So I’m ready to get my Panama Verde group off the ground… but to be considered an official group nationally, we have to make a directiva, which is a board of committee or whatever its called, I’m losing my english. A president, treasurer, secretary, bla bla bla is what we need. I set up a cool meeting at the school with a game at the beginning and pictures I even brought cookies and punch! ….. 5 people showed up Every one that told me they were going, didn’t show up. When things like this happen, its kind of a slap in the face. Not even my counterpart that helped me plan the whole meeting and was supposed to come and speak showed up. I know Panamanians don’t know how to use an agenda, I know they don’t have clocks in their house, but don’t tell someone you are definitely coming unless, well, you are DEFINITELY COMING. There weren’t enough people at the meeting to choose a directiva so I gave all the cookies away to those that did come and left some of the punch for the teachers. There was still a lot of punch left that couldn’t fit into the fridge and one of the mom’s that showed up was really worried about wasting the punch. We filled up some water bottles for her to take home even though she has no fridge to keep them cool. They are serious about wasting food and drink here, even though it was 50 cents of sugar powder in water. Watching her figure out how to take the rest of the punch home cheered me up. Sometimes they piss the HELL out of you, and sometimes they put a smile on your face. You just never know which is coming.
I went into the city and turned in all the entries for the children’s world painting competition. There were some really cool drawings – I’m proud of my kids. The chances of them winning are zip to zero (is that the saying?) but it was still fun for them. Next we’ll be doing a drawing competition just in the school. They will be drawing something about the conejo pintado (big endangered rodent here in Panama) conservation and the winner’s drawing will be painted on the conejo pintado cage facility we have down the road. The conejo project hasn’t painted it yet and I think it would be cool to include the kids in the design. After the winner is chosen, I would like my Panama Verde group (if it ever gets off the ground) to help paint it one day. Just ideas. Might never happen. The co-op is slow coming, the agency keeps saying they are coming for a meeting and then don’t show up. The group is losing faith, and quite frankly my faith left the building weeks ago. I’ll do what I can to keep it going but it’s ultimately up to the agency to get their shit together and stop messing around. Que va.
My boss is planning on coming to the closest community to me (about 2 hour hike away) to develop it for a new volunteer, yay!! The new volunteers are coming this month and will be on their way to their communities in July, so I might have someone that I can hang out with this year! But the same day he comes all the way out here, he is going to try and bring a projector and screen so I can show a cool movie outside to the community. I would like to show Fern Gully, but it depends on what I can get my hands on. A friend of mine that lives in a nearby beach town come down with her cousin that was visiting and another friend to hike to the National Park (Cerro Hoya) this past Monday. It was amazing! Beautiful scenery, but we walked FOREVER. A very grueling trip indeed. They don’t make their trails hiker friendly because they always travel by horse … so some of the trails were as steep as you can possible make a trail, and went on it seemed like miles. But we made it, camped out at a little cabin owned by one of the people that lives in my community, and explored Cerro Hoya mountain the next day. Two of the girls went to the very top, I decided against it because of how tired I was and the weather was about to get really bad. I will save that for another trip Other than WAY too much walking up and down hills, it was an amazing experience, and got me really interested in the conservation situation going on out there. The parks are encroaching on the park and the campasinos still illegally poach animals out there that should be protected. I will be doing much more research into that for the next couple weeks! But can’t wait to return next year!
Pulgita is doing so much better. She has such a ferocious appetite now. She does still have a couple patches on her sides where no fur has grown, which the doctor says is some type of mange I think. The treatments for mange here scare the bejesus out of me, so she recommended I try a natural remedy first. She told me to put aloe vera straight from the plant on the spots once a day, and in a month they will start to clear up. I would much rather go about it this way, because its natural and free. We are also working on her little food aggression “problem” with other dogs. Every dog in the campo is extremely protective over its food because most of them are starving. I’ve seen them literally almost kill each other over a chicken leg. Well she has learned that behavior from them, even though she is the fat, spoiled rich kid in the neighborhood and definitely doesn’t need to freak out when another dog is close to her food bowl. So when the dog next door (Rambo) comes over, who will eat a plate of motor oil and rice if you gave it to him, I feed both of them at the same time in the same room. I’ve done this a couple times and she is so much better now. She just needed to know that she’s not going to starve if another dog eats close to her.
I was checking out the full moon last night with my telescope in my front lawn, and I spotted something that didn’t look like a star. I thought it could be mars, so I checked it out, and it was Saturn!! I have to say, seeing a planet as beautiful as Saturn by surprise like that took my breath away. I was so excited that I ran down to the center of my community and found the only family that was still awake. I showed them the moon and Saturn and they thought the whole things was really cool. I can only imagine what I looked like to them though … out of breath, with a dorky head lamp (which NO Panamanian uses) attempting to explain the planets all excited in broken spanish while fiddling around trying to put together a telescope. They use the same word as us to describe someone l like me, NERD, except pronounced a little differently. However, It was a really cool experience. One of the guys pointed out another object that didn’t shine like a star, and I think it was another planet but I’m not sure which one. It was really impressive though that someone with an untrained eye spotted something like that in a sky full of lights. I’m going to call him “Astronomer” from now on I’ve downloaded a cool program that when connected to the internet shows me what celestial bodies I can see from my house every day. This will come in handy when the kids at school start learning about space!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Due for an update!
So it’s been awhile since I’ve written last. Guess that means I’ve been really busy huh? Or just super lazy. The latter is much more plausible.
Anyways, the Panama Verde Camp in Parque Nacional Amistad went swimmingly. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to plan and in the end, my 5 kids that went had a ball. There were 30 kids that went in all from different Panama Verde groups, all (relatively) well-behaved and eager to participate in all the activities. Every day started with activities outside to get to know each other and build teamwork skills, usually really fun. After that we worked on the “Panama Verde Trail” that is located near the visitor center in the park. We built steps and repaired bridges which was harder than I expected in such a jungly environment; the boards rot really quickly making the bridges dangerous just after a couple years of use. In the afternoon we took nature walks around the park and went to the huge waterfalls to swim and hang out. The park is stunningly beautiful, but very cold! I almost died every night because I came unprepared, only 2 sheets and a blanket. It gets into the 40s there, which maybe doesn’t sound that bad to y’all, but that is way too cold to successfully maintain homeostasis for this body. At night we watched environmentally-based films and had discussions about Panama’s resources and conservation status. The last night we had a really funny talent show were the kids showed off their “tamborito” skills (traditional Panamanian song and dance) and the camp counselors did some hilarious skits. All in all, I’d say it was a definite success!! Cant wait to do it again next year!
Carnavales finally came – I was so excited to experience it. Carnavales is a huuuuuuge celebration in a lot of latin and south American countries, with the most popular in Brazil. The celebration ends on Ash Wednesday, so I guess the logic of it is to commit as many sins as you can and party your ass off before you have to give it all up for lent. There are huge parades with semi-truck size tanks of water throughout the main square just to hose people off all day because its so hot. The city closest to me and Panama’s most culture-rich area has the biggest party each year, so of course I had to partake. We had a group of about 10 volunteers that rented a house from a friend of mine in the community for pretty cheap considering we were a 5 minute walk away from downtown. To be quite honest, I think I’m getting too old for this type of party. It was just too much craziness for 4 days straight. Music blaring from every corner, you cant go anywhere without getting hosed down by a “culeco” (semi-truck tank of water) or kids running around with water guns, which believe me after 10 minutes in the panama summer sun/heat here can be extremely welcoming. People drinking waayy past their limit all day and all night, parades during the day and night with awesome fireworks, and to top it off, huge raves until 5am each morning. And all this craziness you could hear clearly from the house we were staying at. However, with all this temptation, I have to say, my house held it together and enjoyed the festivities responsibly. I am SO proud of my friends! Usually visiting groups leave the house destroyed, but people stayed after to help me clean up everything, a HUGE thanks to you guys! I think the only way I will go next year is if I have a visiting friend from the states that wants to partake in the craziness party they’ve ever seen, but I plan on staying a couple days on a local beach near my community to relax afterward, it’s a lot to take!
The school year has started and I’m planning with the teachers what I will be doing. For starters, there is the International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment is organized every year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE). The rewards are generous, with $2,000 for the first prize (which is a RIDICULOUS amount of money for my people) and a paid trip for the winner and an adult to wherever their annual conference is held (Europe, Africa, etc) which has yet to be announced. The competition is for 6-14 year olds and the theme is “Life in the Forests.” So they will be painting whatever they want about the rainforest as long as it doesn’t have people or domestic animals in it. I’m getting my whole school of 80 students to participate and they are super syked about it. They cant stop talking about what it would feel like to ride in a plane (none of them have ever left Panama, let alone this area of the country). Even though their chances of winning are super slim considering 100 countries participate, it is a chance for them to do something new and exciting, to use their imaginations, which unfortunately is rare in their scholastic experience. In the least, I will put together all their artwork and make a book out of it for the school to have.
I will also start giving computer classes starting next week to 4th, 5th and 6th grade. They are all really excited about that too because after they have finished their exercises, I let them goof around with the games on the computer, which are actually really good mouse/keyboard practice. We’ll also be following the Eco-Calendar (Earth Day, World Oceans Day, etc.) this year and do cool activities like building a school garden, reforestation and all kinds of arts-and-crafts stuff. I’m exciting because there are 2 new teachers that replaced the 2 teachers last year, and they are really sweet and excited about teaching. We’ll see how everything goes!
Right now I’m in the city with a group of volunteers and we will be going to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution on Barro Colorado Island in the canal. The island is 100% protected with all kinds of awesome wildlife, like monkeys and exotic birds. Its solely used for researchers and a refuge for the canal’s flora and fauna. Its really hard to get in so a big Kudos to Chris who set this all up! I’ve been once before with my study abroad group in college but I’d love to visit again now that I have more experience in the arae of research and am starting to develop some future master-thesis ideas. There are a couple people I will be meeting at STRI and staying in contact that have done conservation work in panama. We’ll also be celebrating Chris’s birthday at a nice restaurant (nice= $12 per meal) and going to the movie theatre!! I’m so excited – the only time I get to see movies in the theatre are when I go to the city, which is only a couple times a year. Not even sure what is showing right now, but don’t care!
I haven’t written about Pulgita in a while, but she was super sick for awhile so I finally took the really annoying trip the closest large city near me (3.5 hours with a dog in a carrying case in a super hot, crowded bus with people that don’t like dogs). It turns out she had Lymes disease, which she would have died in a month if I didn’t take her in when I did. Its taken several treatments at the clinic to finally clean it up, but she is doing SO much better! I’ve also got her spayed, which was kind of a fiasco because she bled a lot and had to have a blood transfusion. I know this sounds like thousands of dollars worth of vet-care, which it is in the states, but i’m friends with the vet and she gives me “friend prices,” which are incredibly cheap. She knows I’m a super poor volunteer so she cuts me some slack. Needless to say, we’ve finally got her in good condition, and its obvious because now she is just a ball of energy like a puppy should be. She was awesome at the vet – I was so proud. The doctor gave her shot after shot after shot and poked and prodded and the only thing she did was shake a lot because everything was so painful for her. Poor thing, but she is better and I shouldn’t need to drag her out of the community until September when she is due for her vaccinations! ¡Viva Pulgita!
Anyways, the Panama Verde Camp in Parque Nacional Amistad went swimmingly. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to plan and in the end, my 5 kids that went had a ball. There were 30 kids that went in all from different Panama Verde groups, all (relatively) well-behaved and eager to participate in all the activities. Every day started with activities outside to get to know each other and build teamwork skills, usually really fun. After that we worked on the “Panama Verde Trail” that is located near the visitor center in the park. We built steps and repaired bridges which was harder than I expected in such a jungly environment; the boards rot really quickly making the bridges dangerous just after a couple years of use. In the afternoon we took nature walks around the park and went to the huge waterfalls to swim and hang out. The park is stunningly beautiful, but very cold! I almost died every night because I came unprepared, only 2 sheets and a blanket. It gets into the 40s there, which maybe doesn’t sound that bad to y’all, but that is way too cold to successfully maintain homeostasis for this body. At night we watched environmentally-based films and had discussions about Panama’s resources and conservation status. The last night we had a really funny talent show were the kids showed off their “tamborito” skills (traditional Panamanian song and dance) and the camp counselors did some hilarious skits. All in all, I’d say it was a definite success!! Cant wait to do it again next year!
Carnavales finally came – I was so excited to experience it. Carnavales is a huuuuuuge celebration in a lot of latin and south American countries, with the most popular in Brazil. The celebration ends on Ash Wednesday, so I guess the logic of it is to commit as many sins as you can and party your ass off before you have to give it all up for lent. There are huge parades with semi-truck size tanks of water throughout the main square just to hose people off all day because its so hot. The city closest to me and Panama’s most culture-rich area has the biggest party each year, so of course I had to partake. We had a group of about 10 volunteers that rented a house from a friend of mine in the community for pretty cheap considering we were a 5 minute walk away from downtown. To be quite honest, I think I’m getting too old for this type of party. It was just too much craziness for 4 days straight. Music blaring from every corner, you cant go anywhere without getting hosed down by a “culeco” (semi-truck tank of water) or kids running around with water guns, which believe me after 10 minutes in the panama summer sun/heat here can be extremely welcoming. People drinking waayy past their limit all day and all night, parades during the day and night with awesome fireworks, and to top it off, huge raves until 5am each morning. And all this craziness you could hear clearly from the house we were staying at. However, with all this temptation, I have to say, my house held it together and enjoyed the festivities responsibly. I am SO proud of my friends! Usually visiting groups leave the house destroyed, but people stayed after to help me clean up everything, a HUGE thanks to you guys! I think the only way I will go next year is if I have a visiting friend from the states that wants to partake in the craziness party they’ve ever seen, but I plan on staying a couple days on a local beach near my community to relax afterward, it’s a lot to take!
The school year has started and I’m planning with the teachers what I will be doing. For starters, there is the International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment is organized every year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE). The rewards are generous, with $2,000 for the first prize (which is a RIDICULOUS amount of money for my people) and a paid trip for the winner and an adult to wherever their annual conference is held (Europe, Africa, etc) which has yet to be announced. The competition is for 6-14 year olds and the theme is “Life in the Forests.” So they will be painting whatever they want about the rainforest as long as it doesn’t have people or domestic animals in it. I’m getting my whole school of 80 students to participate and they are super syked about it. They cant stop talking about what it would feel like to ride in a plane (none of them have ever left Panama, let alone this area of the country). Even though their chances of winning are super slim considering 100 countries participate, it is a chance for them to do something new and exciting, to use their imaginations, which unfortunately is rare in their scholastic experience. In the least, I will put together all their artwork and make a book out of it for the school to have.
I will also start giving computer classes starting next week to 4th, 5th and 6th grade. They are all really excited about that too because after they have finished their exercises, I let them goof around with the games on the computer, which are actually really good mouse/keyboard practice. We’ll also be following the Eco-Calendar (Earth Day, World Oceans Day, etc.) this year and do cool activities like building a school garden, reforestation and all kinds of arts-and-crafts stuff. I’m exciting because there are 2 new teachers that replaced the 2 teachers last year, and they are really sweet and excited about teaching. We’ll see how everything goes!
Right now I’m in the city with a group of volunteers and we will be going to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution on Barro Colorado Island in the canal. The island is 100% protected with all kinds of awesome wildlife, like monkeys and exotic birds. Its solely used for researchers and a refuge for the canal’s flora and fauna. Its really hard to get in so a big Kudos to Chris who set this all up! I’ve been once before with my study abroad group in college but I’d love to visit again now that I have more experience in the arae of research and am starting to develop some future master-thesis ideas. There are a couple people I will be meeting at STRI and staying in contact that have done conservation work in panama. We’ll also be celebrating Chris’s birthday at a nice restaurant (nice= $12 per meal) and going to the movie theatre!! I’m so excited – the only time I get to see movies in the theatre are when I go to the city, which is only a couple times a year. Not even sure what is showing right now, but don’t care!
I haven’t written about Pulgita in a while, but she was super sick for awhile so I finally took the really annoying trip the closest large city near me (3.5 hours with a dog in a carrying case in a super hot, crowded bus with people that don’t like dogs). It turns out she had Lymes disease, which she would have died in a month if I didn’t take her in when I did. Its taken several treatments at the clinic to finally clean it up, but she is doing SO much better! I’ve also got her spayed, which was kind of a fiasco because she bled a lot and had to have a blood transfusion. I know this sounds like thousands of dollars worth of vet-care, which it is in the states, but i’m friends with the vet and she gives me “friend prices,” which are incredibly cheap. She knows I’m a super poor volunteer so she cuts me some slack. Needless to say, we’ve finally got her in good condition, and its obvious because now she is just a ball of energy like a puppy should be. She was awesome at the vet – I was so proud. The doctor gave her shot after shot after shot and poked and prodded and the only thing she did was shake a lot because everything was so painful for her. Poor thing, but she is better and I shouldn’t need to drag her out of the community until September when she is due for her vaccinations! ¡Viva Pulgita!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Before I start typing about how lucky I am, here are some words from one of my favorite people in Panama, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, Jake.
"life is good.
now that i`m back, i`ve been developing projects with my community, like starting a library with all the amazing books many of you have graciously given, along with games and art stuff and magazines and glue (for the younger ones to eat) to slowly build a place where kids can go and hang out after school, do their homework or swing in a hammock and read about the far away adventures between the bindings of the mystical pages of Everyone Poops.
helping farmers harvest two ears in place of just one, cleanin` up the town like the ghostbusters do, building stoves, setting up classes, organizing camps, watching bad movies with my family, and trying to mix up eating the same old shit, like putting crackers on eggs and putting eggs on beans. both of which are wonderfully gross.
this is really the time i`m still learning. spanish, how to live in the jungle, with or without this or that, new things becoming important to me, new doors opening every day, emotions and inspiration diving up and down like the most dramatic teenage girl you could possibly imagine.
Ethan Steiner.
so, in these days, even 9 months in, (i know, because i`ve had my first child. i just had him 10 minutes ago. his name is, `too much whole grain bread when you`re used to eating rice.` it`s an indian name.) i am still waking up without a plan, and letting myself end up wherever the hell i may, learning more from people and simple things than i could ever possibly teach or maybe even express to anyone else. i cannot tell you more passionately enough how much this thing works. for making you into someone that you would wanna be. or could be. and you get it all from them.
this year is the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. it is an important time for us, the few and proud just under 200,000 Volunteers who have served in 139 different countries around the world, to commemorate and celebrate the accomplishments we have made, in simply (not really) trying to make the world a better place, without lifting a single gun."
Love you Jake! Now, I'm sitting on a tropical beach waiting for the 90 Leatherback Sea Turtle eggs from my friend's nursery to hatch and make their first steps to the sea. We'll collect them in a bucket, bring them closer to the water, release them and make sure they at least make it to the sea. Then they will probably all be eaten by a big fish, but that does not take away from the magic. They are SO cute. And its such a struggle to get out of the sand they've been buried in for 3 months because its the first time they've actually used their muscles and breathed air in their lives. They are totally Neo emerging from the Matrix into the "land of the real." Go turtles!
Just wanted to share that totally awesome blog from my friend, and this totally awesome experience that I'm having. Miss you all and wish you were here :)
"life is good.
now that i`m back, i`ve been developing projects with my community, like starting a library with all the amazing books many of you have graciously given, along with games and art stuff and magazines and glue (for the younger ones to eat) to slowly build a place where kids can go and hang out after school, do their homework or swing in a hammock and read about the far away adventures between the bindings of the mystical pages of Everyone Poops.
helping farmers harvest two ears in place of just one, cleanin` up the town like the ghostbusters do, building stoves, setting up classes, organizing camps, watching bad movies with my family, and trying to mix up eating the same old shit, like putting crackers on eggs and putting eggs on beans. both of which are wonderfully gross.
this is really the time i`m still learning. spanish, how to live in the jungle, with or without this or that, new things becoming important to me, new doors opening every day, emotions and inspiration diving up and down like the most dramatic teenage girl you could possibly imagine.
Ethan Steiner.
so, in these days, even 9 months in, (i know, because i`ve had my first child. i just had him 10 minutes ago. his name is, `too much whole grain bread when you`re used to eating rice.` it`s an indian name.) i am still waking up without a plan, and letting myself end up wherever the hell i may, learning more from people and simple things than i could ever possibly teach or maybe even express to anyone else. i cannot tell you more passionately enough how much this thing works. for making you into someone that you would wanna be. or could be. and you get it all from them.
this year is the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps. it is an important time for us, the few and proud just under 200,000 Volunteers who have served in 139 different countries around the world, to commemorate and celebrate the accomplishments we have made, in simply (not really) trying to make the world a better place, without lifting a single gun."
Love you Jake! Now, I'm sitting on a tropical beach waiting for the 90 Leatherback Sea Turtle eggs from my friend's nursery to hatch and make their first steps to the sea. We'll collect them in a bucket, bring them closer to the water, release them and make sure they at least make it to the sea. Then they will probably all be eaten by a big fish, but that does not take away from the magic. They are SO cute. And its such a struggle to get out of the sand they've been buried in for 3 months because its the first time they've actually used their muscles and breathed air in their lives. They are totally Neo emerging from the Matrix into the "land of the real." Go turtles!
Just wanted to share that totally awesome blog from my friend, and this totally awesome experience that I'm having. Miss you all and wish you were here :)
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