Inhale, Exhale, Repeat

Dear lovely folks back home (and around the world),

I apologize, as I often do when starting these emails, because it's been a while since I've written everyone. I have had trouble finding words lately, so i'll do this reporter style and stick to the facts--at least that way you know i'm alive down here.

The rainy season has begun in full force, which means transportation is harder and harder to come by. The trucks don't like to travel in the afternoon because they're afraid to cross the stream, of which there are 3 passes.  This week, no joke, the driver stopped the car in the middle of a stream and had the passangers (just the 3 of us) move rocks to make it easier for the car to pass.  He wouldn't take us home until the work was done, then complained the whole time about how it wasn't worth the money to take us home.  He's like that though, Maestro Him. He's my least favorite driver-  pisses me off most every day but i'll probably miss his incessant bitterness and negativity when I leave.  He'd be a great movie character, the sour old grump.  One good thing about the rain, however, is that I (generally) have water to bathe in and my garden is finally growing (thank you, seed donors!  i'm super excited!!!!) And I admit that it's lovely to spend an torrential downpour reading or doing yoga or exercising....or napping!! Oh man do I love rainstorm naps.  Tigre likes them too. We nap together sometimes--so much for keeping him off my bed.

As for work, things are moving along at lightning speed, which is really just too fast for the rainy season, but it's good for me.  The stoves committee I've been supporting with got funding to build fuel-efficient wood burning stoves over the next few months- I painstakingly dragged them through the grant writing and group organization process, and it actually paid off big- $1600 from the Energy and Climate Change Alliance of the Americas--Thanks, Obama!  We're ordering all the materials and starting the training sessions this week- Si Dios Quiere we will finish building all the stoves in the summer (December/January). 

More rewarding, however, is the progress with the bread shop.  I was pleasantly surprised to return from the united states and find out that the women, in my absence, have self-organized and sculpted the business into a much smooth(er) running machine.  They made a weekly work schedule that's posted up on the wall, they've upped the quantity of bread they make each saturday, and between the president, secretary and treasurer they are tracking all their ingoing and outgoing costs.  They've got their funds separated into "maintainance" and "savings," and they are buying new ingredients as necessary.  All of this without me looking over their shoulders for nearly 2 months, all of this when they told me not all that long ago that they were at the point of giving up entirely.  it's quite remarkable how much can be done when you pair 8 strong-willed women with a mud-oven, a $60 dollar investment, and a brief business management course..... and I've started to wonder if this will not be the most successful aspect of my service when all is said and done. After all, building stoves and planting trees and growing vegetables is important, but there is nothing quite like having an income.  And not just an income, an income for women who have never before had their own spending money.  I asked the women yesterday at what point they would like to divvy up some of their money (they have already saved over $100) and they said they want to keep building up the "seed", and then all take their share and go to the city and buy themselves something nice.  Here in the Panamanian campo women have to ask permission to access the family's money (if there is any), and they tell me that if they save money little by little in the house it's sure to disappear, which is why it's better to wait until they can take a good chunk at once and spend it quickly.  I'm so proud of them- and admittedly, proud of myself.  I hope to help solidify the business before I go, and to see that each woman has the pleasure of pocketing and spending her own money.

What else????  The organic gardens are still up and going, though the extended dry season was rather brutal for those of us without running water.  Most everyone has finished harvesting their first planting and are starting to turn the beds, or have already done so.  The rice harvest has delayed all other work quite a bit- it's hard work and long days for everyone right now, and many nights of drunken calls (salomas).  The drink of choice here is Chicha fuerte- it's basically fermented corn beer.  Rather than water, giant jugs of this juice are hauled to the fields and drinken throughout the day (and what is left over is quickly downed throughout the night).   Someday I will film the men salomaring for you and send a video-- it's quite a site to behold and words cannot do it justice, but you absolutely must see this drunken spectacle at least once (though it's not very fun to see every night...). Which leads me to the health stuff....

This week I will be giving the second health and cooking class with my friend Bianca- we're making collard greens (mustard leaves), habichuela and egg salad, and rice, and we're going to teach about diet-related diseases and how to prevent them (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol, and liver problems, to be specific--these are extremely common ailments here).    I was awarded a small grant from the peace corps to continue giving these classes and have been seriously considering developing them into a "traveling seminar" to give in sites around the country that are doing garden projects. Ideally I'd like to integrate other health topics too (like ALCOHOLISM among men, women/children's health, sexual health, etc), as well as permaculture and more "hands-off" methodologies for gardening.  The possibilities are endless really...we'll see how far I can get in these next 9 months..  Time is a lot like water.

Inhale....