Jenny's Planet

It is hard to believe I have been in site for nearly 6 weeks! Time flies when you're having fun, no? Yes, I have been having fun.

In the house I am at now, each night we sit together and share our daily 'PIN'...sharing something from the day that was Positive, something Interesting, and something Negative...PIN.. :) I think I will use that method in organizing this blog.

POSITIVE

Well, during training, they told us to lower our expectations...that things were going to go little by little, and that we should look for/focus on/celebrate small successes... Today I feel like I had my first small success with the women's group. A few members expressed interest in rice tanks (a method of growing rice in water; helps with weed problems and generally yields a greater harvest). The area of land we work on has a large creek closeby, which is maintained all year, but many members didn't believe me when I encouraged that it was definitely possible to construct a rice tank in a certain area. Upon sharing this interest with some techs at the MIDA office (Ministerio de Desarrollo Agropecuario), I arranged a time for a specialized technician that works in Santiago to visit the farm, analyze the land, and offer her recommendations. She came today. It was fabulous! She said, of course it is possible, and that we SHOULD take advantage of the lovely creek we have there. On the 7th of Sept she and some other techs are going to return to do a demonstration on irrigation and pumping water from the creek. In the meantime, we will be preparing the area of land in which the rice tank will go. I am pretty darn excited, as I love rice tanks! My next task will be finding agencies to donate some tubes for our irrigation system. Yep.

In October, the group will also begin a big (12 hectares) watermelon project. An organization called ProRural has signed a 5 year contract with the group; they provide a significant amount of money to fund the project, we carry out the planting/harvest/selling, pay back whatever we used, and keep the profits. I am thrilled that in such an important project, the group has agreed to give me a small area to grow some watermelons organically (organic fertilizer, organic pesticides..etc), as a means of comparison! Now I am just doing a ton of research and praying my results don't fail me! I have also constructed my own seed bed (the cabbage seeds have finally sprouted!!) and organic compost bin!

There have been a bunch of Americans here, through the military-Air Force dentists and a some Marines, doing free work on the people of Calobre. I got a couple of guys to come out to the field and work with us for an afternoon. A few hours of machete work and both decided they would help as much as they could while they were here, but once they left Panama, they never wanted to see a machete again! :) It was fun, though.

Other positives: My Spanish is improving. I felt like I was at a plateau, but little by little, it is getting easier. There is a refreshing stream that drops into a big pond for swimming nearby, and in the last couple weeks, I've visited it quite a bit with some kids. My host family is wonderful. I have been cooking! (hard to believe, I know) We actually made a schedule last night...I have two days a week to make dinner. Yikes. We are going to make a mud oven next week! Aaaand, I am going to begin working with a school in neighboring community Alto Limon to make a school garden.


INTERESTING

I led my first formal meeting with the women's group. It was set for 9am. Everyone arrived at 11:30. (So there's this thing called Panamanian time...urg) BUT, nearly everyone was in attendance, so for that I am grateful. We did a lot of 'dinamicas'..dynamics..games..the ever famous 'human knot' to demonstrate teamwork. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful, but we laughed, and I hope the underlying message got through. Pretty fun.

One family asked that I stay at their house a couple nights. Before bed, the dad would tell stories (I even understood 95% of all of them!) They were almost like fables..animal characters..interesting messages.. I'll share one.. It was once thought in all the land that the rabbit was the most wise of all the animals. One a clever chicken wanted to show the rabbit up, and had a plan. He went to a spot where he knew the rabbit always passed. He burried his head under his wing and waited. Sure enough, the rabbit passed by and saw the chicken. 'How odd,' thought the rabbit, but continued on. Once the rabbit had left, the chicken lifted his head, and again, waited for the rabbit to return. Sure enough, the rabbit returned, and when he saw the chicken he gasped! 'Chicken! When I passed by not even an hour ago, you were here, without a head! And now I am passing again, and there you stand, WITH your head! How on earth is that?!' The chicken said, 'Oh, it's quite simple, Rabbit. I merely mandated that my wife take my head down to the river and wash it for me. What kind of chicken would I be with a dirty face? Now I am ever so handsome.' The rabbit responded, 'And how did your wife take your head down to the river?' Chicken said, 'She just got her machete, softly and carefully removed my head, washed it, and just as easily brought it back and reattached it.' 'Interesting,' said the rabbit, and hopped away. He thought to himself, 'I wish for my wife to wash my head, too!' He went to his house, found his machete, put it in front of his wife and said, 'Wife! I order that you remove my head, take it to the river, wash it well, and bring it back. Surely then I will be the most handsome creature around.' His wife, not one to need to be told things twice, took the machete, cut off the rabbit's head, and hopped off to the river to wash it. Naturally, the rabbit fell, and died. And this is how the story ends. Morbid, yes..and if the rabbit was the most wise creature, I am not sure why he would fall for such a trick. Interesting story, regardless, and I was just excited I understood all of it. So now the chicken is the most wise animal. I told them they need to be careful then, as they have seeeveral chickens in their yard. They laughed.


NEGATIVE

Sure, I've run into some obstacles...That which has given me the most stress is the issue of religion. There are two distinct religions here- Catholics and Evangelicals. Unfortunately, the two groups do not get along. The divide has been hard to manage; when I work with one group, the other group gets fussy, and vice versa. That's all I'll say about that.

I ate a guava fruit, not realizing that all the white 'seeds' I briefly saw inside were actually worms, until my 4th bite. Extra protein, I guess?


So the happy stuff out weighs the yucky stuff.


I love my life.


But, I miss everyone back home. A lot. Mom started school this week. Hope those 6th graders don't give you too much grief. :)