What a way to start 2012!

So the last few weeks have been quite hectic. I suppose it started the second week in January. I had this meeting with one of government organizations. It was supposed to be low key and we were only to discuss what was currently going on in site. Well I ended up getting A TON of work with a deadline that did not allow me much time to get the work done. Lets keep in mind that the deadline was the 10^th of February.

Allow me to clarify the jobs I was asked to do:
1) I was to visit everyone in my neighborhood and promote a new type of fogón (I needed 20 families). -For those who don’t know a fogón is a type of wood stove. The ones here usually consist of three large stones placed in a triangle shape with a fire in the center and a pot on top. These are really bad because they create a lot of smoke, which pollutes the environment and lungs. They also use a butt load of wood, which affects deforestation.- Entonces, I am currently promoting an eco-stove that will use less wood and decrease the amount of smoke by 60%.

I needed to go to all 63 houses in Boca Chica and talk to the women of the homes, make nice-nice, and convince people that their fogóns are the reason their families and themselves have sore throats and nasty coughs. Many of the women already knew that the smoke was bad, was the reason they had bad coughs and throats hurt but there were a fair number that didn’t know and were very reluctant (and MANY still are) to even listen to me. Fortunately the smoke bothered all of their eyes and I was able to compare the discomfort in their eyes to the discomfort their respiratory tract was feeling too. Also I have been here for 8 months and they are starting to trust me and realize that I do care about them and their families. So a lot did listen to me but quite a few didn’t get much out of our conversation. But in the end I ended up convincing 30 families that the eco-stove was a good addition to their kitchen (it is also free if I get my grant).

Interesting story: I had a very difficult time with the indigenous women in my community so I decided to talk to their kids and found out that the reason they didn’t sign the form I needed was because their parents were never taught to read or write and were ashamed to admit it. So I had to sneakily find a reason so that I should sign their name. I ended up getting over half of my indigenous women to apply for the fogón.

2) I was also to go to all of the hotels and tell them to stop dumping in the community’s garbage dump/mangroves/children’s playing field. Well that went really shitty so I called the agency and they told me that to make a list of the hotels with the name of the administrator and their phone number. Now, I did not know that there were SOOOO many hotels in the area. ALSO the people who own hotels here barely speak Spanish and to have a government agency with essentially no power to go to you and tell you that you can’t dump your trash where you usually go…. Well you all know Americans… It was even worse than when I went.

3) Apply for a recycling program grant

4) Figure out where recycling programs are, which programs are the closest to my community, and how I would transport the recyclables.

Well the following week I was very busy. On top of the four things I needed to get done I had six English classes and two science classes that week. I also had to leave the following week because I had a prior commitment. Well that week went by too quickly and I didn’t feel like I got all that much accomplished. But I said goodbye to Megalodon and was off to save lives!

The prior commitment I made was to a “Medical Mission”. Now let me say that I am a Jew. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, went to Hebrew school, and practically lived in the JCC pre-peace corps, so I was surprised that the word Mission was meant in more of a Jesus sense and not in a “Mission Accomplished” sensed.

I have hung out with a lot of enthusiastic Christians before this trip but so many have a tendency to promote their god in a way that I promote my eco-stoves, however it feels more like they are shoving it down my throat. But I know quite a few exceptions (one happens to be one of my incredibly good friends here). And the people I worked with were some of the most amazing people I have ever met. Like, if god really has a heaven up there, these people are on the VIP list. I feel truly grateful for being given the opportunity to meet and work with them.

So I arrive to the Medical Mission and I quickly get accustomed to praying before meals. The first three days I am placed in the eye wing. I am helping the doctors, nurses and volunteers translate (I also did get to go in to the surgery room quite a bit). The eye wing did cataract and pterygium surgeries. Most of the people we saw were 50 and up but we did see an 8 year old and a few other younger people. I think I had the best job. I got to take a medical history, explain what was going on, and do some minor medical stuff (like blood pressure and eye drops), which gave me the opportunity to bond with the patients. I can’t remember the running total for the amount of surgeries performed but I remember that one day there was a total of 60 eye surgeries.

It was amazing to meet so many people who haven’t seen in years and then the next day they can see and they are telling you how big their grandkids are.

There was this one woman who was painfully shy. Like, she wouldn’t tell me her name, age, nothing. Her daughter had to tell me everything. To try to ease her discomfort I was talking to her. As I was getting ready to move her to the pre-operation room, she leaned over to me, and whispered that she was scared. WELL the next day this woman comes back and as she is waiting for her post operation check up she is talking animatedly and loud! Her daughter calls me over and introduces me and the woman embraces me. It was amazing to see people change.

I can go on and on about these people but I won’t. BUT I will tell one of my favorite stories. There was this man, Señor Tomas. Well Señor Tomas was 95 years old and was walking better than I was. He was blind in one eye and really blurry in the other. I took a liking to this old man. He was funny, energetic and full of life. I visited him a little more than the other patients. The next day I was talking to him and he was telling me about everything he was seeing and he looks at me and tells me that I am pretty and then asks me to marry him. Now that is pretty a common occurrence here but it was nice to hear from someone who isn’t a creeper. And no, and I didn’t accept offer.

On the last day I got to work in the general medicine clinic and that was SOOOO awesome. There were so many babies and kids! I got to hold an eight-day-old baby for like an hour. It was amazing.

A father came in with his 5-year-old daughter who had some sort of form of mental retardation. I am talking to the father and he tells me that she doesn’t hear or speak. It turns out that right around the little girl’s first birthday she was brought into the hospital with an extremely high fever and the doctors didn’t get the fever under control…

There was also another woman who was 5 months pregnant and couldn’t afford an ultrasound. She was spotting and having really bad cramps…

It was the most emotionally exhausting, challenging, yet remarkably rewarding days of my life.

Well I was only going to be out of site for three days but there was an issue going on in the Panamanian government. Without saying my own personal opinion let me give some background: For years the government has been wanting to mine and build hydroelectric power plants in one of the Indian reservations. Well these Indians, or Ngäbes, don’t want this on there land. The president signed an agreement with some businesses that they could mine and build the power plant. Well, during the mission the Ngäbes began protesting and shut down the highway. Now in New York this isn’t too much of a problem, take another road. Well, there isn’t another road in Panama. So I was stuck out in a “city” for a week.

The government sent an official in to meet with the Ngäbes seven days later and as soon as the meetings began the protests ended and I was able to go back to site.

Now I was out of site for 10 days. Well my dog went missing. It turns out that my neighbor gave my dog to a man who lives on one of the (many) surrounding islands. Well my neighbor wouldn’t fess up to it and no one would tell me anything. I hung up signs, went to almost a dozen different islands/places looking and no success.

We will get back to Megalodon soon but in the meanwhile I had other work to do. As some of you may remember that I had a TON of work to do from the Panamanian agency that need to get done by the 10^th, well I didn’t get back to site until the 7^th. So I was incredibly busy looking for my dog and didn’t really put my best effort forward doing the work I was asked to do. So the day before my agency meeting I was in crunch time. Remember how you felt that time in college when you left all the studying for the last minute, well that is exactly how I felt.

Needless to say, the meeting didn’t go so hot. Luckily I applied for the grant when I was stuck in the city while the protests were going on. But I still didn’t know anything about recycling programs nor have a complete list of people who were interested in eco-stoves.

Well I was also really busy because on the 18^th my parents and sister came to visit! It was so nice to see them. We spent a day in Panama City and saw the Canal and Casco Viejo, which is a cool artsy-fartsy place. Then we came to the lovely Boca Chica. My mother walked in to my house and started crying and then proceeded to tell me that if I didn’t wan to finish my service I didn’t have to. WOW. But it was so nice to have them here. My sister was possibly the funniest person ever.

While in the BC we went on a boat trip and hung out by the hotel pool. It was nice.

We also spent a few days in my closest city, David. David is a cool city because it has a lot of thing and has a city-like feel to it but is pretty tranquil. Or at least I think so. My dad didn’t. 

ANYWAY they left Saturday. Well Sunday I got a phone call from my host dad who was up in the mountains on the farm. He told me that they were leaving early and that he would meet me the next morning because he knew where MY DOG WAS!!!

Monday my host dad took me 27 miles to a backside of an island (that I didn’t even knew existed) and tells me to wait by the boat. About 10 minutes later he calls me over and we walk over to where this man is. He has a horse and a dog tied up to a fence. Both animals are PAINFULLY skinny. I am about 40 feet away when I realize that the dog sort of looks like Dony. Then 20 when I realize it was Dony! I start sprinting toward my dog and Megalodon is trying to get to me but he’s got this rope around his neck and ends up cutting himself and we are both lying on the ground crying kissing one another. Covered in Dony’s blood. Now that I look back at it, the guy who had my dog must have thought I was crazy. But I don’t care. I have my dog back and that’s all that matters. I asked the man where he found my dog and he said that “he was wandering around the island” which means the man won’t tell me. But like I said, I don’t care. I have Dony back.

And today is Thursday and not much else to tell.

OHH! I ate iguana eggs. GROSS. REALLY GROSS. It seriously makes me consider being a vegetarian.

Love and Hugs,

Madye and Dony