Wildcats Craddle

I'm no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer, now I'm an MBA student. Yay!

FREEDOM

Well its official folks, I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer! Its exciting, satisfying and scary all at the same time. In retrospect I do not think I could have asked for a better Peace Corps experience. My town was full of amazing people and the relationships I made with my fellow volunteers will last a lifetime. I feel like I accomplished a good amount in my role as a Business Development Specialist and hopefully the follow up volunteer in my site will keep moving my projects along - and start some of her own!


In the last two months of 2009 I'll be bouncing around a bit, including a holiday visit to the true center of the world - BROOKLYN. Come January though I will be living and working in Panama full time. I just couldn't tear myself away from this amazing country and the job situation in the states made my decision a lot easier. I'll be living in Panama City so I probably won't be having as many campo adventures, but as we all know the urban jungle can be a ferocious beast as well. Business-wise there is a lot going on down here, so if you don't know, check out some of the links to the right. Or better yet - come visit and see for yourself!

Montando

It’s hard to believe, but I now have less than two months left until I officially finish my Peace Corps service on October 29th, 2009! I am excited about the idea of completing my time as a volunteer, but also quite anxious about the thought of what to do next. But before we get into that…

I finished my last post mentioning that my bike had been stolen from outside of the internet café in my town. I quickly tired of literally EVERY person I spoke to asking me about the bike, but the fact that so many people were concerned about it worked in my favor. Just about 3 weeks after having my bike stolen it was returned to the local authorities with a different color of paint, but in otherwise the same condition I’d left it. Needless to say I was thrilled. The person who returned the bike, a local bad boy, insisted that he did not steal the bike but since he was being accused of doing so he decided to track down the guilty party as a favor to me (even though I’d never even met him before). Although I’m pretty sure he did not physically steal the bike, I’m almost positive he was involved in having it re-painted and sold. Regardless I have the bike back, along with a great respect for the people of my town, whose civic pride would not allow such an affront to occur to their gringo friend. I was quite touched that the Pariteños liked yours truly enough to use their collective persuasive powers to pressure the culprit into returning the bike. This incident convinced me that I’m about as integrated into my community as a volunteer can possibly be.

In addition to being sick of people asking me about the bike, as our patronales festival approached people began to remind me of the incident at last year’s patronales where I was head butted by a bull and wound up on TV saying I didn’t want to be on TV. After all the people of Parita had done for me I couldn’t leave them with the legend of the gringo who got hit by a bull and couldn’t even come up with something funny to say when the cameras were in front of his face. The teenage boys in my Junior Achievement classes made fun of me the worst and so it was really their approval I was seeking when I decided that at this year’s patronales I would actually ride a bull. Even at the age of 25 peer pressures a bitch.

Saddling Up

To celebrate the patron saint of Parita, Santo Domingo de Guzman, there are nine days of mass followed by about nine days of straight partying. I picked the second to last day of the festival for my bull ride so no one could say I rode one of the smaller bulls that appear in the first few days. I arrived to the plaza with a number of volunteer friends who had come for the festivities and quickly set to work about achieving my goal so I could enjoy the rest of my day in peace. After a little liquid courage and a “good” friend prodding me along I approached the chute where the bulls come out of, found some people I knew and told them I wanted to ride. I tried to observe the technique of the few guys who went ahead of me and passed on one bull that was supposedly especially bravo, but soon enough it was my turn. As I prepared to mount my buddy suggested I wait for another bull, but I knew putting it off again would only make it more difficult in the long run. Now these are real bulls, 1000 pound animals that can seriously hurt you, but they’re not exactly Spanish matador killers, nor Texas rodeo caliber, and they don’t cinch its balls. My bull was brown with small, not so sharp, fairly symmetrical horns. I was glad it had horns so no one could say I was skirting danger. With my heart pounding I finally sat on the bull as the guys attached the strap I would hold on to. After some brief instructions on hand and foot placement the chute opened and I was off. I don’t really remember much about the 6-8 seconds I was mounted but my friends said the crowd of 300+ spectators immediately erupted in applause and the play by play guy on the loudspeaker announced that “Robert Dawson, the gringo is riding the bull.”

A picture is worth a thousand words

From what I was later told I took the first few bucks in stride but then the bull slipped in the mud and I fell to the ground on its right flank. Some friends distracted the bull away from me while others helped me up and congratulated me. I had done it, and who knew, but that shit was fun! However, I paid for my fun, and 8 seconds of glory with two full days of soreness afterwards. My lower back, inner thighs and shoulders all felt the effort of doing my damndest to stay atop an animal that did not want me there. But most importantly, I had no more questions about the stolen bike or about “no quiero salir en television”, just “hey good mount” and a firm handshake.

Basking in the glory of it all

Besides riding bulls and bikes I’m trying to bring closure to my service in a positive way. I finished the Junior Achievement classes I’d been doing in the school and I used the last of the paint from my world map and Panama map projects to paint maps of the Province of Herrera and the District of Parita where I live. I thoroughly enjoyed working on all these maps and the school director was grateful for my contributions to the aesthetics of the school.

The Cooperativa Parita Avanza unfortunately has not fared so well recently. Shorty before the patronales festival they began knocking down the house next door to the co-op and in the process knocked down our adjacent mud-brick wall! Luckily we had moved everything to the opposite side of the office anticipating such a disaster, but the entire co-op was still filled with dirt and dust. Since it’s a government building we will likely wait for the municipality to pay to rebuild the wall, which could take a while. In the meantime we’ve been operating out of the manager’s house, but will soon likely setup operations in the student center that is on the same block as the co-op. Getting the co-op up and running again will be the only volunteer work I’ll be doing in the last two months as I focus on my post-service plans. I’m also preparing to receive the new volunteer who will replace me when I leave to follow up with the Savings and Loans Co-op, the Youth Co-op in the school and a few of the entrepreneurs I’ve been working with.

All iguanas should have to wear Easter bonnets

So what comes next for el joven Roberto you ask? I’ll then on vacation with my mom in Panama City for a week but when she flies back to NYC on NOV 9th I’ll fly to meet my friends in Colombia. We’ll be in Cartagena for their Independence Day celebrations and the Miss Colombia pageant which they hold there every year. We then head to the Santa Marta beach area a few hours up the coast for a week before flying back to Bogota where my friend Adam has some Colombian friends he knows from the states. Finally, we’ll go to Medellin for a long weekend and a few days later my 3-week excursion will come to an end in the first week of December.

Dirty Devils

Since returning to Panama after a visit to the states in Mid-May for my cousin Ali’s wedding time has been moving quite quickly even though nothing terribly interesting has been happening. I now have less than 4 months left with the Peace Corps! Pretty crazy. At my bosses suggestion I’ve decided to “extend” my service into the 1^st week of November to help the volunteer that is replacing me get situated and show him or her the different projects they will be working on. So if all goes as planned I will finish my Peace Corps service on November 9^th, however where exactly I will be headed on that date is still to be determined.

Varela Hermanos make delicious rum and seco

So what am I doing in my last few months as a volunteer you ask? I’m just about finishing up the Junior Achievement classes I began in the school the 1^st week of June. I’m working with two 8^th grade classes and two 9^th grade classes on the “Nuestro Mundo” (Our World) module. The material focuses on explaining vocabulary like imports, exports, goods & services, competitive advantage, trade balance, etc… The Junior Achievement organization provides lesson plans, workbooks for the students and materials for classroom activities that the kids seem to enjoy. I only have to worry about figuring out the most effective way to explain the material and trying to get the kids to listen to me when I’m doing my explaining.

Posing in front of thrashed sugar cane with our hard hats at the rum factory tour.

I’m also working with a new youth cooperative in the high school that is supposedly run by the students with guidance from professors. A few of my volunteer friends work with youth co-ops as well and have had varying degrees of success. The problem is that the government organization in charge of supporting and helping the co-ops is making a big push to form youth co-ops. So I don’t think the students really came up with the idea to start a cooperative, they were more or less told that’s what they were going to do. The idea though is they will learn how to maintain inventory, keep records and more or less manage a small business. They used a donation to purchase a photocopier which they’ve set up in a small office and they’re charging 4 cents a copy to students and professors. They hope to expand the small business to include selling school/office supplies like pens, paper, white-out, tape, etc. Currently I’m organizing a trip to take some of the students involved to visit a more established youth co-op that another volunteer works with in a town about an hour away from me at the end of August. Hopefully the students will get a better idea of what it means to be involved with the cooperative and get excited about moving their little business forward.

The other savings and loans cooperative that is my primary project is moving along slowly but surely. We had our annual assembly in early June which went well, and we actually made a profit of about $150 last year from interest on loans and our bank deposits. We got a resolution approved by the municipal council extending our contract to use the building we moved into last year for another 3 years free of rent. We used part of the $1,500 donation we received to change the zinc on our leaky roof and install outlets and light sockets. We’re currently doing the paperwork to get electricity hooked up so we can finally get a fucking fan, yet why it takes a month to setup an electricity contract is still beyond me. Someone broke into the co-op a few weeks ago but since we don’t keep any money there and don’t really have anything of value it wasn’t a big deal, just had to buy a new lock. We’re getting estimates to install iron gates for our front and back doors so someday soon we can try and get a computer in there. We got our logo and a description of the services we offer painted on the outside of the building so hopefully we’ll get some new associates looking to join. I’m pretty happy with the way things are going and I think the members are as well.

As you may know from previous blog posts my life here is not all work, and my town likes to party quite a bit. I recently participated in the Corpus Cristi festival we celebrate here which involves 5 different groups of dancers that travel from house to house doing their presentations for a small donation from the homeowner. From what I’ve gathered the dances stem from the Spaniards trying to teach Christianity to the illiterate indigenous people they found in Panama when they arrived. Each group has different costumes and most are formed by members of the same family who’ve decided to do their part in helping maintain traditions. My host family does the “Diablico Sucio” (Dirty Devil) dance which involves wearing a long-sleeved jumpsuit with a piece of cloth and a big mask on your head and sweating profusely. There is a guitar player and support team that travels with the group carrying water, but mostly booze to feed the dancers in between houses. It was a whole lot of fun and won me a lot of street cred in town, although I never want to be that sweaty for that long ever again.

They call me Roberto "Manos Blancos" Dawson

I have now been outside of the USA for the 4^th of July four of the last five years. I’m kind of proud of that for some reason, but also quite bitter that the only year I was in the states Corey decided to skip having his epic and storied 4^th of July party. Anyway, this year my friend Max Kraman came to visit during a two month tour he’s doing of Panama and Costa Rica. For the 4^th of July we went to my favorite beach in Panama, Playa Las Lajas to meet up with a group of about 12 other Peace Corps volunteers. I love it because you and whoever you’re with are the only people you can see on the beach for miles in each direction. The water is rough and good for body surfing and we bought about $40 worth of fireworks to celebrate the birth of our great nation. Max then came to stay in my town for four days and on Thursday we went to Panama City for a little nightlife. On Saturday he got on a bus for the 14 hour ride back to Costa Rica and I headed with my girlfriend to one of the few touristy places I’d yet to make it to in this country.

The San Blas Archipelago is a chain of 365 islands that stretch along the Northeast coast (Caribbean side) of Panama all the way to Colombia where the Kuna indigenous group live. The trip involves a 2 hour car ride on a windy dirt road across some small mountains in a 4x4 vehicle driven at high speeds by a chatty Panamanian. We then got on a small boat with a ridiculously small motor to make the almost 2 hour trip to the island where we would be staying. Our island was about the size of a baseball field with 5 cabins, no electricity or running water and 3 Kuna Indians who prepared some barely tolerable food. We shared the island with a few other couples that we ate with, but for the most we lounged around our cabin and occasionally made the 10 foot trek from our front door to the ocean for a swim.

Our 5-Star Accomodations

On a sad note I got my bike stolen two weeks ago in broad daylight right here in my quaint little town of Parita. I left it unlocked outside of the internet place like I always do with two other bikes that were outside. I used the internet for a half hour but when I left the bike was gone. I immediately went to the police station and we did a quick drive around town to no avail. Since then I made an official complaint with the corregidora (literally the “corrector” of small problems) and have followed up on leads with the police. Everyone in town knows my bike was stolen and they’re doing their part to find it, although most people just accuse one of the two local “bad boys”. As the days pass I’m beginning to lose hope, but I’m not losing any sleep over it either.

The rum and fresh coconut drinks helped me forget about my missing bike

That brings us just about up to date. We have our “Close of Service” conference the first week of August at which point it will really start to hit home that this little adventure is coming to an end. Some people are counting the days until we leave, having already bought their plane tickets home, but I’m just gonna let it run its course and see where I end up.

Los Locos Somos +

I ended my last blog post saying I couldn’t wait for Carnival, an event that remains a fuzzy memory still fresh in my mind. Needless to say it was a great time, definitely the MOST fun I’ve had in my ENTIRE life. I won’t go into the details here but by Fat Tuesday I had slept about 12 hours over 5 days, and didn’t want any of it to end. Everything went as planned and there were no major incidents. My New York crew and Peace Corps crew hit it off wonderfully; love was in the air. Check out my “Agua y Guaro” album on Facebook for a taste of what you missed…. Oh and CARNIVAL 2010: Feb 13-16. See ya there!!!!

After a week of recuperation I was back to work on my map of the world, which I had almost finished before Carnival. With my neighbor, her cousins, and some other ambitious students helping me to paint the map I was able to complete my 20 ft long, 10 ft high masterpiece pretty quickly. It came out beautiful and soon afterward I completed the map of Panama that went next to the World Map. To check out more photos click the World Map link to the right.

My mornings were spent preparing the cooperatives books and other materials for our yearly General Assembly. The Assembly was supposed to happen before the end of March, but looks like it’ll now be happening the first week of June. This year we actually have an excuse for our tardiness, which is that we were knee deep in “la politica”. Presidential, Mayoral and Senate elections took place in the beginning of May, so the months leading up to that were quite hectic. The President of my COOP, after organizing everything for his daughter to be Queen of Carnival (no small task with expenses upwards of $50,000) was now running for Vice-Mayor, so he was pretty busy. On Sunday, May 3rd, Ricardo Martinell a self made businessman and owner of one of the largest supermarket chains in Panama was elected President. He beat Balbina Herrera of the incumbent PRD party by a margin of about 2:1. He is a Center-Right Conservative politician who is very business friendly and campaigned on a platform of change. With daily stories of failed or rigged elections everywhere from Iraq to Venezuela it was very encouraging to see the Democratic process in action producing the results the people of Panama asked for.

This guys got my vote

In April we had our annual “All Volunteer Conference” at a nice hotel just 20 minutes from my town. The theme of the three day conference was “La Cultura Cuenta y se Cuenta” (Culture Tells Stories and is Important). We had guest speakers, roundtables about volunteer life and post-Peace Corps life and a whole bunch of other meetings that took place in air-conditioned rooms. One evening we had a talent show which I helped kick off by performing with a group of dancers from my town. It was my first time dancing with them and was good practice as I will be performing the same dance at the Corpus Christi festival in my town in early June.
Most recently I was back in the states for a week for my cousin Alison’s wedding. Ali looked beautiful and didn’t stop dancing the whole time. The wedding hall was gorgeous, the food was exquisite and plentiful and the booze was flowing; a great success in my opinion. BIG thanks to Aunt Sue and Uncle Dennis, and best of luck to Ali and Matty!

Panamanian Pimp My Ride: Note the mini screen in front, there´s a full size monitor for the drivers viewing and those speakers seriously bump.

GRACIAS Y CUIDENSE!

Murderer to Midwife

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 8^th and 9^th 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.

Hate

At the finish line of the Panama Marathon / Half Marathon

I just recently had my first incredibly frustrating "I HATE Panama" moment. Here's what happened: Our cooperativa keeps most of our cash in a larger bank so when someone wants to make a large withdrawal we have to go take it out first. Although this is definitely not part of my job I went to get the money out because the associate needed it in a hurry and our treasurer was busy. I arrived perspiring slightly from the normal 80° degree weather and was greeted by a fresh burst of air conditioning. I was immediately stopped by the security guard who told me I could not enter because I was wearing shorts. Panama in general is fairly formal and I usually wear pants when I have any official business to do but I'd never heard of not being able to enter a building because of my attire. Besides the sign out front said to avoid wearing shorts, sandals, etc, not that it was completely prohibited.

Me and my crew about to storm the bank

Slightly perturbed I explained that it was my first time coming to the bank but that I needed to make a withdrawal and would not be able to go home and put on pants. He got a teller to come meet me at the door who reiterated that I could not enter with shorts and motioned me to come outside. Standing outside the door now I gave him the deposit slip, my ID and he went back inside. To be honest it wasn't the hottest day so I stood patiently hoping he would return quickly with the cash. After a few minutes he came back saying he needed 2 signatures on the withdrawal slip even though the COOP treasurer had assured me that only one of the signatures on the account was necessary. I told him that and he went back in to see what he could do. Getting hotter and more annoyed now I considered asking if I could wait inside but decided to wait it out. When he came back outside again telling me there was nothing he could do because the manager wasn't there I really almost blew it. I told him I wanted to speak to whoever was in charge, and I wanted to wait inside because it was hot. He said I couldn't because I was wearing shorts but asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee, I said I didn't want any coffee I wanted to wait inside, that I was a client and wanted to speak to whoever was in charge. At this point he deferred to the security guard who is apparently his superior at the bank who said I couldn't come in. At this point I could feel the cool air tantalizing me from inside through the half open door and considered just going in, but I could tell by the security guards face the confrontation would have gotten physical.

Me and the boys about to pop bottles at the club

That was about the climax of the confrontation, the guy came back out without letting me speak to the manager saying I needed two signatures and I walked away cursing them in English. When I got back to town I let my COOP members know that I was pissed, that I would not be going back to that bank, and that the treasurer would have to deal with deposits and withdrawals from now on (as it should be). I suppose I should be glad that I've been here for over a year now and this is the first incident that got me truly angry. Also I'll be heading here (see below) in a few weeks so I guess I have plenty of things to be happy about.