From Bubble to Bubble

I've just returned from a lovely trip to see all my loved ones in Chicago, and I will talk more about that in a bit.  First, I wanted to give everyone a quick update about what I've been doing in my community for the past month or so.

Right now I've been taking a hold on doing the fish tanks because 1) People don't want to dig holes or do any kind of work that I suggest, 2) Technicians don't want to return my calls, and 3) Agencies are just too slow and unreliable in providing tools and PVC pipes.

So right now my efforts are focused in developing home gardens and nutritional knowledge.  I'm coordinating with a project developed by the First Lady of Panama, given to the poorest areas in Panama (aka my community).  The project gives away various work tools (axes, hoes, shovels, machetes fertilizer pumps, etc), vegetable seeds (a rare commodity here), chicken fencing, actual chicks, and so on.  The main goal is to promote family nutrition through the building of vegetable gardens, and also chicken houses for protein.  A technician working with the project comes in once a week to visit all the participating families to explain how to start up garden beds and chicken houses and give technical advice to any problems they've encountered along the way.  If after 3 months a family isn't doing any work with the seeds or tools then the technician has the right to take it all away and give it to another family.  So there are certain regulations with these hand-outs.

Lucky for this technician there's a Peace Corps volunteer working in the same community doing essentially the same thing that he's doing (minus the hand-outs).  So the technician and I teamed up, a synergistic way to strengthen both our projects.  I'm in the community most of the time (not just once a week), so I'm available to troubleshoot any problems and make sure stuff gets done, therefore helping his projects succeed.  And since I lack the monetary means to provide any kind of physical assets, I can use the technician's resources to help me with my garden projects by providing seeds and tools.  It's a win-win situation.  He has even taken me under his wing a bit, laying on all his advice on how to work successfully in such a difficult environment and with such a different kind of people.  He's had 20 years experience in this kind of work, and realizes the sacrifice and commitment and patience necessary to get something done without going crazy.  It's all been very helpful and motivating, and I'm finely starting to feel productive.

As part of our integrated projects, I'm taking the reins on teaching about organic fertilizers and organic insecticides.  Fertilizers are extremely important in the very malnourished, red and acidic, clay-based soil that exists in these parts.  And the organic part is important too, finding a way to increase soil fertility using things they can find in their home or in the jungle.  And speaking from a strictly economic point of view, they simply don't have the money to buy chemical fertilizers.

After coming back from a training event I was given a little box of red California worms to start up some rich worm composting.  I arrived at my host family's house and completely out of context yelled, "Hey everyone, I got worms!"

My host mom looked worried and replied, "Dios mio you have parasites!?  Are you taking any medicine for it?"

Realizing what I had said, I explained, "Noooo, I don't have worms in my stomach.  They're here in this box, for making compost!"  Only in Panama would this kind of mix-up occur..


Right before I left for my holiday to Chicago, I gave a charla, or a talk, about organic insecticides, using their local resources.  Not too many people showed up and we started 2 hours late, because culturally that's just the way they are here.  But, at least I know the ones that did come were there to learn, notebooks in hand and lots of questions all around.  At the end we all helped prepare and cook an insecticide that they could take home with them in bottles.

This is me eating some breakfast before the big charla.

To start out the talk, I divided everyone into groups and gave them questions to work on, and then we discussed the answers  in front of everyone.  It was a good base to get an idea about how much everyone already knew about managing insects, what insecticides do, and what local plants/materials can be utilized.  These kind of talks are meant to be informal and are really supposed to get people talking and sharing.  I've found that there's a lot of local knowledge floating around, but no one wants to share their experiences or ideas.

Some of the ingredients included a couple pounds of garlic and onion, so everyone helped chop them up.

The papers from which I gave my talk (power point wasn't really an option).  I talked about the functions of different ingredients and local plants, as well as cheap and easy recipes.  At one point I explained how to use cow pee as a repellent and fertilizer, which got a big reaction from everyone, mainly laughs. They asked me, "Are we supposed to follow around a cow all day with a bucket?"

More prepping for our insecticide.  It smelled great.

We used the school kitchen to cook everything up over a fire.

The main ingredient is a plant called Balo.  It's leaves have a bit of cyanide in them, and so it's good at killing insects even in low concentrations.  It also has the added benefit of being a nitrogen-fixing plant, therefore doubling as a source of nitrogen fertilizer.  Cooking the leaves gets all the good juices out.  Later we discarded the leaves and added the garlic, onion, and a bottle of hot sauce to the juice.

Everyone reviewing the charla papers and talking about different recipes they can try.

A few days after my talk, I headed up to the big cold northern lands known as Chicago.  I've gotten so used to tropical weather down here that sometimes at night I'd be freezing.  How was I ever going to survive up there?  I was also pretty sick for a while before leaving, so much so that I went deaf in my right ear for a couple days because it was so infected.  I got drugged up right before leaving, but was in no mood for flying.

Also, honestly, I was nervous.  I've been living in my Panamanian bubble for so long that I grew accustomed to the craziness of my life.  The language, the culture, everything.  It became my world, a bubble in another part of my brain, where pig slaughters and riding horses and no electricity were normal things, just my life.  And now I was about jump into my other bubble, the world that I've known for most of my life and yet seemed to exist in a completely different reality.  I had to switch my mind to English mode.

I may have felt foreign arriving, but I immediately fell into this world again- munching on delicious foods, taking hot showers, and wearing nice warm clean clothes...I felt a lot better.  I had plenty of veggies and protein in my belly, and my clothes weren't covered in mud.  This was certainly a step up.

Andrew and I at Holiday Magic at the Brookfield Zoo. 

Looking at the dolphins in the underwater viewing area.

Matt and Grandma Kluge at her nursing home.

Mom and her mom.

Cheryl, Matt and I

At a shindig in Jen and Steve's new house.

What a great meal.  How I miss delicious food.  Not one can of sardines in site.

Jen and Lisa

Aunt Carol Ann and I

Good friends of Jennifer.  Colleen was in the Peace Corps many years ago in Ecuador.  It was great to compare and contrast our experiences between Peace Corps now and as it was before.

Jess and Uncle John

Jake and Renee

Dad and I

Hey Cubs

And of course I missed my kitties.  My initial reaction when I saw them was "Oh my god they're so fat!"   Sadly I'm accustomed to seeing rib cages and skin conditions on the animals down here.