We are getting ready for bed, a rest too short for our weary bodies. Our stay with our families was too short as well. We'll be asleep only a few hours before we have to get up to catch a 5am flight back to Panama City. It's been three weeks since we were in site; I'm sure that our cat has made the most of it.
During our first week out, Felix (a family name that also happens to be the "sainted" name of the town at our entrance off the interamericana) feasted on the toads and birds that dwell around our jungle shack while we were in the City for training-of-trainers. Then, I'm sure he chased the neighbor's female vixen in heat while we visited my parents in Phoenix. And towards the end of our vacation, he surely warmed himself in the new-summer's sun that dries out our muddy yard while we slogged through the slush in Virginia.
As our thoughts turn towards our shack like iron filings toward a magnet, a phrase that Lisa and I have been bantering around comes to mind: "reverse camping". We realized a few weeks ago that much of our activities could be described to the people back home, who would be and have been pumping us for information, in much the same terms and timelines as camping, only in reverse.
We plan our outtings to the world of electricity and hot water (hopefully) in much the same manner as one goes about planning a camping trip in the United States. We get our clothes and essentials together. We assess the food situation. We check on the life of our batteries. We pack our bags. Headlamps? Check. Lighter and candles? Check. Cash and cards? Check. We lock up the house. We hike down a wooded path.
The major difference between camping and reverse camping is that we do much of it backwards. The batteries that we checked are not coming with us. The food situation we apprised tells us how much to bring back home. The essentials that we are lacking will be bought on the trip, not before or on the way out. The hike through the woods (albeit in our case rather short) is to get to a car and down the mountain rather than into a camp site.
We also spend much of our time at home acting like Americans do while camping. We shower in the water from a mountain stream. We cook over a small propane stove. We eat only items that are non-parishable or that we picked up recently at a local food stand. We wash our dishes and clothes outside. An unusual amount of time is spent reading in the hammock or sitting with people (the latter being a major pasttime for much of the world outside America and doesn't necessarily mean we talk much, just sitting with someone is gratifying.)
There is a freshness to our camping lives as well. Every day holds the promise of something new. Every day we are likely to learn something new about ourselves, our friends, our worldview, human nature, simple trivia, or an number of sundry facts and truths. Our time is our own. Our culture is what we make of it, as a couple or as a small group of volunteers getting together. We can come and go as we please. Much like being out on a weekend retreat, we are free.
Not everything is analogous, however. Unlike a pleasure trip to a national park (though some volunteers in Panama actually live in a national park), that much free time ends up meaning plenty of time to do our work. All the independence puts more pressure on us alone to do it right. There is no one else to blame. If something goes wrong, no one else culpable. No one else is even around to affect it. We are it, total and complete.
Some PCVs hate that liberty and its burden, and they leave. Some learn to live with misgivings about success and how to define it, tell themselves everyone feels the same and accomplishes little, and they focus on the goals cultural exchange. Some throw themselves into every available project and task so that they will know with certainty that they did everything they could, but risk burning out. Some find a serene bonhomie in their core, learning more about themselves and about the art of self-direction, of honest self-appraisal and impetus.
I believe that this last discovery is one of the prime motivations for becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer. We know going in that helping people improve their own lives will not be easy, so the challenges are guaranteed. We are understand that our personality will be magnified in a new culture, so self-awareness is assured. We are conscious of our choice to leave everything that makes us comfortable, so we recognize that we will have to redefine our comfort zone. We know we are leaving our family and friends, so we've got to know that we will be all alone. And one is never so alone as in a crowd of strangers.
Like camping, part of being a PCV is getting out there on our own. Some of the appeal the self-directed and self-apprasing of going solo. And much of the experience truly is seeing just how far you can go. "How far will you go?"
Monday, December 28, 2009
Monday, November 30, 2009
Forces at Work
There are strange forces that act upon our world, turning it inexorably towards the future. Usually we are in sync with them, understanding them intuitively and matching ourselves accordingly, but occasionally we will be out of step, or they take an odd turn, and we are reminded that there are things we just don't get, and maybe never will. Yet the wheel keeps on turning, and those things that are ground down take on a new shape that matches with world and are back in sync.
For us, these forces peeked out through the chickens.
This went on for a half hour or so. The weather was warm, but not too hot. The breeze blew, but not too hard or too soft. The sun was out, but so were some clouds. For us, it was a normal day. But for the chickens, something had pushed them to the ground and held them there. Then, all at once, the entire flock stood up, and, in normal chicken fashion, clucked, and stratched, and pecked, and went on with their stupid lives as though nothing had occurred.
For us, these forces peeked out through the chickens.
One day, as Lisa and I lounged in our hammock together, the heat of summer slipping through grip of another soggy winter, I whispered to her, "Look at the chickens." I had to whisper, for the forces of the world were strong and strange. I immediately knew we were out of step with them. Lisa raised her head from her book and gave a little gasp.
All of the chickens that are normally in constant motion (peeking, stratching, clucking, raping or being raped, and generally annoying us) had been pushed down on their sides with just one wing or leg sticking out. Or maybe as if they'd fallen out of the sky, but chickens don't fly and they weren't hurt. It was an odd position, and one that they seemed unable to overcome. A rooster might try to stand up and peck at a hen, but after moving for a second or two, they'd lay back down in the same position. We were fine, but the planets must have lined up funny for them. Maybe Jupiter was in the chicken coop.
This went on for a half hour or so. The weather was warm, but not too hot. The breeze blew, but not too hard or too soft. The sun was out, but so were some clouds. For us, it was a normal day. But for the chickens, something had pushed them to the ground and held them there. Then, all at once, the entire flock stood up, and, in normal chicken fashion, clucked, and stratched, and pecked, and went on with their stupid lives as though nothing had occurred.Something similar happens every year here. During the beginning of November, when we American foreigners look forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, anticipating some a few days off with family and some feasting and football, the Panamanians are already in full swing with their Mes de Patria (Patriotic Month).
There are so many days off for the kids at school, that they essentially stop going, especially in the campo where the teachers already only work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The farmers still go to the fields to harvest, but now there are juntas with fermented corn drink randomly sprinkled throughout. The women look after the children and stay inside out of the heavy rains hoping for a sunny morning to wash all the dirty laundry. And every few days, there is another national or provincial holiday.
The 3rd and 5th, the 10th and 12th, the 15th, 22nd, and 28th were all times when our entire corregimiento (county) were all celebrating something or other with alcohol. (And we had our Thanksgiving on the 26th.) At each of these gatherings, men and women, and sometimes children, got drunk and had fist fights. Just the other day, we watched as every 20 minutes or so three to six fights broke out as men pulled off shirts and circled up. Mostly these are all in good fun, though sometimes they are used to settle old grudges. Luckily, we seemed to be exempt from the sparring, which is good because the people are powerfully built and tough as coffin nails.
This may be the time of year when foreigners feel the most out of sync with the rest of the country. Last year, we were brand new so everything was unusual. This year, we did our best to present ourselves but drink moderately, dance but not arouse jealousy, and still have some kind of forward motion with our work.
In the end, we mostly just enjoyed the company of our friends (both Panamanian and American) and get a lot of reading done. Nevertheless, we still felt the strange forces of a wheel we were not perfectly matched up to, which seemed to knocked down the chickens and men alike.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
A Study in Muddy...
Mud. You learn to love it, or at best, you get by, because you have to during this time of year in Panama. And even though we live at an altitude of 3,000 feet or so, we still deal with a lot of the brown, mucky, boot sucky stuff.
Our house is situated in a fairly level area, with about 5 other homes in the family group - on the edge of a decent sized field that the kids in the area like to use to play various sports, or just run around like crazy. This field is actually a secret lake in the rainy season. When the rain starts, the ground will soak up some of the water, but not anymore!
What this means is that life in a dirt floored house, situated on level with the secret lake, gets quite interesting as the rains get harder and more consistent. Before you fret too much, know that our dirt floor inside the house actually stays pretty nice and dry, thanks to some draining ditches that Ben dug around the house to divert the water flow. We do drag in a lot of mud though, and stepping even a foot outside our house now is a dangerous activity without rubber boots.
Oh how we love our rubber boots. Almost like 4-wheel drive in the mud - you can go just about anywhere and not worry - unless the mud gets as deep and sticky as it now is around the house. A trip to our water faucet, a mere 5 feet or so away involves inches of mud, and the trip to the latrine is much more perilous. Thinking about showering? Wear your rubber boots, then strip out of them into flip flops to shower, then try to dry your feet without getting your towel muddy so you can put the boots back on to get to the house in one piece. But we careful, you'll probably have to stop at the faucet to wash off the mud that you've splattered onto your upper legs, arms, back or any other exposed flesh.
I've started a bit of a mantra when going into and out of the house. Boots go on, boots go off... Boots go on, boots go off. Why so much on and off though? Well, if you keep them on, your feet don't breathe - so you end up with moist foot rot. Which you're going to get anyways from wearing socks for 5 days on end (yeah, we do, we don't have many pairs) and putting them into and out of the boots so much, but - it won't be as bad as it could have been.
Once we leave the house area, we have to slog through 6 or more inches of mud/lake to get to the horse gate, climb up the path to the main road, and then you're safe - heck you may not even need the boots - but don't you dare not wear them and think you could just wear other shoes and wash off the mud. No, this path is deceptive. It's muddy yeah, but part of it is pretty solid - and MOLDY. That mold is slippery. So, avoid the mold right? Ha! Then you're in the 6 inches of mud just to the sides of that moldy hardpacked path. What to choose? Either way involves shuffling along, and a lot of concentration.
Case in point: we returned to site one day - laden down with our backpacks, computer case, and bags of food. We get to the top of the gentle slope down to the horse gate, and start inching our way down. I'm wearing my crocs (stupid idea). I'm about halfway there, and have already slid around a bit, when a girl yells "BEI!" - I say "Hola" and watch my feet fly up in front of my face, as I fall on all my bags, and slide into the mud. She ran into the house to inform everyone of my hilarious act. After much cursing, I found my footing and worked my way to the house to scrub up every inch of my body and salvage the bags.
Sometimes you've got to embrace the mud. I also recently played a game of baseball with the area kids in the secret lake. The water receded - but I was fooled. This game quickly turned into a game of mud baseball. And mostly, I was the one covered in mud, because even in my mud 4-wheel drive, I couldn't keep my feet on the ground. I dove for the ball and fell on my butt and hands. Then at bat, I cracked a nice hit to the outfield, and took two steps to run to 1st - and ended up on my hands and knees in mud. The game didn't last long, but I gave the kids a lot of laughs - something I'm apparently pretty good at. The ICY cold shower afterward actually felt pretty good, and I didn't forget the boots!
When will it end? Hard to say - maybe a month - based on last year's experience. Time will tell, and until that time, you can imagine me saying "boots go on, boots go off..."
Check out photos in the "study of muddy" on facebook! Enjoy!
Our house is situated in a fairly level area, with about 5 other homes in the family group - on the edge of a decent sized field that the kids in the area like to use to play various sports, or just run around like crazy. This field is actually a secret lake in the rainy season. When the rain starts, the ground will soak up some of the water, but not anymore!
What this means is that life in a dirt floored house, situated on level with the secret lake, gets quite interesting as the rains get harder and more consistent. Before you fret too much, know that our dirt floor inside the house actually stays pretty nice and dry, thanks to some draining ditches that Ben dug around the house to divert the water flow. We do drag in a lot of mud though, and stepping even a foot outside our house now is a dangerous activity without rubber boots.
Oh how we love our rubber boots. Almost like 4-wheel drive in the mud - you can go just about anywhere and not worry - unless the mud gets as deep and sticky as it now is around the house. A trip to our water faucet, a mere 5 feet or so away involves inches of mud, and the trip to the latrine is much more perilous. Thinking about showering? Wear your rubber boots, then strip out of them into flip flops to shower, then try to dry your feet without getting your towel muddy so you can put the boots back on to get to the house in one piece. But we careful, you'll probably have to stop at the faucet to wash off the mud that you've splattered onto your upper legs, arms, back or any other exposed flesh.
I've started a bit of a mantra when going into and out of the house. Boots go on, boots go off... Boots go on, boots go off. Why so much on and off though? Well, if you keep them on, your feet don't breathe - so you end up with moist foot rot. Which you're going to get anyways from wearing socks for 5 days on end (yeah, we do, we don't have many pairs) and putting them into and out of the boots so much, but - it won't be as bad as it could have been.
Once we leave the house area, we have to slog through 6 or more inches of mud/lake to get to the horse gate, climb up the path to the main road, and then you're safe - heck you may not even need the boots - but don't you dare not wear them and think you could just wear other shoes and wash off the mud. No, this path is deceptive. It's muddy yeah, but part of it is pretty solid - and MOLDY. That mold is slippery. So, avoid the mold right? Ha! Then you're in the 6 inches of mud just to the sides of that moldy hardpacked path. What to choose? Either way involves shuffling along, and a lot of concentration.
Case in point: we returned to site one day - laden down with our backpacks, computer case, and bags of food. We get to the top of the gentle slope down to the horse gate, and start inching our way down. I'm wearing my crocs (stupid idea). I'm about halfway there, and have already slid around a bit, when a girl yells "BEI!" - I say "Hola" and watch my feet fly up in front of my face, as I fall on all my bags, and slide into the mud. She ran into the house to inform everyone of my hilarious act. After much cursing, I found my footing and worked my way to the house to scrub up every inch of my body and salvage the bags.
Sometimes you've got to embrace the mud. I also recently played a game of baseball with the area kids in the secret lake. The water receded - but I was fooled. This game quickly turned into a game of mud baseball. And mostly, I was the one covered in mud, because even in my mud 4-wheel drive, I couldn't keep my feet on the ground. I dove for the ball and fell on my butt and hands. Then at bat, I cracked a nice hit to the outfield, and took two steps to run to 1st - and ended up on my hands and knees in mud. The game didn't last long, but I gave the kids a lot of laughs - something I'm apparently pretty good at. The ICY cold shower afterward actually felt pretty good, and I didn't forget the boots!
When will it end? Hard to say - maybe a month - based on last year's experience. Time will tell, and until that time, you can imagine me saying "boots go on, boots go off..."
Check out photos in the "study of muddy" on facebook! Enjoy!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
We're still here, but...
apparently just don't have much to blog about. Our great friend Andi summed it up best on her blog with the following:
"It has been so long since I've updated this 'ol blog. But it's funny, the longer I'm here the less the experiences I have impress upon me the need to record them. They become less out of the ordinary. I don't carry my camera with me as often and my journal, instead of filling with the happenings of the day, is a place of introspection and answerless questions."
Life is pretty "normal" for us now. We've got our routine, we're settled in, and it really takes something crazy to shock us now! We're happy, healthy and busy, but none of that is very interesting. But, we'll keep up with this - we're done with one year in our community, which means less than one year to go!
A preview: The next blog to come promises to be of real import - a discussion on the abundance of rain, and thus, mud in or community. We know you're sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for it!
* You may have also noticed an addition to our disclaimer. Corriente Resources, a mining company from Canada, recently took and used a photo of ours in a powerpoint presentation in our community WITHOUT our permission. Peace Corps volunteers are not allowed to be involved in political activities. If anyone would like to use or reproduce content from our blog you will need the express written consent of both Ben and I. Thank you.
"It has been so long since I've updated this 'ol blog. But it's funny, the longer I'm here the less the experiences I have impress upon me the need to record them. They become less out of the ordinary. I don't carry my camera with me as often and my journal, instead of filling with the happenings of the day, is a place of introspection and answerless questions."
Life is pretty "normal" for us now. We've got our routine, we're settled in, and it really takes something crazy to shock us now! We're happy, healthy and busy, but none of that is very interesting. But, we'll keep up with this - we're done with one year in our community, which means less than one year to go!
A preview: The next blog to come promises to be of real import - a discussion on the abundance of rain, and thus, mud in or community. We know you're sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for it!
* You may have also noticed an addition to our disclaimer. Corriente Resources, a mining company from Canada, recently took and used a photo of ours in a powerpoint presentation in our community WITHOUT our permission. Peace Corps volunteers are not allowed to be involved in political activities. If anyone would like to use or reproduce content from our blog you will need the express written consent of both Ben and I. Thank you.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Tale of Two Birthdays
As many of you know, Lisa and I have our birthdays two weeks apart. Hers usually comes first so she has time to plan mine based on how well I fared with hers.
This year, we had a really good friend named Andi come up for the day and spend the night. She lives in a village a couple of hours away. Early that morning, I snuck out of bed and joined our neighbors/landlords at their store to help butcher a cow. I'd written on their announcements all around town that the cow-killing was for Lisa's birthday though they had planned it before they knew. After an hour and a half of waving flies off the meat with a leafy stick, all the edible parts had been sold and I went home to find Lisa up and ready.
We paseared a bit (strolled around the community passing the time), waited until Andi came, and had a nice little snack for lunch. We'd started a chill afternoon, just hanging out with Andi and another couple of new volunteers who just started their tour in the Comarca (one lives in our village and the other uses it as a chiva stop before his two-hour hike.) As we were discussing how to get the meat smoked in the communal fogon (three-rock cooking fire) that our family group shares, a gringo was lead up to our house by our old host grandpa.
This guy was very white, appeared to be in his late 30's, and spoke excellent Spanish. He immediately asked which of us was Ben and Lisa. He explained that he was traveling around Central America to look at different mining projects. Although we were weary at first, he soon explained how he found us and what was his angle.
This guy was a professor of a university in Canada and part of an NGO that monitors the mining activities of Canadan companies around the world. It seems that he was at another volunteer's site a few days before and had gotten our names from her as the closests PCVs to the huge (4th biggest in the world) copper deposit further up the road from us. He was interested to know what kinds of propaganda and trainings the most recent petitioner had been offering to the indigenous people.
After talking with the guy for a while (during which I'd excused myself for a bit to smoke the meat), and introducing him to our neighbor so he could ask some questions directly, this newcomer invited himself to Lisa's birthday dinner. The two new volunteers had already left for their own meals with their host families. We turned the fresh delicious cuts into fajitas. We'd brought up tortillas, refried beans, and salsa already and picked up some veggies from the local market. They were scrumptuous, but it was kind of a drag having a stranger around, even though he left us with a beer and some fruit juice.
Lisa was a bit frustrated that most of the day had been about mine. It was not the best birthday on record.
My birthday, on the otherhand, was better. Again, we had some strangers come to visit, but of an entirely different sort. While I was acting as a training facilitator for the new group of business volunteers, our boss pulled me aside to ask if a married couple could visit us that weekend. This was Monday and they would basically be coming back with me on Thursday. Another curveball: Lisa was supposed to be out of town for the first few days of the visit although that ended early so it was only one night. Originally, the couple had been scheduled to go to another site, but those volunteers had ended their tour early so a quick change had to take place.
Being the flexible, hardworking PCVs that we are, we agreed right away. Nevertheless, it was another birthday for me with people that I barely knew. This has happened to both Lisa and I often in our lives because our birthdays are late in the summer and because we moved so much, thus we were able to have a good time regardless. It also helped that the people who came to visit were very friendly and a lot like us (you could say he's a smartass and she's the planner).
Over the weekend, we hiked to villages around us where Lisa and I have been working. We gave a talk about planning, paseared with families that we enjoy spending time with, and started a clay oven. They held up really well, and like us, fell in love with the Comarca cloud forest almost as soon as they arrived. It was a bit rainy (it is the rainy season) during their visit, but all in all it went well. The best part was the cake that Eli cooked for me before we went to work on the oven. MMMM: double layer chocolate cake covered in chocolate frosting.
Overall, we really had a good time with them. We played hearts in the evenings and joked almost constantly. They did some of the hardest Comarca hikes/car rides and held up admirably. We are looking forward to seeing much more of them, especially considering they'll be back for Tech Week on the 20th!
Random Fact from Lisa: Government of Panama is building a sidewalk in our community.
This year, we had a really good friend named Andi come up for the day and spend the night. She lives in a village a couple of hours away. Early that morning, I snuck out of bed and joined our neighbors/landlords at their store to help butcher a cow. I'd written on their announcements all around town that the cow-killing was for Lisa's birthday though they had planned it before they knew. After an hour and a half of waving flies off the meat with a leafy stick, all the edible parts had been sold and I went home to find Lisa up and ready.
We paseared a bit (strolled around the community passing the time), waited until Andi came, and had a nice little snack for lunch. We'd started a chill afternoon, just hanging out with Andi and another couple of new volunteers who just started their tour in the Comarca (one lives in our village and the other uses it as a chiva stop before his two-hour hike.) As we were discussing how to get the meat smoked in the communal fogon (three-rock cooking fire) that our family group shares, a gringo was lead up to our house by our old host grandpa.
This guy was very white, appeared to be in his late 30's, and spoke excellent Spanish. He immediately asked which of us was Ben and Lisa. He explained that he was traveling around Central America to look at different mining projects. Although we were weary at first, he soon explained how he found us and what was his angle.
This guy was a professor of a university in Canada and part of an NGO that monitors the mining activities of Canadan companies around the world. It seems that he was at another volunteer's site a few days before and had gotten our names from her as the closests PCVs to the huge (4th biggest in the world) copper deposit further up the road from us. He was interested to know what kinds of propaganda and trainings the most recent petitioner had been offering to the indigenous people.
After talking with the guy for a while (during which I'd excused myself for a bit to smoke the meat), and introducing him to our neighbor so he could ask some questions directly, this newcomer invited himself to Lisa's birthday dinner. The two new volunteers had already left for their own meals with their host families. We turned the fresh delicious cuts into fajitas. We'd brought up tortillas, refried beans, and salsa already and picked up some veggies from the local market. They were scrumptuous, but it was kind of a drag having a stranger around, even though he left us with a beer and some fruit juice.
Lisa was a bit frustrated that most of the day had been about mine. It was not the best birthday on record.
My birthday, on the otherhand, was better. Again, we had some strangers come to visit, but of an entirely different sort. While I was acting as a training facilitator for the new group of business volunteers, our boss pulled me aside to ask if a married couple could visit us that weekend. This was Monday and they would basically be coming back with me on Thursday. Another curveball: Lisa was supposed to be out of town for the first few days of the visit although that ended early so it was only one night. Originally, the couple had been scheduled to go to another site, but those volunteers had ended their tour early so a quick change had to take place.
Being the flexible, hardworking PCVs that we are, we agreed right away. Nevertheless, it was another birthday for me with people that I barely knew. This has happened to both Lisa and I often in our lives because our birthdays are late in the summer and because we moved so much, thus we were able to have a good time regardless. It also helped that the people who came to visit were very friendly and a lot like us (you could say he's a smartass and she's the planner).
Over the weekend, we hiked to villages around us where Lisa and I have been working. We gave a talk about planning, paseared with families that we enjoy spending time with, and started a clay oven. They held up really well, and like us, fell in love with the Comarca cloud forest almost as soon as they arrived. It was a bit rainy (it is the rainy season) during their visit, but all in all it went well. The best part was the cake that Eli cooked for me before we went to work on the oven. MMMM: double layer chocolate cake covered in chocolate frosting.
Overall, we really had a good time with them. We played hearts in the evenings and joked almost constantly. They did some of the hardest Comarca hikes/car rides and held up admirably. We are looking forward to seeing much more of them, especially considering they'll be back for Tech Week on the 20th!
Random Fact from Lisa: Government of Panama is building a sidewalk in our community.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
What's new?!
Time is flying by, and it's been a while now since we've taken a moment to step back and blog. This blog doesn't have any particular theme, but I thought we'd update you on the happenings in our lives over the past month +.
We've been busy, for one! We've been finding ourselves traveling more and more out of our community for various seminars, office initiatives, trainings and other commitments. It's great to be busy, but it feels really good to come home to our little shack, rest, relax and hang out with the wonderful friends we've made! I'm looking forward to getting back tomorrow after more almost 2 weeks gone. Unfortunately, most of our time in site recently feels like it's filled with endless washing of clothes that never dry.
On that note, all of our clothes smell like blue cheese. This is not a good development. Mold is good in cheese. Not in clothes.
We're going through a time of transition right now with Peace Corps volunteers. We had the latest training group arrive in April, and swear-in in July, which means we've got new faces, and another new volunteer in our community, working in agriculture. He's settling in, which means that we'll soon be saying goodbye to Stephanie as she finishes her 3rd year in our community and is moving on to bigger and better things. Change is good, but it will be really hard to see her go - we've developed a really strong bond with her, and she's been such a great influence in our lives! On top of that, as one group enters, another one is leaving, so we just said goodbye to a group of volunteers, of which included some great friends as well. And if you can still follow this, the next new group arrives in mid-August, like we did - almost ONE YEAR AGO! Wow!
Ben and I are going to be quite involved in the training of the new group. Ben will be coming in during their first whole week in country to train them about community analysis, and share our experience of community integration. I have been working on developing an analysis tool for our sector. Something that will help us assess the needs of groups and communities and help us target our work a bit more - "community economic development" tends to be a bit vague! On top of that, we've been asked to host the Technical Training week in our community - the 7th week of training, for the new business sector volunteers. This means that we will host 19 trainees in our community, and help them to go through the process of assessing a group's needs, planning a presentation or other activity with their group, and then delivering a community-wide presentation. It's a hard week - and I remember from my experience, after coming from my culture week in the Comarca, and into my tech week, I was drained! Having everyone come to the Comarca during this week will definitely be a strain on some people, but we're excited, and we know our community is a great place to host this special training!
What else is new? Well, in the beginning of July, Ben surprised me with a trip to Cartagena, Colombia to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! It was a huge surprise, and he had me thinking of a million different possibilities, but definitely not Colombia! The trip was AMAZING! It felt so nice to get on an airplane and be somewhere so quickly and easily! The city was beautiful, and we spent the majority of our time wandering around the streets of the old city, with no particular agenda - popping into museums, soaking in the scenery, drinking fresh limeade and eating lots of delicious street food! We also lived it up a bit and treated ourselves to some really nice dinners and Ben bought me an emerald ring - we were in Cartagena, right?! More than anything, it was nice to get away, and be "normal" again (aside from the blue cheese smell which followed us in our clothes).
After coming home from Colombia, Ben went to the doctor in David to check up on a little diarrhea issue. He'd come down with it a while before, and was supposed to send in samples while he was in Panama City, but didn't, and then it passed, so he figured he was fine. Not so. Upon returning from Colombia, the diarrhea returned, so he went in, and they found that he had not one, but two different types of amoebas living in his system! Hopefully he's cleared out now, after all the medications he was taking to clear out his system, and replace the good organisms. While at the doctor's office, he was weighed with all his clothes, shoes, hat, things in his pockets, etc, and weighed in at 201! This means at least a 50 pound weight loss for him! Incredible! He looks and feels great!
The last thing is that we're coming home for Christmas time! We've scheduled a two-week trip back to the states to see family, and we're really excited to see everyone and hang out!
That should cover everything major! To sum things up, we're pretty healthy, very happy, and really enjoying our time here in Panama!
We've been busy, for one! We've been finding ourselves traveling more and more out of our community for various seminars, office initiatives, trainings and other commitments. It's great to be busy, but it feels really good to come home to our little shack, rest, relax and hang out with the wonderful friends we've made! I'm looking forward to getting back tomorrow after more almost 2 weeks gone. Unfortunately, most of our time in site recently feels like it's filled with endless washing of clothes that never dry.
On that note, all of our clothes smell like blue cheese. This is not a good development. Mold is good in cheese. Not in clothes.
We're going through a time of transition right now with Peace Corps volunteers. We had the latest training group arrive in April, and swear-in in July, which means we've got new faces, and another new volunteer in our community, working in agriculture. He's settling in, which means that we'll soon be saying goodbye to Stephanie as she finishes her 3rd year in our community and is moving on to bigger and better things. Change is good, but it will be really hard to see her go - we've developed a really strong bond with her, and she's been such a great influence in our lives! On top of that, as one group enters, another one is leaving, so we just said goodbye to a group of volunteers, of which included some great friends as well. And if you can still follow this, the next new group arrives in mid-August, like we did - almost ONE YEAR AGO! Wow!
Ben and I are going to be quite involved in the training of the new group. Ben will be coming in during their first whole week in country to train them about community analysis, and share our experience of community integration. I have been working on developing an analysis tool for our sector. Something that will help us assess the needs of groups and communities and help us target our work a bit more - "community economic development" tends to be a bit vague! On top of that, we've been asked to host the Technical Training week in our community - the 7th week of training, for the new business sector volunteers. This means that we will host 19 trainees in our community, and help them to go through the process of assessing a group's needs, planning a presentation or other activity with their group, and then delivering a community-wide presentation. It's a hard week - and I remember from my experience, after coming from my culture week in the Comarca, and into my tech week, I was drained! Having everyone come to the Comarca during this week will definitely be a strain on some people, but we're excited, and we know our community is a great place to host this special training!
What else is new? Well, in the beginning of July, Ben surprised me with a trip to Cartagena, Colombia to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! It was a huge surprise, and he had me thinking of a million different possibilities, but definitely not Colombia! The trip was AMAZING! It felt so nice to get on an airplane and be somewhere so quickly and easily! The city was beautiful, and we spent the majority of our time wandering around the streets of the old city, with no particular agenda - popping into museums, soaking in the scenery, drinking fresh limeade and eating lots of delicious street food! We also lived it up a bit and treated ourselves to some really nice dinners and Ben bought me an emerald ring - we were in Cartagena, right?! More than anything, it was nice to get away, and be "normal" again (aside from the blue cheese smell which followed us in our clothes).
After coming home from Colombia, Ben went to the doctor in David to check up on a little diarrhea issue. He'd come down with it a while before, and was supposed to send in samples while he was in Panama City, but didn't, and then it passed, so he figured he was fine. Not so. Upon returning from Colombia, the diarrhea returned, so he went in, and they found that he had not one, but two different types of amoebas living in his system! Hopefully he's cleared out now, after all the medications he was taking to clear out his system, and replace the good organisms. While at the doctor's office, he was weighed with all his clothes, shoes, hat, things in his pockets, etc, and weighed in at 201! This means at least a 50 pound weight loss for him! Incredible! He looks and feels great!
The last thing is that we're coming home for Christmas time! We've scheduled a two-week trip back to the states to see family, and we're really excited to see everyone and hang out!
That should cover everything major! To sum things up, we're pretty healthy, very happy, and really enjoying our time here in Panama!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Changes....
Before discovering I was robbed this morning, I was reflecting on a potential blog topic about things that I´ve noticed have changed with me since coming to Panama - most of them for the better.
Changes to Lisa:
1. I eat, and actually enjoy now, a lot of white rice.
2. I am a lot more patient. I can think of a lot of examples, but lets just say that most involve children, culture shock or a candy bar.
3. I´m a lot more comfortable being alone with myself. At the beginning, I think I had too much time to think. Now, it´s not so bad. I´m pretty cool. *giggle* Although, I do realize that I need to learn how to quiet my mind.
4. I´m also a lot more comfortable being around Ben 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which makes number 3 seem totally ironic. Let´s just say that going from our life in the states to being around each other constantly was a struggle at first.
5. I get a lot more male attention in this country. It makes me angry when I´m hissed at, called ¨joven,¨ my queen, baby, etc. I didn´t know this about myself before.
6. I don´t miss food much anymore. Along that line, I´ve had a lot of time to think about my food issues and wrestle with some demons.
7. I can speak Spanish! And a tiny bit of Ngöbere. That´s pretty cool.
8. Although I still really like having stuff to do, I am now fine with dedicating a day to a good book in the hammock.
9. I´m a lot more social in a community sense than I ever was or wanted to be in the states.
10. I feel a lot more appreciative of just about everything. It´s really easy to take so much for granted.
Now, how about some things that I miss... (and I think that it goes without saying that I miss family, friends, and Nikodemus ♥ )
1. Carpet. This may seem odd, but when I think of home, it´s one of the first things that comes to mind. I want to squish my toes in carpet. This is probably because my floor now best resembles a litter box.
2. Being able to follow just about any conversation. I can speak Spanish, but it´s not perfect by any means. I have to still piece things together at times, and if you throw in a conversation in Ngöbere, I just try to catch a verb here or there and laugh when appropriate.
3. Cold. Winter. Snow. Bundling up in lots of clothes.
4. An indoor toilet. Hell, a toilet for that matter. I´d still go outside for it if it flushed away the shit.
5. A dryer. Maybe this should be number 1. Clothes don´t dry here. Everything we have is at varying levels of moldiness.
6. A washer. Washing clothes in the campo sucks. I´m convinced nothing is ever really clean. Stupid mold.
7. Dryness (is that a word?).
8. Nice clothes. Dressing up. I think this experience is making the girly girl in me scream to come out. Oh how I used to hate dressing up for work. Now I´m a perpetual scrub. And now, a perpetually muddy scrub. Lets throw in cute shoes too. Although, I do love my rubber boots.
9. Good mexican food. Yeah, food was bound to show up somewhere.
10. A reliable power source. Charging my phone over the past two weeks has been ridiculously difficult.
Okay, one more. A bug-free environment. I´ll take those whimpy spiders and tiny crickets in Colorado again anyday. I killed the largest spider I´ve ever seen in my life the other night. While I do realize that I feel more like a badass for that, I´d just rather not have to do it!
This is turning out to be harder than thought. I guess the bottom line is that while I do miss things from home, I´m happy to be here, and I´ll have those things I miss again in the future. And if most of my personal changes end up being good ones, then I´m all the better for being here, and doing something I love.
Changes to Lisa:
1. I eat, and actually enjoy now, a lot of white rice.
2. I am a lot more patient. I can think of a lot of examples, but lets just say that most involve children, culture shock or a candy bar.
3. I´m a lot more comfortable being alone with myself. At the beginning, I think I had too much time to think. Now, it´s not so bad. I´m pretty cool. *giggle* Although, I do realize that I need to learn how to quiet my mind.
4. I´m also a lot more comfortable being around Ben 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Which makes number 3 seem totally ironic. Let´s just say that going from our life in the states to being around each other constantly was a struggle at first.
5. I get a lot more male attention in this country. It makes me angry when I´m hissed at, called ¨joven,¨ my queen, baby, etc. I didn´t know this about myself before.
6. I don´t miss food much anymore. Along that line, I´ve had a lot of time to think about my food issues and wrestle with some demons.
7. I can speak Spanish! And a tiny bit of Ngöbere. That´s pretty cool.
8. Although I still really like having stuff to do, I am now fine with dedicating a day to a good book in the hammock.
9. I´m a lot more social in a community sense than I ever was or wanted to be in the states.
10. I feel a lot more appreciative of just about everything. It´s really easy to take so much for granted.
Now, how about some things that I miss... (and I think that it goes without saying that I miss family, friends, and Nikodemus ♥ )
1. Carpet. This may seem odd, but when I think of home, it´s one of the first things that comes to mind. I want to squish my toes in carpet. This is probably because my floor now best resembles a litter box.
2. Being able to follow just about any conversation. I can speak Spanish, but it´s not perfect by any means. I have to still piece things together at times, and if you throw in a conversation in Ngöbere, I just try to catch a verb here or there and laugh when appropriate.
3. Cold. Winter. Snow. Bundling up in lots of clothes.
4. An indoor toilet. Hell, a toilet for that matter. I´d still go outside for it if it flushed away the shit.
5. A dryer. Maybe this should be number 1. Clothes don´t dry here. Everything we have is at varying levels of moldiness.
6. A washer. Washing clothes in the campo sucks. I´m convinced nothing is ever really clean. Stupid mold.
7. Dryness (is that a word?).
8. Nice clothes. Dressing up. I think this experience is making the girly girl in me scream to come out. Oh how I used to hate dressing up for work. Now I´m a perpetual scrub. And now, a perpetually muddy scrub. Lets throw in cute shoes too. Although, I do love my rubber boots.
9. Good mexican food. Yeah, food was bound to show up somewhere.
10. A reliable power source. Charging my phone over the past two weeks has been ridiculously difficult.
Okay, one more. A bug-free environment. I´ll take those whimpy spiders and tiny crickets in Colorado again anyday. I killed the largest spider I´ve ever seen in my life the other night. While I do realize that I feel more like a badass for that, I´d just rather not have to do it!
This is turning out to be harder than thought. I guess the bottom line is that while I do miss things from home, I´m happy to be here, and I´ll have those things I miss again in the future. And if most of my personal changes end up being good ones, then I´m all the better for being here, and doing something I love.
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