I started attending Mountain T.O.P. as a YSM Service Project camper in 2007. I went every summer until I served as Ministry Coordinator in 2012. I followed that up with a summer as a YSM Field Manager in 2013 and then as a Director in 2014 and 2015. After my summers on staff and graduating from the University of Tennessee, my Peace Corps application was accepted and I was invited to serve as a Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Volunteer Panama. I left in July 2016 for my service and was still in Panamá in March of 2020 when Peace Corps was evacuated due to the pandemic.
As a WASH PCV I served in a 60-person village, about a 45-minute hike from the nearest transportation, in rural Panama for two years. After a three-month needs assessment and focusing on integration into the community, together we decided that the biggest need was a water system. We worked on measuring, designing, collecting funds, and eventually building the system together as a community. The construction itself only took about 6 months of my two years in the community, but all of the work that went into preparing the community is really what will make it successful for years to come.
I was also able to spend those two years helping families to build new cement block houses. The majority of the community had either tin, wood, or mud houses with dirt floors when I arrived and wanted to improve their living conditions. I was able to use a lot of my construction experience, even if it wasn’t exactly the same as what I had learned on the mountain.
Those first two years I also gave small seminars to the community about hand washing, dental hygiene, proper water storage and treatment, and nutrition. These helped make sure that having running water would improve the quality of life in more ways than just one.
I stayed in Panamá working with the Peace Corps as the National WASH Coordinator and then Volunteer leader for the next two years. I was able to work with volunteers in over 100 different communities in Panama. Sometimes I gave support to volunteers and communities on water systems, other times on health seminars or topics ranging from nutrition to hand washing to HIV education, and almost everything in between.
When I look back on my service, I don’t remember the large projects or even the seminars most of the time. I think about the hilarious pick-up soccer games, the all-night dance parties, the days at the river, the never-ending corn, and most importantly the life-long friendships.
I’m here to answer any questions for any one of you who has ever thought about the Peace Corps (yes someone has served even at 79 years of age!) or who wants to hear more of my story.
Shellee Merryman | Summer Staffer 2012-2015