To the Organization, University, or Individual that is willing to take the challenge,

So I just need to say first off that we received enough funding through donations and a clean energy grant from the U.S. so we don't need any more donations. Thanks. And thanks President Obama for proving a new solar panel unit for our artisan group!


To the Organization, University, or Individual that is willing to take the challenge,

My name is Adam Armstrong and I am a Volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in Panama and this is an open appeal for your help with a chocolate production project I'm working on in a small indigenous village located in the heart of the jungle and cacao farms of Bocas del Toro, Panama. I have been living in this small village as a Volunteer with the Peace Corps for about 9 months now, and since I have been here we have successfully created a product and developed a market for our native style chocolate and it is selling faster than previously anticipated. As of right now our artisan group of cacao farmers and craft makers roast, peel, and grind all of the cacao by hand to make our chocolate products. As you might imagine, this takes a long time and after spending countless back breaking hours working in the cacao farms, it is hard to spend so many more hours away from the family creating the chocolate. Here you can view some pictures of some of our group and the eco-tour we are now starting to conduct in the community. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.196860087001431.42750.196669717020468

The Challenge

Our chocolate artisan group is looking for a way to use basic machinery to help with the processing of our chocolate. As we are newly organic certified, we would like to use processes that use renewable energy or that can be done by hand or foot. This could include technologies such as solar panels hooked up to an electric motor that runs a grinder ( please look here to see the grinders we use: http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/303760437/manual_grinder_cast_iron_grinder_hand_grinder.jpg). Or this could also be a simple machine that helps us toast the cacao, a separate machine that can break the cacao, and then another that separates the cacao from the shell (you can see here how we crack the cacao currently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LuU7fqBM7k).

Keep a few key things in mind while you consider this challenge. First, not all tools and materials are available in Panama, and especially in Bocas del Toro, although Panama City is experiencing an economic boom and could offer opportunities for good alternatives to some tools and materials if the desired piece cannot be found. We already have local contacts for reasonably priced solar panel systems and the artisan group currently uses a small solar system so people can work at night. Also keep in mind that at this point in time we are not looking for machinery that would make refined chocolate such as a conching machine (http://www.chocolatealchemy.com/conchingrefining.php). We currently process our chocolate by grinding our cacao using a hand grinder, making it into a liquor at which point we harden the product and sell it or combine it with milk and sugar to sell as native chocolate. Here is a video that shows how a local American has rigged a motor up to a grinder (with solar power). ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GycZiDj99Bg

Funding

After an appropriate and sustainable plan has been developed, I will work with community members and other staff in the Peace Corps to write a grant proposal seeking funding. If you, your organization, or group has funding available or know of funds available we would also be interested. Our artisan group also has been setting aside some money from all of our chocolate sales to use for this project ensuring that the people here also take ownership of the project. We have access to many materials that are locally available (and free) including wood and we have already received a few bike donations that can be used for parts. If you or your organization would like to come to our community and work with us with this project we will provide your food, water, lodging and an adventure for free. Depending upon the size of the grant we are able to get for this project, we may be able to write in local transportation costs as well. International transportation costs should be considered the responsibility of the organization or individual. Ultimately, we would like to keep the grant proposal at or around $5,000 to increase our chances of securing the funding. We have determined that a solar panel system that is capable of handling a good sized motor will cost us around $2,500 which would leave us another $2,500 for the implementation of the project.

About the Community

The native community here is comprised of 100% Gnabe Indigenous people whom have been farming cacao in Bocas del Toro for nearly 80 years. Most of the farmers rely on the sale of cacao beans to the local co-op as their sole source of income. In the low production season an entire family will live on anywhere from $1-$2 a day. In the high production season (which only lasts for 4 months of the year) a family will live on about $4 a day. By creating products that add value to the basic cacao beans, we have started to change this. Historically, one pound of cacao that is sold to the co-op in the city sells for about $1.30. Once we have processed the cacao beans, through toasting and shelling or grinding, that same pound is worth $12 to the farmer. By increasing production, but not increasing the amount of time to actually produce it, there is a possibility to sustainably and significantly increase income generation for over 26 families with a combined 150 people affected. Our group also splits all the profits from chocolate production to benefit the education of group members as well as a no questions asked emergency health fund, and a fund that allows the group to reinvest in their business.

We are looking for someone to stay in the community until the project is completed, which could be anywhere from a couple days to a couple weeks but if this is not an option just simple design help using e mail correspondence would be highly appreciated. Bocas del Toro has many beautiful sites to see and if you do accept our challenge I would be happy to direct you in the right direction of some of the better things to do and see as well.

Here are some additional links that show the process of making chocolate we use now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxO5pV1UpK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBxQtLbL_s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS3wKMNx3vc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkiLPBddsM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZOI1wehkO8

Sincerely,

Adam Armstrong

Peace Corps Panama

Community Economic Development

Bocas Del Toro

694-292-71

Californiaadam @ yahoo.com (delete the spaces between the @ sign) 

Why The Peace Corps Kills Them All

I recently wrote an article for my other blog The Daily Censored showing why the Peace Corps approach to development really does work and why we should support this government institution. Check it out at http://dailycensored.com/2011/06/09/the-peace-corps-a-government-organization-that-actually-makes-sense/

From the Womb to the Grave

So the delays between blog posts are definitely getting longer as you probably have noticed. That is if you are even still visiting my blog to see how or what I'm doing anymore. I say that because as time has powered on it seems that contact between the outside world has become less and less. There is nothing wrong with this in my book as it probably mostly means that I've become adjusted to life here. In any respect, here are some updates and a little story. The updates first:

My body hates me once again. Most of the problem has been the crazy heat and humidity we have had here in the last month. My body revolted and decided to break out in a crazy heat rash all over my legs. This combined with an infected wound on my ankle, tick bites, and mosquito bites has pretty much forced me to pop a benidryl to be able to sleep.

Now for some good stuff. We had Cacao Training Week in my site and it was pretty great. Some new Peace Corps recruits came along with the trainers and we got together every day for a week to learn the hands on way to keep a cacao farm healthy. It was pretty eye opening and I learned more than I ever thought their was about grafting one tree to another. We chopped, grafted, and pruned cacao trees all week not to mention all the cacao we turned into chocolate.

A group called the Floating Doctors has come to port in Bocas Island and after having dinner with them it has all but been decided that they will come to my site to do a clinic day. They have medicine, doctors, and even a sonogram machine. I've already received antibiotics and bandages from them so hopefully they stay for the whole 7 months they promised because its nice being close to medical attention.

Chocolate sales are doing good with our new chocolate to eat. I knew that we would sell much more than just the chocolate liquer and the roasted and raw beans. We have upcoming appointments with the government here and a place near Boquete for organic certifications too which will be amazing. With these two certifications we should be able to sell much more than we are now.

The tour has tapered off some due to the slow season and the fact that our article is no longer running in the local newspaper. For about the 5^th time we had someone say they were coming and then not. The only thing is that this time Salomon said this was OK and when it came time to meet them no one was there. I'm hoping that this will be a lesson to all of us about having people pay before they come on the tour. We have 3 reviews now on Trip Advisor and had a couple come the other day from just that review so it is starting to work.

Story Time:

I rushed down the hill to the river following Salomon. The water soon rushed into my sneakers as we hurried through its shallow coldness. Weaving in and out of plantain and cacao trees, we scurried to the other side of the hill. A place that Salomon confessed himself he hasn’t been to in awhile and as we briefly lost our way we soon found it again.

The hill was muddy and straight up. Vines and grass clinging vertically to a trail that seems to be only used for special occasions. One of those occasions was today and saying that the occasion is special might imply that it is special in a good context. Quite the opposite. We were scrambling up this treacherous hill because on top lay the community cemetery. A cemetery that would take in two new inhabitants in the same day. Both being babies that were robbed of their first breath as humans.

We made it to the top panting and sweating. The heat seemed to enter into my body from every direction and the humidity tricked my mouth into thinking that water was readily available. We stepped into a surreal scene. Belisario standing off to the right of freshly shoveled dirt. Both of his boys clinched in his arms and theirs clinched to his. While two men whom I see and talk to every day shoveled dirt on top of a casket that should have never been made, I stood behind a small crowd of loved ones and relatives. Belisario looked over to me and smiled. Sending me a message that everything would be alright and that things like this happen.

Not two in the same day. It couldn't be. As I looked over my shoulder to the left I could see the freshly moved dirt of another similar sized grave. Salomon explained to me that another baby in hospital just down the street died in the exact same way on the same day. It strangled itself with the umbilical chord coming out of the womb and no nurse or doctor was present in the room to help.

This cemetery, unlike any other I had seen, had been cut out of the jungle and sat upon a small hill. Looking to the sky, about 100 tall to medium sized purple and red colored plants lay were the fallen of this community are now resting. The two men broke off three branches from two older trees and stuck them where the new member of this tranquil place lay. We left in silence and returned to work.