Rain

With my house done things are very tranquilo. Slow paced but moving forward.

My community had a $250K road project financed last year, connecting us to a paved road. This would be great, because electricity could then arrive to the community, as well. Students could attend school more easily, pregnant woman and injured people would not need to be carried in hammocks for the 3.5km to where the public transportation currently arrives. Products, namely corn, could be transported quickly and easily. People could conveniently come and go from places where there are jobs. It is overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development . . . it was very generous of everyone, but unfortunately that road project is not moving. The company that was hired for the project layed gravel on about 0.5km and then left. That was around January. Repeatedly calling this to the attention of government agencies, the governor, and even a letter writing campaign to the president have accomplished nothing. About once a month, someone says that the project is going to start soon - everything is ready now, just a few more weeks. And the $250K? Possibly, paying the salaries of the people in charge of overseeing the larger program of which this project is a part. Poor accounting? Incompetence? Corruption? It makes it very difficult to motivate locals to solicit their government for any type of support.

Regardless, we are moving ahead in Pedregosa, nearly done with collecting all of the data we need to design a water system. One of my favorite days, we hiked up into the hill and dug a large trench (that will be a part of the water collection system) in pouring rain. It was simply a real situation, seeing everyone working together, laughing and working at the same time in a situation that could just as easily be considered miserable.

In another nearby town, of about 500 people, there is a 7km-long water system of 4-inch PVC pipe, which is very large for the rural systems in the area, constructed in about 2005. I can only imagine imagine what the cost was, but my guess is about $200K. And when I say cost I mean the price paid to the company hired to complete the project, not necessarily reflective of the value of the project, unfortunately. The system has never worked. No water has ever arrived to the community through that pipeline. Mindboggling and confusing. But it perhaps drawns attention to the need for more technical support from development agencies (USAID, World Bank, perhaps Peace Corps) in the government agencies that approve/oversee such projects. I recently went with some locals from that community and surveyed the pipeline. Hopefully I can identify a flaw that can be fixed. That was another incredible day, hiking about 24km in one day. Thankfully the weather was perfect.

Presently, another volunteer and I are working with the Peace Corps-Panama office to try to get the organization to be more responsible when it comes to compelted projects actually being effective. For example, a lot of composting latrines are built, but very few are actually used properly - when used improperly they are in large part a waste of the $400 investment. As I think mentioned previously, a lot of work is done, but not much attention is payed to whether or not that work benefits the people living in poverty. The present situation is irresponsible and needs to be drastically improved. So instead of just complaining we are collaborating with the office and trying to come up with some of those improvements.

I have four new baby chickens that are almost not babies anymore. They´re relentless when they´re hungry. I also have planted yucca, pineapple, beans, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, and corn. I was proudly admiring my corn one day when a 12 year old asked me what foods I know how to prepare with corn - he had to go rain on my parade.