Group 55 COS
July 2007
Group 55 Most Likely To…
Mark – Now here’s a little story ‘bout a man named Jed…
Mona – become Reina del Carnaval
Lindsay – be the first RPCV centerfold girl with sombrero
pintao and bottle of seco
Vanessa and Loralee – get kidnapped by Columbians
while hiking through the Darien Gap
Jacobo – rub urine on his face … again
Daniel – break a young girl’s heart
Blake – break a yeguas heart
Pete – get married in pink, after a long-distance relationship
Goyo – arm and lead a Ngäbe revolution
Penny – continue to operate on Panamanian time
Sam – move to Alaska, marry an Inuit, live in an igloo
Lauren – write a Broadway musical based on her Peace
Corps experience
Penny R.
Ann – star in Lauren’s Broadway musical
Liz – spend readjustment allowance on sparkly belts, stiletto heels and Pokemon cellphone cases
Casey – bring the parasites home with her
Emily – to appear on the hit series, Miami Ink
Adam P – work as a shoe shining coca-cola vendor
Jenny – become the first PCV to retire after having
served in every Peace Corps country
Kari – form the paramilitary wing of WID/GAD
Maria – own her very own country as result of a
bloody coup
Adam B – lose a limb
Sarah – take down three maleantes in a vicious
display of nunchuk skills
Mona S.
Adam K – publish a dictionary based on nonspoken Spanish
Jorge – Develop a new fusion musical form that combines Dorindo-esque accordion, American folk,
and German Goth — then go on tour.
DEARLY DEPARTED
Remi – succeed at Mexican watermelon farming
Lucas – be found away from his desk, making up inappropriate nicknames
Mike – bring the neo-beatnik poetry movement to an international audience
Tasha – lose the bar fight, but win the drinking contest
Justin – cause the first Leshmanaisis outbreak in the Pacific Northwest
Lauren B – survive the Pacific Northwest’s first Lesh outbreak
Wakan – plan the ten year reunion and force us all to attend
2
Una Experiencia Inolvidable
Kari Kelly
I
arrived in Panamá in
May 2005 with many
expectations and ideas
of how I would use my
time in the country to
better serve the people I would
be working with and researching. I am not only a CEC Volunteer, but also one of the Master’s International Program students located in Panamá and
throughout the Peace Corps
world. For those who have not
heard of this program, it is an
acuerdo between certain universities and Peace Corps to allow
a student to obtain their master’s degrees through Peace
Corps service. Most universities
require one year on campus,
taking classes in the subject
matter and preparing for service;
then two years in the PC working as a normal Volunteer and
conducting self-directed research; followed by a return to
campus to finish up any classes
left, and write and defend the
thesis. In my case, Washington
Kari K.
State University is the place and Santiago de Veraguas. My inCultural/Environmental Anthro- terest was in working with chilpology is the
Kari K.
degree.
I
had a lot of
luck
with
Francisco as
an APCD, as
he was exceptionally
willing
to
place me in a
site of my
choosing and
gave me free
rein to work
with the orga niz a t io ns
and people
who
interested me in
order to accomplish my
research.
It was in this
manner that I came to hear dren with disabilities and reabout the Instituto Panameño de searching explanatory models of
Habilitación Especial (IPHE) in disability within Panamá. IPHE
is a school devoted to working
with students from pre-kinder to
early adulthood, who happen to
have one or more disabilities.
When I first began working with
IPHE, as an assistant to the agriculture professor (each teacher
in the IPHE system is a professor, which means they have
more schooling than other
maestros), there were over one
hundred children matriculated in
the various programs at IPHESantiago. Most often, I worked
with the young men and women
in the various vocational workshops, teaching them to care for
the school garden with organic
3
farming practices.
I also
planned several environmental
conservation charlas to be
conducted by the various professors.
Working with various levels of
disability is always hard, but
especially difficult when it’s in
another language or two
(Spanish and sign language).
The kids were very patient with
my third-grade Spanish and
loved to ask me what certain
phrases from English song lyrics meant. I learned to sign
using the Spanish alphabet
and some of the days of the
week. I learned to be extra
patient with kids diagnosed
with ADHD and vigilant when I
had the younger kids with ambulatory problems out in the
garden. I learned more about
tenacity and motivation at
IPHE than I ever had in the
U.S. as I watched a student
struggle for months to master
a certain skill before finally obtaining it. I also learned what
an incredible struggle and
blessing it is to have a
child with a disability, as I
watched the parents of a
three year old boy laugh
and cry when he heard
their voices for the first
time in his life (through a
program that distributes
free hearing aids).
Throughout the school
year, I was always included in the fiestas and
paseos the school had
and was always invited to
sit and chat with the professors at recreo. I found
the faculty and staff of
IPHE-Santiago to be very
interesting and empathetic, as
well as curious about my life
both here and in the U.S. I
worked with other schools at
the same time and was always
very impressed with the professionalism and genuine
cariño the professors at IPHE
had for their students, as opposed to what I saw in other
schools.
Within my time at IPHE, I got
to know the kids pretty well
and they never tired of asking
me about life in the U.S. I remember when I first began
work, the most prevalent questions were about 9/11 and its
effects on one’s life. It surprised me that a few years after 9/11, these students in an
impoverished area, with many
more social and cultural problems than most, were still so
concerned about the people
who died and the ones who
survived that disaster. The
kids were always willing to listen to me talk and we spent
many a morning echando
Kari K.
4
cuenta. They were very accepting of my lifestyle. I don’t
know how many times I heard,
“Is it common to have so many
tattoos in the U.S.?” Now their
questions are mostly about
what I’m going to do when I
get back to the U.S. and when
I’m going to come back to visit
them.
I count myself very lucky to
have had a different experience than most other Volunteers in Panamá and will miss
my students very much.
I
strongly encourage any Volunteer interested in helping with
a school such as this one to
contact their regional IPHE
branch, as there is one in
every province.
I know it
would be a pleasure on the
part of IPHE to work with
Peace Corps again and you
will find it una experiencia
inolvidable, tambien.
A Fond Farewell
here with the few weeks that ences, although real and imposremain. The regrets are few sible to escape, are actually few
eace Corps Panama. and the smiles are without end. and far between. I always assumed that was the case, that in
Wow, you guys. 27
months.
Great ex- So what was so good? The the purest of settings we are all
perience, glad I joined honest and immense laughter just humans here to get by and
up – nice.
What shared so many times with so get along, but after living it, it is
comes to mind first is the re- many different community mem- proven and undeniable. What a
spect and admiration that I have bers. Sharing moments with refreshing and beautiful experifor all my fellow Group 55ers. folks who viewed from a dis- ence it is to be wholly convinced
Those still here and those al- tance appear to have absolutely that the world really is made up
ready gone, we have all shared nothing in common with me be- of brothers and sisters througha variety of great experiences sides a temporary geographic out the human race, no matter
where we are or how great
and memories and I
the differences on the surfeel honored to call
face may seem.
you colleagues and
friends.
The same
goes to the rest of the
How great it is to not only
volunteers and the
witness, but live in, and not
Peace Corps staff, it
only live in but to become a
has been such a
functioning part of, a way of
pleasure getting to
life that is fundamentally difknow and work with
ferent from any form in
you.
which I have lived before. In
Peace Corps I lived within a
subsistence agriculture sociWhat luck I’ve had to
ety in a foreign land with a
have done what I’ve
foreign culture and I learned
done and been where
to love and appreciate it in
I’ve been from May
infinite ways. Each experi2005 until now. Paence with each person multinama is an amazing
plied in ways that made my
and beautiful country
experience special and
and Alto Algarrobo,
unique. I can’t say that I
Chiriqui will hold such
would choose to live as a
a special place in my
campesino the rest of my life
heart forever.
Sure
after having seen and exthere have been some
Lora M. perienced the alternatives,
rough and rainy, borbut I love the fact that I lived
ing and frustrating
times out here over the past location. Were it not for the it here for two years, that I uncouple years, but honestly I can Peace Corps I would never have derstand it and have found the
hardly remember them. What been put in a situation to create beauty in it. I am confident that
invade my thoughts are the such deep relationships with by having done so, I have acsmall successes and surprises, people from such a different quired a certain depth of underthe big laughs and the lessons background, culture and way of standing or an additional dimenlearned out here in Alto Algar- life. But after two years of living sion to what I know as the hurobo. The time flew by if you out here, I have come to realize man experience. I am privileged
ask me, so I just try to savor and that we have almost everything in the fact that most people who
reflect upon my experience out in common and that our differ- live on this earth never get to
Adam Kutrumbos
P
5
See so many different sides to
life; Peace Corps makes it possible.
At first everything is so different,
but after a while the poverty and
the hardship become normal,
the lifestyle becomes natural;
although we never completely
step out of our gringo outsider
selves. And for that reason
every consecutive surprise is
always exciting and evokes
feelings of wonder and hope. I
know how insufficient and lack-
The conversations with the old
folks are some of the things that
I love the most, hearing about
their lives growing up as well as
learning about how things were
during the time of their own
grandparents. If what I’m living
now seems rustic and underdeveloped, I imagine only two
generations ago the life that
was, before any thought of a
road or a car. It seems to me
like a story from a fantasy
world. The people survived by
making month long treks on foot
just to get salt and those few
Lora M.
essential supplies, whereas
everything else in life just came
from the land. The older members of the community remember what it was like to live isolated from any other outside society, in a pure, unaffected indigenous culture. It appears so
historically distant that it’s almost hard to fathom, but Peace
Corps made it real, and actual
conversations connect me to it,
maintaining the human touch
throughout. After seeing those
changes that have occurred in
the past 60 years, it makes you
wonder how different life will be
when the children out here today become grandparents
Lora M.
themselves. I feel so lucky to
have had the opportunity to baing the school and all basic re- sically live and appreciate a
sources are out here, but that’s completely different life for two
what inspires me every time a years.
young student actually remembers and says some of the Eng- And, I have truly loved this other
lish words that I thought I had life. I have learned to execute
been teaching to relatively deaf and enjoy the fine technical art
ears for so long. It’s the same of efficient chicken foot and
when I see a kid with genuine neck consumption.
I know
talent, making an impressive about the gatos del monte. I
drawing, or when I witness a have gained the ability to finish
great young sense of humor any meal, no matter how great
making me laugh in a most un- the quantity of rice or yucca, or
expected way.
how tough and chewy the mystery meat-organ-innards may
6
be. And I can do this all with the
aid of nothing more than a trusty
spoon, or in some cases without. I
can eat sardines, beans or anything really, utilizing the yucca as
both the scooping mechanism and
the meal itself in one. I am now
much more effective at carrying
heavy objects up and down large
hills while navigating slick and narrow paths. I experienced the sting
of getting hit with the balsa stick. I
can make cool new sounds like
clicks and whistles, even music,
with my body. I am better at conserving water when I wash and
clean. I completed some projects
and taught some people some new
things. My communication abilities
and skills have vastly improved. I
know and love and respect lots of
new people and things. I am grateful. Thank you Peace Corps for
making me better than I was before.
Living in Panama has made me feel like maybe
I really am crazy. Or, perhaps it’s just the rest of
the world (or Panamanians anyway). I like to
think it is them and not me. I would like to send
the rest of you who are going to be braving the
craziness for a while longer a few good quotes
to help you along the way.
Of all the days, the day on which one has not
laughed is the one most surely wasted.
-N. Saebastien
Ramona S.
Ramona S.
Ramona
May you have the courage to go after the
things you want and the perseverance to keep
working until you achieve them.
It’s the possibility of having a dream come true
that makes life interesting.
–P. Coelho
The best and most beautiful things in the world
can’t be seen or touched; they must be felt with
the heart.
–Helen Keller
Chao!
Loralee Miller
7
Jenny B.
Shout Out to 55ers and Experiences Not to be
Forgotten!
I
am part of Group 55 and will always be part of
Group 55. Hopefully, this is not my last article,
since I will be staying on a little longer than some
of my compañeros. I want to wish all of G55 the
best, for whatever road you choose to take next. You
guys are awesome, creative, caring individuals who make
me proud to be a 55er!
Within our time here we have had many experiences not
to be forgotten, and here is an example of one:
Penny R.
Corpus Cristi, an experience not to forget! Thankfully,
living in the Azuero allows one the opportunity to see
many cultural events. However, none can compare to the
events that were witnessed in the festivities of Corpus
Christi.
If
you
enjoy Jenny B.
learning
about
the
different
dress and
dances of
various
cultures of
Panama, I
recomm e n d
c h ec k in g
out
this
event next year, but be ready to see things you never
imagined you would witness in a cultural festival. I was
overwhelmed with all of the activities around us as we
wondered what kind of dancing and costumes were to
appear next. The day we were present was interesting
because all of the participants in the dances and parades were men. No women were wearing costumes.
However, the following day was Dia de la Mujer, when
only the women would dress up. Very interesting - men
dressed up as devils, kings, angels, and fathers and
mothers. I am interested in reading about the history of
this event because there has to be more to it than just
evil desires fighting good desires. Really, if you want
an experience not to forget and you are here next year,
check out La Villa de Los Santos for an interesting
time. While you may not understand everything that
goes on, it’s worth checking out.
-Jenny Biggs
8
I Really Don’t Understand Anything
Daniel Schulman
pesino throw up Westside). When a friendly
campesino came running across the field,
machete in tow to invite me to a community
reunion. And here began the confusion.
“Donde?”
Alla
“Donde?” I asked even more perplexed than
ever. “Pa’ alla” came the non-relenting answer. The campesino sees that I am for
some reason not quite understanding him exactly as I hesitantly say “donde” one more
time. “Pa alla bajo.” At this point I try to feign
understanding and decide to change my strategy by asking much more of a direct “yes/no”
question. “Esa loma a la izquierda?” “Si”,
comes the confidently-sure response. But I
am able to keep my wits about
me and continue my
questioning with “O esa loma a
la derecha?” Hoping, praying to
hear a no, but rather with all the
positivity this little campesino
can muster my thoughts are
broken by another “si”. At this
point I am absolutely lost in
translation. I decide it will be
best to figure out exactly where
the reunion will be taking place
later. Figuring this confusing
conversation counts as pasear-
Jenny B.
A
fter being in Panama for more
than two years I Kari K.
have come to
truly understand one
thing when it comes to
Spanish, and that is that I
really don’t understand
anything. Of course I
know what the words
mean. I could translate
any of them faster and
better than our PC issued
dictionaries. But knowing
what a word should mean and what
its actual usages are, are two completely different things. I am not talking about colloquialisms, I am talking
about two words in particular;
WHEN and WHERE. New PCVs
once you have mastered the when
and where, you have mastered
Spanish or at least rural campesino
Spanish. I would like to explain by
recounting a true life occurance
which happened the other day.
I was walking around the community throwing up gang signs (they
love them and there is nothing funnier than seeing a true dressed cam-
Ramona
9
Kari K.
Kari K.
Kari K.
10
ing I decide to close our conversation with one
last supposedly easy question. Cuando?
Already knowing the answer, I am ready with
more of my probing questions. “Ahorra” comes
the response, exactly what I was expecting.
“Cuando ahorra,” I counter. This question
seems to momentarily stun the small
campesino as he gives me a perplexed look
as if to say why is this gringo asking me all
these questions. (This must be why the think I
am a spy). I get no response from him so I
quickly rethink my strategy and let hale a
double barreled potentially leading question.
(NOTE: always be very careful with leading
questions, generally they are answered with
an automatic head nod and smile, they really
won’t get you anywhere). “Ahorra en 30
minutos o ahorra en 3 horas?” He just stared
right through me with a slight smile. I can tell
he is enjoying this immensely as he slowly
starts to nod his head and says, “si, ahorra”. I
quickly assess the information I have gathered
which isn’t that much. I still have no idea really
when or where this reunion is. Maybe they
don’t really want me to come, but then why
would they have gone out of their way to invite
me. Before I made my decision to go or not I
had a little bit more of this mystery to uncover.
“Pa que es la reunión, de que van a hablar?”
“Algunos temas,” flows the gentle campesino’s
answer. At this point I knew that the reunion
was being held over there, sometime and that
some things were going to be discussed or in
gringo language, not a damned thing. I figured
all politicians should take a campesino
language lesson. My entire conversation with
this campesino had played out almost like
who is on first!?
Now I know you are wondering when, where,
and what happened in the reunion. But I will
be honest I never went. With directions like
that I thought wow, if the reunion is already
that badly jacked-up better to get my rest in
the hammock. But let us find the silver lining
here, I am planning to rejoin Peace Corps after
I COS and teach how to measure distances,
time, and teach directions and also that there
are 60 minutes between the hours and that
time is not only an hour y punto (3:15 is 3:15
not ya va pa las 4).
Penny R.
Penny R.
Penny R..
Jacobo S.
Penny R.
Jacobo S.
Kari K.
11
12