Projects Underway in Panama

I hope this new year has started off well for you and your family. The new year has brought a leap in motivation within my community, of which I am very appreciative. Personally, I feel well equipped and mentally prepared to lead my community forward in their efforts to improve their own lives. This is not always an easy stage to arrive at in a completely different culture! So for me, it is an accomplishment as I stumble into this new year.

Since I last updated you in September, disappointingly not much has progressed work-wise. I took about two weeks out for vacation in October; November and December are full of Panamanian holidays, graduations, school vacation, and relentless other reasons to relax in the house instead of being productive (rainy weather, clearly a big determent). Welcome to life on the Panamanian Caribbean coast!

Now that the weather is clearing up and school will be starting in a few weeks, my community is beginning to wake up from their winter hibernation. I had a really good meeting with my women’s Artisan Group last week; they are finally getting over their embarrassment and have asked me to help them reorganize the group and plow forward to find new markets to sell their unique jewelry made from coconut shell. This has been a year in the making, so obviously I am very excited that they trust me enough to delve into the intricate drama-filled group dynamics.

Also with the start of the new year, I will be working with the students in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9. I will be teaching Junior Achievement classes to the 6^th and 8^th graders. Junior Achievement is an organization from the United States that teaches kids from grades K-12th about the world of business and economics. A fellow volunteer and I will be teaching Life Skills classes to the 7^th and 9^th graders. Through a Peace Corps developed program called “Vida Sana, Pueblo Sano”, we will teach topics such as sex education, HIV and STD prevention, how to make good decisions, and short-term and long-term goals.

My Girl Scout classes were put on hold during the school vacation months because about half of my girls left the community to spend vacation with their mothers who live in more urban communities in Panama (they are raised in Cayo Paloma by their aunts and grandparents). These will start again full swing when school starts and everyone returns. We cover a wide range of topics such as sex education, environmental education, how to make good decisions, self-esteem, leadership, and English.

As work is progressing slowly in my community, my neighboring volunteer (20 minutes walk) has taken the bull by the horns. His community is in desperate need of a clean potable water source. They live in a community populated with cows and without latrines; This is a sure disaster for a clean water source. Charles Walker (the volunteer) has worked tremendously to develop and train a Water Committee of 5 people who will eventually continue to manage the community’s water and lead the community in efforts to keep the water clean long after Charles has finished his Peace Corps service. Charles and the Water Committee have found a new clean source of water outside of the community and they have mapped out a plan to build an aqueduct and water system to bring the water to the community. This project is still lacking in funding. Please consider donating to Charles’ essential clean water project: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=525-173

That’s all for me folks! Please pray for me during these last 8 months of work within my beautiful community of Cayo Paloma; that we will be able to work efficiently to complete the projects we have started and also for new opportunities for artisan goods markets.