first semana

Since I have arrived in site, I’ve been quite busy! My host family for this first month is amazing, they’ve really taken advantage of training that the Ministry of Agriculture has offered them. For the past 2 years, they have been receiving materials to build various useful technologies like drip irrigation and a seed drying shed. The best thing is that they really use these technologies to their advantage, and constantly seek out ways to improve what they’re doing. They’re innovators/early adapters, in sociologists’ words. It’s great that I live with a family that actively does agriculture, since I’m quickly learning about the ins and outs of Panamanian agriculture. Some highlights:

-practicing machete-ing grass and weeds to make a clean planting surface; you’d be impressed how a properly wielded machete can act as a lawn mower-slash-weed whacker
-explaining the properties of tropical clay soils, and how we can bury organic matter to make soil that is easier to work and more productive; they already do this, but now they know WHY the soil is so darn hard regardless of whether you get the guy with the cultivator to break it up
-extolling the virtues of worm/kitchen waste composting bins; next step: finding the California Red Wrigglers (there are a TON of government and non-government agencies here, someone must have them), building bins in such a way that the very greedy, very destructive ants won’t eat all the eggs
-agonizing over the extreme, real problems with insects; although it is fascinating to watch leaf-cutter ants de-foliate entire trees and plants, it really is a problem when you need to eat what comes off those plants

Like I said, my host family is great. I have three “brothers” who crack me up, it’s fun to feel like an older sister to them. They are all different and I like them for different reasons. I already feel welcomed as a part of the family, hopefully I will be able to be a positive influence on them while I’m here. The oldest one was so amazed at how much I read, and decided to see what the fuss was about and started reading more too (though he started reading one of my Isabel Allende books that mom sent me…maybe a little adult for him)! Send kids/preteens books in Spanish! Scholastic I know translates many of its titles into Spanish. I bet my brother isn’t the only one who will discover that a book that isn’t boring and for school is actually FUN to read, and it would be awesome to have a collection of books that kids could sit and read in my house—an antidote to the television watching which is destroying these kids’ spirit to do anything constructive or outside (since parents didn’t have television in their childhood, they haven’t realized that they need to make rules about watching television). We’ve also been bonding over Phillies games, so I guess I have to be grateful for the TV in that respect. I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY WON! I can believe it, but it’s never happened in my lifetime. It was a thing for Panameños too because the catcher, Carlos Ruiz, is from here. I love how biased the papers are towards him being the star player…though he is a very good catcher I suppose.

My host mom is so energetic, very concerned that I’m comfortable and happy, and doing things that I want to do. She explains to everyone we go to meet that I don’t eat meat, or pork, or sausage, or chicken (not even the chickens that run around on the lawn! That even counts as meat to Raquel!), and that I’m so funny that I don’t take my coffee with sugar or milk, and that I already speak Spanish. It’s amazing how fast people go through sugar here though. My mom seems to buy about a pound a day. So maybe I can avoid gaining too much weight if I at least don’t pump myself full of sugar—I’m already eating lots of deep fried foods, which sure are delicious. On that note, it is less than a month already that I have left until I can live on my own and cook entirely for myself. There is a house built here that I can use, but I have to pay to re-wire the faulty electricity and have free reign to decorate and paint and landscape--anything would be an improvement. It’s a great blank slate of a house! My host mom says that we will make up some transplants as soon as we have a free afternoon, so that I’ll have some things to plant right away. I’ll also probably amend the sink and build a gray water filter off it so I can use that water in a garden, especially during the dry season (December-April). I also want to build a solar hot shower, even though I can stand a cold shower with the heat, there’s something about hot water that makes you feel really clean. I have lots more ideas too.

Oh, I already have a kitten. Lucky me that my host cat had kittens about a month ago, and my host mom was looking to give one away. I wanted to name her after a famous thief (Cristobal Colon?) because she is very greedy and steals food out of her mom’s grasp and then whines for milk. However, I couldn’t stay apolitical with a name that clever, so I settled on Mona, which is the female form of the word for monkey. Because monkeys are funny and steal stuff and climb all over the place. It´s not an instant love like with Dracula, but that´s because the mommy is still around...I can´t really compete with that.

This is the time when Mona decided to wear my Cornell hat as a cape and run around with it like super-kitty. Well, that´s not actually happened. She fits under it so I hid her under it, and then she poked her head through the loop, and started trying to escape, which she couldn´t, so she just kept trying harder. It´s like tying a bell on the tail...hilarious, but if you have a soul you take one or two pictures and relieve the animal of its misery.

Sorry not more pictures of site...but it´s only been a week!!