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3 de mayo 2012

I just celebrated one year in Panama. I never really considered how my life would look a year into this experience, how my daily interactions would be, what my food or home would look like, what I would look like, even. Nada. It’s surprising how much and how little has changed. I imagine I won’t know the half of how I have changed until I return home and take a glimpse at myself next to “integrated” Americans. I know I don’t worry about the things I used to and here I worry about things that would have seemed a bit crazy a year ago. If it rains too hard, will anyone leave their porch to come to an environmental volunteer meeting on time (aka, an hour late at best)? If my horse won’t climb this hill, and it comes to a battle of wills, will I be able to drag him up behind me? If one of my eco-stove bricks cracks, how much cow poop mix will save it? Will I ever have enough phone credit to call my grandma?

Having my amazing family members and family friends visit in March, which was amazing by the way, really allowed me to see how I have changed personally. My values, patience, and ability to sit and listen to others have been dramatically enhanced. I can give time and space to a person or situation like never before. I can respect my elders and admire hard-work. I see humility, grace and wisdom in others on a daily basis. I would call all of this a positive influence. 

So personally I am very content. Sometimes I am lonely, but never alone. Sometimes I am frustrated that I can’t be “normal” or my interpretation of normal based on my cultural upbringing. It is difficult to have guy friends and sometimes people don’t take you seriously as a work partner because you are young and a woman. I have wished I could just take a night off and go out with my girlfriends in St. Petersburg and live the life I used to live without guilt or worry about how drinking a beer in public, or dancing too much would affect my image. Gossip is a plague of every small town. 

On the other hand, the thought of being at home and being in the places I used to frequent remind me of the sinking feeling I often felt in times where I wasn’t quite sure in which direction my life was leading. Unfulfillment, an absence of community, a total disconnect from something greater than myself and my head. I know that wherever the future takes me, I want to continue doing work I believe in 100%. I envision myself striving to improve the world, understand its people and spark social change. Call my American, but my work is very much tied to myself identity and worth.  

So what have I achieved (aka my community has achieved) as of late to make me feel so thankful and happy for my work in Panama? I will try to sum up major achievements in bullets, although it will be hard for me not to elaborate more. Maybe in a future post… (and apparently the pictures decided to add themselves here)

• We have started a semi-functioning environmental group in a community where groups come and go as fast as a good bowl of sancocho. 

• My eco-stove marketing tactics have reached an estimated 500+ people directly or indirectly through extensive flyering and nonchalant chats, patio to patio. 

• I saw transformational leadership occur at the Project Management Leadership Seminar Peace Corps professionals put on every year for volunteers and their work counterparts. My counterpart spoke in public (quite well actually) in front of an audience of 80 people for the first time in his 47 years of life. He also presented his artisan work, sold a few items, and received a HUGE boost in confidence from the experience. He started the week as my “brick-making guy” and ended it as my friend and teammate. He wants to plant trees along the watersheds of town and save us all from the ravages of excessive deforestation. 

• We (brick guy/friend) successfully organized a 4-day work junta in late March to make over 400 bricks for 20 Tower Eco-Stoves that conserve firewood and produce less smoke than the typical stove made of two cement blocks. The fact that 4-5 people went each day to work in the heat without being paid was incredible. But it was actually a ton of fun and a great environment to talk about THE ENVIRONMENT.  I also made an effort to invite women to participate (since they will be the ones benefitting the most from this improved cooking technology) and work side-by-side with the men and I. I took pictures and even showed them to other women who had doubts about their ability to do the work. “Hey if SHE can get ankle deep in a horse poop-dirt mix pool so can you” [think I Love Lucy and the grape squishing, but don’t worry dried horse poop doesn’t smell]

• We have now successfully built 9 stoves as part of the original pilot project group, one guy has made his own bricks and built 2-3 more and my stove-guy-friend is now getting contracts from other communities to build stoves for cash. CHING CHING! 

• I finally had the guts to be the lead on a stove build and taught people with WAAAAAYYYY more building experience how it’s done. I should really practice construction vocabulary a bit. 

• I have started my recycling education outreach efforts and have already had a few amazing classes in the school on such topics as renewable resources and nonrenewables, organic vs. nonorganic wastes, life cycles of different waste products, how long trash stays in the environment and the effects of certain everyday materials in our habitat, the 5R’s (reducir, reciclar, reutilizar, reparar, y rechezar – not sure what the last one means in English but it suggests that we should think about a product’s contents before we buy it and buy less plastic packaging if possible because it is harder to recycle).

• My kindergarteners are teaching their parents what we want to start recycling 

• I have wowed people with my recycled (well reutilized) artwork and jewelry. I am personally very proud of my Peace Corps themed milk carton clutch purse. 

• We have started seed collecting to reforest the most beautiful and most endangered wild area in town. My neighbors and friends told me it is best to plant fruit trees that give an abundance of shade because people will not cut them down for wood and they attract more birds and animals (REALLY?!!! YESSSSS!!!! ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS!) The best part was that the majority of the seed collectors are 4th grade girls. 

• My cat is pregnant and about to pop! Not an achievement but pretty interesting to watch her grow and grow!

• People are coming to ME with ideas

• I found two fantastic women to apply to a Healthy Women’s Artisan Seminar in July (hope they get accepted!)

• Gender and Development Youth camp has been rescheduled for June and I am going to be a facilitator! I will be co-presenting about self-esteem and self-image… goodness if only I could have a conversation with myself at any time in my life from age 12-20! I am sure being able to inspire young Panamanians will be very rewarding. 

• I have my very own house and am learning to cook. My specialties so far include a very mean vegetarian chow mein with Thai peanut sauce and a jalapeño cheddar tuna quesadilla. I also recently attempted a spinach, goat cheese, sundried tomato quesadilla (Ciccio’s inspired) while in the city and it was fabulous!

• I started a recycling initiative while working as a maintenance volunteer leader at the pool arena during the Special Olympics Caribbean and Latin American Games 2012. I taught local high school volunteers about our mission and got them involved. We saved about 50-60 large garbage bags of plastic water bottles from destinations that would have included: dirty landfills, the ocean and burning. True behavioral change was observed with our bosses (Bank CEOS from Bano General) were making the effort to separate the bottles from the trash and agreed to bring the materials to the center. Turns out their business also encourages recycling… but the difference is actually doing it!

• I danced like a fool and made spaghetti and meatballs out of play dough with some of the most inspiring and fun Special Olympian athletes from 15 or so different countries. The Special Olympics are such an outstanding organization and I encourage anyone who hasn’t been to a practice or a world event to find one locally and go and meet the athletes and their families. AMAZING PEOPLE! Seriously, I met one swimmer from Honduras that spoke 2 languages and was learning 2 more. He had graduated from school and studied computer science. He loves Lincoln Park and Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Special” really takes on a whole new meaning. Oh yeah, he also won a gold medal in swimming on an international level. NO BIG DEAL 

This is such a small highlight of events from life. I have chosen to focus on the work stuff, which is truly only part of the bigger picture of life. I hope everyone speaks with my family to hear their take on their trip! I also failed to mention how exciting Carnival (Panamanian Mardi Gras for 5 days) was with my fellow volunteers and new friends and that I am now scuba certified! My first dives in Isla Coiba national park included many 6ft sharks and sea turtles! Thanks to someone special for planning the trip and making our dream of diving a reality with me. 

I love you all at home and think of you constantly! 

XO y mucho cariño, 

Natalie 

Life Moves Faster...

Blog Update From  Jan 8th-20th, 2012

ECO STOVES!

CAMBUTAL, LOS SANTOS SEA TURTLE FIELD TRIP!

  

VIEWS FROM Cerro Peñón 

SOME EYE CANDY TO GET YOU ALL EXCITED ABOUT READING! 

Firstly, I would like to wish my dear friends Brittany and Kevin a very happy and special one year wedding anniversary! You two are an inspiration and a beautiful example of love between two very beautiful people inside and out! I am wishing you all the best and remembering such a fun time last year. Keep on rocking on you two!

Another milestone is that today marks one year since I learned that I had passed the medical portion of my Peace Corps application. I could not have pictured my life as it is today, and yet that seems like just yesterday. The weird part is, on January 8, 2011 I remember very clearly being surrounded with people I had known since kindergarten (Thanks to Britt and Kevs’ wedding) and loved sharing their company and catching up on our lives. Today I spent January 8, 2012 splashing away in the Rio La Villa and eating arroz con puerco while being surrounded by people I didn’t know 6 months and 4 days ago! Now they are like family, or extended family, but family just the same. I somehow fit into about 4 different families in this community, which is a big accomplishment considering there are really only 4 family names, give or take a few randoms that snuck in.

As of 4 days ago, I am now in my 6^th month in my site. SIX MONTHS. Where was I when SIX months passed by. What happened to me being able to say “estare en su comunidad por dos anos” now I have to say “I will be here 18 months” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Sorta triste if you ask me. Considering these last six months I racked my brain with planning and ideas for projects and wondering how the heck I will get started, suddenly everything is a bit overwhelming. I feel like work is finally taking off and every day I meet a new “hidden” counterpart. My conversations with people have taken a whole new level, whether we are talking about the United States, the culture of Panama, or the environment and how we can conserve El Cedro’s resources and natural beauty, people are opening up and we are really sharing. No more of this “going to rain today?” business. Wait. Who am I kidding? Guessing the weather will always be a good conversation no matter how much confianza I have with someone. It’s just la vida.

So… updates, I have already begun backtracking so I will continue in that direction. This past week, Jan 5^th, I had THE most successful work day as a Community Environmental Conservation volunteer. In my last update I described our November In-Service Training (IST) sessions. These trainings capacitate us, the volunteers, so that we can bring knowledge and technical skills back to our sites to train others. I decided to do one even better and lead my own jira, or seminar, for a group of my community members, modeled after the exact training I received during IST. I am lucky enough that Peace Corps sent us to the site of one of my closest volunteer, John’s  site to learn about a new eco-stove model  he is implementing in the community. The proximity allowed us easy access to the great activities going on in La Canoa, and an opportunity to learn from our environmentally-conscious neighbors.

So why the focus on improving stoves?  A stove, or fogón in rural Panama, usually consists of a wood-burning contraption consisting of three stones on the ground or more likely in El Cedro, a fire in between two cement blocks. The fogón is the focal point of the Panamanian kitchen or patio, and plays a strong role in local culture and food. Everyone in the household benefits from what this stove produces (yummy food) and nearly everyone, both male and females works to sustain it through the process of collecting, chopping and feeding wood into the fire. Unfortunately, nearly everyone is also receiving the negative impacts of this stove.  Traditional fogóns are not very efficient, due to their inability to trap in heat to cook rapidly and cleanly. Instead, they emit large amounts of smoke that the hardworking cooks, usually women, and nearby children are constantly inhaling. These fogóns also consume large amounts of wood, meaning that more trees are being cut down and more time is being spent looking for wood, usually by men, which can be very difficult in the rainy season. Traditional cooking models also have the unfortunate quality of being very dangerous, with women, children and even animals often suffering serious burns.  

Eco-stoves, take many names and forms, can be hand-made or industrialized and can be found all around the work where steps are being taken to improve the cooking experience and reduce the demand on environmental resources for countless families who depend on firewood for all of their cooking needs.

The stove my community members and I learned about is called the Estufa Torre (Tower Stove) for it’s cool tower/castle looking shape.  The Estufa Torre is being developed by another CEC volunteer, Chris, who researched other rocket stoves and the fancy Eco-Justa stoves, to design an eco-stove that shared the same design and efficiency principles, but at a fraction of the price. Or better yet, potentially free.

How can this be possible? The answer is; the use of local materials and local labor. Many stove models are made of bricks, which while not extremely costly, are often difficult and expensive to transport. The Tower Stove eliminates this problem by using bricks made from local materials (clay, sand, dry grass) and using wooden molds that can be made at a low cost (about $50). Furthermore, when all of the labor is local, there is no technico (tech person) waiting for their paycheck. Instead, the very people who will eventually be enjoying their new efficient wood-burning cookstove will be becoming invested in the project, working shoulder to shoulder with Peace Corps volunteers and other community members, and gaining a huge sense of personal achievement and satisfaction. Not only will they feel good about using their new stove because of its health and environmental benefits, but they will ideally feel empowered and have learned a new skill. If their stove needs fixing in the future, they are there ready with the molds, materials and manpower to get the job done, hence eliminating the need for a “project” or “Peace Corps.” That’s the overall goal, working ourselves out of the job.

So, back to my super successful day… after talking up these stoves for over a month, I convinced 14 of my community members to spend an afternoon with me in La Canoa to learn about and actually MAKE a tower stove! While most left with clean hands, everyone was very involved in the learning process. A huge shout out THANK YOU to John and his main man Sergio as well as his community counterpart Santiago for making my job easy and enlightening all of us. We concluded with a tour of Santiago’s organic farm, worm fertilizer hub, compost latrine, and tree nursery in the works. While a bit overwhelming all at once, I think the training day really opened eyes to the possibilities and benefits of sustainable solutions, environmentally and health friendly alternatives to aspects of their every-day lives. The only part that may have fell on deaf ears was the suggestion to use urine as a fertilizer. I know that chemically it has its benefits, but my people laughing and making jokes sort of made me smile. “Humanure” is not for everyone sadly, at least without more education that it.

The other amazing part of the day was that my ANAM counterpart is helping us make progress in our struggle to re-protect Cerro Peñón, which is the beautiful wild area behind my house whose former protection status has run out, leaving it even more vulnerable to the threat of uncontrolled burning agricultural practices and endangered species hunters. I worked with a close friend and university students (studying tourism but leaning towards eco-tourism interest) to write a very convincing letter with pictures of our trip to Peñón to the regional head in charge of protection status. We also had every person who attended the training, as well as a few members of the neighboring community of La Canoa sign the request for further investigation into our favorite nature destination.  Don’t worry, I will try to put up some Peñón pictures as soon as I can get good internet again, but if you are hankering to see this spectacular view take a look at Maura’s recent facebook pictures from her trip to visit me. J

Soooo that takes us back to New Years and Christmas. To be brief I had two very special holidays in Panama with very incredible groups of people. A Gringa Christmas and a very Panamanian New Years. Christmas was honestly the first time I was really missing home, cool weather, best friends, an all sea-food dinner and of course festivities at Grandma’s (aka Dodeeo’s) house. Instead I spent Christmas Eve at a baile complete with Cantadera (think Panamanian sing-off or rap battle, note: It is my goal to master this art before I leave Panama! Dad, expect to help me out with this when you get here, although we may need a Spanish rhyming dictionary.) and tipico dancing. There were 6 Peace Corps volunteers and one JICA volunteer, which is our Japanese equivalent!  I was really excited to meet our JICA neighbor volunteer and learn about the work they are doing in Panama. Once again, I am truly amazing by how two sets of bilingual people can find their common language (in this case Spanish) to communicate. We spent the whole next day enjoying each other’s much missed company and making veggie black bean burgers. Such a random Christmas morning. By far the best part of Christmas day was when my friend Bianca received a marriage proposal at her local tienda by a deaf man via informal sign language. Him taking out his wallet to show us the ONE DOLLAR bills as part of the incentive to wed was hilarious. Oh Bianca! Just another day in the life of a female Peace Corps volunteer.

I was also lucky enough to spend New Year’s with some dear family friends at a full on eating and dancing fest! For a group of 10-15 people, we had 3 hams and a turkey, two bowls of potato salad and a pot of rice large enough to hold a washing machine! Strange image, but that’s the exact size, I swear. I am so lucky to have so many people here embrace me and invite me to their family events. I had a blast dancing, but unfortunately was in bed before the Smirnoff drinking grandma had quit the dance floor. Americans do not know how to party in my opinion! The same amazing woman was the first one up in the morning serving breakfast to the hungover crowd of men and cleaning incessantly. Panamanian women are something else!

And lastly, I would like to backtrack to November 30^th, 2011, a day that will live in infamy as the day I learned a very important lesson, well make that two important lessons, #1 ; you can never over-plan and #2; always bring a few barf bags on school field trips.

I had been planning since August to take a trip down to the Azuero Peninsula coast to visit my friend and fellow CEC volunteer, Alyssa, and her spectacular site. Cambutal, Los Santos is one of the rare locations in the world where various species of endangered sea turtles come from around the globe to nest on its sandy beaches. The area is also unique in that it hosts an abundance of mangrove populations and an estuary habitat which hosts a vast array of interesting flora and fauna. It is also hands down one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in Panama, an untouched beach stretching out between green hillsides.

So my sights were set on going to Cambutal, but of course, I didn’t just want to vacation, so I decided to organize a group of students to take along on an educational field trip to learn about Panama’s native sea turtle species and the work being down by community groups to protect their existence. I started working with the middle/high school teacher in my site to see if the idea would take off. In El Cedro, there are only 4 students enrolled in this mixed class that ranges from 7^th to 10^th grade. The class is made up of students who usually, for economic constraints, family reasons or preference decide not to travel to the large schools in the next towns over. They attend school for a few hours in the afternoon and the course structure and extra attention provides them with the benefit of being able to pass two grades per school year. I really felt like this age group would enjoy and be mature enough to take on a paseo, or field trip to Cambutal. My hope was that by learning about a different ecosystem and endangered turtle species, I could increase their awareness of environmental threats and concerns in our local area. This vision, and little else, actually proved to be a success!

So here is a list of the day’s events, and mostly why it became a nightmare:

• ·         After showing up at 6am, the “bus” that had been promised to us and organized by the maestra still had not shown up by 9am
• ·         One out of the 4 kids didn’t even bother to show up
• ·         I didn’t get my coffee.. totally selfish but still enough to make my day a bit worse
• ·         Our bus contact told us the bus was damaged and was left in Pananome… A LOOOONG WAY from El Cedro, but that he was working on sending a new bus
• ·         My maestro almost gave up and took the chiva out of town declaring the day a no-go.
• ·         After 4 hours of waiting outside the school transport arrives; the bus we were promised is one of those white (“child molester” for lack of a better description) vans with no windows or seats in the back.
• ·         The bus driver tells us he was just told to head over in the last half an hour, obviously we were lied to somewhere in the process when we were promised a bus by 8am at the latest.
• ·         The bus driver shows us some wooden benches he put in the back that will function as seats.
• ·         He also says don’t sit too close to the back window/door because kids could fall out.
• ·         The driver drives like a maniac over the hilly roads.
• ·         He also was not informed of our hope to be in Cambutal, which is at least 2.5 hours away, for more than an hour. He needs to be back by 4pm instead of 6pm as we had arranged.
• ·         FIFTEEN MINUTES INTO THE RIDE, 2/3rds of the group starts puking, a dark van with no windows and bad roads are a horrible cocktail of car-sick intensity.
• ·         The maestra starts to cry, she is afraid of vomit
• ·         We can’t decide if it’s better to drive with air conditioning that makes the throw-up smell linger or to go windows down and sweat out the nauseous kids in the back.
• ·         Both girls have filled their newly collected puke trash bags.
• ·         The maestro is looking along the highway for a lemon tree, she claims smelling a lemon will help the kids to not vomit, she is the one who actually needs the lemon.
• ·         The boy in the back is plastered against the door which looks like it will fly open at any minute, he looks hot and miserable, but is too polite to say anything.
• ·         I am about to cry! I planned for this, how is it going so so wrong?

So we get to Cambutal, and our entire beach day is narrowed down to about an hour and a half, including time for lunch. Luckily Alyssa is amazing and we decide to head straight to the beach for a tour of the turtle trails and the turtle egg nursery the local conservation group manages. The students and maestra immediately snap out of their bus ride from hell expressions and are so enthusiastic about everything we are experiencing at the playa. For the one 13 year old boy, it is his first time in his life stepping foot on a beach, seeing his face is an inspiration that this is worth every frustration and instance of car-sickness! The normally shy kids are really responsive to the educational activities Alyssa planned and are really interested in learning more about the turtles and their human predators. Towards the end of our short tour and lesson, we stumble upon what looks like a nesting site that has been dug up. Alyssa demonstrates for us the egg laying process and tells us about the egg poachers who come to the beach nightly in hoards to dig up recently laid eggs to sell illegally. Unfortunately, the small conservation group is the only party that actively tries to dissuade these poachers, and they really do not have any legal power nor influence. Alyssa’s tactic is to annoy the turtle momma-to-be (and awaiting turtle egg hunters) by shooting her flashlight beam in her eyes, hoping that she will come back to lay her eggs later when the poachers have left. She has an amazing sense of humor about these stories, but she was also very serious about the tragedy that takes place every night of nesting season. The kids went on to find a few more dug-up former nests, which really made the threat of hunters hit home. We went on to discuss the damage hunting and deforestation is doing to the biodiversity of our local ecosystem in El Cedro. Now hopefully these kids can teach their endangered-species hunting family and neighbors! One can dream.

So maybe the “Worst Field Trip Ever” turned out to be not so bad. It was educational and we did accomplish what we set out to do. We got transportation and lunch paid for from various donors. We got to go to the beach! Then they puked the whole way home. The End. J