Matrimonio Santo... o algo asi

Well, I talked to my sister Laura for the first time in awhile, and had the privelidge of being the last person to congratulate her on her engagement. Though I´m happily moved into my house, I still have yet to put the finishing touches on my Coconut telephone. But I´m in the city for a couple days running errands, and had a chance to call and talk to her and she let me in on the big news. I´m extraodinarily happy for her and Cody, especially in the context of the culture I´ve been living in.

Upon hearing the news of my sister´s engagement, I thought about how I can now point out all the photos I have of Laura and Cody, and tell my friends hear about how their engaged now, but after thinking about it, ít´s going to be a little difficult to explain.

Traditionaly, marraige doesn´t exist in Emberá culture. It´s a concept introduced by the evangelical missionaries, and it still isn´t very popular. The pastors and a few other families that are involved in the church tell me they´re offically married in the church, but the majority of men show little interest in getting married to their partner any time soon
(Maybe because the spanish word for wife [esposa] is the same word for handcuffs).

As was described to me, the they unite, or move in together. From my own observation, this is how this works. When a woman is between 13-15 years old she moves out of her parents house into another man´s house. They have a couple kids, and the man gets bored and finds another woman and repeats the process, until he´s to old to find another girl to live with. The woman moves back in with her parents, who´s job it is now to take care of their daughter and grandchildren. The woman waits for another chance to move in with another man, usually the children stay with the grandparents. I´m generalizing a bit. Some girls leave to go study and in doing so, put off having children for a few years, and sometimes it´s the woman that leaves the man. But Í´m hard pressed to think of anyone in my community who has been completely monogomous their entire lives, even among church leaders.

It´s easy to do I´m told. A lot less complicated than how I was taught to do things. My host brother Carlos (the one that hunts monkeys) is probably going to be united with a girl pretty soon. They were introduced over the phone, and have apparently had some serious conversations. Her father says he wants Carlos to be her man because he´s a good Christian man. Carlos´s parents who are leaders in the church are very happy for him.

They tell me I could do the same. I tell them I have to leave in two years, and they don´t really see any problems with that. All I have to do is find a girl I think is cute. Tell her dad I think she´s pretty and she´s mine. I´d have my own cook, dishwasher, and laundry maid. Though the idea is enticing in some respects, I can´t help but think of my friend Magnolia. Magnolia has a 6 year old daughter named Estephanie, who´s the daughter of an American who refuses to recognise that she´s his daughter. Occasionally, she tells me about how she almost moved to the United States to be with the father of her daughter, but she decided not to go because in the United States, we don´t have tilapia (the freshwater fish that makes up half their diet), as she laughs to hold back the tears. In short, every conversation about me moving in with a girl ends with me saying. The girls are pretty here, but it´s better if I sleep alone a little bit cold for a couple years.

When I decided to joined the Peace Corps, everyone told me about much more appreciation I´d have for American things, like air conditioning, hot water, chocolate bars, and pizza. It´s true I do appreciate all those things a lot more, and dream of the day I can eat pizza in a hot shower. However this pales in comparison to the appreciation I now have for marriage, and the stability it gives to our families, our culture, and our lives. With this I wish to congratulate Laura and Cody for their decision to enter the covenent of marriage.

The Long awaited "Tree Fort"

So I've officially been a Peace Corps Volunteer for 3 months now and the question on a lot of people's minds is "What's Alan been doing?" Obviously keeping up with the blog is not the answer to this question. The actual answer, is working on my house. I wanted to wait til I was "done" with my house, but I am now convinced I will never be done, it's a work in progress...

So I know the burning question in a lot of people's minds is;
How do you build a sweet house in the jungle?
For this I've made a simple easy to use guide for everyone who would like to build their own.

Step 1) Find a community of highly skilled indigenous people, and tell them you'll take pictures of them building a sweet house.

Step 2) Sit back and watch

From Mi Casa es Su casa

What's for Dinner?

Whenever you emerse yourself in a foreign culture, the common question arises... how's the food.

In general I'm very lucky. I have both carbohydrates and proteins represented in every meal in my community. While for many americans, 2 for 6 on the food pyramid doesn't sound all that balanced, but the majority of volunteers here have the options of boiled plantanes or rice. I am very lucky that I get meat or eggs for every meal. Though the meat I get isn't the high quality beef I'm used to. Generally it's fish, which I thought I'd have trouble with. I've never been a fish eater, and now I'm living in a community where the main source of income is fishing, so I've gotten used to it... three times a day... for a week in a row. I was happy when my host mother said that she brought home some beef. My enthusiasm wained however, when she pulled a hoof out of a plastic bag and began to hack at it with a cleaver. I had no idea how to find meat on cow hoof, so I watched my host father. You apparently don't find meat, you just pick it up and gnaw on the ankle fat. After I gave it my best shot, he asked me if I was done, as he picked up my piece and cleaned up all the good bits I had missed.

Occasionally someone will go hunting in the jungle and bring in some wierd animal from the jungle. I've had saino, which is kind of like a wild pig, and tastes like one too. However, everyone tells me when I get the chance I have to try conejo pintado which is apparently a protected species. They tell me though there's a reason it's not that abundant, because it's delicious.

I arrived home one afternoon, and my host brother greeted me with an awkward smile. He'd gone hunting that day, and got something, it's in the sink. I looked and saw an unrecognizeable body, i examined it a bit more and... is that a human hand, and arm, it looked like a small child was chopped up and in our sink... monkey.

They warned us in training that we were going to have to make boundaries for ourselves, how far would we be willing to go to be part of the community. I hadn't had to think a lot about those boundaries until this moment. I might be eating monkey for supper. On one hand, it's just an protein from another animal. It's not any of the gross parts (I hope). On the other hand, it's a monkey, looks a lot like a person, I remember the fun I'd had playing with a monkey, and how much person-ality it had. Could I eat my friend... now might be a good time to scroll down and play the monkey video for giggles and grins.

I went to my room, IF I was going to do this, I had to know as little information as possible, I already knew too much. I read a lot, and sketched, and wrote. I cracked open the Bible; strangely enough it was the passage were Jesus is lecturing the pharisees that it's not what you put in your mouth that's good or bad, but what comes out of your mouth. So I guess I have God's permission, but I still don't know if it's something I can do. My host mother tells me my foods ready, I go outside to wash my hands, and go back inside. I'm going to do it, I'm going to find out what monkey tastes like. I sit down at the table, and for the first time look at my plate... of chicken. wheeww that was close. It was the most delicious chicken I'd had, during the meal, my host mother asked me If I eat monkey, I said no. She replied "I didn't think so." My host brother had gone of to sell the meat in the community, I was saved, for that day.

Majé

So the other day, I was hiking through a jungle stream after a long morning of harvesting rice with my friends Pedro and Yuni, (Indigenous fishermen who rent a small farm to subsidize their income). Rain was pouring down through the rainforest canopy, as they pointed out a neon green and black frog that their ancestors had used for poison darts. This led into a conversation about the many natural remedies available in the rainforest. It was at this moment, that I realized I wasn´t in Iowa anymore. I am a Peace Corps volunteer in rural panama

This feeling snuck up on me... After all the preparation that went into the application process. The doctor´s visits, the signitures, and proof of signitures, the goodbyes, the hellos, and nice to meet you´s in staging, he apprehention of whether I could learn a new language, meeting host families, and sitting through lectures, and not to mention all the run on sentences.

Everything leading up to this has happened in a way that made it feel as if being a Volunteer was still some lofty idea that I was considering, and didn´t seem real until this hike through the jungle. I still have just a week left of training, before I head back to my jungle hideaway to build treeforts, eat fish from the river, and learn dirty words in a language that less than 30,000 people in the world speak.

Mushy sentiments aside, Majé, the community I´ll be living in, is a beautiful place to live (or visit if you get the chance). As mentioned before, it´s the best primary rainforest I´ve been able to see in panama. There´s mountains, rivers, jungle, and caves all close enough to keep any outdoorsperson busy. The people are very hardworking, friendly, and motivated.

If you´ve been keeping up with my blog you´re probably wondering when I´ll have a chance to do work. Well soon, very soon, as there is a lot of work to do in the community. The aqueduct is new (1-2 months old), andlooks very well built, but the real test will come in march during thedry season. Trash is a huge problem for a community an hours boat ridefrom the nearest garbage can. Many people burn their trash, and the rest throw it in a creek. Neither option is ideal, but if nothing else I will become very aware of everything I consume as a person living here.

Also, few in the community have access to latrines. The watertable is very high, and a traditional pit latrine would be floodedright now. This sounds like the perfect opportunity for a composting latrine that Peace Corps has been endorsing in Panama. The onlyproblem is the composting latrines Peace Corps has been buildinrequire cement blocks, rebar, and concrete, not exactly materials thatare cheap or easy to get to the community that is on the opposite side of the world`s largest man made lake. This provides a great opportunity to redesign composting latrines in a manner that uses locally available resources.

The other work that I am really excited about, but a little overwelmed by is working with the local women`s artisan group to find a market to sell their work. I was really impressed by the baskets thewomen made, I may just be bragging, but I thought they were the bestbaskets I`ve seen in panama. Also, I was shown a large marlin and dolphin jumping from the water carved out of cocobolo, one of theworld`s most exotic woods, (which I`m told my house will be built outof). It`s gorgeus, and I can picture some sports bar paying well over 1000 dollars for it, but here it sits in the middle of the jungle. I brought up the possiblity of selling artisan work on the internet,which was hard, because my Embera dictionary didn`t have a word for upload, and the man interpreting the meeting didn`t seem to know either. But after explaining that it`s potentially a way to sell their work directly to people around the world for top dollar, they seemed pretty excited.

All these possibilities, I´m very excited about, and can´t wait to get started. I appreciate you staying with this post for long enough to get to this point, I know it´s been a little long, but I´m not sure when the next chance I´ll get to update will be. So hope it keeps you going for awhile, and if not, I have a monkey video to watch...

Site Announcement

Today was a big day, we finally found out where we´d be spending the next 2 years of our lives. All and all I haven´t talked to anyone who´s disappointed with where they ended up. Here´s an excerpt from my site description.

Maje Cordilla is a remote Emberá community located in the Panama Este province of central panama. The community relies principally on cultivation of corn, platano, rice, and fish from the river and Lake Bayano for household consumption. Maje cordillera is reached by boat from the main bridge over Lago Bayano. The boat speeds along the open water of Lake Bayano towards the protected Serrania Maje until reaching the river where you will pass into the river canyon upstream to Maje. Traveling up river you are transported back to a simpler time. People along the shore of the river wave as you moor upstream to the small Emberá village.

When I recieved my site information, all the staff told me about what a beautiful site it is, and how ready the community is for a volunteer. I can´t wait either. In a number of ways, this sounds like the perfect opportunity for me. On a superficial level, I will be living along a gorgeous river, and I will be building my very own tree fort, like the one´s in Jake´s site. As far as work goes, the primary project I´m there for is to help finish and teach about the new aqueduct system they have. However, there are numerous other opportunities for secondary projects within the community for me to use my design background, but I won´t know for sure what the possibilities are until I arrive there and start talking with the community.

Speaking of talking with the community, I had a spanish test yesterday afternoon, which basically consisted of me going and chatting it up with a cute spanish tutor. I felt much more comfortable than I did when I first got here, like I can actually have a conversation now and even from time to time make a couple of jokes in Spanish. It´s amazing how much my language has progressed in the last month, but it´s about to get a bit more complicated. Next week I´ll be visiting Jake again as a part of culture week, a week to be educated in the Emberá culture that I´ll be immersed in for the next 2 years, and as a part of that I will start learning the Emberá language as well as continuing developing my spanish. Ay chuleta.

I´ll continue to update as my journey continues.

Getting lost in Panamania

It´s not even been 2 weeks since I left Iowa, and so much is happened. I´ve now moved in with a wonderful family, who I understand %30 of the time. I´ve visited a peace corps volunteer in the Darien province, and I don´t detest coffee. Oh yeah and I´ve had officials in 5 panamanian cities looking for me.

This probably will take some explaining, and I may leave out some details in interest of time, but you can probably fill in the blanks and make a more interesting story. For my spanish class yesterday, we went to a nearby city to buy some supplies, and run some errands. A big group went on buses using the diablos rojos, the Panamanian super cheap way to travel. No one paid attention to how we got there, and when we all got off the bus we broke into smaller groups to see the city. I stopped to buy my machete, my do-all weapon of choice for the next 2 years, and when I turned around all my gringo friends were gone. I went outside and I saw a busy panamanian street but no Otro gringos. I waited for a while, before deciding that if I didn´t do something, I was going to miss the afternoon session, and set off a read alert that Peace Corps had lost a trainee. We hadn´t discussed leaving the city at all, only how to get there, and a basic outline of what we were going to do there. Maybe this was our first Spanish test, drop us off in a city, and if we get back to training, we pass. I felt safe the whole time because I was, in comparison a giant person walking around with a giant machete. I asked a man what bus i needed to get on to get back to Sta. Clara, my training comunity. Conveniently, it was the bus he was in front of taking money for. I was apprehensive and confirmed that the bus was going to Sta. Clara, and I´d get there just in time for class. Well apparently there are at least 5 Sta. Clara´s in Panama, and I ended up 1.5 hours away from where I needed to be. I´d faild my first spanish class. I took a bus back and was able to call my superior, but I´d already set off the alarm that a trainee was missing. I arrived in a nearby city and was running to another bus-stop ... in the rain... with my machete in hand. Somehow I attracted the attention of a police officer who stopped me by yelling my name. He told me my coordinator was looking for me, in spanish, so it took him a couple of times for it to sink in. I waited at the police station for my training coordinator to find me.

This is an isolated incident, and I am very safe and have been the whole time, but this was the climax of a very eventful week.

more to come

Aspiration Statement

After being invited to serve in Panama, I was asked to write an "Aspiration Statement" to let my host country get to know a little about me and my expectations for the next 2 years. I thought that'd be a fitting first post on this blog.

Hello, my name is Alan McDonald, I a recent college graduate with a degree in Product Design. Through this education, I’ve learned a method to do what I’ve always loved; which is making stuff that solves problems. In my formal education, I’ve had experience designing luxury yachts, high end furniture, and various other gadgets that will never see production, because they are based in a fantasy world of “User Profiles” and made up “Scenarios”. I joined the Peace Corps to challenge myself to use my creative abilities to design something that capitalizes on local resources, is sustainable in every definition of the word, and most importantly solve a serious problem.

I’ve been assigned to the Environmental Health program in Panama, which I think is a very good fit to accomplish the goals listed above. It’s also a good fit in regards to my previous experience I have. My father is a plumber and electrician, and I spent many summers with him gaining familiarity with modern plumbing. He used to tell me, “Plumbers protect America’s health” citing a number of diseases and conditions that are virtually nonexistent in a country with adequate plumbing. In this way I look forward to the work I will be doing as an environmental health specialist. The area of sanitation in these communities is not only an area of great need, but also of great potential. As a part of my program, I’d like to experiment with using human waste to create compost, and potentially methane gas for fuel. In this way a biological hazard is turned into a locally produced resource. As a secondary program, I was hoping to be able to use my design background in another way. If assigned to a community where artisans create beautiful traditional carvings, or textiles, I’d like to organize a cottage industry by using local talents and traditions to provide economic opportunities for community members. Depending on resources available, goods produced in the community could be sold on the internet for exponentially more than they would sell at local markets. (Examples can be found at www.aidtoartisans.org )


I realize however that I need to be prepared to abandon any of these plans if they don’t match up with the needs of the community I’m placed in, or don’t have the support of the host community. My strategy to work with host country partners is to first of all identify the needs of the community, and then find partners that have similar goals and resources to meet these goals.


Vital to getting cooperation is adapting to the Panamanian culture. I realize that I will never fit in completely with my host community. But I do look forward to living in a different culture. I have a laid back personality and the ability to laugh at myself, which I think are important traits to have when adapting to a new environment. From the information I’ve received, I also have a great amount of respect for the Panamanian culture. I admire their strong family values and look forward to learning from them.


I also look forward to learning the necessary skills during pre-service training. As of now I have a strong background in reading and writing in the Spanish language, but through training I hope to become fluent at speaking the language, and having conversations. In addition to language skills I would like to learn about Panama, the different indigenous groups that inhabit the country, and cultural traditions to be aware of. I also hope to learn the technical skills to be useful to my community, by learning what other environmental health volunteers have tried and what worked, and what didn’t work. 


I am looking forward to my Peace Corps experience. My primary goal in making this commitment is to have an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life; an experience that will make me a more creative, resourceful, and all around better person and designer. I’m certain the time I serve will make me more competitive in my future professional life. In a competitive industry, international experience with an organization like the Peace Corps will definitely set me apart from other job candidates. Everyone I’ve talked to who’s been in the Peace Corps has told me it’s a life changing experience. I can’t wait to find out what that means.