The morning commute

I remember sitting on the bus in DC going to work one morning (yes, the lovely commute). I looked up and saw this Peace Corps recruiting poster that had some lovely picture and said something like....Wanna change your morning commute? I just smiled to myself because I had already applied, because the answer to that question was a definite yes.

Here is a picture of my current morning commute. The commute may change in a few months....I´m not sure to what

What will I miss from Panama
-Seeing an amazing amount of stars and the Milky Way up in the sky
-Getting free meals (even to go) everywhere I go. (I'm sure looking too skinny doesn't hurt either)
-Fruit trees everywhere. There's so many varieties of fruits just for the taking.
-Speaking of Fruit....Guava, Guayaba, 50 cent pineapples, Mangoteen, Maracuya, 15 different types of bananas, Mangos, Mamones,
-A full meal for 1.75
-Having everyone say Hi or call out your name when you walk by
-Being seen as an expert (by some) and treated as a child (by many)
-Great Coffee
-Mixing up treats using Cacao from other volunteers communities, and raw sugar cakes and fresh cow milk from my community. Or oranges from my back yard.
-Eating the chicken that was just walking around. Talk about eating local
-Making my own schedule. 6 am to 10 pm running around one day, laying in the hammock reading the next.
-Visiting other volunteers, which allows you to see the great work being done by volunteers and their pioneering counterparts
-My dog, Lula. I speak to her in Spanish though I'm not sure she understands or obeys a single thing I say
-Staring up at a Volcano every day

news

Well, I'm in the middle of my Regional Leader duties. Visiting potential communitites for incoming volunteers and planning for the regional meeting. I'm keeping pretty busy this January. The family was just here for 10 days. We got to visit both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and enjoy both the tropical sun and tropical rains.





Overall things continue to go well here in Panama. Wierd to think how things are winding down and how in 5 months, I'll be done here. In some ways I feel I've been here forever, but in others, like I just arrived. And certain projects are only now just getting off the ground. But, noone's really here to save the world. All we can do is give little nudges in the right directions.

For those interested, what I'm working on right now:

Painting a map of the world on a school wall
Developing future sites
Helped put on an Ecological Camp
Helping at a Leadership Seminar for Volunteers and their counterparts
Working on a tree nursery with the community group to plant trees near streams in cow pastures
Trying to bring in funding for my environmental group to put on a project like reforestation or an orchid nursery.

Being in Panama

-Where when someone jokingly insults me or does something silly, I can respond purely with “tu si eres” (translated, you sure are)
-Where I sing along with reggaeton songs on the radio in the bus…I started doing that back in the U.S. before realizing I looked insane
-Where I, the environmentalist, think the best thing development-wise that can happen for a town is to get a road. That’s right, all you hippy international development workers. Let’s go back to the 50s. Infrastructure is what is up.
-Where I can get heavy things carried for me or get rides so I don’t have to walk (chauvinism is not all bad)
-Where my blue eyes enchant and are considered super sexy
-Where when I try to leave someone’s home, they plead “no te vayas, espera la comida” (don’t leave, wait for the food), and if I decline they give me the insulted sad face or what? You don’t like my cooking?
-Where when it gets too hot, you should just go jump in the river

Holiday wishes (slightly late

I had emailed this out and posted on Facebook, but in case you don't get either of those and do check this....

I just want to send you all a quick e-mail from here in Panama wishing you all the best for Christmas and New Years. I will be spending (my second) Christmas here in Palma Real, Panama. I’m sure it will be very laid back. I’ve enjoyed this year down here immensely. I feel like I’ve had some more work, more projects coming along. My environmental group went from never meeting at all to developing project plans and starting a tree nursery (though I won’t take too much credit for either of those). I’ve also ran a recycling material collection campaign at the school as well as teaching environmental classes and computers (and a little English). This year I was also involved in a planning committee for cultural events throughout my district. And, this year I also got promoted to being the Regional Leader (for my province Chiriqui). I’m enjoying the new job and responsibilities, which include visiting and supporting the volunteers in my region, developing new communities for future volunteers, and coordinating with the government agencies. It keeps me busier, but I find it rewarding. I also even managed to make a trip back to the U.S. this year in September, and I enjoyed seeing a few of you (the week went by way too fast).
So, I wish you all the best in this holiday season and in the upcoming year of 2010. This will be the year I appear back in the States, and who knows what I’ll be doing then. As I sit here in my little home enjoying the sun, palm trees, and the 70 degree heat, I miss you all, but I don’t actually miss the “white” Christmas idea that much.
Keep in touch and let me know what you’re up to.

Poco a Poco

They have a little saying here in Peace Corps Panama about “Poco a Poco.” It translates to little by little. They often use it to refer to the slow pace of change. If you thought you were going to show up in your community and on day two be changing the world…think again. Fast paced DC life is behind, people take a laid back approach to things, and change is always slow. Think about your work as poco a poco. In some ways this is true. Now well into my second year of service, I have much more direction and work than my first year. It take a while to really know your town and for things to start happening. That’s why a Peace Corps volunteer needs 2 years.
But, after today I have a new definition for poco a poco. I’m gonna say it also means take things a little at a time, as far as amount of work. After months of showing up at school and working and nothing happening, I came upon two great ideas. First, my recycling collection is going slow, even after 3 months not many people have brought stuff in and the end of the year is upon us. Why don’t we declare a competition of the classrooms with a prize for which class brings the most? Second, why don’t we introduce Panamanians to school photos? You know, class shot, individual shot, sell them? Both these started this week, with me serving as recycling coordinator and counter, photographer (actually, basically just call me Jostens, I’m in charge of the whole thing down to printing). The principal of my school talked about the ingenious idea of taking class pictures to sell, said probably soon every school would be doing it, but that our school was the first. Just, I wish I’d only had one ingenious idea at a time.
So, this morning as I was trying to count beer cans, take pictures, and keep orders, I realized I had too much. Trying to organize first graders to take pictures while another kid throws a quarter at me saying “my mom wants to buy that picture of me” and another kid comes up with “how many points does third grade have, did you see the entire wheelbarrow of cans I brought?” I started to go crazy. It was like waiting tables at a full restaurant again. I’m sure the kids could see it. But, ultimately, enthusiasm is contagious. And getting kids excited about bringing all those beer bottles their dad has sitting around behind the house, and getting a class photo (where probably 90% of families don’t own cameras). I felt I was doing something good. Especially after a year and a half of poco a poco.

back to Panama

Back to my site after visiting the U.S. Some people told me they’d been worried that I was going to stay in the U.S. and that I was missed. It actually wasn’t very weird being gone. Though, I’m sure in ten months it will be. I was super happy to see that my recycling project had gone ahead without my presence. The teachers seemed to manage it just fine despite their worries that they wouldn’t be able to do it without me. Hey, that’s the sustainability us Peace Corps volunteers go for.
I’m also going to take on a new role: Regional Leader. It’s a volunteer that helps with volunteer support and agency relations at the regional level (like, for my province). Somewhat of a promotion. I’ll see if the new responsibilities become overwhelming or not. I don’t officially start until November, so the next month is for preparing and learning the ropes.