Check out this video of 63 year old Zoraida peeling coffee. She is the daughter of Amalia and the sister of Francisco. She has already picked the coffee and set it out to dry in the sun. Here, she gets rid of the debris before peeling, or shelling, the coffee. Not easy work!
Once done, she will roast the coffee and then grind it, but she did not do the entire process on this day. Another time I will get that on video.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
BoqueRUN/Spay Panama
Below is an article that I wrote for the Peace Corps Panama Newsletter/Magazine that comes out 3x a year La Vaina. It was published in the most recent issue. This was a huge project for us in August-Novemeber.
As most of us lucky volunteers here in Panama, we live in a gorgeous site. Adding to our luck, we live right on a river in a National Park only an hour and a half from Panama City. All summer long our river is filled with Panamanian tourists who aprovechan the beautiful surroundings of Bouquerón. During our first dry season last year we quickly learned that the community has not taken advantage of these tourists. They charge a ¢.50 entry fee per visitor and leave it at that. We tried in vain to encourage community members to sell their artisan work, harvested vegetables or world-class sancocho, but were met with refusal and the sad mantra of ‘no one will pay for those things’. During the wet season we tried again to reason with community members, hoping to organize them before the summer season started again.
Right around the same time a problem that had occurred to me the moment I got to our community was vocalized by community members. A large number of dogs in the community all had puppies around the same time and puppies were being handed out as unwanted gifts, if they lived long enough to be away from their mother. One community member took matters into his own hands and ‘neutered’ a dog with his machete. It wasn’t his dog and the owner was none to pleased. People were starting to verbalize that we had an overpopulation problem, that fixing the animals would be the answer, but how?
We knew another volunteer had Spay Panama, a Panamanian based NGO that provides low cost spay and neuter operations to combat the problem of overpopulation, do a blitz in their community. We knew that Spay Panama would be a great option for Boquerón, but low cost isn’t no cost and the prices normally charged by Spay Panama are still out of reach for our community members. We thought of a way to tackle both problems at once.
Together with members of the community we began to plan a 5k and family day to take place in Boquerón. The plan was that money raised from the run would pay Spay Panama so that the community would be involved in the raising of the funds but that the families would not be forced to come up with their own money. We set a target of $500 and decided that if we made that goal everything over would be split 50/50 between community projects and Spay Panama. With its proximity to the city, beautiful landscape and escape from the usual urban weekend we were confident that if people could learn about the event that they would come. But outside of Peace Corps Volunteers and family members of community members, we weren’t sure how to get the word out. More luck here: we had an embassy family and they were super excited to help us out. With an unparalleled energy our host family jumped right into the marketing of the event, spreading word throughout the Embassy and helping us get articles and advertisements posted in the Embassy Newsletter. The Embassy even stepped in to put the event on their calendar and to provide money for food and low cost transportation for all interested Embassy families. Because funds were being raised for Spay Panama they also provided transportation for their volunteers and non-Embassy folks who participated.
Meanwhile back in the community we worked hard to convince people to take advantage of the visitors we planned to have during the event. People were wary at first, but slowly we organized tour guides for guided hikes, horseback riding, free lunch for everyone (thanks to the Embassy funds) and a farmer’s market where all interested community members were able to sell their goods.
Leading up to the event, which took place on September 25th, we had no idea what to expect. No fee was charged to enter, it was all donation based. We hoped for 50 people and $500 but had no idea if we would come close. We were nervous organizing our volunteers and community members, hoping that they would not be chopping down fruit and then have no one to sell it to. When the first bus came up at 8:30 it was completely full! At that moment we knew it was going to be a successful day.
In the end we had around 130 folks who registered as having attended the event, though we estimate that more came. We raised over $1300! But most importantly, the community saw firsthand just what they could accomplish by organizing. Everyone who brought things to sell that day made money and they saw that their work had value. Immediately they began planning what they needed to do to prepare for the summer months. The visitors were almost all Americans and the day was filled with goal 2 and 3 opportunities. Panamanian and American kids played together, and people of all ages conversed, ate and shared a beautiful day in Panama.
Six weeks later the community again got to see their work pay off when Spay Panama showed up with 15 volunteers to do a two-day spay and neuter blitz in Boquerón. More families participated in this event than in anything else we have seen in our time here. 78 animals were operated on during the two days.
The success of this two-part project would not have been possible without the collaboration of the United States Embassy or of Spay Panama. We are incredibly lucky to have had known wonderful people at both organizations who worked with us, even when we were impossible to communicate with , and devoted their time to the community of Boquerón
This video was taken two weeks before the Spay Panama operations in Boqueron. The vets cam eup to check out the location and prep the horses. The campesino (the only obvious non-doctor) is our neighbor Orlando. Notice that cute white guy in the background at about the 50 second mark.
As most of us lucky volunteers here in Panama, we live in a gorgeous site. Adding to our luck, we live right on a river in a National Park only an hour and a half from Panama City. All summer long our river is filled with Panamanian tourists who aprovechan the beautiful surroundings of Bouquerón. During our first dry season last year we quickly learned that the community has not taken advantage of these tourists. They charge a ¢.50 entry fee per visitor and leave it at that. We tried in vain to encourage community members to sell their artisan work, harvested vegetables or world-class sancocho, but were met with refusal and the sad mantra of ‘no one will pay for those things’. During the wet season we tried again to reason with community members, hoping to organize them before the summer season started again.
Right around the same time a problem that had occurred to me the moment I got to our community was vocalized by community members. A large number of dogs in the community all had puppies around the same time and puppies were being handed out as unwanted gifts, if they lived long enough to be away from their mother. One community member took matters into his own hands and ‘neutered’ a dog with his machete. It wasn’t his dog and the owner was none to pleased. People were starting to verbalize that we had an overpopulation problem, that fixing the animals would be the answer, but how?
We knew another volunteer had Spay Panama, a Panamanian based NGO that provides low cost spay and neuter operations to combat the problem of overpopulation, do a blitz in their community. We knew that Spay Panama would be a great option for Boquerón, but low cost isn’t no cost and the prices normally charged by Spay Panama are still out of reach for our community members. We thought of a way to tackle both problems at once.
Together with members of the community we began to plan a 5k and family day to take place in Boquerón. The plan was that money raised from the run would pay Spay Panama so that the community would be involved in the raising of the funds but that the families would not be forced to come up with their own money. We set a target of $500 and decided that if we made that goal everything over would be split 50/50 between community projects and Spay Panama. With its proximity to the city, beautiful landscape and escape from the usual urban weekend we were confident that if people could learn about the event that they would come. But outside of Peace Corps Volunteers and family members of community members, we weren’t sure how to get the word out. More luck here: we had an embassy family and they were super excited to help us out. With an unparalleled energy our host family jumped right into the marketing of the event, spreading word throughout the Embassy and helping us get articles and advertisements posted in the Embassy Newsletter. The Embassy even stepped in to put the event on their calendar and to provide money for food and low cost transportation for all interested Embassy families. Because funds were being raised for Spay Panama they also provided transportation for their volunteers and non-Embassy folks who participated.
Meanwhile back in the community we worked hard to convince people to take advantage of the visitors we planned to have during the event. People were wary at first, but slowly we organized tour guides for guided hikes, horseback riding, free lunch for everyone (thanks to the Embassy funds) and a farmer’s market where all interested community members were able to sell their goods.
Leading up to the event, which took place on September 25th, we had no idea what to expect. No fee was charged to enter, it was all donation based. We hoped for 50 people and $500 but had no idea if we would come close. We were nervous organizing our volunteers and community members, hoping that they would not be chopping down fruit and then have no one to sell it to. When the first bus came up at 8:30 it was completely full! At that moment we knew it was going to be a successful day.
In the end we had around 130 folks who registered as having attended the event, though we estimate that more came. We raised over $1300! But most importantly, the community saw firsthand just what they could accomplish by organizing. Everyone who brought things to sell that day made money and they saw that their work had value. Immediately they began planning what they needed to do to prepare for the summer months. The visitors were almost all Americans and the day was filled with goal 2 and 3 opportunities. Panamanian and American kids played together, and people of all ages conversed, ate and shared a beautiful day in Panama.
Six weeks later the community again got to see their work pay off when Spay Panama showed up with 15 volunteers to do a two-day spay and neuter blitz in Boquerón. More families participated in this event than in anything else we have seen in our time here. 78 animals were operated on during the two days.
The success of this two-part project would not have been possible without the collaboration of the United States Embassy or of Spay Panama. We are incredibly lucky to have had known wonderful people at both organizations who worked with us, even when we were impossible to communicate with , and devoted their time to the community of Boquerón
The first animal operated on by Spay Panama in Boqueron
Families enjoying the adventerous walk to the waterfall
Community members preparing signs for BoqueRUN
We helped, too!
Participants arriving to BoqueRUN
Families in Boqueron Arriba waiting for operations with their pets
Families in Boqueron Abajo...
Ivan carrying an operated dog to the 'waiting room'..or another spot on the floor in this same space.
This video was taken two weeks before the Spay Panama operations in Boqueron. The vets cam eup to check out the location and prep the horses. The campesino (the only obvious non-doctor) is our neighbor Orlando. Notice that cute white guy in the background at about the 50 second mark.
I made this video for my high school, Gilmour Academy. They recently ordered 200 necklaces from MADRE and this video is about the group and the process of making the necklaces. A big shout out to Gilmour for ordering the necklaces-our first big order! Since our first day of sales on June 27th we have sold $3,000 in necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
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