These are questions that run through my mind all the time and although I have 13 months left, I have to remind myself of something that we all realized while going through training. In many cases, we will leave our communities not knowing the difference we have made. Our impacts on the lives of these Panamanians won't always be apparent in the time frame that we are here to share and live with them. This is always hard to remember because as Americans we grow up in a results oriented world. If you don't deliver the results, nobody can measure your success or productivity. Here in Peace Corps its all about the process. Its how you do things and who/how you teach to be able to "measure your success." I put "measure your success" in quotes because that is another subject all together. How to measure the success of a Peace Corps volunteer is something that Washington has been working on for years and as of right now we have a useful tool for just that but as you can imagine, evaluating Peace Corps volunteers in the work that we do isn't anything that can be set in stone as there are so many variables to each project and each community.
About 28 years ago in my community there was a Swiss nurse that came and taught about the importance of healthcare. Now if you could see my community now which is still pretty rustic, you could only imagine how things were 28 years ago. As I was speaking with one elderly woman about her (now grown) children she mentioned that because of the Swiss nurse's advice on giving birth in a hospital instead of at home, she ended up having her last 2 kids in a hospital. Long story short, one of the babies was in very critical condition, wouldn't come out and had the cord wrapped around her neck. The old woman (who wasn't old at the time) was also in very bad shape and told me that if she wouldn't have taken the advice of the Swiss nurse and gone to have the baby in a hospital, she and her daughter would have died. This is just ONE story from ONE woman on whom this Swiss nurse made a difference. I can go on with other examples about the nurse and about the former volunteer who was in my community for agricultural reasons (I work with businesses and community groups) and the effects that they had on the people of my community. I'm sure that I know more about the difference they made on these people than they themselves ever did.
What I'm trying to say is that I have to continuously remind myself to keep on doing the good work I'm doing without thinking about the long term effect I will have made on this community because unless I go back in 20 years, and even then, I won't know about the differences I've made on other people's lives. Thats hard for me because as I see changes and improvements made, these things motivate me to do more. So because I don't immediately see them, I have to assure myself that the differences I make and the lives I touch will be evident long after I leave.
On a lighter note, here is another glimpse into Panamanian culture as far as some food is concerned. I get a vegetable truck in my site selling great veggies 2-3 times a week but to get fruits I have to buy them hours away and bring them into site or wait for the individual fruit seasons. So far mango season was good to me as I have a huge mango tree in my front yard. The only problem was when the kids would come steal them until I made it a rule to give me one everytime they came to knock them off the tree :) It was pretty convenient to just go outside and pick up my fruit off the ground to eat instead of buying it at the store. Here are some examples of some mangos that were gifted to me. Super grande...
Below is only one of the best new fruits that I have come across called Mamon chino. It doesn't grow in my site but the season is among us and these make their way into the veggie truck as well. This is what the hairy little thing looks like...
To eat it, you tear it open to find an egg shaped seed with juicy jelly-like goodness surrounding it.
As my neighbor Roger demonstrates, you suck on it until you can't anymore and spit out the seed. Super yummy but I think I've eaten way too many this year. I'll hold off for more until next year. It has a sweet taste. coming up very soon is orange and mandarin season. I'm in luck because I have various orange and mandarin trees in my yard. Time to start enforcing my fruit rule with the kids again.
(Below) Who knows what this crop is? Its rice. So part of my job is to integrate myself in the culture and people as much as possible. People don't want to work with the American who shows up and starts bossing people around. They build a respect for the American who works as hard as they do and makes an effort to get to know them and their culture. This strategy helps us as volunteers integrate and have validity when its time to do our own work. This particular activity of integration involved me volunteering to go cosechar arroz (harvest rice) with my host brother. This involved me getting all decked out in my long pants, long sleeves, sombrero, and rubber work boots.
To get here involved about an hour and a half horse ride up and down some mud slippery hills and some breathtaking views that I unfortunately didn't get to take pictures of for fear for my life when I thought the horse was going to break a leg walking down some pretty sketchy slopes full of rocks and send me screaming off the side of the mountain. But no worries, I lived to tell the tale.
(above) This is my host brother. He is about 38 years old and I went with him and a couple other people. You chop the rice off by using a special knife that you hold in one hand.
(above) Here I am with my rice. I should probably give up on wearing hats forever because I end up looking like this or Abe Lincoln. I'm only smiling because I know we are leaving VERY soon. Its really not that bad but when you do it for hours at a time in the hot Panamanian sun, thats a different story.
(above) Here is some of the rice that we harvested. He will bundle them together, put in a bag so they can later be dried out in the sun and then have the women take the rice out of the shell using a "pilon." I'll try to get pictures of this soon.
To get here involved about an hour and a half horse ride up and down some mud slippery hills and some breathtaking views that I unfortunately didn't get to take pictures of for fear for my life when I thought the horse was going to break a leg walking down some pretty sketchy slopes full of rocks and send me screaming off the side of the mountain. But no worries, I lived to tell the tale.
(above) This is my host brother. He is about 38 years old and I went with him and a couple other people. You chop the rice off by using a special knife that you hold in one hand.
(above) Here I am with my rice. I should probably give up on wearing hats forever because I end up looking like this or Abe Lincoln. I'm only smiling because I know we are leaving VERY soon. Its really not that bad but when you do it for hours at a time in the hot Panamanian sun, thats a different story.
(above) Here is some of the rice that we harvested. He will bundle them together, put in a bag so they can later be dried out in the sun and then have the women take the rice out of the shell using a "pilon." I'll try to get pictures of this soon.All in a day's work here in Panama!
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