You Won't Believe What Happened Next...

To date, I would say that nothing really "crazy' has happened to me, maybe because I've lived abroad before (4 months in Santiago Chile), or maybe because I'm "not shocked easily" according to one of my college roommates, who knows.

So, here's a quick list of some odd things that have happened:

• Boom, Crash

One of the "wilder" things that happened to me was when the bus I was on got hit from behind by a drunk driver.  The car that hit us was pretty smashed up, the trunk of the bus was broken open, and there was a bunch of choyote (a kind of vegetable that's light green and sort of shaped like zucchini) was pouring out of it (there was a big open air market that day).  The car was disabled in the middle of the street but luckily no one was really injured.   The cars in both directions just drove around the disabled car and I left on the next bus that passed.  

• New Feature: Key optional

One time during training a bunch of us were riding in a bus on the interamericana (Pan American Highway) and the key fell out of the ignition and the bus just kept on going down the highway.  I was asleep, but my friends told me about it later and I would have never thought a car could function without the key in the ignition.

• Being able to hail buses from any point on the street (most of the time)

Sometimes this can get annoying when they stop what feels like every 10 feet to pick up more passengers, but sometimes it's definitely useful to be able to hail buses wherever you want to instead of having to try to hunt down the bus stop (which Panamanians always know where it is, even though they're frequently not marked, beyond a little caseta (covered structure with a bench).  

It's definitely different from most public bus systems in the US where you have to be at the clearly labeled bus stop when the bus pulls up or you'll be out of luck.

• Casual Chickens (or bunnies) on the bus

Animals on the bus would never happen in the US, but it's not weird here.  I've taken Canela to the vet holding her in my lap for the bus ride and another time I saw university students with the most adorable bunny rabbits tucked into their backpacks.  The only chicken I've actually seen on a bus was on a trip to Panama City from Santiago.  A woman had a chicken in a reusable bag that was mostly zipped up.  You had to look closely to see the chicken's head popping out.

• ...Scorpions

The first scorpion I ever saw in Panama almost stung me when I was going back to my host family's house after hanging out with some friends during training.  It was about five inches long and lurking in the shadows next to the lock on my bedroom door.  In one of my least graceful and collected moments, I totally freaked out and ran to get my friends who got rid of it for me.  

This same day I found out that scorpions falling from the ceiling during rainy season is not an abnormal occurence and is another reason to be really grateful for mosquito nets.

• Table manners

I wouldn't say I'm a messy eater, but I'm definitely not the neatest.  

Sometimes you'll only get a spoon to eat your food.  Sometimes this spoon (or fork and knife) will be plastic and  sometimes your food will be some sort of tough meat on the bone covered in sauce with rice and lentils.  It's totally acceptable to eat the meat by picking it up with your hands.  I usually take my cue from other people I'm eating with.  This one time I was at a really fancy event where all the women were in gowns (and I was terrifically underdressed in my sundress as per usual) and I watched some of them eat the meat with their hands.  Also napkins aren't always available.

• Running in the halls and fighting in the classrooms

Classroom management is really different from anything I've ever experienced in the US (either as a student or as a teacher).  Students run full tilt and in groups in the halls and teachers will probably keep teaching through all but the most violent of fistfights in the classrooms.  I don't have a good understanding of the roots of these practices yet, but I'm really looking forward to exploring how these student behaviors impact their teaching and the students' learning during the upcoming school year.

• All the rice in the world and not a vegetable in sight

My mom cooked a lot of rice when we were growing up.  She has a pressure cooker and a rice maker and one of my first responsibilities for helping with meals was to wash and start cooking the rice.  I didn't understand that having pressure cooked brown rice as part of most meals was strange for families in the US until I was an adult.  Rice with soy sauce was just a normal part of my life.

Another of my first kitchen responsibilities as a kid was helping cut vegetables.  I learned to club my fingers when cutting carrots and cucumbers and broccoli at a young age.  Steamed vegetables were part of nearly every meal growing up.  

In Panama you don't see many vegetables as part of meals.  A meal is usually made up of rice, meat, and maybe beans or lentils.  Yucca and Ñame are root vegetables that may be boiled, fried, or put in soup.  During training it was definitely an adjustment to the lack of vegetables.

• Some salad with your mayonnaise?

I love salad.  I spent far too much money at Chopt and Sweetgreen when I lived in DC.  

In Panama the most frequently used salad dressing is mayonnaise and typical types of salad include: boiled carrots and potatoes with mayonnaise, or boiled beets and potatoes with mayonnaise.  Having salad without mayonnaise is weird here.  It's probably the thing that's taken me the longest to get used to (mostly out of fear of food poisoning from the salad being left out in the heat), but I've recently started eating it (especially when I know it's been prepared recently) and it's pretty good, but I still miss "normal" salad.

• Deflating

A common way of getting someone's attention (or equally as frequently, catcalling) is by making a hissing sound that sounds like a slowly deflating tire.  It's really annoying, but just like the catcalls in DC it's best if you pretend not to hear it.  If the person actually wants to talk to you they'll probably call out joven ("young person"; can be used with anyone from teens to people in their 30s).

There's more, there's always more, but I'll leave you with this for now.

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