Returning from my Thanksgiving getaway, what do I see on my porch but a brand-new broom! Of course I thought of Harry Potter.
There is a special scrub brushy plant that is collected in order to make a broom. The broom needs to be replaced every 3 days or so, which I never keep up with. In the dry season, the plant becomes hard to find and women will go far and wide searching for it. I have a plastic broom as well but the natural broom works better on the dirt floor and patio area.
I arrived in Panama over a year ago with 2 years of middle school Spanish, 3 ½ years of high school Spanish, and 2 semesters of college advanced Spanish. What this all amounted to: I could proficiently read and write, but could barely speak or understand Panamanian Spanish.
The following are 9 Spanish words that I did not know before arriving in Panama that are all necessary for any conversation (in a rural setting).
1. Foco- flashlight.
Between the hours of 6 pm and 6 am, a foco is necessary to do just about anything. I use a headlamp but most Panamanians have the head-clamping-flashlight-on-shoulder technique mastered in order to free up both hands to cook, sew, wash dishes, carry multiple children, etc.
There are more or less two types of families in my community – those who have a family member working outside of the Comarca who sends money, and those who live solely off subsistence agriculture. However, statistically it is difficult to economically differentiate between these two types of families because both would be classified as “unemployed”.
Through observance I have discovered an easy way to quantify the financial status of a family- the Foco to Person (F:P) ratio. An ideal ratio would be 1 working foco for every 1 person. My host family that has 1 professional family member just about reaches the F:P ratio of 1:1. However, my neighbors who live solely off the land are lucky to have a F:P of 1:7. Unsurprisingly, the kids are not doing so hot in school because they can’t study after 6 pm since the mom is using the foco to cook.
Cooking with foco.
2. Pasear – to visit.
The house visit: one of the most beautiful parts about rural Panamanian culture, but you better follow the rules. I learned through trial and mostly error.
Visiting
a) Unplanned visits are standard. Just walk right in.
b) Announce your intentions. Ti nigi basara nete. Yo estoy paseando aqui. I am visiting here.
c) Take a seat and stay awhile.
d) Eat/drink whatever is given to you. If you have a plastic baggie with you, it is okay to dump the food in the bag and bring it home to share with your family.
e) Abrupt departures are alright, especially if it looks like it will rain or get dark soon.
f) *Bonus points* My 88 year old host grandmother goes to pasear with her own cup in her bag to save the host the trouble. However, she is a professional pasear-er – she often stays the night at the house she is visiting.
Receiving visitors
a) Give the visitor a chair/stump/bucket to sit on.
b) Due to the structure of most Ngabe houses, your guest will be able to see what you are cooking. If you have any food or coffee ready, share it with your visitor.
c) If you don’t have anything ready and the visitor isn’t a nearby neighbor, at least make some extremely sugary coffee for him or her. Brownie points if you start cooking a meal to share with the person. If the visitor starts packing up to go, instruct him to wait for the coffee/food.
d) Talk about the weather and when/if the rain will come today.
e) If you have just harvested anything, give some of it to the visitor. This is usually cue for the visitor to leave.
f) As the visitor is leaving, thank them for the visit. Gracias para la visita.
3) Pereza - Laziness.
____ me da pereza. ____ gives me lazy/ makes me lazy.
This phrase is the bread and butter of any pasear-ing conversation. These days, it’s “The rain makes me lazy.” In a few months, the hot sun will be the culprit. Other possible options are the mud, work, walking up a hill, waiting for transportation, etc.
Solution: Mid-day naps are not looked down upon in rural tropical culture to quitar la pereza (to get rid of the laziness).
Sometimes everyone gets a little bit of pereza.
4) Pena- Shame/Embarrassment.
Me da pena. It gives me shame.
I spent my first 3 months in my community battling against pena. Women would pretend they didn’t recognize me on the trail. No one participated in my meetings. My 2nd host dad pretended I didn’t exist for 1 ½ months.
Solution: Be obnoxiously outgoing. Which is not in my persona, but I got over it.
4) Vivora- Snake.
I knew the word culebra for snake but one uses that around here. I coexist with spiders and scorpions, but I never hear stories about them so they don’t worry me. Vivora, on the other hand – everyone has a story to tell about a lost horse, dog, finger, or worse – child. When a vivora is killed it is hung up on a tree to warn others. So far I have been blissfully vivora free.
5) Bochinche – Gossip.
I wouldn’t say bochinche is a good thing or a bad thing, just necessary. I contribute to it too because I visit many family that don’t talk to one another. Common conversation: ME: “Your neighbor 2 houses away had a baby last night [in her house…obviously].” THEM: “Oh really? Girl or boy?”.
Of course gossip can also be ugly, and it did get that way with my whole Jose debacle. My volunteer friends and I have become overly integrated into Panamanian culture and we also shamelessly bochinchar about one another when we meet up or talk on the phone. “Did you hear that Suzy had Dengue fever?”
6) Cochino – Dirty/Nasty
Every time a toddler starts eating chicken poop on the ground, or a baby touches a mangy dog, the mom shouts out “COCHINO!” It is also the best way to describe a muddy path, a pig, or an unswept floor. Or probably me, after hiking.
7) Ahora – Later
In Spanish class I learned that ahora means “now”. Not true. Ahorita means “soon”, ahorita mismo means “really soon.” Seeing someone get up and start doing something means “now.”
8) Bulla (boo-ya) – Noise
DEJA LA BULLA! – Leave the noise!
That’s what I yell at my dog when he’s barking too much. Moms also hurl this phrase at children playing too loudly.
A common house-visiting conversation is about what life is like in the United States as opposed to the Panamanian countryside. The common perception of the U.S. is that there is lots of bulla and dirty air and danger and money. I do my best to defend my country by saying it has its countryside and peace as well. It’s funny what one considers bulla, because for my first few months here, pigs and roosters and barking dogs and late night/ early morning Christian song singers kept me awake more than any city traffic jam ever has in the States.
Marching bands: A major source of bulla
Spanish speakers or students out there: Are these words familiar slang or are they campo Panamanianisms?
**I know the numbers are messed up, but due to the fact that Blogger can count better than I can, it won't be fixed.
At 5:50 am, my neighbor wakes me up to deliver me breakfast. “Bechiiiiii, Bechiiii, are you still sleeping?” (but in Spanish). My gas tank ran out 3 days ago and until I get it replaced, I am relying on my host family’s kitchen. Rice and potatoes and chicken – a treat at any hour. My cat Meri thinks so too and won’t stop whining. I eat a little bit and then place a big pot upside down over the bowl to protect the food from my pets.
I go back to bed and wake up to BANG – Meri knocked the pot off the table onto the floor. My neighbor’s dog rushes inside to get a taste of the delicious food (Where is my dog at?!). I blindly scramble out of bed in the dark, shoo away the animals, and collect a few unscathed potato and chicken pieces off the dirt floor (I know, gross) to suffice for the rest of my breakfast. It’s 6:15 am. Time to start another day.
Since August 2010, I have been living in Panama, working as an Environmental Heath Peace Corps volunteer, and will be here until October 2012. I live in a small indigenous (Ngabe) village called Lajero in the mountains of Western Panama, and work predominately with the newly formed water and sanitation committees.
I am contacting you on behalf of Lajero’s sanitation committee to ask for support of a pit latrine project benefitting 32 families and 203 men, women and children. Currently many families are without pit latrines and use the river or woods to defecate, which contributes to waste-borne illnesses.
Each family involved in the pit latrine project is contributing sand, gravel, wall materials, and labor, which amounts to 52% of the total project cost. I am looking for support for the remaining $2,543 or 48% of project cost to cover the materials that are not locally available (cement, rebar, corrugated roofing, and tools).
A donation of $80 pays for a pit latrine for one family. Plus for every dollar donated by contributors like you, the NGO community service organization Synergy is contributing a matching $1 to reach the goal.
My sanitation committee’s goal is to secure funding by January 1, 2012 so that we can start construction on February 1 at the peak of the dry season. Community members have already started digging pits in preparation for the project. It has taken a year of community analysis and meetings to reach this point, and community members are excited to move forward!
If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact me via email at carolyn.purington@gmail.com. I will also be back in the United States January 2 through 10 if you wish to talk via telephone (508 886 6539). Contributions can be made on the Peace Corps Partnership website at https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=525-171 .
Although the web site is the quickest way to make a donation, you may also make a check payable to Peace Corps Partnership Program. Please write the project number, 525-171, on the check and send it to:
Paul D. Coverdell, Peace Corps Headquarters
Peace Corps Partnership Program, OPSI
1111 20th Street NW
Washington DC 20-526
I appreciate all of your support. Thanks so much!
All the best,
Carolyn
Photos: 1. Working with community members on an aqueduct project; 2. Giving a waste-borne disease talk in the local school; 3. A family in the community
