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!
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 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
