Video of My First Year in the Peace Corps

So I made up a little something something for my first year in the Peace Corps. Its a movie if you haven't guessed by now. It's definitively not the best quality since my computer almost blew up trying to make the damn thing but its something. Some of the pictures are nice some of the pictures look like lego-men. The music is some of my favorite latin music. If I'm able to get a laptop this winter I will be able to create much better videos. Until then enjoy...

Operation Safe Swimming Hole

So I started today wanting to work with the artisan group for tomorrows fair on Bocas Island but it seems that they had everything taking care of or at least didn't want my help. Ever since Solomon has been elected president of the artisan group its kinda been like that. I'm not sure if the power is going to his head or if maybe the group is doing so good that they really feel that they don't need my help anymore but it seems as if I might have to look for other things to do. I've already identified a couple of those things including working harder on the grant for some chocolate machinery, teaching English and working on marketing for tourists as we haven't had a tour for about 5 days now.

I knew that there was a gringo group coming today to do something water related at the school so meandered down there at about mid day. What I soon came up on was just about what I expected from an outside group that just comes and drops shit off. They heard that the tank that they dropped off last time wasn't installed correctly so of course they brought another one which added to the one they had already dropped off and the one that the school bought. I guess the group never stopped to ask about the aqueduct system that we have in the community that could easily be hooked up to fill one of the tanks or just to use straight from the faucet.

So now there are three empty tanks at the school. Two of them way way larger than is needed considering that kids don't really drink water at school and it is just used for cleaning dishes and making cream of wheat. Apparently the guy who came with his gringo friends runs some type of “water aid” program and from what I've heard he charges double the cost of the systems and says its a “processing fee” or some crap. I've also heard that he is running out of useless water installations to do which explains why he brought us another useless tank. There was a “dedicated to the memory of …....” on the tank so I hope that the person that at least bought it for so and so thinks that their 1k went to some good use and not just another giant plastic statue of which it is. At least the kids will have a good time trying to figure out who the hell so and so is for the next 10 years until someone realizes it would be much easier just to connect the community water system to the faucet and they sell the tank to buy computers or books.

I do have to say that there are places where these tanks do good. Like in my girlfriends community. I know that at least there they will use the water and its clean and sometimes they don't have any potable water. I'm just saying it might have paid to do a little research on where your putting these monstrous plastic monuments or wait, it might pay no matter what if your charging to do something that my community can and already has done for half.

So after I talked with one of the gringos that came with the water team about how great of a thing they are doing and about how they were now most likely go to heaven and be forgiven for all their sins, I went looking for a new water spot. And oh did I find one. A community member had told me about this small spot on this small stream pretty close to my house I went to check it out. Only after about 20 minutes of hiking up the small stream I came to the spot I think he was talking about and instantly it became my new favorite spot to swim. As the little kids that followed me there can attest, there is waterfall of about 17 feet that drops down into a small pool of about 10 feet across all the way around. What is great about this is that the pool is deep for some reason. So deep that I jumped from a rock of about 10 feet above and still didn't touch the bottom. I love new swimming spots and I especially love swimming spots that have hidden caves in them that I can't see where weird things might be lurking....

Doing Work

A pretty big storm passed through just now lingering lightening is still exploding far away. It's dark except for the flashing in the distance and neighbors kids are playing with my iphone. All three of them. Touching at the same time. I have to hand it to them. For not ever seeing or using anything like an iphone they are learning to navigate it pretty fast.

It's been a long day. Mostly because I've been traveling for a good part of the day and I've been traveling tired. Traveling tired is way more tiring than just plain old traveling. When you've got no where to rest your head and your tired it makes you more tired and more tired of traveling and you just want to be home. This was most of my feeling today and has been for the last couple days. Even though I haven't been traveling for three days I have been tired. Extremely tired.

I actually can't figure it out really. Why I'm so tired that is. I went to the lab and took pretty much every test they offered and apparently I've got a clean bill of health. So I called the Peace Corps doctor to see what his thoughts were on all my tests and me being sleepy all the time with bad stomach problems. He said I had indigestion. That wasn't really what I was looking for but I got some tums just in case. I tried to fall asleep on the way back but couldn't as I was on an isle seat on the way back and just hanging on around the corners is enough to keep you up. I personally think that the extreme heat and humidity is slowly eating my soul here but I guess we will find out if that is true in a year from now.

Live update: I just went over to my neighbors house where they are watching Miss Universe on a small black and white TV. There is about 10 people watching it and they look pretty confused. Once I got to see what Miss Panama looked like I came back.

Tours have been slow lately and there just hasn't been too many people on the island. This whole month has been pretty low which apparently was expected. It is kind of weird to me that more tourists don't come around this time as things are less expensive, there is more sun, and there is less people. I've tried to explain the importance of keeping up with advertising and keeping our contacts current but I'm not sure that this concept has sunk in. I know that we have permission from another one of the big hostels to put a big sign up and I know that Salomon knows about the opportunity. I just can't figure out why they are moving on it. For me to take charge and get it done would be the wrong thing to do for sure as they absolutely need to learn the importance of marketing and reaching out to customers. My next option will be to reach out to Samuel who is the tour guide. I think that if I can get him out on the island we can get some real work done in one day. Its also affecting his pocket book so I know he has got to have some interest. The hard part is getting the artisan group to pay for it.

There is tones of other crap I would love to talk about but I will save it. One being how me and a couple guys from here went to this swimming spot where we tied a rope across a small canyon, climbed to the middle, dangled, and then jumped into the water below. I'm just not going to talk about that right now. There just isn't enough time. One last thought: Every time I have to go to the doctor now I keep thinking about me having to live on the island and how I would cope with that. My service would be completely different and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like it.

Next week. My new obsession with dominoes......  

I Think I Ate Some Bad Chicken

Its come to my attention that I have been slacking a little bit with the blog posting. It has also come to my attention that other volunteers are getting more hits on their blogs because of it and I just can't let that happen. I don't always write for the 4 people that actually read this. I sometimes write for myself too. To let off some steam or just to work out things on the screen instead of just in my head. That said, here is to a new month where I will write more than one post every 40 days. In fact, this is number two in 3 days. Now you people just need to start reading them.

In between having explosive diarrhea and trying not to puke my stomach out all day, I starting thinking about my future here in Rio Oeste and even more specificly in the Peace Corps. I'm pretty much at the half way mark and after the holiday season it will be pretty much down hill from there. I've been trying to think about what I want to accomplish and how to do it. It seems that my work here has taken a life of its own and the government wants a chunk of the recognition. They have offered a free booth at all the fairs in the Bocas region for us and even want to start giving the business money for things such as machinery. They have good intentions and the fair booth will be great even though it is for 5 days at a time and I'm pretty sure its going to be me and two Ngabes sleeping in a tent together for most of those days. The only problem I see is the fact that the government here likes to just hand money over sometimes without stipulations. I've said this before and I will say it again “handouts are the worst possible thing you can do to poor people”. There is one exception to that and that is medical. If you don't believe me then you need to read Two Ears Of Corn. So hopefully it doesn't go down that way and the agencies actually come into this trying to work with the people and not just throwing money at them.

So I mentioned that I had pretty bad stomach problems and I wasn't kidding. If you have kept up with my blog at all you will know that I just came back to my site after being away for over two weeks. I felt good and it was probably the longest time I have gone for months without being sick. I kid you not, the day I arrived in my site I got terrible stomach problems. I really don't know what the hell is going on. I ate at a couple bus stops that looked pretty questionable but everyone does that here including tourists and not too many get sick. I really don't know what is going on but it needs to stop if I want to continue serving in my site and not from Bocas Island.

Another thing I realized today and something that I've been delaying thinking about is being alone once again in Panama. As some of you know, my girlfriend will be done with her service at the end of this month. It creeped up on us like a stalker and now we are both dealing with the possibility of not seeing each other for a year. I don't want to get too in to it but we have decided to go our separate ways and then meet up when I get done. We both feel it would be too hard any other way. I'm not sure how it is going to be but I do know that I will miss her and that after spending most of my time in the Peace Corps with her as my girlfriend, it is going to be very very hard to not have that support and love anymore. I've started trying to fill my schedule with giving extra English classes and seeing my friends that are serving in other places to take my mind off of things but the fact is that it will be much harder for awhile.

I've got another year left and need to stay healthy mentally and physicaly to ride out the good and bad times. Another challenge I'm willing to take on....     

Visiting that place called The USA

I'm sitting on a bus. Still. I left Chico around 11am yesterday and it looks like I will arrive at about 11pm in David which is where I will spend the night before continuing on to my community tomorrow. This might be one of the longest trips I've ever had to take and it has been pretty taxing on me. The last week has been a whirlwind as well. I visited home after being gone for a year and it was more than strange. Panama and California could not be further apart. Well, I was able to order some food in Spanish but that was about it. Its just a different world though and thinking people would understand that would be dumb of me. Most were polite and asked simple questions about the differences. I got a couple crazy questions like if I had a translator when I talked.

I think the biggest difference between the two places is mostly physical. We have such nice roads and infrastructure back home with tree lined freshly paved roads and kept parks. I think we really take these things for granted. Of course our tax money actually makes it into government which provides these services which can be a problem here, but I remember arriving into Marysville and thinking that it looked really nice. I thought maybe they had done a makeover or something but it was just that I had been living in a place where building crumble just years after being built and trash replaces sidewalks.

It was nice being back home and Kevin's wedding was great too. I have to admit that I was a little nervous doing the best man speech but was glad I practiced and revised it because I had about 15 people tell me it was probably the best they had ever heard. The bride's mom included. I guess I've gotten better at speaking from the heart which is one thing that comes with age. Speaking of age, I'm now 32. Yep, it happened. I got older. There was really nothing I could do about it. I would say that it is scary being this old but its not really. The fact is that if I turn my hat sideways and grow my hair out a little bit I still look 26......which is probably why I know have long hair and bought a baseball cap to wear. When it is all said and done here in Panama I will be 33 and will have had 3 birthdays during my service. I guess some would be scared by now. When you start racking up numbers like these you can't help but wonder if there will come a point where I need to settle down and start a family. I'm not going to lie, I think about it often, but I think I've come to the conclusion to give myself a couple more years of jungle/saving the world life before I start getting too serious about that. I should look like I'm about 29 by then and at least act like I'm 25.

Seeing my parents and brothers were amazing and seeing everyone at the wedding was great too. It was almost overwhelming to see so many people that I haven't seen for so long all at once. I did have one disappointment and that was getting friends together the last night Matt and I spent in town. A lot of people had said they were going to make it and very little showed up. I do have to give it to Ari, Jenna, and Lincoln among others that did come out, but people that really wanted to see again and won't be able to for at least another year just didn't show up when they said they would. I could probably just list their names right here because I'm sure these same friends don't read my blog. I don't know if they thought they would see me again soon somehow or if they just stopped being my friends because it's been so long but I had spent months in anticipation for the night we could all hang out. In a way I was a little hurt and saddened. Mostly because there is a good chance I will not be coming home for long time and these particular people are not very good at keeping in touch. Que sera

So another year. That is about what I have left. Actually a little bit more but lets just call it a year. I should be arriving back into my community tomorrow with a whole new excitement and enthusiasm. That is until I get sick again and get kicked out of my community. I'm really scared of this happening because the next step will be me living in the hellish gringo land that is Bocas Island. As with all things I can adapt and if I were to live in a non gringo neighborhood, I'm sure it would make it better. I just don't want to live in a place where the faces change every day and drinking and surfing are the two main pass times. I know that doesn't seem too bad but I didn't join the Peace Corps to have a good time. I actually like being in the indigenous village and doing real development work. I like being woken up at 6am to go machete some grass with my neighbor. I like being in the jungle, and having to deal with the mosquitoes, noise, sickness, animals, and constant kids running around is all part of that. It is something I will only have once in my life in this way and I want the full thing. Not some half assed service where I go into my community twice a week. I might as well be on vacation if that is going to happen. I have considered that there are some organizations on the island such the Smithsonian that could use help but again its not like living in an indigenous village. We will see how it pans out.

This month should be a big month for us in the community as we are going to be part of a fair where we can sell our chocolate and also we should start having our tour available online to buy through a new travel agency. More updates soon about those things. Until then, thanks for reading. It's been a wild ride so far...