Sunday, October 26, 2008

Swearing In

We swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers on Wednesday, as Lisa mentioned in the last post. Her post was before the ceremony so I´ll take a moment to describe it.

Busy morning of last minute sessions. A couple of hours of free time and a quick meal to the last minute trainees. Finally free of sessions. People are giddy, laughing at silly stuff. People are busy with nothing. A little time in front of CNN World Report.

The little yellow buses arrive, mere mini-vans in the U.S. A quick drive through the hot city. A heartbeat and we leave ratty shacks and old business for lavish front lawns and amazing high security fences. Fences make good neighbors. We wait at the gate of the compound.

We wait. We wait for awhile more, and then we are told that the security was told we would arrive 45 minutes later. They want to impress their new boss, our new ambassador. They want to run things right. We were supposed to arrive later.

After a time, the staffers convince them to let us leave the air conditioned vans. We get to stand in the sun. We have various pictures taken, by the buses, in front of the tennis court, there´s the pool. We have a big group one on the front steps. Now just the girls. Now just the Bocas group. Comarca group, where are you? Oh hey, did we do the boys photo yet?

The inside is fabulous. The air conditioning is perfect. So much space and elegance. If you didn´t feel a little excited before, if it didn´t feel real yet, being here on U.S. soil again in full Western beauty and landscaping will get you going. The water is fresher here, the air sweeter, the hor dóeuvres were scrumptious.

The ceremony starts. First an official from Panama welcomes us and speaks of the table of important people. He talks of working together. He says very nice things. He mentions the vice minister. She stands and talks to the table. There´s been a signing of documents, a renewing of trust between partners, they are related to the work of the Corps. We are all feeling pleased with our understanding of Spanish. The Country Director talks to us. He seems to think our group´s most uninvolved member, our hermit, or pariah, or self-outcast, is our leader, but his dignified words are a complement to us all. He has good jokes, too.

We get a story from our second in command. This is his last group of newbies. He´ll be with us for a few more months only, a victim of an excellent idea: Peace Corps staff should be Returned Volunteers who served the Corps within the last five years. His fifth year is up next Spring. He will be missed.

We take the oath. We will uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. It is solemn and heartfelt. The paper was already signed yesterday. We only lost one trainee along the way, and gained three from another program that fell. In that, we came out ahead of where we started.

Our group wrangled one of our best trainees, now volunteer, to give the speech. She is masterful. She impresses us CED trainees. She impresses the EH trainees. She impresses the new volunteers from the other country that fell. She had worked hard on this, got the editted words other trainees and the perfect translation from our teachers. I´m sure she was no slouch herself on the original. She must have practiced out loud because her prounciation is spot on. The Panamanian staffers all smile and nod along with her. We understand the Spanish better for her enunciation. The most visibly impressed are the table of important people.

The EH speaker is also impressive. He´s known around these parts as a poet, and he is going to impress as well. Although is Spanish is a little rockier, he still has a poem that works only in Spanish and it beautifully describes our current feels as we get ready to head into the field. He has a second one that works only in English, but we are there to appreciate it as well, though not many Panamanians can be on board. We clap hard for both of our speakers. They have made us proud. We are volunteers!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Today is the day!

TODAY WE ARE SWEARING IN AS OFFICIAL PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS!!!

We initially were supposed to swear in tomorrow, but things got shifted, and now we're swearing in today, this afternoon to be exact.

I had an interview yesterday with the Country Director and at the end I mentioned that we've been waiting for this day for a long time, and now that I've thought on that statement a little more, we really have.

We don't know the exact dates, but at some point many years ago we made the decision of whether to pursue the Peace Corps, or have a family. (And before that we talked about Peace Corps quite a bit). Obviously we chose Peace Corps. But that decision (in 2005?) set a lot of things in motion. Ben went back to school to get his degree and finished in December 2006. In January 2007 we sent off the first paper applications. May 2007 we had our first interviews with a Peace Corps recruiter. August 2007 we got our nomination to Latin America for the following year. In October we put our house on the market, and we closed on it in February. In March, Ben was medically deferred for 8 months, meaning we would miss our program. We appealed the decision and it was approved! In June we were facing the end of our lease on the apartment and had no news, but then we got our invitations to Panama!

August 10th we flew to Miami for staging, and August 13th, we set foot in Panama for the first time. Now, we've been here for over 2 months, we've learned a lot about Panama, Panamanians, their culture, a lot more Spanish, more technical skills, and of course a lot about ourselves. We both feel incredibly lucky and happy to be sitting here today (many years later), literally fulfilling one of the dreams that we've shared together for such a long time. YAY!!!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

What´s your ETA, Bei?

Filed teeth, crossed eyes: first impressions. Sharing cultures: Are there indigenous people in the United States? They are afraid of frogs, planes, and being alone at any time, but not chivas without adequate brakes. Plantains are still bland, bland, bland. They can carry 100-lbs loads in grass-woven bags attached to their foreheads, up and down giant mountains on muddy trails for hours. We are going to be living with some interesting people.

My name in Ngabe is Eta (pronounced eh-duh) Lisa´s is Bei (pronounced bay-ee). We were named by our counterparts when we met them, and everyone we meet in town loves to laugh at us upon introduction; look at these funny gringos with Ngabe names!

We went to our site for the first time this week, and we love it. It´s in the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle, high in the mountains in good coffee country. It´s jungle, to be sure, but beautiful and full of mystery. While we were there, it rained nearly every day and the clouds surrounded us so that they were more like mist. We are told that we have a great view, but I only got to see a little of it on the first day.

On the chiva ride up, Lisa got to sit in the front so she saw more of the gorgeous green mountains with a view of the Pacific Ocean. I was late due to an impromptu meeting with our counterpart so I had to hang onto the back of the truck for dear life. It was painful and the rain made me wet, but at least it was only an hour and nine minutes.

When we met our counterparts at the little conference we had, the woman had filed teeth and the man had crossed eyes. As it turns out, these are not strange qualities here. The filed teeth came to three little points on each tooth (so that only two triangles had to be filed out). The other filed teeth I´ve since seen are one or two points per tooth so our lady had something extra special. She´s also an accomplished artisan.

The man is quite intelligent and an excellent public speaker. Despite how he would be received in the States where corrective surgery for this ailment is very common, he has no problem talking in front of anyone and is quite convincing. His Spanish is excellent as well as his Ngobere; he´ll use both to win over anyone to his side. Moreover, he is very intelligent and looks for every opportunity to expand his knowledge. I´ve really enjoyed our conversations in the evening.

It is a large town, with many amnenities such as three restaurants, a large Centro de Salud, a cooperative, a small 5-room hotel, a bunch of little kiosk stores, and a high school. Many people from outlying villages have moved here or hike an hour or more to work here. The chiva goes up to our site and many people take it down to the Interamericana.

We will be having another Volunteer living in the same town as us. She has an agriculture focus and has been working here for two years. She´s extending for a third so we´ll be getting the full benefit of her experiences and she´ll be helping us meet many of the movers and shakers. She asked for a business volunteer to follow up on her agriculture work. Now that many horticulture groups are growing tasty organic food, they and other groups like the artisans, the cooperative, the restaurants, and the stores would like help with accounting, marketing, etc, that she just can´t provide. She was as excited as the townfolk to hear that they were getting two instead of just one, although they are apprehensive because the last one left after just one month many years ago.

Needless to say, we have a lot of opportunities to work. While some people just seem able to envision us finding funds for them, many others want more specific help that we are ready to provide, after an acclimitization period. We will be working closely with people on a hands on basis to learn their work and gain their trust. After we feel comfortable with our understanding of their situations, we can begin to make suggestions for improvements. I think our days will be very full, especially at first, and already there are people arguing about having us work mostly with them.

Our physical conditions are fairly rugged. I´ll just give a few little highlights to let help you feel what we are looking at:
Sleeping on wood planks, it´s cold at night.
Cockroach in my breakfast, just feed it to the cat, the rest is tasty.
Splashback from the latrine is never nice, score: Lisa 3, Ben 0.
Can´t seem to pick the right shoes, Lisa wore nice stuff when they lead us through forest trails and almost lost a sandal in the mud, jeans and tennis shoes for a trek in the rain, and rubber boots for our first agency meeting.
Baby still has a cough for a couple of days after starting meds from the Centro de Salud, after some natural herb meds and a day, parents say they work better.
Lisa´s eyes burn in the smoke, and host explains that it´s from the cold air, not the smoke, of course!

Lisa refers to our site as Heaven in the Comarca or sometimes Alaska in Panama. We absolutely love it and look forward to our two years up there starting next week.

Monday, October 6, 2008

A Few Afterthoughts

Mangrove Mud is the Kryptonite of Velcro.

Hot dogs are breakfast sausages when fried.

There's always room for another person on the bus.

Giardia is the new fad diet.

If it's endangered, its a delicacy, but not more expensive.

Whistling and catcalls are respectful complements that you will miss when you're back in the States.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Grassroots meets Government...

I guess you could already say that the Peace Corps is an organization that works on a grassroots level, through the government, but this week our training group had the pleasure of meeting the new U.S. Ambassador to Panama, and got to truly see how our work affects so many people on so many levels here!

On Tuesday, the Ambassador visited us and we had a pizza lunch and then shared a little bit about who we are and what we´re here to do. After lunch, we broke into groups by sector and had a more in-depth discussion about our role here as ¨Community Economic Development¨volunteers and what that means. We had some interesting discussion about challenges and measuring our success, as well as how the Ambassador´s office, and the U.S. government and Peace Corps can work together for change. It was an interesting meeting, and Ambassador Stevenson is a fascinating woman!

The rest of our week was pretty much routine. We were back in our training community and spent our days attending technical class and language classes. On Wednesday, Ben and I facilitated a portion of the technical session about accounting and bookkeeping concepts (although it´s been about 5 years since I studied or tutored in accounting concepts!). We´re also in separate language classes now, Ben has been in Spanish classes, and I´m in Ngabere classes. Techinically, at my ¨mid-term¨language test I scored higher than required for passing the Spanish, so that might play into it. I guess it´s also meant to give us a bit of a mix, although I would love to learn more Spanish as well. Right now we´re gearing up for our site visits - we leave the training community on Tuesday afternoon and meet up with our future site counterparts in a location in Cocle, and then on Thursday morning, we´ll travel with our counterparts to our communities, returning back to training on the next Tuesday.

During our visit, we´ll be tasked with figuring out our host family arrangements for the first three months in site, and with developing the beginnings of a work plan with the community. We are excited to get our feet wet and see where we´ll be living and working in just a few short weeks now! That being said, we really are enjoying our family situation in the training community and know that we will miss them a lot! It will be hard to say goodbye to them! They´ve done so many great things for us in our time here, and our time has flown by!

Shorter edition today, but more soon after our site visits! Thanks to everyone for their continued support! We miss home, and everyone, but we´re happy and doing well!