La Gloria

The school is just as neat and landscaped as the rest of the village

My second water system evaluation was in La Gloria, another pristinely scenic village of about 600 tucked back off the main highway from Changuinola to Almirante. The only shuttle service is a mini van from Chang to La Gloria. I had a nice chat with Daryl, who owns the van and has a surprising sense of keeping a regular schedule – every 2 hours to the minute.

Pro sized grass futball (soccer) field at town center

This village has a HUGE grass soccer field at its center. I couldn’t help but think of all the food crops that could be grown there, but that’s my priority, not theirs. I met Ventura, the Water Committee Fiscal (auditor) at his house across from the beautifully landscaped school. Lots of 

Almost postcard material - a very clean village

civic pride in this village – not a hint of trash anywhere. His wife had made some hush-puppy-like balls,  with bits of meat inside and boiled some water for me – very sweet.

The Grand Plan - right now only the small tank and
one spring are operational

He showed me the Grand Plan for a greatly expanded water system. They are certainly looking years ahead. They have barely enough water for the 110 homes now on the system, but there are many other folks who would like to get service. In actuality , most are already getting water from a neighbor with a connection. This combined with several small leaks in the supply line and wasteful usage practices puts a strain on their existing infrastructure. I did water tests, which showed almost bottled water quality at his tap, though I can’t test for bacteria or parasites – unlikely since the system is well sealed.

We hiked up to the 5,000 gallon tank, which acts more like a conduit 

They cut me a hiking stick which is really helpful
on steep inclines and jumping stones in rivers

than storage, as water is used as fast as it comes in, except at night. Even then, he says water flows in the middle of the night. Likely due to open taps and leaks. The tank was clean, except for some gravel in the tank bottom, accumulated from years since the last cleaning. Then a brisk climb on a steep uphill trek to the spring that feeds the system. I measured the flow at about 10 – 12 GPM, which should be more than adequate for 110 homes.

I’ll be back to do some training of the Committee, but left him some homework – fixing all the small leaks and finding out just how many folks are really using the system. We may wind up tapping an additional spring (they have 3 nearby), if they need it. But, then again, they may not need the extra water for now.

The only nasty item is that the drainage ditches also double
as open sewers - not nice, Though after a heavy rain they
flush everything to the river

I’m beginning to feel the uncomfortable position I’m in for the moment. Usually, I find a project and work on it until it’s done. But here, I need to wait until all the site visits are done to figure where to “best” spend my time. I certainly won’t be able to do construction in all 17 sites, so I’ll be disappointing some folks. I’ve tried to be clear about that. But, they see a very interest old Gringo and figure help is guaranteed.

Futball Mania

I heard a loud cheer come up from the lobby, where a group was watching “the game”. About 10 minutes later “the game” was over and more cheering, only louder, Then horns started blowing all over town and continued for about an hour , here in Changuinola, Panama. They were joined by police and ambulance sirens. Celebrating Panama's 2-1 victory over neighbor and arch-rival Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying play.
I'm told it's a really big deal for 2 reasons : 1) The Costa Rican border is only about 15 miles from here and 2) this will be the first time ever that Panama will be in the World Cup finals.
Personally, I have no interest in this, but I have to say it was exciting to see the ridiculous joy this victory has caused around here that night. And it spilled over to the next day.....

As someone who cares nothing about soccer or the World Cup, it has still been curiously fascinating to watch the local response to the Panamanian futball victory over Costa Rica last night.

The celebration continues today with the news on the TV at the restaurant locked into pure sports, as though nothing else is happening in the world. They replay the final goal over and over and every time they do, a cheer goes up from the patrons. Cars and trucks continue to pass by waving Panamanian flags and honking horns. How much longer can they continue to revel in this ??

More significantly for me, I showed up for a meeting this morning with two officials from Ministry of Health and was told neither was coming in today. As though it was totally understandable and acceptable. I was told to see if they come in tomorrow and try to reschedule then.

On the positive side, there is certainly an elevated mood and lots of smiling faces around town today. “Buenos Dias” greetings have an extra weight to them.

I guess I just don’t understand sports mania in any of its odd forms.

Junquito – First Contact

The plan for my current Peace Corps assignment is to visit about 15 small villages in the Bocas del Toro region and evaluate the condition of their water systems and their water committees. I’ll then prioritize for greatest need and biggest bang for buck and facilitate repairs, upgrades and trainings.

Junquito, a village of about 200 people in 42 houses, about 15 miles from Changuinola and 2 miles off the main road was my first visit. No electricity, but a small water system. The folks (and I) have two options for access – a small van that makes 3 trips a day into the village or riding the Changuinola Coaster and walking the 2 miles in or out. Due to my impatience and desire to smell the roses, I chose the hikes. water test equipment

Mi tocayo - another Goyo !!

Surprisingly, the entire access road is paved and in great condition. Dense jungle towers overhead on all sides, with cacao (chocolate), coffee, bananas, plantains, coconuts, papayas and breadfruit growing all around. There are crayfish in the river and access to fishing on the other side of the main highway. Hard to go hungry here.

I quickly located Carlos, the water committee treasurer and with two other community members, toured the system. We first used the water testing materials I brought to test water quality – everything looked good, except I have no facility for testing bacteria or parasites. They get their water from two nearby springs, since the lovely river that runs through town is too contaminated to use.

2008 Peace Corps spring box still in great shape

The first spring is captured in a spring box built by a PC volunteer in 2008 and is still working beautifully. Its storage tank is in fair shape with only a small leak and is kept nice and clean, but never disinfected. The second spring is not so good. The site of the spring has shifted and the old spring box is useless. The water now emerges from the ground about 50 feet away and needs a new spring box to contain it. But, same good news on its water tank. The distribution lines are in good shape, considering their age.

New spring box needed to avoid contamination

The village barely gets enough water for drinking, cooking and bathing, so laundry is done in the river. Few houses have elected to bring their water connection into the home. Most just have an outdoor spigot and carry water into the house for drinking and cooking. They do bucket baths by the spigots – not a healthy practice.

The few large solar panels in the village are used for TV and satellite dishes. Smaller units power lights and charge cell phones. About half of the adults work for The Company (Chiquita). Others fish in the lagoon, just the other side of the main highway.

Most of the homes are quite nice and clean
except for the pigs living on the ground floor

The water committee is new. The old committee, in power for over 10 years, was thought to be corrupt and untrustworthy. The new group is trying to do overdue maintenance, but is having trouble collecting monthly water payments - $1 per month per household. I’ll certainly be doing some training to assist them and hopefully construct a new spring box.

Going Bananas !!

"fair Trade" bananas produced by the coop. these are
"second" quality for sale in Panama, but not good enough
for Europe

Well, I wanted an education in bananas and boy did I get one. No less than a personally escorted tour from Don Ernesto, General Manager of COOBANA. COOBANA is a workers' cooperative founded in 1995 by a group of United Fruit (Chiquita) workers, who purchased the old government banana research station. Unlike the very cold shoulder I got from Chiquita, these folks gave me the grand tour and I will be working with them on a rain catchment system (and possible bano upgrades) in the communities where their workers live.

Ernesto has 45 years of experience with bananas
He is General Manager of the entire COOBANA coop

Ernesto started with some banana history at the office. He was around for the demise of the Big Mike, the variety that preceded the Cavendish and was almost wiped out by the TR1 fungus. It was larger, sweeter and stronger tasting than the Cavendish. I say “almost” because it looks like I might actually get a chance to taste it !! There are about 40 plants that survived on a remote farm and Ernesto is checking to see if we can get permission to visit. What a thrill for me to see and taste a banana of history !!

Disinfection of boots is required for all foreign
visitors

It turns out that the Cavendish is NOT a single variety – there are 4 sub-varieties, only two of which are grown here – the William and the Alysia. While the plants look very different, the fruits are virtually identical. Great precautions are taken to ensure that the TR4 fungus, which has devastated Cavendish banana crops in Asia, will not take hold here. My first duty on entering the finca (farm) was to soak my boots in a disinfectant and register as a foreign visitor.

We then went to watch the harvesters at work. The hierarchy of the cooperative is very much like the Esalen of old. Everyone starts out as a harvester or packing worker – definitely a young person's game – and works there way up to cutter, loader, packing plant or field supervisor and then administration. All promotions are from within, so everyone has experience in the field and empathy for those “below” them.

A cutter (left) and hauler at work

Harvesters work in teams of four – a cutter, a loader and two haulers. The cutter trims away leaves that might damage the fruit and then pulls the bunch gently down to shoulder level. The haulers then insert foam pads between the hands to prevent bruising and the cutter deftly cuts the bunch onto the padded shoulder of a hauler. Contrary to my preconception, no machetes are used – only a very slick cutting and pulling tool.

A hauler with shoulder pad

The haulers carry the bunches to the trolley system where a loader attaches a cord to the bunch and hangs it on the trolley system. The. trolley unit is assembled in the field from various parts, including the pulleys and the bars which provide separation to the bunches so they won't make contact and bruise. When the train of about 60 bunches is full, the loader pulls it back to the packing shed.

Inspection at the packing house -
note rubber pads to prevent bruising

At the packing shed, each trolley is inspected for length and width. Rejects are sold within Panama. The hands are then cut off one by one and sorted by size, before entering a bath of hydrogen peroxide solution to kill off any bugs or other critters. The fruit is then further cooled in a water bath before drying and application of the all-important logo sticker. A specific assortment of sizes goes into each carton in a specific order. Cartons are then marked with information about when, where and by whom they were packed and loaded onto pallets for shipping to the port of Almirante.

These ladies affix the logo stickers on each hand

COOBANA ships a container ship full of bananas to Europe six times per month – about half to Britain under the Fyffe brand and the rest to Scandinavia, Switzerland and France under the “Fair Trade” label.

the finished product ready to load in the container
then off to Britain, Switzerland or France

The cooperative is obviously proud, not only of their product, but of the way they care for and treat their worker members. While they are only 1/10 the size of Chiquita, they pay their workers more and sell their bananas for less while maintaining high standards for quality and care for the environment. For example, the use helicopters for spraying, which are more expensive than aircraft, but are more accurate and use less chemicals. All this begs the question : If the coop pays it's workers better and provides the same quality product for less, where does all that extra Chiquita profit go?

It all starts with a perfect climate. Each bunch is protected
from birds and insects by a plastic bag and well cared for

While those who live in the US won't have a chance to buy from the cooperative. I hope that, after reading this, you gain some appreciation for all that goes into putting those picture perfect bananas on the supermarket shelf and ultimately in your tummy.

Home again, home again, riga-jig-jig

Emerald Villa - my new home

For the 47th time in my life, I have moved to a new home. Still as exciting as the first time I moved. Photos are all of places within 1/2 KM (500 M) of my house - so happy to be able to walk to most anything I need. I wish the us would let down its zoning laws so this kind of community could happen.

Travel from Panama City , which everyone here just calls “Panama”, to my new home in Changuinola was Mostly uneventful. I left the Albrook terminal at 5am so I could arrive in Chang at a decent hour. We passed over the iconic Americas Bridge in the dark, but the lights of the moving ships were the mark that the Canal is a 24/7 operation. Nothing stops the flow of commerce.

Mexican place just up the block

There were the usual stops to pick up passengers, but only at designated bus stops – no side of the road stuff. Of course, the bus line enlarged its profits by stopping at a company owned restaurant for food/bano break. Entertainment was provided by two impish young boys, who seemed fascinated with the young ladies sleeping in the seat behind them. I could barely tear them away to play duck from the camera with me.

Walk to laundromat - 250 M

The most intrusive part of the trip was a police stop by the National Police. They swarmed on the bus demanding papers and inspecting all hand luggage. A team with dogs inspected the luggage below. Apparently the dogs got a hit and the commander came in with a baggage check to find who the corrupt party was. It turned out to be a sweet little old lady, which was sadly comic. Comic because they actually thought she might be some nefarious person and made her unpack her entire bag in the drizzle. Sad because she got back on the bus crying and clearly upset. After all the useless fuss, the commander came in and reminded us that this was all for our protection – to “keep us safe”. I sincerely hope that the US does not come to the point where citizens are randomly stopped and searched in the name of “keeping us safe”. Though it seems we may be headed that way.

I may try this salon - maybe not
the women don't look too happy

Lumber and hardware within 300 M of home -
I'm in Heaven

By the time it was light, we came to the million dollar beach condos around Coronado – a towering reminder of what happens when the environment is sacrificed on the altar of developers. I love seeing the monster wind turbines further up the coast. This location has worked so well that another is in the planning stages.

Thanks to a speedy bus driver, we got into David, Panama's second largest city, early. The bus route from David to Changuinola was in high demand as usual. As soon as one bus was packed and loaded, another pulled in the begin boarding. In addition to making good business for the bus owners, leaving the ternimal over-full means very few stops for the bus.

My seat-mate was a local farmer who told me that they were having the best year ever. He grows rice and has some cattle. The only problem is the appearance of fire ants – as big as half your little finger – so he says. He claims the ants killed a small calf and as soon as the harvest is over the farmers will have a “war of fire” with the ants. I hope they win.

Gotta love a great produce stand in walking distnce

The drive up through the mountain pine forests is refreshing for me. The AC goes off and that evergreen scent is thick in the cool air. After that, we passed over the big USAID dam, which is quite full due to all the recent rain. The dam not only provides power to the Bocas area, but made easy access to a rich oil field that is shipped via pipeline to the “dirty little pirate town” of Chiriqui Grande and loaded onto tankers.

Bank with ATM at 500 M
this life is just too easy

The rains have also caused significant erosion to the road – bed. Good drainage is another one of those things we Americans just take for granted. Our drainage (hundred year floods excepted) is so good that we rarely even think about it. Again, many thanks to those wonderful engineers who designed the drainage system and the construction workers who built it. Thanks to them, our roads are safer and last longer.

After a delicious BBQ chicken dinner at the restaurant next door, I fell marvelously asleep in my new home and awoke ready to explore the new 'hood.

Here we go again

Just a few days until departure for my next Peace Corps service and adventure. This one will be again in Panama, but a very different part and assignment. I'll be living in Changuinola, a small city in the famous Bocas del Toro region – far northwest corner of the country on the Costa Rica border. I've been assigned 47 small village water systems to visit, evaluate and then help to rebuild or improve the systems and the local water committees that run them.

Bocas del Toro was the site of Christopher Columbus's last voyage to the New World in 1502. He was apparently quite taken with the place, as he gave his name to many of the islands and rivers. One of the islands is named Carenero, where his boat were careened to do hull repairs. Today, Isla Colon is a tourist mecca, with private jets lined up on it's airport. Bocas Town is a page torn from most any Caribbean island, with colorful buildings steel drum bands and a casual vacation tone.

The area is also home to Chiquita Banana operations of Panama. The venerable United Fruit Company came here in 1899 for the near perfect banana weather – constant temperature and rainfall. They now have over 700,000 acres of plantation centered around Changuinola. There are huge harvest and maintenance facilities all over town, including their own golf club, with executive villas along the fairways. Most of the city's infrastructure comes from Chiquita, including the electric plant and water system, both of which are modern with US quality chlorination.

That's the overview of where I'll be and what I'll be doing. As a sailor and scuba diver, I'll certainly be taking advantage of my access to the outstanding water, beaches and reefs of the area. I'll also be working as a trainer for the newly created WASH program in Panama and assisting nearby PCVs with their projects.

As with every move and change, there comes that wondering about the unknown. I've come to embrace change – it almost feels like a welcome friend at this point. The infamous resistance to change that is endemic to humans has turned to an excitement for me. I sometimes wonder if I've become a “change junkie”. The one thing I am certain of is that the opportunities for new friends and experiences will be right in front of me, ripe for the picking. And that I have one of the best “jobs” in the world – making life better for people every day, in any way I can.

Close of Service Video

Close of Service Movie  

After every Peace Corps service, it is my tradition to make a short “highlight reel” of my time in-country. After watching it, I realize how very superficial it is. It’s just the headlines of events of my service. And, as we know, most of the real living of life is done between the headlines.

So it is with me. Some events which touched me deeply – like the whole Jaqui / Elsa incident or sharing cookies with Sarita or just being in love with nature and life while waiting for the bus or the many bus conversations – didn’t even make the cut.

Sometimes it seems to us volunteers that Peace Corps only cares about the headlines – the projects completed and number of people affected. The truth is that much of what we do is not quantifiable or measurable. Nor may the results even be known for many years. The Peace Corps volunteer who told Lydia that she could drive a bus if she wanted to, had no idea of the remarkable outcome of that statement and example.

I ‘ve spent the last week visiting all the villages and people that I’ve served in the Torti and Darien areas to say Good-Bye and give my little photo gifts. I don’t know how it happens so quickly, but I’ve grown quite fond of and attached to many of these wonderful folks. Maybe it’s an attitude of open-ness and willingness to make new connections. In any case, all the small moments with them – like getting to Curti early, so I can have morning coffee and cookies with dear Leo and play with his puppy while we chat – come flooding back in a surge of emotion.

While I’m proud of the headlines, the good I’ve done and the friends I have helped here in Panama, it is those small moments that are the most precious to me. I can always go back and watch the Highlight Reel, but those small special moments and times are the ones I’ll keep safe in my heart.

click here to watch movie (3 min)

Since “Bimbo” has no brothers or sisters to play with, his Mom fills that role very nicely. I love to watch these two roll on the grass and play/fight. It makes me a little sad that most dogs in the US and elsewhere will never know to joy of romping with their real doggie families.

click to watch doggie play

I thought I might have a mouse who’d been eating my bananas. Turns out it was a bat. Actually three bats ( mice with wings) took turns attacking the single banana – very courteous, these bats.

click to watch slo-mo bats eating banana