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For 21 months I lived and worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer posted in Odobate, a remote jungly indigenous region of Western Panama accessible only by a three hour boat ride and then a muddy hike. I lived with locals, spoke their languages and became their family. I collaborated with four neighboring communities who did not have potable drinking water, where many women and children walked to fill buckets from dirty streams and rivers. Their dream was to build community-managed systems to bring potable water into their homes.
These communities were left in limbo in mid-March, 2020 when the Peace Corps mandated my evacuation due to the pandemic. The little support the communities had dried up as agencies turned toward pandemic response. Sadly, they had put great heart into building their own systems and now these communities were been abandoned.
In October, 2021 I returned to Odobate to visit and plan how to finish these unfinished projects the following dry season. Although it was primarily a trip to visit local friends, I did spend a significant amount of time mediating negotiations, taking measurements, reviewing old worksites, and otherwise planning to return and finish the projects at a later point. In March, 2022 I returned and help the communities finish these projects.
A note on ethical travel: By being vaccinated and boosted, using high quality masks, taking multiple COVID tests, timing my October and March trips for a low caseload in both the US and in Panama, and the fact that houses in the Odobate region are inherently open-aired and thus a much lower risk for transmission, I was able to greatly minimize the risk of COVID transmission. (As expected, nobody got sick after my visits. In fact, COVID never hit the region hard, possibly because houses and gathering spaces are open-aired and thus presumably a low transmission risk.)
The primary undertaking was building a drinking water aqueduct for the small town of Paraiso. We sourced water from a spring, laid thousands of feet of piping, installed a water storage tank, and connected water to about eight houses serving 100 people in the community. We also installed water using a different source to the smaller nearby community of Veronte and we did some minor improvements that we never had the chance to do on the Odobate aqueduct. I spent $2,156 on these projects, all of which was spent on purchasing and transporting materials (I paid for my own airfare and expenses) which meant it was very efficient compared to many development projects. Some money was left over, which will be spent on purchasing materials for the next project when I go back.
The exact impact is impossible to calculate given the transient nature of how many people live in each village, but I estimate the project provided water to about 130 people, which means we spent less than $17 per person who now has water piped into their home, thanks to your support. Thank you for making this a huge success!
I have re-opened the fundraiser and increased the amount to support future projects. If you've already donated, you can still help by sharing this with friends or on social media. Any additional funds raised will support additional work during my next visit. On the last Saturday of my visit to Odobate, a couple hours after finishing our project in Paraiso, I hiked with my host grandma's brother, Flaco, to a tiny cluster of homes in the hills in the Guariviara drainage; I hope to spend additional funds to support a small project there, as well as potentially in the town of Umanicote which is about a mile downstream from Odobate. In the morning, Flaco and I hiked the last few hours through the rain and across a couple rivers to the road in Coclecito, where we parted ways until next time.
(Updated March, 2022).
These communities were left in limbo in mid-March, 2020 when the Peace Corps mandated my evacuation due to the pandemic. The little support the communities had dried up as agencies turned toward pandemic response. Sadly, they had put great heart into building their own systems and now these communities were been abandoned.
In October, 2021 I returned to Odobate to visit and plan how to finish these unfinished projects the following dry season. Although it was primarily a trip to visit local friends, I did spend a significant amount of time mediating negotiations, taking measurements, reviewing old worksites, and otherwise planning to return and finish the projects at a later point. In March, 2022 I returned and help the communities finish these projects.
A note on ethical travel: By being vaccinated and boosted, using high quality masks, taking multiple COVID tests, timing my October and March trips for a low caseload in both the US and in Panama, and the fact that houses in the Odobate region are inherently open-aired and thus a much lower risk for transmission, I was able to greatly minimize the risk of COVID transmission. (As expected, nobody got sick after my visits. In fact, COVID never hit the region hard, possibly because houses and gathering spaces are open-aired and thus presumably a low transmission risk.)
The primary undertaking was building a drinking water aqueduct for the small town of Paraiso. We sourced water from a spring, laid thousands of feet of piping, installed a water storage tank, and connected water to about eight houses serving 100 people in the community. We also installed water using a different source to the smaller nearby community of Veronte and we did some minor improvements that we never had the chance to do on the Odobate aqueduct. I spent $2,156 on these projects, all of which was spent on purchasing and transporting materials (I paid for my own airfare and expenses) which meant it was very efficient compared to many development projects. Some money was left over, which will be spent on purchasing materials for the next project when I go back.
The exact impact is impossible to calculate given the transient nature of how many people live in each village, but I estimate the project provided water to about 130 people, which means we spent less than $17 per person who now has water piped into their home, thanks to your support. Thank you for making this a huge success!
I have re-opened the fundraiser and increased the amount to support future projects. If you've already donated, you can still help by sharing this with friends or on social media. Any additional funds raised will support additional work during my next visit. On the last Saturday of my visit to Odobate, a couple hours after finishing our project in Paraiso, I hiked with my host grandma's brother, Flaco, to a tiny cluster of homes in the hills in the Guariviara drainage; I hope to spend additional funds to support a small project there, as well as potentially in the town of Umanicote which is about a mile downstream from Odobate. In the morning, Flaco and I hiked the last few hours through the rain and across a couple rivers to the road in Coclecito, where we parted ways until next time.
(Updated March, 2022).