Happy 50th Peace Corps!

I was doing techinical training for the new group of trainees (volunteers in just two weeks!) when Peace Corps turned 50 on Tuesday. It was a great chance to celebrate and take a moment with 40+ likeminded folks to reflect on what we were doing- and why.

To be honest, taking the time to reflect on the history of the Peace Corps made me prouder of my decision to join than I have ever been. Sometimes it feels like a selfish decision because it is something I always wanted to be a part of and because I am getting so much out of it. Even on my tough days I know that this is what I signed up for, in a lot of ways I have wanted the tough days because I know those are the experiences that change you, that make you ...I don't even know to explain what those changes are, I can see them in myself but it is not easy to state...but this job is hard! Peace Corps' tagline is 'the toughest job you'll ever love' and I don't think it could be put better than that.  There are really tough times and a lot of work and frustrations but working with amazing people in beautiful places and constantly- every day- learning. The exchange between community members and volunteers is what makes the PC experience what it is. By approaching each other as equals we are able to capitalize on one anothers experiences, it is what makes a PCV able to come back transformed- as the learner- and to have had a sustainable impact on his/her community- as an educator (which feels to strong of a word, but you know what I mean). Peace Corps wouldn't work if we didn't get something out of it- not because people wouldn't want to participate but because sustainability does not work if you are not willing to listen and learn from the people with whom you are working. So many failures have resulted from a lack of communication, a missunderstanding.

In rememberence of the passing of Sargent Shriver and his important role in the beggining years of the Peace Corps, we read a section of a graduation speech he made about a year after Peace Corps was started to the trainees.  Here are some of my favorite parts:

''We have decided," one Volunteer wrote, "to match our actions with our convictions."

There is no such thing as an average Peace Corps Volunteer -- except in age, which is 25 for the men and 28 for the women.

There are, however, some characteristics that are similiar.

They are serious, decided, and determined.They are under no illusions. They know life on any frontier -whether Kansas one hundred years ago or Colombia today ---demands the "constancy to purpose" which Disraeli 'said is the secret of success.

Willingly and eagerly they have tackled the big task of studying the rudiments of a foreign language, of learning a new culture and a new people, of preparing themselves to teach, to work in the hospitals or laboratories, or in the fields.

They are a new breed of Americans overseas.

They are not trying to impose their wills on the people with whom they are working. They are working for the foreigner -- not vice versa.

They are speaking his language.

They live under his laws.

They are not trying to change his religion.

They are not trying to make a profit from conducting business in his country.

They are there to do a job --- to share their know-how and skill -and to train teachers, engineers, mechanics, carpenters, home economists, soil specialists, tractor and farm equipment operators, agricultural extension workers , and laboratory technicians.

They are there to work with and learn from those with whom they teach. Like Johnny Appleseed, they are multiplying their influence and leaving a part of their lives wherever they serve.


AND

What is the Peace Corps supplying that has been missing from our foreign policy? I think it is a personal touch. Pamphlets, radio broadcasts, films --- as good as they are, are largely impersonal. To communicate our concern and interest, to express in an awakening land the values of a free and pluralistic society -- people must work with people, people must teach people. Human beings and human values are what democracy is ·all about. If we fail to carry that spirit abroad, we will fail, indeed.

The Peace Corps is not attempting to transplant a culture to the millions of people in the world's underdeveloped nations who are only now beginning to ask what can be theirs in terms of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Their way of life must be just that --their own. But Peace Corps Volunteers are carrying with them --- beyond their skills -- a spirit, a concept, an attitude that says to these people: "We know what you are up against. We have climbed this wa:y, too. We can understand your dreams because they are still our dreams. We know your aspirations and your determinations and we want to share what we know and what we have if it will belp you to grow and prosper"

The speech (and Peace Corps Application) can be found on the wbesite http://www.peacecorps.gov/


If you are thinking about applying: DO! Peace Corps is a wonderful chance to make a difference for someone and have someone make a difference for you. It's not easy, but it's wonderful

Teaching

Learning

Teaching

Learning

Teaching

Learning (well, using something he learned..this by the way is how the grass gets 'mowed')

Teaching

Learning by experiencing...

Grant Approved!

Just wanted to announce that Sean recieved great news in his inbox today. His grant from Apropriate Projects for funds to improve our aquaduct was approved! Check out the link to learn more...
apropriateprojects.com/node/545

congrats to Sean...maybe we will be able to bathe soon...

happy valentine's day!

Grant Approved!

Just wanted to announce that Sean recieved great news in his inbox today. His grant from Apropriate Projects for funds to improve our aquaduct was approved! Check out the link to learn more...
apropriateprojects.com/node/545

congrats to Sean...maybe we will be able to bathe soon...

happy valentine's day!

No excuse on the lateness.

Where to begin?
It has been a long time since I sat down to write a post- I apologize to the faithful readers out there who check regularly for updates.  In this case I can say that no news was good news- we have had an active and exciting time in site the last month and a half, so much so that I have felt overwhelmed when sitting in front of the computer. What is there to say?  Suddenly I am pressed for time, so i will give you just a quick rundown of what is going on with us.

On January 4th we started our summer camp: Expolradores (explorers). Because families were still living in the schools of Boquerón Abajo, our camp ended up being only in the school of Boquerón Arriba.  We have our last week next week and I can definitely say that camp was a success and it was a lot of fun!

Sean had never been a teacher before, but he picked it up very quickly and the campers love science class. His classes have been very hands on with all sorts of fun expirements (like a bottle rocket). His big project with them has been a stream survey where they sample the water daily and each day test a different aspect of it. All of the kids participated in observing and recording the date. Even cooler? Local scientists from the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) are coming to talk to the students about their tests, some of which are very similar. Some of these kids are definitely walking away from camp inspired about science- maybe they can see a future for themselves in the field.

My classes have been English,Art and Story-time.  I have been able to test out some new teaching methods and encourage some much needed creativity.  We of course always include time for games- I am always amazed by how easy it can be to entertain them. We have a wide range ofparticipants- from 4 to 16 years old, so sometimes it can be difficult to make sure they are all enjoying themselves/learning, but I think we have been pretty succesful with that.

We officially have a chicken! She was gifted to us by a community member who knew that we liked the chickens with feathers on their legs. Sean had made a comment that 'these chickens have pants' and she got a kick out of it. Because of her penchant for pants, we have named our chicken Hillary Clinton (or Chicken of the State) . I should point out that this not a knock on Secretary Clinton, or her pantsuits. More like an honor because we adore our chicken.  We have been learning all about the care of chickens. I am definitely going to have a hard time when it is time for her to become dinner...but that is a ways away yet. Right now we are waiting for her to start laying eggs. Then we look for Bill.

Our aqueduct is still not functioning, despite hundreds of man hours spent fixing and cleaning it. Right now Sean is shifting his focus to restore water in the community and working tirelessly on this aquaduct. There is a well so we do have access to water for drinking and eating. We are able to use the river for bathing/laundry now that it is finally back to its beautiful self after the flood. It is truly the most gorgeous color of blue/green- I wish we had a picture to show you!

I just finished up a week-long seminar in the province of Cocle.  There were sets of 2 volunteers in 6 provinces doing these trainings. My partner, Cait, and I trained 40 English teachers last week on different teaching methods, learning styles, classroom management techniques and approaches to teaching foreign languages.  The training was a huge success and the teachers were an enthusiastic group to work with.  It is really different for me to see what kind of resources other schools have- to think that these teachers are purely dedicated to English and in Boquerón we have one teacher who does everything, for all grades. I do wish I had an English teacher to work with in my site so that I could leave knowing that students would continue to learn English after I am gone. It felt rewarding to work with these teachers, hopefully impacting the quality of English education that students are recieving in Cocle.

We had a future volunteer visit us during her training. It was a great time to introduce a trainee to the real life of a volunteer (which can be way different than your very busy, very structured trainee life) and she was a good sport about our rough conditions (even when she almost drank a large hairy spider in her drink, and probably did swallow two of its legs).  We took her on an awesome hike overlooking Boquerón, and htough we probably all got a little sunbunred despite our best efforts, it was definitely worth the trek once we got to the top of the hill.

frog sean spotted on the hike

I am also excited to tell you that I was elected VAC secretary for this coming year (April to April). VAC is the Volunteer Advisory Council and serves as a voice between the office and the volunteers. The board, which consists of 4 members, also sells merchandise to raise money for grants which are given out throughout the year for projects. I am really excited to be a part of the board! It does take me out of site from time to time, but for good reason.

So that is a non-exhaustive rundown of what we have been up to. To sum it up: life is amazing. we are happy. we are healthy. we are busy in the best way. we miss and love you.

one last cool pic from our latrine:

A Long Two Weeks

For those of you who have been paying attention to Panamanian news (I have a feeling there aren't too many of you) you might have notice that the Panama Canal was shut down for the first time in 100 years because of rain. The rain that shut down the Canal was impacting Boquerón in a big way as well. We came back to our house on Monday (12/6) after a meeting. We knew that there had been rain up in Bocas Del Torro, but we had a dry ride up to site and were not thinking about anything more than your average wet season aguacerro (hard rain) coming our way. All of the wet season we had seen had been reasonably dry..we would have a few days of on and off aguacerros all day but most days were pertty sunny with one aguacaerro, usually in the afternoon and then more sun.


On Tuesday we woke up and it was COLD. Now, I know what has been going on in the states weather wise so I won't even pretend that this was actual cold, but for Boquerón, with an average daily temperature of 90 degrees, it definitely qualified as frio. The wind was in full force, blowing our sheet/wall all over the place and causing me to put on a...wait for it....sweatshirt. And pants. No joke. So far nothing more than a light drizzle, but around ten o'clock in the morning the skies started darkening and we decided to hole up in the house for what we knew would be a hard enough rain that no one would out working (otherwise we would be feeling guilty holed up in our house with people out there getting things done!) . Then the rains started.



They started like any other aguacerro, really intense and incredibly loud on our zinc roof (the zinc sometimes makes you think its raining really hard and then you walk outside and actually it has only been sprinkling...but this was definitely loud). But after a little while it became apparent that this wasn't your average aguacerro. For starters, the rain didn't slow down. Normally we excpect a loud, heavy burst of rain, a slow down,maybe another burst and another slow down (maybe not) and then completely ended. But this storm kept going and going and going. Instead of slowing down it got louder - at one point Sean and I , in our tiny house, could literally not hear each other talking. It went on like this for 36 hours. No exaggeration at all. 36 straight hours of the most intense rain we had ever seen in Boquerón.



When the rains finally stopped and people started coming out of their houses, Sean went out to pasear (visit with families), I hung out in the house and played cards with some of the kids. As the kids showed up they started telling me about what Sean would be finding on his trip to visit families- there was major destruction throughout Boquerón. Landslides that pushed mud and dirt down the one road in town, preventing any form of transportation from coming up. Landslides and flooding that destroyed nine houses to the point that the families cannot live in them.Other houses, while not completely destroyed, did suffer damage as a result of the flooding/landslides- not only to the houses themselves but also to the things inside them. The electricity went out in Boqueron and the neighboring communities. This meant that the cell phone tower everyone relied on was not working- communication is always difficult in Boquerón, but it proved to be even more so immediately following the flood.  

Looking up the road towards our house, clogged culvert

Same clogged culvert as above, different angle...in front of house that luckily saw no serious damage



A little further down at the half way point between Boquerón Arriba and Boquerón Abajo



Still halfway point...example of debris thrown around in the flood

This six foot wall wasn't here before the storm...

Landslide in middle of road



The state of the roads made it The state of the roads made itimpossible for food delivery trucks to make it to the stores in town, leaving the sotres with the limited food they had before the storm. Right now, the families who cannot go back to their homes are living in the school in Boquerón Abajo, where most of the physical flood damage occured. There is one family in Boquerón Arriba that is out of their home, all of the rest were in Abajo. This does not mean that Abajo is seeing more of the suffering than Arriba, as of this moment Arriba still has no water and it doesn't look like we will have it anytime soon.



Sean stayed with this family during our Site Visit Week...the dark part of the wall shows the waterline of the flood

Same house from back

Inside the house

Another house destroyed...the concrete slab on the left used to have a house on it

Man surveying the destruction of his house

The hike to the next community...

mud, mud and more mud

Birds-eye view of some landslides

 

We have  been very impressed with the government response to the flooding...Boquerón has seen a large number of donations and many visits from various government agencies who are checking in with the community and seeing how they can help. The response was extremely fast and the citizens without homes have a place to stay and plenty of food and clean water to get them through. They also have received clothes and toys for the children. The outpouring of support is very comforting for us and for the members of the community as they prepare for the next steps.

One organization coming by (this is from the door of our house)

Interviewing a store owner on his experience with the flood

 Encoutnering all of this destruction and each of the many problems that resulted because of two days of heavy rain was very eye opening. Watching families go through the wreckage that was their home, watching people who I had previously thought of as having nothing lose what they did have, experiencing the loss of communication, transportation and water all showed me, yet again, how lucky I am.  Sean put it really well  one night after he had spent the day helping clean mud out of one of the flooded houses and he was really dirty, dying to clean up, but we had no water to bath with. At first he was frustrated, but he said "It's kind of hard to be frustrated about climbing in to bed filthy when we have a bed and so many people don't". We are so lucky on so many levels...we suffered nothing during the floods and we already have so much more than the other people in our community. Stopping and realizing what other people do not have really makes it apparent what we do have.
Our Peace Corps experience is always presenting us with new moments of reflection, usually in regard to how good we have it, how many things we take for granted in our everyday life. I feel this especially on the days when I feel like I need a break from it all. We are only a few hours from the city and it is easy for us to head to Panama, take a hot shower, eat some junk food (or healthy food, sometimes all I am craving is fruits and vegetables!) have a glass of wine, check the internet, watch tv and sleep without the sound of bats overhead.  One day like this and then back to site and I am a new woman, newly energized with (which at least feels like) a fresh set of ideas, some of our favorite food packed to get us through the next few weeks in site and a positive attitude. When I am down in site I think about the fact that I have this reward coming,this chance to rejuvenate. And it seems innocent enough...but other people in our site don't have that at all.  It is not just the physical things that they don't have, it is that they can never take that moment to clear their minds...they can't take a break from campo life because their life is campo life.  Panama is an isthmus and hardly anyone in out community has seen the ocean...many have never been to Panama City. I take these 'small,local' trips for granted, it is only $2.30 for us to get to the city, I forget what a huge deal it is for people in our community to do something like 'go to the city for the night'...I throw it out so casually because it feels like nothing compared to vacations I used to take back home.

Peace Corps has given us an amazing opportunity to live and work with the people of Boquerón in the way they live and work, giving us an increidble perspective of what it means to be poor in rural Panama, but we can never take away the fact that this is only 2 years of our life.  27 months is a long time, sometimes it seems very long, but we all know how quickly two years will go by (8 months is already gone by tomorrow!)...I think I can never truly know what it feels like to be poor if I have a light at the end of the tunnel..with a specific date attached. It is easy for me to see tomorrow, the future in general, because I know that it comes with many changes in store. It is a totally different thing to plan and hope for the future if you have questions about where your next meal or sleeping place is coming from.The trials and tribulations that they face day in and day out are always there, they never go away. Even when they do get something new for their communtiy or something to improve their quality of life, they are still experiencing what can only be described as a hard life

I am sorry to be rambling here, but I have been reflecting on this a lot lately. I was on my 10th packet of Ramen in just as many days, a week without having had peanut butter, two weeks without water, two weeks without bathing, one week without any clean clothes at all, who knows how long without clean sheets and I knew I wouldn't get to see my family on Christmas and I just wanted to get away and take a break. I felt like complaining about all of those things. But then I started thinking that those complaints werejust really me saying "I have food, just not the kind I want right now. And I have clothes. And I have sheets, and a bed to put them on..they're just not comfortable enough and I have people who love me that are only a phone call away"  I mean really, when it comes down to it, what could I possibly be complaining about?

This is the picture of the area I want to leave you with

November Rain

November is a busy month in Panama. We have the Fourth of July but Panama has the month of November to celebrate their independence (they had a few more countries to seperate from) which means that there are lots of parties and less classes than usual.

On the 3rd of November there was an assembly at both schools to celebrate Seperation from Colombia and honor the outstanding students. We stayed in Boqueron Arriba and attended their celebration. All of the moms came to the school to help cook fried chicken and rice for all of the attendants. Unfortunately most of the dads still had to work on their forms and couldn't make it to the celebration. For the festivities, the honors students recited poems about Panama and lead the other students in the pledge of allegiance to Panama.  When we were all done eating, there was a big baseball game!

Some moms hard at work

That's a lot of chicken!

How to cook rice for 40+ people

The whole school assembly

The 6th grade class leading the National Anthem

Current Honors Student and her future Honors Student sister

Baseball

As we mentioned a few posts ago, Sean and I hosted a logo competition for the Boqueron Waste Management project that Sean is helping with. It was a huge success! We had 40 entries- which for Boqueron is a really big number. We have never had more than 20 people at a meeting, so 40 participants was really exciting. We held voting at both schools and ended up with a clear winner.  What was also really exciting about this is that the winner is not a big participant in the community- Boqueron sometimes suffers from having the same group of people involved in all of the projects. Having fresh ideas is a great plus and being able to show that other people can be involved in the community is important.

Logo Submissions on Display 1 Week Prior to Voting

Kids Voting at Boqueron Arriba

Winning Logo

Winning artist and her logo

To celebrate the 'completion' (loose term, as it will always be ongoing) of the garden project in the school of Boqueron Abajo, the Health Committee held a big celebration and invited all of the agencies that work in Chagres National Park. It was an amazing party- and a great recap of all of the hard work that Boqueron, the Health Committe and the Padres de Familia put into the project. We both made mini speeches during the presentation- the biggest group Sean has ever spoken in front of, and it was all in Spanish. The day before the festivities some people got together to kill a cow...Sean got a few pictures before they told him it was bad luck

Cow Killings happen rarely enough that the kids are learning something here

In terms of day to day life...November is a RAINY month. All day, everday. One time there was a landslide int he community that effected transportation big time- no one could get up or down the road.  Also, our water went out and we had 10 straight days without it and life is hard without water. I know there are volunteers who always have to deal with this and I do not envy them at all. It is tough living without water...and dirty living too. Our sink fills up with dirty dishes in no time.  We are still getting lots of visits from the kids.Sean has given some impromptu guitar lessons and we've added some new card games to put an end to the 10000 weekly Go Fish tournaments. Sean went out with Francisco and caught 38 fish! He felt like Santa Claus walking through Boqueron brining fresh caught dinner to some families.  And he made delicious fried fish for the first time for us too.

Francisco in the Canoe

Go fish...a very common scene right before or after school

Sean working on the semilleron...germinating seeds before moving to the new garden.

Kids learning of course.

I apologzie for not being a better photographer here...but love watching Sean as a music teacher

 Summer vacation starts in Panama on December 15th and we are actively planning a summer camp for up to 80 kids. The camp will be called Exploradores (explorers) and every week will have an exploration based theme (navigate, discover, adventure) and a corresponding 'field trip' somewhere int he community. We will be teaching art, english and science and having lots and lots of games. If you were thinking about sending a care package with games and craft materials for the kids, think maybe about getting it out soon so we can use it for camp.  The more we can have at the start of camp the better for the kids. We want to give these kids the summer of their lives!