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.

July & August

July and August were good months in Parita and in Panama in general. My mom and Aunt Judy arrived in Panama City in mid-July excited for their 1^st Central American experience. We visited the canal and other touristy sites in Panama City, ate at some delicious restaurants, and fought with taxi drivers trying to rip of the gringo tourists.

The most authentic adventure we had was going to visit my friend Jake’s town about an hour outside of the city. They are an indigenous community who earn extra income giving tours and presentations for the increasing number of tourists in Panama. First, we took a quick boat ride in a dugout canoe to visit a nearby waterfall. The “short” hike to the waterfall turned out to be a 30 minute trek through the jungle complete with mud, knee high river crossings and a few small boulders to climb over.

I was very impressed with mom and Aunt Judy who took everything in stride and made it to the through with only a few small slips. I think they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, especially when we got to cool off after our hike in the waterfall.

After a few days in Panama City we packed up our rental car and headed to the interior to see the other side of Panama. A few wrong turns and pit stops later we arrived in Parita and began the daunting task of visiting all the good people in town who help take care of me. In typical fashion, mom and Aunt Judy came bearing gifts which my townspeople were very gracious for.

We went to church, saw some cows, and of course ate at various friends’ houses. One neighbor even killed one of her chickens and made us a scrumptious sancocho (chicken soup) lunch.

Plaza of Parita from the Church belltower

Having seen the authentic Panama we were soon on the road again to the last stop on our trip – The Royal Decameron Resort is all-inclusive, huge, and amazing. We spent 5 days drinking Piña Coladas by the beach and soaking in the fierce Panamanian sun. Good times.

Less than two weeks after my vacation with mom and Aunt Judy ended, the celebrations for the patron saint of Parita (Santo Domingo de Guzman) were getting started. Everyone in town touched up the paint on their houses and proudly hung their “¡Viva Santo Domingo!” banners.

My coop even got it together to move to our new building that has been donated to us by the municipality. We’ve got a one-year renewable permission to operate there. It is a huge improvement over our last location, which was simply a room, attached to one of the members’ houses. Now we are more centrally located and have painted our name and logo on the outside. All these factors should give us more credibility within the community; we already got one new member signed up since we moved.

I had heard a lot about our patronales celebrations from people in town and it was the only big event I had yet to witness. What happens is they put up barricades all around our massive central plaza and have something resembling a rodeo. In this kind of rodeo though the audience gets to participate!

All the guys just chill out in the middle of the plaza drinking as they let bulls out one at a time sometimes with someone riding, sometimes not. I didn’t get the appeal of this particular activity until I was in the plaza chasing around and getting chased by a huge animal with horns. It’s kind of like hanging out at a nice afternoon BBQ except every once and a while you have to flee for your life! Needless to say it’s a ton of fun; and this went on for four days!

On the last day I actually got hit by a bull. Luckily he didn’t have any horns and just gave me a head butt that knocked the wind out of me before practically the whole town came running to my rescue. This event was captured by a film crew from the weekly show “Hecho en Panama” that travels to different festivals throughout the country. Yours truly was on national TV getting hit by a bull. This story will certainly solidify my place in the pop culture history of Parita for at least the next 10 years.

Besides the bulls there are stands selling crap that kids beg their parents to buy them, discotecas at night, and of course lots of fireworks. My favorite part though is the street food. Vendors of various tasty fried foods peddle their goods inside and outside the plaza risking life and limb for a qwata. (See below)

Thin sliced fried platanos, Mmmm.

A week of partying is probably not the best preparation to run a half marathon but that’s how I chose to do it. On Sun. Aug 10^th I finished the half-marathon in Panama City along with three other friends and four friends who ran the entire marathon. It was quite different from the NYC and Boston marathons I’m used to seeing. There were only about 600 people running, virtually no spectators, and no distance markers. They had a ton of people handing out water, which was very necessary in this climate, but only one traffic lane was closed so exhaust spewing buses zoomed by every once in a while. Overall it was a really fun experience and I plan to continue running and possibly have a go at the NYC marathon next year.

Back in Parita the parties were getting started again, this time to celebrate the 450^th Anniversary of the founding of the town. We are the oldest town in the Azuero Peninsula and are very proud of that fact. I marched with members of my coop in the Foundation Day parade and attended various folkloric presentations throughout the week.

The last day there was another tipico (traditional) parade and a concert by Samy & Sandra, a brother and sister group that are probably the most famous artists here in Panama at the moment.

The most exciting thing to happen in Panama in the month of August didn’t even take place here. Panama won its first medal in 60 years and its first gold medal ever at the Olympics in Beijing. Irving Saladino took gold in the men’s long jump, instantly becoming a national hero. The day he returned to Panama was declared a national holiday and he was greeted by hundreds of people including President Torrijos. Congratulations Irving!

Finally, while Parita was celebrating its 450^th Anniversary I celebrated a personal anniversary of having lived in Panama for a full year as of Aug 15^th. The time has gone by much quicker than I imagined and from what other volunteers say, the second year goes even faster. I’m quite accustomed to the lifestyle here, but I’m already looking forward to my 1^st visit home for Christmas and New Years. Hope to see YOU then.