TravelStream™ news feed for member arisialee on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/arisialee en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:34:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1207244460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1207244460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1207244460/tpod.html Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:34:29 -0400 Peace Corps in Panama

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Santiago, Panama

Hey Everyone!

Well, this will be one of my last entries. My last official day as a Peace Corps Volunteer will be the 16th of July! and it looks like I am going to be as busy as a Peace Corps Volunteer can be in the next 3 months.

The first big project that I have been working on has been to organize a Vision Clinic with a group of Berkley Optometry students and Doctors. They will be coming down in June and will be giving free eye exams and glasses to my community and two surrounding communities (one being a VERY poor indigenous site). I´ve recently started telling my community members about the clinic and am expecting hundreds of people to show up each day. I am very excited about this project!!!!!

The second big project that I am working on is up-dating the elementary school kitchen. I submitted the grant proposal in January and it is finally up on the web, check it out.

www.peacecorps.gov
-Donate Now (found on the left side of the page)
-Donate to Volunteers Projects
-Search by Country of Service (enter Panama)
-Click on Primary School Refurbishment, A.Lee

Here´s the story the Peace Corps website will not tell you.........

I had a group of 10 members of my community (parents - most of whom did not go to school past the 6th grade -and teachers) working on this grant proposal. I actually never thought it would come to fruition. First of all, it has been extremely difficult getting anyone to show up to meetings in my community. So when my mom told me that the principal of her school wanted to organize some fund -raisers for a project for the school in El Pantano I thought "awesome! guaranteed money will definitely get people to show up to a meeting", but it didn´t and I was not about to work on this project alone. By the third time I scheduled the meeting to start up the project people showed up. Together we designed and came up with a plan as to how the project and the money would be managed. Next I translated the application into Spanish and made them fill out the entire application with me. Finally, I had them participate in a leadership seminar. I hope that after going through this process that they will now have more confidence to organize and start up a project on their own. So, the hard part is now behind us and the fun part is ahead of us. In my last entry I included a photo of the school kitchen, as you all can see it´s pretty shabby. The group came up with about $3000 worth of repairs they´d like to make, but I was a little worried about coming up with that amount, so we scaled the request amount down. They decided that the essentials were: new tables and chairs (so all the kids can eat at once), a propane stove (so the women don´t have to prepare food over an open fire), a new pantry, new pots and pans, enough plates and silverware for all the kids and a fresh coat of paint. There is so much more that the kitchen not to mention the entire school needs, but this will definitely help. The kids at my moms school have already raised some money and we are still a little short, so your help would be appreciated very much.

Ok I hate asking for money so on to other things. At times I thought that these 2 years would never end and at times I could not wait for my time here to be up, but as the end draws near I find myself not wanting for this experience to be over. I have talked about wanting to do the Peace Corps for probably close to 10 years now and I am so glad that I finally followed through with it. I am really looking forward to finishing up my projects and enjoying my community and my new friends before I return home to my family and old friends.Once again THANK YOU for your continued support, I would not have survived these last 2 years with out all of you.

Take Care,
Arisia







]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1198858260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1198858260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1198858260/tpod.html Fri, 11 Jan 2008 16:56:28 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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Tucson, Arizona, United States

Hola!

Hey Everyone! I'm back in the USA for a short visit over the holidays. I've been back for about three weeks now, and I'm definitely getting used to life here again. It will be hard to re-adjust to the campo life in Panama.

Well, I will be finished in July! I thought living abroad for two + years would cure me of my itch to travel, but it hasn't. So after I finish up with the Peace Corps my mom, a couple friends and I are planning on traveling a little bit in Panama and then we are gonna head on down to Machu Pichu in Peru and Ecuador.

I've pretty much been up to the same ol' stuff since I last sent out an entry in September. I'm currently in the middle of finishing up a grant proposal to remodel the kitchen at the school. I also plan on making a lot more Estufa Lorenas and helping out with sex charlas (more sex ed.).

It has been so nice catching up with everyone, either in person or by phone, that I haven't really talked to much over the past year and nine months. Keep in touch!

Saludos,
Arisia

Click on the captions of the photos, I've included little stories with some of them.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1176235560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1176235560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1176235560/tpod.html Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:03:58 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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Santiago, Panama

¡ Hola Everyone!

A year into my time here and I am finally writing. Well in about a month I will have been inPanama for 1 year! Part of me feels as if I just stepped off the plane into the humid airport yesterday. I hope the next year goes as well if not better than this first year has. I just now am starting to think of my town as my home.

I live in a little, spread-out, and hilly ( I honestly do not think a flat spot exists here) town called El Pantano, translated to English means; the swamp, and yes, sometimes, especially, during the rainy season (meaning it rains HEAVILY everyday, as opposed to just raining everyday) this place can seem like a swamp.

The population of El Pantano is about 1000, so some people from my town have told me. I really don`t think that anyone actually knows the population. Anyways the population is fairly small, but the town itself is very spread out as I`ve already mentioned. To walk from one end of town to the other can take over two hours, and walk everyone does because only a handfull of people own private cars, and the public transportation, an old pick-up truck, runs infrequently, sometimes not for months.

I think I was placed in one of the most beautiful areas of Panama, whenever I return from elsewhere I am always awed by the beauty of this place. El Pantano borders a mountainous National Park, El Parque Nacional de Santa Fe, and the area has not experienced too much deforestation YET. As you can tell by the preceeding pictures the area is a lush tropical rainforest. A lot of people have asked me what animals I have seen, so far I`ve seen a few different types of monkeys, an armadillo, a sloth, lots of coral snakes, and 2 constrictors, 1 dead (see previous photo) and one very much alive and trying to get into the house I was living in at the time. I have always been very thankful that I was not living alone at that time and I hope I never have to deal with one at my house now that I am living alone.

School started up again in March, the summer vacation here is from December to March. I give environmental and english classes to all the kids, grades 1-6, three days a week. There is only 1 school here and if the kids wish to continue thier education they attend the nearest high-school in Santa Fe which is at least a 30 minute walk, most kids have a much longer trek and some hike up to 2 hours to school and back everyday. If the kids want to go to a better school they go to the capital of the province, Santiago. So a two hour bus ride is tacked on to their two hour hike. Classes start at 8:00 am, so some kids get up at three in the morning to get to school on time. I am amazed that they do this everyday of the week!

I have more to write, but I don`t have much more time left on the computer, so I will write again SOON! I have been thrilled to hear from all of you. I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to send a letter, e-mail or package. A letter at the post office from friends and family always makes my day, THANK YOU.

Arisia
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1171253160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1171253160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1171253160/tpod.html Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:02:57 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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El pantano, veraguas, Panama

Even more photos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1166061420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1166061420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1166061420/tpod.html Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:02:02 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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El pantano, veraguas, Panama

More Photos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158640080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158640080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158640080/tpod.html Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:59:32 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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Santa Clara, Panama

Hola Everyone!

I survived training and am officially a Community Environmental Conservation Peace Corps Volunteer! My training site was a small town called Santa Clara, not to be confused with the Santa Clara on the beach-no, we weren't fortunate enough to be blessed with a training site situated on the beach. Anyway, Santa Clara is a small community about an hour from Panama City, surrounded by lush countryside and not too far from the canal-sometimes I could hear barges bellowing, like toads, but bigger and made of steel. Our group of 35 Americans took over this small Panamanian town for two and a half months. Half of us were trained in sustainable agriculture techniques and my group was trained in community environmental conservation techniques.
I can't even begin to cover everything I was taught during training, but the highlights were reforestation techniques, gardening with organic fertilizers, identifying local flora and creating Estufas Lorenas, clay stoves. Many Panamanians in the countryside still cook over an open fire, using a lot of wood. Estufas Lorenas are great, because they use a lot less wood and divert the smoke away from the cooking area.
I lived with an amazing Panamanian family! They were the best host family I've ever lived with and I already miss them something awful. My Spanish has improved tremendously, and I can't even imagine how well I will speak after two years of immersion.

Take care and keep in touch,
Arisia
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1191089700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1191089700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1191089700/tpod.html Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:26:56 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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El Pantano, Panama

Hola!

So although it has taken me more than half of my time here in the jungles of Panama I have finally managed to download pictures and write a more detailed entry as to what I have been up to over the past year, what I am doing and what I plan to do in my last 9+ months here.

First of all I can´t beleive that I have been in El Pantano for over a year, let alone that I´ve been in Panama for almost a year and a half. I only have 9.5 months left! And I feel as though things are just now starting to come together.


My Adorable Neighbor

I´ve already described my town a little bit so I´d like to fill you all in on the projects that I have been working on and projects that I´d like to get going before I leave. So this is all the amazing work that I´ve been up to for the past year.

ENGLISH CLASSES
Yes the amazing work that I have been doing is teaching English to the people in my community!!! I´ve been saving the world one English phrase at a time. ENGLISH, ENGLISH, ENGLISH! Everyone here was gung-ho about a year ago to learn English. For the first few months I regularly had 20+ people attending the class, but now one dilligent women attends once a week and has definitely made progress. I don´t think the majority of the class realized how much work it is to learn a new language and the rest were at a more advanced level but would never tell me (the million times that I asked) that they wanted a separate advanced class, even though they would tell just about everyone else in the community. Panamanians in the campo have such pena (shyness), it has definitely taken a lot of adapting on my part to get used to this and it still makes me crazy half the time. Anyways I started an advanced class in addition to the regular class and pretty much everyone stopped showing up to either class altoghether. I honestly hate teaching English, but I am glad that I started the class up right away because it allowed me to get to know a fair amount of people in my community pretty quickly.


English Class - Even the School Cat Wants to Learn English

I also give English classes to the kids (grades 1-6) at the school 2 days a week. I meet with the teachers every other week and they let me know what their English objectives are for the next two weeks. One week I usually teach vocabulary and the following week I come up with a fun and creative activity with the vocabulary from the previous week. Most of the time, with their teachers, the kids just sit at their desks and copy from the chalkboard; THANK GOD I went to school in the U.S.! I understand that the school does not have a lot of money to buy resources, but the way the teachers are trained is so archaic, and a little creativity definitely goes a long way. I have made sure that the teachers stay in the room while I give my class (after subbing in the inner-city schools in San Diego I want nothing to do with dicipline), even though most of them just sit at their desks with their heads down grading papers and ignore me, but every once in a while something I do or say catches their attention and the kids definitely like these activities. Thank you Mom for all your great ideas, I can´t imagine what I would have done without your help and all the resources you have sent that I´ve lugged up the hills to my community.

ENVIRONMENTAL CLASSES
Once a week I teach an enviromental class to all grades except 1st, (those little ones are too much for me twice a week). I usually choose one topic for the month and do a mini charla (lecture) accompanied by an activity. This past month they´ve been learning about why plants are important for us and for the environment. Sometime in October we are suppossed to plant some saplings around the school.


Leaf Rubbings

SEX ED.
I´ve helped out a couple of my friends with sex charlas at the schools in their communities. Basically we have done the old condom on the banana demonstration, talked about the reproductive system and about sexually transmitted diseases. I´ve helped with these mini lectures in Jr. High Schools, and my friends who live in these towns have told me that they have kids and their parents coming up to them frequently asking for condoms. I am hoping to recruit some of my freinds in the next few months to come up to my site to help me out with a 2-day sex ed. session at my school - with the 5th and 6th graders and the school in Santa Fé - with the Jr. High and High School kids. If sex ed. doesn't get them up here I´m hoping that adventure rafting and the cool climate will entice them.

SCHOOL COMPUTERS
This past March the principal (my counterpart in the community) and I attended a project design management seminar. During the seminar we developed a plan to get computers for the school (at a parent-teacher meeting the month before, the parents all decided that they wanted to work towards getting computers for the school). My principal and I had heard of a program called CONECTATE, a program through the ministry of education that has funds from the government and the United States, that gives computers to rural Panamanian schools. We first contacted the school´s supervisor about the program and he said he would send the paper work. Well he never did, so I found out that the CONECTATE office was in Panama City and scheduled and appointment with them. People from CONECTATE came out to the school, met with the principal and have started remodeling one of the classrooms to accomodate the computers: they are enclosing the walls, putting in real windows (all the rooms are open) and installing the proper wiring and air conditioning. We should have computers with internet this November!!!!

I really can´t beleive that I will have internet in my site before I leave. When I arrived there were 3 public phones for over a thousand people, now there is a cell phone signal and the main road to and in town should be paved by the time I leave, such progress! Hopefully once the roads are paved busses or chivas will start running. It has been almost a month since we last had public transportation, one day the chiva driver just stopped working, I really don´t understand why, the roads are in good shape and those dudes make a ton of money. I tell y´all I will definitely appreciate my car when I get back to the U.S.

COOKING CLASS
Twice a month a few people come over and I give a cooking class. Once a month we make a dulce (something sweet), actually that is all they wanted to learn to make, but I talked them into making a main meal every other class. I almost always come up with a recipe that involves baking, and for the main dishes I usually use an international recipe. A lot of people in my community have ovens and do not use them, they cook over an open fire instead. I hope to show them that they do not have to fill their lungs with smoke 3 times a day.

ESTUFA LORENA (MUD OVEN)
Speaking of cooking over an open fire and filling your lungs with smoke, a lot of people in my community said they wanted to learn to make an estufa lorena. I arranged for one of my peace corps friends, who has a lot of experience making estufa lorenas, to come to El Pantano and make a stove at the school. This past week we spent 12 gruelling, sweaty, muddy, and shitty hours (yes, literally shitty - one of the ingredients is horse or cow poop) making the biggest estufa lorena in Panama. Estufa lorenas are made of clay, sand, and as I already mentioned, horse or cow poop, they hardly cost anything to make, and they have a chimney. Oh, and the best part about them is that they use less wood (this means chopping down less trees in the National Park that my town borders) than cooking over an open fire. I am hoping to help make quite a few more before I leave.


Making the Estufa Lorena


THE LAST PROJECT THAT I¨M WORKING ON........
is to be determined this week. I have been trying to get a small group comprised of: the principal, teachers, directiva (the president, vice president, etc...) of the parent-teacher association and parents to meet with me to work on another project for the school. The principal at my mom´s school would like to raise some money for the school in El Pantano so it looks like there will be some funds for another project. I have previously tried to get this group to meet with me with no luck. I cannot tell you all how many times I have heard the people in my community and of surrounding communities say, with a lot of pride I might add, that Santa Fereñens (the district that my town is in is called Santa Fé) do not go to meetings and do not work together. Now I´m gonna bitch a little bit, but this really has not made my job any easier, and one of the rules of the Peace Corps is that I cannot just hand money over to my community. To receive the funds they have to meet, design a project and basically write up a grant proposal. What they will write up is called a Partnership Grant. I will submit the proposal to the Partnership Grant website and anyone (my mom´s school) can donate money to the project. I really hope that some small miracle happens and a meeting occurs; the school has no money and such a long list of needs, for example: a library, flushing toilets, more resources for the teachers to teach more effectively, and I can go on and on but will stop there. Anyway, if these people will not meet with me they simply will not receive the money, so here´s hoping yet once more that they will show up to the meeting planned this week. It would be such a shame if money was raised for them and they weren't able to receive it.

SUMMER CAMP
Summer vacation here starts at the end of December, so in January after my visit to the States I plan on meeting with the kids a few times a week to do all the things that there is not time to do during the regular school year. I usually bring a short book with me to school and read to a group of kids during recess. Earliar this year I bought Harry Potter in Spanish and tried to read it during recess, but it was too involved for such a short hectic break. So I´d like to read the book to the kids and then watch the movie. I also plan on doing simple science and environmental projects once a week.

APART FROM WORK
I´ve made a few good girl friends in my group. I usually end up hanging out wth them a few times a month, it is so nice to have a group of awesome girls to hang out wth again, I haven´t had this since I left Flagstaff.

My family and a few friends have been out to visit. During their visits I´ve been able to travel and see a lot of Panama, but there is still so much more to see. I don´t think 9 months is enough time to do all the exploring I want to.

Well that is all for now. I really hope to be better about up-dating this site over the next 9 months or so. As always I THANK everyone for the support that you have given me.

Arisia
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1147586460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1147586460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1147586460/tpod.html Sat, 16 Dec 2006 13:30:40 -0500 Peace Corps in Panama

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San Diego, California, United States

As most of you know I have accepted an invitation from the Peace Corps to volunteer in Panama to work on community environmental conservation. Tomorrow I leave for Washington D.C. for pre-service training, and Wednesday I will arrive in Panama! I will complete three months of language, job, and cultural training, and then I will be placed in a site for two years. My new address will be:

Arisia Lee/Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General de Correos
Santa Fe de Veraguas
Republica de Panama

Enjoy the site and I look forward to hearing from all of you
Arisia
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158689400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158689400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/arisialee/panama2006/1158689400/tpod.html Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:17:02 -0400 Peace Corps in Panama

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El pantano, veraguas, Panama

Here are some more photos
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