Holidays

I´m learning more about my community and the neighboring communities - my ´work´ has mainly consisted of this. There is a national legal framework that requires a local Water Committee for rural water systems, for maintanence and fee collection. But in my community there is not much willingness to do the work. My job is to work with the Water Committee to enhance the water system, but my job is quite difficult when there is no Committee. So this is essentially my first task, generating interest and motivation to improve the community´s water.

Christmas here was celebrated more by family togetherness, and gifts are all but nonexistent. However, during the night some men tend to drink far too much, either ´chicha fuerte´ (a homemade corn alcohol) or the cheapest bottled liquor, an unfortunate practice in such a beautiful community. On C. Eve, my host family has the tradition of staying up until midnight and then having a special meal, which is the only celebratory expense for their holidays. They enjoy Christmas and are grateful for what they have.

My Home

I moved into site two weeks ago and now officially reside in the Corregimiento Tulú in the Province of Coclé, Republica de Panamá. The previous ten weeks had been spent training with the forty other new volunteers of Peace Corps-Panama Group 60, which basically consisted of four hours of spanish and four hours of technical training each day. The tech training was specific to my program, Environmental Health, which relates to the environmental factors that affect public health, namely water and sanitation. Twenty of the new volunteers are part of this program, the twenty others focus on cooperatives. A lot was review for me, of hydraulics and hydrology, having an engineering background (about 10 of the 20 in my group have eng. degrees, the others have construction or public health experience).

We were sworn in at the end of October by the USA Ambassador to Panama, and receive a mixed version of diplomatic status by the Panamanian Government, though our visas remain Touristic.

My site is a community of roughly 50 houses, 300 people, scattered throughout an area of forests and mountains. It is currently accessible only via a one-hour hike from the nearest road, though there are plans to convert the hiking path into a road (though plans have a tendency to carry very little significance). The community has two aqueducts providing water to the community from natural springs at a nearby peak. The larger system is faulty, and many houses go days without water even in the rainy season. The systems use no form of treatment (I found a visible worm in my water, from the system, the other day), though I treat my own water with chlorine. On a recent hike up to the spring I found a good-sized crab, caught it, and ate it in soup for lunch. Additionally, there are neighboring communities which have no form of aqueduct and carry their water from streams.

My main goals are broadly to improve the water system in my community, perhaps try to introduce some form of treatment, and assist the neighboring communities acquire aqueducts. For right now, Im working to determine exactly what I should work on and with whom. I spend my days washing my clothes; eating rice, yucca, corn, and eggs (all deliciously prepared); and wandering around the community getting to know people and the place.

Its very relaxed, even when working in the fields to harvest rice by hand, and Im feeling like everything is fitting me quite well.