot of conocimiento (knowledge) too. He has various experimental stove and oven models on his property that gave me great ideas for the future (can you say "campo pizza oven"). He also runs a closed cycle hydroponic garden system where he grows any and all plants without a speck of dirt! He maintains a tilapia fish pond insure of a greenhouse with about 10 cement beds filled with gravel and these weird, imported German mineral ball things. The fish enrich the water with their waste, the water is pumped through the gravel beds to leave the nutrients with the roots of whatever he has planted there, the plants leave organic matter in the water which is pumped back to the fish to eat. Pretty impressive way to eat healthy! He also had lots of experience and observations about the country. I particularly agreed with his "teaching for application" and food security philosophies. I also stopped by San Felix to meet up with a fellow volunteer that left me another stove mold bringing our count up to 5 for the coming project!

Lauren's travel schedule has been related to the arrival of the new Peace Corps group in Panamá. She is participating in their training process like other volunteers helped show us the ropes when we arrived. I admire her a lot for her efforts because she is giving back to help others have the great kind of experience that we have had here. Her first job was to facilitate the community analysis training where people learn about how to use the Participatory Analysis for Community Action tools to start to get to know the community and the local needs. When she got back she commented to me that facilitating for a group of active, eager learners was quite different than doing the same work in the campo where you can literally hear a pin-drop sometimes when you ask for the crowd's input! She is mastering both worlds! This was all happening in our training communities so Lauren got to say hi to Mabel and her fabulous cooking.

The next travel for Lauren brought her to the city again to participate in a diversity panel for the new group. Turns out Peace Corps volunteers are as diverse as the country we come from and our uniqueness can have impacts in how we are received out there in our villages. Lauren represented the married couples and made observations about the advantages of never being bored with two workloads and the frustration of having most people, be them from the states or Panamá, tell her that her service has gotta be soooo much easier with her husband around. Funny, no one ever tells me that my service must just be a breeze because I have my wife here.

A day after Lauren left for the diversity panel, I left for another Coclé site to help a fellow environmental health volunteer with a water seminar. The town was called Vallecito and I had to cross the fast-moving Rio Indio to get in, a slightly unnerving experience for me. It is always interesting to get to participate in someone else's community in the Peace Corps volunteer capacity. I found myself learning as much as teaching, as always, during the seminar. Vallecito has a huge campo sprawl with kilometers of hiking between houses, something I learned as well getting lost on the way out!

Lauren and I are now reunited in the city once again getting the maquinas (machines) tuned up at our one year med check-ups. The city makes us miss the campo, but we have cooked some pretty good food in the hostel where we stay and I have been able to make great progress on some computer work I had building up.

Now I am sitting, waiting at the dentist, missing the campo, but knowing, with a good helping of travel luck, I will be back in the mud hut tonight.

Here's to no cavities!!!!!

Love,

Alex

Updates from el campo

Dear People,

You are reading this blog because you want to know about what we are doing or you mistyped when you navigated to www.laurenandalfredinpanama.blogspot.com, click the link to read about Lauren and Alfred in Panama.  Oh.  You're still here.  Well here's what we are up to!  (“How's that for a rocking introduction?” said Alex.  “Did you say that in there?  Only you think you are funny,” said Lauren.  Alex laughed.  “Here's my point, you're laughing,” said Lauren).

Lauren and six other fellow volunteers recently facilitated in the June 2013 women's artisan seminar. Lauren gave her very own charla (“talk”) on domestic violence.  She felt that it was well received and useful for the participants. The seminar was focused on empowering women through artisan work. Women from all over Panama were invited to attend. Other charlas included woman’s health, self esteem, sex education, basic business skills, and technical art classes like jewelery making and sewing. 

Alex is on the verge of finishing his rain water catchment system.  He brushed the edge of completion once before only to realize during the first rainstorm that the gutter spit water out the opposite side of where the tank is.  Damn slanted house.

Lauren is taking up office as the new Vice President AND Woman's Health and Empowerment Coordinator of the Gender and Development Committee.  She is really excited about participating in this dynamical, ultra-bodacious group.  She is brimming with ideas, and is currently working on domestic violence awareness month activities and HIV/AIDS activities leading up to World AIDS day in December.

Alex's most recent push has been the 2013 Community Water Seminar in San Juanito.  Four days of charlas covering water health topics, conservation of watershed and of water in-home, aqueduct topics and water system management.  Folks got the chance to attend either a morning or an afternoon session at the school.  We coordinated lunch with the valiant and amazing mothers of the family as cooks.  Everything went swimmingly.  Over 60 people attended at least one of the sessions and 8 champion campesinos attended all 4 and were crowned “Water Experts: First Class.”

The Papayal (neighboring community to San Juanito who hasn't ever had a volunteer) stove project grant pushed through and a scheduling meeting is set for after church on Sunday July 14.  We've tracked down a stove mold FOR FREE from our fellow volunteers Pete and Kelly, which is huge given that the guy wanted to charge us $125 a pop.

New books arrived with the visit from Andrew, Allie and Patty.  A humongous thank you to Margie Wright (Lauren's grandma) for picking awesome, brand new Spanish books.  Many an afternoon our porch is crowed with kids shuffling through the books, being careful not to rip that pages of course.  We do read aloud with the youngsters and check out gross snake pictures.  As a new challenge to our readers we are handing out book report forms with each book they check out.  They have to fill in the title, author, a summary, a recommendation and draw a picture of something from the book on the back.  In return for 10 complete book reports, they can choose a prize out of out the Random Prize Grab Bag.  We are awaiting the first round with books due back this Sunday and Monday. We have checked out over 50 books in the last 2 months.

The town is abuzz with the idea of the non-profit organization Spay Panama coming to San Juanito to provide their services for cheap.  Informational meeting is on July 14!  Be there or be square!

Lauren is to be traveling to the city to help train the new group that has recently arrived in Panama.  These eager trainees will have the pleasure of Lauren and her pretty face explaining all about the community analysis process.  She is excited to get to give back in a meaningful way to Peace Corps Panama.

Casualmente, we are currently in the presence of two delightful Peace Corps trainees named Paul and Sara.  They are spending the weekend out is San Juanito getting an idea of our life.  It is pretty fun to share our town with them and it has been a great excuse to cook some good food as they are currently wading up to their necks in rice with their host family.  They are going to be awesome volunteers wherever they end up!  We are excited to learn, along with them, where their site will be for the next two years.

 As you may have seen on Facebook, Lauren is rescuing our host family's dog Turco.  While they lived in San Juanito they cared for him, but since they have moved to Penonome he has fallen through the cracks.  It became unbearable to see him dying of hunger in the streets so we led him to the house and tied him up in back and started feeding and treating him with medicine.  Our decision was justified when we learned he has the dog version of AIDS and that it is a curable disease in animals.  Furthermore, there is a dog rescue in Panama that will cover his medical bills and look for a new home for him.  Our only job is to get him to Penonome, which we hope to accomplish soon.  I think The Fray said it best in “How to Save a Life.”

It started to rain.  That's good.  We have water back in the house.

The next topic is Lauren's parents' visit.  Lauren's fam came to visit and we spent some time in site, some time in the mountains and some time at the beach.  It was great to show them around our current lives.  Look out for a blog from them with their reflections.

We handed out Fourth of July hot dogs to our neighbors and our stomachs.  It was awesome.  The hot dogs were a hit, the pickles were not.  We sent many a kid retching into the jungle with that one.  Even Benigno said, “Ugh, gringo food.”

Okay that's all the topics for now!

We love y'all!  Be good.