Cows and Cacao

Hey, right now I'm in Panama City. I just finished a week long in service training outside the city. Volunteers with experience, PC trainers, and Panamanians all helped train people from my group in the specific sections that they needed help in. I went to sessions on aqueducts, latrine maintenance, grant proposals. I found it very interesting and it was also good to just see the other people from our group. Panama City is really hoppin and reminds me of Miami. It is definitely strange seeing very hip people, posh stores and restaurants like the Hard Rock Cafe, and knowing they are in the same country that we serve.

This guy actually is currently representing my district in Panama City. How can you trust a politician that you can't see his eyes. I think they are using his campaign banner as a shower curtain.

Chanda, one of the many dogs that belongs to my host family had 4 puppies under my house.

My host sister Juanita preparing 'pita'. This is the plant that the fibers for the traditional purses come from. First you scrape the leaves so it is just the strands then you wash it, dry it and roll it into thread.

My host brother Justin and friend Gerardo went up to some cow pastures. Justin is a cow tecnico and used to work with milk cows. He is certified in all sorts of things about cows and tells great stories about charging bulls, horse back riding and milk. We went up to this pasture to 3 cows that our family owns. In this photo we were putting salt on our hands for the cows to lick. They love that stuff!
The baby calf, maybe 1 month old.

Justin, is probably my best friend in town. He has some knowledge of the outside world because he went to high school, and technical school, and has traveled around Panama. He is a huge WWF fan.

My host family purchased 50 pollitos from the Ministry of Agriculture. It is like an investment, all you have to do is feed them, and they grow fat. You buy them for about 50 cents a bird and can sell them for about $5. They lantern is there so they eat at night as well as day and it provides them with a little warmth is the cool nights here.
I ran into these guys on the way to working on the aqueduct. This baby looked so cute and so tough at the same time. You can't see but they were actually on their way to the health center because the baby has leshminieasis on its face. Lesh, as its more commonly known is a flesh eating virus that basically causes an un healing scab. It comes from sand flies that have been snacking on sloths. The treatment is very harsh shots. 3 times a day for 3 weeks straight. Basically its no fun to get.

My neighboring volunteer Sara is an agricultural volunteer and put together this cacao workshop. She organized for 2 tecnicos (experts or anyone with training) on cacao to come visit and explain how to properly prune a tree and keep it disease free. The tecnicos were trained in an early program by PC. So this class was a practice for them too. To me it sounded like they really knew what they were talking about.

Here he is up in the tree pruning cacao. You want to cut some of the leaves down to let more light through, as well as giving more energy to the blooming cacao mallorcas.


This is a view of the river nearby. I have yet to go swimming in it. It looks deep but not all that clean.

The man standing is the head of ANAM which is like the forest service or EPA. Because my town is the largest in Palo Seco national forest reserve ANAM visits quite frequently. This guy was born in my site and has much family here. It is interesting that he has so much power coming from such a humble backround. He is a great example and roll model for people that want to succeed in Valle.

This meeting was held by the NGO that is in my site called ASAFRI that works with reforestation, cacao, and protecting Palo Seco. Currently there is much heated discussion because a major hydroelectric dam is going to be constructed. It will not directly affect any one in my town but some people have farms of family in the affected area. The people of my town feel as if they are being left out of the loop in discussions with the national government, ANAM and the dam company AES.

This ladies and another guy Lorenzo are trying to start a bread making company in town. Currently all the bread at the stores is brought in every few days from a bakery afuera. Their bread was good and they are also planning on making sweets but it definitely has a long way to go before they can beat out the real bakery. They also sell it out of their house and lack a real schedule. I try to buy it as frequently as I can to support the local economy.

When I was talking to them they invited a community member named Ortencio, that is one of the few to actually leave the town and go to college. He is living in Panama City now working with a large cement company. When he came they people in town new he had money, and was part of a 'development' organization. These bread bakers solicited his help. They are very good at appearing organized and professional, even though I am almost positive they had no future business plan or anything. They reminded Ortencio that they are family and explained how they just needed a little money to get their business off the ground. They even presented a letter that was formally asking for money. This appeared to be very organized, whoever I knew that they had just jotted the letter down moments before his arrival and had hurried to put their aprons on and look busy before he showed up.

I assumed that the money they needed was to purchase flour and other ingredients and tools in bulk. Instead they asked for a new oven. They already have a regular cooking oven (kinda of extravagant for my town where most people cook with fire) but said they needed a new one exclusively for the business. Sure enough Ortencio reached in his pocked and gave this guy Lorenzo $200 for a new oven, explaining that it was a from his organization and they need to pay him back. I am very interested to see if they will pay any of it back, but I suppose it is possible if their panaderia takes off. This is a great example of the type of development that has existed in my site, and many others. When people just give things away it makes the people believe that they don't need to work to get things just beg. It also causes them to expect gifts from development workers. 'Joe what are you going to build for us? What are you going to bring us?'

This is the so called 'inter-americana' highway connecting my house and my host families house. For almost the whole month of January it was raining almost every other day, so it was constantly muddy. I had a miniature 'junta' where I bought pig (freshly slaughtered in town for 70 cents a pound) for my host family and all the kids helped me cut down the trees and haul gravel and sand from the river. This has been great as i no longer need to where rubber boots to go to the bathroom. It is still missing a little more gravel though.