Drumroll.....Santa Marta!!

I found out where I am going to serve for the next two years! At Peace Corps Headquarters we had a large ceremony and it was a very exciting day as our bosses announced where we would be serving.  After our site was announced we placed our picture on a large map of Panama.  I will be serving in the Comarca of Ngobe-bugle, a very large reserved area in Panama. Just some background information, there are 9 provinces in Panama, mostly resided by the Latino population, and 5 comarcas. Comarcas are reserved areas for the 7 indigenous groups that still live in panama. My community is called Santa Marta and it lies right on the border of the province of Bocas del Torro (I hear one of the best and beautiful provinces, also full of coffee and cocoa farms) and the comarca Ngobe-Bugle. This means that not only will I be speaking Spanish but will have a chance to learn the indigenous language of Ngobere. The people who live in these areas speak both. I will also not have electricity and while the majority of houses have running water, I will need to filter it.

 

After our site announcements we met our regional leaders. Regional leaders are usually split up by province and are there to support volunteers, give supplies, and can even come to your community to help with a project. Regional leaders usually live in the province capital so when we have regional meetings every 4 months, it is a good excuse to go to the city, splurge and relax.

 I found out my site with 3 weeks of training left, but one week of training is devoted to visiting your site. Volunteers from the communities agreed to be guides for the PC volunteers. The guides are supposed to show us around, introduce us to people, and answer questions. All guides came to PC Headquarters for a Community Entrance Conference. My guide was a little timid at first (normal for Panamanians but even more so for indigenous people) but within several minutes he gained my trust and was laughing. The conference was composed of seminars in security, the expectations of the guides, the expectations of the volunteers, and what I thought was most important, the volunteers did a skit with all the different roles a volunteer plays: co-facilitator, learner, teacher, change agent, and co-planner.

          

Since we needed to travel far to the west side of the country, we took two days of travel. After the conference we took a bus for 7 hours to the province of Chiriqui, arrived at 2 am and stayed in a hotel. The next day we took another bus for 2 hours. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous as the poor bus motor struggled to ascend into the mountains of rainforests. When my guide and I got off the bus his family was there to greet me and help me with my luggage.

We walked on a dirt road for about ten minutes and there was my beautiful community. I did not see the cement houses that I normally see but saw wooden houses on stilts. I did not see the houses surrounded by dogs barking, but saw tall grass, mango trees, and children. My host mother, soon to be my role model, greeted me with open arms and her three little boys immediately wanted to play soccer.

 

Walking through my community

 

My host mom is an amazing woman. Not only is she caring, compassionate, generous, and patient, she takes care of 3 boys on her own, has 2 farms she needs to maintain, has a store, teaches parenting seminars, and uses a machete like no other woman I’ve seen.

We had a community meeting in order to present myself and the Peace Corps. My community has had volunteers in the past but it has been 7 years and they served in different sectors. I made it clear that I was not here to give money, serve as a missionary, teach English, nor build latrines and aqueducts. My sector focuses on conservation projects such as reforestation, trash management, home gardens, and environmental education. They were all very excited, but overwhelmingly eager to start projects. Some seemed confused that I was only there for the week, and others wanted me to start projects the following day. I also had to explain that once I move there, I cannot immediately start projects. For the first three months the goal is to meet community members, talk to teachers, better my Spanish, and assess the community’s needs. After three months I will hold a meeting with the community to talk and vote about projects. Many seemed to calm down after this explanation but I am sure I will be repeating this 1000 times. Also during this meeting I received my Ngobe name. It is very common for volunteers (and community members as a matter of fact) to have a Latino name and Ngobe name. My name is “Meti”. I am named after a woman who died about 20 years ago. She was described to me as the caretaker of the community. She loved everyone and took care of the community members with botanical medicines. I am honored to be named after such an important woman.

On a social level, everyone in the community was very welcoming. The men were eager to hear about life in the United States and were making jokes about Obama. Older women joked that my biological clock was ticking and I needed to hurry and marry their sons. Younger women were quieter but very generous with foods, sweets, and coffee. Some children immediately ran to hug me while others cried because they had never seen white skin before.

My closest volunteer is only a 15 minute walk down the road. I visited him and his community. He gave me great advice about what to expect in an indigenous site, what to do if I find a scorpion in my clothes, and offered his house to me whenever I needed to cry or eat something else besides rice and boiled bananas. I feel comforted to know I have a support system so close.

I visited my host mother’s farm. She has primarily cocoa, but also a fruit called pifa (no me gusta), platanos, bananas, and guava. She told me how little she is paid for the cocoa seeds and the process of harvesting. I wish to fully explain this in a blog post when my Spanish is better (as I did not understand everything) and after I have visited more farms (most of the community earns their income from cocoa). I think it is important for followers to get a view from the farmers’ perspective in the cocoa industry.

 

Old cocoa shells used for compost

 

Cocoa farm in the middle of the jungle

 

I also spent a morning machete-ing tall grass with the men. This opened doors for conversation about gender roles. A few advised that I be careful because this is a man’s job and my body couldn’t handle it; others said the women could use help with the cooking. After all the talk about gender roles in training, I was able to finally apply what I learned. I explained that I am going to respect their culture, but in return I expect them to respect mine. Many women in the States do arduous labor and many men can cook. I am capable of doing all and want to learn all the roles of daily life. I also will be able to immerse successfully if I bond and work with both genders. In response to my feminist rant, I expected scoffs or further arguments. However, the men immediately apologized and asked if they had offended me. They seemed intrigued that men and women have different roles in different parts of the world. Even though this is not going to change what they have been doing for years, I felt successful in getting them to think about these things. Little by little!

My last day in my site I became very ill and actually had to leave to go to the clinic. Everything was fine. I warn my family that I am going to live in a province notorious for its water quality problems so “getting sick” is just part of my life now!

Tech Week

After 4 weeks of training, we have visited sites, have discussed and practiced topics from gardening, trash management, adult learning behaviors, cross cultural behaviors, how to approach and work with teachers, teaching in school, expectations of counterparts, national agencies and how to approach them formally for support, behavior changes, and how to hold community meetings. All of what we learned was applied during a week called tech week. All CEC trainees traveled to Valleriquito in the province of Las Tables. The current volunteer and many members of his community greeted us with open arms. My host mother for the week, Deda, is an amazing woman that I hope to have the chance to visit again. She lives by herself but her 2 sisters also live in Valleriquito (also amazing women) and her kids live close by. She maintains her own farm, makes incredibly beautiful artwork and crafts with gourds, embroiders her own sheets, and loves her community.

 

Dedas house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The neighbors talked about how social she is and described how she is out spending time with friends and neighbors more than she is in her own house. Recently retired, she lives comfortably but is always treating her neighbors with recently harvested fruits and handmade gifts. She made amazing food and juice; I ate more vegetables during this week than my entire time in Panama. She was very sympathetic and compassionate. She asked me how I was feeling, how was I adapting to the culture, language, and life far away from my friends and family in the states. I actually stumbled over my Spanish in trying to answer, and after the conversation I realized why. No Panamanian has yet to ask me these questions. I realized that my host family in Santa Clara never ask how I am doing, nor ask about my family in the states. Others have asked about my personal life, but I don’t think they can relate to leaving their home for two years. Since living with Deda she has already called me several times to check up on me and chat.

During the week we discussed topics of gender empowerment and classroom management. However most of the week consisted of facilitating. We taught in the school garden as a group and also taught in the classrooms in pairs. The current volunteer held a community meeting and we presented the basics of organic composting, and even facilitated some hands on activities. After we presented the volunteer spoke with his community about the current trash problem and brainstormed ideas on what they could do to fix the problem. Seeing the community involved was very inspiring yet terrifying.

Inspiring: the community was very excited to participate. Almost 70 of 150 people showed up to the community meeting and many voiced their opinions. Everyone was excited to do the activities and helped others when there was confusion.

Frightening: there were moments when many people were speaking at once and getting off topic. Many stated things they wanted to fix but the volunteer had a hard time getting community members to focus on solutions, or even steps towards a solution. They wanted quick fixes or even for the volunteer to do things for them. The volunteer had to explain several times that this is not sustainable because who would manage it when he leaves?

Seeing this community meeting was a great part of tech week and we debriefed about what went well, what could have been changed, and strategies for when you hit a roadblock.



The community working together to make compost

 

During tech week we visited another community called Guanico Abajo, about an hour from Valleriquito. This community was right along the beach. We visited a marina that is currently working on protecting sea turtle eggs from poachers. We also spent the afternoon with the woman’s artisan group and they showed us how to make (or at least start) bags from candy wrappers, bracelets from magazines, and purses from plastic bags. To make each of these things can take several days and we only had 15 minutes at each station, but it was a good introduction. We also got some relaxation time at the beach that afternoon.

 

Our last night in Valleriquito, they community threw us a despedida (goodbye party). The community was so impressed with our work that they told our bosses the day before that they were going to throw us a fiesta. We had no idea and we arrived at the communal house surprised with parting gifts (a hand painted plate of Valleriquito), tamborrita music, dancing, and snacks. All of the trainees even had to say a little speech!

Overall tech week was a very beneficial session to my training. We had an abundant amount of opportunities to practice Spanish and practice facilitating. Halfway through training with 4 weeks to go!

We had an extra day to spear before we needed to return to our training communities so a group of us went to El Valle. El Valle is a popular tourist spot in the mountains. We took advantage of free wifi, cool breezes, relaxing, cooking for ourselves, hiking, animal refuges, and hot springs.

 

The Sleeping Indian. Can you see her?

 

 

               

 

 

 

Stay in School

Primary school is kindergarten to 6^th grade. High school is split up into two sections: years 1-3 and years 4-6. In years 4-6 the students are required to pick a specialty. I have met students who are focusing in everything from mechanics to accounting. All the schools in Panama are painted blue and white so you can easily find them. In many schools there are not enough students nor teachers to allow for a full classroom with one grade. Therefore multi-grade classrooms are popular. For example a teacher will have 1^st and 5^th graders in their class and will lecture to one grade while the other grade is doing an activity. The other week in training I taught in a class that had 3 grades!

Critical thinking is not a popular teaching technique. Teachers emphasize on repetition and having the students copy material from the board. MEDUCA, Panama’s department of education, recently enforced that teachers no longer teach this way. However this change is leaving teachers frustrated because MEDUCA is not providing guidance with interactive teaching methods and teachers are not trained to teach any other way! On a brighter note, teachers have been very welcoming to Peace Corps volunteers in the recent months because volunteers have helped teachers in using different styles and also incorporating environmental education in the curriculum. MEDUCA provides school supplies to poorer families. Children receives books, backpacks, uniforms, and notebooks. MEDUCA also supplies the cafeteria with food and will also work with the department of health in providing vitamins and medicine.

In regards to teachers, they have a challenging ladder to climb. After a new teacher graduates they need to earn points to earn a “say” in where they would like a permanent job. A new teacher earns points by teaching in a community for a year, usually far from home and chosen by MEDUCA. The following years they will work in different communities until they have enough points to apply for a place closer to home or where they want to live. Sometimes teachers will travel 3 hours a day before and after class, and in many cases I have seen teachers living in their teaching communities for the week but then will visit home/family on the weekends. Since many teachers do not live in the communities where they teach, they do not know their students on a personal level, will leave as early as possible on Friday and come as late as possible on Monday, or go home immediately after school. In what I have seen and heard from other volunteers, teachers are not the most prepared and this scenario also limits the possibilities for tutoring or after school activities. To make matters worse, if a teacher is sick or has meeting they simply won’t show up and there are no substitutes. In this case students will go home for the day, and some students have traveled an hour to get to school. This system is also hard on the community because students and parents are adapting to new teachers all the time, this is especially true in indigenous communities that are isolated and many educated teachers do not want to permanently work.

In experiencing a school system different from the United States, I am grateful to have received the education I did but will now pause to criticize it. I always had things to complain about when I was in school but now I have been exposed and realize the importance of education in a developing nation.