One month at site!

¡Hola mi gente!

I am now an official Peace Corps Volunteer and have been at my permanent site for over a month now. I am living in the province of Chiriquí and on the boarder of the Comarca Ngäbe Buglé. For these first three months at site, I am living with a host family and getting to know the community. My host family includes a 91 year old woman and her son. So I would say I have an extra “abuela” and “padre” while I am living with them. Basically everyone in the community calls them by that as well.

I have a few “guides” in my community who have helped me get to know people and understand my way around the town. My days have consisted of walking house to house, where I have introduced myself and explained my purpose: to support health education in the school and in the community. While visiting houses, I drink chicha (juice typically from the fruit nance or corn), black hot coffee, sometimes with sugar, work on my chácara or krä in Ngäbere (a type of bag), or I am talking to them about their families, or they are teaching me words in Ngäbere. 

For most of the families I have met, I write at least one name down and a landmark of where their house is located to help me remember their names. I have visited a lot of houses and I would like to say I’ve almost walked all of the paths, but I have not made it to all of them. 

Part of my job is to work in the school but for the first three months my sole purpose is to observe and learn. The school is from kindergarten to high school, with classes up to 7th grade in the morning and then 8th grade through high school in the afternoon. Right now I visit the school three days a week where I have met the director and teachers, sat outside talking to students, participated in physical education classes, and observed English, Spanish, science, and computer classes. The Peace Corps SABIA framework is primarily for ages 10-19 and there are more than 20 classes that I can help to support. To see what health education topics should be covered in the curriculum, I had conversations with the director, teachers, and families in the community. Right now my plan is to start with colegio (high school) and I am currently working on the program framework for lessons I will teach in the school. I will also have similar information for charla’s for adults in the community. My community is also very interested in learning English so I will begin to start English classes on the weekends before I begin health-related material so that we begin to develop stronger relationships.

Events outside of my site

I visited another volunteer’s site with someone in my community. To get there, we walked two hours down a mountain through rocks and multiple streams of water. I had my tall boots on and was ready to go. It was a fun journey. When we walked two hours back to my site up the mountain, my guide kept asking if I was okay and if I was tired. I always said I was fine and kept walking because the former student-athlete in me didn’t want to take time to rest. But in reality, that was the most physical activity I had done since getting to Panamá in June.

I participated in a volleyball tournament with some adults in my community at another volunteer’s site. I play volleyball with the adults everyday at 5pm except for the days when it rains. Her site is roughly a 30 minute chiva ride from mine and there were teams from neighboring communities. It was very sweet to have my PCV friend Libby meet members from my site. We had the largest crowd that came to support our team and they were also cheering the loudest. It made me feel very proud to be living and learning from this community and I felt like this is where I am supposed to be. They were also proud to introduce me to others and by the end everyone was cheering my name lol. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such kind people.

Learning parts of the culture 

Me?? In the kitchen?? I assisted people as we made arroz con pollo for the athletes in the community. It was a shared activity among many and the process took the whole morning and afternoon to cook. 

Arroz con pollo

I also learned the process of preparing rice right from the farm.

I attended my first quinceañera at the Evangelical church. I also learned how to sew the triangles on a nagua (traditional dress). I am also almost finished with my first krä (traditional bag).

Although I am still continuing to improve my Spanish, learning Ngäbere has been fun. Most people in my community can speak Spanish but enjoy speaking in Ngäbere more. There are different renditions of the language depending on the areas of where people live whether it’s in Chiriquí/Comarca or Bocas del Toro. Ngäbere is not taught in the schools so many can not read or write in the language. However there are a few that can so I have learned from them and even the written language is different from person to person. When passing people, I mostly use Ngäbere. 

Köbo kuin deko (good morning)

Köbo Kuin dere (good afternoon)

Köbo Kuin deo (good night)

Ma kä no (what is your name?)

Ti ka (my name is)

Ma tä no (how are you?)

Kuin (good)

Ma ta dre nuene (what are you doing?)

Ti ta basaré (I am visiting)

Everything has been a new learning ~experience~ and I am happy to be on this journey. 

¡Adios!