New Digs

I know, I know....I have been a huge disappointment to my loyal blog readers! Not writing an update since September is inexcusable. But I am back on track and realize that just because I no longer live in my community, lots of great things are still going on here in Panama. So, whats been going on in the four months since I last updated? Lets recap.

October found me wrapping things up in San Cristobal and getting ready fo

r my move to Changuinola. It was a busy month as I was rushing to finish my last project of improving the artisan stores. The goal was to make our two stores more tourist friendly by painting them, making signs and putting up information about the community in English and Spanish along with the awesome community maps the kids created a few months prior. Below are a few picture of the finished product.

All in all they came out really great. It felt good leaving my women's group with a visible reminder of my time in the community. Aside from finishing that up, I spent a good amount of time visiting with people, taking family portraits and having a goodbye party! My party or "despedida" consisted of two huge piñatas, lots of food and general chaos. It was a great way to go out. Below are photos of me with all the kids and also of my women's group in their traditional dresses or "Nagwas".

Needless to say it was very hard leaving my community at the end of October, but knowing that I would be able to visit over the coming year made it a little easier.

November found me jumping right into my new job as Regional Coordinator. I visited seven volunteers completing their first year to evaluate their progress and seven new volunteers who had been in site for one month. I also spent a week with the sub director of the sustainable agriculture program visiting meeting with communities who want a volunteer in the coming months. It was a great month of traveling and I got to be inspired by the work my fellow PCV's are doing.

December found me in the states for a month of much needed vacation! It was great to see family, friends and relax for the holidays. It made me look forward to coming home at the end of this year.

January found me back in Panama...and happily returning to my shorts and sandals! I visited a few volunteers and spent time organizing a tour of Changuinola for a new group of volunteers as coordinating our regional meeting which takes place every four months. I found myself visiting government agencies, booking meeting rooms and running all over town so that things went off without a hitch. All in all it is good to be back. I am happy with the work I am doing, but I am looking forward to see what this year brings. It will be full of transitions and for that I am grateful. To the left is a photo of my new house....it even came with a dog!

What is better than 2 years in Panama? 3!

As my second year here is coming to a close, my friends and family have been asking THE QUESTION....¨So, when are you coming home?!¨ A few months ago the answer was ¨I am not sure, I might stay, who knows...¨ But I can now say that 2011 will find me here in Panama, extending my service for a third year. While most of my close friends and family know I will be staying, most don´t know exactly what it is I will be doing. So I have finally sat down to explain how my next year will be spent.

Here in Panama there are several options if you want to extend your service. You can stay on in your community for a few extra months or up to a year if you are finishing up a big project or working on something specific. For example, my friend Kaitlyn is staying for an extra five months to finish a project to bring rainwater collection tanks to her community. Another option is to take a coordinator positon for a certain project, but not necessarily working in the same community. For example, my friend Jesse (and closest volunteer) is moving to David (a large city) where he will be coordinating composting latrine projects that are happening around the country. His home will be in a city and he will travel to help people with construction and implementation. Peace Corp is going through lots of growth so there has been lots of opportunity to create your own job.

I have decided to go for option number three which was to apply for a postition as a Regional Leader or RL. Peace Corp Panama started the RL program and it is now used as a model for other countries as well. A RL is a third year volunteer who lives in a regional captial and acts as a liason with Peace Corp staff. Ideally, the will have lived for two years in the region as a volunteer, so they know the area well. I applied a few months ago and got the job! As the RL of Bocas Del Toro, I will have three main responsibilities.

First, is site development. This means coordinating with the various programs directors to find communities in my region who want volunteers and have work. I will be responsible to doing intial visits, talking with people, seeing if it seems like a good place to live, gathering information. There is a lot that goes into developing a community to recieve a volunteer but that is the simplified version of it. I am excited about this part of the job because it means getting out, hiking, boating, who knows...maybe even a horse ride, to meet communties. I have dedicated myself to one community for two years, so it will be great to see more of this area.

Second, is volunteer support. This involves a lot of things from personal support, to keeping track of them in an emergency, organizing regional meetings, offering advice, and letting people stay at my house sometimes since it is in the capital.

Third, is agency relations. This means maintaining a working relationship between Peace Corp and different government agencies that partner with us. (for example in the US this would be akin to department of health or EAP etc.). This helps us connect on projects and work opportunities that are happening in our area. I guess you could say I am the Peace Corp representative they would work with.

Needless to say, this was not an easy decision. I miss my family and friends and I know there are things I have missed out on. But, more than that it is a great opportunity for me to get more work experience and I owe it to myself to go after anything that is helping me to define who I am, my goals and helping me create a vision for who I want to be in the next several year. Plus it doesn´t hurt that I will now have a house with electricity and indoor plumbing.

Milestones

August. I knew this month was coming closer with every flip of my calender, but it snuck up me as it usually does. This year, August has brought with it many important milestones in my life. First and foremost, the 17th meant turning 29. Scary to think about entering the last year of your twenties. The twenties have been good to me and I don't want them to end. Secondly, the 14th meant exactly two years here in Panama. Those of us from my group (62) who have stuck it out, got together to reflect, talk about where we go from here and to celebrate our accomplishments. It is sad to think about leaving my community and not seeing the great friends I have made here on a regular basis. Third, and maybe the most exciting is that my mom is here visiting! She came to celebrate my birthday with me and see Panama. We spent some time in the mountains, three nights in my community and of course are seeing some of the beautiful beaches of Bocas.

A highlight of the visit, was that my Mom and I planned an small afternoon workshop for my women's group. Being an artist and teacher, my mom really wanted to do something creative with them, Spanish or no Spanish she was pumped. We put on a workshop she taught them how to make fabric beads out of fabric scraps and straws, knot buttons, and a new wrapping technique that they can use for their necklaces and bracelets. It was great and the women were pumped that my mom actually came. Below are some photos of the visit and the activity with my mom.

Hope everyone is well! Sorry I haven't gotten to some of the questions that have been left, Erin...wink, wink....but I haven't forgotten!

Paradise Found

For as much as I get tired of the heat and the bugs, living in a tropical paradise does have its perks. Rain forest, animals, beautiful beaches...the list goes on. Fortunate for us volunteers we get the chance to discover all of the out of the way places other tourists do not often have the time or know-how to go see. In between the business seminars that I wrote about in my last post, I took a few days vacation to head out to Coiba, an island that is a national park in the Pacific.

On the map below you can see Coiba just above where it says "North Pacific Ocean"

Coiba National Park has been on my "Panama must see list" ever since I read about it in my guide book. The n

ational park includes Coiba island, 38 smaller islands and the surrounding marine areas within the Gulf of Chiriqui. In July of

2005 the entire park was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site for the rich biodiversity.

It is part of the Galapagos chain of islands and Coiba is the largest island in central america with an area of over 50 square miles. About 80% of the island is untouched forest and is home to rare plant and animal species found only on the island. It is surrounded by one of the largest coral reefs on the Pacific Coast of the America.

If that wasn't enough to make you want to go there, a

penal colony was built on the island in 1919. During the years that Panama was under the Dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, the prison on Coiba was a feared place with a reputation for brutal conditions, extreme tortures, executions and political murder. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed in the prison during this period, but sources claim that the number could be close to three hundred. As such, the island was avoided by locals, and other than the prison, was completely undeveloped. The prison was closed down in 2004, but there are still police officers stationed there to protect the ruins, watch for poachers and to help the environmental authority protect the park.

Sounds pretty great right?! Scary prison ruins, snorkeling, undiscovered paradise. The only hitch, it is over two hours in a boat to get there, each boat is $500 dollars and the only place to stay is a few cabins that are near the ranger station. So when my friend Mateo organized two boats to go out, I said sign me up!

Me and 11 other volunteers spent two days snorkeling, touring the prison ruins, drinking pipas (young coconuts) and having a great time. We saw whales, dolphins, snorkeled with sharks, turtles, beautiful fish and incredible reefs. It really was the most beautiful and wild place I have been in Panama.

Rumbo al Exito

Being a community economic development (or CED) volunteer here in Panama is a job that has many parts to it. Obviously the bulk of our efforts and work as PCV’s is focused on one community and often one group and one specific business. The range of projects amongst CED volunteers is pretty amazing. Some of us work with fisherman’s cooperatives, chocolate producers, farmers, artisans, tourism groups, and community microfinance. Big or small, Latino or Indigenous, CEDers work to help people improve their businesses, by helping identify areas that can be strengthened and teaching them the skills to do so.

In addition to the work we do in our communities, we often participate in and facilitate seminars which are designed to help us with our work. For example, a seminar that all volunteers attend with their counterparts is Project Management and Leadership or PML for short. (Side note: a counterpart is our main work partner in a community. Often the president of the group or someone motivated to organize a project. My counterpart is Esperanza, the president of my tourism group). PML teaches basic project planning and management skills such as time and money management, organizing a group, running a meeting and problem solving.

Recently, there has also been a push to develop a comprehensive seminar to teach professional business planning. Over the years PCV’s have worked to develop and adapt material to most effectively teach the material to people who often have no formal business training and little or no computer skills. Last year, I was able to participate in the seminar "Rumbo al Exito" or "Path to Success". With the vice president of my tourism group, Sergio, we wrote a professional business plan complete with full qualitative and quantitative analysis of the business. It was a lot of work, especially in Spanish but we both learned a lot. This year, those of us who took the seminar we asked to serve as facilitators. We had over 40 participants...20 volunteers and their counterparts took part in the seminar which took place over two weekends...one in June and the other just finished up on July 9th. The first seminar focused on the qualitative information then in the month between they were required to gather information about all the costs. It was a lot of work, but a great experience. Below are some photos from the two seminars. Enjoy!

Pumping up the energy with some games or dynamicas. A favorite is a version of rock, paper, scissors called "hombre, tigre, rifle"

Maria, a officer from a IPACOOP (Panamanian government agency that manages cooperatives) and Ben G. talking about including salaries for your employees to your operating costs.

Teachers extrordinare! From left, Lisa S., me and Lisa A.

Part of the group hard at work. We divided up the room by type of business. This is the tourism table.

Burning Questions Answered

In response to my request for questions on my last blog, I received a handful of great ones from my great friends Erin and Daphne! Hopefully the answers will give more insight into what my life is like here in Panama.

- Do you have a daily routine or is every day very different from the next?

When I first got to my community, this was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. Sometimes I would wake up and think "What am I going to do today?" and have a feeling of dread. I was used to working hard, being busy and having very little free time. Now I would say there are routine things I do everyday but the "work" part varies quite a bit. Everyday things like cooking, laundry and cleaning also take more time because I don't have running water or electricity. When I am in my community I also spend a lot of time visiting with my neighbors, walking around...just being out. Sometimes I have meetings with my groups, will hang with the women while they are doing artisanry, in the afternoons I usually end up at my house reading, helping the kids with their English homework, lending out games and books. Some days I have nothing to do and other days I don't have time to everything I planned. All bets are off when it is pouring out. No one leaves the house, including me!

- It sounds like the locals can be very silly. Are the types of things that make them laugh very different from what makes us laugh here in the States?

Ha! This is a great question. The people I live with have a great sense of humor and are not afraid to laugh at themselves. Some of the same things that make use laugh at home most definitely make them laugh here. Kids doing funny things, bodily functions, sex, life in general...they aren't ones to hold back. The type of humor that I often find myself missing is sarcasm, play on words, humor that only is only understood by people who are English speakers or from the same cultural background. Something things strike me as funny and I am left cracking my own self up! One example is the crazy t-shirts people wear...see example below. How do you explain why this is funny? You can't. It just is.

- What's the best local meal you've had in Panama? Most memorable?

There are some common foods you will find out throughout all of Panama, like rice, chicken, plantains and yucca (kinda like a potato). You might think the food is similar to Mexican, but it is actually very different. A tortilla here is a small cornmeal cake and you have to search to find things that are spicy. Since we are bordered by both the Pacific and the Caribbean you can also get fish, shrimp and other seafood. Bocas del Toro (the province I live in), you can find lots of fish, lobster and lots of foods made with coconut. One of my most favorite local meals is Rondon, a fish stew cooked with coconut milk, onions, peppers. Add some curry in there and serve over rice. Amazing. Most memorable food experience was probably eating boiled green bananas and white rice everyday for almost three months while living with a host family. Hard to believe but it kinda grows on you after while!

- What surprised (or continues to surprise) you the most about where you work?

Hmmm. I wouldn't say it was was one thing, everything was a surprise. I have never started a job where I didn't have at least some point around which to orient myself. When I arrived, I knew nothing about the culture, was learning the language, didn't know anything about the project I was going to help or understand the thinking of the people who were running it. At least when you are new on the job in the states, people speak English, you understand the business mentality that drives our culture and when all else fails there is usually someone there you can talk it out with.

- Daphne would like to know if you've finally met Carlos, your Latin lover? Also, did the two of you get married in a small, quaint island ceremony, where you exchanged starfish and promised to be together forever?

Sounds so romantic! Unfortunately I haven't had the experience of actually dating a

local, but I still have time, so who knows! I feel like it would complete my cross cultural experience. Don't worry Daph, my ladies will be the first to know when I meet my Latin love.

Thanks for the great questions, keep them coming!

Forgotten what I look like cause it has been so long? Here is a photo from a birthday party I went to last week for the girl in the photo, Amy. Food, cake equals good times.

Vida Volunteers

June is rolling right along here in the tropical paradise that is Bocas. Today the sky is a brillant blue, a slight breeze is blowing and the water looks like there are thousands of little mirrors floating on the surface. Had a fresh mango smoothie for breakfast with a few friends and life is good!

This last Saturday, my community hosted Vida Volunteers, a huge group of medical volunteers who were traveling throughout Costa Rica and Bocas Del Toro. They often work with Peace Corp because we work in areas that they target, so it works great. We can do a lot of the leg work and small details they are not able to. My community was the only stop they made out in the islands so it was a big deal. The week leading up to it was hectic as I worked to coordinate cooks, promote the visit and figure out where they would work. The group consisted of medical students from Wisconsin, a group of dentists from England, and even a group of vets who came to spay, neuter and deworm animals in the community. There were also doctors from Costa Rica and Panama in the mix so it was quite a group. They pulled up at around 8am in three boats, set up the equipment and got down to work within a half and hour! They were very experienced and while the day was exhausting for both them and me, it was very sucessful.

The doctors worked in the community center and formed groups of three to four with a translator.

The dentists worked both inside and outside (as seen in the photo) of the health center. Most of my time was spent helping out here translating and getting the kids to open their mouth! They did a lot of extractions, some fillings and a lot of showing kids how to brush their teeth.

I love this picture because the girl standing in front had two teeth pulled and doesn´t look very happy about it. Perfect poster child for the Glasgow Dental School!

While I avoided going to the school classroom where the vets were working, it was probably the most popular place to be. Everyone was crowding around the windows and door to see their poor dogs being imasculated! The jokes were flying all day. Someone even asked me where the bag of balls ended up at the end of the day and I almost peed in my pants I was laughing so hard.

As compared to my first year here, I feel like something blog worthy is happening all the time! Do my readers have any questions about my life here, Peace Corp, Panama in general? Any special topics I should cover? Please feel free to leave a comment with questions and I will answer them.