So far...

Hey Guys,

I know it has been a long time. Getting to the internet has been more difficult that I was expected. Tons has happened, so this is kind of a mega-blog post. I'm hoping that in the future I will have more regular access to the internet, so keep checking in!

Blog post Day 41

February 20, 2012

So, a lot has happened since my last post. Unfortunately, finding reliable Internet during training is harder than I thought. I think it will be easier when I get to my site and am able to travel and make my own schedule.

By the way, I know where I will be living for the next 2 years. Loma Bonita, Panama Este! The Canal divides the country into slightly unequal halves, but not the volunteers. There are 250 volunteers are in Panama right now; 220 on the west side and 30 of us the east side. My community is 3 hours east of the city and about an hour from the Darien. There are around 400 people in 120 houses. There is a Primaria (equivalent of an elementary school) with 40 kids where I will be working with 2 teachers and a directora to implement environmental education into their lesson plans. The community is also interested in making more efficient cooking stoves, reforestation projects, and English and technology classes. I will be paying $30 a month for rent, but will not have electricity. Loma Bonita, here I come!

I’m pretty excited to get out there and check it out. There isn’t too much information out there about Panama Este (the province east of Panama City), so I don’t know what to expect. Almost all of the volunteers from my group are going to what Peace Corps calls “follow up sites,” these are sites with that have had a volunteer before, and some of the sites will be shared with this volunteer for a couple of months until the current volunteer finishes up his/her service. I think my site is considered a follow up site, but the last volunteer served from 1993-1995; I think it is safe to say that this will be a new experience for my and the community.

On Valentines Day, we gave a mock community analysis in our training community. Everybody was assigned a topic to research and then present to the community (in Spanish).  Everyone did really well, and the meeting went perfectly. We will each have to do a community analysis in our own communities after three months. We use these analyses and our meeting to learn what the community needs and wants the Volunteer to work on for the next 2 years.

We leave on Wednesday for El Pilon, Veraguas for tech week. We all move into new host families for the week and practice some of the stuff we have been learning these past 5 weeks. We will be running a youth environmental camp and doing some classroom teaching. Then we head back, and the next day we head to our sights for a weeklong visit.

I went to Carnaval in the training community. Interesting… There was this section where little girls were brought into the festivities in cars or on floats all dressed up. Then they competed in a little contest to choose the Queen of Los Mortales for this Carnaval season. It reminded me of Toddlers and Tiaras. A bunch a little girls wearing tons of make up and very sparkly dresses dancing around and answering questions, I’m sure about world peace and the like.

Later this weekend, I attended an 86-year-old birthday. My host, grandmother had her birthday. We all got together, along with a whole bunch of family from out of town, to celebrate in the yard.

Day 49

February 28, 2012

Just got back from tech week. It was a week full of practice of all the things we have been learning. We traveled to a current volunteer’s site to kind of used her site as our test-dummy. We got to host a summer camp for a day, observe classes at the elementary school, then we taught a class with partners, worked in the garden, surveyed the community, held another community meeting, had a cultural exchange party with the community (which included us doing the electric slide in front of the whole community—not awkward at all).

It is nice to be back. I was nervous about moving to another community and getting another family. I realized that I had gotten comfortable in the house that I’m in now and that I will miss it. But I realized that it only took me about 2 months to get used to this community—maybe that is a good sign for my next community and me.

Of course I worried about nothing. I had a great time with my new family in the tech week community. It was the opposite of my house here in the training community. I lived with three generations, shared a room with my “little sister,” lived in the middle of town and had tons of visitors. It was a great, but tiring week. And now I have a day to wash all my laundry and re-pack my bags before I head to my site for a weeklong visit. Yikes!

Day 58

March 8, 2012

Just got back from my visit to my site. I now know where I’ll be living for the next 2 years. What a week. I don’t think I have ever been so overwhelmed in my life. My first day there I went to the Catholic church service, where my community guide introduced me to the community. It started off nice, then he told everyone that I didn’t like tomatoes and that I have to wear a helmet when I ride a bike (not awkward at all). Then he invited me up to give a speech in front of the congregation. After church he took me around the town; I think we visited just about every house. He told the families at each house that I don’t like tomatoes, just incase they missed the announcement at church.

The next day my guide invited me to join his environmental group with a  coffee planting project, so I got dressed for a day of working outside in Panama. Unfortunately, my guide decided to take my by the school first. So, I got to meet the teachers and directora in my work clothes. Then the directora called an assembly to start the week and asked me to give a little speech for the teachers and all the students—also in my work clothes.

The week went pretty well. I had several other awkward moments, but I think that will be my life for a while. My community guide seems to be very motivated and a hard worker, so I think there is a good possibility that we’ll be able to get some good work done, which is good because this community is expecting some pretty big things. They are hoping for electricity, a new road, and filters put on the two aqueducts that service the town. Not quite the organic gardening and trash pick up that we have been talking about in training, but I’m excited to get going.

We have a busy week with saying goodbye to our trainig host families, last minute business stuff with PC and swear in—which will be at the canal museum. Then all of the volunteers in my group are going to the beach for a couple of nights before we all head to our sites for the next two years!!!!!