Soloy, Distrito de Besiko, Comarca de Ngöbe-Buglé

Alex and I have been living in Soloy for about a week and a half now. We are actually living in the town of Gevay, but most people call this area Soloy, which is the neighboring town. Both of these little towns are in the District of Besiko, within the Ngöbe-Buglé comarca, which is basically the Panamanian equivalent of a reservation. We are enjoying ourselves so far, although there are many challenges as well.

Some background about the Ngöbe-Buglé: the government didn`t grant the Ngöbe-Buglé their comarca until the late 1980`s (whereas, another indigenous group, the Kuna, received their comarca status in the 1930`s I believe). Although the comarca is supposed to be Ngöbe-Buglé land, the goverment passed a law to maintain control over tourism and natural resources, therefore stripping the Ngöbe-Buglé of much of their supposed autonomy. A major problem is copper mining, whereby the Panamanian government allows foreign mining companies into the comarca to pretty much destroy the environment and remove all profitable natural resources. There is also very little government assistance here for things that are provided to all other Panamanians. In Gevay and Soloy there are some schools, but further into the comarca, the area is deemed too remote to send certified teachers, so many of the children have only an intermittent education when they are able to find a volunteer teacher willing to live there and work for almost nothing.

While we are here, we are taking part in a number of volunteer projects, the main one being our English classes. We teach children for an hour each morning and adults for two hours each evening. Our students are very enthusiastic about learning English- for the adults, it can help them find better seasonal jobs outside of the comarca, and for the children, it will help them in their English classes in school. We hope, anyway. Until you try teaching English, you don`t really realize how little you know about grammar rules. We both know how things should sound, or if something is incorrect, but it is a lot more difficult to explain why something is wrong or describe different verb tenses that combine two Spanish verb tenses. But I think that we are helping them, as the last English teacher didn`t speak any Spanish so she couldn`t answer questions or translate confusing material to make it more clear. The children`s class is starting to exhaust us though. Luckily Alex`s cousin, Brandy, decided to join us here for two weeks, so having an additional teacher for the 25+ kids that show up each day is helpful. Unfortunately, it is hard to keep their attention all the time, and they also come to class 45 minutes early and some stay for up to an hour afterwards, stretching the hour-long class into nearly 3 hours of us trying to keep order.

Other projects we are working on:

Alex is working in the botanical garden that has recently been set up in Soloy. It is a project with many goals: attracting eco-tourism to the region, preserving native plant life, and identifying and cataloging plants and trees in the comarca.

I am also working on charlas (chats) with the women`s group, on topics relating to health and nutrition. The diet here is primarily white rice, beans, chicken, and some fruits and vegetables, so today I talked about the importance of a more varied diet that includes whole grains, dairy and more fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately there are many obstacles to healthy eating in Soloy. The majority of the people here live on around $100 per year, so they do not have extra money to spend on healthier foods for their families. The closest grocery store is in David, which is a three hour (longer in the rainy season) bus ride away that costs $3.30 each way. Almost no one has electricity, so there are no refridgerators for products that most be kept cold, like milk and yogurt. So, as you can imagine, planning for the talk was difficult, and I`m not sure if it was very helpful. We are trying to work out ways to obtain these foods at a lower cost, such as planting vegetable gardens or requesting the stores here to start stocking more nutritious brown rice instead of just white. It is also hard because I also don`t want to impose Western ways of thinking and doing things on people who have persevered through a Spanish conquest and then continuing discrimination by the Panamanian government.

Alex and I are also trying to help Medo, the volunteer organization, find grants and craft grant proposals. There are number of people interested in volunteering here, but Medo has only one room with a bunk bed where volunteers can stay. They are hoping to raise funds to build their own volunteer center, with more rooms for volunteers to stay and where the English classes can be held inside where there are less distractions. Currently, we are staying in the Development Center, which rents the room and allows us to hold the English classes on the porch outside. It is a cement building with solar electricity, so we are some of the lucky few in this area with lights at night and a refridgerator. We are also lucky to share the Development Center with a number of interesting roommates, including a family of bats, toads, HUGE spiders, HUGE cockroaches (imagine the size of your hand- except, believe me, until you see it yourself you can`t really imagine it), and geckos. It makes for very exciting evenings, with the bats swooping around our heads and the toads popping up out of nowhere.

So this is what we have been up to lately. I will write more later, but for now I am off to go bathe- in the river.

December in the city

We had a rather uneventful December- Spanish classes almost every day, homework, and hanging around the city relaxing. Our Spanish has really improved and we are excited for our upcoming volunteering where fewer people will be able to speak to us in English so we can practice more.

We did a few day trips nearby in between classes. We walked up the Peatonal, a street closed off from traffic (mostly) and lined with shops for pedestrians. There were many colorful sights, sounds, and smells as we wandered past street vendors selling brochetas (meat kebabs), chorizos, hamburguesas, and chichas (fresh fruit drinks); stores with Panamanian and international wares; and radios and TV’s blaring with small groups of people crowded around watching and listening. At the end of the Peatonal we arrived at Casco Antiguo, the second oldest neighborhood in Panama (after Panama Viejo). Casco Antiguo has narrow streets lined with charming little buildings, many unfortunately very run-down looking, cafés, and old churches. The Iglesia de San Jose has the only remaining item of value after Henry Morgan sacked the city in 1671. According to legend, its famous Altar de Oro (Golden Altar) was painted black by the priest when he realized the pirate was coming. He convinced Morgan that other pirates had already stolen the altar, and even managed to get a donation from Morgan for a new one. It is very large and impressive with its golden sheen. We ended our evening in Casco Antiguo in one of its many squares, having drinks at a sidewalk café.

Unfortunately, this is about the time that my digital camera stopped working. It had been a little off and on for awhile, and then it completely quit on me. My Christmas gift to myself was a new camera, with many more features than the old one, so I am excited to take more photos with it.

On Christmas Eve, Alex and I went for dinner to his Tio Temi’s house, where we enjoyed a huge turkey with him, his son Emanuel, and many of Tio Temi’s friends. Delicious! After dinner Alex, Tio Temi, Emanuel, and I went first to Alex’s Tia Deborah’s house, where we spent some time with many more aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then we went to his Tia Zulay and Tio Yeti’s house, for yet more food, drinks, and family. We finally returned to our apartment around 1am, tired and full. The next day we just relaxed- went to see a movie (Casino Royale) and out to eat at a Lebanese restaurant.

For New Year’s Alex and I bought tickets to Hotel El Panama, where my favorite Panamanian band, Los Rabanes, played, along with Nando Boom (reggae), and a lot of salsa and merengue. Our tickets included “open botella” so we polished off a bottle of Johnny Walker together, and returned home at 5 in the morning reeking of smoke- sounds lovely doesn’t it? It was a fun time, other than everyone else`s cigarette smoke worsened my cold and I am still trying to get rid of this cough!

This past weekend Alex, Jose, Vasco (Jose’s younger brother), and I made our way over to the Caribbean side to Isla Grande for a night. It was about a 3 hour drive from the city, and only that long because the only road there is filled with potholes, especially for the last 20 km. It was worth the effort though; the island was beautiful, with clear blue water, white sand beaches, and a cute little town with colorful Caribbean-style buildings. The first photo is the beach in front of our hotel- great for swimming, and a little ways to the left was a coral reef for snorkeling. My cold kept me from snorkeling very much, but I hear from Alex and Vasco that there were many fish.

This photo is Alex trying to climb a palm tree to bring down a coconut. He didn’t make it up very far, but at least he tried!

This photo is the sunset that night, before we retired to our room for a game of Risk.

It was a very nice and relaxing few days after being in the city for a month, taking classes and finishing grad school applications… speaking of which, I am almost done with those! I’ve turned in my applications to the University of Arizona and the University of British Columbia, so I only have George Washington University left, and that is not due until April. Alex has already been finished for awhile, so it’s been tough sitting down to write essays. Very big relief to have the end in sight!

Last night we went to a baseball game at the Rod Carew Estadio (stadium). It was Panama Metro (the city’s team) versus Chiriqui (the province where Jose and his family are from). The Chiricanos are fanatics about anything having to do with their province, and probably half the people there were sporting Chiriqui shirts, hats, and flags. Jose made sure we were all Chiricanos for the night, as you can see.

And now Alex and I are packing up our stuff for a month in the mountains of the comarca of the Ngobe-Bugle, one of Panama’s indigenous groups. We will be volunteering with Medo, a non-profit organization for Ngobe development. Medo helps match international volunteers with different projects going on in and around the town of Soloy. Alex is going to help work on their botanical garden, which has a goal of trying to preserve species native to the area. I will be working in the health center with children under 5, doing art therapy to help improve their motor skills. We are both excited about this opportunity, as it will give us a chance to work with the native population on projects that interest each of us. In addition, very few people in Soloy speak English, so it will be very good Spanish practice for us. We will leave Soloy right before Carnaval starts in the middle of February.

Alex would like me to add that we have been watching all the San Diego Chargers games lately, and that although he is not home in SD, he is still rooting for them to win the Super Bowl this year. Cross your fingers!