SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS

On Wednesday we found out where we will be living and working for the next two years! Asparantes will be going all over the country, from the Darien in the east close to the border with Columbia to Bocos del Toro near Costa Rica. The site that I was chosen for is called Bahía Ballena. It is located on the edge of the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle and Bocas del Toro provinces. The little information that I know about my site comes from the information in our site announcement folders. The regional leaders and program directors have examined the sites in their previous visits over the past year and have compiled a brief site profile.

(PHOTO: Zach and Liza, the CED Program Directors who are two reasons why the PC Panama has been going so well)

Bahía Ballena is on the water’s edge of the Chiriqui Lagoon (which opens to the Caribbean) and has a population of about 220 people. The inhabitants are Ngäbe, an indigenous group who occupy the Comarca, a semi-autonomous state governed equilaterally by traditional and Panamanian administrative authorities. It is a reservation for the Ngäbe and Bugle, two of seven indigenous cultures of Panama (together with the Kuna, Embera, Woonan, Naso and Bri-Bri). Some of the potential work focuses cited by RL and PD include marketing, packaging and organic certification for the coffee produced and sold through the local cooperative, basic agribusiness training for farmers and fishermen and working with individual families on basic budgeting and financial management. Other products of the farmers group include cacao (chocolate), bananas and tubers.

The community is reached by a 20 minute boat ride from Chiriqui Grande, the closest town, because there are no roads that lead to the site. There is no electricity but does have a reliable source of fresh water and cell phone service. I really don’t know much about the Ngäbe culture – or Bahía Ballena – because I have been living in a Latino community during training here in Santa Clara.

However, a couple weeks ago I got the chance to visit a SAS volunteer living high in the hills of the region and this week will have the chance to spend a week with the 10 other asparantes in a community on the islands. The purpose of this excursion is to get acquainted with the regional culture and climate. I am really looking forward to get some time outside of Sta. Clara and of the training routine, it is exhausting. Between the heat, sun, eight hours of classes every day and assignments and studying at night, we don’t much free time. The 12 hours on the bus and night in David will be a great chance to get some rest.

TODAY we mixed things up a little and gave a presentation to the community. Over the past few weeks we have been learning about different development strategies so we got the chance to practice them (and our Spanish). Through talking to our host families and other people around the community we compiled some information about the family structures, gender roles, economic conditions and other aspects of their society. Next we presented a SWOT analysis, prioritized weaknesses and facilitated a discussion on causes and effects of these problems. Some of the solutions were suggested and we will formalize the presentation and submitting it to the local representante. This was an exercise to practice what we have been learning and also to give the community tangible result of why all of these crazy Americans have been in their town.
After this was over we went to language classes. There, we prepared traditional Panamanian foods and all met back up at the community center. A few of us even wore various outfits of the different cultures during this session. Before we ate, two other asparantes and I attempted to perform traditional folk music. Our song was about the little lizards that crawl everywhere inside the houses at night and Bracken did his best impression of the insane screaming that they call folk music here.