Immediately before coming to Panama I was living in a studio apartment in a high rise in Washington, DC and I spent my childhood in rural suburbia on Long Island. Before moving to Panama I always had access to electricity and safe (even hot) water. It was never even a question because we see those as basic human needs when we talk about housing. As one of my supervisors said during training "don't underestimate your ability to adapt".
I grew up in a small "one stoplight" kind of town, but it's nothing compared to the size of my community where the streets are paved, but don't have names, there are no traffic signals (but most people seem to have access to a car) and everything is located in relation to something else. For example, I live "next door to Prima". That's my address.
Before I came to Panama I had no idea what my house would look like or how people lived here. From my research I thought I would be living in a wooden house with a dirt or concrete floor, a tin roof, and a latrine. I would have a rain catchment system for water and I probably wouldn't have electricity in my house.
The reality is much different.
Training
During our first three months in-country Peace Corps volunteers in Panama live with host families in the training community. In my host family's house they had electricity and running water, but the electricity was transferred from room to room via extension cords, depending on where people were during the day. My 5 year old host sister spent much of the day watching comicas (literally "comedies", but in reality can be applied to almost any television show or movie) on their TV. She loves cartoons.
My room was a annex at the back with concrete walls and punch out windows in each wall, a tin roof, and a poured concrete floor. I had two large plywood shelves for my things. I used my mosquito net during training because the bugs were eating me alive (even though the windows were covered with screens). Using the mosquito net made sleeping so much hotter, but not being covered in bug bites was worth it.
My host family also had running water from around 5:30am until about 3pm. After 3 the water would go out until the next morning. Some days the water wouldn't come or would come for less time. We would save water in the dual basin sink for washing dishes (half for washing dirty dishes, half for rinsing them), and in bottles in the refrigerator for drinking. I used hand sanitizer to clean my hands and rinsed my teeth with mouthwash when I couldn't brush my teeth at night.
They had a nice tiled bathroom and a separate shower area around the back of their house. The bathroom didn't have a light, so I always had my headlamp with me at night. I took bucket showers because the showerhead wasn't working well while I was there. This involved taking a smaller tupperware (an old ice cream container usually) and dumping water from a larger basin over my head. I repeated this process until I was satisfied with how clean I was.
We washed our clothes by hand or in a small washing machine. You fill half the machine with clothes and soap and then pour water in. After the wash and rinse cycles you shift the clothes to the other side of the machine, which is like a centrifuge and wrings out the clothes. You line-dry everything here. Your soap-starchy, cleanish laundry is literally hung out for everyone to see.
Pouring freezing water over my head and showering outside by headlamp were difficult to get used to, but I survived training.
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| My host family's house in the training community |
Host Family in Site
After we move to site we live with another host family for three months while we integrate into our communities and learn about the rhythm of life in our respective sites.
My host family in site had TVs in every bedroom (including mine), WiFi, air conditioning in some rooms, and water and electricity at all hours of the day. I never found a scorpion in their house and I stopped using my mosquito net. They watched a lot of TLC shows about cars and building aquariums.
My House
After those three months we can move into our own house if it meets all the security specifications laid out by Peace Corps. I was lucky enough to find a lovely, yeye (fancy) house and doubly lucky because it's next to the best neighbors in the world.
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| My House |
I have a yard full of fruit and other food bearing trees and plants. My neighbors are farmers and I'm still learning what's in my yard. I know that I (or "we", because my neighbors tell me to just take food from their trees and garden) have guanabana (a green spikey fruit filled with gooey white deliciousness), guandú (a kind of bean), plantains, oranges, peppers, and cilantro, but there are probably more things that I just don't know about. There are chickens that roam the area (and poop on my porch, especially when it rains), stray dogs and cats, and a very talkative horse that lives across the street.
I still dry my clothes on clotheslines that we hung between the house and a neighboring chainlink fence, but now I wash them at Prima's house next door (or by hand in buckets if she's not around).
My landlady left a large bookshelf and dining room table set when she moved, so I didn't have to buy any furniture for the living room area and she also left a bunch of dishes and pots in the kitchen. I've bought a few things, but mostly I use what she left in the house.
The house has three bedrooms. I have a guest bedroom with an extra double bed for visitors, my room, and my landlady's bedroom. My landlady doesn't live with me, but she keeps some things in the house for when she visits family in my town.
I spend most of my time at the table doing work or in front of my house sewing or reading in my hammock to beat the heat.
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| My Kitchen |
I have a refrigerator with a freezer and a stove in my kitchen. Unfortunately my oven doesn't work, but I just go next door to Prima's if I want to bake. I fill up a propane tank at the store around the corner from my house so I have gas to cook with and I use a barbecue lighter to light the stove (I'm a little too chicken to use matches). I don't have any shelves, so I just keep my dishes in a Jenga-like construction on the counter. Most days I win, but sometimes I lose the Jenga game. We have a formal trash pickup that comes once per week. It's common in more rural parts of the country to burn trash, so I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about that.
I have a blue-tiled bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink, which is the norm in my community. I don't have hot water, but if I shower at night the cold water is a welcome relief from the day's heat, as opposed to a rude morning wakeup.
I love where I live. My house is perfect (though it's a little big for just me) and my neighbors are the most generous and loving people ever.
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