Cerro Banco- Comarca Ngäbe Bugle

 Daria, Jedi, and I (she´s one of the tallest women in the community)

 Juanita making a Chacras (woven Comarca bag)

 Kids playing volleyball

Cerro Banco- or literally translated "Bank Hill"- is my new home away from home!!! After months of training, hour after hour of sitting on hard metal charis in a sweaty room with 20 other trainees, and learning how to mix cement or thermoform properly, I am finally in Panama for what I came here to do. Be a Peace Corps Volunteer!
I´ve know this for quite some time now and trained for it, but now that swear-in is arriving, it all seems surreal. But I´m so excited and anxious to begin.

I just got back from my first site visit to Cerro Banco and things got off to a shaky start.  All us trainees went to a conference and a community guide from each of our sites was supposed to come and meet us there so we could have a mini seminar and then each go our separate ways with our guide.  However, due to many reasons, my guide could not come, along with 2 other trainees.

Due to the change of plans, my super-awsome PC training director, Juan, drove the 3 of us personally out to our sites to meet our guides.  Foustino, my community guide, met me in Oma, which is half an hour North of San Felix of the Pan-American highway.  From Oma, Cerro Banco is about an hour and a half hike into the mountains (or 2 hours with a heavy pack).  Hiking through these green mountains was incredible. We got to a clearing and I was literally surrounded my mountains on all sides. I felt like the Latina or Indigenous Fraulein Maria and wanted to burst out singing the hills are alive with the sound of music, but I figured I should probably tone my enthusiasum a bit down before I scare the ngäbes.

Once I got to my site I was overwhelmed with emotions.  In general, the Environmental Health sector in Panama has the most poor and rural sites in all of Latin America.  The Comarca definitely falls under this category.  Before going to my site, I was informed that Cerro Banco has no running water, (except for one faucet at the school that works approx 2 days a week) no electricity, and no sanitation facilities (so no latrines orother places to go the bathroom). I totally understood this and was definitely ready to experience it. However, going there and actually seeing and living in it was completely different than I expected.  The poverty there is almost unbelievable and it is crazy to think that is how life has always been here. But what was even more incredible was that I was graciously accepted into a community members home to live there for the first month of my service, even though most people are still very confused why there is a Gringa living here.

The moment I got there, I was given a big bowl of rice, beans, and cafe -all staples in the Comarca.  One great thing about this place is that even though there is extreme poverty, there seems to be plenty of food to go around, at least in this season. Everyone owns land and works on the farm to harvest and sell food.  Also, sharing, especially food, is a huge deal in the ngabe culture. During my fist few days in the community when I went around to each house to introduce myself, I was either given a plate of food, coffee, cacao, or a fresh coconut to drink out of. Another great resource is that Cerro Banco is surrounded my little streams, springs, and rivers. So there is lots of water available right now. 

But this leads me to my main source of work.  Due to lack of education, money, and other resources lots of people are sick with colds and many children have intestonal problems.  This is because soap is a luxury that they do not see or know to be very important.  Even worse, it is culturally common to use the same stream where they get there drinking water to use the bathroom.  This leads to many illnesses, especially with the children. So there are tons of opportunities for work here, first starting with education.  Fortunately there is a governmental agency currently bringing in latrines to Cerro Banco, so I will be working with them and my community to teach them proper usage.  This is just one of the many things I will be doing in my community ontop of making friendships and fully integrating into the culture.  Although right now I am overwhelemed with everything and realizing that this isn´t going to be an easy adjustment, I´m so excited to start my journey.  I´m defintely reminded of my favorite poem, Ithaka.  It seems to suit me right now.

¨When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you...

Since I am almost out of time on my internet I´m just going to leave you with a list of fun things I did during my site visit.
-planted corn
-carried 2.5 gallons of rocks on my head for and hour uphill...4x
-harvested and pelared rice
-showered in the river, everyday
-collected and dried plants for weaving bags
-had a scorpion on my leg (thankfully it did not sting me)

Thanks for reading as always and keep sending emails!  I love hearing from you.
love,
Kayla or Melidi (my Ngabe name)