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 4^th 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.