Take Two!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and everything else that I´ve missed out on. So I start my new job today... meaning I finally move to a new site. This one is a complete about face from my last site. Full of hills, mountain views, hiking, some mud houses ... somewhere you would expect to find a Peace Corps volunteer. Get excited! It´ll be great.

I will have more details and hopefully some pics for my next post but just wanted to let you know that I am no longer a Panamanian nomad. Time to start the awkardness of getting acquainted with another family and community. Hopefully this will be the last time that I have to do that and the next move will be to my own place in March!

You know your perspective on life has changed when you get excited about your new host family building a brand new latrine. Just one of the perks in my new site.

Homeless in Panama...

Hello fans. I have some bad news to inform you about this holiday season. So because of safety and security reasons, Peace Corps Panama has taken me out of my community and is in the process of finding me another site. As of right now, I don´t know when a new site will be developed or where I will be placed. I left my community this past Saturday after the Mother´s Day party that my community counterpart and I planned with kids in the community (Mother´s Day here in Panama was on Dec. 8). It was a pretty sad farewell and in the days leading up to my departure and since I´ve been gone, I´ve realized that I was much more connected and integrated into my community than I thought I was.

So what does this all mean you may ask? It means that my host mom/counterpart who fought for a year to get a Peace Corps volunteer in the community is left with many questions as to why I am leaving. It means that all the kids that I had built a relationship with in the community are left slightly disheartened and discouraged to see me leave which absolutely kills me. It means that I am stuck in a hotel until I can get to a new site (which is by no means a problem because I am definitely enjoying the running hot water and air condition). It means that I have to go through the awkwardness of moving in with another host family and starting the 3 months of living with a family all over again before I can move out on my own. It means that another community will get the expertise of a Peace Corps volunteer who wouldn´t have otherwise had one this soon if at all. It means a new start for me which I am incredibly excited and a little apprehensive about at the same time. I´ll update you as soon as I know anything. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers in the mean time.

I´ve included some pics for your Panamanian enjoyment.

Have a great holiday season everyone and never take your blessings (including your friends and family= for granted.

(above) On an island near my old community - the house in the background was built with the help of a former Peace Corps volunteer´s efforts with USAID to provide shelter to the local volunteers (Panamanians) who assisted with sea turtle conservation on the island.

(above) On the way back to the Port from the island I had to take a pic of the mangroves striking a pose. Doesn´t this look crazy?

(above) You know I had to include a random shot. My clothes drying with the platanos overhead. Colorful bunch.

(above) Here is a shot from the Mother´s Day party this past Saturday. We were playing a game called Taxi.

(above) You know that water ride at theme parks where you sit in a log and go down a little water way? This is so much BETTER than that. You can´t see it here but they are riding on a banana leaf! This was a couple of days ago in Bugava at a creek in the area.

(2 pics above) Me drinking pipa (coconut juice) with a family (this picture show about 8% of the family that was actually there celebrating mother´s day- it reminded me of mine own family on Easter weekend).

Thanksgiving Peace Corps Style :)

So much to everyone´s surprise, we didn´t have to chase a turkey down in the yard to kill it for our Thanksgiving dinner :)

Depending in how big of a city you are in (and how many foreigners are in the area), the bigger local grocery stores have many things you wouldn´t expect to find in Panama around Thanksgiving time since they don´t celebrate it here and some people even asked me if our ¨Dia de Gracias¨ was like their Christmas... which I kindly explained that it wasn´t.

So I traveled to another city to hang out with friends that I hadn´t seen a month or so and this was the fabululous result. We had a great turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, salad, sweet potatoes, wine... it was great. It was almost as great as it would´ve been had I been with my family but definitely one for the memory books.

It was great to be with other Americans celebrating our yearly tradition. Much thanks to Fred (far right in the photo above) who basically cooked everything even down to homemade pumpkin pie! Happy Thanksgiving from Peace Corps Panama!

Flooding in Panama

Please pray for the people in the Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, and Comarca provinces of Panama. There is some serious flooding with rivers spilling over their banks and many people are losing their homes. Peace Corps Panama is also working on evacuating the volunteers in the heavily affected and high risk areas. Please keep us in your prayers. I´m blessed that my area is not affected.

Panamanian culture and I

So as November is the month of Patria (Panama celebrates its independence from Spain and Columbia) lets take a blog post to appreciate some cultural traditions of Panama. As I´ve already mentioned, Panama has a million holidays this month including many many desfiles (parades). Panamanians still think its odd that we don´t have desfiles this month except one. Macy´s Thanksgiving Day parade counts even though I never actually go but enjoy it from the TV screen while my mom and I are in the kitchen preparing for our Thanksgiving meal.

Anyway, the women dress in traditional Panamanian attire called Polleras (po-ye-ras). See pics below. They also wear decorative hair pieces called tembleques. These were taken at various parades that I´ve been to this month.

(above shot plus the 3 following shots) These were taken at my training site for a different kind of parade a little over a month ago.

Wait for it.... Wait for it....

(above) SURPRISE!! I got to dress up for a night of Patria we had at my host mom´s church the other night! I loved it and the whole church gave me an applause for choosing to dress in traditional Panamanian attire :)

And yes, a couple hours later I had the biggest headache with all that stuff on my head. I couldn´t wait to get it off. I don´t know how these girls walk and dance for hours in parades with all this stuff on!

(above) Here I am with my host sister and her daughter.

(above) I´m holding my friend´s niece. Baby pollera!

At every parade I went to I always told the people I was with that before these 2 years are up, I was going to dress up in a pollera. Didn´t know that it was going to be this soon! Next time I´m going for a more colorful one and less hair pieces ;)

Zzzz... Earthquake!!!!

On November 19th a little after 1am I felt my first earthquake of my life. Pretty cool that my first earthquake ever was in Panama. So this is why I can never live in California (sorry Liz, I can never be your roomy if you make it out there).

So for those of you who know me well, you know that I can basically fall asleep anywhere and at that, fall into a pretty deep sleep. I won´t advertise the different places that I have managed to fall asleep but believe it or not, fans, it wasn´t the earthquake that woke me up. What woke me up was my host brother running into the room screaming to get up. I think he had been yelling at least a couple times before I sat up in bed still thinking I was in a dream where there was a train or a plane (couldn´t decide which) on top of the house making a deafening noise and making everything shake all over the place.

When I realized what was actually going on, it stopped and then I laid back down and fell soundly asleep. No big deal... I thought. Apparently the epicenter was really close to my town with a magnitude of 6.2. Pretty big deal to sleep through, huh? Thanks for waking me up Dennis! Thanks to him I can´t officially add earthquakes to my list of circumstances I can sleep through, good thing :) because having an earthquake on that list WOULD be a reason for embarassment unlike the rest of them. For more info on my Panamanian earthquake...

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/11/19/panama.quake/index.html

Thats all the updates for now my friends. Until next time, I promise I´ll make the next one a good one. Stay tuned...

Much love from Panama.

1st of Many Successes

This picture is as recent as it gets around here. I took this picture 2 days ago as I walked through the city of David visiting agencies and finding the post office which of course didn´t have the package I´ve been waiting on for over 2 weeks. Anyway, no incredibly huge news going on. The 11th of this month marked the 3 months that I have been out of the U.S. Speaking of other time frames, I have been in my site for about 3 weeks and have definitely come across some issues. To not go into too much detail, I am dealing with issues of reorganization, motivation, communication, broken promises, bad influences, religion, and a sense of community. I AM glad to report that yesterday I had the best day that I´ve had here in Panama because for the first time I felt that I was needed at my site and I felt confirmation and affirmation in my purpose of even being here - to make a difference.

To not expand into too many details, lets just say that after a meeting I had yesterday, a group of adults walked away energized, motivated, and willing to tackle the internal problems that existed within the group but had never been acknowledged or discussed until I facilitated the interaction between the members. At the end of the day, my host mom who also happens to be a member of this group gave me a hug and told me that I had no idea what I did today and that for years, they have tried to do something like this but have never succeeded and it took me to open everyone´s eyes to push forward. She also said that after every meeting she would be so enraged and come home to cry out her frustrations but after the meeting yesterday, she left with such a feeling of peace.

I call yesterday the first of my many successes. As my internet time is running out, here are some pics that I thought you fans would enjoy. Much love from Panama.

(above) This is a desfile (pronounced des-fee-le for all my non spanish speaking fans out there) that took place in David last week celebrating Panamas independence from Colombia. This month is jammed pack with Panamanian holidays...seriously. The guys in the pic are wearing uniforms with the colors and theme of the flag of Chiriqui, my province. That day it was raining so bad and these kids walked for hours in the downpour. Nothing like Chiriqui pride! Mecho!

(above) Angela, Andrea and I (among at least 30 other Peace Corps volunteers) are hanging out in David to see the elections. Obama had all our support all the way from Panama! We went to a restaurant in a casino where they actually let us listen to the TVs in english and then in the middle of Obama´s acceptance speech the casino turned the sound off and cheesy dancers perfomed their choreographed routing on stage to entertain the rest of the patrons since I´m sure they were bored with the english speaking TVs and all the crazy gringos dancing all over the place celebrating Obama´s win.

(above) This is a bracelet that the family of one of my cooperative kids made for me. Isn´t it great?!

(above) Why did the chicken cross the road? (Because I made my friend Dylan chase it so I could take a picture of a chicken crossing the road...)

(above) This picture was a special request from my Grandpa who wanted to see a Panamanian pig. Love you Grandpa!

(above) A shot I took within the 1st month of being here in Panama. I call it Two Worlds. The crazy development of Panama city in the background while the art of the indigenous people in the foreground.

Guess who is official?

So last Wednesday, 10/22/08, 34 of us were sworn in by the US ambassador as Peace Corps Volunteers. I wasn´t necessarily expecting to feel anything different afterward but it did feel good to finally be "official." Ten weeks of training are finally over and do I feel prepared you ask... only time will tell. I´ve been on my own in my new site, with my new host family (Hostmom and 3 sons ages 27-30) for the last 5 days, bucket baths and all. The family is great. They are very outgoing, religious, well rounded people. A couple of the guys also seem to think that its funny to talk spanish so fast that I can´t understand. Here is a conversation I had with Dennis (the middle brother) yesterday:
______________________________________________

Dennis: (asking me a question that I couldn´t understand)

Me: What?

(repeat the above 3 times)

Me: You know I can´t understand you when you talk that fast! Say it slower!

Dennis: (trying to be smart about it) This is how Panamanians talk. You´re going to have to get used to it.

Me: Well you´re just going to have to get used to repeating yourself 5 times when you talk that fast to me.

(laughter in the background from everyone else)

__________________________________________

It was actually pretty funny. But my spanish is really getting better thank God. In my site, the people aren´t as friendly and open as people in a small village where a lot of other volunteers are placed or even as the people in the community where we trained. The people here wouldn´t have any patience for someone with minimal spanish skills.

So a little more about my site and living conditions... Due to regulations I can´t publish where exactly my site is but its a small town where everyone lives in houses. Sorry to disappoint all of you who thought I was going to live in a mud hut or for one of you in particular who assumed my new home would be a teepee for the next two years. I do have electricity and since the guys in my house like to watch sports, they pay for cable so believe it or not, I get CNN en Español anytime I want! Water comes once a day and we have a small machine called a bombo that pumps the water into the house. Behind the house we fill three 25 gallon jugs with the water and thats what we use to wash dishes, bathe, flush the toilet (I do have an indoor bathroom) and whatever else we need. My site is extremely accessible unlike some other volunteers who have to hike over an hour to get to the nearest bus. The bus stops once an hour in front of my house and if I want to catch another bus that runs every 15 minutes or so, I just have to walk for about 10 minutes to catch it. I also get cell reception at all times so purchase your international calling cards and give me a call!

Here are some pics for your enjoyment. Hasta pronto, pues.

(above) The beautiful women of group 62 ranging in ages from 22 to 30.

(above) The dashing gentlemen of group 62 ranging in ages from 23 to somewhere above 50.

(above) The US Ambassador speaking to us in impressive Spanish. Panama flag in the middle back there.

(above) To celebrate our swearing in we went to an Indian restaurant in Panama. Here are the cool kids who chose to sit in the room where you had to sit on the floor Indian style!

(above) After indian food, we went to karaoke bar! I believe my hips weren´t lying as Jodi and I sang Shakira!

(above and below) So I forgot to mention that to celebrate our swearing in, our whole group went to a beach for 3 days. It was amazing and a lot of fun.

(above) The pensive dog on the beach. He was deep in thought and I wanted to capture it :)

(above) So you should know by this time I like to try to be artistic. This pic as well as the pensive dog were the artistic shots.

(above) This is the house where I will be living with my host family for the next 3 months.

(above) This is the view from the porch. If you remember the view from my old porch with my host family (scroll down), this view is A LOT different.

Fishing for crabs!

So here are the fishing pictures that I haven't had time to post. This was prob about a month ago. Beautiful, huh? Walking through the knee deep mud and water up to my neck was still worth the trip. Oh and no cracks about my borrowed hat, I was called Abe Lincoln all morning! Long sleeves were for the bugs.

Nutrition: Carbs and Fried Foods

The title of this blog will resonate with anyone who has lived in the campo in Panama. Today we had a presentation with the medical office about nutrition here in Panama. The first slide said something to the effects of the average Panamanian food being carbs and fried foods. For instance, as we have all experienced, it's not uncommon to sit down for breakfast to a plate of fried bread called hojaldre and a fried hotdog called salchicha. We don´t even wince anymore... its common. Nor do we wince when we are presented with a plate of spagetti with a side of rice. Food is food, right? Don´t get me wrong, I still manage to get through it by eating as little as possible. All of my host families that I have lived with stare at me with wonder as I serve myself half a serving of rice after they have all covered their entire plate with it. Here in Panama, rice is not a side, its the basis and staple of the entire meal. When I get back to the states, I don't know if I will ever eat rice again. I will also probably eat salads for a good couple of months after I get back as well because salads are not easy to come by.

Okay enough about me complaining about my lack of a well rounded diet here on to business...

So I have visited the place where I will be living for the next 2 years. I will be working with different community organizations but first of all I will be working with a youth cooperative. The way I describe a youth cooperative is like a student organization. By next April there should be about 70 youth cooperatives in Panama. They teach young Panamanians all about leadership, managing money, life skills, self esteem, project management...basically skills that they otherwise wouldn´t be learning in school. It also gives them an outlet to be creative and keep them from negative influences that could exist in their communities. The coop that I will work with has many different projects going on including mangrove reforestation project, a computer center (that needs a lot of work), and a small store (also a lot of work needed). I met with them this weekend and its pretty apparent that they all need motivation and a breath of fresh air in this coop. A lot of them are excited that I´m there to work with them and I really am too. I´ll keep you updated on other projects as they come up. I also plan on teaching Junior Achievement at the local school.

On another note, I got updates on the UT OU game this weekend... Hook 'em Horns!

One intestinal infection later...

Hi everyone! So the last couple of weeks have really taken a toll on me! The last 2 weeks involve eating lunch in Costa Rica, milking a cow and getting shit on, touring a coffee finca (farm) getting an intestinal infection and spending the night in the hospital, many many stomach problems, throwing up a couple times, drudging over an hour through knee deep mud to go fishing, traveling all over Panama meeting all kinds of wonderful people and teaching Junior Achievement to young kids, learning to dance Tipico which is the popular dance here and going to "relax" at the beach with friends (thats all I can remember for now but here are some pics to illustrate). Love you guys and again, I am so sorry that I have been in and out of reception so it´s not the easiest to communicate but pretty soon I will have somewhat of a routine.

(above) My host sister and I pose for a pic after I give her this blow up globe for her birthday. She absolutely loved it (Thanks Mom!)
(Above) My friend Andrea and I who got up early to enjoy the sunrise.

(above) After a long 2 weeks of traveling and surving on not the greatest food, we all decided to meet up at a beach. Beautiful, huh? This is Las Lajas in the province of Chiriqui.

(above) So this is my host family and I about 2 days ago. We were celebrating the oldest girls 12th birthday for which they waited 3 days after the birthday for me to be able to celebrate with them as well. I couldnt have asked for a better host family. Love them to death.

(above) Im on the left if you cant tell. This was on a hike in a coffee finca (farm) but at this point we stopped for a second in a bamboo forest.

(above) So Ive seen (up to this point) 5 chickens being killed and have helped take the guts out and separate the chicken parts. I dont look at chickens the same anymore. Dont know if Ive mentioned that chickens are everywhere and at one point, the house where I was staying had a dirt floor kitchen (eating/cooking area) where the chickens came in and out and at any given meal I had at least a couple of pollos staring up at me as I ate their friends...sad.

(above) Check out this cutie. Right by my right elbow is where we are cooking sancocho (chicken and ñame soup) while in the mean time I had a dancing partner to help pass the time. The bench on the left of the picture is a tree trunk split in half.

(above) Is this not the funniest thing youve ever seen? Ok prob not the funniest but it was worth the pic. This is in David.

(above) First time that I milked a cow. It actually pretty gross and wouldnt mind if I never had to do it again. This was also only a few minutes before it shit on me and I took off running!

(above) This is my attempt at being artistic with my picture taking. I was sitting on a bus on the way to a city on the Costa Rican border at a bus stop. Pretty rustic.