I am not sure if the cat is pregnant or not and other things that have changed 180 degrees lately

Sorry for the long title and even sorrier for not having got to blogging for some time, but this oughta be a nice and positive one to make up for it!

They have a saying here in the Latino campo of Panama, "El mundo siempre da vuelta," which means the world always turns around. This is very true and to know/remember and it will help you along the path to infinite wisdom if you know/remember it, I am pretty sure. So here we go.

Most of the town thinks so and we often think so, but there are times when we doubt the cat is pregnant. Goma, the name that stuck for the cat (which, no pun intended, means Glue in Spanish), seems to have a larger than usual belly, but not huge. Her little cat nipples are pink, but not super-pink. She is lazy, but not overly lazy for a cat. The bottom line is she may not or may be pregnant. Truth be told we have no idea what a pregnant cat does or looks like. Having talked to everyone from Abuela Chola to Andrew Hayes over the phone about the matter we have come to cling to one fact. A cat gestates for 9 weeks, we found her on January 14, so if she has babies by March 21, then she is now (on February 14th) pregnant. If there are no babies by this time, then she is not presently pregnant. Until then Lauren greets Goma by saying, "Where's your babies? Show me your babiiiieeeessss!"

The other thing that has "dio una vuelta"

Organizing seeds in the mud hut

by 180 degrees is the work load we carry. For all the January days we sat in the hammock devouring books and learning new guitar songs, we are now sweating, walking all over God's green Earth visiting people, and mixing it up with a dozen or so semi-serious projects. It's all going down big time now. How do we know? A Panamanian agency showed up at our doorstep and brought an armload of seeds and said, "Here. Hand these out and plant them." This is practically unheard of in this country. Lauren is having a great time divvying up the seeds and looking for homes as fast as she can. So far, the seeds are even germinating, which is also rare since hand-out seeds are usually "get-what-you-pay-for" and that is nothing. I have gone from having no leads in any water-related work to having two viable sources as options and all the leg work that comes with preparing the people and myself for a water project. All this new energy we assume is tied to the other 180 degree change... the weather.

Preparing for meetings with Goma

It threatened to become "dry season" for a long time, but there was always soggy ground, plenty of water, and rain. Now it seems as if someone has flipped a switch that says "San Juanito Dry" leaving the ground dry and parched, our faucets dry during daytime hours, and lots of dust. It is hot as heck and when rain falls it seems to do little to fill up our water tank. We are going to be changing up our lifestyle greatly to accommodate the lack of water. Our house is relatively high up in the water system and we are piggy-backed to the Abuelos down the hill so we are among the first faucets to dry out in the morning. Today we had our first experience of washing clothes at the river, which was actually really fun and a refreshingly different set of challenges than our typical washing rigamarole. We have taken to bathing in the river too like the Jungle Book or Robin Hood "never thinkin' that a schemin' sheriff and his posse were awatchin' them and gatherin' around."

We have walked far and wide in these days too. We are finding San Juanito proper is pretty well off and content if not overly busy with their various pursuits in life. We have found that the outskirts of town, a neighborhood called Santa Cruz and a smaller sister town called Papayal, have been somewhat forgotten and are slightly more game to work with us on their goals. Working in the outskirts means a fair bit of walking and "honey, there ain't no metro-link round here!" We walk, walk and carry stuff, and walk, carry stuff, and plan the meetings we are headed to at the same time. Of course that doesn't bother us in the slightest. As hikers, this puts us in fine spirits and we down plates of spaghetti at the end of each day to replace what we burn. Our nights are spent struggling sleepily from hammock to bed as early as 7:00 p.m. sometimes. We are happy, healthy and always ready for more hiking!

Our days off and vacations are full of stupidly long walks too. We summited the highest mountain in our vicinity Orari last Friday with a group of Peace Corps folks. We are taking a significant chunk of vacation time February 21st through the 27th to plunge into the indigenous region of the Guna Yala people and hike across the continental divide to the Caribbean Ocean side. This adventure is a guided hike with a group of 20 or so Peace Corps folks that involves a couple hard hiking days that culminate in a visit to an indigenous Caribbean island where they will be celebrating, with ferocity we hear, their independence day.

At the summit of Cerro Orari 

All these changes have been much welcomed and the time is flying by again. We can't believe it has been over nine months now that we set out our doors to discover Panama. It is shocking to think we are a third of the way through our service! We have learned so much, but still feel so young and new in this country. I can't believe how incredibly lucky we are to be where we are at with the people we are with. Life is just about perfect and would be exactly perfect if the stupid male dogs would stop fighting claw and tooth over the female dogs in heat!

Lot of love to everyone,

Alex (and Lauren too!!!)


Sent from my iPod

I think the cat looks pregnant

In recent news, our house has turned into somewhat of a rejected animal sanctuary. There are now two semi-resident pets. One, is a dog named Carmencita, which rarely gets fed by old man Carmen and has taken to haunting our porch and house at mealtimes... and at ANY time. She comes in wagging and whining looking for any sort of food. Alex feeds her sometimes because everyone else in town hates her because she is a notorious food thief. Two, is a cat. Alex, for one never thought for one minute before in his life, would he have a cat, but there it is. We have named the cat Goma, which means glue in Spanish, because we are literally stuck with it. Lauren had been seeing a cat around in the jungle for about a month and at first thought it was a tigrillo, or actual jungle cat. On Monday however, that myth was cleared up because some dogs had this cat treed in our shower. (For those of you playing the home game, yes our shower has trees in it). Alex was headed for a nice shower and found it mewing away, scared and vulnerable. Lauren chased the nasty dogs away and, of all things, gave the cat an entire can of tuna. Needless to say, the cat hasn't really left our house and porch since. It is a weird sort of cat and has some bizarre behaviors. It comes when called, begs for food, and eats cookies. Above all, it is so unbelievably lazy and has a slightly oversized belly. We like to think that she is just recovering from her stint alone in the jungle, but we know it is a distinct possibility that the cat is pregnant. Abuela Chola guesses that someone didn't want it and left it out in the jungle. So, yeah... we have a thief-dog and possibly pregnant cat seeking refuge with us.

Goma la gata

On the work front, Lauren has been doing her best to support some of the young gals in our town with some empowering, not to mention super-fun activities. Maudy, our beloved host sister, applied and was accepted to a youth camp put on by the Gender and Development group in Peace Corps Panama. On Monday, Lauren helped Maudy get on her way by accompanying her to a drop-off point in Penonome. Irenes, her mother, of course came too. It is a super big deal for Maudy because she hasn't really been away from home by herself before. She was quite nervous, but she bravely introduced herself to the other participants and set off in the bus for Capira, an hour and a half away. She is slated to learn about self-esteem, goal-setting, healthy choices, and create her own community project that Lauren will help her implement. She comes back Friday, but we have been thinking about her all week.

In that same vein, Lauren organized a hike to our local look-out point for some of the girls. It was a great success. They saw a helicopter, ate snacks, and marveled at the view before descending for a swim at the river. Pretty cool outing, Lauren wants to plan more of these mini-trips in the future.

Alex is riding the roller coaster that is being a volunteer. After devoting hours, days, weeks, and months of stress to developing the beginnings of a water project, the whole thing is likely to be called off. To make the longest, most arduous story of Alex's professional life short, Group A wants Group B's water and Group B doesn't want to give it up. All is not lost due to the mountain that Alex learned along the way, but it is a little depressing to see the ship sinking.

We have started up an odd little side project of documentary-making. We have no idea how and if it will turn out, but the basic theme is to capture part of the Coclesano music culture. Geronimo, our host dad, has a musical group called Geronimo Hernandez y Su Conjunto: Orgullo de Mi Tierra, that is Geronimo Hernandez and His Band: Pride of My Land. Alex was particularly struck by their various stories of musical passion in this crazy back-woods campo setting where they live. No one in the group tunes their instruments, nor do they know how to use their sound equipment, but they manage to rock the campo on a regular basis. They arrive at gigs covered in mud with their equipment packed in rented 4 by 4 trucks or on horseback and maintain their image as some of the coolest cats in the campo.

Other than that we have been keeping busy making stoves for folks, passing out our finished community document in snazzy plastic folders, planting a new garden of watermelons and green beans and bell peppers, fixing up a pig pen, learning how to pluck chickens, and riding horses up the mountain. "It's a hiker's paradise here," says Lauren referring to our most recent excursion to a far away hill, which we discovered has a household right on top. The Señora there is a regular chatterbox and we had no idea their house even existed! We trekked over to a neighboring community called Papayal to say hi and check in. In the coming couple of weeks we are going to have a community meeting over there to see if we can help out with anything. And... yeah. We'll let you know about the pregnant (?) cat, which is currently devouring butter cookies.

P.S. Just now Lauren saw a coral snake slither across our yard and into a tarantula hole under the cement of our porch. This was not good because the coral snake has one of the most potent venoms in the world. Armed with shovels, sticks, and our neighbors Tony and his brother Manuel we managed to kill it, but not before it creeped us out by slithering in and out of holes under our porch. It is sad to see these creatures, which rarely bite because they are calm, die, but we just can't have them near the house, it is too dangerous. Another day in the life right? Another great save by our San Juanito friends!

P.S.S. For those of you that don't have Facebook and want to check out some more pictures of our adventures, you can follow this link to Lauren's photos.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151848567350077.871590.661385076&type=1

The Flavor of Shelly Masarie’s life will never be quite the same...

...because she came home with a Tablespoon of San Juanito.

Note to self: remember things like Grateful, Consume Less, Give Back, it is About the People and not the Things. I cannot fix the world, but can I perhaps do something/anything to help someone? You bet! I am home from my amazing visit to Lauren and Alex’s house. They helped me in so many ways. First, I understand more now. I understand what sustainable giving means in the Peace Corps context. I understand what Alex and Lauren are trying to do (and succeeding). One Peace Corps goal is cultural exchange and boy oh boy did Panamanian campo culture come my way. I was there long enough to understand a few things. Yes, I do feel overwhelmed by the needs those people have and I also realize that the people living in San Juanito have a very good life compared to billions of people on this planet. The people I met are, for the most part, happy and content, but there are many sad stories there too. The local school is good, but, sadly, many people cannot afford the school fees past grade six. One man told me (via my translators) that he knows there are skyscrapers in Panama City. Here, he said, he has land and lots of food. Indeed - plantains and oranges were visible from his hammock. There are also papaya and mangos nearby. And many chickens. Why is it that nobody has bred the cock-a-doodle-doo out of a rooster?

I came home with a renewed attitude that life isn’t about me, it is about the circles around me. My family, my extended family, my friends, my neighbors, my town, my state, my country, animals, the world. I will take one action in my life each day to touch each of those circles in a positive way.

I do not need half of the “things” I already have. I am going to think long and hard before I buy another thing. Alex and Lauren helped me sort out an idea that will be helpful to the people in San Juanito. I am excited to get started. Being Shelly, of course, I loved the people I met. I got to experience a very solemn speech by the mother of many children whose own father had recently died. She apologized, saying she was too sad to come down to our house to meet us. Lauren was kindly translating in my ear and I was thinking to this mother “my heart touches your heart” the whole time. Then she served us rice and tamales with a spoonful of purchased birthday cake on top. I easily connected with all the mothers and grandmothers. We understood each other the instant I said I was Alex’s mama and was introduced to their children and grandchildren. I am so grateful for the teaching and helping these people have offered Alex and Lauren. We visited the school teacher, Hilda (say eelda), who is fantastic and who not only invited me back to stay in her house where we would speak Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon, but also sent me on my way with three ceramic butterflies that she painted and a lemon the size of my head! Ma Bell (at least that is how I heard her name being pronounced) hosted us for one night on my way back to Panama City. Her daughter is an engineer who works on Panama Canal lock maintenance and her son is nearing the end of medical school. Her house was quite comfortable and she has been hosting volunteers for 12 years. She is a good cook and has wisdom in her eyes. This family has cars, electricity, refrigerators and so are relatively rich. Her goat was being butchered in the back yard, but fortunately in a shed where I could not see.

Alex and Lauren are loved and trusted already and that is half the fight in the Peace Corps. I was silly with the kids in the mud house and in the river. My heart was singing at those times. Lauren was entertained each time she saw me conversing on a bus. Here’s how to start. Say, no hablo Espanol and shrug your shoulders sheepishly. Point to Alex and then yourself and say Madre (well that would be weird if you did that) and then just smile. People offered me crackers, helped me with my luggage, we smiled at each other when we both had to grab the seat back to make it around a corner on the bus.

For those of you thinking of visiting - GO! It changed my outlook and healed my soul. Next, know that it will be much harder than you expect. Also, know that Alex and Lauren can take care of you. Lauren parceled out the critter of the day. “Tonight, if you walk to the latrine in the dark you will pass by a big toad that will startle you but is harmless.” That happened. You will eat campo food, they will introduce you to their community, and they will lead you on adventures. It is absolutely beautiful where they live. Friend me on Facebook if you want Lauren’s pictures with my captions.

Yes, go to your travel doctor and get all the shots and take your antibiotics and stuff for a major stomach disaster with you. Also Benadryl and anti-itch cream for the 2:00 am bouts of scratching your own ankles right off. Take only three changes of clothes – and then only things that drip dry. Rubber boots! Ear plugs.  And some shorts to swim in the river. You will be glad of long sleeves and long pants even though you are hot. A head lamp would be good.

Finally, a very HUGE thank you to Lauren Hayes and Alex Masarie. I love you two! You are doing the real work to obtain a heaping scoop of life and because you are volunteering, I got a tablespoon to season my life. I am going to use that seasoning very sparingly so it will flavor my experiences for many years to come.

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!