The current four month lag since my last blog update is the longest yet. So, once again apologies to my faithful readers shirking work at their desks. I think part of the reason I haven’t felt the need to write more is that many of the things that seemed so novel and new when I first arrived in Panama over a year and half ago are now old hat. However, since returning from the states after Christmas and New Years a few things have happened to welcome me back to life at 9.8° degrees from the equator.
Summer days at the river
Its currently summer in Panama which means no more rain and a beautiful, constantly blowing breeze. This also means that everything dries out and the once lush greenery turns a yellowish-brown color. Around this same time last year I awoke one morning to find a frog seeking refreshment in the water of my toilet bowl. Lo and behold this year I found another froggy friend in my bowl. I only caught a glimpse of him swimming away from the light as I opened the lid. I took a leak outside and left the bowl opened hoping he would hop out and find his way to my backyard. When I checked a little while later he was nowhere to be found so I flushed a couple times and went to bed. I haven’t seen my friend again although I sat quite gingerly on the toilet for the next few days afraid he would choose an inopportune moment to make his escape. As far as I can tell he saw the light and went the other way swimming down the drain to a watery demise. RIP Kermit
The Saint that travels from house to house in my neighborhood visited my humble abode for a week
Since moving into my house last January I’ve only had one mouse who eluded me for weeks, stealing the bait from my snap traps until finally getting stuck in a glue trap. So I was surprised to watch a mouse saunter across my kitchen floor one afternoon as I was cooking lunch. I’m not sure if this mouse was blind (if so I never found his two friends), mentally challenged, or just incredibly arrogant. He may as well have been whistling dixie as he strolled through the middle of my kitchen in plain sight. I stomped on the floor and shouted at him but he took none of the evasive actions you normally expect from a mouse. As he headed towards my room I decided I had to take a shot at him if he was going to let me. I grabbed my machete, still in its sheath so as not to make a mess, and got him with one swift strike. I put him out of his misery with another and swept him into my yard for some other critter to take care of. Bob 2 – Mice 0.
My neighbors high school graduation
For one reason or another the beginning of summer seems to bring out mosquitoes in full force. One night while lying in bed looking for the little punks I took a swat at my curtain and was surprised to find a thumb sized scorpion on the wall less than two feet from my face. He was just chillin there, maybe having been affected by the RAID I sprayed earlier hoping to kill some mosquitoes. Nevertheless, I got my machete and took care of him with a few stabs and swipes. So for whoever asked me if I’d killed anything with my machete the answer is now a resounding yes.
More dead things
So basically since I got back from the states I’ve just been killing anything that crosses my path. With all this taking of life weighing heavy on my conscious I was glad to recently witness the act of giving life. I was summoned by my neighbors one morning, them telling me to come quick and bring my camera. I arrived next door to see a cat in labor, struggling to bring a slimy little creature out of her belly and into the world. People don’t really keep house pets of any kind down here but they’re content to let stray cats hang around the porch and pick up table scraps here and there. This soon to be mom had chosen my neighbors porch as her maternity ward. The first kitten popped out and we all looked on as she munched down on the placenta. Mmmm, yummy. A short while later another palm sized kitten emerged, both of them now crawling all over mom searching for the teat. It’s always good to start a day experiencing something new.
When I was home I was frequently asked what kind of work I’m doing down here, so here is a little update on that front. The first week I was back I helped as a translator for a unit of United States Air Force Reservists from a base near San Diego. There were about 35 of them in Panama to help provide medical services as part of their annual two week tour of duty. There were pediatric doctors, dentists pulling teeth and filling cavities, and a fully stocked pharmacy distributing medicine all free of charge. I helped the optometrists who were diagnosing patients and giving out glasses. It was a lot of fun, and I gained a new respect and appreciation for the Reserve Units of the US Armed Forces.
The United States Air Force helps people
My cooperative recently received a $1,500 donation from the government institution that is in charge of co-ops nationwide. I helped write the proposal before I left for Christmas and so we’ll now use the money to buy new zinc for our leaky roof, install electricity, and make some other necessary improvements to our office building. I’m helping get estimates for materials and labor, and generally trying to move the project along so that construction is finished before the rainy season begins again.
CO-OP members getting ready to march in the independence day parade
I’m also in the middle of a project to paint a map of the world in my town’s school. It’s a project Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide do and is far more technical than artistic. The easy to follow manual provides you with a map that has grid lines drawn over it and a guide to color in the countries. You then make a grid on the wall you’ve chosen to paint and draw square by square the borders of all the countries in the world using the maps from the manual as your guide. Finally, you color in all the countries according to the guide provided in the manual. I obviously searched for the biggest wall in the school and decided that was the one I wanted to paint. My friend and I spent the last three mornings setting up the grid, making sure all our lines are straight and level, and all our squares the same size so as not to create distortions in the map. It’s a tedious task when the grid is 56 squares wide by 28 squares tall and the wall is 20 ft wide and wall 10 ft tall. I’ll begin drawing and painting with some local students and other volunteers this week. I’m confident it will look really good when it’s finished and I’ll be sure to post photos.
Soon there will be a beautiful map on that wall
The Map Project manual also comes with suggested activities to do with students once it’s complete that focus on geography, the environment, and basically appreciating the world we live in. I also plan to use the map to complement the Junior Achievement classes I’ll be doing when school starts again in March. The Junior Achievement organization provides lesson plans, workbooks for the students and activities materials. I’ll be working with 8th and 9th graders doing the same “Nuestro Mundo” (Our World) classes I did last year. The module aims to provide a basic understanding of imports/exports, comparative advantage, trade agreements and how the global economy functions in general.
Watched this guy bring in and clean his catch of small sharks one morning on a beach down here (see above photo)
The real thing that’s on everyone’s mind though is Carnival, which is now less than 3 weeks away. I have five friends from Brooklyn and another twelve or so Peace Corps buddies coming to stay with me. And I have a sneaky suspicion a few more stragglers will show up at the last minute. We’ve decided to rent my neighbors vacant house to have some more space, but it will still be four days of magnificent madness. Can’t wait.
