It’s official. The
latrine project is finally finished. After 3 separate Inauguration
celebrations, complete with monstrous meals of rice and chicken, I can finally
throw away my cement crusted, holey, work jeans. I should have no use for them
now, besides my community was starting to call me “cochino” for wearing them
(literally meaning swine, but mostly used for calling something dirty, filthy,
gross). After we finished throwing the 56 cement platforms that were included
in the project, it was each family’s responsibility to use the zinc, given to
them from the project, for the roofs and whatever they wanted for the
walls. I was so proud to see people putting
in such extraordinary effort while making the housing structures with unusual
detail. Since they have built all the
latrines themselves, they have more respect for them and a desire to keep them
nice and clean.
My favorite latrine
made was at the school in my community. The old one we had here was built 15
years ago, was full, and well…cochino. All the men from the school PTA (yes, we
have a PTA) got together and built the latrine basically without any help from me.
They even painted some old zinc to use for the walls to make it look brand
new.
The project really
felt finished after the inauguration meetings took place. There were basically
just big warm and fuzzy meetings where everyone thanked everyone else for all
their hard work and successes. I can’t remember a moment where I felt more
respected by some many people before. It was a nice way to end a long planned
out project.
Now that I’ve been in
Panama for 21 months, I find myself thinking about home more and more, despite
the endless plans my community has been scheming to keep me here for another
year. What will I miss? What won’t I
miss? I might not miss going into the
bushes to find a place to pee while walking through my community….and finding a
giant Equis snake 3 feet away from me. Butttt…I may miss lying on my hammock, in
front of my house, watching the sunset fall below the banana trees as my
neighbor brings me over some freshly cooked squirrel she caught earlier that
day. (Both of these experiences happened yesterday)
Either way, I have
about 5 months left to enjoy the things I’ll miss, and bear the things that I
won’t. Even though my main projects are
over I have a few smaller projects to work on to keep my busy until I leave.
Very soon I will be helping at another youth camp, planning some HIV/AIDS
awareness seminars for adults in my community, and continuing to work with the
water groups. More posts to come about all those things.
Thanks again for reading!
Lots of love,
Kayla (Meliti)
