Peace Corps Lifestyle Moments-- Holding your bladder throughout the night to avoid getting up in the cold (yes cold) and walking through the dangers of snakes and all kinds of night rodents including the roaches waiting for you in the latrine.
- Seeing all the roaches and not really caring at this point. You made it all the way here, when you got to go, you got to go.
- As you sleepily stumble to the latrine which requires you walking up a hill with a million places to trip, you startle awake at the sound of a giant pig snorting as he sleeps (after which you find another route to your destination).
- Stepping out of the latrine to realize that a horse is blocking your path back to the house.
- Thanking God that when you dropped your flashlight it hit the ground and didn´t go down the hole leaving you to trek back to the house through the woods Blair Witch style.
- Having your host mom offer you a bowl to pee in so you don´t have to worry about getting to the latrine at 2am. You know, in case you like the idea of everyone in the house waking up to the sound of your pee in a bowl.
- Realizing all the gallons of water I´ve saved since I don´t have to flush (priceless).
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I hope to have more lifestyle moments in the near future but let me take some time to show you more pics from my new site.
(above) This is my host family´s house. The family consists of an elderly couple with their 2 adult sons, and 2 adult daughters with their combined 5 kids. The only reason I have my own room is because one of the daughters and her 2 kids are in Panama City for the time being. I live in an area of the community where the closest 20 houses are all family of my host family in some form or fashion. This includes about enough kids for me to start a school which I WON´T be doing.
(above) This is a waterfall that took us about an hour to hike/climb to. Serious climbing and hiking I´ll go ahead and add there. I was sore for about a week afterward.
(above) So I asked some of the kids to get me some mandarinas (mandarin oranges) and before I new it, I had them climbing trees. The background shows sugar cane and banana trees but I swear there is a manadarina tree right next to where I was standing to take the pic.
(above) Time for a culture lesson. In the campo (interior part of the country where people live off the land far from any major city) people host whats called a junta (pronounced hoonta) where they will provide chicha (pronounced cheecha, juice of some sort, in this case, with alcohol in it) and invite men in the community to help them with a project needing a lot of manual labor. In this case, the pit for the old latrine was getting pretty full of you know what (yes, trust me I KNOW how gross that it) so they dug a new hole (about 9 ft deep) and moved the latrine. All fresh and deep!
(above) So I would like to make this blog a little more interactive and besides creating my PC Lifestyle Moments, I would like to introduce you to this chicken. She has a very unique hair do which makes me crack up each time it rains because it just looks like she has had a long hard day. I have been calling her Shirley in the mean time but I wanted to get some input from the fans on ideas for her name. I have already received the suggestion of Elvis Poultry (wa.wa.waaa...) but would like some more suggestions. Comment on the blog and get me some good names!
(above) These are some of the kids playing Loteria which is a game played similarly to bingo. It comes from Mexico and is in Spanish so the kids love it. My mom sent it and in the month that I have been in my site, there has probably been 2 days max that the kids haven´t asked me to borrow the game to play.
(above) Me taking advantage of the scenery and the time I had to take pictures while waiting for the next truck to take me to my site which ended up being 2.5 hours. I was up the mountain visiting my closest PC volunteer neighbors.And last but definitely not least...
(above) Me with my future husband.
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4 comments:
DOR! It would be SOO COOL if you did start a school ... or a library like the Microsoft guy!!! DO ITTTTTT :D
I agree with xo...start a school! That would be so cool! It could be like dangerous minds except in Panama!
Dor, GREAT pics and blog!!! It is really funny reading your blog ...takes me back to memories of the other Corps. Good luck with everything, I know you will be done with this before you know it! I think it is really great that you are blogging to preserve and share your memories. You will look back on them and laugh, cry, exhale, etc. Now as for the chicken that one really made me laugh ...not that I have seen many besides fried or baked but this one was one that I would have been disappointed if I ate it ...I think her name should be Don Chic (i.e., Don King).
Take care,
Miguel
I'm glad you're having such a rewarding experience. YEY!
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