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!