Some Advice to the New Volunteer in Ballena

My extension was approved and I will start my new position as Regional Leader in November serving an additional 13 months in Panama. However, I will be leaving my community, Bahia Ballena, to live in the province of Chiriqui, where I will be helping with volunteer support, site development, agency relations and safety and security (among other things).

As my service draws to a close, I hope to pass on some of the knowledge accumulated through my years here in Bahia Ballena to the next volunteer. While from Peace Corps, they will serving in the agricultural program. However, this advice is general and should help for a variety of situations.

1. Get a local nick-name

Unless your name is easily translated into Spanish (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) most people will not be able to pronounce or remember you. Most Americans are unable to correctly pronounce my name and anywhere in Latin America usually sounds something like “lee-lay jan errrobinson.” My alter ego here in Panama is Ivan Rodriguez.

Ivan Rodriguez

2. Training manuals make excellent writing tablets

While there was a time where Description of Training, Volunteer Handbook or Working with Youth were interesting, those days are long past. Fortunately, their useful lives have been extended and make great writing tablets. Opportunities for non-formal education are usually spontaneous and far from a desk and chairs. So, pull out a copy of your Medical Handbook and have a seat on the porch. Personally, I prefer the Life Skills Manual to the Water Safety Guidance not only because I learned how to swim when I was six and instinctively avoid crossing rivers raging with strong currents, but for its colorful and glossy cover and weight. Save the clip board for more official functions.

colorful and glossy cover

3. Develop a “picture taking” policy

TAKE MY PICTURE!!!

because everyone and their mom, her twelve children, their pets, and their pets neighbors will want a picture. Or ten pictures. This is pretty universal and not just in Ballena. I refrained from taking picture for about a year and used all kinds of excuses when I did, such as “these pictures are electronic and are inside the camera and I do not have the equipment to print them out.” Usually, I go with “I have no batteries” which is often true. At first I said the that camera was from the office and for official use only, such as work related pictures. However, during the independence celebrations I caved in and took pictures of all the kids down by the school racing around during their competitions. I got some great pictures but since then, EVERY SINGLE DAY someone asks me to take their picture. In David, it costs $0.15 per photo to print and since my time here is coming to an end I don’t mind. No one here has ever had pictures of themselves – ever – so I only charge the 15 cents. Not the costs of bus rides, taxis, batteries or fees. When I am in town I drop them off and its not a big deal… until it gets too much. My advice to you, new PCV is to dedicate a specific picture day/week/month and raise the price to 1) discourage egotistic and annoying teenage girls, 2) encourage care of pictures, 3) cover battery and transport costs, and 5) restore pre-camera sanity.

A brief word on Ngabe picture-taking etiquette. Don’t expect smiles. Confusion often arises in wondering why legs and feet are not included – are you trying to rip me off? Where is the rest of me? There is also a preference for pictures of the youngest and most people wear their school uniforms, being some of the most formal that they have.

4. Kids

the gang

Hundreds of them. In the indigenous provinces infant mortality is relatively high. While education, modern medicine and state health care is making a difference, birth rates are still very, very high. On average each mother is having about eight children with six surviving infancy. Here in Ballena, there is not a whole lot for them to do. Enter PCV.

Establish boundaries early. It is a lot easier to slacken the rules over time then to change them later. I did not join the Peace Corps to baby sit or teach kinder garden life skills and its not my fault that you are bored.

taking a break to chug some coconut water on the way to school

Later in service, as my language improved and I could conjugate better than they could, it became a lot less intimidating dealing with them. Individual personalities emerged through fuzzy black hair and dirty little feet; the trouble makers, the sweet hearts, the cry babies and the goofballs. A year and a half after arriving, living on my own and having personal time, I was ready to reduce the boundaries. It started with letting them onto my porch and led to looking through national geographic magazines (What’s this? What’s this? What’s this?). These days we do pushups, make paper airplanes and play baseball on Saturdays.

5. Bathing

Wear clothes. You can take off your boots and if it is inside an enclosure you can take off your shirt. In a small, isolated village there is no privacy. As a PCV you are under the microscope and curious little eyes. On the bright side, you actually increase efficiency by washing your clothes at the same time!

6. Peace, Quiet and Solitude

can be found in the cooperative house. Bring your Spanish grammar book, something else to read and a snack. Kick the kids out or else they will stay and stare at you. Seeing their friends occupied more will come and stare at you too.

7. Communication

You smile, wave and say hello and get in response a blank stare, followed by a frown. But don’t worry, that’s how most Ngabes say hello to strangers. Try be proactive in communicating with people and to be approachable. A lot of people here – even some of my friends – don’t really understand why I am here and what Peace Corps is. It doesn’t really help that Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps in Spanish literally translates as body of peace) sounds a lot like a religious organization, where clean-cut white guys walk around in backpacks asking if you have heard of Jesus Christ. “No, I don’t work with the church and no, I am not a spy…or a soldier. I am here to help, but I am not going to give you money… I am going to give you knowledge!”

Needless to say, some may be a little suspicious of your altruistic motives. So, when gathering information for your community analysis and trying to get to know the community, be sure to clearly explain who you are and what you are doing. MOST important, when looking for a specific answer, ask at least five different people the same question. The corresponding five different answers they give you will give you a better understanding of what actually happened.

8. Official titles mean nothing

“Hey Pedro! Are you the secretary?”
Pedro gives you a blank stare – classic response – but that’s ok. What is he thinking? What is going on in there? Is he mad at me?
“It says here that you are the secretary of the cooperative.”
“The Coop! Right. Yeah, sure, I am the secretary.”
“Great. So what do you do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can you read?”
“A little”
“Well why are you the secretary?”
“Because they voted for me.”

Ok then.