more info about my life (taken from my MI Quarterly report)

Let me start with language. I was the third to last to make it to the required Spanish level of intermediate medium and thank god I did. It was about two weeks ago. The next guy made it too and the one who was dead last dropped out. Spanish is hard for me but I am amazed at what I am able to communicate at this point in my Peace Corps Experience. Although I got private tutoring since I was below the average of the other volunteers, I still was reminded I needed a lot of work, and often. I really did get down and out about my ability, because for the most part I felt that I was communicating at an a reasonable level, getting my point across and talking with my host family every night, and then Peace Corps would tell me that I’m at the bottom and that it should be a huge concern for me right now. Regardless, I’m at the level I need, I think I’m even above that now, and the fact that I am there has boosted my confidence tenfold.

My next challenge on the language level is to start learning Ngobe. This is the dialect language of the indigenous groups whom with I will be living with for the next two years, on the beach, in Punta Sirain. For the most part they all speak fluent Spanish as well and are a bilingual culture, but around the house, especially with the women, it’s all Ngobe. Sometimes I can tell that they are talking about me, but that’s ok for now. I just do want to be able to participate in the day to day conversations, not just professional aqueduct talk in Spanish.

Culturally, ahhhhh where to begin. I’ll start with the food. Everything here is overcooked, fried and the consumption of vegetables re few and far between. Breakfast in Santa Clara, the town of my training site which I just left yesterday, was a either a fried egg or a fried hot dog with a piece of untoasted bread and black, weak coffee. Lunch was usually a piece of fried chicken and rice, and dinner along the same lines maybe with lentils too. At first I was annoyed and worried I was gonna gain all this weight but its ten week in and I am over ten pounds less then when I showed up here so I’m content. Food at my site is quite different. Every meal I got a huge piece of boiled or fried fish and boiled bananas. There’s little rice cause they can’t afford it and even litter vegetables besides potatoes and other weird root vegetables that are locally grown all over the place. Its weird, but I LOVE fish so I’m even more pleased here. The only bummer is everything is so bland. My spice rack needs some work, I’ll need a collection to make it two years. One day I even got a lobster for lunch because right now when the seas are clam its lobster season and the Ngobe men (and soon me) free dive for lobster to make some cash money money. So all in all, I’m not worried about eating, I will get enough food, I just worry a little about nutrition but I guess that’s what my multivitamin is for.

Other cultural aspects that I’m dealing with are the gender roles that accompany my site. I think they were expecting an older male engineer but I do believe they are pleased that I am their volunteer. Typically men do all of the fishing and diving for lobster, two activities that I REALLY want to learn to do. I’ve told them already when I return in less than a week I plan on buying my own canoe to paddle around the bay in and to the surfer beach. I really want to try to live sustainable off the land and I cannot do that without knowing how to fish. Since I love the water so much learning to free dive for lobster could not be more appealing to me but the battle will be getting the men to take me with them in a non-sexual, non piss of their wives kinda of way. Some women fish, but usually just to help paddle the boat and clean the fish, they never dive. I do have some strategies for getting them to teach me however. Already I have cleaned the toma, or the spring with five other men and another woman. While doing this they were able to see my physical strength, as in that it is at the same level of the men in the town work wise. At this time I think they were able to see my genuine interest in the toma, the water flow, the water source, and the process as a whole. By getting them to respect my professionally I think I will have an easier time getting them to let me do nontraditional women things like only cleaning and cooking and laundering. Worse comes to worse I play the silly gringa card and figure it out on my own, cause lets be serious, there’s no way I’m living here two years without free diving for my food. It’s just not an option NOT to do it. It’s my fun.

On a surprising note, it’s totally the norm in my community for all of the women to get together every afternoon to play some serious volleyball at the school. This is so great cause the volunteer before me did not like to play, and never did. That means, when I do they love me for it, and I love the competitive activeness of the afternoon. So I’m on track with that part of my day.

Religion does not seem to be too important at the moment but I think after three months I’ll have a different view on that. All the kids go to school in town and the older kids row to the larger town, Kusapin to go to secondary school. There’s definitely some room for environmental education and science class which maybe in a year from now I could see myself teach, once the language has progressed some more.

I’m really ecstatic that these Bocas, coastal Ngobes are as outgoing and talkative as they are. My first experience with the Ngobe culture was that of the conservative, embarrassed, quite Comarca Ngobes who do not find fun in anything that I consider exciting. They rarely talk, especially the women and are super shy. After visiting a site like this I feared that my work would be in a community like this one and really was worried about it. Luckily my site is over the mountains where in the past the adventurous Ngobes migrated over and thus are the way they are today, fun loving happy people. I can only thank god that the Peace Corps staff recognized my personality and how it would simply not mesh with that of the Comarca Ngobes.

For now that’s about it. I swear in tomorrow, party at the beach for three nights and then am in site next Monday for good! I can’t believe it is here, my Peace Corps time in the most perfect site I could have imagined back in Delaware and all year in Houghton. I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed when I think about what the next two years has in store for me.