some random fotos

Peace Corps used to send us lots of Newsweeks.  That was Bolivia time though, volunteers worldwide stopped receiving the magazine, saving PC some serious dough.  Anyways, I had cut out one of many glamour shots of The Man (who in a weird way I work for now...yay!), and it arrived yesterday along with the rest of my stuff that had been carefully listed, packed, and sent here to Panama.  The PC Bolivia staff did an incredible job going to each of our sites, following ridiculous instructions like, "look under the bed and inside the shoebox...my favorite pen is inside and I'd like that to be sent back too."  Absolutely everything I asked for arrived.  Yet, it was a strange feeling, really like opening a box of memories.  And when my friends and kids and Dracula didn't pop out of the box, I was indeed saddened.  But moving on...I now have that trusty emergency radio from Grandparents Lambert, so I can listen to the many stations that play Panamanian music (though did hear a new Britney Spears song thrown in the mix last night), my Cornell Football shorts, wool socks (!!!), and my stuffed lamb.  For some reason, I feel like NOW I can move on, though I've been in another place (many, in fact) for 4.5 months.
Cashew season is a-coming!  This tree randomly had ripe fruit (still haven't tried one, since I'm afraid of the poisonous shell hanging down...).  When they're really in season, my entire yard will be full of them.  It's the only kind of fruit tree I have...and yes I will be inviting everyone in town to pick fruit, and so yes I will have a photo shoot with cute kids and cute cashew fruits.  Speaking of cute kids..
Some of my readers, with Huevos Verdes con Jamón.  That's Green Eggs and Ham.  Today I went to my first trimesterly meeting for my region.  Found out there is a lending library for kids' books in Spanish!  I had to pay $3 in dues, but totally was worth it for the bag of books I'll get to have in my site for 4 months.  Of course, all your donations are always welcome (also math tools would be useful!  flashcards, compasses, rulers, et al.).  The best thing about this is now I know where YOUR book donations will be donated when I leave country.

Planning to build an "estufa mejorada" (better stove...the kind that uses less wood and smoke goes out a chimney) mid-Feb.

January. Like, the whole month.

Well, it’s been a while since I really updated about what I’m up to.  January, as promised, has been dry (we had one strong rain, thankfully) and fairly devoid of agricultural work.  However, I’ve been touting the benefits of mulch and green manures, in hopes that when planting season starts again, maybe some of the farmers will consider planting nitrogen-fixing crops to benefit the other crops, or use mulches to protect the soil from driving rain and the hot sun.

A big activity, however, has been bringing Spanish-language kids’ books with me whenever I go visiting.  All the mothers tell me that they want to have their kids practice their school stuff over the summer (and sadly, there is little way to accomplish this with reading, unless there’s a PC volunteer with a stock of books in Spanish), and the kids really do get an excited look on their face when I bring out Dr. Seuss in Spanish.  Shoutout here to my parents and Grandparents who provided these books!  I think I’ll also be making up some flashcards for math (though I know that’s much less exciting).

I have electricity now!  Feel free to send those DVD’s and mixed CD’s (or books that I can read in the evening, thanks to the miracle of lightbulbs)… I got myself a mini-fridge, which is a real boon to my cooking and health  I can now cook things and have leftovers that I’m not afraid to eat, store dairy products (no ice cream, sadly), and have cold drinks.  I’m living quite comfortably, especially with the fan blowing at night.  Now, almost every house in my town has electricity, so don’t get the image in your heads that I am living in the gringa mansion that doesn’t fit in with the rest of town.

I finished my first novel in Spanish!  I read Isabel Allende’s Suma de los Días.  It took a while, I read in fits and starts, and it began to drag a bit at the end.  Still, I did it!  My technique was to just read, even if I didn’t get every vocab word.  Occasionally I’d read with a pen to underline words to look up later…but I still don’t have an English-Spanish dictionary (I requested one, but I think that request is just as lost as my mail seems to be these days).  I was definitely aided by the fact that it’s more of a collection of stories about her life in the last 13 years (since her novel, Paula, about the death of her daughter), because the other novel I have of hers has been really hard to get through: very slow plot that includes a zillion little details and characters.

I have been running several mornings a week.  Aided by my feline alarm clock (seriously, what is it with the eating/kneading my hair at daybreak?), I usually hit the gravel at about 6:15am, before the heat, wind and lots of cars on the road.  I run to the paved road that connects the Pan-American to the big city a few km down the road.  I’m not sure what distance I really am running, but I feel more in shape than I did a month ago.  Several women, my host mom included, have expressed that they’d like to lose a little weight or at least do some exercise.  I tell them there’s nothing to stop them, but I really want to run alone (I have my reasons).  It would be cool to do an exercise class, but there are definitely some logistical issues.  We’ll see.

Can’t actually believe I’ve already been here 3 months.  Seems like a short time written down, but it’s a significant amount, considering it was the length of training in Bolivia, and I was in my Bolivian site only 5 months and felt so attached to it.  The end of January also marks my 1-year anniversary of getting on a plane to Cochabamba, Bolivia…for an adventure I had never anticipated.

To Give

Pictured:  cherry tomatoes, peppers, oranges, bananas and one honkin' big papaya.  These things were given to me over just 2 days, when I went visiting to families.  It's a wonderful custom in Panama to give when you have something to give.  Maybe in the United States, with all the economic downturn, it's good to take an example from the Panamanians, who for the most part don't really think in terms of a good or bad economy.  They think of giving on a daily basis to their friends, family and neightbors, whatever they can.  I was hesitant to vocalize my problems with money to my host family, but they quickly learned that I could not afford to buy myself a bed, furniture or really even a door for my new house.  Suddenly, they told me they'd give me the door they'd bought for me to use when I lived with them (my host dad cut it to the new size), and they had a table they didn't really need that now lives with me.  My neighbor gave me a chair, a bed, a mattress and even a pillow.  

If you look around you, there's probably something you have more than you need of, and there is probably someone who could use some of that abundance.  I'm not just talking money, but perhaps time to spend with a lonely person, or a favor done for someone who needs help, and hour of volunteer work (you don't need to be in Peace Corps for that).  Just a thought...but everyone can give something to others, so what's stopping so many people from that?

2 more from Boquete

best coffee in Panama??

going fast, but it doesn't look like it...

pensiveness for christmas

This is not your happy christmas blog posting...sorry.  But it has a good ending.  Sometimes people say they can't tell how I'm really doing from the blog, but in this one I lay it out.  First, something I wrote back in good old P-valle, B-va, S-A.

Essay on Culture Shock – 8/21/08

 

10:30 pm, already been asleep 2 hours.  Why do I go to bed so early?  There’s something exhausting about being awake, and so comforting about being under a shield (physical and psychological) of covers.  Try to turn the light(bulb) on.  Energy surge, pop, no more lightbulb.  I would try to change the bulb, but I don’t know where there’s a ladder, or where the lightbulbs are kept.  This is not my house, I just live here.  Feel my way out the door, and into the bathroom, accidentally making noise when I trip over a chair that I swore was not there before.  I worry about waking the other residents of the house.  I tiptoe, in vain, feeling that every time I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I make too much noise and thus wake them up and inconvenience them.  They probably hate that I live here, with my noisy cat and weird habits.  But, I won’t sleep if I don’t go.  In the morning, cat wakes me up at 5:40 am.  Normally I could turn on the light and he’d calm down sufficiently, and I can sneak back to sleep for about 20 minutes until he jumps on my head again.  Today, I fumble around, grab a handful of his food, and throw it in his dish.  He’s not satisfied.  How I wish I had another room to put him in.  How I wish I felt like I really had a right to let him roam around the house.  How I wish I could trust that the kids wouldn’t terrorize him.  Wishing does nothing, it’s me, in the room, with a cat that won’t calm down no matter how much I want him to.  Coffee, fruit (apple tastes like laundry detergent or perfume…just like the last one.  Still, refuse to waste it).  Wish I had yogurt but the culture I brought from the city went bad and I couldn’t make any…so no luck there.  Listen to some NPR podcasts, feel a little better, cat is still nuts.  Can’t stand the screaming babies that have already arrived for the morning daycare.  Hate that I’ve been forced to live in this echoey kid-filled house.  I would never have chosen this.  Get out, I tell myself.  Get out for the morning and you’ll feel better.  Get dressed, plan to go visit the school director to do some planning, but first stop by our government ag extension’s house to buy some yogurt culture.  Damn, still not there.  Not in his office either.  Would look more but for some reason this morning two guys (who I know and are usually pretty nice) have decided that today it’s funny to say “hello” (yes in English) and sing that stupid stupid stupid 60’s song that happens to have my name in it. Pero Raquel, mi raquelita.  SHUT UP ALREADY.  GROW UP ALREADY.  See that the director is just getting to school, won’t bother her yet (she won’t pay attention at this point in her day).  For some reason, really feel like crying, decide to visit my friend.  House is open, but she’s not there.  Go home.  Want to go talk to the adults I live with, but end up tripping, feeling stupid, and knowing that if I open my mouth I will cry.  I don’t want their sympathy, I don’t want to tell them I’m sad, I’ll look weak and they’ll think, “aha, we were right, she is always sad! Why can’t the better volunteers come back?”  Pretend I was on my way to weeding the garden.  Why does my chicken wire fence get all wobbly every few weeks?  It’s never going to be tight and strong like the Bolivians’.  I have no credibility.  Sob all over my plants, but nobody sees and there are less weeds, so at least I accomplished something. Back to my one-room prison/sanctuary.  Cat has taken the liberty of digging all the sand out of his litter box…it’s a total mess.  What is wrong with him?  Am I feeding him wrong? Should I have had his stitches checked on or removed before I last left the city?  Maybe they didn’t take the testicles all the way off.  I’m a bad owner.  I want to hit him…I’m never violent back home.  I scream into my towel.  Put him in his travel cage, before he or I can do any damage.  Clean up the sand, luckily it was new and thus clean.  Feel guilty, let cat out. Kids still making noise.  Do US toddlers scream and cry that much?  I’m never having kids. Hope I was never so unreasonably demanding as these ones.  Cry more, realize I have to pee but can’t leave my room without the babysitter seeing my puffy eyes.  Put on iPod, loud (thank my lucky stars that package arrived last time I was in the city), read a few pages. Figure my eyes have cleared up enough to leave the room.  In the bathroom, catch myself in the mirror.  Well, my bangs look super awesome today!  One point: Rachel.  Feel better suddenly.  Decide I will cook Japanese rice and steamed veggies for lunch (I’m trying to be on a diet…still at a loss about why I have gained weight in site).  Rice has a larva in it.  But only one.  That’s another point for me.  Clean out the rice, put it in a better container.  Make some toast from my homemade oatmeal bread.  This bread is amazing, what an accomplishment!  And then, I feel ok.

 

This was NOT a typical 12 hours of my life here.  But this sort of morning happens, and is very real and scary while it’s going on.  Little things that wouldn’t be a big deal in the states compound on each other within one’s fragile psyche here, far away from easy fixes and speed-dials to friends.  I wanted my readers to have a sense of what culture shock feels like as you’re going through it, hence the present-tense style I wrote in.  It usually has less to do with actions taken against you by those of another culture, and more to do with a feeling of being trapped by your situation and by the fact that there is a point where the people around you won’t understand why you’re upset or why you can’t explain it.  For me, that’s what it is anyways.  Rest assured, it’s another thing I take in stride, and it luckily is a rare occurrence for me.  It’s a part of this experience, and I’m sure serves that great purpose of making me stronger.  Maybe I am changing a lot, since I bet months ago, a bad morning might have affected me for much longer.   

I included this because I go through culture shock in Panama too, and sufficient time has passed since the above events that my mom won't freak out too much if I post it.  I won't get into too much what's culture and shock in Panama at the moment.  I'll say that these two can make the bigger frustrations in my life harder to manage.

I'm frustrated that at this point in being a volunteer (I became official in April, so it's about 8 months), I still don't have a project started.  And even though it's for the obvious reason that I started anew in Panama just 2 months ago, it's like a volunteer service clock is ticking...I want to build, I want to have a thing to tell people I'm doing/did.  I want someone to tell me or at least imply that I'm having an effect in their daily life.  Pero, nada.  And as I mentioned in the last post, people aren't working right now in my area.  It is hot and dry, so in terms of all things growing and green, there isn't much market for work.  So sitting in my hammock, visiting with people, that's all nice if I would have another reason to be in my town.  As some of you know, one of my grandmothers died this month (I made it to Pennsylvania for 2 days for the funeral and to be with my family), so being in a town in Panama with no blatant reason to be there, just some vague idealistic you-know-what, instead of enjoying the comforts of home at the holidays, seems a little more ridiculous when I am still very much grieving that loss deep down inside, and know that my family is as well.

Ok, the good ending.  Sometimes you need an adrenaline hit to stop feeling jaded, sad, mad, etc.  Good thing I had planned to come to this mountain town of Boquete (in the mountains in the west of Panama) for a few days over Christmas, with the other two Bolivia transfers.  I wasn't sure what we were going to do here, besides speak English and play cards.  The other two were very into the idea of DOING things...good people to be with when you're generally bummed out.  Peter suggested we do ziplining in the cloud forest canopy...$60 which is more than I spend on most things, and I thought, "yeah, remember doing new and exciting and challenging things in Bolivia?  let's chase that feeling again."  So yours truly strapped on a harness, listened to some (I'll admit it, pretty good-looking) Panamanian zipline guides, felt a some serious adrenaline (as I am scared of heights) and left the demons at the top of the hill.  And while I admit that I would still rather be complaining about the cold and cooking Christmas breakfast for my family tomorrow morning, I feel better than I did when I woke up to what I thought would be just another day in Panama, and I suddenly remember that I still have a lot to see and do, and there is a lot I CAN do; it's about challenge, it's about sticking to it when you don't always want to, it's about being creative (which I think is the most-commonly-used adjective to describe me, and I'm not living up to it lately).

I also have big plans for the next few months in my site...building stoves, doing compost piles to prepare for planting season, etc.  So stay tuned, I'm back in it.

Besides working on being a housewife to myself, I generally do a lot of visiting.  My closest neighbor is extremely generous with her electrical current, letting me charge my computer and cellphone and put my extreme perishables in the fridge (most veggies, I’m finding out, can be stored for many days without refrigeration).  She has a six-month old daughter who is just so cute, and who has started to recognize me.  She likes to squeeze my finger, so I guess it’s good she’s not afraid of me.  When I leave here (confirmed I’ll be leaving April 2010, by the way) she’ll be almost two years old, what an interesting thought!  All the women here in town are about the same age, and so are the children.  I don’t know of any child over 12!  I like visiting houses, I’m getting good at the visit, sit and chat, known as “pasear” –to pass by.  Another friend likes to use me for my technical skills (this is how you plug in a DVD player, this is how to re-set it to color when the kids have messed with it and it’s in black and white)--not something I mind in the least.  I leave houses feeling happy, and usually not empty-handed.  It’s a common thing for me to be asked if I have enough bananas (never!), plantains or whatever else they might have enough to share.  What a beautiful thing, since it’s never forced.  Right now, people are mostly not engaged in agricultural activities, save a few very notable examples.  Since it’s turning into dry season, most people (whom I know, because I haven’t met many of the farming men, which definitely skews my point of view of activities) aren’t planting any more.  The corn and rice are growing, so they’ll be weeded a few times, and eventually harvested.  I hope I get invited to help out…being out in the fields with the blazing sun is not necessarily fun work in itself, but getting to share the experience and learn things through fairly easy conversation is something I value and find very fun.  My host family is of course still doing things, but even so, the work is less.  The goat (not Ding, but her mother) is pregnant as of November (she didn’t go into heat this month), which means that around April there will be a baby to give to another community (part of the Ministry of Agriculture’s agreement to give the family a goat) and…milk!  Which means cheese and yogurt!  Another family I’m growing close to has “habichuelas” – green beans, more or less, that they’ve been harvesting and selling.  I am supposed to go there and demand beans when I want them, but still I find it hard to ask for things.  This family works so hard, and !BONUS! has grapefruit trees (and lots of other fruits…it’s just that it's about to be grapefruit season).  I like them because they have sort of the same philosophy I do about farming.  Work hard, don’t get stuck doing things the same way all the time, enjoy the fruits of your labor.  I hope to take the mother of this family with me to a Peace Corps community leadership training in January…to involve more members of the community than just my host mom (this woman’s technically my host great-aunt and also my host dad's sister…like I said before, the whole community is a big family or two) in the experience of having a Peace Corps volunteer.  I think it will be good to shift the focus away from my host mom a bit, since there is a little bit of jealousy in the community, that she always gets the help from the Ministry of Agriculture, she got the Peace Corps volunteer, etc.; these good things happen to her because she is willing to seek help and thinks outside the box…which everyone in the community could do, if they wanted.  Still, to demonstrate the point that there can be more of a balance of good things that come the way of the town, I will be hoping to take some other people to Peace Corps trainings.

Well, I’m living in the infamous house (on my own!) now.  The first night I actually was scared to sleep there, but now it’s no big deal, it was just unfamiliar noises and a dog walking around outside at midnight.  It’s full of wildlife, or was…I arrived from Thanksgiving to two large nests of biting ants inside the house. Luckily, I had a package of ant/hymenoptera killer (wasps, ants, related) that we had used on some little black bees that lived in the house before.  Now the wildlife (minus the kitten) mostly stays outside.  The birds do like to make a lot of noise on my metal roof, but I think they haven’t been coming inside too much due to the human and feline living there.  I’m still not sure whether the bats have been getting in…yup, bats, the same animal my dad was once so scared of he poured a pot of boiling water over one to kill it.  I haven’t seen any new evidence of bat activity (poop stains that look like little oil stains on my floor), but still I wonder if they come in when I’m asleep.  So, the mosquito net is more like a bat net…since there are thankfully no mosquitos and the smaller insects can easily get through the netting.  It’s also serving as a nice kitty hammock/jungle gym…

 My lovely lovely shower/latrine.  It doesn’t smell, and taking a shower under the bright sun (nope, there’s no roof over the showerhead) in the late afternoon is real luxury, even if that water is cold.  The only issue I can really foresee with this one is that the door is only a shower curtain, and we’re starting windy season.  I can secure it on both sides, but still…you do the math.

My garden is coming along, since I obtained a whole lot of seeds from fellow agriculture volunteers at our recent in-service training.  I think the first thing I’ll eat out of the garden will be radishes, since they only really take a month to grow (and the seeds germinated within 24 hours!).  It’s a race between the radishes and the asian greens (the germinated literally overnight)…which I was super excited that somebody had seeds for!  The package was even in an asian language (I wouldn’t dare guess which, though if you asked a Panamanian it’s “chino”).  I also have an interesting variety of spinach (it’s like, a vine, but I’m sure still full of good vitamins), habañero peppers, green onions, and watermelon planted; there’s kale, eggplant, summer squash and okra in my seedbed, I’m really hoping they come up!!  I am starting a little herb garden as well, my host mom gave me aloe sprouts, and I’ve planted lemon basil, “toronjil” which is a citrusy leaf you can make tea out of, and native cilantro (flat oblong leaves, much hardier, but you need more plants because there are only a few leaves per plant).  As always, if you can find seeds and manage to send them in a way that they won’t be detected in the undoubtedly sorted-through package, I’d totally appreciate them (and promise to share with my ag buddies and community members…I’m definitely in debt for all the seeds and plants they’ve been sharing with me).

Kitchen/oven.  I have an oven…which is a luxury to people here, though they’d all like to have one.  To me it’s an essential to be able to eat real bread (the hot dog bun-like bread that comes to our store twice a week does not cut it for me) and baked foods, so I’m not going to say it’s a luxury for me.  Plus, I totally share the goodies that come out of there (like the banana bread I made yesterday that had bananas my neighbor gave me…).  Speaking of ovens…I think in the dry season I’m going to be building a fire oven and stove in the communal space (they call it a “casa communal” but without walls and a finished floor, for now it’s a space…a work in progress).  These are the stoves/ovens that Peace Corps and many NGO’s focus on, that use much less firewood thanks to some basic physical principles (like insulating and keeping the flame within the structure, and using a chimney).  So be on the look out for that activity.

Oh yeah, little Ray lives without electricity.  I have paid (and agonized over the price) a good amount to wire up my one-room house with three electrical outlets and four lightbulb sockets…but the hardest part is getting an account with the private electric company who will eventually come out and hook me onto the grid.  I tried and failed to do this myself; I needed to have a deed to the property and a rental agreement, but supposedly the owner of my house is coming next week on other business, and she will take care of this.  Still, we don’t know how long the wait will be for the company to come and hook me up.  The good thing about this is that I know what it’s like to be without the electricity, and I don’t feel so bad about having made this choice to dig into some of my US money for the privilege that most volunteers here don’t get…light and power.