Week 7

As week 7 has come to a close, many of you may still be wondering what I have been doing with all my time down here. After all, I have been going to class for 8 hours every day (that is, the days when we are not on a site visit) and do not get much free time.

Four hours of class are for language. There is a language teacher for every three aspirantes as well as tutors for the various indigenous languages for those who are interested. Every volunteer must pass a language efficiency exam before going to their site. Group 64 has several people who majored in it in college, lived in Latin America and even come from bilingual households. For the rest of us, Spanish has been a little more difficult. However, everyone has made it to at least Intermediate Medium.

During technical training, EH and CED have very different curriculums. While some things overlap, such as project management, most varies considerably. To be honest, I don’t even know what they have been doing. Something about aqueduct theory, composting and constructing latrines (shit-digging). However, they have been maintaining a garden which has started to look good.

As for CED: Why are we here? What do we do?

Our group has been going over different strategies of economic development at the individual, group and community levels. This could mean setting a personal goal, family financial planning, village savings and loans, or strategic long-term vision for a more organized business.

First things first. When we get to our communities, its strongly suggested that we take (at least) three months to walk around, talk and learn about the people. I even get to build my own hut! Its also a great time to improve language. Once the volunteer is settled in and feeling comfortable with their language, community and has established trust, friendships, and an understanding of who is willing to work or learn, the second phase can begin.

Community Analysis is when the volunteer completes a FREEHOP (Family, Religion, Economics, Education, Health, Organizations and Politics), Daily Activities, Seasonal Calendar, Historical Analysis, Community Map, and other inquiries to get a stronger sense of the community dynamics. Also, this is a good chance for the rest of the community to think about themselves when this information is then presented back to them in a formal or informal way.

Next step would be a BOCA (Business & Organizational Capacity Assessment) where long-term vision, internal management, financial transparencies are closely examined on the group level with the different organizations. This is a great tool for the volunteer as well as the community because it acts as a starting point, a base level and something that over time becomes valuable in referencing to see changes.

After BOCA comes PML (Project Management & Leadership) that can be a training opportunity as well as analysis for basic skills that are necessary for effective leadership or management on the individual, family/group, community and institutional levels.

There is no timeframe for these steps because every volunteer is different and so are their sites. Panama is a small country with a huge range of cultural, environmental and geographical diversity, so setting a ridged structure just isn’t feasible. I hope to share how my experiences with these go along the way and would appreciate your feedback or suggestions. At this point I have a small library of the training and language materials that we have been covering. Even started collecting some books in Spanish, including Las Adventuras de Tom Sawyer, among others.