Monday, January 30, 2012

Artisans Represent

There is a reason that I have not been writing as much as I should be lately. I've been a little busy. That and lately people have been stopping by, calling me just to chat, and dragging me to the island to hang out. I'm not complaining about that. I love talking to my fellow volunteers. I'm just saying that when I have someone to talk to I forget about my little blog and all its followers.

Anywho, Charles and Emily came by and together with a couple community members we made what is called a ferro cement tank for the artisan house. This type of tank that is used for water catchment is ideal for areas such as these as they are cheap to build and can be done by a community member. They are great. They do take time. Of which many people here have a lot of so that really isn't a problem. Our tank turned out pretty well and I would say that a community member could make it. We will see if the people that we taught will actually have the drive to do it.

I ended up hanging out with Charles for about 5 days and it was nice. He is a fellow upper west coastian (Ashland) and we get along really well. He is also wicked smart when it comes to sustainable water and sanitation so it was great to see him in action. I've also been in heavy communication with the Engineers Without Borders people which is exciting as we are talking about doing a micro hydroelectric system here to power our chocolate grinder. As far as communication goes, they seem to be on it and this gives me hope that we are actually going to get this done. As of right now we have $2,500 raised for our electric needs and with their help and a small amount of funding from them possibly it is looking like we will get this thing done.

Our group finally had the long over due meeting about what to offer the farm owners for using their land. The group spent 2 hours talking about who's fault it was to come up with the beginning numbers and then about 30 minutes deciding on a new number. After the meeting something unexpected happened. Another community member that works with the large chocolate co op in Almirante that exports large containers of cacao happened to come to the meeting to present a something to the group. In short the artisan group is being presented with the chance to choose one women to be part of a program that sends her and others like her from every Central American country to El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize to see how people in these countries make chocolate. Only one lady from each country can go and it has to be an indigenous female that works with chocolate and this person has to put together a power point presentation and be able to speak about her own chocolate project.

It is pretty amazing to me that at this time last year we had just started to come up with the idea to sell chocolate to the public and now we are talking about representing an entire country as far as chocolate goes. Of course it will be stressful for me and for her as I will have to teach her power point and even just how to use a computer and also how to speak in public. My only fear is that whomever we choose will have too much fear and drop out. We shall see. I really need to be at the meeting when they discuss who should go as to make sure they know the importance of this opportunity. This person would get the chance of a lifetime and could possibly bring back new ideas for our own artisan group to try and to make our products better. Exciting.

More posts coming up about 'raw chocolate' which is non fermented and is starting to create chatter about its health benefits. Until then, peace...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Just your Average Day

I'm extremely tired and my stomach is not happy but I'm satisfied. I read somewhere a long time ago that there really isn't any other feeling than that of a hard days work and that it actually makes the body and mind feel happier. I believe it. I'm saying that I did hard labor all day, but I did get some stuff done. It's been crazy busy as of late.

I woke up to Salomon calling me asking when we were heading up the mountain to look at the where the water source was for the potential hydro-electric plant. I made a quick breakfast and hiked over to his house with a bottle of water, my camera that has gps and an altimeter, and my phone. All of which I would need for later. We hiked up the hill passing a bunch of guys hired by the electrical company to cut down trees that might threaten the large power lines, and after about 30 minutes hiking almost straight up Salomon realized that he forgot the gallon bucket we needed to check the water flow.

As it turns out his brother lives up that hill and we were able to get a gallon jug easily. After slashing through some jungle we came to the water source and we both quickly realized that the flow wasn't going to be enough. We checked the stream at two different points noting the gallon per minute calculations using the stopwatch function on my iphone and timing how long it took to fill the gallon jug. To do this we had to cut my water bottle and cake mud around it to get the entire flow to come through and out to the same place. I also noted the elevation and gps coordinates to see how much drop we were going to have to figure out the pressure we would have at the bottom to move the turbine. We ended up with a 3 gallon per minute number and about a 300ft drop which at this point means nothing to me.

Soon after coming down the hill to check the elevation at the bottom, take pictures of everything and sending it to the Engineers Without Borders contact I helped Solomon hook up our new USB internet stick at my house. We still don't have a working laptop and the one that we have needs to be plugged in at all times so he plugged it into my solar system. I was then off to Changuinola to get a lab test done to see why I'm having to run to the latrine all day, talk to a local business to find out why its been a month and we still don't have the chlorine tablets that we need to make our aqueduct water safe to drink, and drop off the iPhone donation that we got with the battery that I bought from some weird third party so the tech guy could put the new battery in. After getting all that done I rushed back to the community taking a bus and then walking from the road to get here just in time to give English classes for an hour and then talk on the phone with the head engineer for the Pacific side of the Panama Canal about my community and the possibility of working with them here. Then I sat down and started writing this post: I'm extremely tired....     

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Life of a Peace Corps Volunteer

The life of a Peace Corps worker is never defined. I don't see how it could be. Let me explain. Today I woke up realizing it was a work day in the artisan group and that I had woken up late. After making a quick egg sandwich I hiked up into the chocolate farms to a place where I thought the group was supposed to be. I was wrong and after calling Solomon and getting directions I finally found the group about 30 minutes later. I showed up sweating and out of breath.

We sat in a circle. About 8 of us. A large pile of dirt in the center teeming with worms and other critters from the jungle stared us in the face as we dug into it little by little filling small plastic bags. Each bag put to the side was snatched up by one of two other workers and brought down to the flat piece of land designated for the nursery. 100 bags in all would fill this one. As the sun moved over the banana leaves and into our faces, the cold dirt between our hands gave relief to the sweltering heat. 3 hours would go by and we were done. The new cacao and fruit nursery was now mostly done. The only thing left being to make small thumb holes in the bags, drop a seed in and close it up. Nature takes care of the rest here.

After filling the bags and after every Thursday work day, the group had a meeting where the topic stayed light and cheerful. Many members missing due to illness and working on today's tour kept the conversation moving quickly. I soon stood up and explained how the group of students that wanted to come in June and help do water projects and build a walkway for tourists has decided that there is not enough time to raise funds. This was the bad news. The good news was that Engineers Without Borders had contacted me just days earlier after reading my blog and is now interested in doing a hydro electric project here. The group was interested.

After the meeting Solomon and I started going over some of the required measurements and requirements needed sent by Engineers Without Borders to make the mini hydro system work using the new usb internet system we installed the day before. After going over designs and looking at different systems on youtube and talking with the project leader of whom apparently works on the Panama Canal, we came to the conclusion that using the small stream on the same mountain that the artisan house sits would be the best option. As I tried to explain to Salomon how to measure gallons per minute he politely explained to me that he knew all about it because he had done it for the aqueduct system. I wasn't surprised as his head is like a sponge and he learns everything by doing it once. We decided to hike the hill and measure the flow tomorrow and I get to use my new camera to check the difference in altitude between the water source and the base which will give us the pressure we need to make the system run.

I then spent a great deal of time talking with my neighbor Belisario on the phone about his wife and then talking to the volunteer in David and then to the Floating Doctors out on Bocas Island. This was all due to the fact that Clarilda, Belisario's wife has been super sick. As my neighbors and one of the only people in the community with a TV, I usually go over to their house at night to hang out. They are also both part of my artisan group and important members at that. Beli is in charge of all chocolate production and they have both become some of the closest friends I've had here. Clari is also the lady that lost her baby due to doctor negligence last year. Clari had been saying that she felt under the weather for about a week and I thought it was due to her being overweight but it seemed to be getting worse. Her body seemed to be filling up with liquid from the feet up. I started to get concerned and after failing to convince her to go to the doctor the Floating Doctors agreed to come here and see her. They agreed it was something bad and after failing to figure out just what that was, got money together to send her to David to get tests done. It's been 4 days and the doctors still don't know what it is so we are starting to get worried. Hence talking with everyone all day. If another couple days go by and they still don't know what she has I will probably go out there and demand some answers as the main doctor from the Floating doctors has left to go back home for awhile.

At around 5pm I started a new English and tourism class for 2 young hopeful tour guides and by the end I felt pretty solid about their chances to learn English. It really does take a lot of discipline and patience and I'm pretty sure they both have it. The boy, named Lenny, is the only gay member of the community as far as I know, and the girl is the daughter of Samuel, our principle tour guide.

At 7pm I went down to my neighbors house below me to ask them to put out the smoldering pile of trash and plastic that was billowing smoke into my house and giving instant allergies.

At 8pm I made dinner

At 9pm I went to the latrine for the 4th time today and the second time in one hour and then took swigs from my pepto bismo bottle.

Looks like I will be hiking a mountain tomorrow and then going to the doctor to get my stomach checked again.

The life of a Peace Corps Worker.