!!!Feliz Navidad!!

Merry Christmas to all! After a lovely time preparing for christmas in Panama, with paper snowflakes, solar powered christmas lights and stockings, we were ready to celebrate. I taught the ladies to make stockings with traditional ngobe designs and we sold them to other volunteers. They loved the tale of the stocking, especially the part about the children who don't behave themselves and only receive lumps of coal for christmas. The day before I was headed out on a plane to celebrate Christmas at home, we had 17 stockings to finish sewing. So we had our own little Santa's workshop. They asked me to sing Christmas songs to lift their spirits up. So I sang every song that I could remember ( lots of forgotten lyrics, but it doesn't really matter, you just get to make them up). They loved hearing about the man made of snow who melted away one day in the hot sun.
Now I am home, visiting the my family in the US, for my first trip home in a year and nine months. And it feels great to be with family and friends and see the beauty of the northwest again.
Merry Christmas to all my friends and family, wherever you may be in the world!

If you want to help support in the festive spirit!

Happy Holidays. Here we are, entering into the season of giving. And we all want to give what we can and help in every way we can. Many people at home ask me how they could help the people that I work with. And now there are a few opportunities to support the people here, giving them opportunities to improve their lives.


In February of 2010, various volunteers and I in the province of Bocas del Toro will be gathering together to put on an Agro-Business Seminar to give small farmers in our region the knowledge and skills to improve their farming and marketing opportunities, in turn helping their families climb out of poverty. In order to fund resources, food and travel to bring farmers from their communities to this seminar, we will need help from friends and family members back home. If you would like to donate, click on
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=525-130

Another opportunity is to donate to a youth development conference we will be facilitating in february, focusing on self-image, sex ed, and the prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS. Last year, I participated as a facilitator and brought two teenagers from my community, Placido and Angelica. The kids still talk about their experiences, remembering all the fun games, their friends and the amazing experiences they had. Donations will help pay for the travel, accomodations and food and resources for this amazing conference this year.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail& projdesc=525-132 (If unable to view hyperlink, visit www.peacecorps.gov click on Donate Now and search by project number 525-132)

Also, if you are feeling excited about giving in a different way and sending a package to my community, we can always use kids books in spanish, or old yarn for my women's knitting group!

Another idea is to purchase a 2010 Panama Calendar

Each year, the Volunteer Action Council (VAC) in Panama creates a Panama Calendar using photos submitted by volunteers. Photos here are from the new 2010 calendar. The proceeds go to small grants awarded to volunteers and their communities for small projects.

Last year, PCPF sold 250 calendars and sent $3,000 to VAC. We want to sell 300 calendars this year.

Price is $17 per calendar, with free shipping to U.S. addresses. (Shipping to overseas addresses

is at cost.)

Please help us meet our goal of selling 300 calendars this year. Order calendars for yourself and for gifts:

1. Order On-line:

Click to Order On-line.

Use "Buy Now" button to pay by credit card

or PayPal. It's fast, free and safe!

2. Order by Mail:

Click for Calendar Order Form.

Mail completed form and check to address

on form.

Questions? Email panamacalendars@panamapcv.net or call Steve Spangler, 703-536-5457, or Jerry Lutes, 301-881-3407.

Hope you are all having festive holidays. I had a fabulous thanksgiving full of turkey, stuffing, pie and good cheer, with all the other volunteers of the country. Here we are in Cerro Punta, a community up in the mountains where we actually felt cold! It was a lovely weekend, staying in cabins, drinking coffee in the place where it was grown, wearing our jackets and pants and using my long underware for the 2nd time ever (1st time when I climbed the volcano). So refreshing. Happy thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday season.

little faces

My friend Elena, hauling bananas back to her house for supper in her chakra on her head. Even the children have strong necks.

Bijen, who always has a smile on her face when I see her
A glamour shots photo, posing with the dog. ( she has a little knit hat on her head that her mother made in my knitting class)
And now the dog is wearing the knitted hat.

Receiving light

And then there was light!
Although you can't see it well, there is a little solar panel in this thatch roof.
My wonderful little helper Rigoberto, hauling solar lights up the hill.
Today, the shipment arrived. I walked down to the main road with a possee of 3 teenage boys to help me carry up 5 boxes of 48 solar lights. The delivery truck arrived an offered to drive us up the road to the school. From there, all the little kids put the boxes into giant chakras, strapped them to their heads and we headed up the very slippery mud hill. My favorite little helper Rigoberto insisted on taking a box up the hill.

Later in the day, after the community finished their cleaning of the cemetery which happens every Day of the Dead on November 2nd, I gave a brief introduction of how solar lights work. Everyone got so excited. I had many women say they were so excited to get light to cook with in the night. They were talking amongst themselves that if their husbands didn’t want the lights, that they themselves would have to find a way to save up their money.
So we are selling them at $11 a piece, $10 for the base cost and $1 to benefit the women's chocolate group helping me sell them.
I have begun helping to install the little solar panels on the thatch roofs. And the first night after the lights charged in the blazing sun, the look of their faces beneath the light was so precious. It was amazing. Although it is not like having full on electricity, it is something, and something sustainable. Through this, the people will not have to buy kerosene which is bad for lungs and the environment or candles which are just expensive, or as many batteries for their flashlights which then get thrown into the streams and the water sources. It is a way of getting the clean development technologies into the hands of the people that need them most.
So thanks to my grandfather and my father who helped in the research and paid for the packaging the families in my community have a little bit more light in their lives.

A very Happy 25th birthday to me!

I had a fabulous birthday party in my community, complete with popcorn, cake, lemonade, a soup with squash from my garden and my duck that we killed off my deck, pin the tail on the pig and a piñata. About 60 guests arrived, counting all the children. Thanks to my dear friends Andi, Janell, Jake, Rebecca and my brother Ben for joining me and helping so much in this extravaganza. It was quite outrageous, but a good time. It was wonderful because almost all the people who are most important to me in my community arrived to help me celebrate. So thank you to all my family and friends and my community. I love you all. I couldn’t ask for a better birthday celebration at half a century old.

Teaching english beside the coffin

There are many birth and death rites in ngobe culture. The Mago bird caws all night long from the cemetery the night before a death. After a death, no one can eat salt, unless the curendero blows on the salt.Saturday evening I attended a funeral for an elderly man in my community. The family stays up all night long every night from the night of the death until the night of the burial, somewhere in between 1 and 2 weeks. It is told that after a death, the spirit wanders the areas that he always passed in life and washes his hands in any buckets of water left out. So each house hold empties all buckets of water for 5 days after the death. You can imagine the fear I had when my neighbor told me I had to empty out all my water ( I have no running water in my house, only a 55 gallon tank of collected rainwater that I use for showering, drinking and cooking). To my relief since that is a covered tank, it is an exception.
After many nights of wake, the celebration was filled with over 200 people, staying up all night long, staving off tiredness, drinking coffee and eating bread every few hours, holding out for the rice and chicken to be served at 5:00am. There was a domino tournament held between 7 different communities attending the funeral. People came from all over to see this man off. He worked for the banana company in his younger days and many of his fellow workers attended. I spent the evening chit chatting in Spanish and ngobere with many friends from the community as well with many that I was meeting for the first time. Many older folks were so curious about the white girl speaking ngobe at the funeral, that they came to talk to me. And I suddenly found myself teaching an intro English class to an elderly ngobe crowd, at 11:30pm, on the back of an empty candle box, five feet away from the coffin. The lesson started with just one old man and within five minutes grew to ten students. And although it only lasted a short while, it was by far the most strange class I will ever teach in my life.
At 1:30am, I participated in a checkers match, with new rules, better than those we play in the US. My favorite little old man brought his own hammock and hung it under the house and fell asleep at 9:30 in the middle of the celebration. I went home to sleep for a while and came back in the morning. The funeral continued. I was the chosen photographer for the event and the telling moment came when I was told that they were going to open the coffin and that I would take a photo. At that point I realized that I would have to see the face of this dead man. I took the photo and they closed up the box and tied it to two branches to haul it to the cemetery, shooing away the chickens. The entire funeral party then walked in a line to the cemetery where all the older men in the community took turns shoveling dirt over the coffin of their dear friend. May he rest in peace.

Ngobeland

Yes, I let my neighbors comb my hair

A peaceful scene from the community of Laguna, where I recently visited to help teach how to build a mud oven.

Naguas, the traditional dress of the Ngobe women. Every woman wears her colors brightly and proudly in the Ngobe reservation. On my side of the country, the tradition has not held as strong, but here, all you see is beautiful colors and designs.

Here we are, in Laguna after constructing a fabulous mud oven. The whole family is looking forward to baking bread for the first time ever in their new creation!

The ferocious tale of Chino Rojos

So we are all familiar with the story of Hansel and Gretel and the witch who eats children in her oven as she attracts them with her candy house. Well, not all of us. Here, no one is familiar with this person-eating witch. Instead of a haunted witch who lives deep in the woods, here there are Chino Rojos, translated to Red Chinese (Communist or Sunburned?). The Chino Rojos live under the sea and eat Ngobe people, of all ages, no one is safe from the danger (can you imagine them under this caribbean ocean?). They like the flavor of Ngobes because they have strong blood since they eat mostly organic food from their farms and rarely eat greasy fried things. I have been told various stories, many told with real fear, in which these Chino Rojos live under the ocean in glass houses or wooden houses on stilts, or some in submarines. In one very detailed story I was recently told, there is a city the size of the regional capital Changuinola of Chino Rojos that live in the Chiriqui Grande Bay. They have figured out everything, from hooking up electricity to growing bananas under the water. The story goes that there was a Latino man who contracted Ngobes to cut and carry wood for him from their farms. The Latino had all the wood taken down to the water and loaded into a boat, but no one ever knew where the wood disappeared to. They would watch it go out into the bay and in a blink of an eye it would be gone. A few ngobes went missing, those who had been carrying wood for the Latino man. One very curious wood carrier cornered the Latino and asked him where he took all the wood. The man told him that if he could keep a secret, he could see.
Later that evening, the Ngobe hid himself in the boat and they left the dock. They went out into the bay and suddenly submerged under, and there before him lay a city full of lights. The Latino took the boatful of wood to the Chino Rojo who was the main house constructor of the city. As they were taking the wood out of the boat, the chino rojo caught site of the Ngobe hidden there and immediately demanded how much the Latino was charging because he was very hungry. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Chino Rojos are millionaires and buy ngobes to eat. The Latino told him that this ngobe was not for sale, but the Chino Rojo lunged with hunger to grab the ngobe. The ngobe took one of the boards and swung, wiping out the Chino Rojo and the Latino in one fell swoop. In that moment of distraction he escaped, swimming frantically home. The latino escaped too, and picked the ngobe up and took him back to shore on the boat, pleading with him never to say a word about what he saw. But when the Ngobe returned home, he reported the latino to the local authorities and the man was condemded to life in Prison on Coiba, an island off the Pacific shore that was used as a prison until a few years back.

It turns out that this story may have originated from a submarine spotting in the mouth of the Krikamola river in the 1940s. All cultures have stories, and all stories have origins.

So I asked if I eat the same things that the Ngobes eat, will the Chino Rojos eat me too? The answer is yes.

Celebration of papas

Fathers’ day 2009 was a rockin party. About 70 people attended my neighbor’s gathering, from little babies to old grandmothers and grandfathers. They cooked up a storm on the open fires and gave the fathers a huge meal of thanks. The celebration started at 5:30, the women cooking breakfast of bread and fish for all the fathers and continuing on to lunch. The biggest bowls they could find (anything from large tupperwares to small buckets) were overflowing with boiled green bananas, chicken, rice, spagetti, and even a little bit of cabbage and carrot salad, and the biggest cups they could find (mostly pitchers) filled to the brim with juice made from cornflakes and powdered milk ( the father’s day specialty). I held down the kids station with cards and books to read. Everyone was there to enjoy themselves. It was a fabulous day to spend together as family with the dads in the spotlight. So Happy fathers day to all the dads in my community and to my dad!

half way and thinking

I have now been in my community for one year. It is quite a feeling. Of accomplishment, of disbelief of how the time moved so fast, of fear of how fast the time will move, of appreciation, of thought on how effective and sustainable my work here is and so on.
This experience is incredible, and although challenging every day, it is amazing and I am very happy and would never change my decision to come here for anything in the world.

There are many ways of measuring success. After a year here, I pause and think whether me being here is successful, otherwise, is there good coming of my time here? For my community and for me? And my answer is yes, although there is still much room for more good to come of my time here. I see success in so many different ways. After one year, I can carry a decent conversation in the local language of ngabere, I can make the string from the pita plant to make the traditional artisan bag Kra, or sew the traditional nagua dress. I can carry a Kra on my head full of anything from cacao pods, to rocks to a propane tank, up incredibly steep hills. The men and women I work with now feel comfortable enough to have meaningful conversations with me about anything from love and relationships, to family planning and so on. We are in the middle of building 22 fish tanks to increase family protein consumption. Families have recently gifted me squash and tomatoes that we have planted telling me that they are thankful that for the first time, their children will learn what these vegetables are.
I enjoy drinking watered down and sugared up coffee, and eating boiled green bananas. I can swiftly kill a scorpian hiding behind a Tupperware and literally said “ hey look there’s a tarantula on my porch” and watched it crawl by. I am trying to work hard, find the innovators that will carry this work forward into the future, make these projects sustainable. In my time here I have experiment in my garden, with my house, with all sorts of things, making rain collection showering systems, making my own bricks from clay (since you can’t buy bricks here). I have been fortunate to travel around the country and see other volunteer’s sites, helping with HIV AIDS education programs, nutrition seminars and cacao improvement training projects. I get to sit on my porch and enjoy the view and more importantly am enjoying myself in this process, through all it’s challenges and rewards.

These are many accomplishments, and through these there have been just as many failures, but little by little, we are making it.

A little rest at the beach

The real sandman

I live in a beautiful humble abode. A house made by the hands of my community members. Up on stilts, made of wood that we cut from my neighbor's farm, with a thatch roof from another neighbor's farm. It is beautiful and I have a beautiful view of the caribbean ocean. I love it. But it sways when I walk and a lot of dust falls from the roof inside of my house. So much, that if I don't sweep everyday, all of my things are covered in a thin coating of very fine sawdust. One day, I asked Fernando (an incredibly motivated and hardworking community partner, definately one of the most forward thinking in the community) if this was a normal quantity of dust to be falling from the rafters each day. He told me that it was an exceptional quantity, not normal. And I asked why. He told me that little bugs were eating the roof away but that it wouldn't harm the roof itself. And I asked why. He told me that it was maybe because we cut the thatch in a new moon, but more likely it was because I gave food to a man inside my house before it was finished, whose wife was pregnant at the time. And he said, " I don't know how the bugs know, but they know when a man whose wife is pregnant ate inside the house before it was finished". We thought back, and identified the man whose wife was pregnant at the time, who ate inside my house before it was finished, while he was working on my house. So I asked how I could solve the problem. Fernando told me that I had to find a man whose wife is pregnant, and have him throw sand on top of my roof. So I have high hopes that this real sandman will help lift the fine coating of dust falling over my head while I am dreaming, and that I don't wake up with too much sand in my sheets!

What I can see from my window

Here are a few pictures from my windows of my house, of my wonderful neighbors. Everyday is a different scene, always interesting.







My life is moving along rapidly. I have lived in my community for almost one year and I can say that I am happy here. It is always challenging, but also always fun and an incredible experience. I recently went on a little adventure to collect a certain leaf that people eat cooked with coconut milk. They call it Sega. So I set out with my three neighbor kids on our adventure as they showed me all sorts of wild fruits and leaves that you can eat. Little did I know that I would soon be up to the middle of my thighs in mud, almost losing my boots and my balance. I was laughing and yelping as I almost fell over, but they told me that when you harvest these leaves, you have to be very quiet, because if you talk to much or too loud, the leaves taste bitter. Also, if your mother is scolding you and you talk back, the leaves will taste bitter, but if you tell her "okay mom, I will try harder next time" the leaves taste sweet as can be. We had a fabulous time tromping in the mud, trying to catch crabs and little fish in the meanwhile. And we cooked the leaves up that night with coconut and it seems like we did a good job, because they turned out soooo sweet and delicious.

A few scenes from my life

A few drops of the large amount of rain we receive here
my neighbor in a breadfruit tree outside my house
Me in Panama city near the canal

Photos thanks to Jake Moriarty, since my camera broke in October!

Time to head to the polls

People are waiting in lines blocks long, for hours on end, to get their identification cards so they can vote in the upcoming election. A new president will be elected next Sunday. Meanwhile, until Sunday, the country stands in almost a standstill anticipating the results. But as the people in the rural countryside have known for quite some time, their lives will continue on the same without too much variation as the political parties rotate through.
Much of what politics in the campo amounts to here is how much food a politician brings to a community when they give their campaign speeches. And so we continue working here in the campo, with a little more food in the belly.

My humble abode

I live in a beautiful little wooden house on stilts with a thatch roof, up on a hill overlooking the Bocas del Toro Islands and the Caribbean ocean. It might be the coolest house I ever own. We built it from the base up, cut down the trees (don’t worry, we are planting more) and constructed it with the help of my community members. I now continue to build things for my house; shelves, a bathroom and shower, rain collection system, table, benches, dish rack, etc. It sometimes feels like paradise, that is until a child starts screaming in the house 7 feet away at 3am, or a funeral procession passes under my house, or whatever other event takes place. But the message is, that I have a wonderful little home to live in and for visitors to come stay in. So to all my friends and family, come visit whenever you like, just give me an email heads up for when you might come hang out in this new humble abode!

Water is the source of life

The last few weeks, I have been supporting an extended part of my community to fight for their right to clean water. Over the last three years, they have been working with the Ministry of Health to receive a new aqueduct with the capability to provide clean water to all houses. Due to a disagreement with another nearby community, the Ministry of Health postponed the aqueduct project, threatening to give the resources away to another community. In a meeting this morning, the two communities fought for their rights. It was quite moving. The children of the school walked out in their little uniforms holding signs, making their own silent protest.

“ El agua es la fuente de vida, sin ella no podemos vivir”
“ Water is the source of life, without it, we cannot live”

“Necesitamos agua para limpiar nuestra escuela”
“We need water to clean our school”

“Podemos vivir sin luz, pero sin agua no podemos vivir. Tenemos derecho a vivir y a agua limpia”
We can live without electricity, but without water, we cannot live. We have a right to live and to have clean water.

They all looked up with eyes so big. And it is true. We cannot live without water. Without clean water, we cannot live fully. Without a clean source of water, the people collect water from nearby streams, the same streams that others use as a latrine. More directly said, people shit in the same streams which they drink out of. Through this form, stomach parasites including worms and amoebas are passed on. I have consistently had diarrea since February. And when you are in this state, you can’t work fully, you feel drained. And I even have had access to outside medicine. The case is much worse for those who cannot afford to leave the community to buy medicine, the majority.
The necessity of clean water made the answer so clear. But still, 3 hours of fighting and arguing followed in the meeting. Unfortunately, Ngobes maintain their original strength that allowed them to prevail over other local tribes, winning wars and outnumbering the others, the response to fight, to defend, even when unnecessary. But as is often the truth, a strength may rapidly change to a vice. But after incessant arguments and various political roundabouts, both communities will receive a new aqueduct, and the people will have water, hopefully allowing them to work harder and to advance.

The Chickens are coming!! The chickens are coming!!!!

I have spent the last week and a half spreading this propaganda, like the little chicken telling all the world “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!”. As of April 1st, a truck full of 1,100 little chicks were scheduled to arrive in my community for my group of 22 farmers that I am working with, sent by the Ministry of Agriculture. We have been working with the Ministry of Agriculture’s program which gives resources to rural farmers to plant gardens, raise fish, chickens, goats and so on. It has gone incredibly well so far, with the cooperation of the Ministry and all the hard work of the farmers in my community.
Last Wednesday, the chickens were scheduled to arrive. I ran around the day before reminding everyone that they needed to have their chicken coops ready with dry sawdust and everything. Wednesday came and no chickens. They all died in the truck bringing them from the other side of the country in the hot Panamanian sun. So we were told that Monday would be the day. Friday morning, while a I was happily sitting on my porch building a shelf for my house and helping a little neighbor girl make a pair of earrings out of seeds she collected, I got a phone call. “ The chickens are coming today, at noon!” It was 10am. I had 2 hours to inform 22 farmers that the chickens were going to arrive and that they all needed to be present to receive them. That act might be easier if everyone had phones or lived closeby, but many live between half hour and forty five minute walk away. It was a daunting task to complete. I sent out messengers, used all my phone minutes to call those who have cell phones, and ran around like a chicken with my head cut off yelling that the sky is falling. Or that is how I felt. At 11:30am, I had informed 21 out of 22 farmers and was 2 minutes away from arriving at the last house, which lies down a very steep hill, when my phone rang. “The chickens aren’t coming!!” “Oh damn! But all the farmers are already coming!” So I ran in reverse, retracting my propaganda.

So we prepared ourselves for the following Wednesday. Everyone was ready, so excited for the pollitos. We even played a game where everyone had to pretend they were little chickens. And then I got a phone call. “Kati, the chickens aren’t coming today. Only 300 arrived and we want to bring them all together”. So I had to break the sad news that “the chickens aren’t coming”. The rain rolled in and everyone looked a little more glum. I told them that I was sad and frustrated and they told me “ Don’t worry Kati, there’s nothing we can do and now we have to time to prepare better for the arrival of all the little chickens! Lets play another game.”

Life as it was in February

Overall, I feel calm, happy, relaxed, content and excited. As I rode along in the little bus today on my way back to my community after a agency meeting, listening to the radio, Panamanian version of yodeling combined with guitar and accordion, swerving down the road, just missing people, bikers, landslides, fallen trees, anteaters, and anything else in the path, I thought to myself how happy I am. I wouldn´t change my decision to come here and have these experiences for anything in the world.
But that is overall.
There are times when I miss home, when I am frustrated, when I am overwhelmed at how hard this is, but that is part of the joy and reward of it all. There are happy times and really hard times.
I have spent my month helping my womens group with organizational and leadership skills, leading a teen youth camp on self confidence, personal development, and sex, HIV and AIDS education. I took 2 teens from my community to the other side of the country for this seminar, kids who had never traveled further than the small town half an hour away from the community. The seminar was held in a beautiful place. When we arrived, we walked the grounds looking at the gardens and the lovely pond, complete with ducks. Upon seeing these duck, the boy traveling with me told me he would like to bring his slingshot to shoot the ducks to eat. I taught the girl to use a flush toilet and helped them have a fabulous time away from home. At the end, neither one wanted to leave and go back home.
Other days I spent working with 17 farmers leading them in constructing their own home gardens and planting rice and corn. I somehow got 17 grown ngabe men to participate playing a few games, giggling like children. Sometimes though, I feel really underqualified when these 17 farmers who have been farming all their lives turn to me and say "Kati, what do we do now?". But we are learning together, making our way. Everyone now has tomatoes, ´peppers, cucumbers, squash and beans growing in their gardens which they look forward to harvesting and eating with their families.
I walk around my community and twirl kids around, humor my neighbors when they tell me silly tales, laughing up a storm. The other day they told me about the Red Chinese that live in glass houses under the sea that eat people of the ngabe race ( I think this corresponds to a historic tale of a submarine appearing in the mouth of a really large river sometime in the 1940s). They asked me if I would fight a red chinese if they came chasing after me. I told them i would be too scared and would just have to run and hide in the bushes. They told me they would join me. They then, and now every day since, have asked me to give the example of how I would run hysterically into the bushes. And I humor them, running hysterically into the bushes.
I am learning so much here. My most recent lessons have been in Ngabe culture. My new neighbors practice a traditional religion called Mama Tata. Cacao is a crucial part of this religion. Whenever needed, my neighbors ask the local shaman to grant the right to have a 4 day celebration . They drink cacao (Hot chocolate, but without milk or sugar, just dark) from a big pot in the center of the room with a gourd cup, from 7pm till 12pm for 4 days straight. They put up special plants as an entrance to the house and burn termite nests to fend off bad spirits and wish for good health.
But unfortunately, good health isnt always to be found. Most children here are malnourished, not starving, just not getting enough of the right nutrients that growing kids need. Sunday, a man asked to borrow my hand grinder to grind up some food for his sick daughter. He then asked me to give him money to buy vitamins for his daughter. But everyone here asks me for money, or salt, or sugar, or whatever they come up with. And I just can{t always hadn out things, because it isnt sustainable and will not help them into the future. It doesnt change anything, it is only a temporary remedy and often times the money is just wasted anyways. So I lent him my grinder and we compromised on me visiting on thursday to see what kind of sickness she had. She died on tuesday, at age 2 of malnutrition. All I could do on thursday was console a crying devestated dad who has now lost three children to malnutrition. It was too late to ask for help, but that doesnt mean that I didnt cry too.
These are the hardest things I will ever face. I almost feel like I am being unfair sharing these sad stories, since it breaks my heart, but it has to be known that it isnt all pink clouds and candy gum drops here. Oh what those kids would do for gum drops to be falling from the sky.Oh but their poor little rotting teeth.
Little by little here, working for the future.

Development at its finest

We all imagine how the things we donate to humanity change lives. And yes, they change lives, sometimes in ways we can never imagine. So my parents were so incredibly kind and brought down so many things to help my community. Thanks to Callie for the new books, small children come over to my house all the time and sit on my porch and read, some are just starting to learn. My favorite are the two little girls who no matter how hard I try to explain it, they always ask why the dogs in the book "Big Dog, Little Dog" walk on two legs and wear T shirts and drive cars and tell me that the ones here just walk on 4 legs. The concept of "an imagination world" is a little hard. Thanks to all the nurses and doctors in the Emergency room at Island Hospital, my community now has two copies of a medical book called "Where there is no doctor" to use as reference when people get sick and don't have enough money to leave the community to see a doctor. And there are now some medical supplies available. And thanks to those who donated the toothbrushes and floss. 50 kids came to a little health presentation that my mom and I gave and learned about general health care (hand washing, diarrea, fevers and toothcare). Due to increased amounts of sugar in the diet, there are a lot of little rotting teeth in the mouths of these kids here. At least that is my theory. Another wise elder in the community says that it must be the sugar and the change in diet from good foods from the farm to processed foods (sound familiar?) but is also caused by the lack of tooth care. And when they say tooth care, they mean that when you loose a tooth, you must wrap it up in a special leaf of a special tree and dig it in a little whole at the roots, so that your teeth and the tree will grow strong (for those of you who have read Life of PI, it might bring to mind some images). This of course led to me telling the story of the tooth fairy which they thought was absolutely absurd! After the presentation, each child went home with their toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss, so proud and excited. And sending these children off, I imagined all the great uses they might find for floss, like fishing, or tying sticks together, hoping that maybe some of them would try it out to the benefit of their little teeth. Two days later, I was visiting a house and a little kid came running up to me, so excited to see me, shouting my name, with the biggest grin on his face, showing all those little rotten teeth, and around his neck, he had created the most fabulous medallion from the neon green floss box. He had creatively used all the floss except the last two feet in those first two days and with the remaining piece, he created a necklace of champions, tied nicely around his neck. So we brought joy into their lives and maybe a little bit of improvement to their health. Little by little the word is. A young man just told me a nice little saying for that. Poco a poco, una vieja gacha come un coco, meaning, little by little an old woman with no teeth can eat a coconut.

Welcome to the new year

Happy Holidays to all of my friends and family. I hope that you all enjoyed the season thoroughly. I had a great holiday season filled with visits from family, new experiences with the community and just a good amount of cheer!

My parents came down and visited me for a few weeks. My dad was here to celebrate christmas and we had a fabulous time. We celebrated with the dearest family here, the family of the woman in charge of the women´s artisan group. We made delicious traditional food. All day Christmas eve, we prepared tamales and wrapped them up in banana leaves and cooked them on the fire. In Panama, you stay up until midnight on christmas eve to bring in christmas day. I was in charge of the desserts for this grand family celebration ( and when I say grand, I mean that probably a total of 40 people ate at this festivity). I made cake and pie and tiny cinnimon rolls which were a great hit. The family that we celebrated with is very fortunate in the community and had saved up all year and bought a generator for christmas, so they could have light for the celebration. So I had electricity for the night! We even got to decorate a small fake christmas tree and put some lights on it, but only here would you have to worry about scorpìons stinging you while putting up the christmas tree! Christmas day we made a big traditional soup called rondon with fish smoked over the fire and all sorts of lovely root vegetables and other wild veggies. And from there, my dad and I walked from house to house, handing out those little candy canes to all the little children. I think we may have confused the kids, seeing to that my dad has a white beard and was handing out candy canes on christmas day. But the truth is, Santa is not a tradition from here and not too many kids are aware of his presence in the world. We were very fortunate to celebrate christmas with such abundance, as there is a lack of food in the community after the storm and not every family was as lucky to get to make a special meal for the occation. But most found enough spare change to have a drink (asi es la vida).
The holidays were a time that passed quickly but really enjoyably, with all these amazing new experiences. But I missed you all, all my friends and family and the snow. It is quite hard to even comprehend snow, but yes, if I think really hard in my mind, I can maybe start to see a flake or two.