Friday, September 10, 2010
Pigknapping
I just almost had photos to show you, but for some reason I can't explain the internet refuses to cooperate. So I appologize, and Mom I promise they are coming some day. Anyway, about the pigknapping. The other day this sow gave birth to piglets out in the monte, which is the overgrown hillside. The sow belongs to a farmer named Pedro, who wants to bring the piglets back to the house to raise them. So he hands me a motete, which is like a basket that you wear as a backpack, sort of like an adirondack pack basket. And we grab some machetes, and track the mother pig up the mountain through the brush to where she's stashed her little porquitos. Pedro lassoos the sow and wrestles her to the ground, shouting, "quick molly! grab the piglets!" So while he and the sow are in an all out hand-to-hoof combat, I run around the monte trying to grab up the seven fat and sneaky little porquitos and pop them in my basket. When I get the last one, Pedro yells, "now run!" And I book it down the jungly mountainside, with a load of squealing, writhing piglets on my back, and the furious mother hot on my trail snarling and hurtling down after me in hot pursuit. Needless to say, I ran pretty fast, fairly convinced that my adventures were about to be ended by several hundred pounds of enraged pork. Luckily I made it to the house without falling into a mud pit or getting stuck in a fence, and here I am to tell you all the tale of my pigknapping adventure.
Pigknapping
Interior decoration in Candelilla
smoked iguana for dinner mmm......
Outside the school at my first community meeting!
The successful huntress of shrimps
Hanging out at the tienda
80 100lb sacks of "name" we hauled to cucunati on horseback
The view from where we were throwing our machetes one day
The 6 foot equis (okay it might have been 5...I didnt have a ruler)
Making bollo (corn logs, basically)
Cowboys, hammocks, you know. Good times.
Me and Elsie with our coco locos on Isla Grande
Zach dangles Sammy and Jess my their hair. This si my community's favorite photo of all time.
According to my host family, we look just like twins.
The asSASsins!
Pilaring corn, dang its a work out.
Swimming for hours and hours and hours in the quebrada and then posing for photos is always a productive way to spend the day.
My village!
Suzanne and Zach cook up teh chickens we raised into delicious tacos!
What can you do when teh quebrada floods except for hang out taking gangster photos?
Paulina daring me a cuento
Marc and Jes cook Guacho for our Panamanian Fiesta
I pose as the ninja while Ruby draws, for our bear/ninja/hunter asSASsin team t-shirts
Zach and joe prepare to head off on a beach trek- a plan that was foiled by the maliante gangsters from Colon.
Pina coladas, ceviche, friends, beach....I hate to complain, but Peace Corps life is so hard sometimes.
Magic Cirlces! One of our favorite sassy techniques. We'll teach you how to make your very own. All you need is some plantain plants...
This is the house I lived in in Santa Clara during training
I'm not sure why Pablo's eyes are so wonky, but hey, its art.
Pressing sugar cane juice
I did it! Dont expect any more for awhile though....
I did it! Dont expect any more for awhile though....
Sunday, August 29, 2010
La Vida Panameña
Well folks, despite my recent extended silence, it has actually been an action packed couple of months full of slightly absurd adventures. For teh most part I spend my time traipsing about in the jungle getting covered in mud and downpoured-upon. Then I sit around in a hammock strumming away on my guitar, Diablo Rojo and eating more rice than you can shake a stick at. Well you probably COULD shake a stick at it, but then you would just be a crazy gringo shaking a stick at a bowl of, and that's just ridiculous. Anyway, teh first few months are mostly just devoted to integrating into the community. In terms of work, mostly I just tromp around flailling my machete and pretending to be badass. For this purpose I have bought a new machete - a 26 incher named El Tigre. My trusty Viuda Negra, at 16", just wasn't cutting it (that was for you Dad and Emma). She was being ruthlessly ridiculed by everyone in town for her diminutive stature. Good for opening coconuts, they tell me dissmissively. And maybe hunting shrimp, though even that is doubtful given my success rate in that department, which is also a source of mirth for my townsfolk. Anyway, with El Tigre at my side I have become quite adept at the "slashing" aspect of traditional Panamanian farming. I have yet to master the "burning" part, but all in good time Im sure. Just kidding. I haven't done any burning to date. I did eat some mysterious and endangered jungle cat though, deep fried of course. Sorry planet. And I enthusiastically slashed a hillside full of plants that put up delightfully little resistance against my blistered hands, only later realizing that I had taken out a mountainside full of cala lillies. The symbol of Peace. How's that for a twisted metaphor.
I have also started teaching english in the school, an endeavor which has not been terribly successful, but makes everyone in town think I have a purpose. I prefer teaching english to my host siblings, who I instruct in teh pronunciation of useful english phrases such as "my sisters are professional reggaetone singers" and "catch you on the flipside, homeslice." They also like to learn how to sing along with me on Diablo Rojo, phonetically of course. Their favorite songs are Jolene (which they pronounce "Chooleee") and Dirty Old Town (which is more widely known as Viejo Pueblo Sucio). I also sometimes read from a book of morally dubious fairytales that are "translated" into what cannot even be kindly described as dubious english. The tale of "The Beautiful Sleeper" describes its evil fairy as "cholic." Fortunately the kids can't understand what I'm saying, and at least I get a kick out of it. They also have an adult english instruction book which is full of useful phrases such as "my gums are bleeding," "there is a gang causing trouble next door," and "I'd like to post bail, please."
Here are a few fun wiuldlife stories for y'all: The other day we were out macheteing the mountainside and we encountered a six foot long fer de lance, which my host brother shot in the head with an old rifle, naturally. However, it neglected to die, so he beat it over the head with a stick until it complied. Then we emptied the contents of its stomach, and discovered that it had eaten ANOTHER snake that was about 3 feet long and half as fat to boot. Oh the excitement of living with large and dangerous vipers. Another time, in teh middle of a church service, a fer de lance came slithering up the aisle in the middle of the prayers. Church is about the only place people don't take their machetes, so they had to kill it with a broom. It certainly shook things up, but not enough to keep my brain engaged enough for the next six hours of the vigil. This resulted in me accidentally agreeing to attend another midnight vigil the next week...helpful hint: never say 'yo tambien' unless you know what you're 'tambien'-ing about.
I managed to avoid the second vigil by visiting Carmen in Canglon. We have a new tradition of pineapple pancakes. Its always nice to mull over life with some other gringos, but every time I go in our out its an adventure. This time is was a waist high river I had to ford on teh way out, and coming back was a whole other debacle. First the 3:00 chiva was canceled and we couldn't leave until ''5:00'' (and I use the term 5 loosely). Then the chiva had 19 people in the back, and it was raining so the vinyl siding was rolled down. Suffocation is apparently preferable to getting damp. Only 2 of the 19 were children, one an adorable Embera girl who relentlessly stomped on my blister-covered toe. ''Oh well,'' I thought to myslef, ''it's only an hour and a half.'' Oh Molly, don't be ridiculous. I can't imagine how, but somehow I'd forgotten that I was in Panama. We arrived at the first river and of course it was flooded. So we waited for two miserable hours wedge into the back of the chiva before we could cross. Finally we managed, and the rest of that unfortunate road can be described as frightening at best. Outside of Cucunati we had to wait half an hour for a boat to cross teh river into town. I finally straggled into town around 9 PM, and decided that hiking up to Candelilla alone on foot at that hour would probably be classified as a poor decission. Unfortunately I knew no one in Cucunati, and the volunteer who lives there was out of town. So I asked the people in the boat if they knew of anywhere I could spend the night, and someone took me to his sister's house, where the family fed me, gave me a bed, let me watch badly dubbed westerns with the children, and refused to accept payment. They told me that they were my family in Cucunati and their door was open any time. I thought it was pretty amazing that a dedraggled and smelly stranger could limp into town in teh middle of the night and be taken in and cared for like that.
So, there's a quick recap of what ive been up to as of late. Life is pretty good. Always full of surprises and adventures and absurdities and lots of hilarious jokes at my own expense to the delight of everyone (but hey, if nothing else, Im good entertainment for two years!) and crazy animals and amoebas, which are mostly ignorable but occasionally get rowdyand have a little fiesta in my stomach.
Hope everyone is well, and much love to you all!
Molly (or Moli, as my 14 year old host brother who wants to be my novio writes over and over again in his school notebook....)
I have also started teaching english in the school, an endeavor which has not been terribly successful, but makes everyone in town think I have a purpose. I prefer teaching english to my host siblings, who I instruct in teh pronunciation of useful english phrases such as "my sisters are professional reggaetone singers" and "catch you on the flipside, homeslice." They also like to learn how to sing along with me on Diablo Rojo, phonetically of course. Their favorite songs are Jolene (which they pronounce "Chooleee") and Dirty Old Town (which is more widely known as Viejo Pueblo Sucio). I also sometimes read from a book of morally dubious fairytales that are "translated" into what cannot even be kindly described as dubious english. The tale of "The Beautiful Sleeper" describes its evil fairy as "cholic." Fortunately the kids can't understand what I'm saying, and at least I get a kick out of it. They also have an adult english instruction book which is full of useful phrases such as "my gums are bleeding," "there is a gang causing trouble next door," and "I'd like to post bail, please."
Here are a few fun wiuldlife stories for y'all: The other day we were out macheteing the mountainside and we encountered a six foot long fer de lance, which my host brother shot in the head with an old rifle, naturally. However, it neglected to die, so he beat it over the head with a stick until it complied. Then we emptied the contents of its stomach, and discovered that it had eaten ANOTHER snake that was about 3 feet long and half as fat to boot. Oh the excitement of living with large and dangerous vipers. Another time, in teh middle of a church service, a fer de lance came slithering up the aisle in the middle of the prayers. Church is about the only place people don't take their machetes, so they had to kill it with a broom. It certainly shook things up, but not enough to keep my brain engaged enough for the next six hours of the vigil. This resulted in me accidentally agreeing to attend another midnight vigil the next week...helpful hint: never say 'yo tambien' unless you know what you're 'tambien'-ing about.
I managed to avoid the second vigil by visiting Carmen in Canglon. We have a new tradition of pineapple pancakes. Its always nice to mull over life with some other gringos, but every time I go in our out its an adventure. This time is was a waist high river I had to ford on teh way out, and coming back was a whole other debacle. First the 3:00 chiva was canceled and we couldn't leave until ''5:00'' (and I use the term 5 loosely). Then the chiva had 19 people in the back, and it was raining so the vinyl siding was rolled down. Suffocation is apparently preferable to getting damp. Only 2 of the 19 were children, one an adorable Embera girl who relentlessly stomped on my blister-covered toe. ''Oh well,'' I thought to myslef, ''it's only an hour and a half.'' Oh Molly, don't be ridiculous. I can't imagine how, but somehow I'd forgotten that I was in Panama. We arrived at the first river and of course it was flooded. So we waited for two miserable hours wedge into the back of the chiva before we could cross. Finally we managed, and the rest of that unfortunate road can be described as frightening at best. Outside of Cucunati we had to wait half an hour for a boat to cross teh river into town. I finally straggled into town around 9 PM, and decided that hiking up to Candelilla alone on foot at that hour would probably be classified as a poor decission. Unfortunately I knew no one in Cucunati, and the volunteer who lives there was out of town. So I asked the people in the boat if they knew of anywhere I could spend the night, and someone took me to his sister's house, where the family fed me, gave me a bed, let me watch badly dubbed westerns with the children, and refused to accept payment. They told me that they were my family in Cucunati and their door was open any time. I thought it was pretty amazing that a dedraggled and smelly stranger could limp into town in teh middle of the night and be taken in and cared for like that.
So, there's a quick recap of what ive been up to as of late. Life is pretty good. Always full of surprises and adventures and absurdities and lots of hilarious jokes at my own expense to the delight of everyone (but hey, if nothing else, Im good entertainment for two years!) and crazy animals and amoebas, which are mostly ignorable but occasionally get rowdyand have a little fiesta in my stomach.
Hope everyone is well, and much love to you all!
Molly (or Moli, as my 14 year old host brother who wants to be my novio writes over and over again in his school notebook....)
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Hey there muchachos and muchachas!
As always things have been adventurous and busy around here. The last few weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. We had a final goodbye party for our host families in Santa Clara, for which we got up at 7 am and killed 20 chickens that we had raised for the party and turned them into delicious tacos. Our Swear in Ceremony to become real volunteers was eventful. The Panamanian Vice President and First Lady came, and you may have seen us on CNN. The day of the ceremony was the day Obama announced increased funding for Peace Corps, so CNN had a little snippet of us. After the ceremony I decided not to try and meet the famous people, but true to form I parked myself by the refreshment table for a solid hour and a half, making it my business to sample everything at least twice. I succeeded, of course. We also got the rest of the day off, so we explored Panama Viejo, which is really the only part of the city I like. It reminds me of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. After leaving Santa Clara we had a final week back in Ciudad del Saber, clinging to the last shreds of cushy existence before campo life, and sitting around acting like hippie peace corps volunteers with our guitars and mandolins and frisbees. I bought a guitar, and its red, so naturally I named in Diablo Rojo. Before heading off to site we had a few days off, so a bunch of us went to Isla Grande, a beautiful island off the caribbean coast. We spent the time lying around on the beach drinking coconuts, snorkling, and entertaining ourselves for hours, literally, with mary´s underwater camera. Zach and Marion attempted, in vain, to go spear fishing with sharpened sticks.
I have now been in my site for 2 weeks, and I still am really excited about it, though it's definitely intense. Though Im actually in the city right now due to inexplicable jungle diseases. To get here, I had to go on horseback through a flooded stream, hike through mud and rain for an hour and a half, cross a river in a boat, take a chiva to the highway, and then i got stuck with the diablo rojo bus for 5 hours. I arrived, COVERED in mud and sweat and feeling rather out of place, as always when Im in the city, as rubber boots do not blend well. In my village I have spent most of my time pasearing. Pasear is a verb for walking around visiting other people, and I really like that Panamanian tradition. We've had a coupleof work juntas, complete with chicha fuerte (which is not actually very fuerte, it turns out), to build a house for the rice husker, or piladora, that the farmers cooperative bought. It has yet to function, of course, but its here, and it will make a big difference to the farmers in this neck of the jungle because up til now they have had to take all their rice to cucunati on horseback to pilar it.
Mostly though I spend a lot of time sitting around at various peoples houses. Fortunately there are lots of hammocks, which make the awkward silences which are so popular in Panama much more comfortable. Making fun of my silly gringo antics is another favorite pasttime. Fortunately I'm full of absurd self deprecating stories. They are very popular conversation pieces and can be told over and over again without loosing any hilarity it seems. So really, this is the perfect place for me, since the Panamanians actaully LIKE my repetitious story telling tendencies. And the stories pasear around town faster than I can, so I often arrive at a house for the first time and they immediately ask me to tell them about how I told my host mother I was hiking to Cucunati in boats (instead of boots), or how the chicken jumped in the cake, or how I named my machete, which is probably their favorite story of all.
Safety standards here are a bit different from at home. Example. In my host family there is a toddler who is almost two. The other day, he started off with a large mug of coffee sweet enough to make your teeth hurt. Then he played with some matches. Then he found a plastic bag and put it on his head and ran around a bit. Then he proceeded to squat down a drop a deuce on the floor, while simultaneously eating cheetohs off of it, for which he was belted (hes supposed to go in the yard). A few hours later he found the lighter for the stove, and played with that for awhile while turning the knobs of the stove on and off. The hissing noise the gas makes as it comes streaming out into his face apparently delights him. Later on he chugged pepsi out of a 2 liter bottle. Despite this, the children are alive and well and quite delightful. I have a little gang that follows me everywhere i go, including to the bathroom. I also have several dog friends, because I usualyl leave more fat on the bones than the panamanians. Some of my favorite dogs are Strongman Kaiser, Michael Jackson, and Esparky Esnoppy.
Generally, life is good. I visited Zachs site, and boy I tell you. I am going to be a cardiovascular super champ at the end of these two years. Trekking through mud is a lot more work than normal hiking, and these hills are steep. Zachs got a lot more hills in his site though, lucky him. Though the parasites and chiggers have done a number on me, I have successfully avoided the vipers so far, of which there are many. I think I will become quite adept at getting them in one machete swipe. The food in my site is pretty good, though lacking in the vegetable department. People grow pretty much everything they eat. We get GIANT delicious shrimp from the quebradas. I asked how they hunted them and they said ¨with the viuda negra!¨ which I thought was a joke, but it wasn´t. They actually do hunt shrimp with a machete. Or they use the machete to sharpen a stick to spear the shrimp with. I am looking forward to learning this particular skill. I have also eaten more corn products than I ever before imagined existed. The new corn is coming in right now, and you would not believe the number or things you can make out of corn. Elsie is keeping a list.
Shockingly, I never thought I would say this, but some days I look back fondly on the deep fried hot dogs. Here, where there is no refrigeration, the people favor SPAM because of its longevity. Deep fried spam, stewed spam, spam and spaghetti, spam and rice...its a disturbingly persistent menu item.
Anyway, Im off to quitar these e.coli. Love to you all!
I have now been in my site for 2 weeks, and I still am really excited about it, though it's definitely intense. Though Im actually in the city right now due to inexplicable jungle diseases. To get here, I had to go on horseback through a flooded stream, hike through mud and rain for an hour and a half, cross a river in a boat, take a chiva to the highway, and then i got stuck with the diablo rojo bus for 5 hours. I arrived, COVERED in mud and sweat and feeling rather out of place, as always when Im in the city, as rubber boots do not blend well. In my village I have spent most of my time pasearing. Pasear is a verb for walking around visiting other people, and I really like that Panamanian tradition. We've had a coupleof work juntas, complete with chicha fuerte (which is not actually very fuerte, it turns out), to build a house for the rice husker, or piladora, that the farmers cooperative bought. It has yet to function, of course, but its here, and it will make a big difference to the farmers in this neck of the jungle because up til now they have had to take all their rice to cucunati on horseback to pilar it.
Mostly though I spend a lot of time sitting around at various peoples houses. Fortunately there are lots of hammocks, which make the awkward silences which are so popular in Panama much more comfortable. Making fun of my silly gringo antics is another favorite pasttime. Fortunately I'm full of absurd self deprecating stories. They are very popular conversation pieces and can be told over and over again without loosing any hilarity it seems. So really, this is the perfect place for me, since the Panamanians actaully LIKE my repetitious story telling tendencies. And the stories pasear around town faster than I can, so I often arrive at a house for the first time and they immediately ask me to tell them about how I told my host mother I was hiking to Cucunati in boats (instead of boots), or how the chicken jumped in the cake, or how I named my machete, which is probably their favorite story of all.
Safety standards here are a bit different from at home. Example. In my host family there is a toddler who is almost two. The other day, he started off with a large mug of coffee sweet enough to make your teeth hurt. Then he played with some matches. Then he found a plastic bag and put it on his head and ran around a bit. Then he proceeded to squat down a drop a deuce on the floor, while simultaneously eating cheetohs off of it, for which he was belted (hes supposed to go in the yard). A few hours later he found the lighter for the stove, and played with that for awhile while turning the knobs of the stove on and off. The hissing noise the gas makes as it comes streaming out into his face apparently delights him. Later on he chugged pepsi out of a 2 liter bottle. Despite this, the children are alive and well and quite delightful. I have a little gang that follows me everywhere i go, including to the bathroom. I also have several dog friends, because I usualyl leave more fat on the bones than the panamanians. Some of my favorite dogs are Strongman Kaiser, Michael Jackson, and Esparky Esnoppy.
Generally, life is good. I visited Zachs site, and boy I tell you. I am going to be a cardiovascular super champ at the end of these two years. Trekking through mud is a lot more work than normal hiking, and these hills are steep. Zachs got a lot more hills in his site though, lucky him. Though the parasites and chiggers have done a number on me, I have successfully avoided the vipers so far, of which there are many. I think I will become quite adept at getting them in one machete swipe. The food in my site is pretty good, though lacking in the vegetable department. People grow pretty much everything they eat. We get GIANT delicious shrimp from the quebradas. I asked how they hunted them and they said ¨with the viuda negra!¨ which I thought was a joke, but it wasn´t. They actually do hunt shrimp with a machete. Or they use the machete to sharpen a stick to spear the shrimp with. I am looking forward to learning this particular skill. I have also eaten more corn products than I ever before imagined existed. The new corn is coming in right now, and you would not believe the number or things you can make out of corn. Elsie is keeping a list.
Shockingly, I never thought I would say this, but some days I look back fondly on the deep fried hot dogs. Here, where there is no refrigeration, the people favor SPAM because of its longevity. Deep fried spam, stewed spam, spam and spaghetti, spam and rice...its a disturbingly persistent menu item.
Anyway, Im off to quitar these e.coli. Love to you all!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Remember how I promised you all I wouldnt go to the Darien? So about that...
I realize its been forever but life is pretty crazy up in here. But my big news is I am going to the Darien for two years! It is the most badass province in Panama, and I am going to be so hard core when I get out. No one should worry though. The place where I live is entirely FARC free, and I live several hours this side of the security line. Also where I live has been deforested to some degree, so though its jungly, its not the impenatrable, triple canopy jungle that the Darien is famous for.
My site is named La Candelilla, which is the word for fire ant and is also, as fate would have it, a nickname for a red head. I spent last week there, and I have to say. At first I was intimidated because it is really way the heck out there in the middle of nowhere, and as very few fruit trees. My main project is planting rice in a traditional manner using green manures. But the people are AMAZING. They are really warm and welcoming and i absolutely love them. I spent the week pasearing, eating bowl after bowl of rice, and washing out pig intestines in the creek. The same one I swim in, incidentally. My people find my gringo ways hilarious, and Im happy to provide entertainment. They taught me how to salomar, which is a sort of a yodel cry, that you do while youre riding your horse around the mountains. I dont have the ending quite right, but Im working on it. I would be happy to demonstrate over the phone if you call me. One day we got stuck in an agua cerro, and after fording several freshly sprung rivers on our horses, we were stranded at teh big flooding creek and had to wait 3 hours for teh water to receed enough to stop. We sat on teh bank, completely soaking wet, and salomared the whole time.
Getting to my site is pretty hard core. From Santa Fe, teh nearest place with stuff like electricity, you have to take a chiva to Cucunati, the BIG TOWN. Of 600 people. No electricity or anything. The chiva drives this crazy muddy rocky road that drives thorugh 4 creeks and one large river, so its impassable when it rains, which is most of the time. Then from Cucunati, you start walking for about an hour and a half or so into teh mountains, fording several other creeks and mud like you might not believe. And then you get to down town Candelilla, which is composed of about 7 houses and 2 churches and a school. Its absolutely beautiful. All teh others going to teh Darien are supoer cool people, and a good friend of mine has a site only about an hour hike away, so that will be fun. Hes got a good waterfall at his site, wehich I am looking forward to. And im hoping that since hes upstream the quebrada funk will pervade my clothing and hair less. Though I am resigned to smelling like a dead foot for teh next two years. All week I bathed and washed my clothes in the creek and came out smelling horrendous. So horrendous in fact that when I boarded the bus at the end of the week, the bus driver spritzed air freshener after me when I got on. Anyway, its going to be intnse and I definitely got a hard core site, but i am super excited and i think the community is amazing. And if any of you want to vacation in teh most badass jungle in teh western hemisphere, hit me up.
Yesterday was our swear in ceremony, so now i am oficially a volunteer. We have lost three asSASsins from our ranks, sadly. But 15 of us are pressing on. The panamanian vice president and first lady were there, and we made the news. I am sending you a newspaper clipping, grandma. I spent most of the time by the food table. After the ceremony we explored Casco Viejo, which is a really beautiful area of Panama city that is nothing like the panama i have seen so far. Its like a tropical run down european city. Its feels like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. We walked by the sea, had some ginger ice cream, good food, enjoyed the beautiful, and then had dinner and went dancing, which i usually dont enjoy but in this case was fun. I busted out my slick hip hop moves. It was nice to have a break from the endless tipico dancing...
One high light of a few weeks ago. We had a day off and we went to the beach and it was a gorgeous beach with hammer head sharks washed up on it, which was pretty fascinating. And I was sitting there with two great friends, under a palm thatch hut, looking out at this sparkling blue water, sipping an ice cold, sweet, fresh pina colada and eating spicey limey fresh caught ceviche, and it was one of the most enjoyable moments of my life. If you come visit I will take you there.
Anyway, things are wrapping up here. We have a big party for our host families in Santa Clara tomorrow, and we leave for good on monday.
Love to you all! It will probably be awhile until you hear from me again, but think of me soaked in rain and tromping through mud learning to gallop on my horse through the mountains and jungles of the Darien with La Viuda Negra at my side....
Molly
My site is named La Candelilla, which is the word for fire ant and is also, as fate would have it, a nickname for a red head. I spent last week there, and I have to say. At first I was intimidated because it is really way the heck out there in the middle of nowhere, and as very few fruit trees. My main project is planting rice in a traditional manner using green manures. But the people are AMAZING. They are really warm and welcoming and i absolutely love them. I spent the week pasearing, eating bowl after bowl of rice, and washing out pig intestines in the creek. The same one I swim in, incidentally. My people find my gringo ways hilarious, and Im happy to provide entertainment. They taught me how to salomar, which is a sort of a yodel cry, that you do while youre riding your horse around the mountains. I dont have the ending quite right, but Im working on it. I would be happy to demonstrate over the phone if you call me. One day we got stuck in an agua cerro, and after fording several freshly sprung rivers on our horses, we were stranded at teh big flooding creek and had to wait 3 hours for teh water to receed enough to stop. We sat on teh bank, completely soaking wet, and salomared the whole time.
Getting to my site is pretty hard core. From Santa Fe, teh nearest place with stuff like electricity, you have to take a chiva to Cucunati, the BIG TOWN. Of 600 people. No electricity or anything. The chiva drives this crazy muddy rocky road that drives thorugh 4 creeks and one large river, so its impassable when it rains, which is most of the time. Then from Cucunati, you start walking for about an hour and a half or so into teh mountains, fording several other creeks and mud like you might not believe. And then you get to down town Candelilla, which is composed of about 7 houses and 2 churches and a school. Its absolutely beautiful. All teh others going to teh Darien are supoer cool people, and a good friend of mine has a site only about an hour hike away, so that will be fun. Hes got a good waterfall at his site, wehich I am looking forward to. And im hoping that since hes upstream the quebrada funk will pervade my clothing and hair less. Though I am resigned to smelling like a dead foot for teh next two years. All week I bathed and washed my clothes in the creek and came out smelling horrendous. So horrendous in fact that when I boarded the bus at the end of the week, the bus driver spritzed air freshener after me when I got on. Anyway, its going to be intnse and I definitely got a hard core site, but i am super excited and i think the community is amazing. And if any of you want to vacation in teh most badass jungle in teh western hemisphere, hit me up.
Yesterday was our swear in ceremony, so now i am oficially a volunteer. We have lost three asSASsins from our ranks, sadly. But 15 of us are pressing on. The panamanian vice president and first lady were there, and we made the news. I am sending you a newspaper clipping, grandma. I spent most of the time by the food table. After the ceremony we explored Casco Viejo, which is a really beautiful area of Panama city that is nothing like the panama i have seen so far. Its like a tropical run down european city. Its feels like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. We walked by the sea, had some ginger ice cream, good food, enjoyed the beautiful, and then had dinner and went dancing, which i usually dont enjoy but in this case was fun. I busted out my slick hip hop moves. It was nice to have a break from the endless tipico dancing...
One high light of a few weeks ago. We had a day off and we went to the beach and it was a gorgeous beach with hammer head sharks washed up on it, which was pretty fascinating. And I was sitting there with two great friends, under a palm thatch hut, looking out at this sparkling blue water, sipping an ice cold, sweet, fresh pina colada and eating spicey limey fresh caught ceviche, and it was one of the most enjoyable moments of my life. If you come visit I will take you there.
Anyway, things are wrapping up here. We have a big party for our host families in Santa Clara tomorrow, and we leave for good on monday.
Love to you all! It will probably be awhile until you hear from me again, but think of me soaked in rain and tromping through mud learning to gallop on my horse through the mountains and jungles of the Darien with La Viuda Negra at my side....
Molly
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Bocadillos, Burundangas y Batidos
Those are the names of three of my favorite things. Bocadillos are savory snacks, like these delicious faux cheetos called Conchitas. And burundanga is a panamanian word for sweet snacks, like cookies and icecream. Who doesnt love cookies and icecream? And duros of course, which are the best burundangas. And batidos are these super delicious fruit shakes, except a lot of panamanians like cornflakes in their milk shakes, and I cant say Im a fan of that.
Last weekend I made my host family pancakes on saturday morning, and I brought them home made maple syrup from vermont to eat with the pancakes. And you know what they put on top? American cheese. Right on top of the syrup. I may have died a little bit inside. They were surprised that I didnt want any on mine.
Mangos are still going strong, I average about 4 per day. I found the best tree in town and now I am a mango snob. I only eat the mangos off that tree, oh man they are so good i dont even have the words to describe it. Frisbee is still going strong, tons of neighborhood kids come and its a total riot. Also, I learned that their is a much better word for frisbee in spanish: ASTRODISCO. Put apparently you cant call it astrodisco ultimato or they laugh at you.
This week we had really interesting tech classes. We learned about plumbing and making irrigation systems with bamboo and pvc pipes and a super cool pump called a bomba that you make out of readily available materials and it can pump water 100 meters uphill. We are also making a bunch of different kinds of compost, like regular, worm compost, bokashi, and a fermented molasses kind. We also went over to this hill that had been slashed and burned and built dead barriers and terraces, and learned how to make level As. We used those to stake out contour lines to plant along, and we planted the whole hillside with plantains and bananas, yuca, root veggies called ñame and ñampi, beans, and corn. I hope they grow. recently weve been spending a lot of time working in the field. Its hard work and you get completely filthy and muddy and sweat drenched, but I love it. And besides, one is ALWAYS sweat drench here, and usually muddy to boot. We used the ashes from the slashed and burned trees to make fake tattoos and face paint. Carmen gave me a tattoo of an equis (fer de lance) on my bicep. Pictures will be forthcoming.
we also had a fun spanish party yesterday to celebrate our advancement to the next level. We played some music, some astrodisco, volleyball without a net, some party games, Panamonopoly (its a real boardgame) and ate a TON of bocadillos and burundangas.
This coming week we are splitting up to do tech weeks. 7 of us asSASsins are going to Divisa in Veraguass to go to this permaculture school for a week. It sounds really interesting. The other groups are ging to Bocas for caco training and Boquete for coffee training. That means I am not getting a fruit tree site as expected. I think my site is going to be working with rice planting. I guess this community really wants to plant in a traditional way but they want to improve their soil quality. Im not super excited about rice but the potential community sounds really cool. And thats the most important thing. They said it was also really hot. Yikes. I think THIS is really hot. Ill adjust. Hopefully there will be a chorro.
Im also really excited about tech week because we have a free day after tech week and we are going to the BEACH. we are just getting a palm thatch rancho right ON the beach and we can just hang out there all day and sleep on the sand next to the waves. There is also a little restaurant where you can get fresh caught fish and maybe a pina colada with fresh coconut and pineapple. Overlooking the pacific ocean. And the palm trees. I love my life nearly all of the time except when I have food poisoning.
We started this thing called The Great Botfly Bet. we all put a dollar into the kitty, and the first person to get a botfly (confirmed my photographic evidence of course) wins all the money. Ill probably get one sometime, so I might as well make some cash monies off of it.
Anyway, I hope you are all well. WRITE ME SOME LETTERS! I only got one so far, from my mom. Thanks mom, youre the best. I have written a bunch of you letters but you probably havent gotten them yet because its really hard to get to the post office here so they accumulate in my notebook for a while before i get a chance to send them off.
Anyway, love to you all, even though panama is awesome i miss you guys!
Love, Molly
Last weekend I made my host family pancakes on saturday morning, and I brought them home made maple syrup from vermont to eat with the pancakes. And you know what they put on top? American cheese. Right on top of the syrup. I may have died a little bit inside. They were surprised that I didnt want any on mine.
Mangos are still going strong, I average about 4 per day. I found the best tree in town and now I am a mango snob. I only eat the mangos off that tree, oh man they are so good i dont even have the words to describe it. Frisbee is still going strong, tons of neighborhood kids come and its a total riot. Also, I learned that their is a much better word for frisbee in spanish: ASTRODISCO. Put apparently you cant call it astrodisco ultimato or they laugh at you.
This week we had really interesting tech classes. We learned about plumbing and making irrigation systems with bamboo and pvc pipes and a super cool pump called a bomba that you make out of readily available materials and it can pump water 100 meters uphill. We are also making a bunch of different kinds of compost, like regular, worm compost, bokashi, and a fermented molasses kind. We also went over to this hill that had been slashed and burned and built dead barriers and terraces, and learned how to make level As. We used those to stake out contour lines to plant along, and we planted the whole hillside with plantains and bananas, yuca, root veggies called ñame and ñampi, beans, and corn. I hope they grow. recently weve been spending a lot of time working in the field. Its hard work and you get completely filthy and muddy and sweat drenched, but I love it. And besides, one is ALWAYS sweat drench here, and usually muddy to boot. We used the ashes from the slashed and burned trees to make fake tattoos and face paint. Carmen gave me a tattoo of an equis (fer de lance) on my bicep. Pictures will be forthcoming.
we also had a fun spanish party yesterday to celebrate our advancement to the next level. We played some music, some astrodisco, volleyball without a net, some party games, Panamonopoly (its a real boardgame) and ate a TON of bocadillos and burundangas.
This coming week we are splitting up to do tech weeks. 7 of us asSASsins are going to Divisa in Veraguass to go to this permaculture school for a week. It sounds really interesting. The other groups are ging to Bocas for caco training and Boquete for coffee training. That means I am not getting a fruit tree site as expected. I think my site is going to be working with rice planting. I guess this community really wants to plant in a traditional way but they want to improve their soil quality. Im not super excited about rice but the potential community sounds really cool. And thats the most important thing. They said it was also really hot. Yikes. I think THIS is really hot. Ill adjust. Hopefully there will be a chorro.
Im also really excited about tech week because we have a free day after tech week and we are going to the BEACH. we are just getting a palm thatch rancho right ON the beach and we can just hang out there all day and sleep on the sand next to the waves. There is also a little restaurant where you can get fresh caught fish and maybe a pina colada with fresh coconut and pineapple. Overlooking the pacific ocean. And the palm trees. I love my life nearly all of the time except when I have food poisoning.
We started this thing called The Great Botfly Bet. we all put a dollar into the kitty, and the first person to get a botfly (confirmed my photographic evidence of course) wins all the money. Ill probably get one sometime, so I might as well make some cash monies off of it.
Anyway, I hope you are all well. WRITE ME SOME LETTERS! I only got one so far, from my mom. Thanks mom, youre the best. I have written a bunch of you letters but you probably havent gotten them yet because its really hard to get to the post office here so they accumulate in my notebook for a while before i get a chance to send them off.
Anyway, love to you all, even though panama is awesome i miss you guys!
Love, Molly
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
¿Que Sopa?
Hey yall! I never did find that apostrophe key as it turns out. Ah well, such is life. My passport also molded, but again. What can you do. Things are still great in this neck of the isthmus. I have a new machete and I named it La Viuda Negra (which means The Black Widow). She and I do great thigns together like take out swatchs of overgrown campo and hack open coconuts. Here are a few highlights from this week:
1) I rode in a diablo rojo with a monkey.
2) There is an AMAZING waterfall, or Chorro here in Santa Clara. We went for a few hours on Saturday and sat in teh water and I was COOL FOR 2 HOURS!! So exciting. Another volunteer brought loudspeakers and a watermelon and we spent teh afternoon jumping off the rocks and swimming around and it was a ton of fun.
3) we had a conference in a conference center that was decked out in Faux Italian decor. Lots of white with gold trim and lavender accents. I felt like I was supposed to be wearing a quinceanera dress.
4) I get a deep fried hot dog for breakfast or lunch at least once per day.
5) A few of us have been getting together to play frisbee in teh campo in our village. We have been teaching a couple of teh village boys to play and its a lot of fun. And the sunsets over the field are AMAZING every single day.
6) Mango season is beginning...
7) You may be relieved to know that I now celebrate Malaria Mondays. that means I take my antimalarials on moday becasue it rhymes. Except I forgot this week and took it on tuesday. Ah well. One cant always rhyme. You can get fired for not taking your antimalarials, so that sucks. Also apparently we are all going to get botflies. Gross, but sort of fascinating. If youre not squeemish, YouTube it. Apparently they are the least of our worries.
8) I am spending teh next week visiting a volunteer in her site. I was supposed to go to an inidiginous site a 2 hour hike from teh nearest road in teh Comarca Ngobe Bugle, but that volunteer has been in the hospital with severe diarreah (or however you spell that in english, my english is all messed up because of the spanish) for 8 days. Poor woman. So instead I am going to Chiriqui to a Latino site. Its still a 1 hour hike in, so I still get to practice my super efficient packing skillz.
anyway, things are great and I hope you are all having super cool adventures and stuff.
Love to you all,
Molly
1) I rode in a diablo rojo with a monkey.
2) There is an AMAZING waterfall, or Chorro here in Santa Clara. We went for a few hours on Saturday and sat in teh water and I was COOL FOR 2 HOURS!! So exciting. Another volunteer brought loudspeakers and a watermelon and we spent teh afternoon jumping off the rocks and swimming around and it was a ton of fun.
3) we had a conference in a conference center that was decked out in Faux Italian decor. Lots of white with gold trim and lavender accents. I felt like I was supposed to be wearing a quinceanera dress.
4) I get a deep fried hot dog for breakfast or lunch at least once per day.
5) A few of us have been getting together to play frisbee in teh campo in our village. We have been teaching a couple of teh village boys to play and its a lot of fun. And the sunsets over the field are AMAZING every single day.
6) Mango season is beginning...
7) You may be relieved to know that I now celebrate Malaria Mondays. that means I take my antimalarials on moday becasue it rhymes. Except I forgot this week and took it on tuesday. Ah well. One cant always rhyme. You can get fired for not taking your antimalarials, so that sucks. Also apparently we are all going to get botflies. Gross, but sort of fascinating. If youre not squeemish, YouTube it. Apparently they are the least of our worries.
8) I am spending teh next week visiting a volunteer in her site. I was supposed to go to an inidiginous site a 2 hour hike from teh nearest road in teh Comarca Ngobe Bugle, but that volunteer has been in the hospital with severe diarreah (or however you spell that in english, my english is all messed up because of the spanish) for 8 days. Poor woman. So instead I am going to Chiriqui to a Latino site. Its still a 1 hour hike in, so I still get to practice my super efficient packing skillz.
anyway, things are great and I hope you are all having super cool adventures and stuff.
Love to you all,
Molly
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