Summer´s Here (haha!)

Every year summer arrives the part of the Comarca south of the Cordillera Mountains sometime during the first week of December. Just like in the United States it is an exciting time: children are finishing the school year, corn, beans, yucca and other foods are beginning to ripen, and there is no more mud! According to my journal, summer started this year on December 6 because that was the first time in many months we didn´t have any rain. I am tempted to consider the first day of summer the 5th, though, as that was the night Lela hauled her cooking rocks out from her "kitchen" and into the open air. That night we huddled around the fire and felt the excitement of summer while Lela prepared rice and chicken under the brilliant lights of a full moon and stars. The conversation during dinner focused on fact that seven dogs now spend the majority of their day in my 12´x12´ house.

For most of my first year in site that number fluctuated between a manageable three and five dogs and has held strong at four the past four months. That all changed on November 18 when I woke up to the sound of three whimpering puppies curled up with their mom in the corner of my house. Pregnant Puma finally had her puppies. I was excited and honored she chose my house to have her pups in but Armodio felt differently. Armodio, sixteen and famous for being the family´s best hunter (he´s incredible accurate with a slingshot), said the puppies are no good because Puma is "good for nothing." I understood this to mean she doesn´t hunt (which is true) so I responded, "well she´s really cute - she´s good for looking at. haha." He clearly misunderstood my sarcasm for stupidity (this happens far too often) and before walking away he gave me a quizzical look then chuckled awkwardly. I interpreted this to mean two things: "I´ll never understand Scott" (probable) and "Scott is weird" (definite).

Since the birth of the puppies my days have been filled with excitement and my nights have been filled with a growing melody of animal noises that to my complete lack of surprise is even more annoying than before! To the owls hoot and the frogs burp comes the roosters roost and the cicadas song. The crescendo grows with the dogs bark and the pigs snore (he sleeps against my house) and everything culminates in the screeching sound of three whining puppies.

Despite this and the little piles of puppy poo and pee on my floor, their cuteness and entertainment more than make up for the extra work of cleaning up after them and my lack of sleep. And I am closer to them now because they almost died twice today. In the morning Armodio killed a highly poisonous Coral snake slithering near the house. In the afternoon I noticed my guitar case had become part of a large termite home (this is a painfully clear sign that I need to practice more). I removed the guitar from its cubby and began scraping away the termite home with my machete when a large scorpion began scrambling up the case and toward my hand. I simply shook the case and the scorpion fell to the ground. At this point all I should have needed to do was stomp my foot. I was not that lucky.

Whereas the puppies once stayed curled up in a cute ball of fluff all day in the corner of my house, they now whine and wander around aimlessly. I have to dance around to avoid these adorable miniature moving landmines, two of which happened to place themselves just inches from where the scorpion fell. Of coarse a scorpion strike would kill these fur balls so I acted fast. I scooped up the puppies with my left hand and let my machete take care of the threat with my right.

Such is the level of excitement in Bajo Cerro Name in the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle as we welcome summer into our lives again.

Unofficial Peace Corps Degrees

My friend Tim had to leave Panama before he was finished with his service because civil unrest made his presence in his area too dangerous. This is not common in the Peace Corps although it does happen. I saw Tim two days before his departure and asked him how he felt about leaving early. He replied, "You know Scott, I haven't even been here [in Panama] a year, yet I know I've learned far more here than I did during four years in college."

Two weeks after Tim returned home I attended a training seminar on the construction of composting latrines. One night while we were cooking dinner on my friend's propane stove I shared Tim's words with fellow volunteers. We agreed with Tim about the value of our PC experiences and, in doing so, were led into a discussion about what degrees and minors we unofficially earn as PCVs. This list does not include the skills we develop (such as time management and problem solving); rather, it is a list of the knowledge we have attained listed as degrees we think we deserve.

Degrees:

• Literature: I am well on my way toward reading at least one hundred books during my PC service. My list includes Atlas Shrugged, The Grapes of Wrath, The Brothers Karamazov, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, War and Peace, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy to name a few. A lively debate among PCVs about these novels round out the major.
• Education: The entire philosophy of the PC rests on education; empowerment and capacitation are the keys to a successful and sustainable service. Whether it is seminars, lectures, or hands-on teaching, nearly all our work rests on education.
• Development Economics/Political Science: PCVs love to debate and discuss these two subjects more than any others. By far. A seemingly unlimited supply of books on these two subjects floats through the PC community to enhance the discussion.
• Diplomacy: In order to balance our values with our community's we rely on diplomacy. PC work itself leads many people into the field of diplomacy.
• Outdoor Education: PC service seems like a long camping trip. Getting to my site involves hiking at least 1.5 hours and neighboring PCVs are up to seven hours away.
• Community Organization: Much like education, community organization is a large component of PC work. This is especially true for Environmental Health Volunteers where success depends on the community's contribution to projects and being organized into effective groups.  

Minors:

• Spanish: This should be a major for me since I will be living in a Spanish-speaking country for two years. But in the Comarca where I live the Spanish is improper. I think of it as hick Spanish. That's enough for at least a minor, right?
• Medicine: PCVs are given a medical kit and are expected to self-medicate minor ailments. Numerous gastrointestinal issues and recovery from them improve this knowledge.
• Public Speaking: Seminars and lectures involve knowledge transfer which means that PCVs are expected to practice their public speaking skills in Spanish often.
• Management: PCVs teach their communities the importance of management and they also manage the projects they undertake.

Peace Corps in Panama: Giving Back this Holiday Season

Dear Family & Friends,

As many of you know, I am currently serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Western Panama. For the past year I have been living in a small village with members of Panama’s largest indigenous group, the Ngäbe. My job as an Environmental Health Volunteer is to work with the local community to improve their access to clean water and effective sanitation systems. As a Peace Corps Volunteer I strive to leave a sustainable impact on my community, Bajo Cacicón, through empowerment and capacitation. Many of you have expressed interest in contributing to my Peace Corps work. I am now at the point in my service that it is easy for friends and family to get involved.

(If you have already heard my story and would like to contribute to my project, you can scroll down and follow the link at the bottom. If not, please read the story of my project that follows.)

My work thus far has focused on identifying my community’s strengths and weaknesses, their most urgent needs, and the challenges associated with the extreme poverty of the region. Using my Peace Corps training, community organizing skills, and much-improved Spanish, I have facilitated a variety of community meetings and discussions. Through this process the community was able to unite and determine their primary need of new latrines.

Currently without latrines, the people of Bajo Cacicón use Quebrada Plata, a nearby stream, to go to the bathroom. Quebrada Plata is also the sole place for bathing and washing, and the water is used for both cooking and drinking. This environmental and public health nightmare leaves the locals with regular bouts of e.coli, giardia, and amoebic dysentery. Children are the most at-risk group and suffer awful consequences due to the exposure of these pathogens. Bloated bellies and severe diarrhea are common symptoms among children and exacerbate malnutrition and other poverty-related health problems.

The people of Bajo Cacicón and I have developed a plan to solve this problem. We will build 46 latrines for families within the community to improve the health of over 300 people. Basic latrines will ensure that all dangerous pathogens are contained a safe-distance from Quebrada Plata and will no longer threaten the health of the community.

Because the Peace Corps seeks to empower and capacitate we are requiring each family to contribute 50% of the construction of their latrine. This contribution will be in the form of materials (supplying sand and wood) and labor (transporting purchased materials to the community and construction of the latrines). The easiest way for you to help the families of Bajo Cacicón is to send a donation for the purchase of required materials. The monetary cost of building a latrine for one family is $102.

I am asking each of you to consider the health and well being of a community that has been under-served by its country and is working hard to make positive changes. I feel fortunate to be living and working with the people of Bajo Cacicón. Please contribute the amount you are able and consider paying for at least one family to complete this project.

Children of my host family bathing in a stream

To donate, visit my Peace Corps website and use a credit or debit card to make a contribution. 100% of your donation will go directly to build latrines in Bajo Cacicón. Feel free to send me an email with questions or comments. I would love to hear from you. Also, please forward this email to anyone that might be interested in my project. Thank you for your time and consideration. Any amount you can give will significantly improve the lives of the children and adults of Bajo Cacicón.

Sincerely,

Scott Mortensen

(scottbmortensen@gmail.com)

In the land of Anteaters and Sloths

One perception all volunteers living in the Comarca quickly make is that Ngabe's like to kill nearly all living animals. This is hard to get used to, especially when it comes to the killing of endangered animals. To give credit where it's due, though, I must admit that most animals are killed for food. Iguana, paca, agouti, armadillo, peccary, "conejo pintado", river shrimp, squirrels and a whole host of birds are hunted with nothing more than slingshots and good dogs. All the animals are delicious (even iguana). Additionally, a friend of mine living on the Caribbean coast complains of people hunting endangered sea turtles.

Animals are also killed for prevention and, unfortunately, fun. We call that "por gusto" here. The hummingbird they killed was a lucky shot from a slingshot. The possum was killed because (i'm told) they kill chickens. In a land of such rampant and effective killing you can understand my surprise when I encountered animals as large as an anteater and a sloth.

The anteater was shown to me by my fourteen-year-old host brother, Cuchinto, after he nearly beat it to death with a stick. I was impressed with the first anteater I've ever seen -it reminded me of a wolverine or small bear because it was muscular and visibly strong. The family's two best hunting dogs encountered it slurping ants out of the ground and decided to attack. Bad idea. The anteater quickly slashed its sharp claws and nearly killed both dogs. I was upset to see the kids playing with the suffering animal when I asked Cuchinto, "why are you killing it?" "For revenge" he said.

Cuchinto on the left with his cousin playing with the anteater

More recently I was shown to a sloth inching it's way along a branch quite high in a tree. Cuchinto, determined to make things more exciting, climbed up and shook the sloths branch until it fell from the tree. The kids surrounded the sloth and picked him up by placing stick in his hands to grab onto, which he did (see picture). He seemed to be fine from the fall. The kids played with him for a while before he escaped up a tree. I asked, "you're not going to kill it?" "no", they said, "they don't bother anyone."

Just after falling from the tree the sloth grabbed a stick Cuchinto put into his lap

A few days after this encounter I returned home from a hike to a neighboring community and found a rotting sloth carcass in the middle of the path. At home, Cuchinto's twelve-year-old brother, Pepo, asked if I saw the dead sloth. I nodded. He puffed his chest and bragged that he had killed it. "Why?" I asked. "I don't know. Por gusto," he replied.

Happy 11/11/11.

A Year of Perceptions

Exactly one year ago today I hiked to my site in the middle of the rainiest month of the year to officially start my Peace Corps service. Many accomplishments, numerous challenges, and countless invaluable experiences have made the last year immensely rewarding. I find myself closer to my neighbors, closer to the land we live on, and closer to fellow volunteers (they are a wonderful support system). Now, on my way to celebrate our "one year" with the rest of group 66 at a resort on the Caribbean coast, I have been trying to think of a blog post to commemorate the past year. I've decided to pick ten perceptions that shed light on the Ngäbe "experience":

(In no particular order)

1. Toughness is Valued. Whether it's brothers hitting or slapping one another or a mom remarking "How pretty" to her sons scraped-up chest after he slid down a palm tree shirtless, pushing through pain is expected and taught from a very young age.

2. Physical Abuse is Present. I've heard many stories but I have personally only witnessed Lela grab a twig to whip the children when they misbehave -especially when they are whining or crying. I also hear parents make threats, saying, "Be careful, I'll hit you."

3. Voice Inflection Tells as much as Words. Speaking here seems more exciting and interesting than back home with ups and downs, highs and lows, and drawn-out syllables. The more time I spend here I realize it really is an art to speak with such excitement. Lela is the grand-master at this. She says things like "It was HARRRRD" or "I went faaaaaarrrrrrrr" and her audience knows just exactly how hard it was or far she went by the emphasis she places on certain words. I love talking this way.

4. Non-Verbal Communication is Commonly-Used. People make animal sounds (especially chicken and dog), whistle, and hand gesture to communicate. The fewer words the better. It is not uncommon to have entire conversations with only hand-gestures because there is a sign for just about everything. Popular signs replace "lets go", "want to eat?", "the car is full", "no", "what's up?", "why?", and many other phrases or questions. This practice is especially fun to watch when two grand-masters go at it and volunteers take a lot of pride in perfecting this delicate skill.

5. Gender Roles are clearly Defined. This is true in most rural and poor parts of the world. Female roles include: tend to the children, harvest food, haul water from the river, wash clothing, cook, and make artisanry such as nagwas and chakras (traditional dress and bags, respectively). Male roles involve building structures, hauling wood for cooking fires, slashing and burning, planting, and harvesting food. Attending meetings and visiting people are not gender specific. Children are expected to do what they are told, which usually includes roles from both genders.

6. Children help a lot. The importance of contributing is also taught and learned at a very young age. Everyone contributes and works hard. My favorite example is the five-year-old, Luiz. He hikes uphill forty-five minutes to school every day, hikes home, and then is expected to retrieve water, serve food to visitors, burn trash (which he loves), and help his mom harvest food.

7. Grandparents Help with Childcare. Not only does Lela watch her grandchildren for weeks at a time but Lela's children expect it, they don't provide any material or monetary assistance to offset food costs, and Lela and her family are more than happy to have the company. Right now, two grand-daughters have been living with Lela for three weeks while their mom (Lela's daughter) nears the end of her third pregnancy.

8. People are Shyer Away from their Homes. This is to be expected to a certain degree in any culture but the transformation here is drastic. I can laugh and share food with someone in their home but when I cross them in a path near another home or near other people it is as if they don't know me. I have paid careful attention and I know it's not just me; they do it to each other, too. It doesn't matter if they are cousins or siblings either. Some people are not shy but most are.

9. Killing everything is Popular. Animals are not only killed for food. Hummingbirds, anteaters, sloths, and possums are all killed and not eaten. There are probably more than fifteen different types of wild animals that are hunted and eaten here, though. I have eaten most of them and they are all delicious. The reality that some of the animals are endangered is difficult to accept and a hard subject to breach.

10. This Place is P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-V-E. Generous amounts of rain and sun can transform a cleared plot of land into an impassable green wall taller than me in a short amount of time. Landscapes change drastically over time as man battles nature to plant crops. Also, animals and humans procreate like it's their job. My host dad, Samuel, has fourteen living children with two wives and we had six dogs but two died.

A Peace Corps Diet

You might be surprised to learn that for me and many of my fellow Comarca volunteers the most difficult parts of being a Peace Corps Volunteer have been food related. As Peace Corps mandates, PCV's must spend their first three months living with host families, working with them, and eating their food. Everyone gets sick. Bacterial infections, e-coli, giardia, and amoebas are all common (i've had three of them) and essentially unavoidable. They all lead to uncontrollable and uncomfortable bowel symptoms. I know at least five people just from my group in the Comarca who have pooped their pants and nearly everyone has been very close. One pooped herself twice in less than half a hour on her way to pooping thirty-two times in a single day. As my friend Chris says, "I never thought it would happen to me but then I literally could not pull my pants down fast enough."

We volunteers find these stories hilarious to the point of tears. It's all in the details. In the Peace Corps you get comfortable talking about your bowel movements. For me, though, the biggest problem with the first three months was the amount of food I was getting. I come from the Mortensen clan of impressive eaters and two meals per day just wasn't enough. Between sickness and "starvation" I lost fifteen pounds in two months.

That all ended nine months ago. Now my weight is back and I cook for myself, although I am still given a lot of food (I consider this the perfect combination). The culinary highlight of every day is breakfast. I make a big bowl of oatmeal with sugar/honey, bananas/raisins, crunchy peanut butter, dried milk, and cinnamon. Compared to the rest of my diet breakfast is D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. Lunch and dinner are almost always a variation of rice whether I cook it or not. Rice with beans, lentils, wild meat, squash, sardines, and noodle soup are very popular foods. I usually prepare my rice by throwing some fried or steamed veggies on top.

Recently harvested rice with sardines. Very popular. Not very good

There are also foods that are prepared for special occasions such as birthdays and holidays. These include spaghetti made without meat and my favorite, fried rice with chicken and vegetables (called "arroz con pollo"). This new years we are going to kill and roast a pig my neighbors have been raising to celebrate the return of their daughter from Switzerland.

Lela showing Kate how to make "arroz con pollo"

Kate serving two bowls of the delicious dish

Fruits available here include pineapple, banana, mango, orange, guava, passion fruit, and "mamun chino".

"Mamun Chino". Bitter, sweet and delicious 

Wild meats include paca, armadillo, agouti, iguana, peccary, squirrel, birds, river shrimp, and "conejo pintado". Many of them are endangered.

Three "conejo pintados". Cute, endangered, and good eatin'

Delicious non-rice staples are cassava, ñame, ñampi, otoe, and pixfae.

Pixfae with salt.

Happy 50th Peace Corps!

As 2011 nears its end I feel obligated to publicly wish Peace Corps a happy golden birthday. You see, this is no ordinary birthday -the Peace Corps is big. And its ideals are bigger. My Peace Corps birthday blog:

Quick Facts:

• over 200,000 PCV´s have served in 139 countries the past fifty years
• currently 8,655 PCV´s serve in 77 countries
• across the world PCV´s are taught over 250 languages
• the oldest PCV was Arthur Goodfriend, who was 87 when he finished his service in 1994
• there have been four PCV´s in congress (including Christopher Dodd and Paul Tsongas)
• the average age of PCV´s is 28 years
• 7% of PCV´s are serving with their spouse
• "Volunteers" (1985) with Tom Hanks is the most famous ´Peace Corps´ movie
• Famous PCV´s include Chris Matthews, Lillian Carter (Jimmy´s mom), Bob Vila, Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix), and Richard "Kinky" Friedman

A History:

The first time the Peace Corps was  mentioned publicly came during an impromptu speech to the students at the Universtiy of Michigan on October 14, 1960. The speech was a response to Richard Nixon, who thought such ideas were nonsense and would lead to a haven for draft dodgers. Riled up, at two in the morning JFK challenged to Wolverines to give two years of their lives toward helping people in the developing world improve their lives. What Nixon viewed as a bad campaign move by Kennedy was met with resounding positive feedback not only from the U. of M. students and other universities but from Americans all across the country. They swept the charismatic JFK into office in January of 1961, and when he said "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" many people believed the Peace Corps embodied the perfect answer to that challenge.

The Peace Corps "official" mission (quotations will be explained shortly) of world peace and friendship revolves around three goals: 1) to help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; 2) to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the people served; and 3) to help promote a better understanding of other people on the part of Americans. The current Peace Corps director, Aaron S. Williams, holds goal three as the most important to focus on. I agree.

Now why did I put ´official´ in quotations? Because until Jimmy Carter granted the Peace Corps full autonomy in May of 1979, the Peace Corps was run by the State Department! Needless to say, many PCV´s were involved in -and accused of- some secret and sketchy activities those first two decades. Not only were those activities directly antagonistic to the Peace Corps´ stated mission, they also weakened the legitimacy of the entire agency. The Peace Corps is not proud of this but does not deny it either. They focus on the fact that they fixed their mistakes.

When Ngäbes ask me if I am part of the US military (and they do) I usually respond "Are you serious? My agency is called the PEACE Corps! Of coarse not." But then I get honest and say that in the past we were connected to it but that changed a long time ago. Most respond simply "that´s good because peace is better than war." But on one occasion a person responded "but I´m sure the PCV´s back then said the same things you do now -how am I suppossed to trust you?" At that moment I realized two things: 1) maybe he´s not suppossed to trust me after what I just told him; and 2) that actions thirty to fifty years ago still threaten the legitimacy of the entire agency. So I said. "lets go harvest some mangoes," determined to let my actions speak for me instead.

Back to the story. After his inauguration, JFK  asked his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver to lead a task force looking into the Peace Corps idea. Six weeks later "sarge" (as he is affectionately referred) said in a report "Having studied at your request the problems of establishing a Peace Corps, I reccommend its immediate establishment." Sarge was then appointed the agency´s first director and his can-do attitude and commitment to public service are credited as being the right potion to get the nascent agency on its feet and running. For these reasons he is considered the father of the Peace Corps.

R. Sargent Shriver died this year -on January 18- at the ripe old age of 95. His friend and colleague who helped found the Peace Corps, Senator Harris Wofford, said in a recent interview "there is something special about a long journey that is part of one´s education. There should be long journeys in your life, whether in your own country or abroad. In the early Peace Corps years we turned Shriver´s name into a verb: to "shriverize" was to make something bigger and bolder, and do it faster."

Shriver´s son, Tim Shriver -who is CEO of the Special Olympics- spoke to everyone when he said "I hope you, too, will carry a little shriver in you."

Cheers to the Peace Corps and all the volunteers -past and present- who are proud to answer JFK´s call. I am confident in and humbled by your determination to ensure that Shriver´s spirit never dies. Happy Birthday.

Now go shriverize something.