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Muy buenos días a todos y todas. Quisieramos
decirles que... Well, we’re sending off that quirky COS
group that we will all miss... buena
suerte to you all, whether driving potatoes around, promoting
permaculture to anyone within earshot, selling chacaras, telling people
how LEJOS! You lived,
staying to have lucha libre with the Comarca caciques, or lo que sea.... we wish you all the best. Keep in touch. Also a fond farewell to both Janice and Joe
who are (sniff) leaving us in this accordion ridden country.... Thank you for all you have done
for Peace Corps Panama, and for us volunteers... So good luck, que les vaya bien. Mun riki koin. Been thinking….maybe you are all intimidated
by this massively distributed publication which leads to less sharing of
your wit, humor, creativity, art, and general juiciness that we tend to
hoard to ourselves somewhere inside these fleshy houses. So. New policy. We would be MORE THAN WILLING to
include anonymous, yes, anonymous material for your
sharing and viewing pleasure. However,
if things are funky and unfixable they may not go in. Either way, let loose out there! Get wild on your rainy days at
home. And share…the
common good, you know. And, the moment we have all been waiting
for…we would like to welcome Mr. Andy Hoke to be a Vaina Goddess! He actually offered to be a
Vaina slave, bitch and toe-nail clipper…however, we only ask that he
waltz around in wings and flowy dresses four days every two months. And don´t say you couldn’t
make it because of the rain…or the water traffic…won’t work. For all the many others that
responded, you didn’t offer enough to the Goddesses. The next Vaina party (fiasco?) will be the
first week of August, so... submit, SUBMIT, SUBMIT!!!! By August
1st! Meanwhile, have fun,
keep writing, don’t go insane out there in the campo, and enjoy this
edition of the Vaina. Para servirles, Anne, Noelia and Jessi Hello all!!! I am 6 weeks away from ending my 5 years here in Panama. It doesn’t
feel real. I am going through my own COS and adjustment to leaving.…or
at least thinking I am. But the work continues. My last day is July 13.
Then Karen and I are heading to the Galapagos for 10 days-going on one
of those boat tours and then meeting up with the CD in the Galapagos to
see how the Galapagoans live. From there we will return to Panama to
pick our "gatas" which are 17 pounds apiece and head to
California. In the meantime… life here in Peace Corps continues at a very fast
pace. 1) In
this issue of the Vaina is a summary of our submission to Washington for
the goals and objectives for Peace Corps/Panama for the next 2 years. We
expect to continue on in the way we have. Working with poorer
communities, keeping our commitment to indigenous communities,
emphasizing clustering amongst the volunteers, and continuing towards a
decentralization in terms of technical support for PCVs. The team that
worked on this plan felt that you the volunteers continue to tell us we
are on the right path and we need to continue in that direction. I hope
you read it and agree. 2) With
the 3 month delay in the finalization from Washington for the Peace
Corps annual budget, lots of activities were also delayed. So you will
see in the next few months a lot of Center activities appearing to being
bunched together. We were approved for the monies for these activities
and must have the activity prior to the end of October. 3) Expansion---yes
we are in it….. The office is being expanded and remodeled. Thanks for
all of you bearing with us during this time. 4) Computer
migration is occurring now. When you next come to the office, you will
see that we have PCs and no more Macs. With that change will come some
more guidelines and policies regarding computer use from Washington. We
will be on a network with Washington. Some of the things we have
done in the past will no longer be possible…. Like using PageMaker,
Illustrator..etc. These are not officially supported/nor purchased
software from Washington and we can not add them to our machines. The
using of staff computers will also not be allowed. We will have 4
computers for PCVs-which is what Washington recommends and gave to us
given the number of PCVs in country. We will be hiring only one fulltime
IT specialist. Their primary function will be to work with the staff and
keep those computers and the network working. 5) As
of today, I have not heard anything official about my replacement. As
soon as I know I will email all of you. 6) Recently,
the President of the Congreso Emberá asked to meet with us to
investigate if it is viable for Peace Corps to work within the comarca
Emberá-Wounaan. We identified 4 potential communities. We will now look
for permission to work and live in those sites from the Embassy. 7) Panama
along with most Central and South American countries received approval
to hire someone to oversee all the safety and security activities. These
range from the Emergency Action Plan, to verifying locator forms, to
conducting communication tests, to ensuring that Panama’s safety plan
is viable. We will be hiring someone soon. 8) Joe
Torres is also departing from Post to head to Micronesia as the
Programming and Training Officer.. He will be missed. Micronesia is very
lucky. It is expected he will be leaving in July, also. No word on
anyone to replace him either. 9) We
recently conducted our communication test to "test the time it
takes for the message to get from the Safety Coordinator to the Peace
Corps Volunteer and confirmed back to the Safety Coordinator". Our
goal is within 36 hours. Our results are being compiled. I believe that
we met the goal in all but 3 cases. Congrats on your fine effort. 10) A reiteration of
the "site selection" procedures. All APCDs and Program
Assistants must be accompanied by a Peace Corps Volunteer for every site
selection visit. If an APCD is looking for sites in your area, help the
APCD out. We know you know a lot of stuff about communities that we
don’t. 11) Sad news about
SPA. Effective immediately, all future SPA funds (which come from US
AID) can only be used in US AID’s targeted geographic area which is
the "cuenca". 10 + PCVs are in this defined area. Before those
PCVs submit a SPA project we will need to write a concept paper for AID
to get the approval for that project. I will be learning if there are
more specifics. Opportunities to obtain funds for some of your
activities can still be obtained through the Peace Corps Partnership
Program. Maria Elena has all the details. 12) CME------WHAT!!!!!
Panama is hosting the annual conference of all the medical people from
20+ countries in our region the last week of June. We expect to have
over 55 in attendance. 13) Some people have
asked me "What to do with the new director?" Invite the new
director to your site for an activity. It is important for the new
director to get out and see what you are doing. It is not the same to
have you in the office telling what you do versus seeing it and talking
to the people in your community. Tell the director what your thoughts
are about your site, your sector, your work, your expectations and needs
of the position. Ask the director to listen to you if you feel you are
not being listened to. Be honest and give viable solutions to the issues
you see. 14) I get teary eyed
and begin to cry when I think about leaving Panama. I feel like you have
provided us with a home. I find it difficult to imagine not focusing on
bringing our Panama family/team together to achieve and work on
accomplishing the desires of your communities. I realize that my sole
job will not be to address how I/we can help you be successful
volunteers. I am thankful that I was given the opportunity to know you
and work with you. I can’t believe they paid me to love Panama and to
travel all over this country. 15) Lastly, thank
you for welcoming Karen and I so warmly into your lives. Hasta
pronto…….. Cuidanse La Jefa for one last time News From
Permaculture Project I hope you all are doing well and making the transition into the rainy
season. By now I'm sure most of you have heard that I will be moving on
as Programming Training Officer in Micronesia/Palau. I'm not sure of the
exact date yet but it will be sometime in mid to late July, yes of 2002.
I'm excited to have the opportunity to move to a new country and
contribute to the restructuring of that post. At the same time, I'm
extremely sad to leave such a wonderful country and a great group of
PCVs and staff. It was a tough decision but overall this position and
new country will be good for my family and I. I am confident that the Permaculture project will continue in its
positive direction through the experience and passion of all of the PCVs
that hav contributed to make the project what it is. The Project should
continue to run smoothly if all of you continue to participate in key
planning activities of the project as you have been doing in the past. We hope to have a new
Permaculture APCD in country by early August but haven't received the
list of candidates as of June 5th. We would like to have a few
Permaculture PCVs to help in the interviews...let me know if you are
interested and we will see if we can make it happen. If I don't get the
chance to see you, it has been a pleasure and an honor to work with such
a professional and fun group of people. Keep up the great work and
please keep in touch. Franklin, Maria Elena and Yoko will be holding the
fort in between APCDs. Please help them out whenever you can. -Thanks to all who participating in the Permaculture Project review by
PC Washington. Paula and Nick left very impressed and with some good
strategies that we have been doing to share with other PC posts (i.e.
PCV involvement in preparing and managing CENTER requests, regional
PCV/agency meetings). Although I haven't received a report yet from
Paula, they did leave me with some good comments to edit the Project
Plan-which I will try to incorporate before I leave. -Thanks for making the Permaculture conference a success...I have
received a lot of positive feedback from PCVs, Paula and Nick. I thought
the case studies were excellent and I hope that you all will continue
this strategy of sharing technical information. You could pass any case
studies on to Beth or Braden for them to put into the files. These could
also be shared at the next conference. -Please remember that if you are going out of your site for work
purposes and not personal days that you need to get your APCD clearance.
Sending your monthly calender has worked out great, please continue
this. Keeping the new APCD informed is critical as she/he will be just
learning the ropes and will be organizing site visits to see you all early on. -CENTER requests... The Kuna Permaculture conference is scheduled for
August 26-31 with Jane, Chris and Mark being the champions for it; The
Pastos Management (proposed for August 5-10, Braden champion), and the
Farm Planning (proposed for 8-13, Zac and Jared champions) will be
submitted to the CENTER for consideration so the funding has not yet
been approved. -Beekeeping seminar...the Farmer to Farmer request didn't materialize
but the 2 trainers are still willing to do a seminar in Tole for the
promoters in the Tole system. This will be held July 15-19th and Bruce
is the champion for that. Any future CENTER requests can be passed to
Maria Elena and Greta if the new APCD is not in place. These would include Appropriate Technology in
Permaculture (Jared/Rob), Use of Native Plants by Indiginous Groups(Demi/Jessie),
Native Tree Planting (Bruce/Noelia). -The Permaculture office has been moved into Raul's old office. Tighter
quarters but a room with a view. The PCV leaders will be located in the
expanded office of where Belinda worked. -The new trainees have arrived and are busy with cramming information
into their minds. Please give the trainees a word of encouragement if
you see them..this time in training is tough. -The next group of trainees for Permaculture will be in January 2003.
Some potential sites are Solidad, Bocas; Cusapin, Bocas; Batata,
Veraguas;San Pedro Rincon, Veraguas; Villericito, Los Santos; Sites
around las Huacas, Cocle; La Rica, Cocle; El Espino, Los Santos; Rio
Hondo, Panama Este; Mahe, Paname Este. If you know of any other sites,
or some that I may have forgotten, please let me know. I'm trying to
compile folders on these sites for the next APCD. Your assistance in
site development and selection has led to good sites for future PCVs...we
need your continued support in these efforts. Thanks for sharing your life with my family and I. As is common in Peace
Corps,great long lasting friendships have been established. We wish you
all the best. Sincerely, Joe Torres Environmental
Health By APCD Greg Branch Howdy Ho!! Y’all smell like flowers! Another two months have tick-tocked
by and here we are again on the Vaina clock. Like sands through the
hourglass…. These are the days of our lives. I hope everybody’s own
personal soap opera brings each day (or episode if you will), some
unexpected occurrence, twist in the plot, or romance that flares with
passion. My soap took on a shocking development, that left me wondering
who shot J.R. I came back from an incredible vacation in El Salvador and
New Orleans, to the hard drive on my computer gone, erased, zapped,
blasted, de-magnetized, befuddled, crashed, pulverized, teleported,
beamed-up by Scottie or it just pulled out of here like a Catholic;
cause I sure couldn’t find it anywhere. Se Fue. So on the verge of ET-ing
(but for an APCD it is called quitting), I got some good advice from
Janice. She said, "think of it like a project in your site that
went to hell.". Well, I had lots of experience at that, but she
wouldn’t let me use my old cure which was to sit in my hammock and
read books for two weeks and allow myself to be pissed off at the world.
As Tom Robbins says, "All depression has its roots in self-pity,
and self-pity is rooted in people taking themselves too
seriously…….one individual spirit could supersede, eclipse and
out-sparkle the entire disco ball of history." Luckily I had my PCV visits planned, and I was able to take two weeks in
Bocas and Chiriqui to enjoy the hammocks outside of this village of
skyscrapers. That put it all in perspective. Each one of you PCVs are
well beyond the value of my ongoing PC computer documents. Each one of
you is out there actually doing the work, living it, breathing it,
getting sick on it, and the people of your community are the end
product. At the end of the day, that is what counts, not my computer.
Take a minute right now, step back, and look at the beauty and the
real-ness of all that is around you. Nic just told me a story yesterday
that I haven’t been able to get out of my head. I am going to share it
with y’all right now, but I’ll change a few characters to fit the
moral of the story relative to your lives out there (if ya don’t mind
Nic)… ... It goes like this…. "This guy is walking down the street and
suddenly falls down a deep hole. He is stuck. So he starts yelling for
help. Along comes this guy from USAID. He hears this guy yelling for
help and looks down into the hole. The guy says, ‘hey can you help
me?.’ The guy from USAID throws a ten-dollar bill into the hole and
walks away. The desperate man, looks at the bill, sticks it into his
pocket and keeps yellin’ for help. Along comes this priest
(evangelical if you will). He hears this guy and comes over to the hole
and writes a prayer of salvation on a piece of paper and throws it into
the hole. The guy reads it, sticks it into his pocket and has to keep on
yelling for help. Along comes a Peace Corps Volunteer and hears this guy
yelling, walks over to this hole and sees the guy stuck down there. The
PCV promptly jumps into the hole. The guy says, "Why the hell did
you do that, now we are both stuck in this hole! The PCV says,
"It’s o.k. I have been in this hole before. I’ll show you how
to get out." So I have been thinking about that story and that is exactly what we all
did when we boarded that plane from Miami, jumped into a hole. You have
to live in that hole with the people that are down there too, before you
can assume you have something to offer them. If you are askin’ me, I
believe your lives are nothin’ but enhanced by knowing those holes,
when you are not afraid to fall, you can jump a whole lot more. Don’t
get me wrong, I’m not recommending to stomp on any dubious pit latrine
platforms, certain holes aren’t for anybody. So, my computer crashes,
just another hole to study and figure out what to do next time. I have
had to adapt and I have begun to back-up what I do. Anywho….. enough of all that gibberish, I got some good news to share
in the Tech. So without further pupu… The EH Tech Bridge cable!!! That’s right!!
By now most of you know that USAID has stopped funding any and all
projects outside of their "target" zone. This zone is in the
canal watershed, and only a nino’s handful of volunteers qualify for
the money thrown into their holes. They certainly won’t be funding any
bridge projects. What seemed to be an ordinary day, Reed and I stepped
out of this climate controlled office building for a bite to eat. We
went out the back door and there sunning in the street, like a boa
digesting a pregnant rat, lay about two hundred or more yards of
thick1/2 inch elevator cable, running up the street and back again. On
our way back, we saw the elevator pros in their dazzling electric blue
shirts complete with the company name stitched on the chest pocket,
rolling up the cable into a roll. My first thought was, "those guys
should really be bowling in those shirts". Then my mind flashed
light, as though Zeus had just thrown a bolt of lightning all the way
from the Ngobe comarca in Bocas. Second thought, " EH-er Mike
Gaffney wants a bridge put in to help out 2,000 indigenous folks get
across a raging river that is impassable when the rains fall from
mythological Greek storms." So I walk up to the shining blue man
and inquire. Sure enough they are replacing the elevator cable. "Ustedes
pueden darme este cable usado?" He looks at his shoes then looks
back up at me and says, "yo creo que si". Zeus smiles. We just
have to talk to apartment building manager. She wanted a letter. Itza
expertly whips up an enchanting solicitude on PC letterhead, how their
donation will save 2,000 Ngobe men, women, and children. "They need
an elevator?" she asks. Somehow, she can’t visualize women wading
waist deep through a strong current with a hundred pounds of firewood
balanced on her forehead and back. To make a long story longer, communities got their cable. What might
have given Reed and I permanent lower back pains, just loading the four
hundred pound rolls into the Land cruiser, two Ngobe guys stuck a small
tree through it, shouldered the load, and started the 45 minute walk
through the Bocas mud to the river. Shazzam! So I still have about 600+ yards of the cable left for y’all. Just
give me an informal solicitude written up by your community, with an
estimated length. Looking around this concrete jungle, there is a lot of
this cable slithering through this city. That is the news from my EH desk, and I better run this to those
wonderful patient, forgiving, and terribly demanding Vaina Goddesses. A
big old fatherly smile to my EH boys out there, you are making me proud
and convincing me to stay on with this APCD job. Keep up the good work.
All of you here in Panama. Take it easy and keep on keeping on, Greg "Goyo" Branch Share this below with your kids that are staring at you right now, reading your Vaina……… |
