"It is not
the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to
the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat
and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again,
because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually
strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who
spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph
of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory
nor defeat.”
Living in the
campo has turned me into a podcasting queen. One of my favorites lately has
been “Presidential” from the Washington Post: an episode for each US President,
focused mostly on their personalities and leadership styles and not necessarily
what they accomplished in the White House. I recently finished the Teddy Roosevelt episode
and they included his “Man in the Arena” speech, and I thought YES! I need this
quote! Because surely I have been thrown into the arena of this aqueduct
project, ending the day covered in dust (because dry season), sweat (because,
Panama), and blood (because mosquitoes, ducking-through-barbed-wire-fence
cuts) and having failed many more times than expected just in the first
two weeks of a project that is going to take much longer than anticipated…
We began with materials delivery. The Ministry of Health (MINSA) provided us with three free trips from San Felix to Cerro Gallina in
their truck to carry sand, rebar, form boards, blocks, PVC connections, and
cement! It was my first success collaborating with a Panamanian government
agency, and I hope we keep it going. The hardware store in San Felix, run by a
powerhouse Chinese family, was also great at getting the materials ready and
loaded for us. Then we had three more days of prep before the volunteers
arrived: removing a giant fallen tree trunk from the toma area, placing and leveling
the tank gravel sub-base and wood form, hauling rocks to build the toma, and cutting, bending, and tying all of
the tank floor rebar.
On Monday, ten volunteers arrived in Cerro Gallina. Unfortunately, one of them fell on the hike in and twisted his ankle, and had to leave the next day and go to the hospital. The first morning we all poured the floor for the storage tank. Then in the afternoon and for the rest of the week the volunteers were split up into groups of three, and they divided and conquered. Along with the gente, we built concrete latrine floors for three families, a rainwater tank for a family that lives higher than all of the ojos de agua, began to build a new spring catchment and a 1,000 gallon storage tank for my host family's aqueduct. Each group also had a session with a youth and an adult counterpart to plan health-related behavior change plans and charlas. Dinora and Dionicio presented on water treatment, Victor chose to present on latrine use, Vidal and Victoria also on water treatment, and Marcelino on water conservation. These charlas were my favorite part of the week! After the conservation charla José told me how important it was and how he wants to teach all of the gente in Cerro Mesa. And it was sweet to watch passersby stop and gather around the galera to listen to Dinora's passionate presentation on keeping our streams clean! You go girl. I was at Benancio's house the other day hanging out and the whole family was going on and on about how much they loved their volunteer, Paige. I was proud of the host families for being so welcoming; I hope they will all remember fondly having volunteers stay with them for a week.
This week we are going to have a meeting with the aqueduct beneficiaries and create a work schedule for the rest of dry season so that we can get this project done. I'm also going to help them form an official water committee and write up a contract of use and water fees for their aqueduct in the coming months. Although with the help of the volunteers we got a lot done, we have a long way to go - the majority of the tank walls and roof, toma and rainwater tank roofs, latrine seats... Also, while working on the toma, we discovered some major issues in the transmission line like leaks and sediment blockage that I hadn't accounted for. Actually there have been a lot of unexpected issues that in keeping with the upbeat nature of this post I'm going to save those for a future post, haha.
I've also been busy harvesting and shelling beans and corn, continuing to teach English (including tutoring two students who are taking their entrance exams to study English at university!) and working with my "Youth Health Promotors" group. We have had two meetings to plan HIV and sexual health workshops. We are presenting two this week: one here in CG and one in Cerro Mesa. Dinora, Lucila, and Dionicio have really taken the lead in the planning and promotion of these events and I'm so proud of them.
My amigo Alexander was a participant in acting camp last year, and this year he brought a group of kids and was a facilitator. Then he organized an HIV and sports day at the high school near his community and invited us to help him facilitate! He's a rockstar. Here are some photos from that.
Games with the girls.
The crowd that turned out to listen to the presentations.
Alexander y yo.
Cons of summer: blazing hot sun, little water, ticks, dust, strong wind, vegetables go bad quickly because the metal roof turns my house into an oven during the day.
Pros: clothes dry fast, electronics charge fast, no worrying about events getting rained out, and my favorite: amazing sunsets nearly every evening.
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