My work has picked up to say the least. I'm currently involved in 7 different projects in my community including teaching English and organizing and constructing water catchment systems for people with no running water. I've been pretty busy and the days where I just sat around staring at the wall are all but gone. I have trouble finding time to read my hippie books about how the world is falling apart and it's mostly the fault of the good ol US of A. I'm here to say that it's always the US' fault. Sometimes it's Korea's or Canada's fault. Of course they need the help of the Panamanian Government here to destroy the world.
Let me explain. There is something called a Comarca here. It's an Indian reservation. I don't live in it but the community I live in are the same people. They are Gnobe Indians. The Comarca has their own government within this country and all of it is supposed to be protected under Gnobe law. Well that is the case unless a Canadian company finds 200 billion dollars worth of copper in the Comarca in which case the Panamanian government then makes a law saying “we are taking it and go screw yourself”. Well, my buddy Martinelli didn't say that completely, but he did acknowledge, on TV, that the mine would destroy thousands of acres of watershed, kill off many species of animals, trees, and probably make most of the surrounding land inhabitable for the Gnobe people. But of course he justified it with the fact that it could be Panama's second biggest GDP getter. At that point I'd like to think the upper class here said “ya that makes sense”, while all the animals and the Indians just said “...uh...wait a minute”. I just said “you gotta be fucking kidding me”.
I guess that is what happens when you elect a President whom owns what is equivalent to Walmart in the states. No wonder the Gnobes are protesting all this week. I'de like to point out that all volunteers are on Alert stage and not allowed to go to many parts of the country right now due to protests. I also know many volunteers that would love to join those protests including myself, but I feel that keeping my volunteer status here is probably more productive and can do more help. I should be giving classes on how every government is corrupt and the fact that the government here changed the laws saying that whatever lies below the dirt is the property of the state is just part of living in a free nation.
I digress. We have to understand that third world countries did not go through the industrial revolution of the US which we built our economy on. Their case is just that. I understand. I also understand that countries could probably learn from the mistakes we made and not take that rout. You could pull a Costa Rica and actually keep your forests and animals for people to see and then by god people might actually come to see them and pay money for it. Sure as hell doesn't seem like the plan here. There are giant power lines going through my community of which has no power. It is a private company that makes money from selling the power but has not paid a dime to the landowners it is on. The river here. It will be gone in months. The government owns all rivers too and can dam them up whenever it feels. Its doing that with no compensation to the people or animals.
“It's a problem” as they say here. That's because besides protesting and getting rubber bullets shot at your eyes, there is nothing you can do. (There are many people here missing eyes from being shot with rubber bullets from the police). Nothing I can do that is for sure. I will get kicked out of the Peace Corps in about ten seconds. So I will keep doing what I can do and that is worry about my community outside the Comarca. But I will think about how they will be killing thousands of animals and habitats in the Comarca while I try to save them, or how they will be contaminating the water giving the residence no choice but to drink toxic ooze while I'm putting in clean water systems. I would like to go back 4 months when I met the President and ask him if he really meant what he said about helping the poor here. I think what he might have meant was that he was going to help the poor stay poor so he can sell more bullshit in his Panamanian Walmart.
Other Notes: We did our first dry run of our tour today. I have been working with the locals on creating a tour for tourists of our cacao farm. We built the Rancho, and even have a traditional rock to grind the cacao on. I brought someone that knows a lot about cacao from the island to come and teach a little bit about what we should say and it went great. Next step is to define exactly what to say and put on some classes on how to present the information.
English class went well. Seven people were signed up and twenty three showed up. Not sure how that happens but I guess word spreads quickly. We went over the ABC's and Numbers and the most important thing in English “How do you say”. I also played a couple games with them. Next class will be presentations in English.
I went to Solomon's house which was where I lived before I moved into my own place, and there were no less than 25 people there. I'm pretty glad I'm not there anymore. I don't think they need that much help with the old man that is dying. It just seems like everyone wants to come visit him before he does pass away.
My boss is coming this week and I will presenting the diagnostic that I did on our business group here. The diagnostic went well and the results were as I expected which were good. Solomon should be presenting the results so hopefully I don't have to get up and try out the slang spanish I have been learning out here.
The bike grinder is not done and the NGO that is making it says next week sometime. I'm concerned because he is very busy and I have promised this to my group. If for some reason he is not able to complete it, I will get what is done hauled out here in a couple weeks and see if we can finish it. I have faith in him though and if I have to go out there again I will. Boquete is a nice place to be.
My house is great. Except for the fact that it is dead center of everything and it seems that dogs are constantly fighting under my house. I got very little sleep last night because of it. My fish pond still has fish in it but almost all the plants I planted seem to be dying. Guess I shouldn't have planted them in the dry season. For those of you still planing of visiting me, I hope you are prepared to work. I could always use a hand in English class...
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