Cultural Collision

A Campo Christmas parade.  And the best parade I’ve seen in Panamá.  In a little community called Odobate, rising out of the wetlands in the middle of the wet and steamy jungle of the Bocas side of the Comarca (reservation for the Ngöbe people).

The band was small, with only half a dozen drums (which was pleasant on the ears compared to other parades this year), a handful of baton twirlers and dancers, and a single girl with a one-handed bell kit (lira).  They left the school in their little line at dusk, walking around the field in front.  Each had a light-up Santa hat that twinkled in the dim light.  A fully-costumed Ngöbe Santa Claus (about 5 feet tall) led the way.

We visitors walked alongside the parade, jumping in and out to take pictures with the performers and, of course, with Santa.  And at the end, as the procession wound its way through the dark back to the school, the drums stopped.  To our surprise, the one lone little bell kit started playing “Jingle Bells,” one note at a time, out into the night.

The single notes of Jingle Bells were the only sound we could hear.  All we could see were the Santa hats lighting up in a little line curving through the dark.  Out in the middle of nowhere.  It was magical.

The first week of December, Ángel, Katy (a fellow Volunteer), and I made the voyage to the community of Odobate, the site of Mary Catherine, another Volunteer.  And it was indeed a voyage – a sea journey across the Chiriquí Lagoon, followed by Amazonian-style boat ride upriver through the jungle, followed by a nearly two-hour hike through wetlands and enchanted forest over hundreds of logs laid end-to-end like an endless balance beam.  Nothing could be more different than the voyage to Quebrada Pastor – stepping off a giant coach bus (sometimes) right into my front yard.

Ángel joined us at both the expressed wish of the Water Committee president of Odobate (they met each other during the Project Management and Leadership Conference in May) and his own expressed desire to visit.  His role was to help motivate the Water Committee to renew their work with their Volunteer in making improvements to their aqueduct and provide mentorship to a community that is having its very first experience with Peace Corps – a role that he relished and performed masterfully.

But his role was also what Volunteers have taken to calling Peace Corps’ “4^th goal.”  (1^st goal – provide technical assistance in specified field, 2^nd goal – teach host country about the US, 3^rd goal – teach Americans about host country.)  4^th goal – teach Panamanians about other Panamanians.

Ángel has always lived in Quebrada Pastor.  He has traveled some to other communities, some of which are pretty distant and isolated.  But never to a place like Odobate.  When he learned that over the last year, 8 babies have died there (some of water-borne illness), he was shocked and disturbed (as was I).  And he wanted to do what he could to help – which in this case, was encourage the community leaders to make use of their Peace Corps Volunteer, a valuable resource in improving environmental health.

Actually, Ángel would make a great Peace Corps Volunteer himself.

And really, that’s kind of the point.  As I think about my time here coming to a close, the best thing I can do to ensure the sustainability to my work, to continue moving Quebrada Pastor forward in terms of improving its environmental health, is to train its leaders to do my work.  Give them all the tools they need to continue training other people.

I just hope that all of the work that I do – teaching people to build tanks and latrines, holding 50-hours-worth of Water Committee Seminars to train old and new Water Committees everything there is to know about running an aqueduct, asking community leaders to help me with training activities, community organization tasks, and all the studies and surveys and investigations – is training the next set of teachers, the people who will take over this work when I leave.

Like Jingle Bells in the night, if I actually get to see that happen, it will feel a little bit like magic.

Pictures:

Taking advantage of a pretty day to refresh my perspective of Quebrada Pastor.  Still a pretty place, no matter how you look at it.

Another day of Water Committee Seminar – teaching how to thermoform pipe, solve technical problems, and resolve conflicts.  I managed to break the ice pretty effectively by completely failing at my first attempt at thermoforming – producing a work of art instead.

Our dedicated cooks take a little break across the street prior to coffee time.

Hanukah with Hobbes!