Chicken Dinner

My host dad having a five minute conversation with a chicken. He was basically asking her why she wasn´t laying eggs. ¨You know if you don´t lay some eggs soon we´re gonna eat you. You don´t wanna get eaten do you? You better start laying some eggs! Lay some eggs dang it!!!¨ Something like that, only in Spanish. It was hilarious. He´s such a funny guy.

Panama Canal, Panama & Casco Viejo

So after nearly two months in Panama I finally saw the famous Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal. Phillip (another PCV) and I left early one Sunday morning on a Diablo Rojo to Albrook and then took another bus to the locks. We couldn´t have timed it any better. We watched a quick 8 minute film about the canal in general and then were fortunate enough to see not one, but two large container ships pass through. Absolutely amazing considering the technology that was around when American construction began in 1904. The first ship was such a tight fit that it literally scraped the sides of the canal. The ACP, or Panama Canal Authority, is constructing a larger set of locks to accommodate larger ships and to deal with congestion. There is also a museum located on site that´s full of information. When and how the canal was constructed, the people involved, the transfer of the canal from U.S. to Panamanian hands, and the current construction underway. The canal employs about 6,000 people and charges a premium for ships to pass through. One of the ships we saw paid $90,000 for the use of the canal. No wonder there´s such a markup on our products! If you want to know a little bit more about the canal, check out the ACP´s website at PanCanal.com or just look it up on Wikipedia. The ACP website has live cameras that monitor the locks if you want to see ships pass through on-line.

Now that's a tight fit!

After the canal I set off solo to Panama Viejo to check out the museum there (not much to speak of) and the ruins left behind from the 1500´s. At least one person out there will get a kick out of knowing that I spent four or five hours reading all the plaques that explain the history behind the ruins and taking lots of pictures of some really old rocks. One of the coolest things there was an old church bell tower that has been partially reconstructed. You can ascend the tower to catch a bird´s eye view of the city and the numerous skyscrapers that seem to be growing faster than kudzu.

Some old rocks and a big dork.

After Panama Viejo was literally overrun by pirates and burned to the ground, the city relocated to what is now known as Casco Viejo. I´ve visited the area a couple of times now and although most of the neighborhood is poor and full of empty buildings, there are signs of hope. Some of the buildings have been renovated, the Presidential Palace is located there, along with other government offices, and the national theatre of Panama. There are some restaurants and businesses in the area as well. Of course they cater to foreigners and charge eight bucks for a cheeseburger and four bucks for two scoops of ice-cream when I can get the same two scoops in Chorrera for 35cents.

Casco Viejo

Nevertheless, if you´re ever in Panama you should make it a part of your itinerary. It reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Well, the architecture and location next to the water; not the jazz music and heavy drinking. And while you´re here don´t forget Panama Viejo, the Miraflores locks, and you can see them all using the public transportation of the Diablos Rojos! Enjoy the ride!

Hato Chami

Greetings to all! It´s strange how time passes so quickly. It seems like forever ago that we had our tech week in Hato Chami, but that´s what I want to talk about. Hato Chami is in the comarca Ngobe-Bugle (No-bay Boo-glay). It´s basically the same as an Indian reservation in the states. They´re still a part of Panama, but they have their own laws and leaders, or caciques as they´re called.  Some of the older generation only speak their native language, but most speak their own language as well as Spanish. We were only there for a week, but it left a great impression.
It´s an hour and a half chiva ride from San Felix to Hato Chami. A chiva is just a pick-up truck with a big metal cage attached to the bed. They cram in as many people as possible (usually 15) and then take off up the mountain. The road conditions are brutal. It´s kinda like walking on river rock which makes the ride there pretty bumpy. There are also good size ditches carved into the road due to water run off, not to mention the landslides of rock and dirt that form quite the obstacle course for the driver. Four wheel drive is a necessity.
Tall boots are also a necessity. When not on the main road through town (river rock city) you´re slopping through lots of mud. I reluctantly bought a pair of boots literally at the last possible minute before jumping into the chiva. I was upset at the time to spend the $9.50, but I guess I got a good deal because there were plenty of other volunteers who paid as much as $15 in the city. Trust me, it´s a huge expense on the Peace Corps budget. However, after arriving on site I realized I had definitely made the right decision. I can´t tell you how many people fell multiple times because of the road conditions and the sheer amount of mud.
I stayed with a host family that was super nice, very accommodating and just a lot of fun. The conditions in the comarca are pretty harsh compared to Santa Clara. There´s no electricity in the community except for the school which has some solar panels. There is running water, but it´s intermittent (at least during my stay) and was a shared tap in the center of four different homes. Most of the laundry and bathing are done in the small creek which is a short hike down a pretty slippery, muddy, rather steep path. The homes are made of wood and have roofs made of zinc or some kind of large leaves that I can´t remember the name of. (Think tiki-huts) There were no walls inside the house and dirt floors are the norm.
Most people in the comarca can´t afford beds (or mattresses I should say) so they either sleep in hammocks or on boards. I slept on boards on a raised platform-to keep away from the creepy crawlies. While several volunteers complained of the cold nights due to the altitude, Hato Chami is at roughly 3,000 feet, I was most comfortable. Sometimes in Santa Clara I lie in bed and sweat, so this was a nice reprieve. Actually, the views from Hato Chami of the surrounding mountains are quite stunning and on a clear day you can see all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The air is cleaner, the temperature is cooler, and there´s no plumes of smoke billowing forth from the thunderous Diablos Rojos. But, I digress. In the morning I traversed the muddy slope down to the creek to bathe and then changed clothes in my sleeping bag, which was a little difficult; guess I shouldn´t have bought a mummy bag.
My host mom cooked our meals using a propane tank and gas cook top. They also have an outdoor kitchen and prepare meals there with firewood. Just preparing meals can be an all day labor intensive effort. First you have to find the firewood (which most likely entails chopping it down and then cutting it into pieces small enough to carry) gather it all up and carry it back home, which is probably a 30 minute hike. Then you have to go to the creek, carry the water up the narrow, muddy path afore mentioned, start the fire to boil the water and find whatever you can to drop in. It´s not like you can just drop by Walmart and get a pizza to pop in the microwave. They eat a lot of plantains in the comarca because they´re cheap and plentiful, but unfortunately aren´t very tasty or nutritious. They´re MUCH better when you deep fry them.
A lot of people go to bed very early because it gets dark a little after six. I tried to stay up till at least nine most nights, but it was a little difficult because the family was used to going to bed earlier. There were some volunteers that went to bed as early as seven. My headlamp came in very handy, although the Ngobe´s didn´t seem to need them. My host mom cooked in complete darkness and the kids all ran around barefoot with no lights and somehow managed not to take a mud bath. How?....I really don´t know.
While we were there, they broke us up into small groups and my group worked very briefly with a sugar cane farmer who belongs to a co-op with several other members. They plant the seeds, grow the cane, care for it, harvest and then process it into a liquid. They run the stalks of cane through a machine called a trapichecomarca for next to nothing. How they make a profit I have no idea. There are other businesses in the area as well, including an artisan co-op that makes bracelets, handbags, dresses and other articles of clothing, which is also a very labor intensive process. They rub down leaves to get the strands of cloth to work with if that tells you anything. There´s also a bee keeping honey business and a couple of restaurants. Hato Chami is a hub or trade center of sorts, but trust me, it definitely doesn´t seem that way.
I also helped my host brother with his English homework and he taught me a few words in Ngobe. All the families gave all the PCV´s (Peace Corps Volunteers) Ngobe names. Most (actually I think everyone) just had regular Ngobe names that didn´t have any real meaning. However, after telling people my Ngobe name, they would usually laugh and joke around with each other and give me funny looks. My host family named me ¨Krodgy¨ which basically translates as ¨thin one¨. Who would´ve guessed that I would come all the way to a comarca in the middle of Panama and I´m still the butt of skinny jokes. The kids would say my name, laugh and then run away. I had a lot of fun with them though.
Actually, one of the reasons I was placed in my site was because of the work I did in the school in the comarca. I taught a third grade class which consisted of 8-13 year olds about indigenous culture in Panama. Go figure. That´s what the teacher wanted so that´s what we did. Apparently the higher ups were impressed with my two hours of teaching experience and decided that I should be working with youth in the schools. We´ll see how that goes. They´re definitely putting a lot of faith into me based on two hours of my life, but when I came here I did agree to go wherever they felt my skills would be needed most. So....looks like I´ll be teaching; at least some of the time. By the way, if you were wondering about the age difference I mentioned earlier (my class was 8-13 year olds) it´s because some kids leave school to help out at home, work in the coffee farms, they can´t afford the materials to go to school, or the just didn´t pass into the next grade. Many of the parents are illiterate, so students often don´t get much help at home. They do get a couple of meals at school, which is a big help. Some kids bring their own bowls from home and those that don´t are given cups to get crema-basically a corn pudding kind of drink. They get a pre-packaged lunch from Brazil that´s supposed to have some nutritional value since most of the kids don´t get the nutrients they should.

Me and the Fam

Ngobe girls playing soccer

It`s better than a Serta!

Kids lining up for crema

More family fun!

Girl from my third grade class. Ain´t she cute.

Jobs aren´t exactly in abundance in the comarca either, so many of the men work in the coffee fields in Panama or Costa Rica during the harvest season, which begins in September and ends in December, then return to the comarca. I had several talks with my host mom and her son about the lack of jobs in the comarca, electricity, water, road conditions, the health center in town, the schools and American culture. Although most people there are living in extreme poverty, they seem genuinely happy and are a joy to be around. They were overly nice to me, took me into their home and offered to share with me everything they had. I can honestly say that it was a humbling, moving experience that I hope to carry with me for a long time to come.

Panama Chicken

Play this four times in a row every 30 seconds from 1am until you get up in the morning and you too can experience life in Panama.

Diablos Rojos

Diablos Rojos. Sounds mysterious and exciting, maybe even a little dangerous. But it’s actually what they call public transportation in Panama. It literally means “Red Devils.” I’m not sure why they’re called Diablo Rojos, I just know they get me where I need to go. And there’s no such thing as a full bus. They just keep packin em in until there are literally people hanging off the steps and doors outside the bus, hanging on for dear life like it’s no big deal. I’ve been on buses where I’m the one standing on the steps, hoping that I don’t fly out the door when the driver whips around a curve and I’ve seen buses go by with people hanging on to the doors like it’s nothing. Imagine cramming 10lbs of crap into a 5lb bag and you’re beginning to get the idea. They’re pretty cheap though, 25 to 35 cents depending on where I want to go and they’re pretty reliable I guess. To be honest, I’m not sure how the system works. I think the driver actually owns the bus, or works for someone who does and they keep the money that is generated from the passengers. They’re basically old school buses from the States that were in such disrepair that we sold them to Panama so they could use them for public transportation. And I must say that even though they’re crowded, hot, loud (sometimes), completely obnoxious, and their diesel fumes can be overpowering, I love them. The owners of these buses take pride in their ride and trick them out like you wouldn’t believe. It’s seriously awesome. It’s like a contest they’re having to see who can have the most pimped out school bus. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. First of all, they chrome the wheels like a pimped out Cadillac Escalade. Then they put on a wicked paint job all over the bus. Front, back, sides, inside and out. They add painted fins and bulbs on top of the bus to give it that shark like charm, add some huge chrome exhaust pipes that extend past the roof of the bus, custom mud flaps, chrome figurines on the hood, and flashing lights inside and out. When it rains or it’s dark outside it looks like Christmas when the bus rolls by because of all the flashing lights. In addition to the paint job inside the bus, they have boa like feathers all over the windshield with some sort of suave saying in Spanish, lots of dice hanging down from the giant mirror that spans the width of the bus, more scented pine trees than you can buy at the dollar store, and long streaming tassels on the steel poles at the top of the stairs that strippers would fight over. Tack on a kickin stereo system and you’ve got one bangin bus.