Alto Playon

For the next 2 years, I will be living and working in the community of Alto Playon.  It community is located in the Comarca Embera-Wounaan, Cemaco in the Darien region of Panama.  To get to my site from Panama City, you take a Darien bus for about 6 hours to the entrada at Punuloso.  You would then take a ride share on a road for about 35 minutes which leads to Puerto Limon.  From there you, can take a boat ride down the Chucunaque River in a jamba (Embera for boat) down the river for about 20 minutes to Alto Playon.  Mind the howler monkeys growling at you to the right.

'Comarca' holds the same meaning as Native American reserve as in the United States.  The Embera-Wounaan are two indigenous groups of people, who share the same culture but distinct languages.  While Alto Playon is mainly Embera, there are some Wounaan who live here.  Embera-Wounaan people are known as "Chocoes."  This is because they are originally from the Chocoe River in Colombia, and have always lived in the jungle between Panama and Colombia.  If you went to an Embera village in Colombia, you would find the lifestyle to be the same.  The Embera-Wounaan are river people, and I quickly found that there is no difference between being wet and dry here.  

To the men falls the responsibility of farming the lands for rice, platano, yucca, name, otoi (all tubular), corn, cacao, avocado, borhongoi (a fruit), to name a few.  The jungle also provides them with wild game to be hunted.  The men will take off in a large jamba with rifles and machetes to go looking for game.  They often come back with gato solo (wild cat), bidoe (wild pig), zamo & zocorro (wild birds), armadillo, and iguanas :(.  Finally, there is plenty of fresh fish in the river that are caught by spreading out large nets in the river.  Donsella is the best because it barely has any bone.  

The women in the village mostly tend to household activities.  Every morning they are the first to be up and fetch water from the river or rain barrels.  They start cooking breakfast, which undoubtedly will contain rice - something you eat 3 times a day here.  The day will then continue with an assortment of activities:  washing clothes, husking rice, feeding the animals, washing dishes, taking care of kids, and working on a canasta (a craft of hand made plates and vases).  Some women to accompany the men to the farm, and can lift pounds of harvested goods like you've never seen before.

There is a primary school in the town which has 3 teachers and a principle.  The students go to class from about 8 to 1.  Primary schools is the equivalent of 1st through 6th grade here in Panama.  All the kids wear uniforms of white collar shirts and blue slacks or skirts.  They play and have fun all the time.  They are usually jumping in the river, or rowing a jamba, throwing rocks at birds, looking for fish in the nets, or playing marbles.  Playing with the kids is great, because you are a 12 year old again - where its fun to laugh things off.  I find that playing with the kids teaches me more about the adults and their traits.

I apologize for the lack of pictures but I don't have a connection that will upload them!

Chango's Encampamento

It was 4PM on a Sunday afternoon when Chango and his wife asked me if I
As a medium to heavy rain had just started to fall, and Chango, his wife, and I boarded his piragua with what we would need for the night and next day.  The rains had come for almost half the day the day before, and the current on the Rio Chucunaque was that much stronger thatn the day before.  With the rains come the roaring of howler monkeys.  In groups of 7 to 10, they are perched on trees beside the river bank.  As our piragua passed underneath them, their roaring would begin as a claim to their position above us.  Further up the river, the canyon of trees beside the river grew taller and taller.  Exotic birds sweep from brush to brush, skimming the river for prey.  About an hour into the ride, we turned east onto the Rio Membrillo which is much narrower than the Chucunaque.  Dramatic bends around the river reveal even more natural wonders, a toucan flies by, and the howler monkeys roar louder as the rain falls harder.

We reach Chango's encampamento with the pleasant surprise of his wife's parents already there.  They had come to the encampamento about 15 days ago and will continue to stay for another week or so.  My hands were instantly met with a warm cup of coffee.  Dinner was served - rice, platano, and fresh fish.  The question and peculiarity of me being there barely seemed to cross anyone's mind.  A smile, friendly hand shake, and my curiousity about who they are was all I could offer.  I slept that night under my mosquito net listening to the orchestra of insects that make up the Darien jungle. 

The next morning over a breakfast of platano, fish, and gato solo (smoked and fried wild cat that they hunted), we talked a bit more about Embera culture.  Chango told me about a marriage ritual where a man would have to challenge a father to a wrestling match to win his daughter's hand.  They begin by grasping each other's hair and whoever falls, loses.  Chango had it easy we joked, especially because his wife is nothing short of inspirational.  The three of us hopped back into the piragua and went upstream to their platano farm.

We disembarked with a machete and an 'em' (pronounced eh) which means basket in Embera.  The word Embera is made of up three words put together:  em (basket), be (corn), ra (god).  Most of Chango's farm is bien sucio (too much overgrown brush covering the area).  He's not really in any position to pay for any help.  To harvest platano, you simply find the good ones that are ripe, and chop the tree down.  Having forgotten my machete, I kicked the trees down and used my hands.  Chango's wife was laughing histerically at my method, but after I got a few I eventually got her approval, "Tu sabes Moises, tu sabes."  We would then pick up the platano and stage them at various points in the river.  She could easily carry about 100 platano on her back without breaking a sweat.  "I like to work in the monte", she says, "the women in the village just wash clothes all day."  It was great when she would chide at Chango too, "Ayyy Changito, sus ojos tan viejos, no puede ver el platano!  And why are you always running over the logs in the river?  Hoo, I've been driving piraguas since I was 10!"

About 4 hours later, with 4 points staged with platano, we returned to the piragua and claimed our goods at each point, collecting 400 in total.  On a good day with a big boat, they can do 5000.  As she is half in the water, and I'm sitting in the boat she says, with complete complacency, "This is our life Moises.  It's hard work but we have to eat and send our kids to school.  We're here because our parents didn't send us to school."  We pulled up onto the shore of Alto Playon, and Chango gave me my generous share of 50 platano to take back to my host family, some were platano maduro - the very sweet kind!  They tried to sell the rest, but with not a lot of income in the village, most of it sells on credit.  Looks like Chango and his wife weren't just feeding their kids, but they were feeding most of Alto Playon as well.

More pictures to come, it's very hard to upload with this connection!

Environmental Health Project

The Environmental Health project of Peace Corps Panama is designed to improve the health of rural Panamanians.  Peace Corps Volunteers train motivated community members in water borne disease prevention practices, participatory decision making techniques, and sustainable health infrastructure development methods.  The EHP is focused on community capacity development and technical assistance for constructing and maintaining potable water systems and sanitation facilities. 

The three main goals are:

• Community Leadership, Organization, and Mobilization - Project participants in rural communities will develop capacity to lead, organize, and mobilize community members.  This is a process that often happens naturally by visiting families and identifying community leaders, personal observations, and training leaders in project management and leadership skills.
• Potable Water Systems - Project participants in rural communities will increase understanding, access, and management of potable water systems.  This includes education for water borne disease prevention, training for water system management, and water system project implementation.  Typical projects include commuity aqueducts, spring boxes, and rain water catchment.
• Sanitation Systems - Project participants in rural communities will increase understanding, access, and management of sanitation systems.  This includes education for water borne disease prevention, training for sanitation system management, and santiation project implementation.  Typical projects include construction of pit latrines, compositing latrines, and solid waste disposal and recycling.

During a field based week of technical training, we worked on learning how to build tap stands, fix and re-route PCV pipes, built a bridge for a pipe to cross a ravine, a pit latrine and a composting latrine.

Working on fixing a piece of pipe

Pueblo Nuevo

We had a 9 day Field Based Technical training at a volunteers site called Pueblo Nuevo.  The site is located in the Darien region and is a village of the Embera and Wounaan tribes that spreads cross eastern Panama and northern Colombia.  Most of the campesinos in Pueblo Nuevo have crossed over from Colombia and settled in Panama - it was all one land at one point however.  I stayed with a host family who were extremelly warm and welcoming.  I instantly became a source of excitement for my 12 year old brother and my cousin.  Every night we would play English language word games and one night there were about 6 kids at the house playing.

Unfortunately I arrived a day late because I came down with chronic dehydration - but really I was fine.  I also came down with an alleric reaction to the river shrimp that I got served, which amounted to a full blown body rash and inflamation.  I sucked it up and spent another day traveling between the Darien and Panama City to go see the doctor who cleared me out.  It was annoying, but I was fine. 

Anyway, we were split up into two groups and our tasks were to build a composting latrine, a pit latrine, hook up a tapstand to the existing waterline, build a bridge for a pipe to cross a very small ravine, learn how to survey, and deliver a charla to the kids at the school.  I will get into the technical aspects of Environmental Health work in another post.  It was a lot of hard work, but we accomplished all the tasks together as a team. 

We were working from 8 to 5 everyday, and the women of the village would cook us a communal lunch everyday.  The best food I ate however, were the coconut duros.  Duros are homemade frozen juices which are delicious at the very affordable price of 10 cents.  My host mom also made a delicious type of bread called ohaldra which thankfully can be found all over Panama.  Imagine the fried bread that is in funnel cake, but without any of the sweet stuff and a bit saltier.  Combine that with huevos and some ketchup and youve got yourself a delicious meal.

Life in the village seemed to be paced around the kids coming in and out of school.  I would say that there was about a 65 percent to 35 percent ratio of kids to adults.  The women in the community got together and hired a teacher to help them make traditional Embera Wounaan baskets and jewlery which they can then sell.  The men would go out to the monte everyday and work in the fields.  Unfortunately I didnt have time to go out with my host dad, but there will be plenty more of that to come.  It is possible for campesinos in the Darien to make 10 dollars a day.

We were all lucky enough to be body painted with traditional Embera Wounaan designs using a fruit called Jagua.  It turns out to be a bluish color and lasts for about 3 weeks.  Pueblo Nuevo was so excited to have us visit and work in their community that we had a despedida the last night we were there.  It was a humbling experience for all of us to be given gifts.  I recieved a necklace, a bracelet, and my host mom hand wove me a basket the night before I left. 

Thank you to Molly Peterson and the people of Pueblo Nuevo for hosting us.  I hope to visit you again soon.

Embera Wounaan dance.  My host mom is in the middle



Jagua



We hiked to the small waterfall which is the source of the towns water




Host brother and host cousin



What is Development?

Tough question.

The introductory session we had on this a week ago was one of the best lectures I have attended in a long time.  There is a certain approach that the Peace Corps has taken to development which is the foundation of the work we will be doing in Panama.

• The Peace Corps has no money.  Therefore, volunteers live and work on the same wages of the people in their communities.  This also means that there is no budget that the Peace Corps needs to spend on projects.
• People and processes, not products and projects.  There is no need for a volunteer to come to a community, build an aquaduct, make sure it works, and then leave.  That has been the case in the development world for the last 50 years.  We are focused on developing capacity of the people who will continue to live the rest of their lives in their community to gain the skills to maintain their systems themselves.
• Development organization or cross cultural exchange?  With no budget allocated or specific project agenda, a volunteer could spend an entire 2 years not laying a single piece of pipe.  By living alongside people in a community, you get to share your life with theirs.  Any aquaduct, business plan, or tourist center that you build won´t be as valuable unless you also build relationships.

Having sat through this lecture was not only inspiring, but a sigh of relief.  The Peace Corps does a pretty good job of keeping you in the dark of the type of work you will be doing and how you will be doing it.  If it were not for speaking with returned volunteers, I wouldn´t have had a sense of these concepts straight from the website or any recruiters.  The approach that the Peace Corps undertakes worldwide is unique and should be its main advertising strategy.

At the end of a conference held by the Peace Corps in Panama, Roland Bunch answered the question with 5 words:  Development is love in action.

La Pedregoza

I visited another Environmental Health volunteer for the last 5 days and the trip was excellant.  Aaron lives in a small mountaintop community called La Pedregoza, which is outside Penonome the capital of Cocle province.  The community was founded in the 1960s by a priest who wanted to start a community of people who are willing to live and work together while following their faith.  Aaron learned that the pioneer spirit still exists in Panama.  As the Inter-Americana grows closer through the Darien (the region that is close to the Colombian boarder), Panamanians spread out and farm the land.

Aaron is working on an aquaduct project for his community, and is following up from the work of a previous PCV.  The PCV built and connected 2 tomas.  Tomas are concrete boxes of various designs, depending on the terrain, which collect the water from the spring and filter it through the use of packed bedrock.  Pipework is then connected out of the spring and routed to the community.  Currently, about 50% of La Pedregoza is seved by this system and have running water at their homes.  Previously, the community would go to a well and collect water from there.  In both cases, the water is still untreated. 

Friday was supposed to be a day to clean the toma, which is extremelly dirty from lack of maintenance.  It was about an hour and a half hike up through the mountains and into the forest which allowed for stunning views of the mountains of Cocle, some untouched forest, and even a view of the Pacific Ocean.  Only Aaron and the president of the water committee showed up to work on the toma, which was disappointing, but not unexpected.

Sunday was the big water committee meeting that was held after church.  This is where the water committee presented to the community their plans to expand the water system so that each home would have a tap of clean, running water.  They will work to build another toma to capture water from another spring, build a reservior tank to use water from the dry season, and lay all the pipe.  Aarons role is to facilitate this process, not lead it.  The members of the water committee are keeping track of the work days owed by each family, the dues, and the organizing.

I want to say thank you to Aaron and the people of La Pedregoza for having me as their guest for 5 days.  It was great to see a volunteer in action and I hope to work within my community the same way Aaron does.

Water committee general meeting

Cleaning the toma

Cleaning the toma

Old well, which the community still uses

First post | still working out the design

This is the first post of my blog as I begin working as an Environmental Health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Panama.  It took me a year and a half to get here and I am excited to begin working.  The Environmental Health project is based on three aspects:  increasing access to potable water, designing, constructing, and maintaining sanitation facilities, and health hygiene education.  More on this later.

This is my third day here and let me bring you up to speed as to what has happened so far.  Peace Corps brings all the volunteers leaving for their post to a Staging city for a day before departure.  We were Staged in Arlington, Virginia.  The day was filled with introductions to the Peace Corps as an organization and what we can expect for the next couple of days.  A gentleman who is opening the Peace Corps in Haiti joined us for the staging event.  It's interesting to know that President Obama is making good to his word by expanding the Peace Corps to 11,000 by 2011, the 50th anniversary.    We'll see what happens.

We left for Panama the next day and arrived to Clayton Army base at around 11:00PM.  Google map Clayton, Panama to get an idea of where we are.  The base is absolutely beautiful.  Not to mention we are staying in villas with electricity, A/C, and Wi-Fi.  All of today was filled with more introductions to the Peace Corps Panama by the Country Director, a Spanish language skills assessment, and meeting with our project managers.  The Panamanian and American Peace Corps employees all seem to be enthusiastic and passionate about the work they are doing.

Finally this post is officially a shout out to my brother Mustafa who happened to be in Arlington the same day I was for his new job.

The universe is good to us.