Breezy Christmas Dreams

10 Month-iversary.

Internet, it's so hot here that I actually used the intracity buses today instead of just walking.  This Panamanian summer might make me melt.  Or just avoid any activity more rigorous than sitting in my hammock (unless absolutely necessary and "necessary" can become very negotiable).

Graduation
Snorkeling
Christmas

Graduation
The graduation ceremony for the 9th graders at my school was last Monday.  It's the first graduation ceremony that the school has ever had for pre-media students and the teachers and administration have been planning for weeks.

I had no idea what to expect. When I walked into my kitchen on Monday morning to make breakfast I looked out the window to find my neighbors getting their makeup and hair done by the same guy who did Manuela's hair and makeup for Mi Ranchito in November, and it suddenly became clear that this was going to be a much fancier affair than I had anticipated.

I spent the morning traumatizing my cat by cleaning my house (the spiders were starting to take over...), then Jenny came over and we had PBJ for lunch and spent the afternoon chatting and playing with Canela while I finished sewing Prima's Christmas present.

Prima's Christmas Present (the final version has two more snowflakes on it)

Canela and I spending some quality hammock time

The graduation was during the evening in the pavilion next to the artificial grass cancha (field) that they must have just finished because the floor was still dirt in November.  The stage was beautiful and all the teachers got really dressed up.  I really need to get a pair of heels, I always feel underdressed around these fabulous women.  The ceremony was lovely.  Lots of speeches.  My favorite part was that a band from a local IPT played each student onstage when the Principal called their name to receive their diplomas.  The song selection included "Bad Romance" and "Timber".  The fireworks made it hard to hear sometimes, but it was a wonderful joyous evening.  After the graduation Jenny and I went to the post graduation brindis dinner, which was delicious and then watched Hocus Pocus and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (for the want of Polar Express; I'd already watched Die Hard two days prior) while I continued my sewing.

Sun(burn), Sand, Snorkel   

The next morning we left for Santa Catalina, which is a really beautiful and popular surfing beach in southern Veraguas.  We had the most delicious lunch of shrimp and garlic butter (we think) with rice and lentils (of course) and spent the afternoon hiking and reading on the beach.  It was so relaxing.

Santa Catalina from my reading rock

The next morning we madrugar-ed (when you wake up before dawn) to get ready for our snorkeling adventure at Isla Coiba national park/nature preserve.  I'd never snorkeled before and it'd been almost 20 years since I'd been on a boat smaller than the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut (which is large enough to fit dozens of cars), so the prospect of getting on a lancha (speedboat) for a few hours was a little nerve wracking.  Armed with gatorade, a full water bottle, a peanut butter sandwich, and a bottle of sunscreen we set out.

I was hoping for some instruction.  I had the basic idea of "put on a mask and swim around looking at fish", but I wasn't exactly clear on the finer points of how.  The "instruction" consisted of being handed a mask and flippers when we got to the first snorkeling spot and being told that "most of the fish (including sharks) hang out by the rocks over there".

After about 20 minutes of some serious struggle (including losing one of my flippers and flooding my mask like 3 times) I took a water break to get some non-salt water into my body and switched masks with a friend.  The second attempt went much better than the first and I actually started to relax and have fun.

Our second stop was the ANAM station (Panama's Ministry of Environment) to pay our park entrance fee and eat lunch.  Peace Corps Perk: we only had to pay $5 for the entrance fee as opposed to the $20 that we thought it might be.

A shipwrecked cruise ship in the bay of Coiba.

They ran aground on some rocks and punctured 6 holes in the hull 

the morning before we got there.

Our third stop was for more snorkeling.  Less coral this time, more rocks, and much deeper water.  It was fun, but exhausting.  I saw some really cool fish and I am really glad that we got to practice a bit in shallower water earlier in the day.

The last stop was hanging out on the beach on another small perfect little tropical island.  It was so beautiful and the water was crystal clear, but I was so exhausted that after 20 minutes I was ready to start the journey back to Santa Catalina and spend some time in a hammock.

It was a long trip in the lancha to and from Coiba.  On our way there we sang/shouted Christmas carols, but on the way back everyone was much quieter.  That evening we ate at the fonda (small restaurant) across from our hostel and spent the rest of the night reading.

It was a wonderful, beautiful trip and I want to go back with the Veraguas wonder women, but I was so tired at the end of it.

Sunset at Santa Catalina

Breezy Christmas
Climate change is real.  It was 60 degrees on Long Island on Christmas Day.  It was much hotter than that in Panama (probably around 100, but I haven't looked at a weather report in almost a year), but it was beautifully breezy, which made it easier to deal with the heat.

I spent Christmas Eve making some Christmas phone calls, baking, and finishing Prima's present.  Prima lent me use of her oven and I made oatmeal raisin cookies and chocolate chip cookies without burning them too badly.

An improvised baking sheet out of a pot top

 

"No Bake" peanut butter oatmeal cookies 

(that were more like pudding because they didn't solidify, but still delicious)

Cookie dough

On Christmas Day I had a relaxing breakfast, skyped with my family, and pasear-ed to some families in my community with Christmas cookies.  Cultural exchange win.  Prima invited me to a delicious Christmas lunch of ham and rice with guandu (a kind of bean) and I spent the rest of the day watching Harry Potter movies and sewing.

Prima loved her present and her daughters want to learn how to bake cookies.  I also spent a lot of time hanging out with her family and eating fruit.  It seems to be a Panamanian Christmas tradition to set out a bunch of fruit (apples, pears, grapes, etc.) and sweet bread (reminds me of challah) on the dining room table for people to snack on during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

On to New Year's!

I leave you with this:

Canelita in a frisbee, she thinks it's her bed

Viva Panama!

9 months in country (or "goodness so much time has passed and I haven't accomplished anything, but then I redo the math and I realize that almost no time has passed at all").  So timey wimey.

Mes de la Patria
Canela
Neighbors
Reader´s Theater
Thanksgiving
To Present Day...

Mes de la Patria

The best 4th of July I ever spent was my last one in DC.  We watched fireworks from the roof of my friend's house (my first lessons in "don't look up" and "keep your shoes on").  It was a beautiful and terrifying chemistry refresher (anyone know what colors magnesium and potassium burn?).

In Panama we celebrate independence for a whole month.  The big celebrations are:
November 3rd: Separation Day, when Panama gained its independence from Colombia,
November 4th: Flag Day
November 5th: Colon Day
November 10th: Primer Grito in Los Santos
November 28th: Independence day, when Panama gained its independence from Spain

There is a parade somewhere in Panama almost every day of the month.  During November I attended or marched in 9 parades.  Two of those were on the same day in different locations and one was a cancer awareness parade.

For parades everyone dresses up in varying levels of Panamanian traditional (tipico) dress whether or not you're in the parade.  Many of the teachers at my school have these gorgeous fitted dresses embroidered with traditional pollera designs and I want to try to sew one for myself for next year.

                                           A Sea of Polleras Montunas with blusas Santeñas

                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                         Roxana Empollerada

The only tipico clothes I have are my cutarras (really comfortable leather sandals), which will get ruined if I wear them to parades because it invariably rains buckets.


My parade wear is usually jeans, a white blouse, some tambleques (beaded flowers that you pin into your hair) and these really awesome rubber sandals that I found in the market in Santiago (take that aguaceros).

Parades are typically preceded by an acto (a patriotic cultural performance) that starts with an invocation by the local priest and may include a tamborito (traditional Panamanian music with drums and call-response style singing), tipico dancing, speeches, choral poems, and other musical performances by students or members of the community.

Parades may include: school bands, students dancing tipico, floats, tunas (marching tamborito), flag/fan/dance/machete student corps, gymnastics teams.

                                                                                                                       

Manuela wearing a more 

                                                                                                                      modern-style tipico dress

         A Gymnastics Team                                                                    
                                          

                                     Students marching with machetes (sort of like drill team)

All of the parades, cultural events, and "day" celebrations (Students' Day, Teacher´ss Day, etc.)  ate the entire month of November (as promised by every PCV I spoke to), so I didn´t have much time in the classroom, which was frustrating, but it was really fun to participate in all the festivities and I feel like I strengthened some of my relationships with my counterparts at school and community members.

The staff and other PCVs told us that our first year of service really is just about integrating into your community and as I approach my year anniversary of Peace Corps service I´m realizing this is absolutely true.  In my typically industrious, goal-focused nature I struggled with wanting to work, but having a hudred barriers come up. It´s about redefining what "work" is.  I`ve received equally excited reactions and compliments to my adventures in cooking and eating Panamanian food and playing hide and seek with the kids as I have to my time in the classroom.


Canela

Canela is probably my biggest accomplishment since coming back from med hold in Panama.  She's a 12 week old grey kitten that I adopted from another PCV here in Veraguas.  I've never had a pet before, so it's a steep learning curve, but I loved her pretty immediately, so I think we'll be ok.  We spent some quality hammock time with a good book the other day.  Pre-Canela I didn't think sitting in my hammock could get more relaxing, but I was wrong.  Living with a kitten is an interesting experience.  I alternately call her "Canela" or "terrorism", but I know all of the flying ninja attacks from behind walls and furniture are really expressions of love.

Won´t you be my Neighbor?
I have the best neighbors in the world.  They´ve basically adopted me as daughter number 6 and I´m beyond grateful for them.  Prima teaches second grade at school and her husband Mariano has a finca (farm).  They´re always giving me food and fixing things (including getting Canela out of a tree and helping me hang clotheslines).  Their daughter Carmen is one of my English teacher counterparts at school and her children, Manuela and Manuel, are my chief playmates.  Maria lives across the street and we chat a lot.  She loves to ask about Canela.  Prima is going to teach me more embroidery (she sewed the fan that Maneula is holding) and I´m going to ask her to teach me how to cook Panamanian food.  Becoming friends with them is probably one of my biggest accomplishments of this first year.


Reader's Theater Competition in Veraguas

Students reading their script during the competition

Johnna´s students won!

 Reader's Theater is a really cool activity we can use to help students increase their reading comprehension, confidence, and to improve their pronunciation.  Similar to a staged reading of a play, students rehearse and prepare a short script which they then perform.

In Veraguas we worked with MEDUCA  (Panamanian Ministry of Education) and local schools to organize a competition for primary and middle schools students to perform for their peers.  In the weeks leading up to the competition we visited schools around the province to help students practice.  It was really great to see other schools and meet more students.

The day of the competition we organized the space and set up the brindis (snacks and juice) and trophies.  There was some trouble with connecting the sound system , so I sat down and sorted through all the cables until we got the mic to work and then I "ran the board" during the event because we didn´t have a mic stand and there wasn´t a way to mute it without going to the amp.  You can take the techie out of the theater and stick her in an auditorium in Panama...

After the event we all went out for ice cream and Pizza Hut.  I really miss NY pizza.

Team Reader´s Theater

Thanksgiving (x2)
My first Thanksgiving in Panama was really quiet.  I made a bunch of food for myself (including splurging on real cheese and a failed attempt at making porotos) and watched movies at home.  A week later 175 PCVs went to Chiriqui for the weekend for a holiday celebration.  We ate, danced, and enjoyed the beautiful fresco mountain weather.  I wore a sweater, took my hair down, got to take a hot shower, and ate fresh strawberries.  It didn´t feel like I was in Panama anymore and It was an amazing weekend.  So amazing, that I have no photos.

To Present Day...
After the celebration I popped home for the night to take care of Canela and for my first co-teaching adventure.  The transition from mountain paradise to dry season heatwave was rough.

I taught some 5th and 6th graders about Thanksgiving.  We did vocabulary and an attempt at a group cloze activity.  It was my first time formally teaching here, so it was a little daunting and full of deltas, but I think it went well.  Next year is going to be fun.

Then I headed back to my home sweet hostel in Panama City for TOT (Training of Trainers) to prepare for G78´s PST.  It feels so strange to be on the precipice of training the incoming group when it still sort of feels like I just got here, but I´m excited to meet the new volunteers.

The following Monday the school had a celebration for the students who are in the band and participated in all the desfiles.  There was a lot of delicious food and the students really enjoyed it.  The following day was the Christmas party where the entire school went to mass in the morning and then had a big brindis afterwards.  The students also received gifts.  Most boys got baseball bats or mitts and most girls got dolls or craft kits.  Sometimes the gender role definitions really smack me in the face here.  Goals for next year include starting conversations about gender roles with students and to hopefully encourage them to think about the logic behind some assumptions.

School is over.  I´ve been spending a lot of time in my hammock sewing.  Graduation is on Monday.  I´m excited to see the 9th graders graduate (and hopeful that they´ll keep studying).

Up Next:

• Graduation
• Summer English camp
• Celebrating Christmas and New Year´s with Prima and family
• Snorkeling at Isla Coiba
• Eating Pizza in NY
• Seeing Casey get married in DC
• Listening to some good music in Brooklyn    
• Planning and plotting for next year

Time Flies (Except When It Crawls)

Somehow I've already been in-country for over 7 months.

SECNA
Home Again!
Feliz Cumpleaños!
All Aboard the Train-ing
Hostel Home Sweet Hostel
Queens of the Mountain!

SENCA
August was a whirlwind.  I got back to Veraguas in time to say goodbye to the outgoing regional leader before she left for her new adventure as a Response volunteer in China.  I had my SECNA on the 12th.  My presentation went well and apparently my Spanish was mostly intelligible.  All of my counterparts, the principal, two police officers, and two parents attended and we came up with a rough action plan for the projects that we're going to work on in the coming months.  After the presentation we had a brindis with some oatmeal cookies that I made the night before, chips and salsa, and beet salad that the wonderful women who run the comedor made (before I could help them).  I had planned to make chicha, but forgot while trying to tame my nerves about the presentation.  Someone saved the day and got soda from the tienda near the church.  I was pretty proud of my brindis, despite how hectic it was.

My SECNA was paired with my Three Month Visit from the awesome TE PTS.  We talked about my experience in site for the first three months, my host family, school and working with my counterparts, did a housing inspection, and took a short tour of my community.

When we went to do the housing inspection we were a little early, so we chatted with another community member until my (new) neighbor and her sister-in-law arrived.  When Prima and Josefina arrived there was a whirlwind of introductions that ended with us hanging out at my neighbor's house and learning more about the history of my community and my neighbors.


Home Again!
We walked through the house to check for any security or safety improvements that may be necessary.  Peace Corps has a really detailed list of specifications (number and kind of locks, type of door, exterior lights, etc.) that a house must meet before a volunteer can live there.  My proposed house was only missing one lock, which my neighbors helped me install.

My house is so yeye (fancy) that fellow Veraguas volunteers and I have named it "The Ritz".  It's a bloque (cement block) house and I have water and electricity at all hours of the day.  I have my own room and a separate bedroom with a bed for guests.  The woman who owns the house left a couch, two arm chairs, a large book shelf, and a dining room table and chairs when she moved out.  The house has a cement floor and a zinc roof that extends over the front and back porches. Most importantly, there's a perfect spot to hang my hammock on the terraza (back porch).

My landlady also left her stove in the house, though only two of the four burners work and the oven doesn't work (tragically discovered when Roxana and I tried to bake shepherd's pie one day).  I also bought a refrigerator.  With a freezer (because I'm that yeye and impulsive).  Also, my epic craigslist and physical store search for a smaller countertop refrigerator turned up empty.

Basically, it's perfect, though it's a much larger living space than I anticipated having.

Biggest accomplishment of moving in: sewing and hanging my bedroom curtain.  Cheap and opaque!

Feliz Cumpleaños!

Feliz Cumpleanos!

So, the TE program staff had to do some date shuffling of our SECNAs a few months back and when the PTS came to visit I learned that I was incredibly lucky that my SECNA was on the 12th because that evening was the beginning of a week of school anniversary celebrations.  It started with the student body marching through my community that Wednesday evening carrying handmade torchas (torches) with candles in them.  I was a little worried about so many kids having open flames (stage manager problems), but no one got burned.  The next day we had the Reinado where the queen of the school for 2015 was chosen.

The Candidatas (Candidates)

The girl in the pink skirt is the queen for this school year

Joseph in his Tipico clothes

 

 The Stage

A boy and his masks

After the queen was crowned by suerte (luck) there was a parade through town and the candidatas threw hard candies into the crowd following the float.

Float!

Parade!

It was really fun to celebrate with everyone.  I'm excited for the National Holidays in November!

After I moved into my house I had to head back to Panama City for a few days for continued knee and ankle medical adventures.  Then I popped back to site to repack my backpack before heading to IST for two weeks...

All Aboard the Train-ing
In Service Training (IST) is two weeks of sector-specific training that all volunteers receive after their first three months in site.  This training serves as a chance to reconnect with everyone in your training group and launch you into the work that you'll be doing for the next two years.

For the first two days we were in Farallon, Cocle with all 49 volunteers from G76 for non-sector-specific training related to medical, security, resiliency, and grants.  It was awesome (and a little overwhelming) to see everyone again.

We played a really awesome game of Cards Against Humanity the first night and talked about all of the foods we miss from home (for the want of chocolate chip challah bread). I spent a fair amount of time reading because I'm a bookworm (and I couldn't walk down to the beach with everyone else due to my continued knee/ankle problems).

The funniest moment from those first two days was when the water went out while I was in the shower.  It wouldn't have been a huge issue, but I'd just put a "real shower" (as opposed to bucket shower) amount of shampoo in my hair and there were no cubos (buckets of water) to be found and no river close by.  Losing electricity and/or water is not uncommon in Panama.  It just happens sometimes.  Luckily my friend Jen came into the bathroom and had her phone with her, so she called our fearless PTS who used her magic powers to turn the water back on (or the gods decided that they'd had enough entertainment for the evening), so I didn't have to brush the soap out of my hair.

After those first two days we said goodbye to CEC and went to our yeye hotel for TE training.  TE volunteers here have the reputation for being yeye because we tend to have more access to water, electricity, cell signal, and our sites tend to be pretty easily accessible (as opposed to having to hike or take a boat in).  When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by a veritable sea of hammocks outside the dorms.  Perfect for evening reading and conversation (except for the voracious chitra).

In the tradition of PST We spent most of our time in a rancho in seminars learning about all of the resources that we have available to us, potential projects and teaching methodologies.  It was great to see everyone and to hear about their sites.  I really want to find time to visit everyone during my service.  Most of the second week was devoted to "practicum" activities.  We created new seminars in our provincial groups to give to English teachers in Cocle and spent 6 hours over two days teaching an English Camp/Club/Class to primary and secondary students at another volunteer's site.

Team Veraguas (and Erin) developed an hour-long seminar about how to effectively use group work in the classroom.  The time crunch of developing the seminar in two days was a little stressful, but it turned out really well.  The execution of it was particularly cool because we got to give it to three separate groups of teachers in a row and we gotten written observations back from other TE 76, so each time we gave the seminar we were able to improve it a little bit.

Dillon, Jody, Erin, and I got to work with 6th graders for our English Camp/Club/Class.  We decided to teach them body parts, numbers 1-10, and the verb "to have" using a bunch of different games and activities (flyswatter, bingo, elbow game).  I was a little daunted about coming up with 6 hours of planned activities, but it worked out and ended up being really fun.  It was also awesome to teach with people I don't usually get to work with because we don't live near each other.  After IST I'm even more confident that we're each other's best resources.

For a culminating activity we had all of the students draw monsters.  On their monster each student had to label 5 body parts and then they had to write two sentences about their monster using the verb "to have", a number, and a body part (ex. My monster has five legs).  At the end the students presented their monsters to their classmates and grade level teacher.  It was really cool to see their creativity combined with comprehension.  Students here tend to spend a lot of time copying from the board and it was really nice to get away from that.

Monsters!

Hostel Home Sweet Hostel
After IST I went to Panama City to get my knee and ankle issues sorted out.  I spent three weeks in the city going through physical therapy and trying to not walk too much.  PT involved learning that I'd been walking and running incorrectly for who knows how long, so I had to relearn how to do those things correctly.  It made me feel a little silly and a lot frustrated at times, but I'm finally done with the braces and back to being able to walk without being in pain.  My ice pack will still be my best friend for awhile and I'll have to continue the strength training exercises in site, but I'm feeling much better.  Being out of site for so long started to drive me crazy though and it definitely threw a huge wrench into all my plans for the end of the school year.  Pero vamos adelante como el elefante.  I'm going to get as much done as I can before the school year is up and hopefully I can organize some camps and clubs over the school year break.

While on medical hold (what they call receiving treatment with no fixed end date) I was fortunate to have lots of distractions in the form of books (go read Reading Lolita in Tehran), fellow PCVs, and the Panama TESOL conference (a two-day international TESOL conference).  Fellow PCVs presented on a variety of teaching strategies and it was really wonderful to watch them teach.

Also, thanks to some delicious Mexican food adventures, I willingly eat onions now (something I'm sure my mother never thought would happen).

Queens of the Mountain!
Team G76 Veraguas climbed a giant hill called El Cerro (The Hill) in San Francisco, Veraguas.  It was so big that I'm rather inclined to call it a mountain, but I've also never lived much above sea level, so my understanding of what's considered a "mountain" might be off.

We were silly and started the hike at midday, so it was crazy hot and the three of us were melting.  Our Panamanian guide friend Yosie fearlessly led the way (waterbottle-less and wearing a super cute outfit).  The last third of the hike was the hardest because it turned more into semi-vertical bouldering than hiking, but it was absolutely worth the awesome view.

On top of the World

Team G76 Veraguas 

(yes, this is the only order we stand in to take photos together)

Future Picnic Spot View #1

Future Picnic Spot View #2

After getting down the mountain we went to this fantastic bakery where we had the best tutti frutti chicha (juice) ever.  It was like iced tea, but better.  Like ambrosia or nectar.  I can't properly describe what it tasted like, but it was amazing.

After the bakery we went swimming in the river, which was wonderful because we were all drenched through with sweat.  Rio swimming is one of my favorite activities here, especially because you don't need your bathing suit to go swimming.  You just jump right in fully clothed.

Swimming in the Rio

After the Rio we made some delicious food.  Pasta with peppers and salchicha (hot dogs) and Roxana's famous zucchini bread .  It was a really wonderful day.  Love the Veraguas women.

Also, thank goodness the rainy season has finally arrived.

Up Next:
Community English Class
Co-Teaching
Library Project
National Holidays
Volunteer Holiday Party
Graduation

5 Month Pana-versary!

As of last Saturday I have been in Panama for 5 months of my 27 month service.  I really can't believe how quickly--and slowly--the time has gone; it's much more wibbly-wobbly than I thought it would be.

I handed in my SECNA paper, a whopping 9.5 pages, and now I'm preparing for the presentation of my report to my counterparts, community members, and Peace Corps staff.  It's a few weeks away, but I know it'll be here in a blink.

Soon I'll be moving into my own place and I'm so excited to be able to cook for myself and generally have more space.

Tragically, the screen on my Kindle broke the other day, so I'm back to feeding my addiction with paperback books.  This is potentially a necessary break as I was reading a paperback soon after my Kindle's demise and tapped a completed page to go to the next one and was momentarily confused as to why the page didn't change.

Site life is going well.  My new counterpart and I (and her 6 year old daughter) are quickly becoming friends.  Her daughter and I spent a few hours the other week flapping around the house pretending to be birds, then explorers (with the aid of some hair dye instructions as a map), then artists who drew lots of pictures of highways and houses.

Upcoming Events

• SECNA Presentation
• Moving into my house
• IST (In Service Training), and the wonderful reunion of G76 for the first time since May
• Going to the Post Office (it's been closed for about a week)

Finally: A photo of my school's partially constructed float for the Virgen del Carmen Festival.  Yes, those are real flowers.  There were more than 30 floats in the festival and it was a huge 9 day event that involved a lot of fireworks and the very important lesson to never look up when the fireworks explode, but more on that later.

Two Months in Site! (and The Ominous Approach of the SECNA)

So, it's July.  I'm really not sure how that happened because I swear I've only been in site for like two weeks, which means it should be the end of May and I should have many many more than 9 days to complete my SECNA (School Entry and Community Needs Assessment) paper, but alas earwax.

Two Month Milestones (with jump links to sections because I'm verbose!)
-End of June: The longest amount of time I've ever been out of the US (to date)
-I sent 5 letters to people in the US
-I have gotten less terrible at pasearing in the past week
-I started the last of my observations this week
-I actually conducted SECNA interviews

Click your Heels Three Times...
I spent most of training waiting for my decision to serve with Peace Corps to "get real", to have the moment where it all solidifies and becomes reality that this is my life for the next two years.  For some people it was when they got on the plane that would take us to Panama from staging in Miami, for others when we were going through Customs in Panama, or when we moved to our training communities at the end of that first week in-country, or one of a hundred other small "firsts".

For me, it wasn't any of those.  During the past three years I became so used to transient theater life, to living in blocks of 8-10 weeks, to counting time in shows, to being completely comfortable with my entire worklife (which really was just my life) changing every 3 months, that I didn't have the moment until my third day in site.

On that day I realized that I would live in one place and have one main employment (the school) with a steady income for the next two years, a kind of stability that hasn't existed in my life since before I left for college.  I also realized that I really had no idea what I was doing or where I was supposed to start with the enormous amount of work that I had in front of me.  So, I decided to take a mental health break and go to Santiago to start working through the "To Do" list that I'd made to make myself feel like I had some grade of control over what was happening in my life.

I went to the pharmacy to get more medicine for my ailing tooth, got directions to the bank from there, saw an ice cream place from the bank, satisfied my craving for something cold, and ended up walking around the Panamanian version of a Home Depot (a "Do It Center") for a bit before going back to site (which I've since started calling "home" interchangeably).  I just desperately needed some anonymity (as much as could be afforded by Santiago), independence, and some normal monotony (the aisles of tools were also amazingly soothing; I really miss building things).

During training I kept thinking that I would have my moment when I hit the milestone of being out of the US for more than 4 months, but I haven't been homesick (or more likely I just haven't recognized some of my new coping behaviors).

Maaaiiillll (a-la Blues Clues)
When I was 18 I was crazy sick and bedridden for a week.  I watched a significant amount of Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer, and America's Next Top Model during that time.

Getting mail makes me disproportionately happy and writing letters is super fun.   Be my pen pal!

Lessons from the post office:
1. Mailing letters is crazy cheap (no word on timeline or reliability yet)
2. You have to glue the envelopes closed (they won't let you mail anything with scotch tape)

This second lesson threatened to bring out the overzealous kindergartener in me (I was the kid whose notebooks were always accidentally glued shut), but I managed to restrain myself.

Welcome to the Neighborhood
During training the staff spent alot of time talking about "pasearing" which is a beautiful Spanglish word for the practice of walking around the community and inviting yourself onto your neighbor's' porch when you see them hanging out in front of their house (or even when their front door is open-indicating that someone is home).

It starts with a hearty "Buenas!" as you're opening their front gate and it's totally socially acceptable to get as almost far as that open front door before you pause to wait for a response.  Once you've awkwardly inserted yourself into their physical space you introduce yourself and try to find things to talk about and they may or may not give you food/drink.

I was not too keen on this idea.

Rather, the idea of knowing my neighbors and other people in the community sounds really great, but the practice of having to go to other people's homes to talk to strangers about what I'm doing here (when I'm still figuring that out myself) was just daunting.  And I conveniently used the heat and some creeper-no-creeping incidents as excuses to largely avoid walking around my site for about a month and a half.

We were told it would get easier with time, and it has.  As more of the teachers and kids (and by extension their parents) have gotten to know me it's become much easier to approach people and I've had some really nice conversations with some of my gente (literal translation: "people", Peace Corps Translation: "community members"), especially as I've learned what days the bars are closed and the best routes to take to avoid them when they're open.

This week has been particularly successful.  On Tuesday I was supposed to help some first grade students learn a poem for English Week, but it rained, so none of them showed up.  Instead, I went for a walk to a part of the community that I wanted to check out on earlier walks around the neighborhood, but hadn't worked up the guts to walk that far by myself.  On my way back a woman left a house that I'd just passed.  After about 10 minutes of walking in the same direction she started a conversation with me (opening with: "Que Hace?", "What are you doing?"; I was loudly saying "Buenas!" and waving every time I saw someone in front of their house, but not stopping or giving any indication that I actually knew people).  I explained that I was the new Peace Corps Volunteer and that I was going to be working in the school for the next two years.

I was then treated to the familiar refrain of two previous PCVs who both married people from my community (everyone I meet tells me about the previous volunteers, inquires about my marital status, and expresses interest in helping me find a boyfriend, in that order).  I also met a few other community members and two of her friends as we walked down the street (It's so much easier to pasear when you're not alone!).  She invited me to her house at a future date, as did both of her friends.

The next three afternoons were spent teaching those first graders the poem and then playing games with them in the park next to the church.  I learned that "el escondito" is Spanish for "hide and seek" and I even got some of them to count in English while we were playing. Also, playing with kids in public space also makes you much more approachable, as does walking them home when you're done playing learning.

*Open staring* followed by *Nervous giggling and averted eyes*
I started observing with the teacher (Coralia) who teaches grades 7-9 this week.  I already have a relationship with Coralia because we've had a bunch of conversations and I've eaten a few meals at her house, but I hadn't "worked" with her yet, so I was starting from square five (or so).  When I'm observing I try to sit in the back of the room as unobtrusively as possible so that I can get a sense of how my CP teaches without distracting the students.

At the beginning of an observation period, the kids are usually distracted by the new person in the room (eventhough I've been at the school for two months).  By Friday the open staring and nervous giggling had given way to barrages of questions and a general acceptance of me lurking in the back of the classroom.

Today we did tongue twisters with the 8th and 9th graders.  Coralia was teaching the 8th graders "A proper copper coffee pot" and she asked me to read it so the students could hear the pronunciation.  I told her that there's another half to it and she said we could teach the 9th graders the rest of it.  When I wrote out the full one for her she told me that she thought it would've been longer, so I wrote out "Betty Botter" for her too, but that one was too long.  We'll get there, the students got "Proper Coffee" pretty quickly and I love tongue twisters (#TheaterKid, #RudeMechanicals).

Moving forward I'm really excited to work with the older kids at my school and to hopefully have the opportunity to explore the nearby secondary school next week.

Aprovechar (and Quitar la Pena)
Two weeks ago my CPs told me that they'd all be out of school the following week for a training in Santiago.  This threw a serious wrench (the most recent of many) into my observation plans.  With the looming reality of my SECNA paper being due on July 20th I decided to aprovechar ("to take advantage of an opportunity") and get some community interviews done while I didn't have a specific daily commitment at school for the week.

I was pretty successful in my venture to Quitar la pena ("get rid of shyness") and go find people to talk to in the community and at school.  I interviewed the principal and assistant principal, met the mayor, explored the community library, and have a potential appointment to interview the priest and learn more about the faith communities in my site.

I have some more interviews to do this weekend and next week (and a fantabulous SECNA draft writing date with another PCV this weekend), but I'm feeling pretty good about where I am in the process.  Checking things off my To Do lists is the best feeling (it's so good that I sometimes write things down just so I can check them off, #stagemanager).

SECNA is the paper and presentation about our community and potential projects that we might do in our sites during our two years of service.  It's based on our observations at school and interviews with school staff and community members.  At the "Three Month" mark the APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director; Program Manager in non-jargon), and PTS (Programming and Training Specialist, Assistant Program Manager in non-jargon) go on a country-wide tour to visit the new volunteers and hear about their sites and potential projects.

Final Thoughts
Congrats on making it this far! I know this was a long one.

1. It's rained two days in a row which has been a wonderful break from the heatwave we've been having.  I love the sound of rain (added bonus of it washing away the horse poop in the street!).
2. Go read "Como Agua para Chocolate" ("Like Water for Chocolate") by Laura Esquivel.  It's a fantastic book and so much better than the heavily fast-forward-edited movie that you watched in high school Spanish class.
3. Shoutout to my RL (Regional Leader, a 3rd year PCV) for making a rough week infinitely easier.
4. Apples and peanut butter is basically ambrosia

Feeling Inspired by Peace Corps' "The One Thing I Couldn't Leave Behind Was..."

I'm from a small town where people don't really leave.  I didn't want to leave either...until my 11th grade English teacher made me believe I could.  Then "getting out" became all I could think about.  Became the thing that I wanted most and dreaded most.

The night before I left for college (located a whopping 300 miles from the only home I'd ever known) I hung out with my friends in the 24-hour supermarket (yeah, that's right, in the supermarket-suburban kids know how to party) and the diner, and just generally drove around, relishing the last moments of having regular access to a car, soaking in all of the familiarity and warmth of those friendships before I left on my new adventure.

Most of that night (turned to day) has faded from memory, but one moment that has remained was when my friend Greg gave me two little plastic troll-monsters that he bought from one of the gumball machines at the supermarket as a going away present.

                                                           Blue Buddies in Panama

These two little creatures have lived on my dresser for the past 8 years (currently accompanied by a bunch of shells I found on a beach in Cocle, a peace crane made out of a post-it by another volunteer, and the tiniest sombrero pintado).  In the past 8 years I've moved around alot, but I still think that first move to my college dorm room was the biggest one.

A week before I left for Peace Corps I met up with Greg and two other friends for dinner in New York City.  That night Greg gave me a disposable camera.  I kept it safe in one of my bags through the whirlwind of training until I finally got to site 3 months into service.

At which point I kicked myself for not opening it sooner.  It has 27 exposures, one for every month of this adventure.

So, that's my new art project, one photo every month for the next 23 months to be developed when I COS (Close Of Service).

Más ahora I'll finish the entries about embroidery, time, and gender adventures.

Hasta Pronto!

One Month!

I've been in site for just over a month!  It's been a wild month of adjusting to my new life and starting to work at the school.

In Panama Education Volunteers primarily work to support Panamanian English teacher counterparts.  I work in a school for Prekindergarten-9th grade and I have three counterparts at the school.

During my first three months in site I'm expected to observe my counterparts as they teach their classes so I can learn more about the Panamanian education system and my counterparts' teaching styles.  I spent two weeks observing Maria who teaches English for PreK, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade.  She's also my Community Guide (the counterpart who traveled with me from Panama City to site the first time I came here), so we've had a lot of time to get to know each other and she's really fun to hang out with.

Last week I started observing with Milania who teaches English for 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade.  It was really fun to meet more of the students.  My first day in the 4th grade classroom I ended up covered in stickers!  At the beginning of the week the kids were a bit shy, but by the end of the week they were coming up to me in the back of the room and asking me to translate words into English and all sorts of questions about the United States (popular ones include: My parents' names, if I have siblings, if it snows in the United States, and how to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas").

It was a little hard to get a good flow going during the first month because I arrived to site just before the end of the first trimester, so I only had a few weeks at school before a weeklong break and then I had to be out of site for agency meetings with organizations that we work with as PCVs and then for our Regional Meeting.

Every 4 months each province has a Regional Meeting where Peace Corps Staff and other organizations (VAC, Seeders, GAD) meet in the provincial capital (Santiago, in my case) with all the volunteers from the province to discuss admin, health, safety and security, and to discuss our sector projects (Teaching English, Conservation, etc.).  It was really cool to meet all the other volunteers in Veraguas and to hear about other sectors' projects.

Outside of school I've been spending most of my time reading and talking to my host family.  They're really nice, but it's still strange living with a family after spending so many years living on my own.

And now for something completely different:

In my stage management life I spent a fair amount of time sewing.  Usually precipitated by the telltale sound of a loose button in a dryer or by an actor holding a piece of clothing in their hands with a horrified look on their face (or the many times I had to patch the human-sized bags for the chase sequence in that Italian farce...).  My sewing skills are ok, but it was never an activity I did for fun...until a few weeks ago.  All of my wardrobe and costume inclined friends may laugh at this, but I've started embroidering...and I love it.

For the past month (or more) there has been a Tipico (Traditional Panamanian) sewing class happening in the afternoons after school lets out.  It took me a few weeks to find time to go to Santiago to get the right kind of cloth and a seam ripper (deshilador), so I wasn't able to join the class until two weeks before it ended, but I learned a fair amount in a short time.  It was also a really great way to meet more women in my community.  I'm now friends with the 2nd Grade Teacher (Prima) and we have future (hopefully recurring) sewing date plans.

Immediate future plans include preparing for my SECNA (School Entry Community Needs Assessment) which is a paper that I have to write about my community and school that I will then present to my counterparts, community members, and Peace Corps Staff in August.

Also, I'm probably adopting a kitten named Claire from our Safety and Security Manager once I get my own place in August and I'm beyond excited!

Yay first month in Site!

Examples of my sewing adventures (eventually I'll remember to take pictures of things):

                                       

A (Wholly Incomplete) Summary of the Events of the Past 10 Weeks: Part 2

In Part 1 we left our heroine in the middle of the whirlwind of training, anxiously awaiting site placement and desperately trying to remember the difference between gusano and guineo (one means "worm" and the other means "banana").

Part 2

Week 6 

Tech week!  TE traveled to the province of Cocle to work in schools with Panamanian English Teacher counterparts for the week.  The goal was to observe our counterpart’s teaching style, then co-plan a lesson with them, and finally co-teach that lesson.  I had a great time during tech week.  My counterpart was wonderful and it was really fun to be in the wonderful chaos of a classroom again.  We also gave a mock mini-SECNA about the work we did in the schools during tech week.

The night before site placement TE had a hat-themed dinner at a cool restaurant and I won a piece of delicious tres leches cake for my Mad Hatter hat that I made out of construction paper.  On Friday we gathered in Cocle with the training staff and Country Director to find out where everyone (TE and CEC) in G76 was going to be placed for their two years of service. We also met our RLs (Regional Leaders) who are third year volunteers who live in the provincial capital and offer support to volunteers in the individual provinces.  Two other TE friends of mine and I were placed in Veraguas.  We all have our own sites, but we live pretty close to one another.  I’m really excited to visit people once I have the opportunity.  We had a free overnight after site placement, so we all went to a beach to hang out and swim before…

Week 7 

Site Visit!  On Monday we went to Panama City to meet our community guides and talk about expectations and rules and cultural differences, the list goes on.  It was a really great experience and Maria (my Community Guide) is fantastic.  On Tuesday (or Monday night for those that live far away) everyone started their first journey to site to spend a week there.  I love  my site (despite being sick all week and not really being able to enjoy it much).  Everyone at the school was super welcoming and I’m really excited to start working at the end of training.

Week 8 

Back to classes in the Training Community.  The people who are going to (or near) indigenous communities in the Comarca Ngabe-Buble started learning Ngabere.  I really wanted to learn it too because we could audit the class if we wanted to, but I was unfortunately still sick.  Also, one of my wisdom teeth became infected (basically, I was driving the struggle bus).

Week 9 

Last week in the Training Community!  Last week of classes, a language placement exit exam (to be a volunteer in Panama you have to be at Intermediate Medium by the end of training), the presentation of our mock SECNA, and the planning and execution of the despedida (going away party) for our host families.  It was a wild week that flew by. 

The despedida was really fun.  The LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators) brought a bunch of tipico clothes for us to borrow for the party.  I ended up wearing a beautiful blue montun (a skirt that is simpler than a polleron) and red tambleques (beautiful beaded flowers that women wear in their hair for celebrations). 

Then it was time for the great battle of fitting all the things I’d accumulated (notebooks and papers and clothes and supplies) into the luggage I initially brought with me.  I won in the end, but my hiking backpack was insanely stuffed and really, really heavy.

Week 10 

All of G76 returned to Ciudad del Saber to stay in the really swanky dorms.  We spent the week finishing up training sessions and other administrative things before swear in that Thursday.  I also had to have that infected wisdom tooth taken out, but due to magic (and probably some mad orthodontic surgeon skills) I never felt any pain and I was absolutely fine by the evening of the day of the procedure. 

The Swearing in Ceremony was really nice.  The training staff came to celebrate with us and the Country Director for Panama, representatives from ANAM and MEDUCA, and one of the US Embassy officers all made remarks.  Two of the trainees from G76 ((one CEC and one TE) also made speeches and it was really moving to hear them speak so eloquently about the craziness of training and our collective hopes for our two years of service.  After Swearing In we had a brief brindis (literally translates to “toast”, but in Panama usually looks more like tapas-style food and chicha—really sweet juice) before we started our weekend of celebrating.  G76 decided to stay in hostels in Panama City to celebrate there together for a few days before heading to our sites.

That brings us to present day.  I just finished moving to site!  More (hopefully) regular updates to follow!

All of my photo-taking technology wasn't functioning well for the majority of training, but please enjoy these cell phone shots from the past few days:

Catedral in Casco Viejeo

Cinta Costera

Gazebo in the Plaza next to the Cathedral

View from a Hammock