38: back in Panama

Suddenly found myself back in Panama. I've been preparing for the pilot environmental brigade steadily since the board retreat, but it's hard to prepare yourself to be back in Panama. There are a lot of emotions associated with Panama for me. Pre-established emotions that arise just smelling the air. I see how tired Andri is from work, and how fast the Global Brigades network has grown in Panama. Adriana has a big bull to grab by the horns. Students love it. This week, we'll see how the environmental kids feel. We'll see how Planting Empowerment feels about brigades. We'll see how I manage as a leader. A lot gets put to the test, and in the end, it's all about your attitude at the moment you're faced with a tough situation. That's when who you are matters.

37: Global Brigades Board Retreat

I'm no longer in Panama, and this blog is no longer about Panama. It's now about my life in affiliation with student-led international development organization. Somehow, having moved back to North Carolina, into a beautiful and loving family life, I've found myself more committed than ever to the mission of Global Brigades. Or, the mission that I bring to the organization, which happens to come straight from my heart. Since coming home, I've been working exclusively on Global Environmental Brigades, working towards the cap of program development phase and preparing to launch a pilot GEB in March. The group is UC Berkeley and will work with Planting Empowerment. I am terrified of the pilot brigade- so much is at stake, I have invested a lot of personal commitment and am aware of the other participants' high expectations. But having attending the board retreat in LA last weekend 'empowered' me with will to get this off the ground. Whatever happens, I will have launched.

36: the first brigade

University of Central Florida, Business Brigade, December 2008

Kicking off Panama’s Winter Brigade season this year: The University of Central Florida. The UCF Business Brigade was a team of 12 graduate students and 3 undergraduates, accompanied by 2 faculty advisors and a Deloitte business advisor. Leading the group throughout the week, we had in-country directors Andri, Sophia and Adriana, GBB logistics coordinator Pablo, domestic GBB advisor Merrilee, GBB co-founder Catherine and special guest anthropologist Andres. Total: 25.

Day 1: UCF arrived at Tocumen airport and were shuttled to the Casco Viejo Hostel. After checking in, we had a group dinner at Rene’s Café, down the street.

Day 2: Breakfast on the Hostel roof-top terrace bright and early! The group then met at the GB headquarters for a Sustainable Development Workshop led by Pablo. Pablo talked about the people, ideas and movements that contributed to the principles of Sustainable Development, and what the theory implies for development efforts today. The workshop also included a memorable activity in which four students made a gravity-defying human table. Following a coffee and cookie break, our special guest anthropologist Andres presented a workshop on Panama’s indigenous Kuna people. Having worked for two years with the Kuna, Andres’s workshop provided valuable insight into the culture of the Koskuna community to which the brigade was headed. After lunch, the brigade bus left for Koskuna. We left Panama City, crossed the Bridge of the Americas, and entered Veracruz. Arriving in Koskuna community, the local leaders welcomed the group and took us on a brief walking tour of the village. UCF then divided into their subgroups and preformed SWOT analysis with the micro enterprise owners. The SWOT analysis served as a manner of introduction as well as an assessment of needs and capabilities. That evening, after dinner, the brigade took a walking tour of the Casco Viejo, the historic neighborhood in which their hostel was located.

Day 3: Breakfast bright and early. On the patio of the GB headquarters, the group attended a Capital Investment Workshop presented by Sophia. The workshop provided an overview of sustainable micro enterprise development including analysis, capacity building, and investment into productive assets. Over coffee and cookies, UCF divided into their subgroups and reviewed their Community Action Plan, incorporating lessons learned on their first conversations with the community. There were two subprojects: one group worked with a small “tienda” (store) managed by the Junta Local, and the other with a children’s “comedor” (kitchen) managed by the community church. That same afternoon, the UCF brigade put their business skills to work with the Koskuna tienda and comedor. The tienda team investigated ways to increase the store’s ability to contribute funds to the community school and the comedor team looked for ways to improve the kitchen’s capacity to serve free meals to children. The solutions would involve business education in bookkeeping, personal finance, and computer literacy, investment into store and kitchen equipment, and discussions with community leadership to plan for the future and reach their goals. This was the day the comedor group helped the community members discover that they could nearly cut food costs in half if they had a freezer to allow them to purchase and store food in bulk from the traveling wholesalers.

Day 4: The project momentum building, the brigade got straight to work on capital investment and capacity building preparation. Some students made shopping lists and investigated prices while others brought out their laptops and brushed up the workshops they had prepared to present to the community. In Koskuna that afternoon, the group formed an additional educational subgroup, which set up in the community school room to conduct their personal finance workshops. The tienda and comedor groups met with their community leaders and continued implementing their community action plan, deftly making adjustments according to surprise discoveries and obstacles. In both situations, the brigade found that inter-communities relations added unexpected complexities, but were able to come to innovative solutions through group discussion.

Day 5: Before heading out the community, the UCF group went shopping in Panama City, loading up the GB truck with supplies purchased with their community investment fund. The tienda group bought folding chairs for community meetings, the comedor group a new stove for the kitchen. That afternoon, the education group again set up shop in the school room, going over the basics of business management, inventory, and recordkeeping with a group of Kuna community members. The attendees asked questions, relating the material to their own businesses and home economies. The other two subgroups started installing the equipment in the store and the kitchen, integrating capacity building efforts with this capital contribution. Packs of kids ran in between the groups constantly, kicking balls and posing for photographs. The UCF group closed the day with a dinner of fresh fish on the nearby beach.

Day 6: Another morning for purchases: refrigerator, microwave, TV, chest freezer, 100 plates, stock store goods, blackboard, cashier’s box… it’s amazing what $1,700 will buy. This was the last day the brigade would spend in the community, and it was also Koskuna’s 21^st birthday. The tienda group emptied the store space and completely revamped the interior; it looked entirely different. They filled the shelves, took inventory, priced items, installed the microwave, popped popcorn and bought and sold sodas. The students also did pricing analysis on every inventory item to ensure the store no longer lost money on any items. With these improvements, the new products and the attraction of microwave popcorn and a TV, the community store would be able to contribute more funds to the local school. The comedor group installed the kitchen supplies, and set up a tally system on a blackboard to help them keep track of sales. With better kitchen equipment and more attention to inputs and outputs, the kitchen would be able to reach the goal of setting commedor profits aside for free children’s meals on Sundays. The education group, meanwhile, held computer literacy classes, teaching interested community members to use excel for bookkeeping purposes. That afternoon, we had a small celebration of the week’s accomplishments: some Kuna girls performed a traditional dance, we lit an orange birthday cake. UCF had printed certificates of participation for those who attended the business education workshops, and after several thank-you speeches in Kuna, English, and Spanish, UCF’s student leader called out the names and presented each one. The week-end celebration extended into the evening, as brigaders took a well-deserved night on the town.

Day 7: Saturday was UCF’s final day in Panama, and a well-deserved fun day. In the morning, we bought locally-made artesanias and that municipal market, and many made off with Panama hats. That afternoon, the brigade had Luis drive the bus all over Panama City, catching up on the sites. Adriana proved to be an excellent tour-guide. In the evening, the whole gang of 25 met for a special night at Las Tinajas, were we ate at long tables, drank sangria, and watched the poleras perform traditional Panamanian dances. Catherine and Andri joined in and boogied.

Day 8: UCF left for Tocumen early that morning, Andri and Sophia waved them goodbye and the airport. All around a great first brigade, and we look forward to welcoming UCF back in May!

35: MIDES

The morning after the crazy 18-person 6-course thanksgiving dinner party we threw at our house, my cell rang at 8am. Hola? I squaked. The lady immediately starting rabbling directions on how to get to the office for our 10 am meeting. I scribbled them down. The Ministry of Social Development? Neither Andri or I remember setting up that meeting, but off we went. Turns out Emily Boland, our U.S. embassy connection, had sent them our brochure and they got excited about meeting us. They tried reaching my cell, but it was turned off for the two weeks I was in the states. The surprise meeting went very well; they should us a video about their Redes Communitarios, networks of community leaders who identify development initiatives and bring people together to improve quality of life. Sounds like what they are missing is the funding and external action to get projects off the ground, which is where our brigades come in. We hope to set up a partnership agreement with MIDES next week.

34: Pajaro Jai

I got back to Panama City, after two weeks off in North Carolina, and asked the humid, noisy air that greeted me "why? am I back here?" But the following morning, I was reminded why Panama. Andri and I boarded the Pajaro Jai: a large wooden sailboat built with native wood, deep in the Darien jungle by indigenous Embera and captained by an ex-Peace Corps volunteer. The boat sails year-round, docking at ports in Europe, Asia and the Americas, raising awareness about indigenous ethnicities and opening markets to developing enterprises, making headlines. We sailed around with Jim, the captain, his Embera crew, a slew of Peace Corps exec.s, USAID folks, the U.S. ambassador, lots of NGO offspring. Only in Panama. Looks like the first brigade is going to be a blast, not only do we have Radio Exitosa covering their last day, we may be having a barbeque on the Pajaro Jai!

33: El Salto

Early Monday morning, we piled into the car and headed southwest to Santiago. At Santiago, we were met by the Patronato engineer Alejandro Guerra who took us onward to Santa Fe. After checking into the Santa Fe Hotel, a charming mountain bunker perfect for student groups, Ing. Guerra drove us up the slanting mountain to a model farm called El Salto, named after the 20-something breathtaking waterfalls that bleed the jungle. El Salto is one of the Partonato's showcase farms, notable not only for it's balanced permaculture of cacao, beans, coffee, rice, tomatos, oregano, citrus and bananas, but also for it's secret treasure: the falls. The farmers have worked with peace corps volunteers to construct two beautiful cabins of polished wood tucked into the trees and hope to start agritourism, integrating offering accommodations with raising awareness around organic agriculture. The farmer showed us the cabins, so far unused by any guest, and the waterfalls, still visited by only very few foreigners. Standing on the fragile moss covering the boulders at the base, I asked him whether he was sure he wanted to share the treasure with tourists. Yes, he said, they needed to extra income. Back at the ranch, we met with the farm governance and talked about what a business brigade project at El Salto could look like. Like many we've met with before, they were most interested in "capacitation" on how to run an agritourism business, and the opportunity to convivir (get to know, literally "live with") the brigaders. The doors to this rare, unexploited reserve are open to sustainable development.

32: Penenome

Sleepless from a night of scratching the painful and plentiful bug bites leftover from the Darien, I got on the 6am bus to Penenome. At the Hotel dos Continentes, I was met by Ing. Rojas, an agricultural technician for the Patronato de Nutricion. Like Planting Empowerment, the Patronato has a unique strategy of approaching their cause -which is combating hunger and poverty- that incorporates sustainable land and resource management. The Patronato is a trust that buys land, established collective granjas (farms), promotes sustainable agriculture, then helps the farms buy the land back at the original price, and establish the farm as a legal entity. We visited three such granjas that day, the most beautiful I have ever seen. At the first, where a hobbit-like farmer padded around between flower-lined beds, tilapia ponds, rice paddies, and organge groves, we outlined a project supporting agritourism on the farm. The farmer made us raspadura (sugarcane juice) using an ancient trapiche (horse-drawn mill) and walked us along the ridge of his mountain-terrain to a waterfall surrounded by patches of novios (pink wildflowers). The farm is conveniently located on the way to Parque Omar, so with a few connections to the tour companies, a business plan, a website, and some cabanas, the site is perfect for eco/agrotourism. The second granja was a collective coffee farm, where the farmers hope to add value by processing the beans before selling to Duran. The third was a mixed vegetable farm, beautifully backgrounded by a towering, rounded mountain, and rested into a quiet, lush rainforest. The farmer, not surprisingly, wants to specialize in culantro, and is looking for methods to preserve, process and potentially export the perishable, but high-value crop. He picked 20 sweet oranges for each of the 20 volunteers I told him averaged a brigade.

31: Nuevo Paraiso

This weekend's excursion was to the Darien, to visit Planting Empowerment's rainforest plantation. We started off as a large group: Andri, his visiting friend Clarissa, Susana, my friend Sahara and myself. We got on a bus at the Terminal and took it north east to Torti, where PE's local director, Liriano Opua met us to take us to Nuevo Paraiso. Once in Nuevo Paraiso, Liriano arranged for us to stay at with village family, in the care of Rosa Sinespinas. Susana and Sahara stayed with Rosa while Andri, Clarissa and I followed Liriano to see reforestation site, and talk about Environmental Brigade activities. Liriano told us about Planting Empowerment's role in the local community, their sustainable forestry techniques, and how they work to create economic incentive for environmental practices. Andri had to leave shortly after the tour, heading out with Liriano, so it ended up being the four of us girls in the home of Rosa. We hung our hammocks and Rosa decided to kill a chicken for dinner. So it was that we ended up us five women, from five different countries, chased and killed a chicken for dinner. We ate by candle light, Rosa happy as a hen with a brood of chicks, and settled to sleep with the mosquitos. The next morning Liriano came and took Susana and I on to Arimae, while Clarissa and Sahara went back to Panama. Susana, Liriano and I went further into the Darien, towards the thatch huts and children running tires on dusty roads. In Arimae, a large USAID-build structure, housing a women artesanias association immediately caught my attention, as I'm sure Liriano had planned, as we began discussing bring a business brigade to work with the association. Thus the Berkely Business and Environmental Brigades unfold. I took a practice GRE math test on the bus ride back.

30: UN Population Fund

Yesterday I met Marta Icasa, of the United Nations Populations Fund, to discuss the joint medical-business brigade we are planning for this winter with the Panamanian doctor. We met at the Sheraton Hotel, where she had been attending meetings all day long. I was flustered from the cab-ride where I got stuck in traffic and then overcharged, but thankful that I arrived at the right place close to the right time. Juan Manuel must have really talked GB up to her- he has an Obama-like charm- because she did not start off with the critical disposition some organizations have had. In fact, she was ready to talk about the project in detail, and I was the wary one because of the distance and difficult accessibility of the project site. UNPF works with extremely poor communities in the indigenous Nobe reserve in Chiriqui, aiming to reduce the critical level of women who die in childbirth. Their approach mobilizes volunteers within the community to educate women on pregnancy, nutrition and health, building capacity and empowering women to take care of themselves. Marta has very specific tasks for the Panamanian medical students, filling much needed gaps in skilled volunteer labor. We continued the conversation, to my surprise, over dinner at Marta's house. Juan Manuel, Marta and I sat on the balcony, eating off our laps and talking. I see the importance of a joint-brigade, not only because micro-enterprise development complements health and gender equality efforts, but also because of the opportunity for cultural exchange and the message of international responsibility. Juan and Marta also made a very important point: the need for short-term community development volunteers is especially exigent because the few martyrs who devote themselves to paddling against the tital wave of poverty and misery are so unhappy that they are a dying race themselves. Setting up a rotating influx of specialized volunteers would be much more effective in the long run. Global Brigades can be the organization that manages this task!

29: Corporate Social Responsibility

Adriana got me in to a conference on corporate social responsibility (CSR), hosted by Panama's national beer producer (Cerveza Nacional) and sponsored by the mega-multi-national SAB-miller. The Peruvian CEO of SAB-Miller was really something. His presentation on CSR (RSE in Spanish) made it clear to me what an enormous role corporations play in sustainable development. For multi-nationals, sustainable development is a business strategy, and those who turn their backs on it are denying reality, he said. The CEO then enumerated the challenges to sustainable development that corporations are facing, and illustrated how, by taking on these challenges, companies are actually taking on a global welfare agenda. And, when multi-billion dollar multi-nationals invest in corporate social responsibility, the scale of their operations is comparable to that of major development agencies. I couldn't believe the CEO of a beer company so effectively, realistically, and un-moralistically prioritized issues of resource use, energy, transportation, poverty, population, climate change and human rights. These are concerns that, despite the urgency, for some reason are not at the forefront of presidential debates and are not making headlines. I used to think corporations were responsible for muting these crises, but clearly modern corporate culture is based on responsibility and proactivity. The limiting factor is not economic self-interest, that is actually the motivator. That made me think- this bail-out is the American citizens' buy-in to save corporations, and we have every right to expect them to give back. I not only expect, but now I look forward to it, because even beer companies (especially those with budgets comparable to national economies) can be radical agents of change.