January - Peace Corps Panama Friends

Transcription

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Over sixty ounces of fried sea food product went into the making of this issue of La Vaina. Our Editors’
message is lifted directly from the menu at La Cascada on Avenida Balboa. The first five La Vaina readers
to correctlyguess which fifteen La Cascada menu words we have interchanged with our own, will win the
opportunity to treat the La Vaina staff to dinner at La Cascada early next year.
All readers of La Vaina magazine for every one of us that is working here are the most important people in the whole
word for us because is of them indirectly throu their consuming they pay our salaries and maintain this magazine so
we can have ourselves a job.
La Vaina is really worth to share with your family and to recommend it after to your friends, so that they can read her
too, and be pleased and grateful to you.
Now, if you do not have time, desire, interest or curiosity to read all of La Vaina, please let us help and guide you to
find what might interest you in seconds.
We also make clear that if you offer us a piece of writing and if we just find one little sentence which is not perfect,
we are informing you with lots of sorrow and pain, that all the piece of writing will be rejected and we are returning
it without any consideration or mercy, and that is because we can never afford to risk because there might appear
another little sentence that is not perfect either.
We welcome new editor Greg Landrigan. Much has been said about the beauty of “The Greg Landrigan”, but if you
really want to enjoy the pleasures he offers, you must visit “The Greg Landrigan” but don’t be surprised if you find
him innocent and naked wearing
the free invincible air as a dress,
foto por Ann M.
and exotic tropical plants, flowers
and jasmines as jewelry and
perfume.
However, if you did not like the
service Greg provided here
because he was slow, rustic, incult,
inattentive impolite, rude,
indifferent, making bad faces,
embittered, acting like a despot…
we will appreciate very much if
you tell us in person by informing
the supervisor.
Happy New Year,
John Sturm, Jessica Samples, and
Greg Landrigan
cover foto por Jon P.; back cover por Wakan
La Vaina
Table of Contents
January - March 2006
From the Suits...
4-5........................................................ De la Jefa por Jean Lujan
6-7 .................... ....................From the PTO por Peter Redmond
8............... Environmental Conservation por Francisco Santamaria
9 .................................................Talking Business por Pablo Garrón
10-11...............Aropeucaria Sostenible Update por Jason Cochran
12-13.....................................................EH Update por Greg Branch
13..............From the Training Director’s Desk por Raul Ramieriez
14..................................... From the Mistress Trainer por Barbara
15..........................Curandera’s Notes por Dra. Lourdes Rodriguez
foto por Sara L.
Next La Vaina deadline - March 1, 2006
foto por Uriah
Announcements, Articles, etc...
16.............................................................................WID/GAD Udpate
17-18....................................................................................VAC Update
19......................................................................................Youth Groups
20-22........,.......................................................Lorena Stove Case Study
23......................................................................Computing in the Campo
24-25, 28.............................................................................Coooperatives
26-27..........................................................................Katie Skaar Attacks
29.........................................................................................Compost Fun
30-31....................,,........................................Seed Project International
31..................................................................................Double Dug Beds
32-35......................................................................................About Seeds
36...........................................................................................Pet Advice
38-39...........................................................................Sex and the Campo
40.............................................................................................Pepe el Pez
41.....................................................................................Essay and Poem
42-43.............................................................................Dost’s Happy Trail
44.............................................................................................Fake News
45............................................................................................Real News
46................................................................................................Quotes
46.............................................................................Volunteers Speak Out
47-51.....................................................................................Ciao Pela’os
Submission Policy: All subject matter is welcome. We will not print articles which demean or slander Panama or Panamanians. We also cannot print exceptionally funny jokes,
unless they are ours. Keep in mind who might read La Vaina--Presidents, chiefs of state, kings, and the like. We will try to correct spellin’, punc-tuation, and grammars, unless your
article is really long or in Spanish. We get tired. The content of the articles will not be touched unless it is deemed to go beyond the boundaries of decency as the CD Judges. This
newsletter is for the Peace Corps community, so it is what you make of it. Contribute, give suggestions, and SUBMIT! We appreciate your support.
Article Guidelines: All articles of various subject matter are welcome. You will make the editors’ job a lot easier if you would please adhere to these guidelines:
1. Please e-mail your articles/photos to [email protected], or submit the articles on disk/CD. Do not handwrite your articlesas we can no longer pay immigrant labor to
type them.
2. Don’ t try to show off your sk1llz with WORD by formatting your article with ‘groovy’ fonts and ‘far out’ images. Pagemaker doesn’t dig that.
3. Please do not send submissions, especially pictures, to our personal email accounts. That’s what we have the La Vaina email account for.
La Vaina
Del Jefe
Peter Redmond
I am speaking of the “more
money” platform: the
notion that what Africa
needs is more prestige projects,
volunteer
labor
and
debt
relief….Dumping more money in the
same old way is not only wasteful, but
stupid and harmful…”
-Paul Theroux, (RPCV Malawi, famous
travelogue author) New York Times OpEd, December 15, 2005
I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are settling back
into your normal routines in your communities. So much
has happened over these past few months and it is always
difficult to summarize them in this little missive—so over
the coming months expect more email updates to
supplement this quarterly. I will continue to use this space
to articulate my vision for PC/Panama and to highlight
the great work of our Volunteers.
First, I hope you all have a chance to read the Paul
Theroux Op-Ed article from the
New York Times reprinted in this foto por Wakan
issue. Theroux critiques Paul
Hewson (better known as Bono
from U-2) and his crusade to reduce
the oppressive debt carried by the
world’s poorest countries in Africa.
Theroux notes that behind Bono’s
actions are a desire to sink good
money into programs and
governments that can not and will
not properly account for the money
spent. He laments that Malawi’s
development was in fact
undermined by Peace Corps’
willingness to continue sending
volunteer schoolteachers in place of
locals.
So what does this mean for Peace Corps/Panama? First,
it is important to learn from history as Peace Corps
celebrates its 45 years enhancing world peace and
friendship. As I have said in past articles, friendship
4
building is what comes most easily for Volunteers—it is
the development work we promote that is the most critical
and most tricky. Theroux makes us think critically about
our role as development workers.
I’m more sanguine about Peace Corps’ role in
development in Panama than Theroux is about Peace
Corps’ role in Malawi. First, we make sure that no
Volunteer is taking a job from Panamanians. Second, we
promote the training-of-trainers, community leaders and
others with the goal of working ourselves out of a job.
Third, we bill ourselves primarily as a human resource
and not a fountain of money. And where we do support
projects financially (SPA, VAST, Partnership Projects)
we demand accountability and transparency, two cures
to the corruption that Theroux derides.
One thing I like to talk to trainees and to Volunteers about
is that your Peace Corps service is an on-going dialogue
about sustainable development – a dialogue that goes on
in your communities, between you and your friends and
inside your own head. PCV Mark Samples recently
button-holed me on the development dialogue when he
presented four incredibly complex questions about the
development philosophy Paulo Freire,
author of the PEDAGOGY OF THE
OPPRESSED. Attempting to answer any
of those questions thoughtfully would
mean a return to graduate school to
pursue a doctoral dissertation. But
without trying to simplify Freire’s
important work and to do justice to Mark’s
intent, I would encourage you all to read
Freire and to continue this dialogue—in
the La Vaina, by email, and in late night
talks about what it is you are trying to
accomplish in your two years with Peace
Corps. From my reading of Freire, his
development views can be simplified to
the following: Those who try to help the
oppressed (the poor, the downtrodden, the
disenfranchised) become oppressors
themselves when they try to do anything FOR or TO
others. It is only when we work WITH—when we walk
in their shoes and work side-by-side—that we can stop
being oppressors and help others liberate themselves.
“The toughest revista you’ll ever love.”
Welcome, Ricardo!
Peace Corps Panama staff and volunteers
welcome Ricardo Greco, our new
MedEvac / Administrative Assistant.
Ricordo comes to us from Dell
computers with impeccable English, a
warm and friendly demeanor, and a strong
commitment to the Peace Corps mission
in his native Panama. Stop in and say
hello to our newest team member!
While we often fall short of Freire’s hopes, we continue
to strive for this ideal.
HIV/AIDS Awareness and Prevention: Peace Corps
celebrated World AIDS Day with an éxito of an HIVAIDS
prevention seminar in Ustupu, Kuna Yala led by PCV
Allison Musser and a new Kuna youth group. Globally,
nearly 8,500 people die from AIDS each day; this past
year another 5 million people became infected. In
Panama, Kuna Yala has one of the highest rates of
HIVAIDS infection, and in the Central American region,
Panama has the second highest rate of infection. As
part of our continuing focus on HIVAIDS prevention,
Peace Corps/Panama will host an All-Peace Corps
Conference, March 7-10, 2006. Allison, Roy Knoedler
and other PCVs are working hard with PTO Nick Metes
to make this the best annual conference ever. So keep
your eyes peeled for more information as the agenda
develops. Huge thanks to Allison and Dost BardouilleCrème who have helped coordinate VAST project
proposals for Volunteers hoping to do HIVAIDS
prevention in their communities.
La Vaina
any questions or concerns about the incident I would be
happy to talk with you. Your safety and security are number
one for me, as I’m sure it is for your families.
Kuna Yala: I’ll be meeting in late December with the
leaders of Congreso General Kuna. Our future in Kuna
Yala is still in flux as we discuss the status of our convenio
with the Congreso General and our ability to provide
safe sites for PCVs. Over the past few years, the PCVs
of Kuna Yala have done some of our best development
work supporting some very motivated communities.
Despite isolation and security issues, these PCVs have
maintained a terrific
attitude
and work ethic. The Kuna
foto por Jon
P.
have been generous hosts to more than 15 Volunteers
these past three years and we are hoping to continue this
productive relationship.
Cost of Living Surveys: I’ve extended the submission
of the Cost of Living Survey data to January 30, 2006.
Please complete this mandatory exercise so we can
determine if your current monthly stipend is adequate.
Call or email Erubey ([email protected]) or
Greta ([email protected]) if you have any
trouble completing the survey on-line.
foto por Jon P.
Welcome to PTO Nick Metes: Please make sure
you say hello to our new Deputy Director/Programming
and Training Officer Nick Metes. He has jumped right
into the job and has been extremely impressed with the
quantity and quality of the work of our Volunteers. With
more than 30 years and 10 countries worth of development
experience, we are lucky to have Nick on board.
Volunteer Safety: Many of you have heard about the
burning of a Volunteer house in Bocas del Toro and the
subsequent reassignment of the two PCVs affected by
this event, a symptom of a larger land conflict between
the community and a wealthy land owner. If you have
[email protected]
5
La Vaina
From The PTO
Nick Metes
Greetings from the new PTO. As most of you know, I
arrived at the end of the month of October and I vaguely
remember hearing something about taking it easy at first
so that I would have time to settle in. Well, given the
fast pace of Peace Corps Panama, I felt like I was
running after a train that would alternately speed up and
slow down. I caught up
a couple of times but
then it seemed to be
pulling away from me
again.
I am very impressed by
the
work
and
professional manner in
which you carry out your
PC service. Although I
have a total of 16 years
in the PC, I have rarely
found a group with your
dedication and real
interest in making the
best possible impact in
Panama.
I became a PCV in
1973, after completing
graduate work in
forestry. I almost didn’t
join since my application,
made early in 1972, was
turned down due to lack
of suitable assignments. When I saw an announcement
for a position with a forestry school in Honduras, I called
PC HQ and within two weeks they were hounding me
to get ready to attend language training in Puerto Rico.
I complied and it was only because my mother offered
to type up my Masters research on her typewriter, that
I was able to both complete grad school and join the
Peace Corps. Back in 1972 computers were the size of
my office and programs required shoe boxes full of data
cards. It’s a wonder we ever got anything done, or is it.
Being a PCV in Honduras was a wonderful experience
which I will always cherish. In addition to marrying my
secretary, I made countless friends among the people
from Siguatepeque, the Honduran Forest Service
6
employees and students who
passed through the forestry school.
After PC I went back to the states
and worked in the forest products
industry for a few years. Before I
knew it I had applied for an APCD
position in Honduras and
off we went, with the
foto por Jon P.
addition of our son Sergio.
It was great to be back in
my old stomping grounds
and being paid to do what
I always felt was one of the
best jobs possible, i.e.
APCD. After five plus
years and the arrival of our
daughter Nicole, they
kicked me out as per
custom and I went directly
to Peru, where I worked on
a large USAID natural
resource management
project, as the project
coordinator. It was one of
the most interesting
projects I have ever seen
or heard of, probably
because it included
components of forestry,
protected
area
management, agriculture,
livestock, community
development in indigenous
communities, road maintenance and regional
development. The fact that the project director and over
half of the advisors were RPCVs, certainly contributed
to the project’s effectiveness.
By the time I had spent close to six years in Peru, I was
ready for the Peace Corps again and Paraguay came a
calling as they needed an APCD for natural resources.
I narrowed down the five projects I inherited into
agroforestry and environmental education. That seemed
to work well for us and again in five plus years they kicked
me out again. The fact that I knew it was coming didn’t
make leaving any easier. After returning to the states I
experienced what one might say was a “difficult period”
during which I pursued a number of different short term
employment opportunities to the extent that some people
thought I was “on the lamb” moving from job to job.
Nevertheless, I learned something from everyone of those
jobs and before getting back into development work I
spent the better part of a year providing logistic support
to a humanitarian canine demining project in Honduras
and Nicaragua. It was an important activity that brought
together the governments of Honduras, Nicaragua and
the US in a joint effort. While I was working in Nicaragua
I became aware of an interesting agriculture rehabilitation
effort developed in response to Hurricane Mitch that had
devastated Honduras and Nicaragua in October of 1998.
(I was actually in Danli, Honduras, during the entire
Hurricane). I spent the rest of 1999 through 2001 living
in Managua and working in Northern Nicaragua,
coordinating the World Relief efforts which included
agriculture extension and some food for work activities.
La Vaina
This was the first time my wife left the kids, grown up, at
home.
By the beginning of 2002 I was back in the states (New
Hampshire) waiting to hear from , guess who? Right, the
Peace Corps. By now they were calling me a retread
and a recycle but they hired me anyway to work at HQ,
supporting my former APCD colleagues in the field. After
three and a half years in DC, I made a break for it and
landed on my feet, I think, just outside the Miraflores
Locks, where I hope to spend another two plus years
working with some of the best PCVs and Staff , in all of
Peace Corps. I am glad to be here and look forward to
visiting your regions and to the extent possible your sites.
I will work with the programming and training staff to
support you, providing an opportunity for you to serve
safely and effectively.
Best wishes for 2006.
foto por Josh C.
[email protected]
7
La Vaina
Community Economic Development
Pablo Garron
Como estan todos!!!!
Bueno aquí estoy al final de una
larga semana de visitas a los
sitios de varios Voluntarios.
Parece que al acercarse mi
vacación (dic 23 al ene 16) me parece que las semanas
se hacen cada vez maaaaaaas largas.
Hoy día llegue a la oficina después de terminar con un
episodio en la vida de un APCD, la relocalización de un
Voluntario. Como todos ustedes ya saben, sea por medio
oficial o como la familia de anfitriona de David Z. por el
medio del bochinche, uno de nuestros nuevos PCVs, Alan
Daub tuvo que ser retirado del hermoso lugar en la
frontera con Costa Rica, al lado del rió Sixaola, llamado
Las Delicias. Bueno ahora se encuentra disfrutando de
una nueva familia anfitriona en un nuevo sitio bastante
diferente al que tenía antes, pero con una organización
que se encuentra desarrollando un plan de turismo en un
área protegida. Buena suerte Alan !!!!.
IPACOOP nos invito con muy poco tiempo de aviso a
una reunión anual que quieren tener para evaluar los
resultados de nuestro convenio, ellos se encuentran
ansiosos de conocer de parte de ustedes lo que esta
funcionando bien, que se tiene que mejorar y cual es la
estrategia para este año. En la
otra edición de esta Vaina, les
mandaré los resultados.
Mar 31 al Abr 2 Campamento verano de Muchachas
Guías
Además de estas fechas, no se olviden de mis visitas de
sitio que ya están programadas, espero poder verlos en
acción, ya sea dando capacitaciones o presentaciones
con sus contrapartes, algunos ya me enviaron sus
preferencias de comida, así que ya me estoy alistando.
Este fin de semana va a ser muy bueno, Pittsburgh Steelers
van a derrotar a los Vikings de Jason, digo de Minnesota!!!!
Y con eso espero que clasifiquen a la postemporada.
Ya esta cerca el final del 2005, es un buen momento para
que todos nosotros evaluemos nuestro trabajo, nuestra
vida, nuestros objetivos y redefinamos nuestras metas.
Denle duro!! Que les vaya siempre bien y cuenten conmigo
para su apoyo.
“You can do anything if you have enthusiasm.
Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes rise to
the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it
there are only alibis”.
-Henry Ford
Desde el próximo mes de Enero,
voy a empezar con la búsqueda
de nuevo sitios y me gustaría
saber si alguno de ustedes tiene
idea de un lugar que puede o
parece ser bueno para un
Voluntario de CED, pueden avisar
al Líder Regional o me mandan
un email para que yo lo ponga
dentro de la lista.
No se olviden de las fechas
importantes que vienen,
Feb 6 al 10 IST en Cedeso
Feb 17 al 18 Muchachas Guías
Training for leaders
Mar 7 al 9 All Vol Conference
8
foto por Wakan
La Vaina
Environmental Health
Greg “Goyo” Branch
Go with the people. Live with
them. Learn from them. Love them.
Start with what they know. Build
from what they have. But the best
of leaders, when the job is done,
the task accomplished, The people will say “We have
done this ourselves”.
-Lao Tsu China 700 B.C.
Hooooowdy ho!!!!! Y’all smell like flowers! This is the
second Vaina article in a row where I have the pleasure
of writing to you from the interior. The availability of
these Peace Corps laptops is slim to no chance … this
week call me slim. So, I write from under this December
full moon, when most of the inhabitants of the campo are
already in deep slumber. I am not only kept awake by the
Vaina deadline tomorrow, but by wonder. Wonder is a
great word. The laptop thesaurus gives several related
tangents on the word: thought, speculate, contemplate,
cogitate, question, marvel, consider. All which would
define the thoughts
of my current
wandering mind.
See, I am on my
way back from
visiting several EH
PCVs. My current
speculation is the
depth of the impact
foto por Kristen A.
that
one’s
volunteer service
has on both the Volunteer and the community members
the PCV interacts with. I marvel at the possibilities,
question the intention of both parties, consider the potential
outcomes, cogitate about the variables, and contemplate
the implications.
I have reached this state of mind for several reasons.
First of all, come March, I will have spent the past 8
years of my life working in the organization of Peace
Corps. Second of all, last month I went back to my site in
El Salvador and revisited my footsteps as a Volunteer.
Lastly I just spent a week with my parents… ‘nuf said.
Throw in the New Year full of reflection and aspirations
and you have a wonderin’ APCD. At the core of the
apple (where you find the seeds), I do believe that Peace
Corps does amazing things. Sometimes as tangible as a
cosmic egg hatching, sometimes as intangible as the
benefits of a poop safely falling into a compost latrine.
This I know.
As I nestled my bug bitten back into a homemade
hammock sitting down to beans and tortillas in El Salvador,
I was convinced. I am forever changed by my Volunteer
experiences and my community had not forgotten me and
why I was there.
foto por Kristen A.
The kids had
remembered the
secret handshake,
community leaders
were quick to tell
me how the
community was
developing, and I
was genuinely
interested
in
current well- being of the people. The school was still
making the kids do community trash clean-ups, more than
a dozen new composting latrines had been built with their
own money, the community water well was up and
running, and the directiva had been re-elected and
legalized to manage community development. My blind
neighbor who had turned 98 since my last visit (see Vaina
article from 4/04) got up out of his hammock at the sound
of my voice. My service there was powerful… for me
and my community. This I know.
I came straight to Peace Corps Panama after El Salvador.
I had four days from my COS to APCD. I had the unique
opportunity to create a project for Peace Corps based on
my experience, which I called Environmental Health.
Monday at the office I downloaded my files onto this
laptop. Upon opening my La Vaina folder I found my
first Vaina article written on October 10th, 2001. If I may
cut and paste…
Hola
socios de la
gran familia
de Cuerpo
de
Paz
Panama!! PC
Panama is
birthing all
foto por Kristen A.
kinds of new
[email protected]
9
La Vaina
that my first five days here totaled 62
working hours, “welcome to the real world”.
As a PCV, people talked about getting a
“real job” after Peace Corps. I never
bought that. Time as Peace Corps Volunteer
was as real as it ever got. I am a firm believer
that life is all about attitude. Work should
not be separate from play, time should not
be dictated by minutes and calendars, and
success should not be measured by hard
facts.
…So, again if there is anything I can
help you with, get a hold of me. My cell
phone is 671-2558. If you can help me with
any information regarding sites, agencies,
EH related projects in your area, or
anything, anything at all, please call, email
or come see me in my new office in your
conference room. Thanks y’all and keep up
the good work!
foto por Jacobo S.
positions here in the office and I am one of
the newborns. As such, I am a wide-eyed
toddler learning every day, from you elders
who have been here, working within the
program, with rural Panamanians. However,
I am no orphan. My parents have been the
Peace Corps Program in El Salvador. I was
a Water/Sanitation Health Volunteer there
from March of 1998 until last September. I
remained working in my site for three years
and four months while occasionally helping
with training and the programming of the
sector.
All and all I am most excited to be here
and starting this program. One thing that is
becoming very to clear to me is this.
Worldwide, you have it damn good as a
volunteer. When your two years or more are
done, you will never be the same, and you
will never be able to go back and do it the
same way. So relish the time, the ups and
downs, the rewards and disappointments, the
struggles and challenges, living with the
weather, the children, the friendships
created, and the experience. You and your
community will never be the same. An old
friend just told me after I explained to him
10
Yup, when I got here I had a corner of the conference
room that was my office. In the more than four years
since I have been here, PC Panama has come a long
way. I feel PC Panama is a stronger program than the
post I left in El Salvador. One of the strongest in the
region if not the world, if I may be honestly bold. We now
enjoy a very dedicated staff and Volunteers that have a
foto por Jacobo S.
La Vaina
From the Training
Director’s Desk
foto por Jacobo S.
Raul Ramirez
Hi Dear Volunteers:
First of all, I just want to give big KUDOS to the whole team
that participated in the Reconnect IST for Group #55, I heard
nothing but great comments about it. Thanks a lot!
better structure to work with. My hat off to the Regional
Leaders as always, how much they are able to do and
the Volunteer support they are able to provide. Take
advantage of them. Peace Corps Panama is a great place
to serve as a Volunteer. This I know.
As you may have heard, training staff will take off today on
vacation and will be back on January 17th, just on time for
Group #55 PDM in CEDESO from January 23-27, 2006.
To be literary, I guess I need a paragraph on my time
with my parents, to sum up my wondering. My mum and
pop always make me see the big picture. Float above
myself and see myself from afar. Inherently I know that
parents generally want that their children feel successful
and happy. Parents have different ways of expressing
that, but deep down they really want their kids to be the
shining disco ball at the top of the dance floor. Even if
they are the only ones dancing. After my time with them
on the plane, enjoying a sunset at 30,000 feet, I returned
to Panama feelin’ real good about what I am doing with
my life. The past two weeks visiting and being inspired
by Volunteers in the Darien and the Ngobe Bugle
Comarca, I am sure of it. Life is good. This I know.
Group #55 PDM will take place from Monday, January 23 - 26.
Remember to bring your community assessment and analysis.
Looks like I am going to wrap this issue up with a whole
lot of philosophical rambling and not much tech. Not the
first time. However I must highlight the service of EH
PCV Ian Jarvis. The longest serving PCV in his site that
I have ever heard of in PC Panama. Even has my service
in El Salvador beat by 4 months. One of the pioneering 7
EH Volunteers from 2002. Group 47. I wish I had a Harry
Potter newspaper to capture his personality and charisma.
He has been a tremendous friend and Volunteer. Happy
trails amigo and stay away from the police.
4/3/2006
5/17/2006
6/27/2006
8/16/2006
Upcoming Events
Reconnect IST for Group #56 The reconnect IST will take
place as planned from February 6-10, 2006. Arriving Monday
23rd by dinner and take off Friday morning. We will have
technical session Tuesday, cross-sector on Wednesday and
language on Thursday and Friday. We will contact you to
organize it based on your needs.
Attention Group #53 – Training Class 04-01 Your COS
conference is scheduled to take place February 21-23. It will
take place in Hotel Campestre, El Valle de Antón, Cocle province.
Coming Soon…
4/7/2007
7/27/2006
6/29/2006
10/26/2006
PDM Group 56
PST 06-01
COS Conference Group 54
PST 06-02
Group 56 is well on their way and so far no ETs since
training. A special thanks to all of you, staff and Volunteers,
for inspiring me in my day to day work. May we continue
to spread world peace and community development in
everything we do. The full moon has climbed high
overhead and I bid y’all a good night.
[email protected]
11
La Vaina
Machetero’s Mensaje
Jason “Cocobolo” Cochran
We are your Dengue leaders of
Panama!
“Oh,” I said sheepishly, “Uh, right. How about I have
the article to you in 15 minutes?”
So I am sitting here at the computer writing back to Scott
O. from Cerro Ote confirming his agenda for this great
coffee seminar he is doing up in Boquete when one of La
Vaina editors comes frantically to my office demanding
my Vaina article.
“Fine.” He says as he storms out of my office.
“Hey,” I say, “I will get it to you next week.”
“Aprecio. I want you folks to know how much Los
Aprecio.”
He lets off this vicious glare. “You guys had three
months to get this done, I need it NOW!”
La Vaina staffs are known to be a bit pushy at times,
so I push back.
“WHAT?!?!” He heard me!
[Editor’s note: The above dialogue is entirely fictional
in nature and illustrates banter of a sort far wittier than
that likely to occur in Jason’s office.]
So here is my
article.
I
apologize
about
not
replying to your
email, Scott. I
hope
the
seminar went
great.
“Listen
buddy,
volunteers
are my
priority, can’t
you see that
I am working
on important
emails right
now? You
are just
going to
have to
wait!”
At this point
he invades
my personal
space, peers
into my
email
message
(Erubey, isn’t that against some kind of computer
policy), points an accusing finger at it and says,
“Idiot, that email is from October! Scott has already
had the seminar!”
12
“Necio!” I mutter under my breath.
Wow! Has it
been
three
months already
since the last
Vaina?
I
swear I have
put
on
thousands of
miles since
then and that
does
not
foto por Trisha W.
include my
vacation (more on that below)! As you all know, I have
been right busy of late. But I must say it is busy in a good
way. These last three months could easily go down as
the best three months I have had since taking this job. At
certain points I have had the chance to take a step back
and reflect and it is all coming together. Volunteers from
53 are hitting their stride. Group 55 are settling in quite
well and hitting the ground running. Finally, 51 are
providing quality and strong leadership. I cannot think of
a time that I have enjoyed working for Peace Corps more,
and that is really a function of what a great job you are all
d
o
i
n
g
.
Tech article: I must admit, I am a bit busy (lazy) this
cycle, so I am running a repeat article on leaf cutter ants.
Group 51 and 53 you may remember it so don’t ruin the
special surprise ending for group 55. Leaf cutter ants
are about as annoying as the summer wind to your garden
and vivero project, so I hope some of the advice can be
useful.
La Vaina
foto por
Trisha
W. thing to go to at least once in your life;
very
cool
cultural
the mullet is back (at least in Spain); French people are
wonderful hosts if you make half an effort to speak
French and enjoy their culture and Spain’s Spanish is just
plain wonderful to listen to.
Part 2:
Visiting Sam B, we were chatting the evening away when
the neighbor’s dogs killed a skunk. The smell permeated
everything and was still in my clothes a week later despite
the fact that I had washed them.
foto por Sara L.
Travel Adventures:
Part 1:
My wife and I had a wonderful vacation to Spain and
France. I highly recommend it, especially if you are in
the first couple of years of a marriage. Tourism is part
planning and part just being in the right place at the right
time. Madrid was a bit of luck as we got to see a changing
of the guard followed by a symphonic concert (free).
Then later on we stumbled onto a Basque cultural festival
(free as well). Finally we were able to take in an opera
that was broadcast live on a big screen TV outside the
opera house in front of the palace (free!). We also learned
that the French can really cook; 1998 was a great year
foto por Trisha W.
for the Haute-Medoc area of the Bordeaux region; St.
Sebastian was almost killed by a dozen or so arrows; St.
Jerome had a pet lion and liked to pray in the nude;
Picasso, Goya, and Velazequez are darned cool; Mona
Lisa is overrated; Venus de Milo is not; two hour lunches
with a bottle of wine are a great way to spend a Spanish
afternoon; espressos in a café are a great way to spend
a crisp, fall French evening; bullfights are brutal but still a
Ongoings:
1) Thanks to Penny, Mark, Greg and Casey for their
help with the PSR’s last October. Thanks to all
of you for getting them in and your patience.
This was the best year we have had in compiling
PSRs and El Jefe (Peter) was quite pleased.
2) One of the biggest reasons this year was the best
has to do with Matt G’s work on the informes. I
cannot thank you enough. Just an awesome job.
Be looking for your new informes in your emails,
as the bugs are mostly worked out.
3) Great job to Scott Overdyke on his coffee work
with the second Coffee Seminar in Boquete and
for arranging a special training for SAS PCVs.
The seminar was a big success and is really giving
our coffee program a big boost. Plus the trainings
are just another resourceful way you guys are
getting technical information necessary for you
to be successful in your sites.
4) Great job to Ben and Clarissa for the third of three
SPA funded farmer training seminars in Kuna
Yala. They have really put a lot of work into
them and they have all turned out great. The
farmers were so energized and motivated at the
[email protected]
13
La Vaina
foto por Nicole R.
end of the third one that I am sure they will be
teaching their neighbors in a matter of months.
5) Thank you to Lindsay, George, Penny, Dan, Loren,
Mark, Jacob, Sam, Maria, Tasha, Pete, Ben and
Clarissa who have hosted me in their sites since
the last article. I have enjoyed all of the visits and
you are all doing a great job.
6) Seeds. Now is the time to be harvesting Mecuna.
Remember that seeders wants at least 1 pound
from everyone so we can get our seed bank built
up. Also, if you have any canavalia seeds, pass
them our way. We want to be able to give trainees
one pound each upon swear-in so they can hit the
ground running with the green manures.
7) Get me your monthly calendars. This has been
slacking quite a bit lately.
8) My upcoming calendar
a. January Volunteer Visits
3rd Greg
4th Wakan
5th Casey
b. January other
11th Coffee event in San Felix
12th Vacation day
13th Azuero regional meeting
18-20 Regional leader trainings
20 PACA meeting, open house. I
will be looking for volunteers to
help me with this.
Jan 23- Feb 17 I will be in
Washington DC for Over Seas
Training (OST). Greg and Franklin
will be acting.
14
c. February
OST training through the 17th
21-22 COS Conference for Group
53. I am really looking forward
to this.
d. March
7-10 AVC
23- April 1 Vacation with Mom
Rest of month: Site Development
9) Site Development: Starting to look into sites.
Follow up sites are a priority followed by coffee,
cacao and reforestation. Let me know if you
feel your site would be a good follow up.
Remember, if we are going to follow up your
site, I would prefer that you extend to have at
least a one month overlap with the next volunteer.
That would mean an extension to September.
10) That is about all; keep up the great work. I am
VERY proud to be working with all of you. We
are doing amazing things. Keep up the great work.
11) Call the out of site box when out of site, let me
know when you are out of site for more than two
nights, tip your bartender and be nice to the
ayudante on your bus, as they are just doing their
jobs even if they are a bit necio at times.
VAC Staff Appreciation Award
VAC representatives and participating Volunteers have
chosen Enfermera Emilia Fuentes for this quarter’s Staff
Appreciation Award. Emilia has been with Peace Corps
for about a year and a half, but she has been a superstar
right from the start. Carrying a bag full of pears—ON A
SATURDAY—to Hotel California, she reassured an
unsuspecting bug bite victim just released from a week in
the hospital. She distracts needle-shy injectees by telling
Panamanian folk stories on demand. And with a genuine
smile and sympathetic ear, she is on hand to tend to your
every health complaint (real or imagined).
Unquestionably, it is Emilia’s warmth that separates her
from the herd. For some of us, health concerns hovered
over our decision to join Peace Corps in the first place.
For others, diarrhea, skin infections, or psychological
distress can impede our productivity and reduce our
quality of life, now that we are here. What good fortune
it is for us to be in such capable, but above all, responsive
and compassionate hands. On behalf of VAC and La
Vaina staff, we wish Emilia, her husband, and two sons
an extraordinarily healthy and joyous 2006!
La Vaina
CEC y Si
Francisco Santamaria
I hope that everybody is safe and working happily. Time
is flying by and many things are happening in our sector.
There
are
some
Volunteers
leaving.
The Republic of Panama, Peace Corps Panama and the
Environmental Conservation Program would like to thank
Chiriqui Regional Leader (and CECer) Joshua Campbell,
as well as Group 52 Mary E. Smith, Kimberly Portmess,
Dana Perls, Anna Galdames, Lauren Fitzgerald and
Victoria Fields for all their hard work and dedication to
improve the lives of Panamanians. Also, we want to give
a GREAT THANKS to Jon and Emily Pfeifer for their
time, dedication and great work in Cuipo, Colon. Now
you have a new country, friends and a new culture to call
your own.
Blessings for all of you.
Congratulations to:
CEC Regional Leaders John Sturm and Sara Lewis
for their new position as Regional Leaders of Veraguas
and Jordan Reeeves Regional Leader in Chiriquí.
New Small Project Assistance grant recipients
Katherine Skaar, Patricia Greenberg and Jordan Reeves
foto por Norma H.
Group 55 Fifteen new Volunteers started their job August
1st. These past four months have been an integration and
adaptation period, as well as the beginning of their work
with community and agency members. Thanks for your
high level of commitment, patience and flexibility.
Group 53 For continuing to work with enthusiasm,
dedication and perseverance.
For all of you leadersand previous and current
Volunteers; Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Past Events
October 14: Inauguration of Iguana Project in Cuipo,
Colon. (Jon and Emily Pfeifer). Funded by SPA
foto por Jessica S.
Upcoming Events
January
20:
Inauguration of Sea
Turtle Hatchery in
Malena,
Veraguas.
(Franny White)
January 16 to February
24:
Panama Verde
Summer Camps
January to May: Site
Development
Group 53, if you are
thinking of follow-up sites,
please let me know
because:
“Putting
Volunteers in follow-up
sites is a strategy to
ensure
the
sustainability of the
work initiated by the
first Volunteers.”
foto por
[email protected]
15
La Vaina
La Chica Mas Segura
Safety and Security Coordinator (SSC)
Maria Elena Ortiz
Welcome and best wishes to
Group # 56. Also I would like to
say good bye to our Chiricano RL-Joshua Campbell who
provides such great support as part of the Safety team.
Thanks Josh for all your help. In addition, I would like to
welcome Jordan Reeves who will be starting as the new
Regional Leader for the Chiriqui area. Lastly, I would
like to welcome three new Safety Coordinators: Sarah
Kreisman who will be SC for Bocas del Toro, Bridget
Olson for the Chiriqui area and John Fazzola/Ashley
Thompson for the Darien area.
BE AWARE ……
PLAZA PAITILLA INN HOTEL
3. If a PCV gets a room at the hotel and he/she
is expecting other PCVs, a list of names must
be submitted to the receptionist (Agustin
Lopez) at the hotel. In that way, the
receptionist will not give the key to people
that look like Peace Corps Volunteers but
are in fact tourists.
4. Last but not least: SHOW RESPECT TO
ALL PCVs and ensure a hospitable
environment.
If this unfortunate situation continues after this official
visit, please report it to SSC Maria Elena.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PCVS DURING THE
EAP ACTIVATION
Recently a PCV was burgled while staying at the Plaza
Paitilla Inn. The PCV was vacationing there with her
parents. This was not an isolated case; others staying in
the same hotel have been victims of theft. Unfortunately,
it sounds like crimes like theft and burglary are increasing
in this Hotel. Be aware of this situation. If you are
considering lodging in this hotel, I highly recommend you
not leave any cash or valuables like digital cameras, laptop,
etc., and help you avoid future incidents.
COSTA AZUL HOTEL
On November 23rd, I went to visit Hotel Costa Azul
because I was informed that female PCVs were
experiencing sexual harassment by people that were
staying in the same hotel. Also PCVs were saying that
the person in charge of keys for the hotel used to get
confused with the room numbers and several people were
sent to incorrect hotel rooms that were occupied by PCVs.
I talked directly to Mr. José Lourecdo, who is the owner
of the hotel to express our concerns about this situation.
In order to avoid future incidents I requested to Mr.
Lourecdo the following:
1. One floor just for PCVs
2. Official Peace Corps ID (or Passport) must
be requested for lodging in order to show
that you are a PCV
16
foto por Nicole R.
The Emergency Action Plan (EAP) has been developed
to enhance the safety of Peace Corps Volunteers in the
event of a natural disaster, social unrest or other
emergency. Make sure you study the most important
points from the EAP. It is very important thatyou become
familiar with the EAP and your role in it so that you keep
yourself safe.
foto por Trisha W.
BEFORE AN EMERGENCY

La Vaina
Keep your Site Locator Form up-to-date and
accurate.
If you are sleeping out of site, call the Outof—Site Box (317-0038 Ext. 201) and tell
someone in your village where you will be,
when you will return and how to contact you.
ALERT PHASE
Contact your Safety Coordinator (RL or
SC) as soon as you get notified about the
alert phase to confirm that you received
the alert message.
Contact the PC office or SC in the event of
any emergency.
STANDFAST PHASE
After receiving notification of an emergency, stay at
home and await further instructions.
Establish contact with your Safety Coordinator
or another volunteer in your region. Either you
call back or send a message (note) to the SC to
confirm you have received the message about
the standfast phase.
Begin packing “emergency bag of essentials.”
Do an inventory of personal and PC property that
may be left behind.
Pay any debts or make arrangements to do so.

CONSOLIDATION PHASE
Radio message on RPC or phone message will
say: “Voluntarios del Cuerpo de Paz favor de
presentarse a la reunión regional hoy dia.”
Upon notification, proceed to contact back
your SC and go to your Consolidation point A.S.A.P.
Pack and store all PC and personal property in
your home. Bring your Passport. Lock home and bring
keys to Consolidation point. Leave pet(s) behind.
Notify your Community partner and your landlord
that you will be leaving.
Ask a friend/neighbor you trust to keep an eye
on property you have left behind until you or Peace
Corps representative returns to get it.
Bring emergency bag of essentials.
Only if it is impossible to get to your assigned
Consolidation Point should you go to the next closest
one. Notify your Safety Coordinator or PC office
immediately.

Upon arrival to Consolidation Point, check in with
the Safety Coordinator.
Remain at Consolidation Point until given other
instructions by PC staff or Safety Coordinator.
EVACUATION PHASE
Upon notification to evacuate by PC staff,
wait for the arrival of transportation and/or further
instructions before leaving your Consolidation Point.
Wait for PC staff to provide further
instructions.
If you are evacuating Panama, PC staff will
give you your passport and WHO cards for
departure.
ALL CLEAR

The emergency situation has been resolved.
Upon notification by PC staff, you are safe to return to
your homes and may resume your normal duties.
TIPS FOR REGIONAL LEADERS AND SAFETY
COORDINATORS
1. Maintain updated Site Locator Forms (SLFs)
for all the PCVs in your assigned region.
2. Log-in when out-of-site, keep your SLF
updated.
3. Conduct quarterly Communication Test for
PCVs in your region using updated SLFs.
4. When not available or on vacation, find an
alternate Safety Coordinator for your region
[email protected]
17
La Vaina
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
and notify the PC Safety and Security
Coordinator (Maria Elena) or Duty Officer.
Maintain adequate relations with your
Consolidation Point.
Regional Leaders must coordinate with Safety
Coordinators in their region to divide the
assignment (call PCVs, look for PCVs in their
sites, report to SSC-Maria Elena).
Review your roles and responsibilities during
emergency as part of the Safety and Security
team.
RLs and SCs need to coordinate beforehand
how to divide assignment of contacting PCVs
in case of test, emergency.
RLs and SCs need to communicate with each
other when they will be out of range or on
vacation, etc. This information needs to be
communicated to the SSC-Maria Elena..
RLs and SCs must carry Updated Site Locator
Forms (including cellphones,public phones or
ways to contact each PCV in their region) in
case of an emergency.
*Suggestions:
RLs, SCs to carry consolidated information
in their wallets
Have time/money available on your cell
phone in case of an emergency or test
11. Use all the resources available during an
emergency
*Suggestions:
Call and leave a message in all the hotels
where PCVs usually stay.
14. RL and SC continue attempting contact using
other methods on the PCV’s Site Locator
Form.
15. RL and SC leave a concise message asking the
PCV to contact you or another PCV in your
region.
foto por Norma H.
16. RL and SC must communicate back with SSCMaria Elena to report status of PCVs during an
emergency or incident.
17. If RL and SC DO NOT reach a PCV within
24 hrs, you must visit the PCV.
SAFETY AND SECURITY COORDINATOR
SCHEDULE
December 11 thru January 10, 2006
January 11, 2006 BACK TO OFFICE
VA C AT I O N
IAP SAFETY AND SECURITY HOLIDAYS
REMINDER (by Dan Baker
IAP Safety & Security Desk Officer)
Radio messages in all provinces as soon as
the test/emergency begins.
1. Stick together! There’s safety in numbers; don’t
travel alone and don’t walk alone in unfamiliar
areas, especially at night.
12. In Darien area, many volunteers need to be
contacted/found directly in their sites.
Determine which PCVs are closest together so
that they can act as a cluster and inform each
other, and also can work together to confirm.
2. Stay alert! Be aware of your surroundings and
know where you can get help if you need it.
Be on the lookout for suspicious persons,
especially people following you or paying too
much attention to what you’re doing.
13. RL and SC MUST CONFIRM OR
CONTACT PCV to let them know about the
situation.
18
3. Stay in control! Drinking is okay but drinking too
much can be a problem. Too much alcohol can
impair your judgment and that can get you into
bad situations.
4. Trust your instincts! It’s okay to be a little
paranoid. If something “just doesn’t feel right”,
don’t do it! Listen to that little voice in the back
of your head. Don’t blindly trust someone if you
really don’t know them.
5. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Keep
your money, passport, tickets and other important
things close to you at all times but not all in one
place. Spread them out over several pockets
and use security devices such at “leg safes”,
hidden money pouches or tricks like pinning your
pockets together.
6. Keep a low foto por Krista K.
profile! If you’re
in a tourist area,
everyone is going
to assume you’re
a tourist too.
Don’t flash your
money around,
leave the jewelry
at home and keep
expensive
cameras
and
other gear out of
sight. Go into a
bathroom or other
secluded (but
relatively secure)
place to transfer money to or from your money
pouch. Act like you know where you’re going
and what you’re doing. Be mindful of how others
might perceive you and your actions.
7. Be prepared! Expect the worst and hope for the
best. Because you never know what’s going to
happen, you need to be ready for anything. Carry
extras of the things you can’t do without, like
eyeglasses and medications. (It’s a good idea to
have a copy of the prescription not only in case
you need a refill, but also because some countries
have restrictions on the types of medications that
can be brought in.) Make copies of your passport,
visa, shot record and other important documents
and keep the copies separate from the originals.
8. Carry with you a list of important phone numbers
including your Peace Corps office, Duty Officer
La Vaina
and the office in the countries you’ll be
visiting, along with the numbers for the U.S
Embassies in those countries. It’s also a good
idea to carry numbers for your family or other
useful contacts in America. Someone may have
to make an important call on your behalf. Keep
a record of credit card numbers and the phone
numbers for your credit card companies, just in
case the cards are lost or stolen.
9. Know your rights! If you are arrested or detained
by the police, IMMEDIATELY ask to speak with
a representative from the U.S. Embassy or
Consulate. Under the provisions of Article 36 of
the
Vienna
Convention
on
Consular Relations of
2
local
1963 ,
authorities
are
required to notify the
U.S. government
without delay that you
are in custody, but this
doesn’t
always
happen until you ask
(or demand). This is
NOT a “get out of jail
free card”; this only
means that the
embassy is told where
you are and why
you’re being held.
Usually they will send a consular officer who
can assist with notifications and help get the legal
process started.
10. Do Your Research Beforehand Travelers should
try to learn as much as they can about the situation
in the places they plan to visit and then be sure to
take steps to reduce their vulnerability. It’s also
a good idea to find out what types of scams the
local criminals like to use. Being aware and wary
could save you some money and lots of hassle.
It is important to take into account the laws,
customs and culture of the place you’ll be visiting.
The State Department’s Consular Information
Sheet can give you guidance on what local laws
may be different from in the U.S. (For instance,
in some countries it’s illegal to photograph
government buildings.) Travel websites and
books, such as Lonely Planet, Bradt and Rough
Guides offer lots of good information.
[email protected]
19
La Vaina
NATIONAL S&S COORDINATOR
María Elena Ortiz–Peace Corps Office
6-671-2552 / 317-0038 x115
BOCAS DEL TORO AND COMARCA
NGABE
Jessie Frazier (RL) 6-576-1218
Sarah Kreisman (New SC) 6-576-1237
Sasha Rao (SC) 6-622-1884
CHIRIQUI
Jordan Reeves (New RL) 6-521-5089
Bridget Olson (New SC) 6-591-8097
COMARCA NGABE-BUGLE (CHIRIQUI
AREA)
Laura Squire (RL) 6-565-8608
Michael Chapuran (SC) 6-697-4790
VERAGUAS AND COMARCA NGABE
Sarah Lewis/John Sturm (New RLs)
6-521-5088
Thoman Kuhn (New SC) 6-521-5083 / 954-0748
COCLE/PANAMA OESTE
Megan March (New RL) 6-519-2371
Tracy Furman (SC) 6-519-2372
20
La Vaina
VAC Attack
Escott Overdyke
Seeing as you’re now reading this
article, I assume you’re sneaking a peek
during your regional meeting and have
flipped immediately to the VAC update. While I can’t
condone this lawless behaviour, I certainly do understand
your interest in Volunteer Affairs and Concerns. Or is it
Volunteer Action Committee, or Volunteer Advisory Council?
It certainly seems as though the “V” is the only widely
agreed upon letter in our moniker. So we’re going to clear
the confusion right now,
lest you continue to lose
sleep over this: it’s the
Volunteer Advisory
Council. We boast a
board of four, one
representative from every
region (every region!).
Every three months we
meet quarterly to discuss
your concerns (and those
of the office), review all
that’s going on in the
different regions, award a
couple small money
grants (though it looks
like we may award up to
six per meeting in the
future!), take an informal
vote on the office staff
member we most appreciate that quarter (staff appreciation
award), and generally just bask in the goodness that is
Penonome (location of all previous meetings).
All that to say, welcome to VAC’s latest quarterly La
Vaina instalment.
First, regional updates. As always, the work of roughly
120 volunteers taken altogether can be quite
overwhelming. Like staring at the sun. Something you
shouldn’t do. Ever. But notable efforts include Eco-giras
in Cocle (Peter Musser as Captain Planet), VAST projects
in Veraguas, Ambassador involvement in Darien,
upcoming youth seminars all over the place, and finally –
as-well-as perhaps the most blinding – the continued
excellence of all Comarca Ngäbe/Bugle volunteers.
(Don’t you let Sturm edit that; he’s not Comarca, he
doesn’t know.)
Super Small Project Assistance is our way-too-wordy
system of small money donations. VAC gives two (up
to $60 each) and WID/GAD gives two (also up to $60
each) at every meeting but we’ll probably be offering
many more the next time around. Our most recent
recipients include Nicole Richardson for wormcultivating materials,
foto por Sara L.
Patricia Greenberg for
a composting latrine,
Katie Skaar for
APLAFA visits, and
Caitlin Morvidelli for
kids camp materials.
And finally we
addressed some basic
office issues including
snack/soda machines
and a pay phone
available to volunteers.
Look for the vending
machines in the kitchen
some time soon; pay
phone issues are still
being worked out.
All those interested in developing relationships with
embassy workers (and probable homestays in the city)
should
contact
Patricia
Greenberg
([email protected]) who will walk you
through the process.
Ultimamente, congrats to our new leader in arms, VAC
president Zach Kippenbrock. We on the directiva are
still fairly certain VP Chris Meyer has every intent of
staging a violent coup de etat one day and are
maintaining a constant state of heightened alert – that’s
an orange on the color scale. Congrats Zach, but
consider yourself warned.
Next meeting? All Volunteer Conference.
[email protected]
21
La Vaina
WID / GAD Update
Kari Kelly
Brand New Directiva!
On a cloudy, rainy day in Panama City,
WID/GAD President Julia Downs,
Vice-President John Nangle and Super Secretary Katie
Skaar stepped down and allowed a new generation of
PCV’s a chance to try to spread peace, love and an
understanding of gender roles among HCN’s and
volunteers. The new directiva emerged, with four 54ers
and one 55er at the helm of one of the best-kept secrets
among PCV organizations. Allow me to introduce your
present WID/GAD directiva:
$20, for an APLAFA visit to her site. The awards are up
to $60 each and we have more money, so send in those
proposals to your local VAC representative and they will
be awarded at the next VAC meeting!
foto por Norma H.
Kristen Arbuckle, Education Coordinator, is located in
Chami (Comarca Ngäbe Bugle).
Kari Kelly, Secretary, lives in La Fragua (Veraguas).
Rebecca Schram, Co-President, resides in Kankintu
(Comarca Ngäbe Bugle).
Shanna Scott, Treasurer, has a house in Chica (Panama
Este).
Trisha Wood, Co-President, makes her home in Buenos
Aires (Comarca Ngäbe Bugle).
If you see any of these lovely ladies out and about, please
feel free to ask any questions you may have about WID/
GAD, the youth conference, or life in general.
IDEMI Youth Conference (WID/GAD)
After much gnashing of teeth and tearing-out of hair, the
Youth Conference has been combined, from two
conferences to one, scheduled for Penonome, February
13-17th at the Muchachas Gias complex. The theme for
the conference is: “Si a la vida, no al SIDA”. Youths
between the ages of 14-17 have been nominated by
volunteers to participate in five jam-packed days of fun,
which will include sessions on self-esteem, decisionmaking, goal-setting, and effective communication, in
order to obtain the ability to give charlas within their
communities on these subjects in respect to VIH/SIDA.
Those volunteers who nominated kids and who also
volunteered to help with the charlas/counseling positions
will receive fancy, personalized emails with all the
information ASAP.
And the Award Goes To
During the December VAC meeting, the WID/GAD
SSPA grants were awarded to Caitlin Morvidelli, $60, for
materials for a youth camp/activity and to Katie Skaar,
22
foto por Norma
H.
WID/GAD
Concurso
In the last La Vaina, a concurso for jovenes was
announced in which the winner would receive a bag of
school supplies. Due to the directiva change and planning
for the Youth Conference, the awards will be decided
during the February directiva meeting. The winner’s
volunteer will be contacted by the end of February.
AVC Fun
WID/GAD will be hosting a book club discussion at AVC,
on the book In the Land of God and Men: A Latin
Woman’s Journey by Silvana Paternostro. Be on the
lookout for an email announcing the arrival of the book(s)
in the fabulously revamped office lounge. WID/GAD
will also have a general meeting during this time, so don’t
miss it, I promise it will be the most fun you’ll have while
not running naked down the beach. (Not that any of us
do that.)
When you teach your children, you teach your children’s
children.
La Vaina
Regional Leader Update and Job Openings
Brought to You by Greg Branch
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn
more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
-John Quincy Adams
started at the office at 9:00 am. Check into the Hotel
California and we cover the three nights. If you’d like to
foto por Brian and Nicole
Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is
the only thing that ever has.
-Margaret Mead
Leaders aren’t born they are made. And they are made
just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s
the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or
any goal.
-Vince Lombardi
The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me,
never say “I.” And that’s not because they have
trained themselves not to say “I.” They don’t think
“I.” They think “we”; they think “team.” They
understand their job to be to make the team function.
They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but
“we” gets the credit … . This is what creates trust,
what enables you to get the task done.
-Peter Drucker
foto por Norma H
spend one more day Peace Corps is having its open house
for all our partners on the 20th. So feel free to stick around
and meet national Partners and neighbors in the Cuidad
de Saber. Hope you are enjoying the holidays!!
JOB OPENINGS
As the year flips another number, 2006 brings change,
the ever-present constant in this world. As such, I am
posting the Regional Leaderships that are opening this
upcoming year. Extending your service to take on more
responsibility within the Peace Corps Panama program
is great life experience, a tremendous resume builder,
personally rewarding, and can be a lot of fun! If you are
interested please send your letter of intent to Greg Branch
at [email protected] or Nick Metes at
[email protected] Pues, here is what we are
looking at:
Deadline for letter of intent: January 15 2006
Bocas: Jessie Frazier COS March 15 2006
Chiriqui: Jordon Reeves COS May 19 2006
Azuero: John Nagle COS May 15 2006
Panama Este/Darien: Chris Meyer COS April 24 2006
Comarca Ngobe Bugle: Laura Squire COS April 27 2006
Hi RLs!! Just a quick note here to say hi here and thank
you for all your hard work during 2005. We are kicking
off the new year with your regional meetings and then
following up with your Regional Leader training and site
development team meeting on January 18th and 19th.
Please come in to the city on the 17th so we can get
Deadline for letter of intent: June 15 2006
Cocle: Meegan March COS August 24 2006
Colon: Rebecca Fertzinger COS September 9 2006
Veraguas: Jon Strum and Sara Lewis COS Nov 2006
[email protected]
23
La Vaina
Realidades
Colores opacos invaden tu suerte
Colores que tornan de vivo a gris.
Caminas las calles hundidas, inertes
Captando horrores en este país.
Miradas que siguen de cerca tu paso
En ellas descubres el dolor de los años.
Rostros poblados por el tiempo y su caso
Dirigiendo caminos a lugares extraños.
Cuerpos que alguna vez eran fuerte
Se ven desgastados por el hambre ó trabajo.
Mentes con vivos retratos de muerte
Saturadas con lo que la vida les trajo.
Todo a tu paso esta viejo y cansado
Lo notas igual en los edificios que vez.
Crees salir de un sueño atormentado
Al notar que tu vida es al revés.
América
Continente de América
Inmenso en tierra
Riquezas escondes por todo tu cuerpo y corazón.
Madre América
En tu rebaso acunas
La pobreza paulatina que tus hijos crearon.
Padre América
Con tu machete enseñas
El sudor del trabajo que tus hermanos mataron.
Hijo América
Que con tu mente diste
La idea del perjuicio que ahora acosa a tus primos.
Hija América
tu espalda marca
La muerte, el hambre, la tristeza y sus caminos.
Privilegiada América
En tus bolsillos llevas
La suerte, vida y esperanza de tus inquilinos.
—Norma Hernandez
24
La Vaina
El Pobre
Francisco de Las Flores de
Arenas de Mariato de Veraguas
I
De mi vida no me quejo
para comer alcanzado
y no soy adinerado
pero tampoco pendejo
yo ha tenido mis reflejo
por eso es que les digo
soy rico de mucho amigo
que tiene las cualidade
millonarios de amistade
y libre de los castigo
II
Yo no ha tenido dinero
para sentirme orgulloso
vivo con buen reposo
y como de lo que quiero
y como yo soy sincero
hago lo que podemos
es que así lo comprendemos
sin el oro y el cobre
pero le dijo que el pobre
sin plata también valemos
III
Yo tengo arroz y maíz
frijoles, ñame y otoy
pero yo le digo hoy
eso me hace feliz
una cría de codorniz
tal vez un par de gallinas
pero a mí si me fascina
que vallan a mi ranchito
aunque yo sea pobrecito
pero tengo disciplina
IV
Si yo duermo en una hamaca
pero sin preocupación
que no ha llegado el camión
que iba lleno de vaca
Mi mente más se destaca
y siempre yo pienso a diario
yo no tengo un adversario
compitiendo la riqueza
ni el dolor de cabeza
foto por Sara L.
(Sara Lewis lives in Francisco’s site).
[email protected]
25
La Vaina
World AIDS Day
Allison Musser
I didn’t even realize how uncomfortable I had become sitting
on the rough wooden bench for over forty minutes; my
surroundings were much too intriguing for me to pay attention
to such minor annoyances. The canaza walls and penca roof
were not totally unlike other structures I had been in recently,
so I imagine it was the vastness of the place, along with the
feeling of sanctity that made it so captivating. Directly in front
of me were two elders sitting in hammocks singing in Tulegaya.
Their message was one of
cultural tradition, a
lesson for the women of
the community who
gather every Wednesday
morning in this meeting
place. Since the words
being chanted meant
nothing to me I paid little
attention to the men but
rather studied the
audience. I was struck
by the distinct and
intricate details in each of
the molas that the
women wore, yet I sensed
a more profound unity
that this dress represented. I had always heard volunteers talk
about La Casa de Congreso but actually taking part in a meeting
in the Congreso house had me feeling as if I had been plopped
into a Discovery Channel cultural adventure. I would have
been more than content to spend my four days in Kuna Yala
just soaking up the energy and unique vibe from this society
so rich and different from anything I had ever experienced, but
there was additional important work to be done. I had come to
Ustupu to carry out a World AIDS day event with a foundation
of Kuna youth, UNAIDS and the UN Population fund.
activities there were many times
when I had to take deep breaths in
order to control my emotions. There
are few people in Kuna Yala who do
not know someone who is HIV
positive or who has already died of
AIDS. Seeing members of the
community, most of whom have been personally touched by
the disease in some way,
cross cultural taboos in
order to educate
themselves so they can
overcome an epidemic
that threatens their
future was the most
profound
and
encouraging experience
I have had as a Peace
Corps volunteer.
Partaking in an event
that empowers people to
make choices to live a
healthier life is what I feel
is my most important
work as a Peace Corps volunteer. My experience in Kuna Yala
allowed me to join a band of individuals all working for the
same goal. I was encouraged by seeing many rally around us
enthusiastically receiving our message, I am hopeful that there
were many more seeds planted that day and that time will show
the fruits of our united efforts.
Over the past century the Kuna have had to overcome several
challenges in order to survive and maintain their cherished
way of life. Today, however, HIV/AIDS is a present and
significant threat to the survival of the Kuna people and culture.
The rate of HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly among the densely
populated Kuna communities. Because of the fact that the
Kuna are a transient group, with over half of the Kuna
population living in the city for extended periods of time and
many traveling back and forth to the Comarca, they are marked
as an “at risk” population. With the objective of “Breaking the
Silence” of HIV/AIDS in Kuna Yala, we arrived and realized a
HIV/AIDS jamboree to commemorate World AIDS day in Kuna
Yala’s largest and most affected community, Ustupu.
When the actual day of the event arrived I was able to fall into
the role of observer. As I watched the progression of the day’s
26
La Vaina
Living in Perfect Harmony With Arrieras
Jason Cochran
It has happened to any one of you out there. You get
your garden or vivero perfectly chicken proofed, the plants
have germinated, and things are starting to look pretty
positive for the plants you have planted that will give you
credibility as an ag-educator in your community. As you
are about to throw out your shoulder from patting yourself
on the back, they attack. They come in hoards, strip all
of the vegetation and leave you with vulnerable looking
sticks in your back yard. Yes, your project has been
devastated by our friendly neighborhood leaf-cutter ants.
This Vaina’s SAS tech session will explore these pests
and offer up some possible solutions to controlling these
meticulous critters.
Background:
Members of the atta family, Leaf Cutters are considered
by some to be the first actual “farmers” of the new world.
While they are a multi-billion dollar pest to the two-legged
foto por Nicole
R. new world, some cultures revere their
farmers
of the
hard-working habits. The Kuna believe the ants have
medicinal purposes and can treat “laziness” by being
placed on the body and being allowed to bite—the bites
giving the Kuna power to be a hard worker.
But I digress. Back to the six-legged farmers. The
vegetation that the leaf cutter ants harvest is collected
and used to grow fungus that the ants harvest for
consumption. This relationship between the fungus and
the ant is considered a mutual relationship because ants
provide the fungus food for growth and the fungus in turn
provides the ants with food. Interestingly enough, the
food that the fungus produces for the ants is only available
if the ants are pruning or eating the food, so if the ants do
not maintain the garden, there will not be any food
available to them.
compost pile to establish a new
one. The growth of the nest is
slow in the first two-three years,
and then explodes. As with most
of the ant species, there are many
types of ants with many types of
duties from caring for the young to foraging for vegetation
to defending the colony to taking care of the fungus
garden.
Leaf cutter ants have a wide range of vegetation that
they collect for their fungus garden that depends on
availability and the time of year. During the wet season,
they will focus on green leaves while in the dry season
they will harvest leaf matter, fruit parts, flowers, etc. This
seems to be more based on availability as you may have
seen at the rate that your dry season garden is ravaged.
The leaf cutter ants will also prefer newer leaves for a
wide range of reasons, one of them being that some older
citric leaves have an Epiphylls or fungal growth that repels
the ants. The ants also prefer to forage at night, the
reason being that carpenter ants protect many of the trees
that they forage during the day.
All this being said, leaf cutter ants provide a valuable
service to the rainforest. Their nests and collection of
foto por Chris M.
Like the majority of social insects, there is one queen
who can live up to ten years, bearing millions of progeny.
The queen is the largest in size and when future queens
are ready to form their own nest, they grow wings and
migrate to establish their own colony. You most likely
have seen this happen shortly after the first rainfalls of
the wet season in May-June. The migrating queen will
carry with her a small patch of fungus from her home
nest in order to start her fungus collection in her own
colony. This is similar to us using a bit of dirt from an old
[email protected]
27
La Vaina
organic matter help to maintain the fertility of the soil. In
Barro Colorado Island, STRI scientists are conducting
experiments to test this function. In Kuna Yala, the ant
compost is used as a fertilizer to their crops. So while
they may seem to be a pest, they seem to provide the
service of keeping the forest abonar’d. The dirt their
nests could even be a valuable abono for your own garden.
You would have to treat this dirt first by laying it out in
the sun, pouring boiling water through it or sealing it off in
a cubo in order to kill
off fungi that could
hurt your plants.
This too is a
common practice
by the Kuna.
Suggestions for
protecting your
crops against leaf
cutter ants:
There are several
ways to minimize
leaf cutter ant
damage, but few
have
been
consistently proven
foto por Caleb M/
to work. Some of
these will be
discussed. Of course there are non-organic solutions such
as using hormitox, pouring boiling water down their nests,
using kerosine or a M-80 firecracker to blow up the nest.
In the tradition of our efforts to focus on non-toxic organic
solutions, only those will be discussed. Nevertheless,
although using the inorganic deterrents can work, they
really are not 100% effective, so you are just hurting the
environment and not getting rid of the ants anyway….
1) Location: It seems that the ants are opportunistic
foragers, that is that they have their preferences, but will
settle for the next best thing if nothing else is available.
That next best thing is your garden. This explains why, in
my experience, heavily deforested areas have big issues
with leaf-cutter ants. To overcome this, perhaps placing
your garden in an area with high bio-diversity could
minimize the damage they will cause. This seems to be a
popular solution. You will not eliminate the ants, but you
can reduce the damage they cause.
2) Mulch: It has been observed that the ants would not
go after plants surrounded by heavy leaf or organic litter.
28
So by increasing the amount of mulch around your plants
you can deter to the ants from attacking your garden.
3) Repellent: Essential oils are also thought to be a
deterrent, so making a repellent using garlic or lemon grass
could help. This has not been widely tested, so experiment
with it and get back to us.
4) Canavalia: The
fungus nests are
unable to process
protein or nitrogen,
so eventually the
fungus will die off
from having high
quantities
of
unprocessable highnitrogen or protein
leaves in the nest.
Of course, worker
ants will eventually
remove
these
leaves, but it could
slow down the nest
growth somewhat.
It has also been
observed that the
leaves of canavalia
will produce a
fungus that kills the fungus the ants feed upon. This takes
some time, (2-3 weeks) but I have seen it work. With
their food supply destroyed, the ants will die or move on
to other areas.
5) Marigolds, or flor de muerto: This plants emits a
chemical that has been reported to repel the leaf cutter
ants from the area, so intercropping this plant with your
garden may could lower leaf cutter ant damage.
6) Natural predators: The leaf cutters have few
predators, but one is the bullet ant. It is doubtful that they
can curb their population, however. So hold off on
collecting thousands of bullet ants to defend your garden.
If you want to do this, go crazy, but be careful of their
painful sting (SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY). There is
also a parasitic fungus, called Escovopsis mold that will
attack the ants fungus and poison it in a matter of days.
This mold is only found in the leaf cutter ants fungal
garden. As the fungal garden is specially evolved
(considered to be clone as remember the ants take starter
gardens with them from their nests, so genetically all
foto por Allison B.
La Vaina
unproven. You can change that. Play around with these
techniques, experiment and get back to us on how they
turned out.
Good luck and I hope you will have healthy gardens and
such as a result of this article.
Information from this article was gathered through a
permaculture e-discussion group I belong to, Mr. Dave
Dickerson, a consultant on all matters agriculture and
development, as well as the following websites:
fungual gardens are damn near identical, so the mold too
is genetically identical from nest to nest) so too is the
mold. If the mold attacks the garden all is not lost as the
ants actually carry on their body a bacterium that is a
powerful antibiotic (used by many drug labs to develop
numerous of antibiotics useful to humans) in order to
control the fungus. Their use of this fungus is carefully
controlled to the point that the Ecovopsis has not developed
a tolerance to this antibiotic. Amazingly, not only are
these ants adept at farming, but they have also figured
out how to use antibiotics wisely so as not to create
resistance!
7) Enemy territory: Ants are very territorial, and
possibly littering the ants nest with dirt from another nest
will send them into attack mode. This will create a warlike situation can result in a move to another area, or a
massive battle with heavy causalities and you with a
protected garden.
Unfortunately, these ants are poorly studied (master’s
project anyone?), so all of these techniques are fairly
foto por Sara L.
www.thewildones.org/Animals/atta.html
www.antcolony.org/leafcutter/leafcuttermain.htm
www.floresflowers.com/opera/Atta.html
www.qeced.net/gensci/nyt/Ecology.htm#19990803
www.referaty.sk/?referat=30
www.iht.com/articles/85036.html
[email protected]
29
La Vaina
The Gilmore Girls and Me
Anonymous
Well, I recently out-ed myself for the
first time. I don’t know if the fourfor-two happy hour had something
to do with it, or if I intuited a
sympathetic audience, but I said it:
I watch the Gilmore Girls. Late at
night, when I’m back in my site, I wonder what Rory will do
when she’s done at Yale; if the coffee shop guy will ever take
off that damn hat; and if the show—whose reruns have become
such a fixture in my life now—was in fact canceled even before
I ever stepped foot in Panama. What nobody knows is that I
pick my hotels based on access to cable, and that I fumble with
the remote when I hear knocks at my hotel door in fear of being
caught in the act of not only
watching Gilmore Girls, but liking
it.
A few years ago, I ran into a Rutger’s
Media Studies professor who
obsessed on the correlation between
television watching and human
physiology. Not surprisingly, he and
his colleagues have confirmed—by
measuring alpha brain-wave
productivity among other scientific
identifiers I don’t quite
understand—that
television
watchers overall feel more relaxed
and passive, than people engaged
in other activities, like reading, for instance. While not a newsbreaking conclusion, he has gone on to make a career out of
exploring television addiction and has examined other
compulsive tendencies induced by this peculiar medium.
For all the science behind the tendency of human eyes to
gravitate towards an illuminated television screen, it doesn’t
explain why mine, in Panama, are glued to Gilmore Girls. Had
I been from a comatose New England town or was I an eleven
year old girl, I could make the leap. Maybe. Instead, I’m left
alone at night with a new question, following the usual “How
do I reconcile my own contributions to the world’s injustices
with my do-gooder Peace Corps stint? Does anything I’m doing
here in Panama really matter…blah, blah, blah?” This new
question is “Come on! The Gilmore Girls?”
The heart and soul of this question is, of course, not about
Rory, Lauralie, or me, but instead about the power societal
forces have on our habits and practices. And how our behavior,
beyond what we know is good for us or good for the world,
changes when our realities do. It doesn’t matter why I do it.
What matters is that I go against everything I intellectually
know is good and just and right in the world and go ahead and
30
do it anyway. Despite the books and magazines and
conversations waiting in the wings, the exploring and
connecting and writing and plain old relaxing, ruminating, or
constructing that I could be doing, I’m watching garbage
instead, each and every time I go to the City. And I don’t think
I’m alone.
It makes me think about the community drunks, kid beating
parents, and my wildly intelligent neighbor, who can barely
read but who, if he applied himself to learn a few basic principles
(that I could teach him if he would only let me!), could rule the
world, or at least his corner of it, and how many of them too
(no, of course not all), know that
foto por Wakan what they are doing isn’t right,
it isn’t productive, it isn’t going
to get them where they want to
be. I’m not making justifications
for child beating or for watching
the WB, but let’s just say, I now
understand a component of it.
Not everyone has the luxury of
enjoying the 11th rung of the
human necessities ladder, where
sit non-fat-double-pump-soylattes; some are just trying to
make it through the day.
Now I’m not trying to drum up
sympathy for destructive behavior that will catapult no one
out of oppression, whether it be the ignorant, poverty-based
version some of us see in or sites, or the ignorance of the
corporate/consumer-hold over some people back home. What
I am trying to drum up is a dialogue about how a volunteer can
take it to the next step, once community members intellectually
know that behavior X is harmful and that behavior Y is the
road to salvation. Or, how, on God’s green earth, can I get the
Panamanian version of myself to trade in an hour of the forced,
trying way to hard to be witty (and sadly failing), girly banter
of Gilmore Girls for an entire cycle of the BBC’s World Business
Report?
Don’t be mad after reading this far, but I don’t have an answer.
The point of this exercise is to explore, just a bit, the barriers we
volunteers face in our work by picking up a mirror and seeing
a link between some of the counter-productive behaviors in
our communities and our Girlmore-Girl-watching own. In
doing so we may be able to stir the pot of compassion and
patience a bit—not so we soften our approach or determination
to facilitate change, but so we don’t get so upset by the behavior
of our neighbors that we give up completely.
La Vaina
Critter Corner
Bryan Richardson
I have heard many horror stories since my arrival in
Panama about “campo surgeries”. The all too common
story about how someone’s dog was neutered without
anesthesia or any kind of pain medication, which ends up
becoming infected and the dog becomes very ill or dies.
The thought among many campesinos may be that dogs
are not worth the money or trouble or that they do not
feel pain like we do. I assure you that is not true. Dogs
feel pain and as man’s best friend they certainly deserve
foto por Dave F.
Furthermore, if she did
have puppies would
you be able to find good
homes for all the
puppies?
As Peace Corps
Volunteers part of our
job is to share our culture and a part of that includes
sharing our culture’s values toward animals. Gandhi said,
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be
judged by the way its animals are treated”. It is true that
as volunteers we do not have a lot of money, that our
allowance does not include the cost of spaying or neutering
our cats and dogs. But as pet owners it is our responsibility
to take good care of our pets and to lead by example.
Living in a developing nation, many campesinos may not
have the funds either, but it is worth the price for those
who can do it.
Some people do not realize the importance of a licensed
veterinarian’s expertise or the need for anesthesia. If
someone takes a machete to your dog’s testicles without
any tranquilizers or anesthesia, just think how that might
feel. As an animal lover and a Veterinary Technician I
urge everyone to please lead by example, people will see
the difference. Our dog was the smallest, and màs fea
puppy in her litter and now she is almost twice the size of
the only other survivor. People are able to see that it is
because someone takes care of her.
foto por Marcia P.
to have proper and humane medical attention.
Spaying or neutering your pet is very important for the
health of your little friend. There is an increased risk of
cancers and prostate problems in non-neutered pets. Also
a male can develop habits such as urinating to mark its
territory and chasing females in heat, which can lead to
sexually transmitted diseases like genital warts. A female
can also get STDs, and there is the problem of keeping
the males away when she is in heat. A female also risks
a serious uterine infection every time she comes into heat.
[email protected]
31
La Vaina
Deep Thoughts on Farming Rice
Sara Lewis
Not long ago I decided to pick up
a little intra-curricular reading
material to balance out all the
classical literature that’s been
occupying my free time. I got a
hold of a book by Masanobu Fukuoka called THE
NATURAL WAY OF FARMING: The Theory and
Practice of Green Philosophy. I was familiar with some
of his other works and theories on no-till agriculture and
curious
to
learn more.
Mr. Fukuoka
has a lot of
interesting
things to say about “natural
farming”, especially in
regards to rice. For
those that have
worked with rice, be
it large plantation or
small rice tanks, I think
you may find the
following charts to be
useful.
important questions as “Where does tasty rice gone?”
with this figure but, more importantly, shows that “…the
chances that a tasty variety of rice will be grown, properly
processed, and cooked skillfully to give rice of outstanding
taste is not more than one in a thousand.” He continues
by explaining that this means that “…even with the best
of luck, someone may encounter truly tasty rice perhaps
once in every two to three years. And if that person
does not happen to be very hungry at the time, all will
have
been
for
naught.” Phew. I
think we can all
breathe a sigh
of relief. The
odds were
foto por Shana S.
against us
from
the
beginning.
We’d
a l l
have
to
extend at least a
year to have any
real chance of
making “tasty
rice”.
I know I did.
I especially liked Fig. 5.2 from Chapter 5: The
Road Man Must Follow. All this time I was feeling
like a failure every time my rice came out burned
and stuck to the sides of the paila, too salty, not
salty enough or the dreaded aguachao. Here I come to
discover that good tasting rice is really just a “figment of
the imagination”. Fukuoka not only addresses such
32
For
more
information on
this and related
subjects look for
Masanobu Fukuoka’s
THE NATURAL WAY OF FARMING: The Theory and
Practice of Green Philosophy in your local book
exchange or library.
La Vaina
Earn More Than ZERO
Jessica Samples
If you have not already signed the Peace Corps
Authorization for Purchase of U.S. Savings Bonds By
Volunteer form and handed it to Viekla Simmons, Thomas
Kuhn thinks you are incredibly lame. And so do I.
Each month of your service in Panama you are in fact
earning a portion of your re-adjustment allowance, 1/3 of
which you will get in the form of a check at COS, cashable
in Panama. The rest is eventually sent in check (and
savings bonds if you fill out this form) to your house after
COS. You have the option, right now, to divert $50 or
$100 of each month’s re-adjustment allowance to buy
the bonds (which Washington does for you if you fill out
this form). The interest won’t push you into the next tax
bracket—you’d do well if you went away with $50 or
$75 in interest after service—but if we learn anything in
Panama, it’s how useful $50 or $75 actually can be.
Be advised that if you take advantage of this bond offer,
it may affect the amount of cash that will be available to
foto por Jessica S..
por JessicaatS.COS. The “1/3” you get up front may
youfoto
in Panama
be calculated from the amount of cash sitting in your readjustment cash account and not include the bonds you
have purchased. But in the end, there will be no losses,
only room for interest growth.
These bonds take twenty years to mature, although they
can continue to gain interest for thirty. If you cash them
earlier than the twenty years, the penalty is the loss of
the last three months of interest. But remember, when
dealing with U.S. Savings Bonds, there are never actual
losses; you will never receive less than you gave in the
purchase.
For more info see www.publicdebt.treas.gov. There are
no city or state taxes imposed on the interest accrued
with bonds. Federal taxes must be paid on the interest
only when the bonds are cashed. At this issues printing,
EE bonds were at 3.2%, and the II bonds are 6.73%.
Both can be redeemed at any full service bank in the
U.S.
foto por Mark S..
[Editor’s Note: The author of this article studied
Italian and Government in college and has absolutely
no background or training or certification for giving
[email protected]
33
La Vaina
Financial Planning
Chris Meyer
I have found most of my comrades in arms here in
Panama to be intelligent. But in the area of money, few
seem to have it together. Not that I have a pile of money
in my Banco Nacional account (my arch-enemy in this
country for their horrible, horrible customer service). In
fact I do a good job of cleaning it out each month, but my
finances back in the states
are in order. At a young age, foto por Trisha W.
I was forced by my father
to learn about personal
finance so as not to repeat
the numerous mistakes he
made; had his business
savvy
been
better
developed at a young age,
the Meyer family name
would be synonymous with
wealth at this point in time.
I ended up liking the subject
and eventually majored in it.
I even produced a seminar
for my friends seeking
useless liberal arts degrees to give them the basics so
that later in life they might be able to eat more than peanut
butter and Top Ramen, washed down with boxed White
Zinfandel. The US will go through the same thing Panama
went through regarding their social security/pension
system, so heed my advice and never count on the
government for your pension. In 20 years, when there
are way too many old people (i.e. you and your friends…),
the system will go bankrupt and everything you might
have contributed will be lost. It’s
always best to take care of
yourself
and not rely on the government. (This may sound a bit
ironic given our current situation.)
Recent Arrivals: If you have school loans and haven’t
consolidated them, DO IT NOW! The typical student
loan readjusts its rate every six-months, but when you
consolidate it automatically
locks in the rate for the life
of the loan. Rates are
rising and will be rising, so
if you can lock it in before
the end of the year, great.
Next year, your rate will
be a bit higher, but you will
evade
future
rate
increases. And rates are
bound to increase as the
government raises them to
combat inflation. All loans
are deferrable during your
service. This means you
don’t have to pay, but the
interest will continue to accumulate. I am currently paying
$100/month on my loan through a deduction from my
readjustment allowance, so I am not accumulating interest
and the balance of the loan is actually decreasing. Your
readjustment allowance doesn’t earn anything (unless you
chose to invest in savings bonds), so you might as well
use it to pay down any student loans.
original artwork by Andrew P.
34
Roth IRAs (no not the Irish
Republican Army), but a
beautiful thing the
foto por Trisha W.
La Vaina
I managed to delay a couple of months, but will now
have to pay some kind of penalty, like 1% per month.
government developed about 6-7 years ago to encourage
savings. Basically, it acts like a savings account to which
you can contribute a certain amount of money each year.
When you retire, you can withdraw this money without
paying taxes, yeehaaww. Currently, anytime you make
money (buy low, sell high), the tax man takes a cut, but
anything you transact in your Roth IRA the tax man can’t
touch now, or in the future. Just to confuse you some
with a bit of history, before the Roth IRA, there was the
plain IRA, which let you save without paying yearly taxes
on the interest (as you would have to do with a savings
account), but when you went to cash out, you had to pay
the taxes. Get a “Roth” as they are referred to now if
you don’t have one. You can open one online with a
couple of hundred dollars through a number of different
companies like Fidelity (suggested), a large national bank
like Citi, or other brokerage companies like Charles
Schwab, Merril Lynch, Smith Barney, etc… Now what
to purchase with your money is a whole other article.
[Editor’s note: Putting your money in a “Roth” and then
purchasing nothing with it would be like filling a saco
with hundreds and stashing it in the shed with your canned
tuna and guns.]
One nice thing about only earning $2,700/year is that you
have room to cash in on some capital gains because your
first $8-9,000 of total income (I can’t remember the exact
amount), or earned income plus investment income, is
tax free. This means that you can now sell the Walt
Disney or Microsoft stock your grandpa gave you when
you were a wee lad, which is now worth a couple G’s, or
more, and maybe not pay too many taxes. Usually, Uncle
Sam takes a cut, but we are only earning a third of our
allowed tax-free income. You should try to take
advantage of the $6,000+/- capital gain you can incur
without paying the “man”. For example, if you were at
the bottom tax bracket (15%) and had to pay capital gains
taxes on the $6,000 gain you made from selling Disney,
you would have to pay Uncle Sam $900, money better
spent on buying me a beer for this advice. If you are
enamored with the stock, sell it, move the proceeds to
your Roth IRA, and buy the stock anew. You will pay
some transaction fees, but in the long run you will save a
bundle in taxes. It’s all about taxes.
A good friend here let me peek at his portfolio. He still
had some technology stock that he “forgot” to sell during
the bubble of the late-nineties early-2000’s. “Forgot”
now equals the difference between having the flow to
quaff something less prone to give a hangover than my
beloved, boxed Clos. Luckily, that loser tech stock still
holds some value in its ability to lower a tax burden. Justly,
Uncle Sam lets you deduct any losses (bought high, sold
low) from the sale of a stock against any investment
income. So, unless you think that stock is going to go
down any further (it has probably stabilized) don’t sell it
and hold it for the future to counter a gain. For example,
foto por Kari K.
One good thing Bush has done is to raise the amount you
can put in an IRA each year. The limit used to be $2,000/
year, back in the day, but now it is up to $4,000. The
kicker for us though, is that you can only invest up to the
amount of “earned income” for the year, which for us
PCVs, is $2,700 and some change. “Earned income”
doesn’t include investment income, so dividends or capital
gains you might have earned during the year, won’t count
in the total. If you already made your contribution, when
you file your taxes you will have to withdraw the difference
and pay a small fine. I got nicked on this last year when
the ceiling was $3,000 and had to withdraw $300, which
[email protected]
35
La Vaina
next year when I actually earn money (that is if the Ngäbe
charms I’ve strung up around my house do the trick), I
should have to pay taxes on a $10,000 capital gain (I put
up a lot of charms.) from selling x-stock. With one of the
loser stocks in my portfolio, I could sell it at a loss of
$5,000 and only pay taxes on $5,000
(10 gain – 5 loss = 5 taxable). The
rules have changed recently and if you
are holding a loser and sell it, you can
carry the gain into future years, up to
three years (I think).
Another quick thing, if you don’t have
a US checking and credit card
account, get one. You can arrange
them online and have the cards sent
to your parent’s house or who ever is
collecting your mail. I have mine with the same bank
which makes paying the credit card easy. My bank pays
the ATM fees too, which can be up to $2 a pop here in
Panama. Have the cards sent to Panama overnight to
the office when you will be passing through. If you aren’t
able to activate them in a timely manner, you run the
chance that they won’t activate because of time
limitations. Having these accounts makes life easier by
letting your parents or anybody else get money to you
quickly without having to send it to Panama (think
Christmas and birthday money) and allows you to have a
credit card (true, a bit more difficult to use here than in
the US) and other ATM card for emergencies or when
Banco Nacional’s ATMs aren’t working, which is way
too often (damn them). This will also help you to build
your credit history; just don’t use them too often and pay
off any charges right away.
Okay, enough rambling. Since I don’t know the specifics
anymore, just the general strategies, before you make
any major changes, consult the family accountant, parents,
or whoever helps you with your finances (my disclaimer,
pues). If you catch me in the office (I am the epitome of
the “office volunteer” now), ask me any question you
might have and I will do
my best to answer it or
find the answer. I get
some queer enjoyment
out of it. Small things
add up and starting early
is important to take
advantage
of
compounding (think rule
of 72), so if you don’t do
foto por Wakan
anything now, at least
when you return to the states, visit a financial consultant
to get things in order so you won’t be welcoming me at
Wal-Mart at age 65 because you didn’t plan appropriately.
Tortilla de Guineo
Por Lisa Andrusyszyn
Here’s a lovely, simple little recipe for those of you
with out much more than some leña and plenty of
guineos. It’s a Panamanian version of pancakes that
I picked up in the Darién. Ok, so I guesstimated on
some of the ingredients, but just aim for a pancake
batter-like consistency (so that it falls off the spoon
smoothly). Enjoy!
500 gr. bag of flour
A pinch of salt
2-3 Guineo (bien maduro)
1 cup of milk
1 egg (optional)
¼ bar of butter
Optional variations:
Add vanilla
Add snickers, chopped up (mmmm…talk about a
cultural exchange!)
Mash the guineo up with a fork. Then mix all the
ingredients together and add water until you get the
pancake consistency. Pour spoonfuls of the mix on
the frying pan and let each side fry until golden
brown. Eat así or with syrup (if you can find it!).
foto por Wakan
36
La Vaina
Volunteer Medical Advisory:
A Literal Tale of Blue Balls
Alan Foster
Studies and scientific exploration are continuing to show
that a vast realm of medical knowledge can be found in
the hands of indigenous peoples throughout the earth,
particularly in tropical areas and often obscured from the
advances of western medicine. Unfortunately, loss of
culture in our shared and shrinking world coincides with
loss of tradition, including this knowledge of botany and
the human body. One such example, that may yet find its
way into the practices of western medicine, is the use of
the jagua (haag-wah) seed by the Emberá and Wounaan
peoples in Panama and Colombia.
Of the many functions
of jagua, perhaps foto por Chris M.
most notable is the
seed’s use as a body
paint. Applied in
various designs from
the corners of the
mouth down, and
accompanied with
beads and silver
jewelry, it a generally
associated
with
traditional festivals or
special occasions.
However,
as
confirmed by Doctor
Lourdes, the paint is
also accepted to have
a valuable effect on
the epidermis and can
be used to treat a
number of medical
conditions. Possible
uses include the
treatment of acne and
skin
blemishes,
protection from ultraviolet light, and reportedly, a repelling
effect on nuisance insects such as mosquitoes.
As with most medications, there are also inherent risks
that result from ignorance or deliberate misuse. Although
knowledge of these inherent risks is widespread among
indigenous peoples, the danger is not necessarily intuitive,
and accidents are often reported among youth or the
occasional uninformed gringo. In the case of jagua, the
danger lies in potential contact with sensitive areas of
the skin, namely the ballsack.
Yes, I so unfortunately learned this from personal
experience. No, I was not intentionally painting my
genitals. Yes, it
became
an
extensive topic for
conversation in my
community. No, I
haven’t suffered
any
evident
permanent
damage. A week’s
rest, a little topical
cream, and the
infirmity they
describe with the
verb ‘rajarse’ has
healed completely.
[Editor ’s note:
Don’t let the PC
Medical Office
staff trick you into
getting a “ballsack
exam”.
They
have seen this sort
of thing before;
just ask for the
topical cream.]
Well… I hope this
factual and overly
informative confession will save someone a hard lesson
in cultural exploration. Cuidate.
[email protected]
37
La Vaina
Dichos
Andrew Parrucci
Here in the Darién, the gente frequently use dichos in
their daily banter, and by golly so should you. Give these
a try the next time you’re out pasearing; If they don’t
get you beat up, their proper implementation will not only
enhance your campo Castillano, but also amaze and
delight your neighbors. You’ll thereby earn cultural
brownie points and more than a few green plantains!
foto por Nicole R.
1. ¡Aquí, entre bujo y capacho!
Here, between the bujo and the
capacho! (Used as a response to a
greeting. The bujo sings a lovely tune,
while the capacho’s song sounds like
“jodido, jodido, jodido”.)
2. ¡Andando como los huevos de un verraco.
Moving along like a pig’s balls.
(Used to chastise somebody who is
always late. In case you’ve never
noticed, a pig’s testicles are located in
the very back of its body…therefore
almost the last appendage.)
3. Este machete no respeta a monte.
This machete makes weeds its biaaatch.
(Reference to a recently sharpened
machete.)
4. Como sacar un pelo (de) micho.
Like plucking a single hair from a cat.
(Said when someone has a fat wad of
cash and pulls out a small denomination
bill, i.e. $1.00.)
5. ¡Chocame la penca!
Gimme five!
6. ¡No te eches flores!
Don’t throw flowers on yourself!
(When you want to bring somebody
down who is bragging.)
7. El siempre se mete la yuca.
He always sticks in the
yuca.
(Said when somebody
butts in during
conversation or other
affair.)
8. ¡Sudado (mojado) hasta la
chácara!
Sweaty (soaked) all the
way to my
nutsack! (Males only.)
foto por Allison B.
38
9. Tirando la rula.
Throwing the blade.
(Reference to clearing
with the
machete.)
La Vaina
10. Se criaron en la cuna de oro.
They were raised in a
golden crib.
(This one alludes to
spoiled kids.)
11. ¡Voy a dar de comer los lombrices!
I’m going to feed my
intestinal worms!
(When somebody wants
to eat.)
12. Limpiando el horno para hacer
pan.
Cleaning the oven to
foto por Katie S.
make bread.
(When somebody is picking their nose.)
13. ¡Cachimbón(a)!
Deft, smart, menacing, delicious
(Always said with enthusiasm, and used
for just about everything, i.e. “¡Ese
hombre es cachimbón con el
machete!”, “¡La comida salió
cachimbóna”, “¡Aquel monte es
cachimbón para limpiar!”.)
14. ¡Como tres montado en la anca de un sapo!
Like three riding on a toad’s backside!
(Response to a greeting. Indicative of
rough times.)
15. ¡Matamos el tigre bravo!
Let’s kill the angry tiger!
(One always rubs his/her stomach while
saying this; means “let’s eat”.)
16. Hay que halar por los huevos.
You’ve got to pull them in by the balls.
(Repetitious advice for increasing
attendance at meetings.)
*Author takes credit for neither the creation nor
dissemination of the above dichos. He is simply an
advocate of the third goal of Peace Corps.
foto por Wakan
[email protected]
39
La Vaina
Personal Space
Samantha Bartling
What is it about our invisible boundaries—our “space” that
keeps us so guarded? It’s just space. How can we claim it as
our own? Guarding our translucent barbed wire protectively,
without even thinking twice or pondering how others simply
don’t even realize this air is occupied and sacred….
Personal Space: You’re taught about it as a wee little
tyke and it is
often a teacher’s tool
for keeping
tiny kinder fights from
breaking out in mad
chaos across the
Lego-strewn and
Lincoln
Logc l u t t e r e d
classroom. As an
adolescent it is often
used as a
self-esteem builder and
self-defense tactic. “Don’t let anyone violate your
personal space!” Later, it becomes less of an ambiguous
notion and begins to take shape as you learn about it for
yourself. Mine is large when annoyed, small when
in need of comfort, and varies on bodily odors
and my relationship with that person.
My Kitchen: I’ve noticed here in Panama,
that my personal space – the boundaries
that I deem sacred, untouchable, and
impenetrable – are places too. For
example, my kitchen. This is where I
prepare my meals, eat my sancochared
mesclas and creative, although often crunchy,
bean concoctions. This is NOT a place for
ants or my cat, Amistad (Ami). Oh, I get steamy
if I find a wandering ant near my cutting board or
a curious Ami doing the two paw stretch from
my chair to the table as she surveys the scene.
It ends up being a horrible, squishy ant death
by mutilation and a squirt of the spray bottle
for the kitty. How funny, because, my kitchen
i s
nothing more than a wooden table with random
stacks of bowls and Tupperware, just another play zone
or human obstacle to explore for a meal. And yet, in my
40
mind: “How dare they violate my kitchen, No Way!”
Followed by “Acks!” of disgust and disbelief.
My
Latrine: Just this
morning I had drained
my second travel mug of
coffee (I know, I need to cut
back on my caffeine in-take) and
decided to venture out to the potty.
Folks, I was even carrying my book
along with the TP. I don’t need to
explain why this place is sacred or why
violation of this space should be deemed
punishable to the full extent of campo
law. There it was, a curled up little vibora
peacefully resting in the corner, enjoying
a lazy morning sheltered fro the rain.
How is the snake to know my cardboardclad bathroom is off limits? Now use
your imagination and move
this little guy out into
t h e
monté as you’re on a
hike or trekking to a nearby
finca. No hay problema, a
special Nature moment or
journal-worthy
topic
documenting your latest
Panamá wildlife experience.
Snap your photo and thank the
powers to be for this unique sighting. Marty Stauffer or
Jack Hanna would be so lucky, right? But go back and
place the snakey in my latrine… I promptly exhale in
horror at this violation and march off to summon the
snake’s death. I’m a meanie, huh?
La Vaina
unusually large dark patch
clinging to my mosquitero.
“What the...?” Forget the
Nature moment, honestly!
I lunge at the thing,
machete flailing in an
excited adrenaline-jetted
moment. “Hah! Take
that stinky pants!”
I ought to be shocked and
appalled at my aggressive
and defensive behavior.
What happened to love
and respect for all
creatures? It seems those
feelings are still intact, but
not in my “Red Zones”.
My Mosquitero. A
haven, a cave of safety
and peace. In my mind,
this canopy-draped sleep
zone is a temple
impenetrable
by
mosquitoes,
moths,
grillos, and any number
of other bichos. Let alone an alacran. I awoke from
my slumber at 3 am to the call of nature (due to the huge
vaso of tea the night before, not the scorpion I’d soon
discover). Upon re-entry to my netted nest I spot an
So, I guess what I’m
trying to say is, to all those
species that can’t figure
out my boundaries and
personal space, and that
foto por Wakan
read La Vaina, I’d really
like to eat, sleep, and poo
poo in peace, ok? (See attached “Samantha’s Personal
Space/Red Zone Map” if in need of further assistance.
Thank you.)
foto por Erika K.
foto por Wakan
[email protected]
41
La Vaina
I Hope This Doesn’t Get Me Fired
Blake Audsley
What up, Gs! Blake here, coming
to y’all straight out of the Azuero.
Hope everybody is steerin’ clear
of
the
Dengue-carrying
mosquitoes and rabid vampire
bats. I gotta tell you guys, if
someone had told me ten years
ago that the federal government was going to pay me to sit in
a hammock in the tropics and eat oranges all day, I probably
wouldn’t have believed it. But, while my time in country has
been short, I have obtained valuable qualities and skills which
I am hoping will allow me to climb the corporate ladder of Peace
Corps, and eventually overthrow Peter as Country Director in
a bloodless coup. Brace yourself, carajos, here’s my top ten
list of things I’ve learned in Peace Corps so far.
5. Humility. If you relentlessly ridicule someone for breaking
their leg, you in turn will be relentlessly ridiculed when you
break your own leg. (But you probably won’t get deported to
Nicaragua.)
10. Moral Flexibility. Eating endangered things is fun, so
always be prepared to compromise your morals. Sea turtle
eggs taste absolutely delicious, and no amount of militant
Kerry-loving hippie environmental ethic is going to change
that. Though once a principled conservationist, I am now a
stringent advocate of devouring every unborn baby turtle and
washing it down with a frosty cold Balboa Ice. Conejo pintado
is pretty damn sabroso as well.
1. Economic Rationality. If you take our living allowance and
break it down to a 40 hour work-week we make roughly $1.88
per hour. If, like me, you spend a minimum of three hours per
week waiting for chivas, that comes out to $23 worth of time
per volunteer per month, waiting for chivas. Each year, this is
$276 per volunteer, or $552 per volunteer over a standard two
year service period. There are at least one hundred volunteers
in Peace Corp Panama at any given time,
so the tax sucker (I mean payer) is
shelling out $55,200 for us to sit around
while our butts get fatter. Another way
to look at it is to say that nearly 30,000
volunteer hours are spent idle in the
course of a two-year service for a
hundred volunteers. This is time that
could be more adequately utilized sitting
in a hammock, eating oranges, and
throwing rocks at your neighbors’
chickens (or three year olds). What the
hell is my point? MOTORCYCLES,
BABY! The equivalent of 3.42 years of wasted work time is
spent waiting for transportation. $552 is enough cash to get a
sweet bike with flames and skulls on the sides, and pay for
some cheap, low-coverage, third-world insurance. Plus, having
motorcycles, we would automatically be the coolest post in
Central America, maybe even the world. We could have our
own gangs, and get dope jackets that say “Hell’s Satans” on
the back! Could be the amount of time volunteers will spend at
the medico due to moto-related injuries could be significant,
but I expect the instantaneous deaths to keep medical bills low,
and there is always a fresh supply of expendable new
volunteers stateside. Plus, the rapid transportation would
enable us to make pillaging raids on neighboring Peace Corps
posts in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. (Remi best be watchin’ his
back.)
9. Conflict Avoidance. If someone asks,
“Are you a yeguero?” the answer is no.
Do not accept the invitation to their farm,
and no, you do not want to meet their
horse.
8. Tolerance. Three year-old children
are just like chickens: they’re smelly,
they’re dirty, they’re necio, and they
won’t hesitate to proudly crap wherever
the hell they want to when the feeling
hits them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the little buggers carry
avian influenza. It’s lucky for them both that I haven’t built a
biombo . . . yet.
7. Resourcefulness. A drunken Israeli surfer and 10 foot piece
of rebar is a quick way to break into a 1995 GMC Jimmy.
6. Perseverance. With a little hard work and dedication, anyone
can learn to speak Spanish. I came to Panama speaking like a
5 year old retarded chimp. After half a year in country, I am
proud to say that I speak at the level of a 5 year old retarded
man-child.
42
4. Enhanced Visual Acuity. I can now spot the stance of a
machetero preparing to chop the head off of a non-venomous
snake from a quarter mile away.
3. Loss of Naiveté. Gil speaks English. That’s right Gil, I’m on
to you, pal.
2. Acceptance of Inevitability. No amount of Congo salsa
can make you forget that the beef liver you just ate tasted like
someone just poo-ed in your mouth.
La Vaina
New Office Policy
Thomas Kuhn
From the office of the Safety
Coordinator of Veraguas
(a.k.a.: the safest guy to touch
both oceans), comes a new
office directive. We all know
about the out-of-site box. While I have personally had to
beat volunteers with sticks to get them to use it, at a
minimum we all understand why the out-of-site box exists.
In an effort to belabor the point I will state that the outof-site box helps the office, the regional leaders, and the
safety coordinators insure that, in an emergency, we’ll
be able to maintain open lines of communication with all
volunteers regardless of the volunteers’ location.
There is, however, one great failing of the out-of-site box,
the site-locator forms, and, in fact, all normal means of
office/volunteer contact. You see, whether or not we
are able to contact a volunteer says nothing about whether
or not the volunteer will be particularly communicative
when contacted. I, personally, have found that contacting
a volunteer is rarely the hard part. The hard part is getting
the volunteer to a place where they can, once again,
understand rudimentary elements of the English language,
and follow simple instructions like: RUN, RUN, RUN
YOU SILLY MONKEY!!!
Upon calling either of these two numbers, your position
will be immediately ascertained using the GPS transmitter
each one of us had implanted into our head during our
pre-service medical exams. A team of experts (read:
drunken, angry, sleep-deprived men) will then be
dispatched via chiva (I mean the animal, not the pick-up)
to your location. You will then be sedated, bound, gagged,
probably beaten like a bad, bad donkey, and finally
transferred to a maximum-security mental institution to
await lobotimization. After that the fairy queen will take
the volunteer to sing with his happy high frog-ness and
there remain until the volunteer can convince their mother
that they did not flush the soap down the toilet, but she
never listens to…oh god…STOP SCREAMING, STOP
SCREAMING…then they’re covered in egg yolks, but
that’s okay, I mean how many people really do get to visit
Lapland, anyway? Damn…need a phone.
The story is mine, but the idea was stolen from Jorge
Solomon, a SAS volunteer in Veraguas, and friend of his
happy high frog-ness.
foto por Erika K.
As a result of this problem, the office will be implementing
a new call-in policy based on the out-of-site box. The
new call-in box will be called the out-of-my-mind box,
and will be directed at a volunteer’s mental location rather
than their physical location. This is to say that beginning
January 1, 2006, whenever a volunteer feels their mental
condition beginning to slip, they are to immediately call
the out-of-my-mind box. For the convenience of those
using the service, and the expected demand, there will be
two phone numbers assigned to receive messages. These
numbers are:
444-2444444444444444444
(or: ggg-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
The second number can be dialed by simply smashing
your face into the keypad of any phone, twice.
[email protected]
43
La Vaina
La Campesina Panameña
Patricia Greenberg
La campesina panameña
A mis amigos y parientes para
que se pongan al dia en eso del
hablar del panameño. Algunas
son un poco fuertes pero otras
son de verdad ingeniosas…
El panameño no ignora: chifea
El panameño no se emborracha: queda hasta la verga,
se empetrola
El panameño no dice Hola, te dice: que sopá
El panameño no tiene amigos: tiene pasieros
El panameño no se cae: se saca la mierda, se saca la
necks
El panameño no se burla: se caga de risa
El panameño no roba: transa
El panameño no convence: tira lírica
El panameño no pregunta ¿Como estás? sino: ¿Qué e’
lo q’ e’?
El panameño no molesta: jode
El panameño no se molesta: se cabrea
El panameño no se enfada: se emputa
El panameño no se golpea: se mete un vergazo
El panameño no sufre de diarrea: sufre de cagadera
El panameño no duerme: se hecha un sueño
El panameño no toma siestas: hecha un cinco
El panameño no va rapido: va a balazo
El panameño no toma: chupa
El panameño no es listo: es una rata
El panameño no pide que lo lleven: pide un bote
El panameño no dice “algo no esta bien”: dice “esta
vaina vale verga”
El panameño no hace el amor sino: culea
El panameño no le hace el amor a su novia: se la echa
El panameño no dice lesbiana: dice tortillera
El panameño dice licor: dice guaro
foto por Alan F.
44
foto por Sara L.
El panameño no habla de sexo: habla de culear,
ponchar, follar, en fin, cualquier cosa cuyo significado
no aparezca en el diccionario
El panameño no tiene sexo: se echa un polvo
El panameño no dice que se forma una discusión: sino
que se forma un verguero
El panameño no dice que se forma un disturbio: sino
que se forma la chucha madre
El panameño no dice estoy confundido: dice me guille
El panameño no dice homosexual: dice cueco
El panameño no dice afeminado: dice maricón
El panameño no se masturba: se pajea
El panameño no tiene novia: tiene ley, candado, amarre,
grúa, lo que sea que pueda impedir la libertad del
mismo
El panameño no dice locura: dice ponchera
El panameño no dice que esta bien: dice que ta’ cool
Para el panameño algo no esta bueno: esta del carajo
El panameño no goza: tripea
Para el panameño no hay algo bonito: hay algo sólido,
duro, pritty
El panameño no es tonto: es ahueva’o
El panameño no es bobo: es pendejo
El panameño no dice chofer: dice palanca
El panameño no es celador: es wachiman
El panameño no dice nalga: dice culo
La Vaina
El panameño no dice vagina: dice mil cosas que no
están ni cerca a eso, dice tontón, dice cuca, dice araña,
dice micha.
El panameño no dice esperma: dice leche
El panameño no se excita: se entolda
El panameño no eyacula: se viene
El panameño no penetra a la mujer: se lo entierra
El panameño no le hizo el amor a su mujer: le dio huevo
El panameño no tiene pene: tiene pico, picha
El panameño no le dice a la mujer que es bella: le dice
que es un pay
El panameño no le dice a la mujer que tiene buen
cuerpo: dice que tiene mansa cajeta
El panameño no se olvida de alguien: lo escracha
El panameño no es adinerado: ta’ monta’o
El panameño no tiene carro: tiene nave
El panameño no toma el bus: coje su respectivo
democrático
El panameño no romancea: arropa
El panameño no escucha reggae: escucha plena
Para el panameño algunas mujeres no son feas: son
unos bagres, cangrejas
El panameño no anda en un carro descuidado: anda
rodando en una roña
El panameño jamás ha tenido una casa: siempre ha
tenido su chantín
El panameño no ve pornografía: ve pelo-pelo
El panameño no se distrae: se traslada
El panameño no dice cigarrillos: dice blancos
El panameño no dice que no tiene dinero: dice que esta
pela’o, limpio, anda peloncho y/o anda en pelotas
El panameño no juega: birrea
El panameño no saluda: shotea
El panameño no presume: pifea
El panameño no sale: se arranca
El panameño no pelea: o se enfrazca, o se embolilla
Y lo más importante …el panameño nunca pierde una
discusión porque siempre termina “mandándote pa’ la
verga”
El panameño no es cualquier cosa: es Panameño
foto por Sara L.
[email protected]
45
La Vaina
the fourthgoal:
maintain sanity
Makin’ It Last
Humidity or mold threatening your electronics? Next
time you go to the US, walk into your neighborhood shoe
store and walk out with your pockets bulging with tiny
packets of silicone.* Pop them into Tupperware along
with said electronics and rest easy.
Rebel Yell
Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), an interfaith (this
includes those with no formal religious affiliation) peace
movement with a goal of social and economic justice
through non-violent means, has its eye on Panama. John
Lindsay-Poland, author of Emperors in the Jungle: The
Hidden History of the US in Panama, posts FOR’s
Panama Update, which, as of late, highlights his passion
for the environmental clean-up of US bases in Panama.
www.forusa.or/programs/panama/default.html
Great Grapes
At Felipe Motta on Calle 53 in Marbella, you can get
your hands on fine varietals from around the world, bottles
that cost more than you make in three months, and other
tasty treats from Europe and the US. One highlight is a
framed poster blessing, or damning, grape harvests of
the last several decades, giving you the low down on
what years to look for if you really want to do a special
occasion right. T:302-6633; www.felipemotta.com Open
Mon. – Fri. 9am – 7pm, Sat. 9am – 6pm
Athens
Arguably the baker of the best pepperoni pizza pie in
Panama City, Athens Pizza also offers affordable and
fresh-vegetabled Greek-ish dishes. Very busy for
weekday lunches. Please note that if ordering two
individual pizzas instead of one medium pizza offers you
a significantly better square-inch-of-pizza per dollar ratio.
Mark Samples did the math so you don’t have to. At
Calle 50 and Calle 48 next to the Delta gas station. Open
everyday but Wednesday, 11am – 11:30pm. T:265-4637
*La Vaina staff and Peace Corps do not condone stealing, though, Josephine Kaiser
thinks it’s just fine, so no worries.
46
Not Your Hotel Room
Häagen Dazs Café The greatest thing about this place
is their hours. Open 10:30a.m. to midnight EVERY DAY.
A $3 ice-cream cone buys your admission to a few hours
of writing, reading, or conversing while your out and about;
it’s just like you used to do in the states. In Marbella at
Plaza New York. T: 263-0040
La Vaina
Cultcha’
Nueva Acropolis Cultural Association of Panama located
in El Cangrejo puts out a monthly activities calendar called
Las Musas offering dance, yoga, and music classes;
lectures on the arts; and an obtuse philosophical musings.
T: 263-5602; www.acropolis.org.pa
Laptop Users
California Coffee Company in Paitilla may have a stripmall vibe, but it offers free wireless internet and some
interesting coffee choices. Open Mon. – Fri. 7am – 10pm,
Sat. – Sun. 10am – 10pm. T: 215-3085.
It Ain’t Wholefoods
Paitilla’s new and tiny health food shop Organica stocks
pricey but healthy foods, snacks and sundries including
(insert drum roll) Tom’s of Maine toothpaste.
Open Mon. – Fri. 10am – 7pm, Sat. 10am – 5pm
Cow Burgers in Panamá Este
Benjamín Grostic is a big fan of Restaurante Avicar in
Torti. They have fantastic sopa de res con arroz ($1.25),
and you can even order a ½ helping if you aren’t too
hungry. Want a taste of home? Avicar serves pizza,
hamburgers (which he believes are real beef), and french
fries. The atmosphere is nice with a T.V. and the cool
buzz of ceiling fans. Last but not least, the owner, Andres,
is a good guy who will help you out with anything and
always seems to be in a friendly mood. He speaks some
English and, for some reason, even seems to like us Peace
Corps Volunteers.
Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (the MAC)
Located across Avenida de los Martires from the Palacio
Legislativo, roughly where the Avenida Central walking
mall comes to an end, you’ll find the Museo de Arte
Contemporaneo. Now this is certainly not the refurbished
MOMA, but for a twentieth the price (B:/ 1), they manage
to compile exhibitions that are sure to chase the images
of campo life from your mind—if only just for the
afternoon. The current exhibit (the next exhibit opens
January 19th) features works by Latin American artists,
all from Panamanian collections. It includes paintings by
the Mexican artist Rufino Tamaya, the Cuban Wilfredo
Lam, and the Argentinian Fernando Maza among others.
All of these have probably seen better lighting, but you
have probably not gotten the sort of gallery-going
experience the MAC offers here in Panama. Open Tues.–
Sun. 9am – 5pm T: 262-3380
Fotos from top right, clockwise: Chris M., Allison B., Meliza W., Jon P., Shane M., Jon P.
[email protected]
47
La Vaina
Ideas for a Peace Corps Makeover
Thomas Kuhn y Krista Katsantonis de Kuhn
foto por Shane M.
About a month ago our CD, Peter Redmond, sent out an
email to all of us containing the text of an article from
USA Today. The author (Laura Vanderkam) of the article
asserts that the Peace Corps could better the world more
quickly by changing its focus. By this, she means that
the organization should shift its primary focus from building
cross-cultural friendships to being a more effective
development organization, placing volunteers in more
developed sites, being more selective in recruiting
volunteers and building in more accountability. If this
shift means that cross-cultural exchange takes a back
seat to results-oriented development work, wouldn’t we
be throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water?
How about a makeover for Peace Corps that keeps
cultural exchange in the front seat, as an equal partner,
while making room for more effective and efficient
development work? Couldn’t the two goals work together,
rather than being at odds with one another and leaving
48
administrators and volunteers
in the field often frustrated
over what’s more valuable?
The Legitimization of
“Cuerpo de Paseo” – the New Volunteer
How about a Peace Corps in which generalists are invited
to serve by engaging in a purely cross-cultural experience;
no detailed goals, no program specific objectives to meet?
They would commit to a service, of let’s say one year, to
integrate into a community, learn as much as possible
about the local norms and culture and individuals, while
sharing their own culture and experiences. At the end of
this service their sole deliverable might be, in PDM
parlance, a community analysis and a recommendation
on how Peace Corps might proceed with development
work. These individuals would require less technical
training, and therefore would be less expensive for Peace
Corps to field. They’d be meeting the second and third
goals, at less cost to Peace Corps, and ultimately serving
those that would be dedicated to serving the first goal.
They would be free to have a cross-cultural experience
without the constraints of program specific deliverables.
These Volunteers, if they so chose (and if they had the
requisite skill set and/or experience), at the end of their 1
year service, could opt to continue on as Extension Agents,
committing to another period of service as well as
additional training, and more accountability on specific
deliverables.
foto por Nicole R.
One of the primary differences between Peace Corps
volunteers and JICA or GTZ volunteers (or ministry
technicos, for that matter) is that the volunteers LIVE in
sites, with communities. The volunteers end up with a
truer understanding of the area’s needs and norms
because, over the course of time, some of the walls
between us and them are broken down. In the USA
Today article, the author cites a volunteer’s work in Nepal.
This volunteer was sent to his site to teach. Upon arriving
at this site, and realizing that educational needs needed to
take a back seat to getting clean water, the volunteer
changed his focus. Ms. Vanderkam states in her article,
and not without validity, that a better
use of funds may have been to send
highly trained engineers to help
construct the aqueduct. What Ms.
Vanderkam forgets is that without
the analysis of the first volunteer, a
generalist, this type of aid never
would have gotten to the community
in the first place. The generalist is
still absolutely essential to the
process, and can set the stage for
later success.
Empowering the Specialists –
the Birth of the true Extension
Agent
With the invaluable knowledge of
what makes each particular foto por Norma H.
community click being gathered by
the volunteers, specialists could be recruited to do the
Extension Agent job. The EA’s would be volunteers with
specific skill sets, recruited to meet specific needs identified
by volunteers (and their communities). They would be
better supported (better staff to EA ratio, perhaps more
technological resources) and challenged to deliver on
specific program deliverables. They’d be goal-oriented
professionals.
In the case of the USA Today article, after the generalist
has completed their time in country, they would make a
recommendation for a specific type of EA. In this case,
a trained expert in a specific field would be sent to an
area where the need is known. In this case, an engineer
would be sent to work constructing this aqueduct, and
insuring its proper usage and maintenance. Just out of
curiosity, does anybody reading this article know of any
engineers who could help build aqueducts? I thought not.
La Vaina
By clarifying two different types of volunteers, each would
be free to pursue distinct, and equally valuable, missions.
It may be time for Peace Corps to make a change, but to
misconstrue goals 2 and 3 as irrelevant products of an
outmoded “roughing it” philosophy would be to abandon
essential aspects of the Peace Corps mission that are as
vital today as they were in the 1960’s.
The problem is not a lack of skill sets or dedication, the
problem is limited resources in terms of money, technology,
time, and especially human resources. The “volunteers”
would basically be sent to do a year’s worth of site
development, and would become
experts in, if nothing else, their site.
APCDs, obviously, cannot devote this
kind of time to a specific site for
development purposes. This level of
site development would, however,
allow for only those sites most in need,
and best able to receive a volunteer,
to receive one. Highly limited
resources would be put to use where
they could have the greatest, most
sustainable, impact. Sites where there
was a lack of interest, leadership,
dedication, or understanding could
receive a second volunteer for
continued development. It is relatively
easy for a group to hide the fact that
they’re going to be exceptionally
difficult to deal with during 3-6 formal
meetings, it’s much harder to hide over the course of a
year, when exposed in all types of settings.
If Peace Corps does want to become the “development
partner of choice” as our former CD phrased it, greater
levels of expertise and accountability will be demanded.
However, while there have always been individuals in
any given sector with greater levels of experience/
expertise, as a whole, Peace Corps’ traditional strength
has been community development and grass-roots
exposure, not technical know-how. If Peace Corps wants
to move forward, while not losing or completely changing
its identity, it must find a way to leverage its traditional
strength in getting to that next level of professionalism.
The basic premise is that we, the volunteers, represent
the one resource Peace Corps has to offer. The better
Peace Corps is at placing us in situations where we can
succeed, the greater success Peace Corps, the hostcountries, and the communities will have.
[email protected]
49
La Vaina
Laura Vanderkam, Meet Paulo Freire
Mark Samples
Cognitive dissonance is a
psychological term used to
describe the process through
which people convince themselves of what they want
to believe in order to make themselves feel better about
past actions that are considered unacceptable by society
or their own conscience. Books such as LIES MY
TEACHER TOLD ME by James W. Loewen and
Howard Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE
UNITED STATES criticize history textbooks for this
practice because they tend to make excuses for past
tragedies by building up only the extraordinary acts of
individuals and making them heroes in the eyes of
students, while downplaying primary resources that
document events more fully. History therefore is
skewed through this process, repeated and
“remembered” mostly by its makers.
raising project. They love the idea and so do you. And
why shouldn’t you? It means more iguana meat for
everybody, receives heavy support from the local NGO
touting it, helps stop the over-hunting of iguanas and,
finally, gives you something to do that justifies countless
hours spent swinging in a hammock while caught in endless
debate as to whether or not you really are “doing”
anything. So you engage in days of capacity building,
wanting everyone to understand the entire process of
raising these iguanas. You make charts, draw pictures
and stay up nights studying your iguana-related Spanish
vocabulary. And finally, when the charts are all read and
everyone understands, a wave of realization travels through
the village resulting in a big “no thanks” towards continuing
with the project. With the eyes of Bambi staring down a
Mack truck, you go back to your hammock and start to
ask yourself questions.
Laura Vanderkam in her USA Today article “Peace
Corps Needs a Makeover”, all but accuses the Peace
Corps of engaging in the process of cognitive
dissonance. While the logic of her argument is wrong—
she uses a shaky platform of evidence that begs to be
rebuked in the harshest of volunteer wit—she
haphazardly stumbles upon an interesting question.
What does it mean to fail as a volunteer? To explore
the question I turn to Brazilian reformer and activist
Paulo Freire and his work PEDAGOGY OF THE
OPPRESSED in hopes that his words can shed a little
light on successful leadership in impoverished areas
applicable to the development work we do here in Peace
Corps Panama.
Should a project that stutters and stops really be
considered a failure? Should the “good” fight always be
fought with every ounce of a volunteer’s 24/7 strength?
Did the Peace Corps fail you by putting you in the above
situation? Ms. Vanderkamin, who so compassionately
referred to a secondary water project in this way, “Though
it’s great that Namje has water, sites near cities can
develop faster...” would more likely answer “yes” to these
questions. Freire, however reminds us, “[r]evolutionary
leaders commit many errors and miscalculations by not
taking into account something so real as the people’s view
of the world: a view which explicitly and implicitly contains
their concerns, their doubts, their hopes, their way of
seeing the leaders, their perceptions of themselves and
of the oppressors, their religious beliefs,...their fatalism,
their rebellious reactions....None of these elements can
be seen separately, for in interaction all of them compose
a totality....For the revolutionary leaders, the knowledge
of this totality is indispensable to their action as cultural
synthesis.” (Friere, pg.182).
What follows is by no means an attempt to analyze
Freire’s arguments. Instead, I hope to use his widely
respected insights to continue the discussion that pushes
us down the long path to freedom, not only for
individuals in our Panamanian communities, but for
ourselves.
Let’s take a look at a Laura Vanderkamin “failure”
through the lense of Freire. Consider this, a large group
of people in your town are looking to start an iguana
50
Questioning the “results” of our work in Peace Corps
leaves open the deeper issue of who should decide those
results. Volunteers can appreciate when those results
are developed by volunteers, as they are here in Panama,
but sometimes I wonder if there should even be such a
thing in a grassroots organization. Shouldn’t the people
that we serve everyday be the ones to determine the
results they want to accomplish and the pace at which
they wish to proceed? We, as volunteers, have a set
amount of time hanging over our head as to when projects
should be completed and results accomplished, but should
that really be the driving force behind our development
work? I can understand the frustration of a reporter that
is using a top down
scale to evaluate the
progress of a Peace
Corps worker, but
she is mistaken in
believing that the
story of RPCV
Rajeev Goyal in
Nepal is one of
failure of resources
that could have been
accomplished by an
$80,000 engineer-run
project. What this
reporter might ask is
what
team
of
engineers would
foto por Ann M.
have discovered that
this town actually
needed reliable access to potable water since even the
people developing this site missed the fact that children
carrying buckets of water six hours a day might affect
Rajeev’s ability to teach.
The fact of the matter is that the job of “making friends”
and building trust is one of the unique things we do as an
organization. Shouldn’t a large part of our role as
volunteers be one of simply understanding what it is like
to have your life revolve around water, access to food
and technology? A lot of agencies that probably give this
reporter credit often fail to start with that basic task and
it is the reason why their $80,000 aqueduct project with
global phones and internet access sometimes fails
miserably in the face of $7,000-$9000 aqueduct projects
being worked on right now by volunteers. And what’s
the difference? The $5,000-$9,000 usually comes from
the pockets of touched family members (goal 3), friends
(goal 3) or piece-meal conglomerates of other agencies,
meaning that the same so called bloated $80,000 put forth
towards our two year stint is going towards ownership,
training and God forbid, love, trust and friendship.
La Vaina
And so where does this all lead us? Certainly not to the
point of giving merit to Vanderkam’s analysis of the “my
site is rougher than your site” pissing contest that
sometimes will occur in moments when a volunteer
desperately clings to some acknowledgment of a fairly
thankless job. Certainly not to the shunning of technology.
But it does guide us down a road of empathy and true
understanding of development work as helping those that
have their own vision of what success is and how to
m e a s u r e
accomplishment.
Freire espouses that
mutual
cultural
synthesis among all
participants coupled
with a constructivist or
problem-posing
approach towards
education, as opposed
to teaching set
concepts to be banked
by students, together
serve as the most
effective techniques to
use in liberating
oppressed peoples.
How can we the
volunteers, staff and
administrators of Peace Corps Panama continually check
ourselves from falling into top down approaches to
education? What emphasis are we currently placing on
positive grassroots behavior change techniques during
initial and in-service trainings and how well do our
evaluation procedures (e.g. informes and site visits) judge
these techniques as opposed to rubrics on pre-ordained
objectives?
This article, if nothing else, is a call for more and more
dialogue on the subject of development work, poverty,
empathy and communication. Upon reviewing it I count
ten questions that are by no means meant to be rhetorical.
La Vaina is a magazine without glossy pages containing
articles of no set page limit written by unpaid volunteers
and dedicated staff members. It serves as a perfect forum
for endless discussion. As a volunteer who struggles
everyday with what he has and has not accomplished in
his time here, I sit eager to hear from other volunteers,
directors and staff on what you think about the developing
road before you.
[email protected]
51
La Vaina
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Rock Star’s Burden
By PAUL THEROUX
Published in the New York Times: December 15, 2005
THERE are probably more annoying things than being
hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish
rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can’t think of one at the
moment. If Christmas, season of sob stories, has turned
me into Scrooge, I recognize the Dickensian counterpart
of Paul Hewson - who calls himself “Bono” - as Mrs.
Jellyby in “Bleak House.” Harping incessantly on her
adopted village of Borrioboola-Gha “on the left bank of
the River Niger,” Mrs. Jellyby tries to save the Africans
by financing them in coffee growing and encouraging
schemes “to turn pianoforte legs and establish an export
trade,” all the while badgering people for money.
It seems to have been Africa’s fate to become a theater
of empty talk and public gestures. But the impression
that Africa is fatally troubled and can be saved only by
outside help - not to mention celebrities and charity
concerts - is a destructive and misleading conceit. Those
of us who committed ourselves to being Peace Corps
teachers in rural Malawi more than 40 years ago are
dismayed by what we see on our return visits and by all
the news that has been reported recently from that
unlucky, drought-stricken country. But we are more
appalled by most of the proposed solutions.
I am not speaking of humanitarian aid, disaster relief, AIDS
education or affordable drugs. Nor am I speaking of smallscale, closely watched efforts like the Malawi Children’s
Village. I am speaking of the “more money” platform:
the notion that what Africa needs is more prestige projects,
volunteer labor and debt relief. We should know better
by now. I would not send private money to a charity, or
foreign aid to a government, unless every dollar was
accounted for - and this never happens. Dumping more
money in the same old way is not only wasteful, but stupid
and harmful; it is also ignoring some obvious points.
52
If Malawi is worse educated, more plagued by illness
and bad services, poorer than it was when I lived and
worked there in the early 60’s, it is not for lack of outside
help or donor money. Malawi has been the beneficiary of
many thousands of foreign teachers, doctors and nurses,
and large amounts of financial aid, and yet it has declined
from a country with promise to a failed state.
In the early and mid-1960’s, we believed that Malawi
would soon be self-sufficient in schoolteachers. And it
would have been, except that rather than sending a limited
wave of volunteers to train local instructors, for decades
we kept on sending Peace Corps teachers. Malawians,
who avoided teaching because the pay and status were
low, came to depend on the American volunteers to teach
in bush schools, while educated Malawians emigrated.
When Malawi’s university was established, more foreign
teachers were welcomed, few of them replaced by
Malawians, for political reasons. Medical educators also
arrived from elsewhere. Malawi began graduating nurses,
but the nurses were lured away to Britain and Australia
and the United States, which meant more foreign nurses
were needed in Malawi.
foto por Sara L.
When Malawi’s minister of education was accused of
stealing millions of dollars from the education budget in
2000, and the Zambian president was charged with stealing
from the treasury, and Nigeria squandered its oil wealth,
what happened? The simplifiers of Africa’s problems kept
calling for debt relief and more aid. I got a dusty reception
lecturing at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when
I pointed out the successes of responsible policies in
Botswana, compared with the kleptomania of its
neighbors. Donors enable embezzlement by turning a blind
eye to bad governance, rigged elections and the deeper
reasons these countries are failing.
Mr. Gates has said candidly that he wants to rid himself
of his burden of billions. Bono is one of his trusted advisers.
Mr. Gates wants to send computers to Africa - an
unproductive not to say insane idea. I would offer pencils
and paper, mops and brooms: the schools I have seen in
Malawi need them badly. I would not send more teachers.
La Vaina
placed Malawian friend of mine once jovially demanded
that my children come and teach there. “It would be good
for them,” he said.
Of course it would be good for them. Teaching in Africa
was one of the best things I ever did. But our example
seems to have counted for very little. My Malawian
friend’s children are of course working in the United States
and Britain. It does not occur to anyone to encourage
Africans themselves to volunteer in the same way that
foreigners have done for decades. There are plenty of
educated and capable young adults in Africa who would
make a much greater difference than Peace Corps
workers.
Planet Earth
poor Greg Landrigan
foto por Josh C.
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of
precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios
remaining the same, it would look something like the
following.
I would expect Malawians themselves to stay and teach.
There ought to be an insistence in the form of a bond, or There would be:
a solemn promise, for Africans trained in medicine and
education at the state’s expense to work in their own 57 idiots
21 frat boys
countries.
14 people dressed in hip huggers
Malawi was in my time a lush wooded country of three 8 in heels too high for them to walk properly
million people. It is now an eroded and deforested land 52 would be telling bad jokes
42 would be laughing at these jokes
of 12 million; its rivers are clogged with sediment and
6 would be dressed in black, smoking cigarettes,
every year it is subjected to destructive floods. The trees looking annoyed
that had kept it whole were cut for fuel and to clear land 70 would be bad dancers
for subsistence crops. Malawi had two presidents in its 30 would be annoyed by them
first 40 years, the first a megalomaniac who called himself 89 would be believers and scared
the messiah, the second a swindler whose first official 11 would be non-believers and scared
60 would regularly consume green bananas
act was to put his face on the money. Last year the new
40 would wait for them to turn yellow
man, Bingu wa Mutharika, inaugurated his regime by 50 would suffer from metaphysical depression
announcing that he was going to buy a fleet of Maybachs, 48 would suffer from metaphorical depression
2 would be happy (occasionally)
one of the most expensive cars in the world.
Many of the schools where we taught 40 years ago are These figures taken from a comprehensive La Vaina
now in ruins - covered with graffiti, with broken windows, survey conducted in the volunteer lounge at 1pm on
standing in tall grass. Money will not fix this. A highly December 19, 2005.
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La Vaina
Africa is a lovely place - much lovelier, more peaceful
and more resilient and, if not prosperous, innately more
self-sufficient than it is usually portrayed. But because
Africa seems unfinished and so different from the rest of
the world, a landscape on which a person can sketch a
new personality, it attracts mythomaniacs, people who
wish to convince the world of their worth. Such people
come in all forms and they loom large. White celebrities
busy-bodying in Africa loom especially large. Watching
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie recently in Ethiopia, cuddling
African children and lecturing the world on charity, the
image that immediately sprang to my mind was Tarzan
and Jane.
Bono, in his role as Mrs. Jellyby in a 10-gallon hat, not
only believes that he has the solution to Africa’s ills, he is
also shouting so loud that other people seem to trust his
answers. He traveled in 2002 to Africa with former
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, urging debt forgiveness.
He recently had lunch at the White House, where he
expounded upon the “more money” platform and how
African countries are uniquely futile.
Ethiopian border, where I found only skinny camels and
roving bandits. Western Zambia is off the map, southern
Malawi is terra incognita, northern Mozambique is still a
sea of land mines. But it is pretty easy to leave Africa. A
recent World Bank study has confirmed that the
emigration to the West of skilled people from small to
medium-sized countries in Africa has been disastrous.
Africa has no real shortage of capable people - or even
of money. The patronizing attention of donors has done
violence to Africa’s belief in itself, but even in the absence
of responsible leadership, Africans themselves have
proven how resilient they can be - something they never
get credit for. Again, Ireland may be the model for an
answer. After centuries of wishing themselves onto other
countries, the Irish found that education, rational
government, people staying put, and simple diligence could
turn Ireland from an economic basket case into a
prosperous nation. In a word - are you listening, Mr.
Hewson? - the Irish have proved that there is something
to be said for staying home.
But are they? Had Bono looked closely at Malawi he
would have seen an earlier incarnation of his own Ireland.
Both countries were characterized for centuries by
famine, religious strife, infighting, unruly families, hubristic
clan chiefs, malnutrition, failed crops, ancient orthodoxies,
dental problems and fickle weather. Malawi had a similar
sense of grievance, was also colonized by absentee British
landlords and was priest-ridden, too.
Just a few years ago you couldn’t buy condoms legally in
Ireland, nor could you get a divorce, though (just like in
Malawi) buckets of beer were easily available and unruly
crapulosities a national curse. Ireland, that island of
inaction, in Joyce’s words, “the old sow that eats her
farrow,” was the Malawi of Europe, and for many
identical reasons, its main export being immigrants.
It is a melancholy thought that it is easier for many
Africans to travel to New York or London than to their
own hinterlands. Much of northern Kenya is a no-go area;
there is hardly a road to the town of Moyale, on the
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La Vaina
Restaurant review: Manzanas
Mark Husfeld
Part of the Peace Corps experience are its
temporal delights as well as the social and professional
ones. This introduces my recommendation for the
restaurant “Manzanas” in the heart of Panamá City´s
Casco Antiguo. Directly across the plaza from the
museum that hosts each new Peace Corps groups´
graduation ceremony is located this delightful restaurant
find, to be appreciated by fellow culinairs and renaissance
men and women alike. You can´t miss Manazana´s bright
ochre-yellow façade. Inside, the atmosphere is brightly
lit by ample windows that face the adjacent plaza and
cathedral. This gives the simple, smart décor the cheerful
illumination of natural light. I was served by the
restaurants´ English-speaking administrator, Jose Antonio
Cruz Espinoza. His service was impeccably warm and
attentive.
Each meal is preceded by a serving of focaccia
bread with an olive oil drizzle. For lunch I ordered the
garlic chicken breast plate. Sautéed to perfection in garlic
and olive oil, the meat was mouthwatering, but true to
Panamanian style, bones were intact. Alongside this
course was a perfectly golden serving of oven crusted
new potatoes and a slightly al dente vegetable medley of
foto por Jessica S.
various bell peppers, onions, and broccoli. What put the
dish into the upper echelons of Panamanian cuisine was
the two heads of roasted garlic,which when plucked from
their papery husks, made a savory
spread on the chicken.
foto por Ann M.
In the company of two
colleagues, I was able to sample
some of Manzana´s lighter fare, a
lemony, piquant gaspacho served
chilled that reminded me of spring
vegetables, and a sumptuous
lobster bisque. The coffee was
pure quality and served European
strength, which is as it should be.
The dessert menu looked enticing,
but there´s only so much you can
order on a volunteer´s budget.
Main dishes are in the six
dollar range and up, but portion
sizes are sufficient to leave you
satiated and not overstuffed. All
in all, the dining experience left a
noteworthy impression. Next time
you are fortunate enough to
celebrate the swearing-in of a
group of Peace Corp newbies, plan
on treating yourself to a great lunch
on the other end of the square.
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