So I'm back at Truman and back to the reality of class and extreme work ethics. I have really enjoyed this semester and I can refect and already tell that I have been the happiest I've been since starting Truman. I feel like I'm doing something productive and worth my time and that makes things a bit less stressful. Nevertheless, we still have a ton of work to do this next week! I'm starting to feel the pressure so lets see if a list helps:
Book Report
Wiki Final
JINS book project
Annotated Bibliography
Finish research
Finish research paper
Bio presentation
Writing Enhanced work
ENVS survey
ENVS paper
ENVS presentation
Yeah, no. That was dumb and I'm now really scared that I have a week to the day to finish...oh no.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Here Comes Goodbye
It’s the last week here and I feel as if I should reflect on the trip a bit. The weirdest thing was today when I packed my bags. I automatically pictured myself at the airport and going home with them and it’s exciting to be clean again but I feel like the trip shouldn’t be ending yet. At the beginning it felt like we had all been living with each other forever when it had only been a week. Now that we have been living together forever, I feel like it’s only been a week and everything is just starting. It’s really hard for me to picture a routine at Truman and back in the States but I guess I have to pretty quick. I’m ready for some time away and time to myself without 24 other people being around. I’m also ready to be able to go into a public place and speak English and have the workers understand me. I’m ready to not have to hike 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. I’m ready to drive my car with my music playing and the windows down. I’m not ready to leave the tropical weather or the sun. I’m not ready to give the experience of living at La MICA and with 24 other people. I’m not ready to go back to scheduled classes, tests and studying again. I’m not ready to leave Panama yet, but I am ready at the same time.
A Day in the Life
I’m going to take Courtney’s idea and also do a day in the life of. I’m not sure how this is going to go since every day here is different but I’ll try.
Wake up between 7:00 and 8:00
Eat breakfast
Play a card game or bananagrams
Depending on the day, leave for Cope\Julie’s house
After hiking out we either hike to Cope or catch the bus
We usually go to the Chino for drinks and snacks before we go to Juile’s
Do some work at Julie’s by organizing the presses, taking notes on the plants,taking pictures of the plants, matching the pictures with the notes, loading it into the computer and (before the plant expert’s input) we would try to key them
Depending on our attention span, we’re either back by lunch or dinner
Play another round or two of cards
Spend the rest of the night with my computer trying to write excursion reports and essays for history and JINS
In bed between 9:00 and 10:00
This has been what my days have been lately since we’ve been trying to get our work done before we leave. Sometimes my days include catching a bus to Penonome for some internet time or there may have been plant collecting involved. Luckily I get to work on our project and take shifts in helping to keep Chad entertained with card games and bananagrams :)
Wake up between 7:00 and 8:00
Eat breakfast
Play a card game or bananagrams
Depending on the day, leave for Cope\Julie’s house
After hiking out we either hike to Cope or catch the bus
We usually go to the Chino for drinks and snacks before we go to Juile’s
Do some work at Julie’s by organizing the presses, taking notes on the plants,taking pictures of the plants, matching the pictures with the notes, loading it into the computer and (before the plant expert’s input) we would try to key them
Depending on our attention span, we’re either back by lunch or dinner
Play another round or two of cards
Spend the rest of the night with my computer trying to write excursion reports and essays for history and JINS
In bed between 9:00 and 10:00
This has been what my days have been lately since we’ve been trying to get our work done before we leave. Sometimes my days include catching a bus to Penonome for some internet time or there may have been plant collecting involved. Luckily I get to work on our project and take shifts in helping to keep Chad entertained with card games and bananagrams :)
Monday, March 22, 2010
Back Again
This week involved going back to the Shaman again to do some plant collecting and to get to know the family better. The trip was so much better this time since we got lucky and it hadn’t rained in a couple of days so even the trip in the car was cut down by about an hour. Then the original 4 hour hike was only and two so it was a great way to start out. We stayed two nights this time and so it was nice to get settled a little. We arrived had lunch then dinner later and prepared to collect all day the next day. One of the wives took the group on a hike through the mountains and they were gone for most of the day. I stayed at the house to work on practicing keying and getting ready to organize the press when they got back. When they returned, we started keying and making good field notes so that made things go a lot better. We got on a roll and got a lot done so it was really encouraging that we could actually do it! We got some medicinal plants too so it was really cool to look at a plant and say that it was for snake bites or a stomach ache. I feel like we’ve been getting a lot done with our project this week and it makes me feel less stressed about how the project is going to work out when the keying is working at least half of the time.
I figured out today that we don’t have much time left here at all. Most of the days are planned and the end is getting so close. It’s weird to look at the experience so far because I’m not quite ready for it to be over yet. It’s hard to think about going back to the routine of classes and Truman when we just got into a routine here and I’m not quite ready to give up the dynamic here yet.
I figured out today that we don’t have much time left here at all. Most of the days are planned and the end is getting so close. It’s weird to look at the experience so far because I’m not quite ready for it to be over yet. It’s hard to think about going back to the routine of classes and Truman when we just got into a routine here and I’m not quite ready to give up the dynamic here yet.
Santa Marta
We went to Santa Marta this week (the 8th through the 12th) and it was another awesome experience. I feel that I already sort of had a home stay at the Shaman but this experience was so different since we were able to stay with different families for almost a week and create bonds with them. There were two to three people at each house and the family that I stayed with was really great and welcomed me and Andrea so warmly. My parents were Samuel and Marisol and they had four kids, Elvin, Anyda, Rosemary, and Samuelito (little Samuel). The house was two bedrooms with a kitchen and an open eating area that was covered but didn’t have walls. They had a bucket shower which was outside and bathroom was a latrine so it was outside too. Andrea and I talked about how we were surprised at how little water we used when we showered. There was a bucket of water and we had a bowl to use and we thought that there wasn’t going to be enough water but we realized that we didn’t need much water to get clean. It made me realize how much water we waste in the US since we just let the water run. The house is close to the center of town which was right next door at the Grandma’s house. I felt like they represented a power family in the community. Although the Dad identified himself as just a farmer, he was more important to the community than that. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to know the principal, Isla, and one of the teachers at the school, Medium. Medium told us that Samuel was like a “jefé” or leader of the town. He has the ability to talk to anyone about anything and she said that even people who don’t talk to anyone will go talk to him. Although Medium only spoke Spanish, I understood about 90% of what she said. I was able to talk to her about the Panama school system, the current president, and the country itself. I learned so much from her and she really got me thinking about the structural differences between Panama and the United States.
From getting to know Medium the first night, I was able to go into the school on the volunteer day and teach a class of freshmen English. It was really nerve racking since I didn’t have any lesson plan or book to go off of and since I’ve never taught English before, it was especially hard to do and also difficult because I’m not fluent in Spanish. I feel like I would be much more comfortable and I could actually do a much better job if I some time to prepare and talk to the education majors who are on this trip so I didn’t just go into the room and start counting in Spanish. My Spanish has improved with this Santa Marta trip since I was forced to use it every day with my family to communicate important things like food and when we had to leave to do things. While we were there the class hiked three hours up a mountain to where Panama’s former president Omar Torrejo’s plane crashed. Aside from meeting Medium, my favorite part was hiking to the waterfall. We hiked down there and had a nice day swimming in the waterfalls and I felt so accomplished that I could swim against the current to make it under the fall. It was so beautiful and one of those cliché tropical moments that I’m glad I got to experience.
The night after the waterfall the town put on a party\dance for us. They did traditional Panamanian music and they made a rule that I think was for their own entertainment because we weren’t allowed to dance with each other, it had to be one Panamanian and one Gringo. Joey got chosen to participate in their traditional dance and from me making friends with the two teachers, Chad and Marc got asked to dance too! The next day was another fun day. Our dad had been bringing dirt into the house which wasn’t that big of a deal since it was dirt floors anyway, but Andrea and I thought it was just for the floor or something. The actual purpose for it was for just to help build a mud wall. The whole group came over to our house and sifted through the dirt to take out all the rocks and then they took a hose and made mud. The only way to mix the mud properly was with our feet so we got to play in the mud for a few hours. Then they added straw to be mixed in to add to the structure of the bricks and after we mixed that in we had to start making bricks and putting the wall together. Although it was hard and messy work, I had a lot of fun and I think I should be able to put building a mud wall on my resume =)
From getting to know Medium the first night, I was able to go into the school on the volunteer day and teach a class of freshmen English. It was really nerve racking since I didn’t have any lesson plan or book to go off of and since I’ve never taught English before, it was especially hard to do and also difficult because I’m not fluent in Spanish. I feel like I would be much more comfortable and I could actually do a much better job if I some time to prepare and talk to the education majors who are on this trip so I didn’t just go into the room and start counting in Spanish. My Spanish has improved with this Santa Marta trip since I was forced to use it every day with my family to communicate important things like food and when we had to leave to do things. While we were there the class hiked three hours up a mountain to where Panama’s former president Omar Torrejo’s plane crashed. Aside from meeting Medium, my favorite part was hiking to the waterfall. We hiked down there and had a nice day swimming in the waterfalls and I felt so accomplished that I could swim against the current to make it under the fall. It was so beautiful and one of those cliché tropical moments that I’m glad I got to experience.
The night after the waterfall the town put on a party\dance for us. They did traditional Panamanian music and they made a rule that I think was for their own entertainment because we weren’t allowed to dance with each other, it had to be one Panamanian and one Gringo. Joey got chosen to participate in their traditional dance and from me making friends with the two teachers, Chad and Marc got asked to dance too! The next day was another fun day. Our dad had been bringing dirt into the house which wasn’t that big of a deal since it was dirt floors anyway, but Andrea and I thought it was just for the floor or something. The actual purpose for it was for just to help build a mud wall. The whole group came over to our house and sifted through the dirt to take out all the rocks and then they took a hose and made mud. The only way to mix the mud properly was with our feet so we got to play in the mud for a few hours. Then they added straw to be mixed in to add to the structure of the bricks and after we mixed that in we had to start making bricks and putting the wall together. Although it was hard and messy work, I had a lot of fun and I think I should be able to put building a mud wall on my resume =)
Monday, March 15, 2010
Sh-shhh-Shaman
My project while being down here is to collect plants in our area and also to go see the local shaman. The shaman is the father of a friend of ours who works for La MICA so they helped make our trip possible. The shaman lives in the neighboring town of Colicito which is about six or so hours away. This first trip to his house we had to take a trail that was a four hour hike in the mud with vertical hills and blistering sun. The mud was up to our knees and we walked through two streams that were up to our waist. This was my first experience riding a horse and I found out that I’m allergic to horses but I’ve gotten some what better at getting on them haha. They live in the middle of no where and live off the land for the most part. When his son Pablo and his fiancé Julie go visit they bring things like meat and rice but they mostly eat ucha which they harvest themselves. The shaman has two women who take care of him and the home and these women are amazing. They take care of all the children and because the shaman isn’t in the best health, they know about his medicinal practices and can go get any plant\plant part he needs. One of these women took us out on a hike into the property and showed us some plants they use. I was surprised at how willing she was to show us what she uses but very thankful that she did! At one point she told us to stay where we were and then she disappeared into tall vegetation and she was so short that we couldn’t see her anymore. The next thing we know she is taking her machete and hacking this huge plant and all we can see is the plant moving from side to side. Then she reemerges, handing us the huge plant with its bulb still attached at the end. The first day the other lady showed my group some plants and she carried a baby and had ucha on her back. One thing is for sure: Panama has some fierce women. They have fierce people in general, considering when we go on hikes they blow past us going twice our speed and carrying twice the weight we are. We weren’t really prepared to collect plants this time so when we go back we’ll bring our press and be ready to take notes! Hopefully we’ll actually get to talk to the Shaman next time. From the stories that Julie has been telling us; he’s the real deal.
Kuna Yala
So Kuna Yala. To start off we had a beautiful tropical island basically all to ourselves. We each had a tent sleep in and we could sleep anywhere on the island that we wanted. For the most part, we faced them toward the ocean so I was able to see the waves when I woke up. When we first got there we set up our tents and I spent my day reading Kuna Ways of Speaking, which was my book to present for our JINS class later that night. We had to go meet the town council to announce ourselves and that we were there to experience their culture. Kuna Yala is like a cluster of small islands within a bay so the main island is a different one than the one we were staying on. Every time we went to the other island we all pilled into a huge canoe and took a twenty to thirty minute boat ride. I also learned that there is a distinct difference between island time, Panama time and gringo time. If we are told that breakfast is served at 7:00 gringo\American time, it’s actually 7:30 or 7:45 Panama time and like 9:00 or 10:00 island time. When we got to the main island, met the council and spent the rest of the day in the town. The women make beautiful molas that have spiritual meaning and also represent the women’s beauty and artistic abilities. We had a really good discussion later that night about the culture as a whole and what part is more commercialized for tourists. Stacy and I had a conversation about how our books glorified the spiritual and cultural importance of the mola making and we were disappointed in how they were just displayed for purchase. The molas serve as good revenue for the island but I would rather them to be something that a tourist could look at and not buy just to put as a wall decoration. I actually really liked reading about the Kuna while I was actually visiting it. It helps me not only understand what I’m seeing but also remember what I’m learning.
We were embraced with a very warm reception from the people. Kuna Yala is not exactly the matriarchal society that I expected. The traditional gender roles remain the same as far as the women taking care of the home and the men bringing food home to be cooked. What they are is matrilocal which is represented in the case of a marriage, the groom moves into the bride’s home. One of our guides talked about how he has left his home to his sisters to bring their husbands into. I think this would be something that is more difficult for people in America, especially men. I think that I would be hard for American to give up their family home for another man to come into.
After we met the council, we went back to our island and got ready for the next day. We spent the next day on a boat tour of the bay. It was literally a 4 hour tour so we all came back with sunburns. I kind of have a fear of boats and docks, in general, so this trip was a good way to get over that quickly since we were on at least two boats a day. There were some people who went back to the main island later that night to experience the precursor to the celebration that was the next day but I stayed and got some work done and enjoyed the island. That night we had a speaker come talk to us about the Kuna revolution and what the recognition of separation from Panama means to them. This speaker later told me that he wanted to pretend to be Paul and marry so he could come to the United States and Paul could stay there and be a Kuna…Paul is still with us, don’t worry . The next day was the big Kuna celebration complete with dramatizations, music, and alcohol. The majority of the morning was watching the theatrical production that took place in the town square and the town council area. The main theme was how the Panamanians tortured the Kuna so three guys were representing that most of the day. After lunch, things picked up when we went into a hut where the celebration was capped with Chicha beer. It’s like a mix of alcohol into a beer-like form which included coffee grounds at the bottom. They would serve the drink in a wooden bowl that resembled a hollowed out coconut. It wasn’t exactly good, but it wasn’t that bad either. My last one though, was mostly coffee grounds and they got stuck in my throat so that was a bit unpleasant. Because there were so many of us, we felt like we were intruding on their ceremony but it was something that I’m so glad I got to experience. The men and women were separated on either side of the room. There were flutes, dancing, smoking, and chanting. The men would dance in a circle, chanting and singing while carrying bowls of Chicha beer. It was so amazing to be a part of this. They would take the bowls and serve the men first then the women. The women shocked me since the majority of them were older women and they were drinking it one after the other like it was no problem. The women passed out cigarettes and candy that were supposed to be for after drinking the Chicha beer. We all really enjoyed it. Jackie said that she would be an old lady still telling the story and I think that is true for me too. We had such a warm reception and while we got on the boat to leave they stood and waved us off. I feel like I’m a Kuna now!
This trip reaffirmed that I love the beach! There was good and some bad about it though. I had a hard time sleeping in general but on there was a terrible storm the last night there and I didn’t sleep at all because I was trying to keep my tent from flooding (I failed). The food made me sick and I got sunburned, but, oddly enough, this trip was definitely the highlight so far!
We were embraced with a very warm reception from the people. Kuna Yala is not exactly the matriarchal society that I expected. The traditional gender roles remain the same as far as the women taking care of the home and the men bringing food home to be cooked. What they are is matrilocal which is represented in the case of a marriage, the groom moves into the bride’s home. One of our guides talked about how he has left his home to his sisters to bring their husbands into. I think this would be something that is more difficult for people in America, especially men. I think that I would be hard for American to give up their family home for another man to come into.
After we met the council, we went back to our island and got ready for the next day. We spent the next day on a boat tour of the bay. It was literally a 4 hour tour so we all came back with sunburns. I kind of have a fear of boats and docks, in general, so this trip was a good way to get over that quickly since we were on at least two boats a day. There were some people who went back to the main island later that night to experience the precursor to the celebration that was the next day but I stayed and got some work done and enjoyed the island. That night we had a speaker come talk to us about the Kuna revolution and what the recognition of separation from Panama means to them. This speaker later told me that he wanted to pretend to be Paul and marry so he could come to the United States and Paul could stay there and be a Kuna…Paul is still with us, don’t worry . The next day was the big Kuna celebration complete with dramatizations, music, and alcohol. The majority of the morning was watching the theatrical production that took place in the town square and the town council area. The main theme was how the Panamanians tortured the Kuna so three guys were representing that most of the day. After lunch, things picked up when we went into a hut where the celebration was capped with Chicha beer. It’s like a mix of alcohol into a beer-like form which included coffee grounds at the bottom. They would serve the drink in a wooden bowl that resembled a hollowed out coconut. It wasn’t exactly good, but it wasn’t that bad either. My last one though, was mostly coffee grounds and they got stuck in my throat so that was a bit unpleasant. Because there were so many of us, we felt like we were intruding on their ceremony but it was something that I’m so glad I got to experience. The men and women were separated on either side of the room. There were flutes, dancing, smoking, and chanting. The men would dance in a circle, chanting and singing while carrying bowls of Chicha beer. It was so amazing to be a part of this. They would take the bowls and serve the men first then the women. The women shocked me since the majority of them were older women and they were drinking it one after the other like it was no problem. The women passed out cigarettes and candy that were supposed to be for after drinking the Chicha beer. We all really enjoyed it. Jackie said that she would be an old lady still telling the story and I think that is true for me too. We had such a warm reception and while we got on the boat to leave they stood and waved us off. I feel like I’m a Kuna now!
This trip reaffirmed that I love the beach! There was good and some bad about it though. I had a hard time sleeping in general but on there was a terrible storm the last night there and I didn’t sleep at all because I was trying to keep my tent from flooding (I failed). The food made me sick and I got sunburned, but, oddly enough, this trip was definitely the highlight so far!
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