A Quarter of My Way Through Service...

It has occured to me that I have been blogging about interesting or ridiculous stories that I have experienced here, but I haven't really explained who the Ngabe and Bugle people are, whom I live with, and what sort of Peace Corps projects I am working on.

Let me start out with a little history of my people. The Comarca Ngabe Bugle is the most recent formed indeginous reservation in Panama. There are approximately 12,000 Ngabe people and 4,000 Bugle. They have been fighting their physical and cultrual survival since the Spanish Invasion in 1501. Unfortunately, it is easy to see parts of the ngabe and bugle culture dying out, for instance when younger kids do not speak the language or have a lack of interest in traditional activites.

The land of the Ngabe originally extened from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, but the conquistadores and later on lations forced the ngabe people far into the mountains. The Bugle, was once a large population as well that lived in provinces closer to Panama City, but were forced along the the ngabes as well. The Comarca, or reservation, is the result of 100 years of fighting for independence. They finally won in 1997, when over 400 men, women, and children marched 400 kilometeres to Panama City and the Panamanian nation law which made the Comarca official was signed.

Originally the Ngabe and Bugle were hunter-gatherers spread out apart form other families. Recently, since the 1970s, they have been beginnning to form communities surrounded by school and churches. However, some communities, like Cerro Banco, are still very spread out. The culture here is based around a socialist feeling and collective work. Farm work is done and shared in groups, which is generally the extended family. Some comarca communities are becoming more and more modern, especially with newly formed roads, schools, and other new additions to communities. My community is farther out into the mountians and still does not have much access or influence from the outside. With the lack of a road it does make relationships with outside agencies and developmental work difficult.

Currently I am working on organizing the community to achieve a latrine project, mini acueduct project, and I am starting to talk to the school director about starting an eco-club in the community.First, my latrine project. This is going very slowly as Cerro Banco is so spread out. I am electing leaders who I can work wiith in each sector of my community. In each sector we are developing a census of people who need latrines. Most people in the community do not have any and are using either the fields or streams to go the bathroom, which can contaminate crops and water cuasing sicknesses. This is an important need that I am stressing to the community that most understand. From here I need to stress the idea that this project is not an governmental or politicion gifted project. We, as a community, will be organizing, gaining funds, and constructing all the latrines. This is a very hard concept to get across, as most are used to projects simply coming to the community and not being achieved by themselves. I am estimating to construct about 70 latrines and teach health charlas along with it to explain the importance and use of each one. Also, in one sector of my community, where about 60 people live, they have an organized mini acueduct committee. I am working with them to teach them how an acueduct can be built and managed. The other day we measured the water flow from the spring, which will be the source of water for this system. This is done to see if there is enough water coming out of the spring to be sufficient for the number of people in the system. Next we will be measuring the distances and and altitude difference between the houses the the tubing will go to to see exactly how much PVC we would potentially need and if a reserve tank is necessary.Additionally, I want to start working on starting an eco-club in the community. There is a lot of need here with environmental education and trash management. I figure this is some way I can get the kids involved in a fun activity as well as teach sustainable living.

These are my current general projects. As the next year and a half goes by, I'm sure I'll pick up other work and peace corps activities. I also worked in another PC community the other month helping facilitate a project leadership management seminar for a week, which was very successful and tons of fun. I should be doing the same seminar in my community in the future. But since development work is slow and I work at the pace of my community, I generally pass the days by planting or harvesting food, visiting community members, creating innovative receipes with rice, and hours in the hammok. Not too shabby.

Thanks for reading. Miss you all

paz, amor, y dios,
Kayla