Campo Birthday

It's my birthday, I'll kill a chicken if I want to.

Birthdays basically mean you have to kill a chicken. I was very Panamanian about getting on this task, and waited until the last minute. And no one wanted to sell me one. I sort of guilted on of my favorite crazy old ladies into selling me one. So the Sunday before my birthday I stopped by and picked it up, carrying it 30 minutes to Melania's house. It almost pecked me in the face as I tried opening one of the gates. Not cool. Melania was laughing at me as I walked in the house with this chicken, she didn't think I was really going to buy it.

We got to work right away. Melania killing the chicken (I wasn't going to do that) and I was cutting up the veggies. We made arroz con  pollo. Rice cooked with small pieces of chicken and cabbage, carrots, onions, and pepper. Potato salad with beets. Fruit punch. Funfetti cake. All the essentials.

No one knew the words to happy birthday. It took about an hour to get them to finally sing to me and then they sang it more or less correctly, with only a few made up parts ie "and blow out the candles." It was incredibly sweet and I absolutely loved it!!

Excellent celebration of my quarter century!

Junta de Amy

I held my first junta  or work day and I have to say it was pretty fun! Out in the campo people have juntas when there is a lot of work to to, like building ranchos, or more importantly my rancho. I set a date and invited the people. I advertised it on the white board at the store. Twelve guys came along with three ladies to cook. In the morning the guys were cutting and carrying the palm. Around 10 the teacher carried the huge load in her car and they started putting it on the roof. Seven pounds of beef and ten pounds of rice late they ate and continued working. As with any good junta there was chicha de maize or a sweet corn drink. Often it is fuerte or alcoholic, but I went for the sweet option. It's Peace Corps people, gotta keep it g-rated. They finished just before the rain came...and guess what...my porch was dry!

Stove 1 Success!

The building has begun!

As part of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas grant seminar, 6 volunteers and their counterparts along with several Peace Corps staff came to Los Virotales to build two stoves, and Eco-Justa (the kind I am building for my project) and a tower stove. After weeks of running around like a crazy person trying to organize everything and worrying that something would go wrong, the day was an amazing success!

Everyone arrived at 8:30 am and started off with an intro by yours truly and then the "stove expert" Sixto took over the show. He explained to everyone the process of how to build the stove. Everyone helped a little, whether it be mixing cement or sifting sand or laying the bricks. Asking questions and taking notes. I got the best Panamanian cooks, my host mom and grandma to help cook a tasty lunch of chicken, lentils, rice, and a cabbage and carrot salad. Ollie only fought once.

The second part of the day we built a tower stove, another type of stove many volunteers are using. This type is preferred by some due to the fact that is is free. You need to get some wood to make the molds for the bricks, and the bricks and "cement" are dirt and horse poop. Same thing, everyone got their hands dirty and asked questions.

I was beyond happy with the support of Peace Corps and my community to pull this day off. The families of each stove did their part in providing materials and helping with lunch and coffee breaks. Several people stopped by just to check out what was going on.

Definitely a Peace Corps high!

One year meeting

As part of the Peace Corps Panama process, each volunteer has a one year meeting in which a supervisor comes to check in on the work you are doing and the see what you have planned for the coming year. They also come to address any problems or difficulties one may have.

The first meeting I had scheduled I did not want to have. I was not in a great place, things were not moving forward. I felt the office had no clue what was going on. I was afraid of what people would say to my boss. I felt like I had nothing to show for my year of work. It was also to be held at a bad time, during school vacation when lots of people were traveling or had family visiting. And for all this one person showed up to my meeting. One. For as much as I did not want to have this meeting, it really sucked when no one came.

Then I went home for two weeks and quite frankly it made me feel worse. Everyone talking about what a great job I was doing, so proud of me, etc. When that was certainly not the way I felt.

Once I returned things began to change, work was rolling in and my stove grant was approved. All the solicitation and planning in the past year was finally paying off. Time for round two of the meeting. This time I went house to house telling people, I did not rely on sending notes. I notified people far in advance so no one would plan a junta for cutting rice.  I kept reminding people. I was so ready for this meeting. Then the day before the meeting a woman died. I had no clue what to do. I called my boss and he said he would come, and just play it by ear. Turns out 8 people showed up and the meeting went amazing. All the feedback was positive from the community members. I printed photos of things we have done in the past year. And I talked about some of the things I have planned. And they gave me suggestions of things they would like to work on too. My boss left happy with me and I left happy with me too.

I have been slowly learning that everyone is not interested in working with me, and that is ok. I have found the people who really are motivated to work and want to learn about new techniques and have been working more closely with and supporting them. And now I go forward, newly energized and ready to work!

Afredo on the yegua

This past weekend I went to my first amanecida or dance that lasts all night. We arrived at about 10 and it lasted until 7:30am. Tipico dancing all night with Nenito and Alfredo. It was awesome!  It was jam packed with so many people you could hardly move. My feet got so dirty from other people stepping on them. And how else would you finish the night? Why of course with Nenito playing the accordion on a donkey and Alfredo on a yegua (female horse)! Yes folks this is real. They rode around playing the last song on a donkey and a horse. I nearly got trampled by people as the horse got scared and started bucking. I love Panama J

FULLY FUNDED!!!

GRACIAS! GRACIAS! GRACIAS! Thank you soooooo much to all that donated to the Los Virotales stove project! Your support is invaluable! It feels great to be moving forward in the project and everyone is very excited! More to come soon once we start building!

Thank you to:

David, Cindy, and Kelly Stypa

Richard and Lorraine Stypa

Sharon Schwedt and Brett Neubig

Les Neubig and Sue Matecki

Roman and Diane Cefali

Mr. and Mrs. Lyons

Mr. and Mrs. Gross

Mrs. Wik

Don and Sharon Mulqueen

Eric and Katie Zimmerman

Evan and Bethany Crahen

Whitney Peterson

Kira Sullivan-Wiley

Please let me know if you made a donation to include you in my thank yous! Not how much, just if you did! 

Motivation such an aggravation

How does one motivate another? I think this is the eternal Peace Corps question.

I certainly didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, but I know that I have had many incredible opportunities in my life. I don’t feel that I have anything I don’t deserve or didn’t earn. It pains me to see the lost opportunities here. The Panamanian government and international governments give away millions of dollars each year in different projects, and the people don’t take advantage of it. When has the US government given me thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff for me to work and provide for my family. Never that’s when. 

Recently we began a soil conservation project with 4 other communities because there was not enough interest is just Los Virotales. This is legit the best project that has ever come. Soil conservation is great from an environmental perspective because they are not clearing new land every year to plant and will reduce the amount of chemicals used in production. From a farmers view, it saves them work because they are not clearing land every year, and saving them money in workers and chemicals. And those that are farming now aren’t spring chickens anymore. During one of the meetings that two people showed up to, the engineer asked me if I had land here because I was the most interested in the project. Yikes. This project also rocks because the funds are a lot more flexible. There are not just buying things that the project requires, they are asking the people what they want. Genius. What tools, what plants, what more could you want?

Good news. 4 community members are participating, and I believe getting a lot out of it. I still may be the most excited about it, but at least there are a few on board with me. And that is really what it is about, reaching those who are interested. Because not everyone will be. Peace Corps is here for those few motivated individuals. To help them move forward in their work and have them make the world a little bit better place.