Family visitors

Me, Nancy, Mom, and Dad in Boquete after some delicious pizza.
The waterfall near my house!
Women in traditional dress after the English class party.

Mom near my house. Maybe I do live in a pretty place.

My mom and dad and Aunt Nancy came to Panama in late July.

I was leaving the Project Management Seminar in Cocle province on Friday with my community counterpart Elieser, so we hitched a ride back to the Comarca with my family’s rental car, which saved us several hours of bus travel. Elieser got to take part in his first American style road trip – car packed to the brim with bags and wet bathing suits and peanut butter.

We stayed in my community in my luxury accommodations for three nights. I had an English class party planned for Saturday. My adult students made rice and beans and we made macaroni and cheese. We then had a short ceremony including a welcome, a prayer, student self-introductios, and songs (ABC song by kids and Jingle Bells by my family and me) all in English. Afterwards we handed out certificates to students displaying how many of the 12 classes were attended. The class party was a success because there was food to spare! I also took my family to go swimming in the nearby waterfall and to visit my host families.

One night my family and I headed over to my neighbor/host sister’s house to learn how to make (and eat) a sweet pudding called “pesada de nance” out of nance fruit which is in season. My host mom was there as well, talking in her native language which is called Bugleri to her daughter. The Bugles are another smaller indigenous group who live in the same mountain region as the Ngabes, but have intermarried so much with the Ngabes that their language is almost lost completely in my area. My Bugle host mom didn’t learn Ngaberi untilafter she married her Ngabe husband at age 14, and later learned Spanish when her first son was attending school. Only my host mom’s oldest children can understand Bugleri. My 12 year old host sister said, “Bechi, my mom can say something to my older sister Araceli in Bugleri, and then she can translate it to me into Ngaberi, and then I can translate it to you into Spanish, and then you can translate it to your parents and aunt into English. That sure would take a long time!”. I am continually impressed that my host mom is trilingual and most people here are bilingual.

Next we headed to Boquete, the coffee capital of Panama, and also one of the largest US expat retirement communities in the world. And I can see why, because the mountainous climate is perfect and it seems like all of the Panamanian workers in the town speak decent English. The first thing we did when we arrived there was order some coffee in the town center (which cost about as much as I spend in a week in site). It really is beautiful there but based on the number of gringos I saw, I didn’t really feel like I was in Panama anymore.

The next day I left my family to their own vices so that I could attend a training session in Panama City. I was selected to be a co-facilitator for the new Environmental Health group in September, so I had to be trained on how to be a trainer (dress nicely, comb your hair, be positive, etc). I am excited to meet the new EH group in their 3rd week in country when they are still starry eyed and eager to learn. I will be teaching them about running meetings and interactive teaching techniques.

After my family enjoyed another day in Boquete and then went snorkelling at Coiba Island off the Pacific coast, they met up with me in Panama City. We saw the Old Town(Casco Viejo) as well as the Miraflores Locks in Panama City. We also took a day trip to see the Gatun Locks and a fort on the Carribbean side of Panama. It was my first time seeing the Carribbean (Atlantic) Ocean since I have been in Panama! I have yet to swim in it.

It was great to see my parents and Nancy again and they were very easy to accommodate. Now everyone in my community keeps asking when they are coming back.

Case Study

In July we had to write a case study encompassing our work trials and tribulations. My case study was chosen to share with the newly arrived Environmental Health group, so I thought I would share it with you all too. Sorry, it´s a bit wordy, but I am a US government worker now.

Title: Working with Panamanian Agencies while Keeping the Community Involved
Country	Panama
Date	31 de Julio 2011
Submitted By	Carolyn Purington
Contact Information
Keywords	Potable Water, Water Committee, Government Agency

Abstract:

The community has been waiting for 1 ½ years for a government funded water project, of which funds have already been deposited to the institution PROINLO. Upon arrival the community expected me to use my connections to get the project started immediately, and since then I have been working with the community to capacitate it so that when the project does finally arrive, the water committee is active and understands how a gravity water system works. At times it has been difficult motivating the people, as they know a funded project will be arriving eventually for the first 16 houses. From the beginning with community analysis to surveying and doing fundraisers with the water committee, the water group is finally becoming functional.

Background:

During my first three months in site, Proyecto de Amistad, I realized that the community of Sabanita had already received $10,000 of funding through the Representante of the corregimiento (local politician of the county), and had already been waiting a year for the project to commence. The community expected that I would be able to use my connections to enable the project to initiate at once. I tried to use my community analysis and FREESOPP as well as SWOT analysis to help the community understand why water is the primary need, and the need for the community to work through family divides in order to work together. The community mapping exercise helped community members realize which houses are lacking potable water in the community, and why it will be harder for water to reach some houses than others. The annual calendar made it clear that some parts of the year are busier than other in terms of work (and seasonal labor) and other engagements.

Implementation:

Using the SWOT analysis, it was determined that water is the primary necessity of the community. However, the community had been waiting for the government funded project to arrive, and had an inactive water committee until December 2010. The community mobilized in January 2011 and decided to restructure the water directive because the President worked full time in Bocas del Toro. Since then, the new water directive and the community have been meeting fairly regularly. The committee realized that it needs to take a more active role in the government, and has been inviting the Representante to all of the meetings. It has been a challenge to maintain communication between the community and the Representante. He informs me of updates and has taken me to visit the agency PROINLO which is in charge of project execution, but he does not attend the community meetings or communicate with the water group directly.

Meanwhile, after several visits to PASAP in San Felix I acquired a copy of the aqueduct design for the community. I have been working with community members to check the design by surveying using the Abney Level and Water Level. We also measured the output at the water source during the dry season and wet season, and determined that the water source is not sufficient during the dry season to provide for 250 people.

Based on this, the community met with the owner of another water source and after much negotiation, bought it for $50. The Vice President of the water group and I met with a PASAP technician to explain why the storage tank placement needs to be changed to accommodate the future annex of the newly purchased water source. However, the new water source spring capitation will not be included in the government project, so the community has been fundraising to be able to complete the second phase of the project.

Results:

Approaching the one year point in my service, the functionality of the water committee has greatly improved. The water group holds meetings fairly regularly to inform the community about news, and has become more transparent with money matters. Technically, community members have been trained to measure flow rate from the spring source, and use the Abney Level and Water Level for surveying. The community is also mobilized to work through the second stage of the project with minimal outside assistance. Through open conversations, the community is more aware of the connection between clean water and health, and the different methods of purifying water.

Conclusion:

At the one year point, the major success is the improved functionality of the community water group. A challenge that I would like to work on is that the group still prefers to wait for me to plan meetings, hold work days, and to be the communicant between the agencies, representante, and the community. My goal is to make the group more independent in decision making and executions, and in order to do this I will have to be more careful to ensure that I do not let tasks fall on my lap which should be the responsibility of community members.

I have personally gained much leadership experience through my experiences with the water group. I no longer get nervous getting up in front of a group and speaking in Spanish. I have also learned that the communications outside of the meeting setting are just as important as the communications during the meetings, as many people are too shy to say what they are actually thinking in front of others. Gaining the community’s trust has been extremely rewarding, but I still feel like I have a lot of weight on my shoulders to make this government project, as well as the second phase, a success, although many factors are outside of my control.

Community Update

Photo- Surveying with the abney level.

Water – In terms of the government-funded project, things are going very slowly. In the past month, at the government leve l a contracter was selected so now we are only waiting for a whole bunch of signatures from Panama City. At the local level, we sold fried dough and juice at 12 Sunday soccer games. I had to force myself into not doing a cost-benefit analysis of these events – let’s just say that every Sunday there were 4 people working, 8 hours of prep and sales, and $12 to $17 raised (and a daily work salary is $8 to put it into perspective). However, I am a health and not a business volunteer so I kept my mouth shut and just sold the fried dough. The fundraiser had another underlying benefit which took weeks for me to realize - the sales gave 4 women the opportunity to leave the house and kids to go watch a soccer game, which would normally be culturally unacceptable.

In general I have been trying to do as much capacity building (Peace Corps buzz word) as possible. We measured flow rate from the spring sources during dry season and wet season. I have gone out surveying with community members using two different measuring techniques, the Abney Level and the Water Level. I am hoping to combine all of this data into an aqueduct design which hopefully will not be too far off from the design already created by the government institution. The main goal though is to teach community members the techniques to trouble shoot their own water system.

Sanitation ¬ Due to community interest I am beginning the process of starting a latrine committee working alongside 4 sector leaders. The leaders already took census information of interested families and drew a map of the community. Next we will be holding 3 mandatory health meetings to weed out the unmotivated families, and then apply for funding for approximately 50 latrines.

It will be the responsibility of each family to attend 3 meetings, dig the hole, get the sand/gravel from the river about an hour away, and build the house for the latrine out of local materials. Solicited funds will cover cement, rebar, and 2 sheets of corrugated zinc roofing per family. Based on feedback during my Peace Corps training and from other volunteers, each family will be responsible for a $5 deposit due before materials are delivered that is returnable upon completion of the walls of the latrine. The general problem with a latrine project is that in the past 20 years, a few aspiring politicians have swung by the area, built 20 latrines including the hole using paid contractors, and then left the non-included families extremely jealous. Thus the general idea of a latrine “project” is that some outsider will come with materials and then build it. We’ll see how this goes.

Book Reviews

Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) is still my favorite (fiction) book. It’s a romance, a mystery, a tragedy, all in one. I haven’t read it since high school so I was worried that my tastes had changed enough that I wouldn’t like it so much anymore. I guess it’s comforting to confirm that I am still the same person as my high school self. I would compare it to the Jane Austen books I have read before except it is darker and more unpredictable. I had forgotten how the book had ended, so it was still a huge page- turner.

Little Bee (Chris Cleave) narrates a Nigerian refugee’s interactions with a recently widowed British publisher. I liked the general story line but I wish the author had given more historical context to the situation in Nigeria.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson) was as good of a fast read and as addicting as everyone has been warning me. Its writing style reminded me of Dan Brown’s books. The sequel has been bumped up to Number One on my queue due to curiosity and pressure from other impatient volunteers for the book.

Gaviotas (Alan Weisman) documents the development of a utiopian society in rural Colombia, focusing on solar powered sustainability. The book had lots of great engineering ideas but the writing style was a bit nostalgic to the point of making me sleepy.

How We Are Hungry (Dave Eggers) is a refreshingly concise set of short stories. Instead of savoring each story individually as I should have, I sped through all of them in two sittings because they were so good. I really enjoy Eggers´ writing style.

The main character Emma (Jane Austen) is so concerned with being a matchmaker that she ignores her own opportunities for love. Her character drove me crazy enough that I had to keep reading to discover Emma’s next antics.