Saturday, September 15, 2007

Wow

Okay Everyone,

So Im sorry I havent been able to update my blog since Ive been here. My time on the internet has been short in sweet. Everything here is absolutely amazing. I am living with a family that consists of my 21 year old brother, my 21 year old niece, and a mother and father. I have become very good friends with my brother and niece, I get to watch the yankee games once in a while with my father, and my mother gives me medicine everytime I clear my throat, and makes me take my raincoat whenever I leave the house. Oh ya, also yesterday she hemmed my pants after I specifically told her I liked them long. A little bit frustrating, but I know she only does it because she cares about me.

The other volunteers I am in training with are probably the best group of people I have ever been around in a group setting (no offense to anyone reading this from past schools, etc.). One of my friends was a construction foreman for habitat for humanity for a year in New Orleans (post Katrina). Another was a helirepeller fighting forest fires. There are some really amazing personalities and experiences that get more interesting the more we get to know eachother.

A taste of training
Yesterday, at 8am i taught hand washing and teeth brushing to kindergarden students in spanish. I went straight from there to build a lorena stove (lodo=mud arena=sand) which is a mud stove that uses much less firewood by trapping all the heat released and carries the smoke out a chimney rather than to the cookers face. After slopping on the layer of 50% cow shit and 50% mud dirt mix that makes it look real nice at the end (whole process took about 5 hours), I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then off to 2 hours of language of Ngabera (indigenous language training). Ti ka esteban (my name is stephen). Toro na (literally means I dont remember, but has roots in the old greeting : What did the animals tell you in your dreams last night? I dont remember was the response so that you didn´t bring some bad karma on yourself. Now, it is just used as Hello). From Ngobera training I went to to spanish language training. Yesterday was cultural day, so we learned to cook a bunch of traditional Panamanian food. We were supposed to have dance lessons, but we ran out of time. Needless to say, the days have been full. Whenever we get out from training a little bit early, I go over to el cuadro (the field) to play soccer or softball with the locals.

Last but not least, I got my site placement last week. I am in the Ngobe-Bugle Comarca, in the foothills of the mountains. I have a view of the Pacific ocean, and a 45 minute walk-ride to a beautiful beach (Las Lajas) that rarely has more the 2 or 3 people visiting. My town is more easily accessible than others, so even those not looking forward to a hike should definately come and visit. The community has about 600 people, which is fairly large, because it isn´t up in the depths of the comarca. There is a volunteer there now that is finishing just before I get there. She has constructed about 60 pit latrines over the last 2 years. My main job is to secure their water situation. Of 61 households, 14 are served by an unrealiable aquaduct, and the rest get water that is diesel pumped from a creek. The pump is breaking down and the creek dries up in the summer. I have heard that there are two more springs up above town that are pretty far away. Depending on the summer (january-march) flow from these springs, I will likely be designing and building new spring boxes and aquaducts to tap these sources. I am also really excited about building my own Lorena stove to start promoting them in town, getting knee deep in composting, teaching in the schools, getting involved in sports leagues or creating one if none exists, and building latrines for the handful of families that still are lacking. I am somewhat lucky in the fact that the people in my village do grow some vegetables in addition to root crops, bananas, and coffee (some volunteers go months eating nothing but boiled green bananas). Sorry if this has been all over the place...I dont have time to reread it, and there was a lot to cover (and I haven´t even scratched the surface). We are leaving tomorrow for a week of technical training in the comarca, mostly building composting latrines (which are pretty awesome). Then we have a week of cultural training (also in the comarca) before heading back to our latino town of Santa Clara to finish up our regular training. I will be at my site at the end of October! Gotta run!

Esteban