Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Chiriqui, Panama

I can´t post from a day to day basis, and there simply aren´t enough words or enough time to explain just how amazing my trip has been so far. We visited the Panama Canal, and learned that there was going to be more funding put into education and public medicine because of how much money the canal was generating. After visiting the Old City and getting a little taste of the culture there, we returned to our villas and prepared to pack up so we could go to Chiriqui the following morning.

Panama time isn´t the same as American time. So, when we decided to leave around 9, we didn´t end up leaving until roughly ten in the morning. Then began the six and a half hour bus ride through plains and mountains on up into the provincia de Chiriqui. Looking at the beat up bus that we used, one would never think that we´d actually be able to make it up the steep inclines that the journey required. Literally we were traveling at forty five degree angles at times. What we had to pay for with a ittle bit of anxiety and stress we were paid back for in the tremendous view. Mountains towered in the distance, rising up all around us as we reached higher and higher altitudes.

The further and further away that we came from the city, the further apart homes were. And they were no longer made of tin, but wood, with thatched roofs and sometimes less than that. The Ngobe Indian women hung around on the outside of their houses, wearing solid colored cotton dresses that covered them from neck to ankle in spite of the heat. More often than not they had at least two young children in tote. Cars disappeared, replaced by horses and donkeys and cows, and the poverty became more and more evident as the miles flew by.

Today, we really immersed ourselves in the community. I traveled to a town called Soloy, where there resides a woman´s health clinic. There I assisted in the clinic, helping with vital signs and doing my best to help the nurses there with my skills and menial spanish. I got to see how a clinic was run there, since the dogs walked in and out of examination rooms, and the floor was rarely ever clean of dirt. It was a shocker to me that anything could be done in these circumstances. Yet, it was possible. The nurses wore pressed white uniforms and gave immunizations and asked about patient´s history, and they tolerated my poor spanish as I asked patients questions and talked to the young children that came in.

The best part was going to the elementary school afterward. The kids were just being let out, and as soon as we got off the bus they crowded us, insisting that we take pictures of them and showing us the crafts they had made. I was amazed at how curious they were (not much of a surprise with how pale we are by comparison), and really absorbed the lifestyle of these people who generally don´t survive on much more than 400 dollars a year. The greatest impression I had was that these people operated on absolute minimum, and made it work. Sort of brought into perspective just how little we actually need in order to survive.

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