Hearts in Every Sense of the Word

I thought about writing a really descriptive dramatic post but I'm going to save you the drama and just lay it down. So my neighbors are back. If you have been reading any of my other posts you will know about the history of Clari. In short, she lost a baby last year when she was going into labor and the doctor was too busy with another patient. It is common here. So then about 3 months ago Clari starts getting bloated and her lungs fill up with fluid and she can barely walk or sleep. Well, after months of trying to figure out what the hell is going on with her via the Floating Doctors, it has all come to light pretty much today. It seems that she must have gotten an internal infection as a kid and it is now causing heart failure. It seems that she needs heart valve replacements. So there is that. We found that out today and she goes to David again sometime this week hopefully to take a bunch of tests and make sure that is what it is.

So, last night was Clari's first night back along with the rest of her family and I walk in to say hi and all that and I start talking with them about random things and notice that there is this random little girl sitting quietly watching TV. I've never seen her before. Come to find out, about a month ago, Clari's uncle had gotten drunk, fallen off a balcony and died leaving his kids behind. The mother abandoned the family years ago. So the kids got split up between the family members and Clari and Beli got the little girl they always wanted in Jovana. Here is the part that I was going to make dramatic; she is an adorable 6 year old and is constantly smiling. She is sweet, soft spoken and doesn't seem to affected one bit by the fact that her mom abandoned her, her dad just died, and she was forced away from her brothers and sisters to live with a new family. I've never seen anything like it and it really does warm my heart knowing that there are some of us that are able to keep giving love in this world even though it has done everything but give love to them. Of course its going to be hard for Beli and Clari to take care of the 3 kids now especially when Clari will need to go to the doctor and all that, but she is in good hands or least better hands than most other families in the community.

Jobs

I've been offered two jobs in the last week for some odd reason. Good ones too. I guess good work does not go unnoticed and the fact that my service has been so successful thus far is really showing I'm a valuable asset. I still have 7 months here and I don't plan on leaving early. There is just too much I want to do here and I really do believe that more small push in the right direction can get the artisan group to a new level of income.

Cacao

I now get someone asking me for cacao or our products to be shipped to the states about once a month. Some of these people read the articles I've put together or have done the tour. It is crazy. Of course the group is not ready to handle anything like that at this point and probably wont be for some time, but it is interesting and has got me thinking about the possibilities of bringing the chocolate products into the states when I'm done here. It would give me a chance to continue to help the community as well as maybe provide myself enough income to not be poor anymore.

Engineers

One of the tech people that will be part of the Engineers Without Borders group that will be coming here later in the year came to do a preliminary diagnostic on the river to see if it would be good for hydro electric. Alex was his name and he was great. The people from the artisan group showed up in good fashion too and there were about 5 of us that went all up and down the river looking at different locations. My favorite part was when I had to do depth calculations in the river in my clothes. Alex also looked at the spots we would like to build the office, restaurant, and the grinder room and we talked about what we could do to fix the water system here. Unfortunately we discovered that the river would not be a good place to do the hyrdo system as it has rocky cliffs, swells up to more than 30 times its size sometimes, and is a little far from the artisan house. So its back to solar power for our power needs. I was able to get a quote for a solar system that was reasonable and it looks like we would have enough money for it too. Another big problem that we ran into is that the person that was supposed to build the grinder has apparently skipped town and isn't coming back. I found that out after I got the door slammed on my face when I went to his house. I don't think the rest of the family is too excited about his departure.

My Health and Other Stuff

I haven't been sick with water born illnesses in awhile and its nice. I am pretty tired most times but that is normal for me when its a billion degrees outside.

I have started teaching English solely on the computer with Rosetta Stone and the students love it. We used the funds we got from the chocolate fund raiser in Boquete to buy the solar panel and all that and now we have it all set up. I have to pull them off of the computer sometimes because they just want to keep going on it. They now know how to start the computer and the program too so pretty soon they will be able to do it themselves. Good stuff.

My heart has been acting up. I'm not sure why but I've had a little bit of chest pain and sometimes trouble sleeping because of it. I can't even touch coffee right now and when I do it feels like my heart is going to blow out of my chest. I'm coming to the reality that I will have to have another surgery and that I might have to get it checked out while I'm here. I've been waiting on this just in case the Peace Corps wants to kick me out because of it. If I have to get another surgery or there is any concern they would send me home for sure to get it done and I'm sure I would not be allowed to come back. I still have too much work to be done here so I'm going to wait on that until I'm positive that things are going as good as they can go here.

I'm helping the Mirna in my community put together her presentation for the Women of Chocolate conference in Guatemala still. I got all the wording down good and it pretty much just needs the slides to be put together. She still doesn't understand the information or how the slides work but I'm sick of explaining the same thing 10 times. I told her to practice and get back to me.

I don't know if I mentioned this before but I met a lady in my community that lost half of her children to sickness. Half. She started with 10 and has five now. She laughed and said they were “gifted back” to the sky. She is a pretty happy lady and the only one in my community with a gold tooth. I spent an evening once playing dominoes with her kids while it was pouring down rain. Can you imagine someone in the states loosing half of their kids and joking about it or even being able to function. It sometimes amazes me how much emotional strength these people have. There is something to be said that they have no choice so being tough mentally is a coping mechanism. But still....  

Pifa Spikes and Dragon Tattoos

I've been in site for almost a month straight now and it's not as easy as it sounds let me tell you. Of course nothing is easy when you live in the jungle. Speaking of jungle the government has decided to extend our road to the next community which is about an 40 min hike from here. That's actually part of the reason that it has been so crummy these last couple weeks. Well that and I made a fried hotdog sandwich after not eating meat for two weeks and nearly threw it up shortly after. Back to the road. The noise is ridiculous and the tractors don't seem to be trying to save any of the forest that's for sure. It is just non stop noise and that combined with the recent heat and being sick is really trying my nerves. I also fell and put my entire hand into a Pifa tree which is the tree with all the spikes coming out of it. So I've been pulling barbs out of my hand for the last three days and dousing my hand in alcohol. One of the barbs went so deep I'm pretty sure it was half way through my hand. 

On top of all that I decided to read the book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which is a good book but not the best pick me up book that's for sure.

So the good stuff: Well, I've had the chance to go to more meeting here which is always good. I've also been able to give english classes every day and have started helping the artisan women with her power point presentation. In other news, when I decided to give the spine tree a high five a local medicine man put a mixture of medicinal plants and boa constrictor fat on my hand and I swear to god that it smelled felt and looked exactly like Icy Hot. Pretty crazy. I guess now we know what plant it comes from. The road is also a good thing too even though its tearing down some jungle. People up that way will be able to bring their cacao to market easier and the older people that live up that way will have easier access to the road and to the hospital. So not everything is bad. I'm also getting pretty excited to spend the weekend surfing on the island. Or I hope to at least. I know that it is going to be crazy out there this weekend as it the beginning of Carnival.

Other noteworthy stuff: I shaved all my hair off and took a razor to my face for the 4^th time in my life. I had to. It is too damn hot down here. I'm looking forward to the Twins plus Sonja to come visit me next month and I'm secretly planning a trip to Jamaica that is not a secret anymore I guess. I think that will happen in May. Until the next time. Peace.  

Trapped

It has been a trying past 10 days to say the least. The weather has been unhinged in a constant battle between blasting rays of sunlight and fierce unrelenting downpours that seem to come from nowhere, for 4 of those days I had a bout of Giardia that left me more than hopeless as I spent my days either clenching my stomach rolled up in a ball on my wood floor or running to the latrine to relieve what seemed to be my burning intestines, and Clari, my neighbor with the heart condition couldn't make her appointment and still has trouble breathing. This seems like a lot of stuff going on. That's because it is. But all of these things were suddenly made much worse by strikes and protests going on. Without getting into too much detail or taking sides, the natives here are protesting the governments decision to put a huge mine and hydroelectric dam on their land which would have large ecological effects. So to protest this the natives here, which make up a quarter million people, blocked all the roads going pretty much anywhere using trees, tires, and whatever else they could put.

This was all made worse when the government decided to use riot police and bulldozers, and then shut off cell phone signal instead of sitting down and talking with the locals. This led to nation wide protests as dead bodies were then posted on the internet which then led to the government sitting down with them today. What is still going on here is the blockage of all roads which has left our tour and all chocolate sales crippled as well as trying to get anywhere. There have been people stuck on Bocas island for almost two weeks now (I would have swam home by then), and there is no more power or gasonline in Almirante or Bocas island which makes it hard to use a motorized boat to back and forth.

In the meantime, I got extremely sick and Clari missed her appointment because everything was blocked.

Staying in site for extended periods of time is something I usually do not do. For the most part I try to get to at least Almirante once a week to buy what I call vegetables and the locals call small trees that don't taste good. All this time in site has enabled me to attend more meetings and give my english classes every day. I've also started to work with Mirna for her power point presentation which is as ridiculous as I thought it would be. My favorite parts of the time with her are the times that I ask a question about something that should be an easy answer and she stares at me and says “how am I supposed to know that”? Most of this is because from a very young age here the people are taught in the schools that imagination, creativity, and critical thinking aren't important. Most of this is done by lazy teachers who like to teach class by writing something on the board and telling the kids to copy it. I can't tell you (its because I don't remember) how many times I've had to yell at people to pay to attention to what the hell I was saying instead of trying to copy every syllable of every word I put on the board. Hence the surprised blank stares when I ask someone to think in a different way and the terribly mundane artisan goods we have here.

Mirna is going to need more than a lot of work to get to the point where she is going to feel comfortable presenting in front of a bunch of strangers. Especially using a computer, which she has only seen a couple times and never used up until this point. She also has been charged with the duty of bringing back all the information she learns from the other chocolate producing ladies in the other countries that she goes to which will either be as easy as copying their power point presentations or as hard as copying their power point presentations. In either case it will be a great experience and she is learning a lot.

As for my English students, much progress has been seen. Especially in Lenny, the gay outcast of community who has made more improvement than I though possible. I really thought he would drop out as I have been tough on all of my 2 students about studying and regularly scold them for not doing so. Lately I've been trying more carrots than sticks. I really thought that there was no way this kid was ever going to be a guide. I've changed my mind. Ceni who is Samuel's daughter has a great base for English as she took a year of it in school but she misses a lot of classes. And then there are the random people that show up to class that heard from someone else that I was giving English class. They usually last one day after they realize that we are past the basics. I usually give them a lot of homework to see how serious they are about studying and they usually don't come back.

I've actually found that to be a good strategy down here. To make things just a little hard that is. I've found that you can gauge how serious is about a project or learning something or even doing a basic task by challenging them just a little. Many people here were asking me about water tanks for their house and after I told them they could make their own for only $40 (which they have) how many people showed up to the workshop I put on. One. And he showed up almost every day to do the work and to learn. I don't have people asking me anymore.

Other news: I looked in the mirror the other day and realized that being sick for 4 days and not shaving for 2 weeks is a good way to save money on a Halloween mask. I looked haggard to say the least and my protruding amebic belly didn't make me look any better. Now that I've had a solid bowel movement I'm starting to get back to normal. I also shaved and started doing pull ups every day. It is amazing how different someone can look when they loose a little bit of weight from their face.

The Engineers Without Boarders Panama Chapter is now planning on sending a specialist to take a look at our hdro electric possibilities and possibly bring a generator and some community water filters. If they can deliver on half of what we are talking about then we would be in great shape. The idea for the generator is to provide enough power for now to possibly get the machine and start using while we figure out a long term solution.

This month I have promised myself to start surfing again in the island, not go to Panama City, and not get sick again. We shall see....

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...

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....     

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.  

New Song: Up All Night

Pretty sure you guys will like this new song. Well if you have any music sense that is. Share this one as I think others will like it too. You can also download this one too.
Up All Night by californiaadam