PANAMA

“The poverty here is enough to make you break down and cry. They live in buildings thrown

together with whatever they can find. It reminds me of those

commercials asking for money.”-Ms. Peebles Journal-July 2001

Our Peace Corps Volunteer

Mac Gillesepi and his wife Brooke are serving in Panama until June 2009.

Where are you from?

I‘m originally from Philadelphia, but was living in Oregon most recently before joining the Peace

Corps.  I looked you guys up and found that your school is in Adams, NY!  My wife and I (her name is Brooke Kaye, and were serving

here together) went to college togetherin Ithaca!  Also, my wifes best friend in the

world is from Mexico, NY.  Small world, I guess.

How long have you been in Panama?

We’ve been in Panama for a little more than 6 months now.

Do you speak Spanish?

I do now!  Actually, I had 4 years of Spanish in middle/high school way back when.  In truth, it was

always my most difficult class.  I ended up not taking the 5th year my senior year of high school because I was struggling so much.  I never really used it again

until I came down here.  The Peace Corps has a really intensive Spanish program for their new

volunteers for the first 2 months we’re here and itAs amazing how much came back to me.  Now, after

living here for 6 months, I find myself able to hold a real conversation with just about anyone.  Living here

in the culture has really made a huge difference!

Is this your 1st international experience?

Pretty much.  I’ve traveled a little in the past outside of the US, but I’ve never lived for an

extended time outside of the countrybefore.

Where are you living? (with a family, in an apartment, etc.)

Right now Brooke and I are living in our own place.  For the first months or so we lived with 2 different host families.  It was a great experience being able to live with a host family, but it’s exciting to have our own place too.  Living with a host family, we picked up a lot of Spanish and learned all about the culture

of Panamá.  ItAs nice, however, to have our own place now because we are cooking for ourselves!  We love to cook and itAs fun to experiment with all the new foods down here like yucca, ñame, otoe,

platano, cacao, and maize just to name a few.  The food is really different, but tasty!

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about yourself?

• We live right now in a place called Ojo de Agua in the Cocle province of Panamá.  If you look at a map of Panamá, Cocle is almost smack-dab in the middle.

 Were in the north-west part of the province, just west of a larger town called El Cope.  ItAs a pretty small town of about 500 people.  We dont have any electricity or

hot water, but it is an absolutely beautiful place to live.  Were just outside the largest national park in Panamá, Omar Torrijos National Park.  Were

up in the mountains, so while it gets hot during the day, it actually gets chilly at night!

My main work is with the local farmers.  Their two main crops are coffee and oranges.  As I write to you the big cosecha of coffee is

going on.  Just about everyone in town walks about two hours each way very day to harvest coffee.  The orange harvest is also

coming soon. They dont have much money, so they grow just about everything that they eat.  Unfortunately, after years of use, their land is becoming more and more nutrient poor and they cant

produce what they used to. I’m trying to help them with that by setting up composting programs and teaching about protecting

the soil.  Brookes main work is with conserving the environment.  Shes working a lot in the school in our

town (about 120 kids, in grades k-6).  Shes also working onreforestation and stove projects.  They use wood for almost all of their cooking and are chopping down a lot of trees to do it.  The

stoves are built out of clay and sand (things they can find locally) and use about 1/3 the amount of wood that their traditional stoves

do. ItAs challenging work, but we love it!

Our plan is to be down here until June 2009, and we’d love to stay in touch with your classes while we’re down here!  We could maybe even set up something with the students in our town, if you’re interested. They love American culture and are always asking us questions about what itAs like in the United States.  I’m sure they’d love to write to you!

Vamos a caminar a Panama!

• Calendarios

•http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/numbers/numbers2.asp