10 Hours of Sleep

I am proud to say that I’m currently getting at least 9 hours of sleep a night. I’m pretty sure this is more than the recommended amount but who’s counting? I’m in bed by 10:00pm the latest and wake around 7:00am to a leisurely breakfast. I usually read a few chapters of whatever book I’m working on before bed and upon waking, or flip through one of the many Newsweek’s provided to us by the Peace Corps office. I’ve also been studying Spanish a fair amount using a workbook they provided us in training, and reading the newspaper to learn new words. This will be my first blog update after a month in site because well, not much has been happening. During training every minute of our lives was planned, whereas once we arrive in site it’s all up to us. This is liberating but daunting at the same time because every action must be completely self motivated.

This guy was playing the campesino (peasant) at a parade in my neighboring town where there is another Peace Corps Volunteer. Please note his cow foot flask.

Anyway, my main project here is to work with the savings and loans cooperative founded by members of the community two years ago. Currently our “office” is a small room attached to one of the member’s houses, which she also uses to give literacy classes in the afternoon. Our office hours are Mon-Wed-Fri from 2-4pm and Sat 9-12am. As you can see this leaves many free hours for me to fill throughout the day. I’ll talk about that later, but since I didn’t know how a cooperative worked until I got here I will explain a little how our particular coop works. Currently we have around 50 members who are supposed to save $5 a month in the coop. This money is theirs but they cannot take it out at any time like you would with a normal checking account. The members can take all their money out if they resign from the coop; otherwise they actually have to borrow their own money at 4% interest rate. The idea of borrowing ones own money is basically that you are making a promise to yourself to maintain a certain level of savings. Members must be up to date with their $5 monthly savings payments (aportaciones) to be able to borrow, but only about 10 of our members have the proper amounts in their accounts. According to a provision put in to add stability in the early phases of the coop members cannot currently borrow more than they have saved. Hopefully members will soon be able to access credit, which could be a real impetus for growth within the coop. (This could also lead to catastrophe if people default on their loans, which happens all too often). People can also open what is basically a checking account separate from their $5 aportaciones and take that money out as they please. We also offer Ahorro de Navidad accounts which encourage people to save a small amount each week which they then get back around Christmas time. We will be promoting this aggressively in the coming weeks for Christmas 2008. My coop, like most in Panama has quite a few problems, but since mine is so new I feel it has lots of room to grow. I’ve already had two meetings with the Board of Directors, and I succeeded in getting IPACOOP (the governing body of all coop’s in Panama) to come give a seminar to my members. I have a big meeting planned for December where I really hope to kick start things as far as motivating the members and promoting the coop in general. We’ll see what happens.

What else have I been doing with my time you ask? One week I went to the school everyday and introduced myself to all the classes before they go on their summer break in mid-December. When the new school year starts in March I plan to give Junior Achievement classes starting with the 6th grade and working my way down. Junior Achievement here in Panama provides volunteers with materials and lessons plans for hour long classes, once a week, for 6 weeks. Each grade has its own curriculum and the kids get diplomas at the end of the course
6th graders “Our World’,
5th graders “Our Country”
4th graders “Our City”
3rd graders “Our Community”
2nd graders “Our Families”
1st graders “Ourselves.”
All this is done in Spanish, but I may help with English classes in the school as well. Meeting the kids really helped me integrate into the community because now whenever I walk around town they scream my name. It’s a nice feeling and helps me start talking to their parents as well.
In the afternoons (like now) I usually go to FADEPA (Fundacion para la Ayuda de Estudiantes Pariteños). It’s a state funded organization thats basically an after school center for students in my town. They have encyclopedias, a small library, a copy machine, computers (some with internet and some without) and an attendant to help the kids. The internet is high speed and costs 50 cents an hour. Most of the kids come to play games, and watch videos on youtube, but a fair amount come to type papers and research things for homework. I’ll eventually be working there basically as an attendant, charging for internet, etc so that they can increase their hours of operation. I also have an idea to get the kids to write or contribute to wikipedia articles on subjects they are interested in, starting with one about their town.

My final project that I’ve identified will be to work with a local artisan here in town. He makes beautiful paper-mache devil masks for the festival of corpus cristi (like the one in the above photo). He’s got good demand for his product, but seems to be selling his masks for entirely too little. I hope to help him make his business more profitable and learn how to make some cool masks at the same time.

So basically I have alot of free time at the moment. Things are done at a more leisurely pace in general in this country, which is one of the reasons I came here, so I'm definitely not complaining. But please feel free to write a me snail mail letter, send some interesting articles, or give me a ring. Contact info is on the right hand side of this page, under my picture somewhere. Also check out the Peace Corps Panama Friends link for info about contributing to volunteer projects, etc. Other links have more info about Panama for the truly adventurous. Thats all folks, for now. Ciao!

Panamanian Patriotism

I’m now officially a proud member of the 60^th group of Peace Corps volunteers to serve in Panama since the program began in 1963. We had our swearing in ceremony last week at the Canal Museum in the old part of Panama City. The US ambassador and a few Panamanian officials attended the short ceremony. We celebrated that night in Panama City and headed off for our two day beach vacation the next morning. Our group of about 30 people went to a playa two hours from the capital and enjoyed each others company for the last time in at least a month. We had a little Halloween party, swam in the ocean, and prepared ourselves for our upcoming solo adventures. Good times all around. I lost my flip flops.

So now here I am in my site and thoroughly enjoying myself. The celebrations of the dias patrios of Panama were this weekend, which is the equivalent of the 4^th of July in the states. In honor of the foundation of the Republic of Panama, November 3, 1903 I’d like to present a brief history of the country I now call home. The photo below is me shortly after marching with members of my cooperativa in the parade in my town.

Before Europeans came and discovered the new world the current territory of Panama was inhabited by various indigenous groups, some of whom still exist to this day. Exploration of the isthmus began in the early 1500’s principally by the Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez De Balboa. He discovered the South Sea (the Pacific Ocean) in 1513 and claimed it as part of the Spanish empire. Panamanians refer to their currency which is the US dollar, as balboas because the conquistador’s image appears on coins minted here in Panama. Another famous explorer who figures into Panama’s history is Captain Henry Morgan, who most know for the spiced rum bearing his name. Captain Morgan was not a pirate but rather a “privateer” who waged war for England against the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Morgan made various forays onto the isthmus in the late 1600’s including the sacking of Panama City in which he massacred most of the population and burned the city to the ground. Panama however remained a Spanish colony for over 300 years until Simon Bolivar’s independence movements in South America began to make their way north. On November 10^th, 1821 El Grito de La Villa de Los Santos occurred leading to Panama’s separation from Spain. La villa de Los Santos is a town about half hour from my site and I’ll be traveling there for the celebrations of el grito this weekend. Following Panama’s official separation from Spain on November 28, 1821 the territory became part of Simon Bolivar’s newly founded Republic of Colombia.

Relations between Panama and the government in Colombia remained tenuous with various civil wars and separatist movements emerging over the years. In 1855 the United States completed the Panama Railway, the world’s first transcontinental railroad. The treaty that allowed the US to build the railway was the beginning of a complicated history of US political and military interventions in Panama. The railroad however was a vital link in bringing adventurers west during the gold rush years, and increased speculation about the idea of a canal. The French were the first to tackle the grand project led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had recently become famous for successfully completing the Suez Canal. France’s plan for a sea level canal was never realistic from an engineering point of view and was essentially doomed from the start in 1880. Tropical disease, financial problems, and constant floods were the primary causes for the failure of the French effort, which was finally suspended in 1896.

By 1899 the United States had established its own commission to investigate the possibility of building a canal through Central America. Initially the popular plan was for a Nicaraguan canal because although it is wider than Panama, it has a large natural lake in the middle of the country. After much deliberation Panama was chosen as the more feasible option and the US paid France $40 million dollars for the rights to the route they had begun, leftover machinery and detailed land surveys. The US now had to deal with the dicey task of obtaining rights from Columbia to build the canal. Having determined the Columbian asking price too high and not wanting to deal with the Columbians in general the US encouraged Panama to declare its independence. On November 3, 1903, with US Naval ships waiting offshore to deter any interference from Columbia, Panama officially declared its independence as a nation. In the controversial treaty that followed Panama granted the US the rights to build its canal as thanks for supporting its independence movement and a payment of $10 million dollars. The US began work on the canal in 1904 and the first ship passed through slightly ahead of schedule in 1914. The majority of the laborers used in both the French and American efforts were of Afro-Caribbean decent but a significant amount of Chinese, Italian, Irish, and of course Americans workers contributed to the success. The US triumphed where the French had failed because we’re better than them. Also helping our cause were major improvements in disease prevention, engineering technology, and infrastructure systems. In September of this year the Panama Canal Authority began a large scale, project to expand the canal by adding new sets off parallel locks to accommodate larger ships. The project is expected to be completed by 2014 and will cost an estimated $5 billion dollars.

According to the initial treaty that brought Panama its independence the US was granted control over the Canal Zone in perpetuity. The Canal Zone was ten miles wide on either side and ran the entire length of the canal. The US maintained a strong military presence in this area where the large majority of American soldiers, canal workers, businessmen and politicians lived with their families. In 1977 the Carter-Torrijos treaty set January 1, 2000 as the official date for the elimination of the Canal Zone and turnover of canal operations to Panama. Between the signing of the treaty and the actual handover the US did stage one military incursion into Panama in 1989. The controversial attack by US troops on parts of Panama City was allegedly in response to the killing of an American soldier and election fraud by then President General Manual Noriega. The military strike lasted only 7 days and resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of General Manual Noriega. There were also an estimated 500 Panamanian casualties, many citizens who were victims of fire in the poor neighborhood of El Chorillo. Since 2000, however the canal has been very successfully operated by the Autoridad de Canal de Panama and relations between the US and Panama are excellent. On a side note Manual Noriega recently completed his prison term in the United States and is expected to be extradited to France to serve trial there, although Panama also wants to try him for various crimes.

Well that just about brings things up to date. Currently Panama’s real estate market continues to boom, although many say a good amount of construction is funded by Columbian drug cartel money. Corruption is still rampant with a handful of established families controlling the majority of business and political decisions. But that’s another topic for another day. For more information on Panama please see the link to the Wikipedia article on the right hand column of this blog. Also please check out the Peace Corps Panama Friends link for information on supporting volunteer programs. Viva Panama!