Day 10-20

Back in the City. It has only been a couple of weeks since we moved in
with our host families, but it feels like we’ve been in Panama for
months.

We all moved into our host families last Sunday. Each volunteer is in
his/her own house. There was a problem with my host family that the PC
found out about the night before I was suppose to move in, so a PC rep
had to run out to the city the morning we were all moving in and find
a place for me to stay. It all worked out. My host mother didn’t know
that I was living with her until I showed up on her doorstep. She was
very glad to have me, though. She is married, but her husband is out
of the house for work several weeks every month. My house is NICE! I
have my own room, an indoor bathroom and tile shower, and a little dog
that I named Max—so my family will always remember me. We watch 7th
Heaven or Judging Amy every night. Not quite the Peace Corps
experience I was expecting—but no complaining here! Others in the
group are sharing rooms, using latrines, and taking bucket baths.

Training has been going well so far. We wake up in the morning and
have Spanish class for 4 hours, go home for lunch, and head back for 4
hours of technical training. Last Friday, we ventured out in small
groups to a nearby city to test out our skills with the public
transit. Days are long and hot, but they are going by quickly.
We got to explore Panama City last week in small groups. It was a lot
of fun to have a little bit of free time. After a PC led scavenger
hunt, I went to Casco Viejo—the old part of the city—to have lunch
with a couple of other volunteers. Then I met up with some other
volunteers at the mall. We were all itching for a beer (don’t tell
PC), so we headed to the casino, in the mall, and hung out for an hour
before we had to head back to the training site.

This past weekend, we all headed out on our own to visit current
volunteers. Travel there went fine. Most of the volunteers organized
small travel groups of people heading to the same areas.  I visited a
volunteer living in Rincon de las Palmas in Cocle. I had a great time!
I got to hang out in the capital city of Cocle and meet several
volunteers in the area. Then I headed up to my volunteer’s site. She
lives in a pretty big town, 1000 people, about 40 minutes outside of
the capital city. We chatted, hung out, read in hammocks, visited
community members, went to an orange festival, and relaxed. It was a
wonderful weekend, until my trip home. I got almost home and waited
for a bus to my community. Many came, but none stopped—they were all
full. I waited for an hour and a half, but with no luck. I started to
get worried, it would be getting dark in a couple of hours and it was
at least a three hour walk to my house.
Well, I’m home. I don’t want to get in trouble with PC or my mom, so
I’ll leave it there.