I Don't Look Near as Often as I Should

I was asked by someone I look to as a friend and mentor one time what my passion was.  This question caught me off guard and I quickly answered with the obvious answer of "Agriculture, Agricultural Education and FFA".  Just as quick as I had answered the question a response was given that that was not the answer they were looking for, which left me feeling perplexed as I was told to "Figure out what fuels your fire, what gets you up when you feel there is nothing left to give?"

I spent many hours thinking of this topic and reading books to help me reflect on "me" and find the answer to this question.  One day I went to work and found a small card on my desk that read "God knows your purpose. Do You?" This card was from one of the State FFA Officers and just made me think even more about what I was passionate about.  Now, some may say what do those two things have in common?  Well, I believe that God's purpose for me would align in some way with what I am passionate about.  So I continued on my journey to find my passion and early one morning it hit me like a ton of bricks falling from the sky that my passion is simply helping people, and giving them the opportunity better themselves.  At first I thought this was stupid and that I had lost it.  So eagerly I went back with my response of what I had discovered that my passion was and was told good job and the conversation went on.

What does this mean?  As 2011 comes to a close and I prepare for a whole new chapter in my life for 2012 plenty comes to mind for what this means to me.  Over the past year and seven months I have had the amazing opportunity to work as the North Carolina FFA Intern where I had the experience of a lifetime learning the other side of the fence of the FFA world that I love so dearly.  After finishing my last semester of classes at North Carolina State University before completing my student teaching in the spring semester I found myself preparing to leave the world in which I had become comfortable.  I packed up my office in a little box, turned in my keys and said my goodbyes (which were much harder than I had planned) and walked away from the to enter a new world in which is not the familiar or the normal for me.  Over the next four months I will be student teaching at South Johnston High School in the agricultural education classes.  I am extremely excited about this opportunity and can not wait to to begin in twelve days.  For me I hope that my passion for helping others and my love for agriculture, agricultural education and FFA will make this experience one that I will never forget.

Over these four months I hope that my passion will continue to develop and allow me to prosper during the experience.  Often times we don't take the time to take a moment and think about what we going through and how it affects our life and goals.  I admit that I don't look near as often as should at my life and how things are going to make sure they align with the end goal. 


As we prepare for 2012, Do you know what you are passionate about? (What fuels your fire, what gets you up and keeps you going when you feel you can not go any more?) Let's take time to reflect on our passion and our life so we arent living the statement "I Don't Look Near as Often as I Should!

 

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same,

Matt

Day 6 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

Wow, our last day in Panama! The program is flying by, and it is hard to believe that we depart for Colombia tomorrow. Many of us stepped outside of our comfort zone as we embarked on our first journey of the day, ziplining through the Panamanian rainforest. Today we had the honor of meeting Kurt’s two young children as they joined us on today’s activities. We enjoyed learning from them about their experiences living in Panama. They were very excited to be the first to begin the tour as they had previously ziplined. It was a fun morning full of pictures by our famous photographer Kurt, rainforest and new experiences.

Next we were off to have lunch at an authentic Panamanian diner located on the Caribbean Sea. During our time in Panama we have had many opportunities to indulge in Panamanian Seafood, which was the specialty of today’s menu. During this time we debriefed and created our own analysis of agriculture in Panama with Kurt.

Then we became the characters of Pirates of the Caribbean as we visited the historic city of Portobello. During our visit our tour guide Christopher gave us an amazing tour of the city and many details of its history. We learned the ports were strategically placed at the mouth of the Caribbean Sea to protect the city from pirates. However, Henry Morgan was a sly pirate who used small boats to come on to the land and attack the city without any warning. We enjoyed touring and exploring the remains of the forts overlooking the Caribbean.

From this historic city we headed off to a genuine Panamanian market where we had the opportunity to buy some souvenirs and memorabilia from our time in Panama. We had a great last night in Panama. We attended a cultural dinner and show, highlighted by traditional Panamanian dancing and costumes. We have learned a lot about agriculture and the culture of Panama and look forward to our time in Colombia. For the last time, Good Night Panama!

From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,
Matt

Day 5 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

Breakfast with the Regional Minister of Agriculture is how today began. Who would have ever known that during breakfast that we would be surrounded by Panamanian press who would follow us all day.

After breakfast we headed to the Vocational Ag School and Center for Excellence in Panama where some amazing things are happening. The school owns about 200 hectares of land in which 30 are set aside for a demonstration farm. The students are responsible for for taking care of the animals in what coould be compared to our Supervised Agricultural Experience Programs. The farm contains dairy cows, goats, pigs, poultry, buffalo, rabbitts and many crops. Each grade is responsible for a specific area of the farm so that the students are well rounded when they graduate. Students must apply to go to this school and pay $40 per semester to attend. Upon graduation they are hired to work with the Ministry of Agriculture to earn money to pursue a post-secondary education. One thing that they are doing that really impressed me is try to improve the genetics of the stock animals that they have so that they can give the genetics to the farmers who cannot afford to make heard improvements.

Our next visit was to a citrus processing facility that was owned by a native of Arkansas. Alex moved here and begin working and now supplies fresh pasturized orange juice to Panama 6 months out of the year. He is currently in the process of expanding his operation to included the processing of pineapple and passion fruit.

We then headed back to Panama City to prepare for an amazing next day zip lining through the rainforest!

From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,
Matt

Day 4 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

What a busy day! Today we visited a very large agricultural production facility here in Panama. The company was known as Grupa Calesa, which has eight different entities: sugar, rice, seeds, fruit, feed mill, cattle & sheep, aquaculture, seafood processing and distribution.

This compay brings in about $92 million dollars per year, has 3,000 permanent employees and 2,000 temporary employees and is recognized as the largest agricultural company in Panama. They farm 21,000 hectares or 55,000-60,000 acres of land.

This farm is centered around research and development which is seen in their shrimp aquaculture facility. They have the only white spot virus resistant shrimp in the world which was developed by their researchers.

We spent the entire day touring the facilities and talking with the CEO of the company Hanz.

After a long day we head to dinner and celebrated Marty's birthday. Then we were off to debreif the day and crash as I was exhausted.

From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,
Matt

Day 3 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

Due to limited internet access over the past few days I have not been able to blog as often as I would like so I know this is a little behind but here it goes!


On Wednesday or Day 3 in Panama we visited a small coffee producers association, UCC. This organization was founded in 1990 with help from a Belgim preist. There are twelve small communites that work within the UCC. This group has a coffee peeler and a grinder which are both crucial steps in the coffee business. They produce around 600 pounds of coffee per year and sell to locals for an annual profit of $900 give or take. An interesting fact about coffee is that it is not a bean it is acutally a cherry, bet you didnt know that!


Our next visit was to Small poultry producer who produces caged pasture chickens that are certified humanly raised. He makes a monthly profit of about $1,500 - $2,000. Jesus has 5 farm hands employees 2 of which work with the chickens and 3 that work directly with him. He also grew tomatoes, Yuka, Swine, Goats, and potatoes so he had a very diverse operation. One cool aspect of his farm was the he had his very own irrigation on his farm. He had damed up a creek that ran alog the property line and installed a pump to get irrigation to his crops during the dry season.

Now we are off to something that most of the team had been waiting for, staying in beach bungalows on the Caribbean Sea. This was a wonderful experice as our bungalow overlooked the ocean and only had air conditioning in one room. All night you could hear the waves crashing on the ocean and could not ask for a more relaxing time. It was quite sad that we did not get to spend much time on the beach during our stay here, but the experiences of agriculture in the area we amazing.

From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,
Matt

Day 2 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

On Tuesday we all met downstairs and had a pretty normal American breakfast consisting of french toast, pineapples, pork with peppers and the worst coffee ever at our hotel. After breakfast we headed to the outside patio to get a briefing from Kirt Schultz for the Panamanian US Grains Council Office.

After the briefing we headed to the center of world trade, the Panama Canal. This was one of the most amazing things you could ever see. A route that makes trading much easier and faster is a huge portion of this countries economy. This route takes trade from a 13 day route to a 48 hour route of which only 8-10 are spent inside the canal zone. The canal is also a huge cost saver for transportation. It would cost about $3 million to travel around the americas where as through the panama canal most ships can travel for $300,000. The canal brings in between $4-5 million dollars per day. We arrived at the canal at 9:00 am to see two ships that had just passed our hotel prior to our departure arrive in the locks. This was one of the most amazing sights I have ever watched. In less than 10 minutes the vessel is raised 27 feet so that it could enter the next lock and the process repeats one more time until the ship enters the canal zone.

Our next visit was at the MIT Container Port. While on this visit we had lunch at the companies cafeteria and ate things such as Chicken, Pork Chops, Beef Soup/Stew with carrots a something similar to potatoes called yuka which was very starchy and for desert chocolate cake. At the MIT terminal 32 containers can be moved from a ship per hour, which equals about 35,000 containers per month. The largest vessels that enter the port contain about 4,000 containers. This terminal expects about 35-40% more traffic by volume after the canal expansion where ships will be large enough to hold up to 12,000 containers some estimates as high as 18,000 containers.

Our next visit was to the only grain elevator in Panama Port areas. This facility was owned by private companies to import grain which is mostly used for poultry feed. They receive 1 or 2 vessels per month and the buyers have 10 days to remove the grains from the facilities as they have very little storage space. They are currently in the process of expanding so that they can hold double the amount of grain at one time.

For dinner we met Egna, The Panama US Grains Council Office Administrative Assistant as a local dining location. For dinner I had a pork sandwich with cheese and fries.

Overall today was a great day in the country of Panama, where a lot was learned and many cultural experiences were had.

From Panama, The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same,

Matt

Day 1 in Panama - I-CAL 2011

What an early morning the 12 of us meet downstairs at the Florida Hotel and Conference Center at 5:15 a.m. to head to the Orlando International Airport. We arrived safely to the airport and were all super excited to for our Flight to Panama! Until, Copa Air's system went down and they had to manually check each of us in. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 8:04 a.m and at 7:45 we have just made it through customs. Myself, Marty and Kelli Fulkerson go running to our terminal to ensure that we do not miss our flight. We arrive and board the plane, to find out that our flight has been delayed. So the I-CAL Team is sitting on this plane anxiously waiting the time to depart for what seems like hours as we doze in and out of light sleep. I forgot to mention that we had not had breakfast at this time. So finally it is time to depart, and off we go! As the plane gets settled in we find out that we get BREAKFAST, amazing. Pancakes, fruit and a roll arent to bad on a plane, or maybe we were just hungry.





Finally we make it to Panama! As we approch the coastline, it is one of the most beautiful sights that you could see. We land, wait for a few minutes for a terminal to open and we unload from the plane, get our luggage and make it through customs. Our "Friend" who is serving as our Tour Guide and Translator was waiting for us, and took us to our hotel, which is right off of the Panama Canal. We then had lunch at a small outdoor resturant next to our hotel. As we all are trying to step out of our comfort zones we decided to try new food. I got Pork Chops Marslania (That could be spelled wrong), and if I may say so it was delicisio!



After lunch it began to rain, we learned quickly that the sun can be shinning bright one minute and then pouring down rain the next! So we go back to our hotel gather our umbrellas and head out to tour some of the city.


Our first stop was at the Panama City Fish Market. This is unlike anything that you would see in an American Fish Market. Located right on the ocean this is the Panamanians source of fresh fish. At this market you buy your fish in one location, take them to another, have them cleaned and you can even take them to the resturant to be cooked. The market was a large area where many "vendors" gathered and competed to sell fish all of which came off of similiar boats. Christopher told us that you walk around the market before buying your fish to find the best price. The standards of cleanliness were not as high as found in America but this was truly an amazement to me of how clean they were.

After our tour of the market we headed to Casco Veijo the Old Panama City for an amazing tour. We saw the ocean, the Presidents house, The Mayors house, the French Embassy, and many other historical figures that create the rich history of this country. While in the city we were able to visit the Catholic church. This may have been one of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen personally. Amazing architecture and gold were the centerpeices of this great masterpeice. When Captain Morgan came to Panama to get gold the current Mayor already expected his arrival and had all of the gold in the city painted black so that it could not be recognized, it burned much of the city down and the gold was lost.

One experience today that was valuable was seeing the ghetto. We actually got to ride through the ghetto on our bus and to see the pride that even the Panamanians that lived here had was humbling. I would have expected it to be much dirtier than what was seen, but it actually was no worse than some places that we can see in our home country.

We finished the day off with a wonderful meal at Aldente an Italian Resturant and returned back to the Country Inn and Suites for a team debreifing and preperation for tomorrows events.

From Panama, The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same,
Matt