Gringo Logic

We were taught the term "gringo logic" during training by some current Peace Corps Volunteers. Gringo logic can be defined as a particular branch of reasoning or argumentation derived from Americans. Unfortunately, gringo logic does not work well in Panama. Let's review some examples:

1. A women's group wants to form a co-operative tienda in their small community to enable their families to purchase goods in their own village rather than walking 30 minutes to the closest tienda. However, the women have very limited education and they have no business knowledge in order to manage a co-operative and tienda. Luckily, another women's group 45-minutes away started a co-operative and tienda in the same manner. They have been extremely successful after only 2 years in business, doubling the size of their store and, in turn, doubling their profits. After much encouragement and pulling-of-teeth, two younger members of the directiva (advisory board) agreed to go meet with the successful co-operative to learn some best practices.
2. A prominant member of the community has been accused of stealing and dealing in bad business practices multiple times. He was caught-in-the-act many of these times. No one has every confronted him to let him know that this is a problem and the police will be called if it happens again.
3. A woman is giving birth at her home. She has hired a midwife to assist her rather than walking 5 minutes to the free doctor. The baby is born healthy, but begins choking upon taking it's first breaths. The baby sadly ends up dying because the midwife does not know rescue breathing or CPR.
4. Tropical farms stretch the mountain sides. The weather and soil is very healthy for growing a variety of fruits and vegetables for a healthy nutritious diet. However, only about 5 different root vegetables are grown and 4 different fruits. Crops are planted haphazardly and are only tended to a few times a week at most. Miles and miles of land are like this.
5. You are in a community meeting with natives to discuss the land that you need to build your house on. The natives insist on speaking their language (which you don't understand) stating that some members present do not understand Spanish well enough. This meeting carries on for hours and not once are you briefed in what is being discussed. At the end, you are told the decision and asked if you are happy about it (it luckily ends up being what you wanted out of the four options).
6. Everyone throws candy wrappers and plastic cookie packing on the ground. Once a week (or so) community members have a clean up crew that picks all this up. Trash can anyone?
7. You are in a boat that is about to leave for an hour-and-a-half trip. It is 6am. Everyone knows that the boat leaves at 6am. We have loaded up the boat with as many people as there are comfortable seats (comfortable in Panama means very tight and close together). There are at least 12 people on this little lancha (fiberglass boat, not sure of the dimensions but I would say medium-sized). As it is in Panama, we have some late arrivers. We wait at the dock for at least 10 minutes as some people in the boat shout, "Esta llena! Vamos!" (We're full, let's go) The boat driver ignores this and continues to wait as more people keep coming. Eventually, the driver decides it's time to go. At this point, 2 people wedge into the front seat of the boat (now packed with 5 people, one person sitting on another's lap) and 2 people sit on the cargo in front of me. Apparently these people were not going to miss this boat and they didn't mind an uncomfortable 1.5 hour ride crammed like sardines or sitting on jagged cargo.

Just a few examples where you want to go, "WTF?!?" I'm not nearly as surprised at seemingly odd occurances as I used to be. The culture is really settling in on me. I just look at the situation, shake my head, and say, "Que va?" (meaning "what are you going to do")