The former Water Committee president disappeared to the Darién (the exact opposite side of the country) until November, so a new Committee was elected, now with Willy, my “host dad” as president. This will have some advantages – he is not going to flee to the Darién, he is (usually) responsible and dependable, he has been president before, he is well-educated and knows how to pursue connections, he is motivated to work – and we still have a reasonable rapport, so there is more hope for working together on improving the aqueduct.
School starting also meant that in the afternoon, after primary school classes were over, the neighbor kids were looking for entertainment – so they came to hang out on my porch. The entertainment I provided was paper and colored pencils, and a Toy Story puzzle that my brother Josh sent me for Christmas! (We have a long sibling history with Toy Story – this was supposed to remind me of home. Turns out it was useful for many things!)
All the rain – and waiting for meetings – meant that I had some time to produce another “mochila!”
Calvin and Hobbes continue to be a source of entertainment.
The members of my Community Projects Committee and I gave our first talk to those interested in building a ferrocement rainwater catchment tank – seven people committed to participating in the project. We started our talk, which focused on safe water storage, with a game that Nayelis introduced to the group.
And last Friday, I went to a double birthday party in Changuinola (my provincial capital) for a couple Volunteers, and I have spent the last few days in Boquete (a touristy town in the Chiriqui mountains located next to Volcán Barú, the tallest peak in Panamá), at a workshop for revising the Water Committee Seminar Manual, which many Volunteers use to teach their Water Committees how to better take care of their aqueducts. It's been a great week – learned a lot, had a lot of fun with other Volunteers.
In preparation for all this fun, I decided to make “Ngöbe Cookies” – a favorite of mine, and my fellow volunteers – which are No-Bake cookies (oatmeal-and-peanut-butter-based chocolate cookies that can be made without an oven, perfect for here) made with Ngöbe chocolate (my host family's chocolate balls). (“Ngöbe” is more or less pronounced no-bay, so when you say “Ngöbe cookies” it sounds like “No-Bake Cookies” – it's a pun. Haha.) I was required to bring a dessert to the birthday party, and I wanted to offer some treats to my fellow workshop participants, so I planned to make these Friday night.
The following short story is illustrative, sometimes, of my efforts here in Panamá:
I committed to making these cookies – I bought all of the other ingredients. Then I asked Willy, my “host dad,” if he would be making any chocolate balls this week. He promised me two dozen chocolate balls Friday evening. Perfect. I planned to make the cookies, and bring some of the chocolates to sell to other Volunteers (everyone in the rest of the country craves Bocas chocolate), and I even wrote in a letter to a friend that I was sending her chocolate, which I planned to mail this week.
Basically, I counted all of my chickens before they hatched.
Friday evening, Willy came to my house to tell me that he was unable to procure enough cacao, so he couldn't make the chocolates. Should have figured. All of those plans that I had made for the chocolates instantly failed. But I still needed a dessert to bring to the party.
So I opened the jar of Nutella that Mom sent me for my birthday, and put in the equivalent quantity in the cookie recipe. When I introduced the cookies at the birthday party, they were a huge success. I called them “Panamá cookies” because “Panamá happened” to them. Instead of Ngöbe chocolate, they were flavored with a dash of failure and a sprinkle of innovation – which tastes remarkably like hazelnut. (Thanks, Mom, for saving my butt on that one.)
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