Peace Corps Volunteers in Panama

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. Since its inception in the early 1960's the Peace Corps has sent over 195,000 volunteers to 139 countries around the world. Its three simple goals are helping people of interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women, helping promoted a better understanding of the United States by countries served, and helping promote better understanding of other peoples by citizens of the United States. Panama has had over four hundred volunteers over the years and this year's "class" is currently undergoing its ten weeks of training. I had the good fortune to visit with two of Panama's current crop of Peace Corps volunteers. Bremen de Haan and Molly Petersen are undergoing their ten weeks of intense training prior to their field assignments which will last for two years.  

Volunteers go through an intensive ten week training program during which they are assigned their job and location for the next two years. This is the state at which I caught up with Breman de Haan and Molly Petersen. The two were taking a welcome Sunday break from their training and catching up on personal shopping.

Bremen de Haan's family comes from Curacao where Bremen spent part of his youth when not going to school in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His family is fluent in Spanish as well as English and Papiamento, a Curacao dialect. His Spanish fluency has already helped him in his Preace Corps training in Panama. Bremen is a University of North Carolina grad in international studies and economics. He worked a couple of years in New York recruiting for Fortune 500 companies and decided that what he wanted to do is what the Peace Corps does, make people's lives better. Thus Bremen de Haan joined the Peace Corps and ended up in Panama.

Bremen has an easy manner about him and expresses himself well in Spanish as well as English. Because of his Spanish fluency Bremen sometimes does not take the required Spanish classes but rather has taught classes in local schools, along with other Spanish fluent trainees. Bremen's enthusiasm for his new work is infectious. He talks about wanting to help people as a major factor in his life. Having grown up in Atlantic City he is familiar with city life and looks forward to helping in urban situations in Panama. After he finds out where he will be working the next two years he will spend a "culture week" familiarizing himself with the location and its people. 

Molly Petersen was ambushed for the interview because she was along for a day of shopping with Bremen. Training for volunteers is six and sometimes seven days a week. I asked Molly the same questions about her Peace Corps experience so far. Molly expects to head into the interior to teach environmental health practices. She, like Bremen, will know for sure this week. Molly Petersen comes from Minneapolis, Minnesota where she works in theater.

Since Molly's type of work involves basic sanitation and water supply she expects to go somewhere very rural. She was along for the shopping with Bremen but was mostly window shopping. "I don't know how I will get things to my site," she says, noting that all the Peace Corps volunteers use public transportation. Molly, like Breman, is very upbeat. She has studied "overseas" in London and Madrid, speaks Spanish, and is looking forward to making a difference in Panama.

I asked Bremen what he thinks about Panama.

"Nice," he says. "I like the closeness of the families."

Molly said that Panama is "different." From a woman's perspective Molly is sensitive to a different set of issues such as being seen as a "gringa" and being asked if she is going to marry a Panamanian. Coming from the "North" Molly also remarks on how hot Panama is.

I asked both Peace Corps volunteers what they expected to accomplish in Panama. The question evoked a nervous laugh from both.

Bremen said that if he could help one kid, one youth group that he would be happy. He emphasized that what the Peace Corps wants is sustainable results.

Molly talked about integrating into the community where she will be living the next two years. Her work will involve building such things as rain catchment systems and she also emphasized the importance of teaching skills and motivating so that the skills she teaches will live on after she leaves.

"What if a project is not done when your two years are up?" I asked.

The volunteers told me that a volunteer can ask for an extension for up to a year although extensions usually are for work at a national level. The maximum time spend by all volunteers on a project is six years although this can be extended after a two year break.

"What surprised you here?" I asked.

Bremen said, "How happy people are where they live, away from the city." He went on to explain that many in his current neighborhood in San Carlos commute to the city for work but prefer the slower, more relaxed pace where they live outside of the city. He is also pleased to see how important family life is in Panama.

Molly is also surprised and pleased at the importance of family life. She also is surprised and dismayed at the low expectations and lack of information that is the life of many of the poor in Panama.

The volunteers have seen a bit of the Panama school system. Bremen, especially, notes the importance of memorization and repetition in the Panama schools and is concerned that this "training" will impede the ability of individuals to think creatively in developing sustainable solutions to life's challanges. Bremen talked about team teaching a class in a local school and trying problem solving as a teaching technique. The class found the lesson difficult, Bremen said.

"What the Peace Corps teaches us," Bremen said, "is to get to know local values and base the project on those values." He makes the point that the values in a community persist and can be the driving factor in motivating people to continue work after the volunteer is long gone.

I asked both Bremen de Haan and Molly Petersen if I could follow up in a couple of months and the answer was, "Yes." Both volunteers are interested in where they are going to be working and excited about getting started.

We started talking over bowls of soup in El Cangrejo and I parted company with Bremen and Molly outside of the El Machetazo department store in Calidonia. As the two were enjoying the luxury of a taxi ride to lunch in Casco Viejo I thought about when the Peace Corps was formed and the idealism of the time. It seemed to me that Bremen and Molly embody the idealism that thePeace Corps is still all about. They are enthusiastic but not naive. As a US citizen I am pleased and proud to have these two representing my country to the world.