whims

Trust Your Gut

When I applied for this internship in October, I had the feeling that I was going to be doing a research project on my own…well, I am. My first day of work, a week ago today, was quite the shocker. My supervisor had told me he’d wait for me at 7am in his office. I was surprised he wanted to meet so early and no one believed he’d actually be there, but he was. We didn’t get to spend much time together, as he was running off to a big epidemiologists meeting, but he did get to introduce me to and sluff me off onto a few of the people who work with him so I didn’t have to go to the epidemiologists’ meeting with him. When he introduced me to people he gave them the whole spiel, including who I was, where I study, and what I’m going to do. After a few introductions, I realized that no one knew I was coming, nor were anyone them already working or going to work on my project. I’ll admit, that freaked me out a bit. After my supervisor left, I went out with the team, who’s working on a cacao research project (very cool. They’re testing to see if it a) decreases hypertension or b)increases sexual potency.) They work with the Kuna, so after waiting for an hour for the Gorgas car, we piled into the truck and took off for Kuna Negra, a Kuna community north of Panama City. It was great; I got to see parts of the city that looked more like the Panama I was expecting. I don’t know if it’s good to have expectations like that, but it seemed more normal: neither extremely poor nor extremely rich. We had to go through a landfill to get to the community and it was like a jungle shanty town, although not all the houses were made of temporary materials. I got to meet the saila, or leader in Kuna, of the community. She doesn’t speak Spanish, or at least very well, but she was warm and gave all of us an avocado. Her name was America… After leaving there, we went to the Kuna Congress. It’s amazing how much authority and autonomy the Kuna have maintained. They do feel their culture is weakening, though. Some Kuna kids don’t learn the language and many don’t know the traditional dances and ways. However, you can see the Kuna women walking all over the city as they all wear the same beautiful outfits: bright, flower-printed, wrap skirts; blouse tops sewn onto the embroidered molas they make as the abdomen piece of the shirt; red handkerchiefs on their heads; and beads wrapped around their legs and sometimes arms. They have many systems in place to allow outsiders in, but I don’t think it’ll be too big a deal to get their approval for my research because there are some Kuna who work at Gorgas with my supervisor and they’re the ones who’ve been showing me around. They’re helping to orient me to the system and I think will help a lot in me getting through it. So, yes…my research. Well, I’m not super intimidated. I’m going to plan it, which is fine. That’s what I’ve been working on. I’m trying to bite off just as much as I can chew but know there will be lots of bumps along the way. The hardest part will be getting someone to translate and getting a car to take me to the communities. My supervisor isn’t the easiest to get ahold of, either. It’s okay. It’ll work out.

Outside of work, things haven’t been too exciting. We went out on Friday night, and to the pool on Saturday. Sunday was great: three of us went to a beach near Panama City: Playa Gorgona. I’m feeling pretty okay with my Spanish…I just wish I could speak it more. We don’t really speak it in the house and although I do at work, people are constantly trying to speak to me in English. This country is crazy that way. People you wouldn’t expect to speak English are fluent: like the security guard, grounds keeper, or waitress. There are immigrants from all over, including the Caribbean and India, so that may have something to do with it, but I guess with all the American influence, it’s just something that’s bound to happen. I’m not super happy with the living situation: we’re outside of the city by about 40 mins, and it’s not cheap/easy to get in. I suppose I’ll get more used to the buses soon and it won’t feel like such a drag, I would have just preferred something more central. Ah well. Win some lose some.

And, look: Princess hair :)

posted by Marielly @ 4:16 PM