August 13, 2019
On this day we were slated to meet our community counterparts. Sometime in the afternoon the first of them began to arrive.
My counterpart, Bernardino was the latest to arrive, along with Andres and Martín, the counterparts representing neighboring communities. This was understandable being that they had to travel one of the furthest distances to arrive.
As had been provided to me in the community dossier, I knew I would be assigned to serve two communities rather than one (due to their small size) and I was also aware that Bernardino was the secretary of the Junta Administradora de Acueducto Rural (JAAR), or water committee.
Meeting Bernardino, I got the impression that he was a very busy man as he was constantly on his phone. Given his late arrival, we didn't have much time to chat before the day's sessions began. I gleaned some cursory knowledge about the communities, he being from what I'll call community #2. All I knew at this point was that the communities shared a joint water committee and that I would be living in community #1.
August 14, 2019
Before the swear-in ceremony the next day, we had some more additional time to talk further where I learned that he was a bit of a world traveler, having been to the United States and Thailand. The nature of his trip to the United States at the time was a mystery to me, but photos and conversations with others needed to be had so further discussion with Bernardino was postponed.
Normally, swear-in precedes departure for sites. However, swear-in was moved a day early as the following day, August 15, was a local holiday celebrating the foundation of the original Panama City. As such, that night served as a final farewell for the cohort as re-unification was not expected to occur for another year.
August 15, 2019
The final Peace Corps office session that August 15 was a discussion around levels of intimacy and cultural barriers. One such example would be that passive smiling is more of a big deal in Panamanian culture as it expresses interest. Of course, smiling after a joke or when posing for a photo is regarded as neutral. Both the new volunteers and their counterparts would come up to present on the various points of discussion. Bernardino volunteered to cover a point and smoothly presented in a demonstration of his experience with public speaking.
After having a couple of hours to pack and prepare for departure, we were all taken to Albrook Mall from which we would start our journeys to our individual sites. However, Bernardino being from so far away took this chance to get some shopping done in the largest mall of the Americas. Being the de facto guide for Andres and Martín, they too waited for him. In turn, their volunteers, Sean and Shelby, would be waiting as well. Thus our departure was delayed a couple hours, but in the end there was really no rush.
For various reasons, counterparts tend to race back home. Whether its excitement to introduce a volunteer to their community, discomfort with being away from home or being in the big city, or simply because they feel its their job. Bernardino did not feel these compulsions. We had been afforded a night in David, Chiriquí after all. After an 8-hour bus ride to David, I asked Bernardino around what time he figured we should get up to go. He told me to sleep-in as long as I wanted.
August 16, 2019
So as all the other volunteers departed at or before 6:00 am, we didn't leave the hotel until after 9:00a.
Part of the trip travelling between Bocas del Toro and Chiriquí involves crossing through the Fortuna Forest Reserve and driving over the Fortuna Dam. The minibus van we were travelling in made a small pit stop where vendors sold various food items such as sliced pineapples. Bernardino pointed out that these were all people displaced by the dam, in a foreshadow of his own history.
Eventually, we arrived at what I'll call Cubo, a hub from which various volunteers purchase supplies and find transportation.
Another minibus van, we reached what I'll call Curva del Río, of which my two assigned communities were technically neighborhoods. As for the two communities, previously referred to as community #1 and community #2, I shall now be refer to them as Lado Oeste and Ladera, respectively.
From here, Sean and I parted ways with Shelby as our communities lay further South while hers was located Westwards. The road continued south a small distance, halting before a stream. As such, foot travel was required. Two men from Lado Oeste, Cutilio and Felipe, met me near the end of the road to help carry my luggage. Bernardino meanwhile parted ways with me temporarily as he had to make a stop by his home in Ladera. I was advised to put on my rain boots for we would be crossing streams and mud.
This was my first time using rain boots mind you. Them being oversized provided particular challenges, yes. However, I felt a rare feeling of invincibility as I walked through a puddle with feet still dry. This was followed by a humiliating defeat as after crossing a stream with yet dry feet, I proceeded up a muddy slide where my boots got trapped. Attempts to free them resulted in one of my feet pulling clear off the boot and landing in the mud. Cutilio laughed and advised me to stay to the sides of the pathway. Noted.
Roughly 10 minutes later, there was a fork in the trail at which point Sean and I parted ways.
"Casi estámos allí" Felipe assured me. "[Sean] todavía le queda tanto."
On the trail ahead of me lay cacao trees in abundance with yellow, red-purple, or green pods growing off of their branches. Mixed variably among them were banana trees.
Then we came to the river. No bridge. In fact, only one bridge crosses this particular river but it's located far far away. Fortunately, it had been relatively dry so the water level only reached just below the knee at the deepest portion. Nevertheless, it was a minor struggle to navigate the multitude of small mossy rocks located on the river bed as well as to combat the current.
I made it to the other side and tried to empty my boots as coolly as Felipe and Cutilio had. After only pouring out about half using the leg-lift maneuver, my two guides began walking off. Preferring not to get lost, I followed suit with water still swirling in my boots.
After traversing the trail for a few more minutes we arrived in Lado Oeste. A girl looked down from the first house we walked by. After telling her "kuin dere" (good afternoon), she smiled and hid from view. We arrived underneath a house (all of the houses in the community were raised on stilts) where a meeting area was set up. I was given a stump to take a seat while tens of people present looked upon me and whispered to each other. I would later be told that more people would have been able to show up, had I arrived on Saturday.
At this point, I considered emptying my boots but wasn't sure how that would have been viewed, so I decided to let my feet continue to soak.
Once Bernardino arrived, the meeting started in earnest. The whole ordeal was a bit of a haze, at one point I was asked to give words which I recall doing quite well, but what I had said I cannot remember. I had mentioned that I was previously given the name Tikäni when I was visiting in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. They were less than pleased about that.
Emelina, community matriarch, speaking purely in Ngäbere denounced the name claiming that that community had no right to grant me a name, and that there was no obligation to accept it. As such, she demanded to give me the name they had planned prior: Chitä. Chitä was the original founder of Lado Oeste having settled the area in the 1950's.
After having translated the above to me, Bernardino asked me if I approved of the name, to which I said of course. With that, the meeting had concluded, and everyone took me up a small hill to the house where I would be staying, the house of my host family.
Photo Credit: Bernardino Morales Tera
After having arrived at my host family's home, I was able to pour out the river water from my boots and proceed into the house, wring out my socks, and hang them to dry.
The household consisted of Juliana, her husband Cutilio, and their 2-year old child Yariela who was referred to by her Ngäbere nickname "Mei".
After a quick dinner of [dinner not recorded] I was informed that they were having a church gathering that particular night and asked if I was allowed to go. After confirming that such activity was not prohibited, I accepted the invitation.
The small church was largely a modified home, but retained a kitchen so as to provide meals to visitors from out of town as well as during certain occasions. The permanent residents of Lado Oeste were exclusively evangelicals. A typical gathering would have men and women separated across a small aisle with only children crossing the gender-barrier (and who largely did their own thing). The pastor(s) would give certain sermons and lead certain hymns. Afterwards, members of the audience would go up, read certain biblical passages, give a brief reflection on the passage, and then lead the next hymn. The lead pastor would then close the meeting and everyone would go about shaking each other's hands. When visitors come from other towns, the church gathering could last quite a while indeed. In the cases when meals were handed out, those who travelled furthest were given their meals first.
This particular meeting lasted about an hour and a half before concluding. After returning back to the house, I had a round of conversation with my host family. The first topics touched on general information about the community, he claimed that chlorine was occasionally added to the water system (which I would later find out was a lie, but perhaps for the best given the organic material present in the system). The community itself relied on bananas as a staple with cacao sold as a cash crop. Vegetables (largely tubers) were grown as a supplement.
The first thing my host dad Cutilio remarked was "Pensaba que los voluntarios de Cuerpo de Paz eran Estadounidenses."
"Pues, sí. Todos los voluntarios son ciudadanos estadounidense, incluido yo." I replied.
"Ah, sí, pero..." He continued, "No pareces estadounidense puro."
This was something I was prepared to come across. I explained that the United States is perhaps more diverse than they have come to believe, either because of the composition of tourists or because of the movies they have seen. That said, it could be said I was not a "pure" United Statesian by virtue of my US-Mexican dual nationality. Nevertheless, I was a US citizen and not an uncommon representation of one at that.
He then added that he was first surprised to hear about a "Peace Corps" since we're always at war. The people of the United States, he assumed, were a violent people, especially based on what he saw from movies. That said, they aren't particularly opposed to violent movies. After all, Rambo is quite popular in the region, though it's rare for anyone to have access to any of the movies.
The conversation wrapped up with them informing me that we would be visiting a community by a dam over the weekend. I recognized the name they gave me as the name of one of the communities a volunteer from my cohort was assigned.
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