Seventh Month on Site

Hello!

It has been over a month since I last updated, and much has happened. I'm thankful for all the comments and people staying in touch--thank you! As I write, I'm also a bit sad as I had to say goodbye to my fiancee Sarah yesterday. I can look forward to the fact that we'll be getting married in about 100 days!

I'll comment on a few different topics during this post:
1. Water Seminar, Part 2
2. Trip Back to the States
3. Back to Panama with Sarah!
4. A Look Ahead

1. Water Seminar, Part 2

After finishing up the first 3 day session, I traveled up to each community to complete a small analysis on their aqueduct and attend any meetings they had during the week. One community had organized a talk on household water disinfection and community water usage.

Below is a quick overview of the topics we discussed.

Day 1: Homework Review, Roles in an Effective Water Committee, How to Develop an Effective Water Committee, Effective Meetings, Thermoforming Endcaps

Day 2: How Much Should Your Monthly Water Payment Be, User Accountability, Expenditures and Collections, How to Collect Payments in Your Community, Yearly Work Plans

Day 3: How to Write Formal Letters, How to Talk to Government Agencies, Review, and Closing Ceremony

Overall, it was a great way to be in conversation with the people I'm working with about lots of important topics that will be discussed during my time here. We should be equipped with knowledge to handle the current challenges we are facing in regards to water system management.

2. Trip Back to the States

It was quite the whirlwind trip back to the States. It was a five day trip packed full of activities. Thankfully it included a date night with Sarah and getting together with her family and some friends from USF.

Here are some other things that happened in only five days: Premarital counseling, Sarah's graduation from USF, Advisor Meeting with Dr. James Mihelcic and his wife Karen, Church at Holy Trinity, Visit to the church, reception hall, and beach pavilion for our wedding, and also got to do some wedding registry, tux fitting, and wedding bands. Whew!

3. Back to Panama with Sarah

Thankfully, Sarah was able to come back with me to Panama for two weeks. During this time, we got her situated at the house, cooked some tasty meals, and visited the school a couple times. Each classroom would give her an applause, it was very neat.

After being on my site for a few days, we visited a volunteer in Bocas. Sarah participated in her first official spanish presentation, presenting the idea of the Lorena Stove. The next day we worked on the aqueduct, adding a sediment release valve and cleaning out the water tank and collection tank. It was a great trip, but we could do without the crazy curvy bus trip over the mountains at 60 miles per hour. It does not make for a happy stomach!

We returned from Bocas to go to our Regional Meeting. We met up with about 15 other volunteers at the Country Director to talk about things going on in our communities and in Peace Corps as a hole. It was a great way to reconnect with everybody and get informed.

Upon returning to site, house repairs were in order. We added some fabric above the bed so that pollen from the roof won't fall all over the bed and make us sneeze. Another project was filling the old latrine that had been open to whatever frogs, mosquitoes, and cats that wanted to go in. Being an environmental health volunteer, that pit had to go. We also added some rocks to make our dish cleaning area outside a little less treacherous.

Sadly, Sarah left to the airport yesterday. It was sad to see her go, but the next time she'll return to my site we'll be married, so that's comforting. Come back soon!

4. A Look Ahead

In the next month, I'll be helping facilitate the water seminar at two other volunteers' sites. Fit in will also be a project management and leadership seminar to a government agency near me. Yay seminars! On site will also be continuing the aqueduct improvements and latrine solicitude.

Thanks for reading all this and blessings to you and yours!

Kevin

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5:20-21

Sixth Month on Site

Good morning!

I hope you are all well. It´s hard to believe, but I´m finishing up my sixth month on site already. Including training, I´ve been in Panama for 8 months! Time goes by very fast.

A couple updates from the past month:
1. Visit from the Family!
2. Water Management Seminar



1. Visit from the Family!

It was very nice to have my family (mom, dad, and brother) here for a week. We were able to visit the Panama Canal at Miraflores Lock, watching ships go through the lock from the observation deck and walking through four floors of exhibits (I especially appreciated the exhibit on the importance of watersheds!).

Later in the day we visited the Amador Causeway, watching ships enter the canal and enjoying a wonderful picnic lunch.

We drove all the way to my site, only to find that the car wouldn´t make it from the paved road to my house because of the rocky road. We got out and hiked all of our stuff in, getting ourselves nice and sweaty for the nice bucket shower upon our arrival.

Throughout the week, we hiked up to a springbox, had a dinner together with my US Family and my Panama Family, and equipped the house with a new table, plastic bins, and pots and pans. The house is slowly approaching readiness for a married couple :)

We made a sidetrip to Boquete, enjoying the many flowers, bubbling brooks, and cool temperatures. Our highlight was Finca Lerida, a beautiful restaurant, hotel, and farm. It´s one of the greenest places I´ve ever seen! A return trip will be in order.

We rounded out the trip with a night at Las Lajas, enjoying the radiant sunset and crashing waves. What a great way to end the trip!

2. Water Seminar

Along with five other volunteers, my community hosted a three-day water seminar entitled, ¨Managing a Rural Aquaduct System.¨ I invited each of the four communities I´m working with to invite four participants, mostly members of their water committee. Each day we would have breakfast together, have sessions in the morning, lunch together, and then a few afternoon sessions.

Here are the topics we covered:

Aquaduct Maps
Water & Health
Aquaduct Theory
Molding PVC w/ Vegetable Oil

Environmental Health Laws
How much water is enough?
Watershed Management
Aquaduct Contamination

Community Water Usage
Clean House Water
More Aquaduct Theory

We´ll have three more days of the water seminar at my site in May, and then give the same seminar at other sites in June and July.

In other exciting news, I get to see Sarah again in about two weeks! I´ll be watching her graduate and then we´ll come back down together to Panama for two weeks. We´ll be talking to the English Teacher and Director at the school and giving a Lorena Stove demonstration as well. Should be a fun time!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God. And the peace of God,
which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Phillippians 4:6-7

Blessings to you!

Kevin

Fifth Month on Site

Good afternoon!

I can´t believe I´ve already been on my site for five months! In another five months, Sarah and I will already have spent our first month together here in Panama!

1. School Started!

Recently, the kids started school and many trampling feet can be heard outside my doorway every morning. I attended planning meetings with the school director and teachers the week before school started and now I´ve been helping out in class once a week. They received new teachers in English and Home this year, but they lack teachers for fifth grade, so they´ve spent the first two weeks of class at home--what a shame!

I´m continueing onto English 102, having a smaller class of around 5 students every Sunday evening. The teacher from the school who attends my class said he would like to teach Ngabere before my English class, which I´m really excited about.

2. Baptism Weekend

In my community exists one church, belonging to the Seventh Day Adventists. Every year they invite everyone to a baptism weekend down at the river, where they have musical worship Friday night, a Saturday worship service, and then a baptism service Saturday afternoon.

I was told that it was a three hour hike, so I packed up my clothes, sleeping pad, bible, and set out with my host family. Three hours later we were halfway there, I was told. Fortunately, an agency truck came by and brought us most of the rest of the way. Arriving there six hours after setting out, I arrived to find one thousand Ngabere people camped out on the ground, most without tents.

Needless to say, I didn´t get too much sleep as people visited all night and babies cried to the mothers in hunger and nervousness. For our meals, we had community-wide corn drinks and rice with beans.

I really enjoyed meeting new people, watching 150 people get baptised, and taking pictures of my host brother singing in a quartet in front of everybody. Pictures can be found on the Picasa link on the right margin.

3. Environmental Health Update

I´ve talked quite a bit about the cultural part of my work, but there is the continueing environmental health project as well.

In one community, we elected a new latrine directive, I gave a charla on how to pick the pit latrine location, and have a follow-up date to walk house to house to verify that the latrines are located away from rivers, wells, and not too far from the house.

The main line was just surveyed, taking almost 3 days with a team of six each day. We also found a new spring that could be used to give water to five houses up on the hill who aren´t currently connected to the main line. While I was hiking to the spring, I was told to ¨watch out!¨. Not knowing what to watch out for, I turned around to find a six-foot boa a few feet away from where I had just set down my foot. They´re not poisonous, but it did make my heart jump!

In a second community, I sat down with the latrine directive to write solicitudes to the mayor, regional representative, and two government ministries. I´m told that we should expect too much help from the mayor or representative because all their money is being spent to bring electricity along the road to the regional government office up on the hill. We´re also looking for material prices to include in our solicitudes.

In a third community I´m working with, we had a community meeting and then a community workday to clear and survey an existing aquaduct line to connect more houses. I also had the opportunity to visit another volunteer to help make a concrete pit latrine.

4. Biking Mishap

I bought a bike from the previous volunteer, so I´ve been using the bike to make occasional day trips for food and internet. As I was returning back to my site, I heard a pop and found that my bike tube on my back tire had broke. I walked twenty minutes to the stores along the Pan-American highway. Expecting to drop off my bike at the store and head to the bigger city to find a new tube, I found that the store had a bike tube that was just the right size. Not having the equipment to fix it, the store owner said that her friend would fix it for a Pepsi. I accepted the offer immediately, adding a package of Doritos to the deal as well.

I´m thankful to have a community that´s eager to help out a volunteer such as myself!

Well that´s all from here. I hope this update finds you healthy, safe, and in the company of those you love.

Kevin

He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the LORD require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Recap of February

Hello!

With the recent marriage date announcement, I didn´t include too many details other details from February. Here is a brief review of the month:

1. Sarah visited! (Host Family trip, On-Site, Beach Birthday)

Host Family Trip

We first went to my training host family´s house, where we spent two days in the hills near Panama City. From the airport to their house, we took an old school bus from the United States that was transformed with a lot of artistic expression into a ¨Diablo Rojo¨, filled with paintings of their family, Looney Toons charecters, or whatever else was on their mind. The bus was packed way beyond the limit, but we made it! My host family has two 3-year old twin daughters and an 8-year old son. They were nervous at first since they hadn´t seen me in over three months, but they warmed up quite quickly. On Sunday during our visit, we went to church and then went swimming in the afternoon, picking up oranges and grapefruit on the way back!

On-Site

After two days with my host family, we took a bus ride west for six hours to my site. It was so wonderful for Sarah to see with her own eyes the people and places that I had been telling her about on the phone previously. Upon arriving, Sarah received a blue dress made by my host family called a nagwa, as well as a Ngabere name, Boja. She´s named after a hard-working woman of the community who always helped out without being asked. How appropriate!

The next day we took down an old house to make room for a new store. That night she learned how to play dominoes, even beating the locals in her second game! Later in the week we made a trip to town to get groceries, however that night she got sick! We learned together what it means to care for someone when there´s no electricity, no soft couch, no chicken noodle soup, and no car-ride to the doctor. It was great practice because one of us will surely be sick again.

She learned what it means to go to church (4 hours underneath a zinc roof!), go to a community meeting (5 hours long!), or go for a walk (¨These are mountains, not hills!¨). We also got to troubleshoot a clog in an aquaduct line, built a pit latrine, and rode a horse!

Beach Birthday

At the end of our trip, we went down to the beach for my birthday. How special to have my fiancee here to celebrate with me! We got to walk on the beach (getting sunburnt, of course!), swam in the ocean, had a pasta dinner, dodging crabs along the way.

It was sad to see her leave, but she´ll be back down once more before we get married this September!

2. Reconnect Inter-Service Training

After being at our sites for four months, we were able to come together for four days to get more technical training and share ideas and experiences. All 36 members of our group came together, enjoying training sessions during the day and walks to the beach and Settlers of Catan at night.

The first day we presented our community analysis (maps, daily schedules, yearly schedules) and transferred this into future community action steps, involving the community every step of the way and starting a smaller project to build confidence.

Other sessions included proposal writing, water seminar planning, springbox construction, aquaduct computer modeling, and training for building latrines.

I´ll be posting an update for March shortly.

Blessings,

Kevin

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Sarah and I are getting married September 4th!

I just wanted to let you all know that after lots of prayer, planning, and petitioning, Sarah and I are planning to get married on September 4 of this year in Daytona Beach, FL!

Sarah just left this past Sunday. It was great to have her here with me. We spent two nights with my host family during training and then spent ten days at my site before spending two nights on the beach. Sarah fit right in, walking and talking with me as we walked around and participated in meetings and project workdays. They even gave her a nagwa (local dress) and a Ngabere name!

We also talked to the country director right after we got here and he said that he would grant us permission to marry as long as she could handle the life here. During the meeting we also presented our health plan, financial plan, and work plan, as well as discussing how her work will not impede my Peace Corps or Thesis work. After being on site, meeting the people, getting sick and getting healthy again, going to community meetings, and getting a better grasp of our daily routine and marital support options, we are excited to get married.

Her work will be in the school, teaching english classes, and tutoring. She will also help me in my environmental health presentations, where her work will be especially effective in reaching the women and children. This will be a great application of her English degree, tutoring experience, ESL and Global Health classes, and her heart to serve others. I´m also excited to have her apply her English major by reading my Quarterly Reports and Thesis!

Thanks for being a part of our story!

Kevin and Sarah

Fourth Month on Site

Good morning!

I will do my best to be coherent, but I admit my mind is elsewhere as I await the arrival of my fiancee Sarah here in Panama City this afternoon. After not seeing her for almost six months, I am truly grateful for the chance to have her visit. She is on a plane from Tampa to Miami at the moment. My host family already gave her a Ngabere name, so you'll have to ask her what her new name is!

The past month or so has had its mix of good and bad. A prime example is watching my first Vikings game as they beat Dallas 34-3, only to hear through the phone that they weren't able to make it to the Super Bowl. At least the Twins will sign Joe Mauer, right?

I don't know if you heard it on CNN or not, but Panama has 10 new graduates of English 101. After conducting their oral interviews in English, our group celebrated with chicken, rice, kool-aid, and dominoes (playing dominoes, not eating dominoes).

On a sad note, my cheap Digicel international calling plan ended on January 15th. The price per minute rose from 3 cents to 15 cents, so I apologize in advance for not making as many phone calls. If you want to chat, email me and we can set up a Skype call!

I have been a proud engineer, seeing the people of my community become better engineers by the day. In two communities, we used a surveying device made of PVC, clear plastic tubing, and water to survey the entire acueduct system. Using the data, I can enter the numbers into a computer program to make a nice spiffy map of their system, complete with horizontal distance, vertical distance, flow, and pipe diameter. During the surveying process, they taught me how to communicate to friends far away by yelling at the top of my lungs in different vocal patterns. We also celebrated a long days work by playing baseball. Ground balls are a bit tricky on the uneven terrain.

Our community also organized wood pit latrine workdays. The owner who wants the latrine built would get the materials ready and cook food while the workers would work all day and eat the food. It's great to see everyone working together to make these beautiful works of art called latrines.

A representative from the Ministry of Environmental Health came and visited our site last week. We were able to have a great discussion on Community Organization and Participation and were able to lay out how the Environmental Health Ministry, Peace Corps, and the community can work together to improve environmental health.

A member of our own community working for a government agency put together a workday on organic fertilizer. Everyone came with a big sack full of ash, dried leaves, rice husks, horse manure, and even a fermented corn drink. They were making jokes all day on how they couldn't believe the alcoholic drink was better off in the ground making compost than in their stomachs.

Another current project is writing solicitudes for the latrine and aquaduct projects. We will be soliciting help from the district representative, mayor, and two government agencies. Next up will be putting together material and price lists.

The last highlight was our Comarca Regional Meeting. We got caught up on our different projects and even had time for an organic coffee and wine tour. I highly recommend it!

Ask the audience: Vote for your Top 5 photos from my Picasa albums-the link is located on the right margin above. I'm going to submit photos to make a Peace Corps Panama Photo Calendar. Leave a comment below with

1) The Album Name
2) The row and column of the photo

Thanks for reading! I'm off to spend two awesome weeks with my fiancee! Goodbye!

Kevin

Third Month on Site

Significance is found in giving your life away, not in selfishly trying to find personal happiness.
-Gary Thomas in A Sacred Marriage

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but the interests of others.
-Paul in Philippians 2:3-4

These two quotes sum up what I´ve found to be a major theme in my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer: Humility. I´ve been thinking why I feel so fulfilled during my time here, and one of the conclusions I made is how easy it is for me to give my life away to the people here. While I came down here giving my time and knowledge to the people, I´ve received so much more. Examples include a man gathering food house to house to help my host family feed me, my host dad skipping his work to take care of me when I became sick, or the love I´ve encountered in the countless houses I´ve visited.

In the past few weeks I´ve worked with the three communities cleaning their acueduct lines, making community maps, fixing acueducts, giving latrine presentations, teaching english, and visiting houses.

Highlights of the past couple weeks included

1) Celebrating New Year´s Eve with other volunteers on Bocas Island, visiting a beach and even watching some college football!

2) Hosting representatives from the NGO Waterlines, who helped provide funding for an acueduct in one of my communities. They were able to view the existing project, encourage our efforts to operate and maintain the system in the future, and maintain solid communication with the community.

3) Happy Engineer Day was celebrated on January 7th as I receieved a water level surveying instrument, a model aquaduct system, and a GPS unit. I spent almost the entire day putting the instruments together and becoming familiar with the instruments.

The next month´s plans include watching the Vikings game on Sunday, helping build latrines on Thursday and Friday, going to a Peace Corps Regional Meeting at the end of the month, and seeing my fiancee in February after being apart for six months!

I hope you all have a blessed week and hope you´re all staying warm!

Kevin