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Friday, September 10, 2010

My first visit to the Comarca

All the volunteers recently had their first site visit to test the waters for 4 days. We were all paired up with a current volunteer to experience life in Peace Corps. I was sent to the Comarca Noge bugle in a small pueblo called Cerro Puerco. Luckily a few other volunteers were sent to nearby areas and we were able to start off traveling together. My journey started when I took a bus from Panama city to David and the bus driver almost missed my stop….so the driver proceeded to back up on the Pan-American highway (only the busiest highway in Panama- no big deal). I was standing up at this point, and due to my extreme clumsiness, I fell down onto the lap a Panamanian woman and we both started laughing. So…I was off to a great start!

Here I met my volunteer that I was to visit. We then needed to take 20 min ride in a pickup truck and then hike for 3 hours down and straight up a mountain. Now, this was quite the adventure. 3 hours of hiking in the rain, dark, copious amounts of mud, and my massive pack (of course I overpacked) To make matters worse, there was a big storm a few days earlier and a tree was covering the usual path, so we got a little lost down by the river trying to find the bridge. It was definitely one of the hardest hikes I’ve done in a while-but it was well worth it! We finally made it safe and sound to my volunteer’s house that she built a few months prior. It is pretty common for an Environmental Health volunteer to build their own house, which is so crazy cool. Hers was made out of bamboo walls, Plancha roof, and a wood floor (which is very uncommon in this area, most locals have dirt floors).



Here are some brief points and highlights of my visit:

- The Comarca Noge bugle is an indigenous group in Panama that live very simple lives up in the mountains. I found them to be pretty shy but extremely generous individuals, as I was given tons of food and drinks from them. I could potentially be placed in one of these indigenous communities and am so excited to learn more about this group of people.

- Aleah, the volunteer I visited is working on providing running water to all her community and adding more latrines. Some of her community has running water, but many people do not. This is a long process of teaching them about water/health safety, and coming up with a plan to make this happen. She showed me her community’s spring, current aqueduct, and water tank.

- We walked through the entire town, meeting and chatting with people of the community. Aleah gave me one of her Naguas to wear, which is the traditional Nobere dress women wear. But of course, it was a little small since I am a bit taller than the average Nobe woman. So naturally every Nobe thought it was hilarious that the dress didn´t fit. I guess so far I´m doing my part as a PCV to provide comic relief to a community.

- One day Aleah and I met up with a few other volunteers that live an hour or 2 hike away and went to this beautiful waterfall that we got to jump through and swim in- totally Last of the Mohicans like. Panama is beautiful. I was literally surrounded by rolling green mountains and rivers. The views are incredible! (And yes, Dad. I’ve seen numerous “sunsets of the week”)


I’m beginning to see what my 2 years could be like, it’s been said (and I’m beginning to understand) that Enivronmental Health volunteers in Peace Corps are sent to the most underdeveloped places, as we are working with these communities to develop the most simple and vital needs- water and sanitation. Because of this, it´s most likely that I will be sent to a place with little access to clean water. Needless to say I wasn’t exactly sure I knew what I was getting myself into before I left. I think its going to be much harder than expected, but SO exciting and necessary. How amazing is it to provide a whole community with better health through clean water and places to use the bathroom! This is going to be quite the adventure that I’m so thrilled to embark on and I feel so blessed to be here.



Thanks for reading…pictures will be coming soon!