Volunteer Site Visit

Hello all,

Sorry I haven't posted on here in a while, so much has been happening, it's hard to know what to write about. Everyday brings a different story and a different emotion.  Today, I arrived back in my training community Santa Rita, from a 5 day visit with a current Peace Corps volunteer.  I tried to write in a notebook about what was happening so I could remember to keep you all updated.  Here are some things that I wrote.

May 17th

Right now I am sitting in a hammock in a little town called Pague. I arrived here yesterday after many hours of traveling. I took a bus from Santa Rita to Panama City then another bus from Panama City to Penenome then a "chiva"(for those of you that do not know what a chiva is, it is basically a pickup truck with a roof on the back of the truck with seats.) from another little town, then finally ANOTHER chiva up a very steep four wheel drive mountain road to the community, Pagua. Her house is made of mud with a zinc roof and concrete floors. It has 3 small rooms. There is no electricity, but she does have running water (sometimes) outside the house. Somehow she has made her house cozy, she has colorful fabrics and pictures covering the walls, and she has a big comfy bed.

I think that she has done a good job of integrating herself into her community, when I arrived to her site, everyone in her community came out of their houses to meet her friend (me) and help carry my bags.  When I arrived yesterday she took me around introducing me to some community members, I struggled through my broken Spanish as I try to communicate with them. Everyone was very nice, offering me fresh pineapples, mangoes, crackers and juice. Everyone makes comments about how my white skin is so beautiful. Hahaha! Anytime I was in the sun they told me to get in the shade because they don't want my skin to get darker. Haha! After meeting some people we hiked back to my volunteer's house where we made dinner and I passed out in my colorful hammock.

Today we woke up early and went to help a man in the community named Ricardo. We planted about 30 yuca plants. Ricardo is apparently 70 something years old,  I would have never guessed by the way he hiked up and down the mountains planting yuca. When we were finishing up planting the yuca we heard Ricardo's 2 dogs barking like crazy, they barked for about 30 minutes before Ricardo picked up his machete and told us to stay where we were while he went to check out what his dogs were barking at... he comes back with his 2 dogs, both of which have porcupine splinter things ALL over their face, nose and inside their mouths. The dogs had been attacking a porcupine! It was awful to look at, those poor dogs! We quickly hiked down to his house where he tied the dogs down and pulled out each splinter one by one as the dogs yelped and bleed all over the place. When he was finished the dogs looked like nothing had ever happened to them. Ricardo looked at me, laughed and said "look at all the things you are learning to do in Panama!"

First couple weeks, a whirlwind

Greetings all! Lots is happening in our lives. Training involves a mashing and thrashing of gears from Spanish to the theory behind sustainable development to how to ward of the dog down the road from Lauren and I's home stay house. Needless to say I am LOVING it! Panama has certainly piqued my interest and I really love the experiences I have had this far. Our host family consists of the ever-smiling Mabel Castro, our host mom, Yelin, our doctor-to-be host brother whom incidentally likes to run and is teaching me how not to get run over en las calles angostas between Santa Rita and El Espino. We have 33 chickens in the back, 15 or so pigs getting fat for market, and a cadre of ducks, roosters, and cute baby pollitos. Our scene changes a lot, but el dia tipico is: wake up at 5.45 and I run with Yelin. He is incredibly patient with my limping Spanish. The run is a great time for me to get my focus for the day. I decided, like a moron, to change over to FiveFingers in Panama so I have been a hurtin' unit. Next, breakfast from Mabel, who should be in charge of dinner at the Apocalypse because she can cook amazing meals. Often, all the teachers and Peace Corps staff eat at Mabel's... NOT a coincidence. After breakfast we head out to language class. I have developed the strategy of walking slow in order to minimize sweating. Let me tell you the minimum sweat amount here in Panama is basically my maximum sweat level in Colorado! Lauren's improvement in Spanish is testament to the teachers here. Yesterday she began speaking full sentences all the sudden, Mabel cheered. My Spanish is like a sinusoid graph , at times I am amazed at what I pull off and other times my tongue feels like a Hummer in my mouth, the kind with the one ton plate on the bottom. Ha. My teacher is named Yisel and she is going to have baby soon, which she plans to name Rafael for her brother. Then lunch. Our community is pretty large, the houses are colorful and open, dogs and chickens and cows hang out around town playing out various melodramas. In the 1970s Santa Rita had no water in the houses, but a road was built in town and water followed thereafter. Everything is green and beautiful so stay tuned for Lauren's pictures. After lunch we have a technical training until 5. For some the content is old hat, but I am enormously interested in most everything said. Lauren travels to another community called Los Mortales for this training because she is an agricultural trainee. I am salud ambiental which equates to clean water and sanitation, more or less. After training we mosey back home and hang with the fam. A veces Mabel's daughter visits with her daughter Alejandra Sofia. I am going to petition Webster to go ahead and change the definition of cute to Alejandra Sofia. Tiene 2 anos y ojos grandes de color tostado oscurro. She runs around the house chasing chicks and playing and making us all go awwwwww nonstop. Lauren and I go to separate technical classes, she travels to Los Mortales with her lovely new friend Kelly and I stay in Santa Rita. We talk development theory, soft skills like how to facilitate change in a community, and practice presenting in Spanish. Lauren digs holes and plants stuff and hangs out with giant tarantulas. Both of us are getting our first taste of using a machete and I, for one, will never turn back. After that, it is dinner and studying Spanish or hanging out with Mabel and company. We have a very luxurious home-stay house and Mabel keeps us well-fed and smiling. The room is awfully hot, but with the fan she lent us, no hay problemas. Happy Mother's Day to our mothers and thanks for reading. See you next time. Love you all!


P.S. I wrote part of this while crossing the Panama Canal and another part in Santa Rita pirating the internet in front of the school!

Gracias a todos

So I know I said that it would be Panama the next time you heard from me, but I just wanted to give an enormous shout-out to everyone who has supported us through this process.  In the waning days of our time in the U.S. people have come out the woodwork to be nice to us, give us their well wishes, and feed us copious amounts of food.  You are our uncles, teachers, aunts, dads, moms, cousins, friends, acquaintances, sisters, dogs, grandparents, and you are everything we are and everything we will be excited to come back to when that day comes.  But for now, the task before us to is to take all your love and all you have taught us on this cultural exchange and share ourselves with Panama.  But, what we are really doing is sharing all of you!  So rest easy because you are all really with us out there in pieces, lessons, songs, memories, stories, and genetics.  So see you later, but see you there... if you know what I mean.

AND THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!