A Merry Campo Christmas!

First off, Merry Christmas everybody! This is a time of peace and goodwill all over the world where people reflect, love and share like it were goin' outta style. ¡Qué bueno! We had the privilege to spend another campo Christmas in San Juanito with some of the best people in the world. They ain't blood family, but they are family in all kinds of other ways. A campo Christmas is a lot different than the Christmases we are used to, but if we have to be away from the comfortable norm around Christmas, we wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Here are some of Lauren and Alex's Xmas season 2013 highlights:

- The whole town was basically "en la fiesta" starting Christmas Eve afternoon through Boxing Day. Kids with fireworks, men with beers, women handing out plates of food, radios blaring full blast from all sides and everyone wearing their best dress and Christmas smiles.

- We marveled at how low the campo Christmas carbon footprint is. No planes, trains and automobiles are needed to bring distant family members together because, bueno, todos son vecinos...they're all neighbors! There were few presents and even fewer Christmas lights, but no one missed them at all.

- We broke down and splurged on some junk food such as Kraft Parmesan cheese, Bertolli Alfredo sauce in a jar, chips and salsa, Smartfood popcorn as well as some powdered and brown sugars we hope to turn into an apple crisp. All have been wonderful purchases!

- A Christmas Eve morning hike took us past a tree full of white-chested, little monkeys up in a pifa palm. When they sensed our approach they abandoned ship flailing and screeching into the jungle, but taking enough time to give us a good stare down...and us, them.

- The jungle heat seemed to be taking the day off too because Christmas was fresh and breezy with a beautiful, clear sky. You can't really wrap that up and it doesn't fit under the tree, but boy everyone sure appreciated it!

- Anacleto invited us up to his house Christmas afternoon to share a delicious meal. We talked and talked. It feels good to be thought of and cared for by someone so wise and upstanding. Our respect for Cleto grows daily!

- One of our dear campesino friends Clemente, a little bit tipsy, spent a solid fifteen minutes telling us how good-looking we are are and how strange it was that God decided to send such handsome people to San Juanito. We told him he was good-looking too and a great friend. He was waiting for his god-daughter's family to bring him el mulo de la gallina, which after great hilarity, we learned to be a cut of chicken including the breast and wing...we think.

- We dressed up and went to the "midnight mass," which has evolved here to the "8:45 pm birth of Jesus play featuring real babies!" This is an entertaining event in the great hall of the church where the youngest, within reason, baby of the town gets to be baby Jesus and the second youngest stars as Juan (John the Baptist and prophet/buen amigo of Jesus). Juan was extra big this year and it took both Isabel and Zacharius, every character is played by a child from town, to hold him up.

- All of our calls home went through and we got to talk to our families and know they were all doing great back home in the cold!

Yes indeedy, it is a different take on Christmas out here, but one we love a lot. We have done a lot of things out here that we have never done before on Christmas and will likely not do again...or maybe we will because after all, traditions are what you make them to be!

Happy Holidays,

Alex and Lauren

From the yellow bus

Happy Holidays every buddy!!!

We have been blog-slow lately...sorry about that. I have had lots of fantastic ideas for blogs, but none have come to fruition, which certainly doesn't count!

You may notice that my writing is more clear, concise, powerful and nearly grammaticalitacally correcto-mundo. This is due to my intense studying and preparation for my February 8, 2014 GRE exam! Hahaha! As Lauren and I want to hit the ground running in the states, we have to plan waaaaaaay ahead. This task is difficult for two people who typically cannot decide what have for breakfast until lunchtime has arrived. I've got my super finely tuned laser dialed on some more mathematical graduate study along the Colorado Front Range somewhere. Seems like a step back to the old me? It kind of is, but I feel the decision is very much informed by my time here as well. My theory is if one has the capacity and opportunity to study and get paid for it, the crime of not doing so is a serious one. I have also become an even firmer believer in "do what you love, love what you do" and Lauren will roll her eyes, but I love math. The ideal is continued study on large wild fire, an issue that persists nationwide back home.

Lauren wants to delve more deeply into social work be it in study or a job of some sort. Denver University has an intriguing program that incorporates internship, international study and emphasize Latinos and social work. To top it off, bless their hearts, the admissions department offers a tuition waiver to returned (or soon to be returned) Peace Corps folks. Worth a shot? Heck yes. As the new year unfolds our options are expected to clarify and we can gradually eliminate speculation and decide where to land.

Even though our conversations are peppered with talk about the future and what is coming up next for each of us, we blatantly ignore the immensity of leaving a community we have grown to love so much. Mayhaps because there are still so many activities left in San Juanito.

While December was a little bit ho-hum and slow, we relished the down days reading in la hamaca because we are anticipating a full, full calendar at least through April. San Juanito's aqueduct improvement project is at t-minus 5ish and counting. Approved by the community, then Peace Corps and most recently funding agency Waterlines the $5K worth of project funds arrived in early January. We're gonna make tanks, we're gonna work on new water sources, we're gonna work on pressure issues in the existing system and it is going to be fun, fun, fun until her daddy takes the t-bird away! The Environmental Health group has asked us if they can hold a field training in San Juanito for a newer group of volunteers in mid-February, an exciting prospect for everybody. What better way to train than on a living breathing water project?

We are not so patiently awaiting visits from Ken and Gillian as well as Vince and Kate. Lauren and I talk about it every day. Having friends and family stop by in the campo is super special for us, not to mention we get to knock around Panamá and site see a bit.

Somehow we have let far too many vacation days accumulate, a problem we hope to solve in March by setting down them machetes for a bit, lacing up the hiking boots and heading down south to Patagonia. A mountaineer's paradise, Lauren has already got her camera packed as we plan to trek around Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in Chile and Parque Nacional Los Glaciares in Argentina. Stay tuned...

Lauren's schedule is full of gender and development board stuff. She has organizational responsibilities in both the youth leadership camp and the women's artisan seminar. Folks are really tapping into her expertise as women's health and empowerment coordinator. Her goal is to prepare and polish some resources on domestic violence and women's empowerment to leave behind for future generations of volunteers to use.

How could I forget? Watch out dogs and cats of San Juanito and the surrounding communities! Spay Panamá is comin to get your testicles and uteruses! After passing the veterinary inspection, the school has been approved as the primary site and the casa communal as the secondary site for a free vet clinic sometime in early February. In terms if sustainability, it has kind of been an odd project. I think the idea of sterilization is awfully new for the community and their juries are still out. Many are convinced their dogs will die after the procedure, some can't catch their pets to get a leash on them and bring them to the school and still others don't really understand the benefits. Hopefully, the first round of pet sterilization will demonstrate the health benefits for Fido and Fida and start the tradition and attitude of pet care. By spaying and neutering 50-100 animals their will be a respite of litters and a brief period of population control, which should help turn the bark-volume down, reduce strays and make human life better too!

On the touchy-feely side of life, I have had tingling and poor feeling in my ring and index finger of my right hand for a few months...okay almost all of 2013. Under ever-so gentle persuasion from my peers I finally went to get it checked out. Four round trips to the city later the doctor finally concluded nothing is wrong. They gave me a brace and told me to go easy on the machete...hehehe! It was good to get it on my record and make sure it wasn't anything serious. Otherwise, we are in great health. Sometimes we get tired, but to combat that we usually just go to sleep.

On the touchy-feely sentimental side of life, our  friendships and connections in San Juanito get closer and more dynamic as time rolls. People open up to us more and act more normally in big groups when we are around. Not only is it nice not to be the elephant in the room for a while, we also feel honored to be accepted in this way and understand how unique our situation is. When else in life will we get to move to a random campo town and learn all there is to know about it? We often joke about how Peace Corps is ruining tourism for us personally because upon visiting new areas, especially new campos, we will wonder what lies beneath the surface. Do I see another round of Peace Corps in our future? Hmmmm...

But really...life is good. Real good. Maybe it's the big things, maybe it's the little things, but probably it's both. So if you haven't come visited us yet, grab your bags, leave your coat and GET HERE because this offer is running out!

Stay classy people,

Alex

6 roles of the voluntario...

The last little while I have been coming to a realization, breaking down yet another misconception. I imagined my Peace Corps service would be about helping others. I like to volunteer my time and I figured going abroad to serve could only be a notch up. In my personal experience, this has not necessarily been the case. On the contrary, Peace Corps service is helping me.

There are a handful of cases where I felt I have been a conveyer of information or a teacher. Those moments are kind of like a flash and typically don't come where I expect them. For instance, of all the giant water seminar topics we presented in San Juanito, I feel like the only real teaching moment I had was a tiny little sentence that described a way of electing a water leadership group with a secret ballot. It was the tiniest thing, but seemed to rock folks' worlds. Granted they didn't end up implementing any of the advice whatsoever, I still felt as though it was an "ah-ha" for many. Certain topics and certain auduences as well tend to seem more prone to these "ah-ha" moments. For instance, I've never seen such attentive listeners as when we did condom "how-to" demonstrations in Piedras Gordas and Vallecito. In fact, we are often rocking the boat when we touch on sexual health topics. But in reality, over my year and change in country I haven't been the revolutionary teacher I thought I might be.

So if we aren't playing a teaching role with daily revelations for all, what are we? In the Peace Corps jargon we play 6 roles as volunteers in development: mentor, co-facilitator, change agent, project co-planner, trainer and learner. That's training jargon for you, I'm going to let you know a little bit about my experience with each one.

Mentor. Mentoring is a hard one to nail down when you aren't straddling cultures. Are you teaching? Guiding? Suggesting? To what extent? That stereotypical, "gee-Beav didntja ever think not to play ball near Old Man River's garage window" mentoring feeling is not really realistic here due to my frequent language stumbles and flubs. Today, I was trying to instill the value of hard work in some young whipper-snapper (a.k.a. I wanted help carrying some stuff) and asked him to poop the bucket instead of carry it. Dang "cargar" and "cagar" being so close. Fortunately,  to me mentoring has the flavors of teaching, listening and just plain hanging out. It seems most effective down an age gradient (older to younger) simply because experience accumulates over time. Getting that sort of mentoring feeling is not tough. Just being a good role model goes a long way. We listen way more than we talk for sure. And hanging out is the prescription for the day's activities just about every single day. I am a mentor when kids come to the library at our house because it pushes them to read and talk to me about books.

Co-facilitator. I see facilitating like teaching, but scored like golf. You try at all costs to avoid taking direct credit for someone learning something. The better you are at getting a group to teach themselves, the better facilitator you make. I believe in most of the little seminars and workshops we undertake, I play the role of facilitator. The "co" comes from the ever-elusive dream of working shoulder to shoulder with host country organizations to facilitate things. Panamanian agencies, in my personal struggle, have been tough nuts to crack and I have not yet had the pleasure of being a "co" with a Panamanian. I have been a "co" with fellow volunteers, which is both awesome and amazing. Lauren and I have been each others' "co" until we are blue in the face. I was a co-facilitator during the San Juanito water seminar because we studied a model aqueduct together to figure out the three laws of water flow and what happens when there is a hole in the line.

Change agent. We are told a change agent is like a catalyst or a kick in the pants. Someone who is looking to change a behavior may just have one tiny  barrier left and a change agent empowers them to just do it (TM). I give the person being changed just as much credit, if not more, than the agent because he or she has done so much work to get ready for that last baby step. I do not know how to wake up in the morning, say, "today I am going to be a change agent," get out there and do it. I do know being present (the literal definition of "in attendance") is a key ingredient to doing it. I also believe trying to be a change agent is enormously frustrating because no one can read minds. But, once you realize you were one on a lucky occasion you A of all, know it for sure and you B of all, claim it was the easiest thing in the world. If I have been a change agent, I haven't realized it yet, but trust me I have tried ultra hard. Lauren was a change agent when she and fellow volunteer Kelly spent less than a half-an-hour showing our friend Cleto how to use the agriculture leveling tool known as the Nivel A. We returned some days later and he had leveled and terraced his entire hillside, which is a gargantuan amount of work. Cleto had been waiting with his finger on the trigger to do something to improve his production for probably his entire working life. Lauren and Kelly barely broke a sweat and changed his working habits and thus his life.

Project co-planner. This is self explanatory. In Peace Corps we sometimes do projects and plan them to make them good. We strive to be "co" with community members or groups and in many cases flat-out refuse to work otherwise. I can imagine how irritating it would be to have someone roll into Fort Collins and say, "so...you all are eating with forks and spoons and that's pretty good. But, you've just gotta change over to the spork. Don't worry! I'll be here for two years to help you make the transition. I live off Drake and Shields if you've got any questions or anything." I'd tell that person to take their sporks and put them...well...elsewhere. I am a project co-planner with Señores Serafin and Boliver as we work towards a better potable water system in the Santa Cruz sector of San Juanito.

Trainer. A word closely associated with trainer for me is reps. A trainer helps one practice a skill so that it becomes as easy for you as it is for the trainer. You then exist on the same level in that skill as the trainer and as such can be the trainer for others. This is something I aspire to do in my remaing time here in Panamá. I feel ferrocement (steel reinforced concrete) is a hugely useful skill out here and I intend to offer training on it (as training was offered to me) in hopes that others will be able to feel the power of making thin, strong cement objects cheaply and let their imaginations run wild for applications.

Learner. Exactly. This is what I feel I am constantly, more than any of the other roles or the combination of them all. I've learned more than a class more than reading a book more than an entire degree. From knowing how to organize and motivate people to names of obscure plants to hand washing clothes in a river to making hand tools do the work of power tools to whatever other madness I have participated in I feel like during the rest of my life I am going to surprise myself with some bizarre skill and try to remember where I learned it. The answer will likely be Panamá.

So there you go. The roles I play in the official jargon and in practice. Keep it crazy people!

Until next time,

Alex

Aimee comes to Panamà!

In September, I had the opportunity to visit Lauren and Alex (I’m going to refer to them as Lalex) at their new home in Panama. What an experience I had! I give them mad props for what they are doing and how they have adapted so well to the Panamanian lifestyle. I am so grateful that I was able to get a peek at what they do/ have been doing for the past year and a half. 

Right after meeting up with Lauren, it was like we were back in college again, talking about the meaning of life and catching up on the past year and a half. Underneath this new Spanish speaking, program creating, independent jungle woman, I found my best friend that I met 6 years ago. We talked the whole 2 hour bus ride to Penenome ignoring the stares from the local people when we broke in to an uncontrollable laughter. I got to meet Lalex’s old host family from their first few months in Panama. Such loving and caring people who think the world of them. 

Lauren and I spoke to each other in Spanish! This was an incredible experience for me; to be able to speak in another language to someone that you have only ever spoken English to. 

After Lauren showed me a bit of the city of Penenome, we hopped on a “bus” (and hopped is an ambitious word...more like we waited 45 minutes on the street then waited another 30 minutes in the van) to their little jungle village of San Juanito! We made the trek to the mud hut! I got to meet sweet little Goma and Lauren gave me a tour and then we visited with the abuelos for a while. It was really amazing to see Lauren speak Spanish so easily and naturally with these people. She is going to come out of Panama speaking perfect “campasino” (farmer) Spanish. We went to sleep shortly after the sun but our sleep was soon interrupted by the pack of dogs fighting on the doorstep. Poor little Carmencita was in heat and she had many eager suitors. This is one occasion where Lalex’s kind heartedness came back to bite them. Carmencita likes to hang out around them because they are the only ones in town who don’t hit her and occasionally give her scraps of food to nourish her skinny body. So she wandered over to the mud hut in the middle of the night and brought all the noise with her. This went on all night! Growling, fighting, howling. Lauren had to get up multiple times to try and get them to go away but it just wasn’t happening. 

Alex got back the next day from the city and we all walked down to the river together to do laundry! I couldn’t believe that this is how they get laundry done! It is pretty amazing. Although I do have to admit that although it is a bit of a trek to do laundry and who knows how “clean the clothes really get, it sure is a nice view and an incredibly beautiful and tranquil place. After this we relaxed in the hut for a bit and I got to see just how popular Lalex’s library business is with the local children. They love it! There were kids coming by all afternoon to get more books! What a great program that they started, just out of the goodness of their hearts. Lauren and I hiked across town to a local farmer’s house to visit and deliver seeds. This is a farmer that Lauren works with and has educated about sustainable farming techniques. It was great to see how he relied on her and really enjoyed working with her. After this we went for a much needed dip in the river and returned to the house where Alex had made a delicious meal of rice and sausage! The dogs were at it again all night but this time we had Alex to try to handle them. I’ve never heard him sound so scary!! However it is pretty incredible the amount of noise that a group of about 9…eager…male dogs can make. Poor Carmencita.

The next day I got to see the beautiful local school that Lalex have worked with. They do lunch at school with chickens that are raised just a few yards away. There is a beautiful garden full of vegetables and even a small pond where they are raising fish! I was so impressed. 

The next day we left San Juanito (and the pack of dogs followed us all the way out of town which is about a 45 minute hike…). We made the journey to the Comarca Ngobe Bugle an indigenous community in Panama and stayed with a friend of Alex’s who lived with his mother. Alex’s friend Ruben surprisingly is very passionate about rock climbing and hiking and hopes to be able to make a living from it someday. This is another good hearted pursuit that Lalex are trying to do. They are trying to get Ruben’s name out there into the climbing community in the US and hopefully get some donated equipment sent to him. Alex has written letters to climbing magazines in hopes of getting an article about Ruben published. The next day, Ruben led us on a beautiful hike. It was long, (and I was incredibly out of shape for hiking as Lauren can attest to after witnessing my 5 or more falls on the way down), but it was full of beautiful views nonetheless. After staying 3 nights at Ruben’s house, we headed on our way to a very touristy yet beautiful part of Panama called Boquete.

It was a weird feeling going from dirt floors and bucket showers to a completely beautiful and luxurious bed and breakfast located on the top of a hill on a coffee farm. We took advantage of all the amenities like hot water, water pressure, delicious coffee, and restaurants with pizza and beer! We had no problem indulging like the good Americans that we are. The next day Lauren and I toured a beautiful coffee farm and learned a bit about all that goes into enjoying a hot cup of coffee. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Mañana Madera Estate ( and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone planning on visiting Panama). We headed back to Penenome and stayed the night and I was off to the airport the next morning!

This really was an incredible experience for me and I am beyond words proud of Lauren and Alex for what they are doing. San Juanito is incredibly lucky to have them and it couldn’t be a more perfect match. They are making such a huge impact and are going above and beyond what is asked of them just because they are good, ambitious, kind hearted people that I am proud and honored to call my friends. 

Gracias a Lorena y Alejandro por la experencia y que sigan haciendo que están haciendo. El pueblo de San Juanito les va a extrañar cuando ustedes salgan pero sus amigos y familia en su hogar no pueden esperar hasta que regresan. Les amo mucho y estoy tan orgullosa de ustedes. (DEMASIADO BENADO!!) 

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.