The Technical Aspect of Tech Week

Applogies the pictures aren't exactly in order. Sunday morning at 6am, the entire environmental health group gathered at the bus stop, waiting for a shuttle from Peace Corps to take us to the bus station in Panama City. Parts of our journey to our technical week training would be handled by Peace Corps while other parts it was up to us to manage. The trip from Panama east to Metati was on public transportation for about six or seven hours. At the Meteti bus station we met up with a chartered bus which took us the next half to the port where we then took four rented boat twenty minutes upstream to a volunteer's site.

Once we arrived, we had quick meetings and then were led off in small groups to meet the families we would be staying with for the next week. Meeting host families is by far the most awkward experience Peace Corps has to offer. You show up at the door of a family, loaded down with way too many bags, and everyone initiates in awkward conversation for a bit before you put down your bags and then continue you in more awkward conversation for a bit. The awkwardness quickly dies down though and everything returns to normality.

For this week, we would be staying in an indigenous Emera community. Emera are known for their awesome skirts for women and wide open houses. By this I mean the windows are always open and there is only one "room" for the house. Everything is rather communal and private space isn't really a thing. Since I arrived in Panama, I've been staying in a shared room and at this point it doesn't really bother me. The only thing that bothered me was one family member that had a snore that could rival that of of a bull. Luckily, I had ear plugs (the snore still managed to peirce the ear plugs a bit), and I loved every other aspect about my family.

In total there were roughly eight or so family members consisiting of several sibligings, spouses, one child, and a grandmother. The exact relationship was lost on me since conversations were pretty loaded and it was hard to understand the language and remembering what was being said at the same time. The family earned their money through the running of a tienda, or small shop, as police officers in both Panama and locally, soldiers in the military, and as a doctor... this much I was able to understand from the conversations. The tienda point was the most important part though. This meant that every night I'd get an awesome beverage off of the shelf of the tienda to drink, hot chocolate in the mornings, Cheetos for dessert sometimes, and other similar goodies.

Here we are making a simple water level to measure altitude changes.

Testing the system out.

Making a mold out of clay to lay the concrete foundation in.



One Big Thank You Note

I originally wanted to say thank you individually through cards sent from Panama but I've since realized that it is just about impossible to get the letters out and even if I did there's a good chance they won't actually arrive safely in the United States. So, before it's too late I want to say thank you to everyone for your gifts. The money has gone to the purchase of such awesome things as boots to trek in foot-deep mud, a 5" Android Tablet to use as my computer, a machete to "mow my grass", Harry Potter in Spanish, a basic smart phone to keep connected with the world, and many many more awesome things. I am grateful that all of you were able to attend and I greatly enjoyed my going away party. I hope all is well and I'll talk to you soon.

Brazos y besos,
Travis

Spanish Post

Querría escribir una vez en español para practicarlo y un tiempo, regresaré para mirar el cambio en mi nivel del idioma. Además, antes de empezar, quiero decir que con esto, voy a usar solamente mi cabeza y nada más. En las ultimas semanas estaba estudiando cosas que olvidé y aprendido nuevas coasa como objectivos pronombres que antes de Panamá, no pude entender. En el futuro, me gustaría aprender sobre subjuntivo, haber en futuro y pasado,  y mucho más vocabulario. En estes días, para practicar, estoy mirando tarjetas con palabras en español y ingles, leyendo Harry Potter y el Orden del Fenix, usando un libro de gramatica, y hablando con mucha gente incluyendo mi hermano que tiene 19 años. Es interesante que, miré casi todos tipos de gramatica al minimo de una vez. Creo que después de dos años en Panamá, podría hablar como ellos. 

Thoughts on Knowing the Language

I was having a discussion tonight with my brother about Panamanian culture and I started to compare it to my time in China and how I felt much more comfortable here in Panama. At this point I've considered staying here after for some time because I enjoy it so much. I went on to blame various aspects of China on why I wouldn't want to live there but after ten seconds of following this thought I realized how completely wrong it was. Almost all of my dislikes of the country have stemmed in some part due to my inability to speak the language. Situations I couldn't understand, I tended to fill in the blanks with what I thought fit without ever asking questions to people who could knowledgeably answer because I didn't possess the vocab to do so. I have come to realize that if you don't learn the language of where you're living or traveling, you'll forever be on the outside looking in with a distorted view of what is actually going on. I've grown to love it here in part due to the fact that I can question many things and get a reasonable answer in return. More likely than not, there's a reasonable answer to "Why is X this or that way?" and I encourage you to push to receive an answer instead of making assumptions on your own.

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My Home for the Next Two Years

This past Friday I found out my site placement! I've been waiting for this day since I found out I'd be moving to Panama. I'll be living in a small town of 120 people a short drive from the city of Penonomé in the region of Coclé which is about two hours west of Panama City.

The central part of town is made up of 24 houses of which, currently only 9 receive water. Potentially, I'll be working to increase the capacity of the system so that more water will be collected at the source and more houses will be setup on the receiving end. The community has also expressed interest in latrines. There will be no electricity in the the community but if they are interested, I hope to help bring electricity to the community as well.

For those that are thinking of visiting, it's about a three hour bus ride and fifteen minute walk from the bus station in Panama City. I'm to the west and also located along the way to Bocas Del Toro which is a popular tourist destination. I'm about an hour or so from the beach Santa Clara which is absolutely beautiful. The regional capital hosts events around the time of Carnival which are pretty popular.

That's about all the information I have at this point. I'll be visiting next week for a few days and will report back with more then.

Tech Week: The non Technical Part

 

We arrived at the dock and used these boats to get to site.



The dock.

On the way to the site. Gear in the front, gringos in the back.