It´s me again

August is beginning to look busy again. I was a little bummed out before because almost everything I had written in my agenda was systematically being crossed out due to cancellations on all sides. Free time is good, but if there is absolutely nothing to do then that is no good either. However things are beginning to look as busy as ever for the second part of the month. I had a talking to with the english teachers and told them that something was not working with the class (i.e. you need to show up if you want to have this class!) so we have switched around the schedule by making the class a little earlier in the day and only two days a week. After we made this arrangement they still didn´t show up the next day, but then the next time I got four participants. I had the lesson planned for over a month and despite having showed up about 10 times with my stupid poster tube and bag of stuff, was unable to use it until this last Wednesday. And the funny thing is, as they were leaving I heard them say among themselves that the class was fun. I just don´t understand what the big deal is about attendance!!

As for my last lesson in the high school, the theme was how to improve their communication by using self-determination. This is important for Ngäbes and especially for the women since they will let the whole world stomp over them before they will confront a problem. So I explained the difference between being timid, self-determined, and agressive, and I did a little demonstration of each as a customer of a shore store trying to buy a pair of shoes. I love doing the agressive one because the poor volunteer shoe store owner always gets a huge shock when I am mean and loud and tends to cower towards the corner. Then we played some games where I tried to encourage the participation of the girls but still failed in this, since only one of them actually did anything other than stand there in a cluster. I guess you can´t change something like that with a lesson or even a course, but at least it gets the idea out there for them. After each class I ask them to write one thing they learned or liked in the class as a ticket for a prize drawing, and in spite of their shyness and refusual to participate, the girls always write that the games are their favorite part of the class.

Other work activities include visiting local government agencies to establish Peace Corps contacts as potential partners in projects, especially where gender issues are concerned since I am the gender and development representative for the area. So how this works is I go to San Felix where all the regional headquarters are located, and I clean off the mud and sweat and get dressed nicely. Then I go to one agency after the other, with varying degrees of success. Working with agencies is notoriously trying here, since although they are supposed to be professionals their conduct is much too lax in terms of what we as outsiders view to be effective. Therefore, even just visiting an agency can be a frustrating process, let alone trying to work with one. I can be told by the receptionist that the person I need to talk to is not here but if i wait for an hour she will be here soon. So I wait (even if I would have made an appointment beforehand this happens) and sometimes get shown to the director instead, which is a horrible alternative because they practically take one look at you and wave you out the door with the promise that they will tell the person who you originally wanted to talk to that they will show him or her the letter. Which isn´t going to happen. And this is only if they are in the office at all. The last two times I was in San Felix there was nobody in the office at UNFPA, the UN proponent for women´s rights, although a couple of them were in Chichica the other week so I spoke to them there. Anyway, although it would be a wonderful thing to have better working relations with the government agencies around here, they are just hard to work with in general and it´s easier to do things yourself as much as possible, which is what we tend to do.

Anyway, during one of these agency visits I met with a new tourism person in Proyecto Ngäbe-Buglé who wants to get the ball rolling again for tourism in Chichica. I am of like mind, but have serious doubts of the commitment of the community members. Nonetheless I told him I would arrange a meeting and we´ll see what comes of it.

Misc. activities: The women´s group meeting has been rescheduled, but I keep getting conflicting dates from difference sources. I am not sure about this either. I have been invited to another reforestation activity, but I am not sure about the logistics of this either. I have also been invited to give a lesson about values by the head of the values committee at the high school (what exactly does a values committee do anyway? I suspect nothing) with further invitations in the future on different topics. And I have been reminded by several people that the night school is going to have a big party this week, which will include food and drinks to purchase, dancing, and lots of típico music (and therefore by extension there will be tons of borrachos telling me how beautiful my eyes are and wanting to dance with me even though they can barely stand upright). I think I will show up early to make an appearance, buy my arroz con pollo, sancocho, tortillas, and get out before too much beer and seco have been consumed. Then the next morning I could mosey on over to see how many men are still passed out at the party site or on the road back home.

I haven´t really taken any photos this week so I am going to make a major effort to take more photos for next time of just regular life here. Maybe on a non-busy day I´ll just go visiting people and ask to take pictures of them and their houses. It would be nice to have in the years to come, and also good for all you lovely people back home to see what things are like here. Looking at my schedule I probably won´t be leaving site for the next couple weeks due to the fact that for once everything will be happening there instead of outside, so I probably won´t have a chance to update my blog until September. Sorry to those who have gotten used to this once a week thing. Also for some reason my phone is really using up my phone cards way too quickly. It cost me $4 for a 20 minute phone call, which before would have lasted me almost twice as long, and supposedly they are running a promotion for US phone calls right now. So I would like to figure out what is going on, maybe my phone was put on roaming or something somehow? I have much better signal with this company, but I may have to be more careful about how much I call if these are normal prices.

A while back my little neighbor Orlianis came to my house and asked me to explain to her about vampires. This doesn´t surprise me because she loves a scary story. So I told her that I know all about vampires because I myself am half vampire. This is because my father is a vampire (sorry to involve you in this Dad, but you may have to explain yourself if you meet her). She asked me how I knew about that, so I told her that one night, just after I was born, my mom noticed that my dad was missing from the bedroom night after night. She looked all over town for him, and finally found him in the act of sucking blood from a helpless victim, upon which she was furious, mostly because now she realized that her new-born daughter was the daughter of a vampire and therefore half vampire. Loli loved this story, but then she looked all serious and asked me if I sucked blood too. I told her that sometimes I have the urge, but only for little kids who annoy me a lot. I think she almost believes me, just like she believed me when I told her about the dinosaurs that live in the province of Coclé and the tigers that live under the school at Llano Tugrí. I probably shouldn´t be telling stories like this, but she is such a brat herself, and besides she loves them.

Well, I guess I will go now. Ta ta and cheerio and all that rot.