Day 108

April 27, 2012

Finally made it successfully to the Internet cafe near me! I had to wait in line behind 20 teenagers, but I'm here--online. I have some pictures that I want to share, but I'll have to consolidate then on my USB so I don't have to download them all and then delete them off the computer. 

Getting back into campo life after a weekend in the city was a little rough, having the reminder of what exists on the other side of the Canal so fresh in my mind. I was told by just about every member of my community that my future landlord (hopefully) showed up on Saturday while I was away. Of course! And he didn't leave the keys or any information with his sister, so I don't know anything new. I did get some seeds in the mail from Gaga and Granddad, so I'm going to get started on my garden, and everything else better fall into place! 

On Thursday, I went to a neighboring community with some of the kids from my school for a regional soccer tournament. I live in a Latino community, but the region I live in is home to several different indigenous groups. The community hosting the tournament is Kuna, and all the other schools present were from indigenous communities. Looking around at the other teams, I thought we might have a good chance of bringing home a trophy. Well, I have learned my lesson in judging sporting events based on stereotypes. Not everyone in Panama plays soccer, which probably means there are some white men out there who can jump. I could not stop laughing through out the whole game, which did not help me fit into a crowd where I was already the only white person. My teacher was so embarrassed, she tried to recruit teachers from other schools to help and at one point scouted players from other teams to trade shirts with her kids and play for her team. At one point, we only had three kids from Loma Bonita on the field; we still lost. 

I woke up this morning to the usual noise outside my house. But like normal, I tried not to make an appearance until 7am. I like to read a little and have a little alone time while the house is still cool enough to stay inside. I was beckoned by my host mother at 6:30 because there was someone outside looking for me. A neighbor had come by to bring me a bunch of plantains fresh from their yard. It was very nice, and I am very grateful. But there are few things I want at 6:30 in the morning, and plantains is not one of them. 

Since I was up, I decided to go ahead and get started on washing some clothes. Well, right in the middle of scrubbing some underwear, around the back of the house comes my host father telling me there is someone here looking for me. Who could this be? Just my boss from Panama City, someone from the office in DC and the head boss of the Panamanian version of the EPA! Oh the life of a PC Volunteer. They told us to always be ready for anything, but that leaves a girl very little time to wash her undies.

Things are going well here, and despite the daily, awkward events, I am really enjoying my time in Loma Bonita. Jay-Pup is doing well. He is learning not to pee inside the house which is helping with my international peace keeping mission. It is hard to defend the US Constitution and keep my puppy away from my host mother.

Day 101

April 20, 2012

Made it to a 100 days in Panama. I’m celebrating it with a weekend getaway in Panama City with a couple of volunteers who live near me. It is shaping up to be a wonderful weekend…Internet, cold beer, and American food.

I have been writing blog posts while in site and saving them on my computer. This is why all the posts from the last months are showing up now. I hope you guys enjoy them and are all doing well yourselves.

Things are going well for me. I really enjoy my site. Things are still pretty awkward on a daily basis, but I’m getting used to it. I have found a possible house to move into in June with plenty of space for my garden, which I will get started on in the next week (thanks for the seeds Gaga and Granddaddy), and my puppy--Jay. Keep your fingers crossed that everything works out. I hang out at the school a couple times a week, helping out with the English classes and playing with the kids. We are going to start the school garden soon. Other than that, I read, pasear, walk—a lot, and hang out with folk in the community.

Hopefully my new house, there is room to raise pigs and chickens
the lady told me...

This is my family's kitchen and where my puppy lives. The semi in the
background is used to drive up into the mountains and haul huge
trees back down to ship off to China. I have also been asked by
some of the workers how much a Mack truck costs because they want
to buy a new one, and since I'm American, I should know the price of
a Mack truck. 

Where do you keep meat when you don't have electricity?
Why on the clothesline  of course!
PS that's the latrine off to the side in the background. 

Here's Jay

Stuck under a bridge during a rain storm, good thing I
brought a book. 

Day 95

April 14, 2012

A junta is a community event where several people get together to help a neighbor out with a physical project. I went to my first junta today. A member of the community got together several men and a couple of ladies to help him ‘clean up' his farm to get it ready to plant with rice.

I started off the day with the ladies, getting lunch ready. I decided that as exciting as cooking soup is, I wanted to give the machete a go. I headed out to help the men clear the field with a machete, which is just as hard and time consuming as it sounds. I think that I can get a handle of the machete, but what I know I will never be able to do is drink straight liquor in the hot Panamanian sun while swinging a very long, very sharp knife. 

Day 92

 April 11, 2012

Just a day at school.

So, the school in my town is a little two-room building for 1^st through 6^th grade. There are two teachers, and each teaches three grades in the same classroom at the same time. One teacher has 1^st, 4^th and 6^th, and the other has 2^nd, 3^rd and 5^th.

Today, the fifth graders had to present their homework from last night.  One boy wanted to show me his homework before class got started. So, he pulled out his big rolled up poster board and straightened it out to show me a giant, colored in penis.

Each fifth grader then had to get in front of the class and present their large wiener to the rest of the class, which included all the 2^nd and 3^rd graders. After each presentation, the child took their poster and hung it up in the back of the room around the bulletin board. I should mention that the bulletin board was filled with the story of Jesus’ resurrection from Holy Week.

So in the back of a little school room in the campo of Panama is Jesus, surrounded by several large wieners. 

Day 86

April 5, 2012

The rainy season has started! April 1^st came, and it is like someone flipped a switch. Now we get a pretty good rain everyday in the afternoon. It is a nice excuse to sit in the hammock and read or take a nap. I have been told that once it starts raining, people stay in their houses and don’t do much of anything—good to know, since we have 8 months of rain coming.

Last weekend, I went into Torti to meet up with a friend who lives about an hour and a half down the road. There was a feria (like a county fair) in town for the weekend, so we met up to get in our share of fair food, bootleg CDs and English. After a month of talking in Spanish to people I don’t really know, it was so nice to have a conversation in a language I understand with a person I know well enough not to have to talk about the weather. We also found some pretty stylish hammocks, so I’m ready to move into my casa in two months!

Also, I have a puppy! I didn’t want to mention it before, and I still might be a little early in saying anything. I don’t want to get too attached too soon, in case he doesn’t make it, but it maybe too late for that. His name is Jay Pup, and he is pretty darn cute. I think he was born around the day that I swore in as a PCV, so he is about 3 weeks old. He has 5 brothers and sisters, who I am really trying to have nothing to do with—I don’t want to be the crazy Gringa with a pack of dogs following her everywhere. I’m pretty excited to get settled into my new house and have something to talk to in English. He won’t understand what I’m saying, but that seems to be the norm for me here in Panama.

It is Holy Week, which means that no one is working and the kids are off from school. So, I came with my host family to stay at the house of one of my host sisters. I’m not sure where we are. Someone mentioned that we were going to Panama City, but we are definitely not in the city. We are in one of the nicest houses that I have seen since being in Panama, indoor bathrooms, tiled floors, in ground pool, satellite TV! So, we’re going to spend the next couple of days in luxury. 

Day 80

March 30, 2012

So Loma Bonita is really spread out. I am supposed to walk around to all the houses and try to get to know all the people who live here, but that requires miles of walking. I had been invited by a man to come to his house several weeks ago, but I still had not made it out to his house because it is one of the far ones. I decided that I would head out that way and knock out all the houses in that area.

About an hour or so into my walk, I came across two men on horses and a road full of bulls! One of the men told me that if I didn’t want to die, I better crawl through the barbed wire fence to the other side. Not sure that I understood what this man was saying or that I wanted to squeeze through all the barbed wire, I asked him to tell me that again. Well, he didn’t have enough time to finish cause the bulls started to stampede. So, I dove through the fence and watched from the other side as 30 bulls ran by where I was just standing.

I did make it to the houses, but I’m not sure that I will be heading back out that way anytime too soon. 

This road goes on for a while, but I think you
guys get the picture.

Loma Bonita is made up of large fincas
with bunches of cows like this one.

The lake at the end of the road and my community
guide, Manuelin.

Day 74

March 24, 2012

One of the first things that the Peace Corps told us when we arrived was that we are going to have to change our definition of success. Projects are not going to get started or finished as quickly, people won’t show up to meetings that we planned, or days and days will pass when we don’t do a whole lot.

So, today I went to Torti, the largest town near me about 20 minutes down the road, to use the Internet. As everyone can see, I have quite a few post saved up, plus I have a bunch of photos I wanted to share. I headed out of the house after lunch and hopped on a bus (one with a distracted drive; he was either talking on the phone, the walkie-talkie, or stopping along the road to do some shopping).

When I finally made it to Torti, climbed up the two flights of stairs to the Internet café, I found out that the Internet café was closed. Grrrr! So, I called Jason to vent, went to the store to buy a bunch of cookies and headed home on the bus. As I was getting off the bus, I ran into a man from my community. I walked with him on my way home, and he invited me to come and paint his house tomorrow morning.

So, was today successful? Didn’t get any internet done, have no idea what the schedule to the internet café, nor do I know when I’ll get a chance to try again. But…I do have a date to hang out with some community members tomorrow. Success?...I’d say so!

Day 73

March 23, 2012

There is this word in Spanish, pasear, that I don’t think has a direct translation in English. It is the action of walking around and stopping at people’s houses and generally passing the time talking, eating or just hanging out. One can spend whole days pasear-ing, and as PC volunteers—‘one’ must. For the first three months, it is my job just to pasear to all the houses in Loma Bonita. I am not suppose to work on any projects in the first three months; it is my job to get to know the community and the people, so I can do an environmental and community analysis to determine what projects the community needs and would be willing to work on.

Me, oh-so happy to pasear!

Pasear-ing is not my favorite activity, especially not all day, everyday for three months. Walking around in a town I don’t know, strolling up to houses I don’t know, talking to people I don’t know in a language I don’t know—can be kind of awkward, but I’ve been told there isn’t a word for ‘awkward’ in Spanish (good for me). It isn’t really that bad. Since Loma Bonita is quite spread out, I am getting a lot of exercise. 

This is Loma Bonita. I know it doens't look like much
other than a highway, but there are houses!

The school. Two classrooms and a dinning room. One
of the teachers lives in a little house on campus.

Loma Bonita's baseball field, now grown over with rice.

Catholic Church

This is my host family's house. 

Day 71

March 21, 2012

Feliz Cumpleaños a Sara (that’s what my community calls me). I just had the largest birthday party of my life. I got to the school today in the late morning, after I relaxed and finished up my laundry. All the kids sang to me, in English and Spanish. It was really sweet. Each kid made a point to come up to me individually and wish me a happy birthday.

After school, the whole town came and threw a huge party for me. There must have been more than a hundred people there. Several people gave speeches, and then I had to give one (of course). They made arroz con pollo; we had two huge cakes; and we finished up the party with a piñata.

I headed home after the party, wiped out. But my family had a cake ready for me when I got home. Everyone around the house came to the rancho to sing to me again and enjoy some more cake.

I would say it was a pretty good day. I don’t know how I’ll every get used to boring, American birthdays after this. 

Day 70

March 20, 2012

I have been in my site now for four days, and tomorrow is my birthday. I would say that this is probably my saddest and loneliest birthday all alone in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language. But I’m not sure I can say that; this maybe the largest, craziest party I will ever have. The town has planned quite a surprise party—I know this because several people have let it slip, and if this many people have let the secret slip I can only guess how many people know about the party.

To catch everyone up: 

(I keep hoping that I’ll get better at this, but I haven’t yet. The good news is that I found the Internet café today, and it is relatively cheap. So I should have regular access to the Internet by the time I get this post out)

After the site visit, I caught a bus home right in front of my house and spent the day in the largest mall in Panama picking up a few essentials, chocolate and Pringles. When we got back to Los Mortales, we had a free day to do laundry, pack up the rest of our stuff and rest up. The next day we had our despidida (which is a goodbye party) in town. It went really nice. We had arroz con pollo (rice and chicken, Panamanian party food), a slide show, and passed out certificates to all the families.

We headed out the next day at 5am in a Diablo Rojo (Diablos Rojos are old American school busses turned Panamanian public transport, decked out with strings of Christmas lights, music and crazy paint jobs) on our way to the old army base and Peace Corps office. We had our last couple of days of training, Spanish interviews (which, according to my results, I haven’t improved in since I got here. I hope this isn’t the best I’m going to get), and tied up loose ends. The PC let us all stay in the villas on the base. We had such a good time hanging out together, talking English.

We swore in as official Peace Corps Volunteer on Wednesday. It was a nice ceremony. We all got dressed up and headed to the Canal Museum for the ceremony. We sang both national anthems, listened to some nice and moving speeches, and then (best part) ate appetizers including real cheese, which we don’t get much of down here. 

From the ceremony, the volunteers in my group headed to a hostel on the beach. We had such a good time. We rented out the whole house, which was right on the beach. Some of the volunteers even took over the kitchen and made the best meal that I have had in a loooong time.

From the beach, I headed to my site on the other side of the canal. I only missed my buss stop by a little bit. I got off in front of the bar, which gave some of the drunk men a surprise. It didn’t take them too long to realize who the gringa in the middle of nowhere was. My first day was a Sunday, which meant that not much was going on, so I stopped by my community guide’s house for a couple of hours. Monday, I got up and headed to the school, where I was sent home because I was sick. I spent the rest of the day just hanging out and reading some of the books the PC gave us. Tuesday (today), I headed back to the school where several representatives from the Panamanian version of the EPA met me. They were all very nice, and they even knew that my birthday was the next day, and that the community was having a party for me (news gets around in Panama, or I’m just that important).

9:40pm, way past my bedtime…