Taking Care of Business

Note: Please also see the post below this one as it is a recent update longer than this one with lots of good stories and pictures. Enjoy!

This past week we had our “Re-Connect In-Service Training” (IST) that all Peace Corps Volunteers go through after they’ve been in their sites for the first three months. It was a chance to see everyone from our group and talk about our experiences so far. We had a day of Spanish classes and a day of group seminars with more experienced volunteers on specific topics such as accounting, marketing, grant writing, etc. The most useful activity for me was getting to speak one-on-one with 2 former volunteers to get their input on a tourism project I am attempting to start in my site. The facility where we had the conference is just down the road from one of the larger resorts here in Panama so we also got to go to the beach one day and hit the casino at night to unwind. It was fun to see everyone but by the last day I was ready to head back to the comforts of my own home, my own cooking, and my own schedule.

March will be a busy month. In the coming week we’ll be having our “All Volunteer Conference” (AVC) which as you might guess brings together all the volunteers for a few days to get to know each other, exchange information and stories, and talk about what’s going on in Peace Corps Panama. This year it’s being held in the provincial capital of Chitré just 20 minutes down the road from me at a very nice hotel. I should be more excited but since I just saw most of my friends only a week ago I would have preferred it sometime later in the year. Then in last week of March we’ll also be having our “Project Design & Leadership Conference.” This is a three day seminar at the same facility where we had our IST conference except this time we are required to bring a community counterpart that we work with. I think this should be a useful seminar because my counterpart is a bright lady and should get a lot out of it that will help our cooperative move forward. We also have our Cooperative’s General Assembly at the end of the month which we’ll have to prepare for somewhere in the middle of all this. Making everything even more complicated is the fact that school is starting next week which means all the professors will be going back to work as well. Four of the five members of our COOP’s board of directors are teachers and one of them is the principal so everyone is busy. I’m sure everything will get down at the last minute with lots of running around and unnecessary stress but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My friend CoCo and the awesome shirt she found in the Peace Corps office

This morning I went to the teachers’ scheduling meeting to talk to them about me giving Junior Achievement classes to the 8^th and 9^th graders. The Junior Achievement organization was founded in the US in 1919 to help build students self-esteem, instill in them the idea that they are in charge of their own destiny, and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit. I’ll be doing the “Our World” module with the 9^th graders and the “Our Nation” module with the 8^th graders. The courses teach students how national and international economies function and where they fit into the picture with activities such as how to write a resume. The organization provides us with lesson plans and activity books for the students so it should be an easy and fun way to work with the kids.

My other big project that I just kicked off is the formation of the “Comité Pro-Turismo de Parita” with the goal to promote and improve tourist services in my town. My town (Parita) is mentioned in all the Panama guidebooks as a well-preserved Spanish colonial village with a beautiful church that dates from the 17^th Century (see top of post). They also mention the mask maker artisan (see above) and the numerous traditional folkloric festivals that are celebrated here. The town is also on the main road that travels down the Azuero Peninsula so anyone going to the beaches or cities further south has to pass through it. What I’ve observed in my four months here is that tourists do come through my town from time to time, but unfortunately since we have nothing really tangible to offer them nobody here is making any money from them. There is no store selling tourist kitsch, postcards, hammocks, etc. and the mask maker doesn’t even have a sign in front of his house. At some point years ago the church maintained a small museum of religious artifacts, but apparently some things were stolen and the museum eventually shut down. The entrance to one of the more important national parks in Panama is also at one end of my town and to cap it all off this year is the 450^th anniversary of the founding of Parita. There’s even more aspects and attractions to the project but I think you get the idea. With a little bit of effort to improve marketing and services my town could be making significant income from the tourists. My suspicions were recently confirmed when, as I walked to my first tourism committee meeting I ran into three very lost gringos looking for the mask makers house. They were here in Parita, completely on their own not with a tour group, trying to inject money into the local economy but were having a hard time doing so because of the lack of infrastructure. Thankfully my first meeting went really well. The community members who showed up are very into the idea and we have another meeting scheduled for this week to begin our analysis of the project. I'm optimistic so as they say here we'll take it poco a poco and see what happens. By the way you're all invited to come visit my beautiful town and help kick off the tourist influx!

The Endless Summer

Apologies for the lag since my last post. While lots of things have been happening, I felt I needed some time to put everything in perspective and be able to write about it in a coherent manner. I’ve been busy with various things including moving into my own house in mid-January shortly after my birthday. This also may have something to do with the delay in updating this blog since I’m now free to do whatever I please on my own schedule. Anyway, my house (see above) has three bedrooms, a living room and another room that I haven’t quite figured out how to use yet. My bathroom includes an indoor shower and toilet, and my kitchen is complete with a sink, ample counter space and cabinets. I have a big back porch with room for my hammocks, and my yard has banana and papaya trees. My rent, plus water and electricity comes to just about $70 a month. I love my house. I am also fortunate enough to have the world’s best neighbors. Since my birthday coincided with my big move I received dishes, silverware and a really nice hammock as gifts, not to mention the awesome party they threw me (see below). The house I chose to rent happened to be directly across the street from my last host family’s house, which made the move easy since I could move my stuff bit by bit. The manager of my coop is my neighbor to the left and she has also been a tremendous help. Since I already knew my future neighbors quite well before moving they were very willing to help me get setup in my new house that was completely unfurnished when I moved in. My living room set, bed, bedside table, desk, guest beds, curtains, and a variety of other necessary stuff was all donated or lent to me by my neighbors. I only had to buy my mini-refrigerator, a two burner stove and propane tank, and a few other small things. It took a little while, but I’m now very comfortably settled into my home for the next two years.

My neighbor Maria (the manager of my coop) is probably the person I’m closest to in the community since we’ve spent lots of time hanging out together in the coop. She is also the Aunt of the Vice President of the coop who Peace Corps selected as my “community counterpart.” Basically I’ve spent lots of time with that extended family celebrating various holidays, birthdays, and just hanging out with them. The sons and cousins in the family are around my age as well so it’s been nice to have some friends to kick back a few beers with. They are kind of my adopted family here in town so it was quite a blow when Maria’s 52 year old husband passed away suddenly from a brain aneurysm on Jan 19^th. I had spoken to him just the night before to introduce him to a friend staying over at my house and he seemed fine, but the next morning he was gone. "Gracias a Dios" I haven’t had anyone close to me pass away in quite a while so I was quite struck by his passing and I didn’t really know how to react. I felt terrible for Maria and her family, but wasn’t really sure of my role in the entire situation. Although these were the people I’m closest to in town, and they’ve really taken me in and made me feel comfortable here, I’ve only known them 3 months. So, I basically did what I could, attending the wake and funeral, and offering to help anyway I could. Here in Panama they hold a one day wake in the family’s house and then have prayers at the house for the next 9 days. The prayers are mostly attended by women and family members who say Hail Mary’s and come to comfort the family. This was my first experience with death here in Panama, and an unfortunate tragedy for a family that has welcomed me into their lives with open arms.

Sunday soccer game at the Social Club

In a crazy coincidence Maria’s house had been scheduled months before to be torn down and rebuilt by the government. Her husband died only 2 weeks before his new house was scheduled to be built. Many of the houses in my area of town, including my own were originally subsidized by the government, but were apparently built below current standards. When I first moved into my house my landlady repaired a wall that literally shook, and since the previous owner made additions to the house it is in fine condition. My neighbors to the left, right, and behind however were all eligible to have their houses rebuilt free of charge. So as soon as the 9 days of prayer were over Maria (and the other neighbors) began moving their furniture and belongings out of their houses. I had offered to hold onto a number of her things during construction so she didn’t have to worry about moving it to relative’s houses that live in other parts of town. We moved her three beds, living room set, kitchen table and chairs, a few boxes and other random items into my house and patio. This worked out well for me because I would now have plenty of beds for my friends who were coming to visit during Carnival. Once everything was out of her house, we got down to the business of tearing it down. This was the first chance I’d gotten to do physical labor since I’d been here and was excited. Working with her sons and others I helped take down and store the clay roof tiles, take down and store the bricks from the walls (to build additions to the house at a later point), and bang around some nails and stuff. I was glad to help and get a taste of hard work but by the 3^rd day when we began swinging a sledgehammer to tear up the concrete floor I had had just about enough. Luckily, this was the first day of Carnival and as my first Peace Corps friends arrived I eagerly traded in my sledgehammer for a cold beer. Maria’s new house is now about a month away from being complete. While losing a family member is never easy I think the process of rebuilding her house is serving to be quite therapeutic for her and her children. They will obviously never forget their father but keeping their minds busy on this major task has got to help in getting through the first few difficult months.

Panamanians know how to party, and even in the wake of a tragedy the extended family was ready to throw down for Carnival. Carnival is the same as Mardi Gras in New Orleans or the famous Carnivals in Brazil. “Carne” means meat or flesh in Spanish, so carnival is literally the festival of the flesh. That is, the four days leading up to Ash Wednesday are devoted to corporeal diversions and fulfillment of vices since all the fun will have to be suspended when lent begins. Here in Panama carnival is celebrated most passionately in the Azuero Peninsula where I live. Folks come from Panama City and throughout the country to my region to partake in the festivities which this year started at night on Friday Feb 1^st and continued non-stop until the wee hours of the morning Tuesday Feb 5^th. There are 5 or 6 towns/cities in the Azuero that hold carnival celebrations and each one has a queen from Calle Abajo (Low Street or Downtown) and another queen from Calle Arriba (High Street or Uptown). Each Queen has a committee that is responsible for helping her raise money throughout the year to build her floats, make her costumes, buy fireworks, and pay the band that accompanies her float. (See below).

There is an aspect of competition between Calle Abajo and Calle Arriba to build the most extravagant and lavish floats and costumes, while at the same time hurling insults at the opposing group’s queen. During the day everyone goes to the main plaza where huge gas tank type trucks filled with water spray the crowd while the queens do laps around the plaza and the band follows behind her getting everyone amped and jumping around. It gets pretty crowded and intense at some points but there are also tons of food vendors to be found everywhere day or night so if the beers start catching up with you, you can always take a break for some fried yucca or a shish-kabob to keep you going. The daytime getting wet festivities last from around noon until 5pm at which time everyone goes home to rest up for a while and get ready for the night time discoteca. Each town that celebrates carnival holds a nightly discoteca, the larger ones are huge outdoor clubs that hold thousands of people and have popular performers every night. The queens come out again at night in new costumes to parade through the town as fireworks rain down in massive quantities.

As far as my personal carnival experience, it was pretty much the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life, and I’ve done some pretty cool stuff if I don’t say so myself. I had a rotating cast of Peace Corps friends staying at my house throughout the five days. My town has their own carnival celebrations and is only 20 minutes down the road from the bigger provincial capital where the serious daytime fiesta and club is. Five days of straight partying is intense and not something to be taken lightly. I needed two full days afterwards to recover and catch up on sleep but once I’d done so I was already thinking about how great Carnival 2009 was going to be. Whoever wants to come down here and experience it for themselves is more than welcome, just gimmie a holler.