Ultimate Frisbee for a Primitive culture

 

My readers that are family and friends know that I am an active person that enjoy sports and exercise, but it was something I was seriously lacking here in Panama. In site, I have tried to go running but our dirt road is full of unstable rocks and the abundance of mud I need to cross to even get to the road discouraged me. I used yoga podcasts for an early morning stress relief, but was still missing some intense cardio workout.

In my community, men and women play volleyball together and only men play soccer. The kids play baseball for physical education when the teachers bring equipment to play with. When I first arrived, I had a strong interest in playing volleyball. Everyone was very welcoming and was willing to teach me (I haven’t ever played much) but my interest didn’t last long. Ngäbe culture is very competitive and sportsmanship and encouragement are not practiced. When someone, or even myself, would make a mistake and send the ball flying in the other direction, my natural reaction would be to laugh it off. But I quickly became frustrated when people would scold each other, accusing they don’t know how to play and to get off the court. Of course there is trash talking between the teams, but even amongst members. When I would say encouraging words: “nice try, very good”, they would mockingly repeat it back to me. The day I realized I would not be playing volleyball anymore was when a grown man kept scolding a 12 year old girl year because she couldn’t cross the net. “Mas arriba, usa tu brazo, mas duro!” – ”higher, use your arm, harder”, he yelled. But did not take the time to show her how to do these things: what form is proper, how to hold your fists together, ect. After the 100^th time of him scolding her, I snapped. “Deja por favor. Ella es una niña y todavía está aprendiendo. Tiene que tener paciencia.” –“stop it please, she is a girl and is still learning. You have to be patient”. The court grew silent and he began speaking in Ngäbere to the others present, probably saying vulgarities.

In terms of soccer, I have never been a big soccer player and the only people who play are muchachos the ages of 12-25 who all want to date me. Avoiding that one.

Despite the lack of sports I had for a while ..I didn’t give up. I decided to introduce Ultimate Frisbee. I also had never been a big Frisbee player BUT it seemed like the perfect sport to bring to my community because:

You don’t need expensive equipment. A Frisbee and some grass

Everyone can play- women, men, young, old.

I need exercise in my life  

A PC Panama Volunteer started the international organization Ultimate Without Borders and is becoming very popular here in Panama.

I now play with community members almost every afternoon. I also feel good being in charge. Since I know the rules and have the Frisbee, the kids are at my disposal and have to listen to me. For example, everyone is new at Frisbee, so I take the time to show them proper techniques- without yelling or harsh criticism. If someone messes up, we all laugh. If I hear negative put downs, they sit out. If I see hitting, they sit out. It may seem harsh but within a few afternoons, I heard my children saying positive comments and giving each other high fives.

I was planning on going to an Ultimate Without Borders coach training. Ultimate doesn’t only teach kids how to play but every “practice“ has some underlying message that ranges from self-esteem to teamwork. Unfortunately I was not able to attend due to a fairly serious skin infection. BUT I hope to be able to attend a training later in my service or just make them up on my own!

I do not currently have pictures of my kids playing Frisbee so for now I have this guy ...

 

 

 

Reconnection

 

 

After about 4 months in site, volunteers must attend a two week In Service Training (IST). The point of this training is to dive into more technical skills once the volunteers have an idea of what they will be doing in their communities. For example, as explained in my last post, my community is interested in Reforestation and Eco-stoves, so I paid particular attention to these sessions. IST was also a great time to reconnect with everyone in my group after not seeing them for almost 4 months!

The first week was in a conference building close to the beach. We (Teaching English and Environmental Conservation)  covered topics such as: medical, security, behavior change, culture and privilege, money, monitoring and reporting our work, and  grants. Most of this information was review, but it became more concrete since we had been in our communities for several months.  After long days in the building, we enjoyed ourselves at the beach.

 

 

The second week was sector based, so TE and CEC were split up again. CEC went to an area of the country called the Azuero. It is on the southern end of the country and is particularly known for their deforestation. The Azuero is filled with pastures but unfortunately the slash and burn method of making these pastures has caused dramatic erosion and a desert climate during the summer. Thankfully we had training during the rainy season so it was beautiful! The community was called La Pitaloza. 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga and the view in La Pitaloza

The first few days we worked on trash management. Our group had already learned how to make trash incinerators during Pre Service Training, but we were put to the test and all 24 of us had to help teach the community how to make them. We successfully split into groups to divide the work: importance of trash management, what is an incinerator, and the steps to build one.  I thought having a group of 24 leaders would be very difficult in leading a lesson, but we were able to successfully present our information. It was important that we allowed community members to participate and not just watch. This was also a great lesson on the do's and dont's of facilitation.

Putting the community to work

 

 

We learned about Eco-stoves and specifically how to construct them. We learned about 3 different types; each having their own advantages and costs to build. But all of them reduce the amount of firewood needed to cook and reduces the amount of smoke in the air.  

 



Making bricks for a Tower stoves. Ingredients: horse poo, sand, and dirt. All local and FREE resources!

Completed tower stove



Eco-Justa stove. Better for large cooking areas such school kitchen or community center. Most expensive because bricks are made in a factory but are extra sturdy. ANAM is willing to fund

Bliss stove. Also can use local ingredients but because of its odd shape, is not easy to repair if there are breaks.

 

We also learned about reforestation practices, which was appropriate for being in the deforested Azuero. Recap: reforestation is actually very broad and difficult to implement. Every region has its own trees and seeds. Making seed beds and nurseries are common practices, but many PCVs have trouble with communities remembering to take care of them. A method recommended by our reforestation representative was instead of building seed beds and nurseries (which may just be a failure) is to really get people to use less wood in their stoves, do not cut down more than what is needed, and leave large amounts of time in between cuttings so seeds can be naturally produced.

 

After that being said, we still learned a basic way of making a seed bed and a nursery. We also learned proper transplanting methods.

 

Some other topics covered in IST:

Recycling centers
Home Gardens

Teaching in the classroom

Making groups sustainable

 

Recycling center organized in a community several years ago and is still being used today

 

 

I have also successfully written my community analysis report! My first government written document, yay? If you would like a copy please email me at cledsall@gmail.com

 



Punchin in the time card



My last blog post I mentioned my house was “finished” but I only meant that the roof was done and I was able to move in. I was far from being comfortable. I had some stove issues for about a week and I was taking my food over to my host mother’s house to cook. I also didn’t have running water or a bathroom but thanks to some of my favorite community members, I am now connected to the aqueduct and have a shower.



The "sink" with soon to be tubes. The trench is for drainage of water away from the house and into a nearby creek 



 

working on the trench

The only thing I am missing now is a place to poop! There is some talk of making me a latrine, but for the moment I am using a bucket and mixing in ash and sawdust to make compost. I refuse to use the river like many of my community members do. With my house finally finished, I thought life would become much easier. I did not realize that I would once again be going through a major adjustment period. Examples

Food: not only is it hard cooking for one person, but it’s even harder when you don’t have a refrigerator (no dairy in my life) and need to eat all your produce before the vicious Panamanian ants take over

Social life: my house is right smack center of the community so every person crossing the community or when the kids are going to school, usually stop for a visit. I have averaged 20 visitors a day (I include the kids who run in to say hola then leave). While this has been a very lovely and welcoming experience, there are times when I am trying to work, read, cook, talk on the phone, or just not speak Spanish for 5 minutes. Also, whenever I have visitors I feel the need to entertain: card games, showing them world maps, playing music, ect. While this is definitely part of my job as a volunteer, I am slowly realizing that is impossible for me to do this every time I have a visitor (especially 20 per day!). Also in Ngabe culture there are often long silences. For me and many of my fellow Americans, we have accustomed ourselves to think this is awkward and that we must fill in the silences. Now I embrace the long silences (it’s a good time for me to space out) and do not feel the need to stop what I am doing to entertain or teach.

To show my appreciation I had a house inauguration party. I opened the house for all the see; people enjoyed my photos, the 3 huge maps on the walls (US, Panama, World), coffee and cookies. I also brought out the UNO cards (thank you Laura!) which lasted for 4 hours. I also used this opportunity to inform people of my huge community analysis meeting.

The community analysis meeting is a very important part of Peace Corps Service. It usually takes place 3 months after “observation and integration” time in the community and is when the community decides what exactly they would like your help in. My boss and a local representative of ANAM were there to support me. We met with the teachers first and my boss helped explain my role in environmental education and how the teachers and I should collaborate together to bring more enviro edu in the curriculum. We then had a meeting with community members (about 40 showed up, good turnout) to discuss my work for the next 2 years. First. my boss reiterated why the first 3 months are so important for integration and reassured them that I wasn’t lazy (3 months is a long time to hang out without starting projects. Several other volunteers and I have shared that some community members questioned when we were going to start “working”). I then thanked them and shared what exactly I had learn in the first three months. I then explained that with these learning experiences I have made strong bonds with my community and now I feel very comfortable as if they were my family. This is the part where I started to cry and saw several woman crying as well. Once we got through the emotional babble I showed them a list of all the possible projects that I had heard the people say they wanted. It included:

 

Reforestation

Trash management

Ecological Stoves

School/Community Gardens

Solution to the water problem

Latrines

Teaching English

Cacao farm management

Artisan group

Botanical house

 

We went over every topic and reiterated that my work is in conservation matters, therefore I cannot help out in areas such as latrines (plus the new Panamanian president promised "cero latrinas" or zero latrines)

The community voted for the top two projects they would like to work on, and we discussed areas in which I could also be of help but I cannot focus all of my energy in. 

Reforestation won with 24 votes

Eco stoves with 16 votes (I will go into more depth of what an eco stove is in another post)

I will be helping organize a water committee and will have a series of seminars on how to have an effective committee. With the committee, we can solicit the support of the national health department. I have also recently been in contact with Engineers Without Borders, an NGO devoted in working with water projects, so I hope to receive the support from them.

I will be inviting cacao volunteers to give workshops on how to better management against fungus.

 

I will be holding English hours 3 times a week.

 

ANAM representative helping me explain why reforestation is important

 

Voting for projects

The results

 

 It seems that I will be very busy the next two years but I am happy to now have an idea of where my focus should be.

Lastly, I went to a Language Reinforcement training. Peace Corps offers to opportunity to receive some extra language classes a few months after being in site. I had the option of going to Spanish or Ngabe, but I decided Spanish since I know I will be using it after my service and I had many grammar questions. I traveled to Panama City for this week long training and it was great. I got to see a handful of other volunteers I had not seen since swear in. My host family was also amazing and I had the luxury of using an indoor shower, poopin in a flush toilet, eating ice cream and other dairy, and cooking latino food that I had missed so much. The family also took me to there far where we ate waaay to much food and enjoyed the scenery of the countryside

 

cooking pifa over the fire

 

 

The farm

 

 

Mi casa es su casa

 

 

The month of July has been quite busy for me. First, I really hit home with Peace Corps Goal #2 and shared some 'Murican culture by celebrating 4th of July in Santa Marta. A few other volunteers came to participate in the fun. We had sack relay races, a water balloon fight,  line/swing dancing, and cooked hot dogs and 'smores. Most of the participants were children, but they had a blast and weeks later I am still hearing about how great the 'smores were or how they had never jumped in a sack. I did find myself a little sad to have my first 4th without fireworks (we tried to look for them) but am very grateful to have shared this experience in my community.

 

 

 

Hot dogs on a Panamanian plate

Sack racing!!



Dosey-doe

 

Later in July, the teachers and I planned a Dia de Los Niños festival in the school. Each grade presented a show, skit, or song. There were performances from "Little Red Riding Hood" to traditional Ngabe dancing. A community member even lent me the traditional nagua to wear while I participated in the dancing.



Little Red Riding Hood

Dancing in my nagua



6th grade project- marine vs terrestrial habitats

 

 

 

Since my sector works in environmental education, especially in the schools,  I did a little lesson on the 3 R's-reduce, reuse, and recycle. We then put the lesson into practice and made bracelets from chip bags. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, the teachers approved of my classroom skills and I think it was a good introduction to incorporate more environmental lessons in the future. 

 

 

The month of July has also been dedicated in preparing my house for move in. The house needed a new roof; prior it was made of a tree called penca but penca is very far away in the farm so I bought zinc for the new roof. It has been quite the task of organizing the community to help construct, gathering materials, and working around the rainy season. I do not think all countries in Peace Corps require house building, but in Panama there seems to be various volunteers who need to construct their homes or make major repairs. To any prospective volunteers, if you can avoid it I would highly recommend not building a house. Peace Corps budget is next to nothing, and unless you are constantly haggling your community to finish the house, it won't be done in less than 3 months. I have heard other frustrating stories from volunteers and renting an unoccupied house tends to be the cheaper and easier route. Fortunately I did not have to make my house from scratch; nonetheless it was still a very frustrating and slow process. But it is more or less finished (apart from all the goodies I want to add like a garden). More pictures of the finished project to come soon

Original roof made of Penca. Here it is molded and full of holes

Taking down the Penca

Burning Penca



Starting to rebuild the skeleton and put on the zinc



 

Ngabes for Newbies

Disclaimer: this post is in no way is a 100% accurate historical and culture representation of Ngabe peoples. The information gathered here is a mixture of my own observations, what people of my community tell me, and information I have gathered from literature.

Since I am living in the province of Ngabe Bugle, I wanted to give more insight to what exactly that means. There are two populations in Panama: Latino and indigenous. One of the remarkable things about this tiny isthmus of land joining together North and South America, is that there are SEVEN indigenous groups of people who were here before the Europeans arrived. In most countries of Middle America the arrival of Europeans produced tragic consequences. Arriving explorers and exploiters brought with them fire arms, previously unknown animals like horses and attack dogs, and diseases to which the indigenous had no immunity. Additionally many of the Spanish conquistadors enslaved indigenous people to use as workers. Despite the brutal history, it is truly remarkable that Panama still has seven living indigenous cultures that were here before European explorers arrived. The remaining groups are

1.      Kunas

2.      Ngabe

3.      Bugle

4.      Embera

5.      Wounan

6.      Teribes

7.      Bokotas

Starting in 1972, the Panamanian government was required to establish comarcas, demarcated regions in which indigenous groups possess exclusive land rights and considerable administrative autonomy. There are five comarcas for the remaining seven groups. Within comarcas, people elect a General assembly, governor, and any number of regional and local leaders, although the federal government still controls public expenditure and tax revenues within the territory. The comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, (comprised of 2 different indigenous groups, Ngabe and Bugle) located in north western Panama, was formed in 1997 both as a latent result of government promise and of considerable political pressure from the Ngäbe-Buglé, united by threats of natural resource exploitation and environmental degradation on their ancestral lands. The territory is made up of land previously belonging to the provinces of Bocas del Toro, Chiriquí, and Veraguas, and divided into seven districts. The Ngabe are by far the largest indigenous group with somewhere between 200,000-280,000. However, census numbers for indigenous are notoriously inaccurate. As the Ngäbe-Buglé population tends to identify more with their communities than with an ethnicity and is distributed rather unevenly, the political organization that prompted the formation of their comarca is fairly unusual, but nonetheless demonstrates a powerful capacity to influence government actions.

Indigenous people are generally regarded as “second class” within Panamanian society. As subsistence agriculture becomes less and less reliable, Ngabes have started to participate in the cash economy, which provides some relatively accessible alternatives for generating capital and obtaining necessary amenities and resources. Labor is one abundant resource the Ngabes possess, although due to poor education and low human capital including health and nutrition, the labor force is rather unskilled. As a result, many men serve as migrant agricultural workers or leave the comarca to seek other types of informal jobs. Many men work during the coffee harvest in the Chiriqui Highlands. This region of Panama is known for high quality shade grown and in some cases organic coffee. The Ngabes also harvest seasonal vegetables grown at higher altitudes. Women also participate in the informal economy by making chacaras, naguas and jewelry to sell, and some men sew pants or weave hats to do the same.

Wearing a traditional nagua and holding two chacaras

In the area that I live in, selling cocoa is also a main source of income. But in other parts of the comarca, rice is the cash crop.

Also in my area, banana is the staple food. Banana plantations have been large since the 70s in Bocas del Torro and the west end of the comarca. The market continued to boom when Chiquita Banana came in the 90s. When the Europeans came the Ngabe people were pushed into the current Bocas area and were forced to adapt to a different climate and food source. Later when the banana plantations were booming, so many ngobes worked for the plantations. When the comarcas were developed in 1997, the territory was reserved for the people and the Chiquita moved out. But many people had learned banana farming which is why eating boiled bananas is so common. But people do not wait until bananas are ripe. Because of the poverty level and lack of food, people cannot wait until bananas are ripe so are eaten green by boiling them or frying them

The Ngäbe-Buglé experience much adversity as a result of contemporary conditions. As localized problems of land and crop shortage grow into a more generalized issue, and it becomes more difficult to generate capital in a shrinking labor market, malnutrition is prevalent, especially in children and expecting mothers. Attempts to generate capital by becoming a migrant worker also have negative social effects including added strains on family structure and increased pressure on women to provide for their children alone. The dispersed nature of the population also makes existing medical care hard to access, and a general lack of potable water and sanitation services cause a myriad of health problems. Lack of sufficient infrastructure and under provision of social services by the government is often the root of many problems that plague the most rural areas.

Prevalence of poor Spanish skills is also an issue as Ngabe people are often unaware of legal rights and hence either fail to communicate complaints or to use the paths of legal recourse available to them when it would be beneficial to do so. This condition especially affects women because far fewer of them speak Spanish than men. Levels of secondary education are also low in the comarca Ngäbe-Buglé as children are financially limited and transportation to secondary schooling presents a great challenge for many families. As a result, only ~18% of children ages 15–19 in the comarca Ngäbe-Buglé have schooling beyond the sixth grade.

The experience and role of a volunteer in an indigenous site is extremely different than in a Latino site. Venturing into one after being in the other is still a culture shock for me as I almost have to be 2 different people.  Each has its own challenges and strategies and there is a lot to keep in mind as I criss-cross into the two worlds. 

8 glasses of water a day

Disclaimer: chicken killing pictures towards the end of this post. Warning to all my veg-head friends or and the squeamish.

I am feeling more and more integrated in Santa Marta. The first few weeks I felt like a broken record, but now I am feeling human again. I am invited to the farms frequently, I know almost every adults name (there are too many kids) and spend the afternoons discussing politics, culture, love, and life. This is a great break from the constant Peace Corps explanation I was doing. I can be myself and joke around without having the guilt to talk about work; meanwhile I am building great relationships here in my community and everyday feel a little more at home.

 

At the end of May we had a regional meeting. Every volunteer in the province plus the office staff gather for announcements and updates. These meetings happen every 4 months and is a nice time to check in with other volunteers. This was my first regional meeting, so I was able to meet other volunteers who have already been here for a year plus. Since we live in one of coolest provinces in Panama, we have our after party on Bocas Island! To get to Isla Colon (the biggest and most popular island) is about an hour boat ride from the mainland. Upon arrival, I was shocked to hear everyone speaking English and see taco trucks, ice cream, and beer. Upon arrival tourists are greeted with a downtown strip with restaurants and shops on the water. However if you want to go to the beach you need to travel to the other side of the island, which is a 30 minute windy-road bus ride. Nonetheless the beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was crystal clear. It was a great getaway from jungle life.

 

I have received many questions about my water filter so I want to update readers. I have received my filter and have been sick-free ever since. Thankfully the medical office sent it to my nearest post office.

 

Speaking of water, in an earlier post I explained the water situation in Santa Marta and its faulty aqueduct. Which, I have now learned isn’t even an aqueduct. It is called a “toma”. In short, it is a tube that is stuck in the side of a hill that collects the water from the watershed inside the hill. Then there are a line of tubes that travel all the way to the community.  This is different from an aqueduct because an aqueduct includes a tank to store water and also includes a filtration system.

Example of a toma

 

 At the regional meeting I met other volunteers who offered to help me out with this problem. There is a married couple that live not too far from me and work in the sector Environmental Health.  They have training specific with aqueducts (not to mention the husband is an engineer). They offered to come and check out the toma and give me ideas on what I can do to help the community.

Before they came, I had been helping a few community members look for other watersheds. One day we hiked up into the jungle for 3 hours! They think that the reason why the water goes out is because the current toma is drying up. They want to look for a new place to start a new aqueduct. This in itself poses many problems. First, Panama uses a lot of aqueducts and wells to capture rain and water from the ground. Go Panama! They take advantage of the abundant water from being in the tropics. BUT the government doesn’t have a water district for every city like there is in the states. MINSA (ministerio de salud de la Republica de Panama) is the national health and water agency. But from what I have seen, a community needs to present a proposal before MINSA in hopes to get funding to build an aqueduct. If the proposal is approved, an engineer will come to the community and look for potential watersheds to capture water and then MINSA will fund the project. But for a community to bring a proposal to MINSA, it is best to be written by the water community, which depending on the community, may or may not be organized enough to have a committee. Also, many engineers from MINSA that come to look for water sources come during the rainy season. The catch is that during the summer these sources dry up, which is what happened in Santa Marta. The engineer looked for a place during the rainy season and thought it was permanent. After it dried up in the summer the community worked with the existing tubes to makeshift their own toma sans the help of MINSA. Santa Marta also had a water committee but there was an incident in the past and the president left with all the funds they had collected from the community. Another problem is that MINSA offices are not abundant, maybe one per province and the closest MINSA office for my province is about a 2 hour bus ride. Even if my community had a water committee, the poverty level is high enough that it would be difficult for members to pay for a bus there and back.

And now that I have arrived, there are high expectations that I or Peace Corps will be paying for the materials for a new aqueduct. Unfortunately, Peace Corps does not give funding for projects and if volunteers need money for projects, options are (in order from most desirable to least): work with national agencies and government officials, ask friends and family, pay for it yourself.

 After the couple visited me, they gave me great advice on what I needed to do to help the community form a committee. They gave me resources that includes workshops and seminars that can help the committee organize itself. It includes: communication strengthening, budgeting, enforcement of rules, writing a contract, writing a formal letter, and MINSA committee laws.

In regards to the actual toma, my engineer friend said he was impressed with the makeshift toma my community had made and doesn’t recommend looking for another source of water. The water source is large enough and he recommends using a few more tubes to stick into the hillside. Then connect these tubes to the principal tube that travels to the community. The idea is to collect more water from various tubes and various places in the ground and connect them all with a bigger principal tube to allow more water to travel to the community. I enjoy this better then looking in the jungle for other water sources. However the decision would have to be made by the water committee.

 

I also had my first meeting with the community. I explained what Peace Corps was and what my sector works in. While i have been explaining this to people as I have been meeting them, I really wanted to reinforce it. I have also been warned by other volunteers that throughout time people forget. After my explanation I did a community activity. In training we learned about Participatory Analysis for Community Action (PACA) tools. These tools include group activities such as map making, seasonal and daily calendar making, and needs assessment analysis. These are also great ways to get the community to communicate and work together. 

I decided to do the map activity first. Participants made maps in groups of men, woman, and children. They could draw whatever they wanted: houses, farms, school, other surrounding cities, ect. At first, the women were particularly hesitant. “but Meti, I can’t draw. But Meti, I don’t understand." I reassured them that this was not a drawing contest but a chance to express themselves, communicate, recognize the resources that they have in the community, and have fun! Within no time there was a group of woman laughing around their map. The participants then categorized what they liked and didn’t like in the community and ranked resources from most important to least important. There were about 40 participants and they all seemed to enjoy the activity.

 

Kids making map

 

Women group

Here in Santa Marta Fathers’ Day is celebrated as a community. There was food for all, presents, speeches, and decorations. It was really beautiful to see a whole community come together to celebrate. I did become emotional because I realized how much I missed my father (love you Dad) but also realized that I have many father-like figures here in the community.

Crowned "Father of the Year"

Feasting at the celebration

 

In other fun news, the ex-vegetarian killed a chicken for the first time! It was actually a little sad and I don’t think I’d ever do it again but it was quite the experience.

Plucking the feathers

 

 

Learning anatomy in Spanish