A Visit to La Laguna

This past week I was able to visit my site, La Laguna, for the first time and I've got an interesting and exciting two years ahead of me. A word about the pictures first. I haven't been too good about taking pictures in the past few weeks. I refrained from using my camera in La Laguna during my visit. I would like to avoid revealing technological gadgets until I have lived there for a little while. Consequently, the only picture below of La Laguna is from quite some distance. I promise there will be many more of my site in the future.

Hato Chami, where I start my hike to La Laguna.

Last weekend Peace Corps held a conference for all new volunteers to meet their counterparts from their future sites and then travel home with him/her after some informational sessions. My counterpart was one of a few who did not show up the first day for the conference. Word quickly traveled back that he had gotten cold feet and not left La Laguna. It turns out that he had never been on a bus before (he's 44 years old) and was scared to make the 10 hour trip to the conference center. A fellow Peace Corps volunteer made the trek up to La Laguna and traveled with him back to the conference center, teaching him how to use the bus system along the way.

I could tell from the moment I meet him that he was intimidated by all the activity around him in such a foreign location (not to mention that we Americans were towering above his five-foot, 110 pound frame). Once we started talking he quickly opened up about La Laguna and the details of my work for the next two years. Things quickly ended at the conference and we were off to La Laguna.

Hiking in to La Laguna (bad lighting, sorry).

The truck ride up to Hato Chami, where I start my hike, easily matches America's best offroading trails. There were countless occasions where we had to get out and push the truck through ruts several feet deep, or use picks and shovels to clear the road. After several hours of bouncing around the back of a truck we arrived in Chami and began the hour hike down in to La Laguna. I was quickly overwhelmed by the beautiful mountains and views around me and still can't believe that it will be my home for the next two years.

The sunrise over the interamerican highway.

I spent four days in site and counted just seven homes in La Laguna. The people that work there are subsistence farmers, living completely off the land and having no steady income of money to buy things that they can´t make themselves. I spent two days exploring parts of the valley with my counterpart, learning about the land, and harvesting rice, tomatoes, and lettuce (which we ate for every meal I was there). The community has a small aqueduct system which works well during the raining season (8 months of the year) but lacks water during the dry season. I expect to work with them to expand the system, but it appears that latrines will be the first order of business.

Currently there is just one latrine in Laguna. Most people go to the bathroom in the creek that flows through town. This is the same creek that they bathe in and is also their water source when the aqueduct is dry. I told the community that upon my return at the end of the month I'll visit every home and start the planning and soliciting of funds to bring latrines to the town. Word quickly spread of this and before I left I had people showing up to my cot who had walked for up to two hours to ask if they too could have a latrine. They are all willing to work to help build the latrines, but they don't have the resources to bring in the necessary materials from outside, which will be my job.

Gecko that fell on me during class in the rainforest.

The third day in site I woke up to my counterpart standing over me telling me to hurry up and get ready, we were going for a hike. I got dressed and we started hiking. About an hour later we arrived at the top of the highest point in the center of the valley. There were a dozen or so men who were all waiting, dressed in their nicest clothes. I was introduced to the men and asked to explain Peace Corps and my work for the next two years. I gladly obliged but first asked that they each tell me their names and where they were from. The men went around in a circle and would say their names and turn around and point far off into the distance and say in a thick Ngäbere accent, "Vivo alla." (I live there). At times I saw the top of a grass hut, other times I saw smoke billowing from the rainforest, and yet other times I saw nothing but the vast sea of green that is Panama. The men all walked from around the valley to explain their need for water and latrines. They asked if I could help them...I was overwhelmed with it all.

My last night in site as I was sitting on the dirt floor in the poorly lit hut, watching the women peal the rice, one of the children of the house finally had the courage to come close to me. As he approached me I watched with wonder about what he was thinking. After about a minute of standing next to me, looking at me, he touched my arm with his finger and then placed his arm next to mine. I looked up at the dad, on the other side of the room, who was already beginning to explain that I was the first white person the boy had ever seen. I tried as best I could to hide my astonishment but somehow I think that it was a bigger adjustment for them than it was for me. As the night went on I was served my usual rice, tomatoes, and lettuce out of a large shell that resembles a half of a coconut, eating with my hands, and listening as the ten or so people around me chatted in a tribal language I can't even begin to understand. It was there that it finally hit me, a huge smile came over me, and I felt like I was immersed in something so unbelievably foreign and new...as if I had been dropped into an advertisement for Peace Corps.