Farewell to Soloy

We ended our month in Soloy last week, gladly in some ways but sad in others. Alex and I both really enjoyed our time there, and felt that we helped with very worthwhile projects and also felt very appreciated. The Ngöbe people of Soloy and Gevay are super friendly and treated us very well. We enjoyed teaching English more than we originally thought we would, as the students were all very eager to learn and happy to participate. It was sad to have to say good-bye to the friends we made though.

Here is a picture from our children’s class.

And here is Alex presenting our top adult student, Amado, with his prize for winning the star chart contest (stars were given for coming to class on time, participation, and answering questions only in English).
During our second week Alex and I finally got to see the entire coffee-making process- very exciting since we thought we would see that in Costa Rica, but instead we only picked the coffee. There was a Japanese volunteer living in the Centro de Desarollo with us, and he is organizing a coffee cooperative for Ngöbe farmers. So once a month the APRANBE farmers come down the mountains (from as far as a 9 hour walk), carrying their dried out coffee beans to prepare for sale at our house. First they separate the beans according to quality- top quality are the largest and roundest, going down to fourth quality, which are pretty small and misshapen.
Then they roast the beans in enormous cauldrons over an open fire. It looks like it would be easy to mix that around, but Alex had a pretty hard time and gave up after spilling coffee beans on the ground.
The roasted beans are left to cool on sheets or big wooden trays.
The cooled beans are then ground up by hand.

And finally the ground coffee is packaged and ready for sale. A 12 pack (each little pack has enough coffee for about 3 cups) costs $0.90. Unfortunately APRANBE can only sell their coffee within the comarca, because they cannot yet afford to obtain all the proper health certifications to sell commercially in Panama.

We continued our tradition of river bathing (mainly because we were too scared to use the shower in the bathroom- very dark, dirty, and creepy). The rivers in Soloy are cool and refreshing- but I was very happy to finally take a real shower without clothes on when we left! This is me in my “bathing outfit” of a t-shirt and rolled-up pajama pants.

Ngöbe women all bath in their dresses, so out of cultural respect female volunteers are asked to wear clothes in the water as well. Alex, meanwhile, would traipse about happily in his swimsuit.

The last weekend we spent in Soloy we rode horses up a nearby mountain. It was about a three-hour ride, some through jungle, but mostly through sort of deforested areas. It was nice, but a little disappointing that it wasn’t very lush. And by the end of the second day (6 hours on the horse total) we were all pretty sore. We did have an amazing view of the lights of David and the sunset from the mountain though. We also somehow managed to eat about 5 pounds of rice between 6 of us- Alex and I are ready to swear off rice and guandu (peas) for about a year now. That was served with every meal every day in Soloy.

On our last night our students gave us a farewell party- it was very well-planned and touching. Alejandro started by welcoming everyone and then Anabella said a prayer for us, followed by some words from Adan (the Medo Coordinator) and some of our other students. Then we played a guessing game where Alex and I, and some of our students, each received a card with an animal on it (I had sapo- toad- and Alex had gallo- rooster). Then each person had to act out their animal and find their mate- ie Alex had to figure out which of us girls was the gallina (chicken). Very hilarious, and followed by more hilarity in a game of Bochinches (literally means gossip, but it is the same as telephone). Alex was the first one to hear the message, and not properly understanding the game, he immediately changed it on purpose rather than repeating what he heard. Needless to say, by the end the message had devolved from “Yo me baño todos los días, pero hoy no” (I bathe myself every day, but not today) to “Yo me baño todos los días, pero hoy no, y uele feo” (Alex added and it smells bad) to something about a dog when it got to me halfway through to only unintelligible mumbles at the end.

The night was capped off by a delicious meal and chicha made by all of our students. Well it was almost capped off- then we took turns taking pictures with nearly every student. See some of our favorites below.

Some girls in our class: Onelina, Maritza, Luisa, Tamara, Mileika, and Yesika. A group shot. Me, Esteban (one of our favorite students), and Alex.

Finally, I thought I would include some pictures of the lovely roommates Alex and I had. First the giant spider (post-mortem): Then Mr. Peepers, the giant cockroach: One of the four bats: And one of the many toads:

Finally, our home for the month, the Centro de Desarollo:

Shortly after leaving from Soloy we embarked on further adventures that will be coming soon. We arrived back in Panama City yesterday, but leave again tomorrow for a hard core weekend+ of partying at Carnavales... hopefully I´ll make it back in one piece!