The ask

Blog tres, "The Ask"

Randy Pausch in the last lecture says, "just ask" because we don't lose anything by asking. (***remember, "lives of service depend on lives of support")

A number of friends and family members have all been so generous with their small donations. I am not soliciting support from those who have already donated to my small fundraisers so far. You rock my socks. I am soliciting money from those who have been holding back, who have so obviously wanted to help me out, but have been waiting for the perfect opportunity. Here it is!

I am soliciting money for this great USB stick that would allow me to use the Internet in my home! It's surprisingly cheap, however my income does not allow me to pay for it all by myself. Here's what we should do, I will pay half (because let's face it, I am so looking forward to all the skyping opportunities I will now have) and you pay for the other half which I will use to teach basic Internet classes. It's win win.

Often the artisans in my community ask me to send emails on their behalf. I would love to teach them how to use a g mail account, email documents, and photos. I recently visited a friends site and his counterpart was so casually checking his email, it made me so jealous. It's very possible to teach basic Internet skills, and it would be incredible to bring the internet to the artisans in my community.

The actually cost of the USB is 37 dollars plus tax, the compatible phone is 20 dollars with the Claro chip, and 15 additional dollars for phone cards with data. The grand total comes to 72 dollars. Anyone that is willing to help, please email me at sesquib2@gmail.com

For the last couple weeks, I have been doing the run around in search of resources. I was soliciting funds today for a field trip in July to a recycling center and you should see the stack of paper work I have to fill out. Although panama has a number of agencies with money and resources, the amount of red tape is a little overwhelming. I can see why volunteers get frustrated with agencies. The money I will be soliciting requires 2 months in order to process. Concrete sacks that I solicited two weeks ago will take another two months to process.

I visited the recycling center today and hope to create an agreement with them about transport in the near future. I feel kind of like I am applying for jobs. Running around, dressing nice, and calling to make sure they still know I am interested and committed to this recycling project. I really hope everything works out.

This is the the job, creating relationships with agencies and getting resources to our sites, and navigating the red tape.

One victory that I had this week was meeting with a local NGO that is dedicated to environmental education and recycling. Unfortunately they too are short on funding. They work with American started organizations like amigos de las Americas and sustainable harvest international. They deserve funding and it's unfortunate that they have to fight for it in a country that really needs their help. If anyone is untreated in making a donation to Oruga, I can make sure they receive the donation. We are in the struggle for environmental education together.

If anyone can help with funding for recycling, Internet, or Oruga I look forward to hearing from you. I need help. Thanks in advance. I am so lucky to have such supportive friends and family. Who knows where i would be without you? Special thanks to those that have already donated. Especially you Dad.

Blog Dos

Peace Corps disclaimer: the contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the US government or the Peace Corps.

Blog Numero Dos,

I have two followers! Alright! Thanks to my cousins and sister! In Mountains beyond mountains by Tracy Kidder written about a humanitarian named Paul Farmer, Farmer expresses his opinion about International development work, that “lives of service depend on lives of support.” I couldn’t agree more with Paul Farmers opinion. A family friend who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador a couple years ago mentioned that during my two-year service I would learn a lot about friends and family. The amount of support that friends, family, and family friends have already demonstrated has been incredible. Within a week of mentioning to my dad how useful a projector would be in my site, the projector had already been funded by friends of the family. Movies have been sent and books have been donated. I am incredibly grateful for this support. Not only have I received support from home, I have also had four visitors within the last 9 months. Volunteers have complained that after nearly two years in Panama and they are still waiting for their families to visit. I did threaten my family that if they didn’t come I would never forgive them. The last visitor, Mama Esquibel, has plans to visit some time in May, June, or July and I cannot wait. One of the greatest things about Peace Corps Panama is traveling around Panama. One of the three Peace Corps goals is sharing Panama and Panamanian culture with other Americans. How best to accomplish this goal? By traveling around Panama! Aside from Costa Rica, Panama might be the second most affluent Peace Corps country. Elena visited early last month and we visited Panama City, my community, Boquete, and Bocas del Toro. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boquete, it is gorgeous community in the mountains of Chiriqui. While Elena and I were there the city was hosting their annual coffee and flower festival. Although there wasn’t any coffee, the flowers were beautiful. Elena and I stayed at a very nice hotel and we enjoyed sipping strawberry wine and hiking around Boquete. Bocas del Toro is a province of Panama that also is home to an archipelago of some two hundred + islands. Elena and I visited Isla Colon, which in my opinion could be re-named “Dirty Back-packers Paradise.” The island is full of very good looking (some-what dirty) 20-35 year olds from New Zealand, The UK, Argentina, Germany, China, The US, etc. Also the island is a boat ride away from a number of tours including zip-lining, snorkeling, diving, surfing, dolphin-watching, among a list of many other activities. Elena and I had a fantastic time while she was here. I hope she will return soon. Shortly after Elena left another good friend of mine, Alex Ireland stopped by Panama. Alex and I studied in Spain together over two and a half years ago and the girl visited me in Panama! I was am so happy that she managed to make her way down here. We had a great time bike riding, tanning, snorkeling, kissing sea cucumbers for seven years of good luck, dolphin watching, and going out. If anyone reading this blog has the slightest inclination to plan a trip to Panama to visit me, I would be absolutely thrilled. Panama is such a fun country to host visitors.

Cliff Notes for January:

Back to Panama

Beth’s Birthday celebration

Elena’s visit

Traveling to Boquete

Traveling to Bocas del Toro

Taco Tuesdays

Alex Ireland’s visit

Recycling Project

Orange Festival

Hiking to waterfalls

Visiting volunteers/having volunteers visit

(I wish I could comment about all of these events and maybe gradually I will get better at blogging as I go. For the time being though the cliff-notes version will have to do.)

A day in the life: (Sunday Febuary 5th) This morning I woke up and rushed to greet a group of students visiting Membrillo from a Panamanian University in Chitre. The students are all in their fourth year at the University and are currently working on what I believe is the equivalent to a teaching certificate for environmental science. The reforestation group that I work with in La Mina hosted all of the students today. The environmental agency in Panama, ANAM, provided this group of students with transportation. My group led the students on a tour of la Mina and even carved some soap stone figurines for the visitors. After the tour we listened to a presentation that the students had prepared for community members and elementary kids. The group left shortly after 1 pm. I was so impressed by my group today. The “convenio” was a success.

At 2 pm I had to visit Senor Candido who had promised he would teach me how to sew a flower made of a fiber plant. Senor Candido shared with me today that he has 45 grandchildren! How crazy is that? They took a number of pictures that I will upload for this blog. I really wanted to take Senor Candido up on his offer because everyone in my community is an artist. It would be nice to be one of them. He taught me a little today and he told me to go back next Sunday for another lesson. Eventually I will make a mobile, something that resembles chimes back home. Maybe I will send it home when I finish it to add to my Dad’s collection. haha.

Quotes from A Path with Heart that made me smile this week:

“I am a twin, and sometimes I think I got my brother to come along so I could have some company.”

“What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel or love, and an ocean of patience.”

“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

“This life is only a test--it is only a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.”

A very funny reality here: I remember when I was in junior high and some kids excuses about not doing their homework was that the "dog had eaten their homework." the other day I found my CEC binder completely destroyed by termites! If one of the kids uses that excuse next semester, I will probably believe them because it is totally possible!

(update for today) I just visited the ANAM regional office just to ask for a couple environmental guides for the new school year. The Director in charge of the environmental office was there and gave me so much stuff! I walked out of the office smiling and giggling. I now have environmental guides for grades k-6th graders, recycling guides, environmental posters, puzzles, and coloring books. I also asked about the new floor the recycling area could use and she told me just to send a letter and she would manage to get the 8 concrete sacks that we need. I love how by just asking I now get to tow all of these amazing educational resources back to Membrillo!!!! Wooh!!!!!!! I seriously can’t stop smiling. Best morning ever!

  To write well, you have to write what you know. This is what I know, I am 9 months into my Peace Corps service in Panama and I am loving it. I feel a little guilty about starting my blog now, but it's better late than never.  I am a CEC volunteer, community environmental conservation "extension worker." Which is a fancy way of saying that I teach environmental science to anyone who will listen to me. So far, I have taught kindergardeners, first graders, fourth graders, and fifth graders about photosynthesis, technology, endangered animals, recycling, reusing, the solar system( because of teacher requests), and more. We have also watched several planet earth episodes, apollo 13, and avatar (which the kids loved). After my first three months in site, I held a community meeting and based on my analysis and community members feedback my community members would like my help with home gardens and compost projects, a reforestation project, environmental education for adults, and a better way to deal with trash. My job over the next year and a half will include environmental education at the school and encouraging community based environmental projects.  Ohh, and whatever else is asked of me---which can be the most random things, I will provide more of an explanation about this in future blogs.

  A brief teaching story, I had received 50 scholastic Spanish books from the US embassy and I was reading to a class of kindergardeners about a baby polar bear at a zoo in Germany that a veterinarian had nursed through it's first year.  This one very funny kid, Gabriel, kept interrupting with his own story about some drunk that had passed out on his porch the night before. Suffice it to say after listening to Gabriel's  funny/gossip story, we finally got back to "Knuts", the baby polar bears story.  Last week, while I was visiting Bocas del Toro, my sister Elena and I went on a snorkeling trip with two Germans and I was telling them how I had used Knut's story with the kindergardeners and they loved to hear that a German zoo story had made it all the way to panama and was included  in my kindergardeners environmental science class.

  At the moment, panama's schools are on summer vacation. And my reforestation group is relaxing over the summer as well. Which means I have a lot of free time. I recently read a book called "Mighty be our Powers" written by Lehmah, a Liberian peacemaker who started a huge women's movement in Liberia. The book was published in 2011 and I highly recommend it.

  I am currently reading A Path with Heart by Jack Cornfield, a Buddhist monk that encourages meditation and finding your own spiritual path. here are some messages of his that I have highlighted so far,

One great teacher explained it this way, "the trouble with you is that you think you have time. We don't know how much time we have.  What would it be like to live with the knowledge that this may be our last year, last week, last day?In light of this question, we can choose a path with heart. " -Jack Cornfield.

"The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way.  Mother Teresa put it in this way, 'In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love'."  - Jack Cornfield.

My intent for this blog is to share my experience with family and friends back home. I hope to keep it light and funny. I must warn you all that I have developed a darker sense of humor so if I start to share too many dark stories or jokes, please call me out.  I also hope to write often enough that you all won't be begging for an update months from now.  This will hopefully become an artistic outlet for me, as improvisational performances used to be in college.   

I may get carried away with my concerns about development, such as positionality in the Peace Corps.  Feel free to share any comments.

Also I will probably write in Spanglish.

Bueno pues, hasta pronto,

Sonia