One Year in Peace Corps

Year One

In May G76 went to the Decameron Resort to celebrate one year.  Unfortunately I had an ear infection and a sprained ankle, so I couldn't go swimming, but I hung out on the beach with a novel and took a little vacation from fishbowl Peace Corps life.

Sunset on the beach from the restaurant our last night

 Project Management Leadership Training

After I finished physical therapy I had the opportunity to take my counterpart, Maria, to a really cool leadership training in Cocle.

For three days we received trainings on project management and organization, and critically examined issues that the teachers and students face in their work and lives.  I learned a lot about how my counterpart likes to work and how she views issues and thinks about solutions.  It was really informative and fun.

It was extra interesting because I missed the training with the rest of G76 when it was given last November, so the training that I went to was with G77 SAS (Sustainable Agriculture Systems) volunteers.  Their communities, work, and lives are really different from TELLS volunteers because they tend to work in much more rural areas and are focused on agriculture education instead of English education.  Many of them also work in indigenous communities.

For the training we were divided up into color "teams".  I was on team blue, which included volunteers from Bocas del Toro, Darien, and the two odd-ball Veraguenses.  It was really interesting to see some of the artesania from Bocas and the Darien and to hear people speaking Ngabere and Embera.  One of the volunteers brought a really sweet counterpart from her site in Bocas and we were in the same dorm together.  She kept speaking to me in a combination of ngabere and Spanish, so I couldn't understand everything she said, but I really want to try to go visit that volunteer and her counterpart at some point before I leave Panama.  I'd also really love to learn more ngabere.

Soy Joven Soy Líder
For a few months we've been working with an organization called FUSODEP to develop a youth-led social impact program in Santiago.  Led by Roxana who developed the curriculum for the program, we finally held a TOT (Training of Trainers) for the youth facilitators who would work with us during the program.

It was a really great seminar and wonderful to see how much the youth facilitators have grown during the development process.  They're going to do big, amazing things in their communities in the future.

We also decided during the TOT to make really nifty tie dye t-shirts with the Soy Joven Soy Líder logo on them for all the facilitators after one of the people in the training drew their "ideal facilitator" with a really cool t-shirt.

Bring Your Parents to Peace Corps and other April Events

Easter
I spent Easter in site.  My town has a really cool dramatization of the Passion of the Christ.  They set up a big stage in front of the Church and most of the community turned out to see the performance.  It's typically about 2-3 hours of a stage performance and then they walk around the community to do the Stations of the Cross.  The entire event can last until midnight or 1am.

My friend Roxana came to visit and we went to the show, but we only lasted a few hours, between the event starting "late" (by my estimation, but 2 hours after the announced start time is totally normal here) and my habit of waking up at dawn, my night owl stamina is pretty much gone.


Adventure to the Azuero!
After Easter I went on a short trip to see my friend Tara in Mariato before she finished her service.  It was really fun to see another part of Veraguas.  We made delicious food, played with her cats (who are Canela's mom and sister), and read books in hammocks.

We also went to a cool event called a "Lasso Libre".  There's vaquero (cowboy) culture where Tara lives because people raise cattle there.  Lasso Libre is an event where people try to rope calves from horseback as they run to their mothers out in a field.  The goal is to rope the calf the fastest.  We hung out there for awhile and bought food.

We also paseared to her neighbors and host family.  We ate some delicious sancocho (traditional chicken soup and ñame) and drank some amazing chicha de limon con raspado (lemon juice with sugar cane sugar), and ate espuma (the bubbles that come up when you process sugar cane into sugar), which is like molasses, but lighter.  It's sort of like eating a cross between cotton candy and caramel.

It was a lovely weekend full of food and friends and food and travel.

Road in Tara's town

Site life: Community Class an English Clubs
In site I was teaching a Community English Class and trying to get momentum on two fusion English/Leadership clubs for students.  English class started well I had 16 adult students and I used a curriculum that was developed by a previous group of volunteers.  It was harder to get momentum with the English clubs because the school schedule shifts and my schedule was a little variable with having to be out of site for trainings, so students would forget or I would be gone.  Even with all the logistical struggles, I really love teaching and everyone who came to the clubs and classes had a good time.

Bring Your Parents to Peace Corps
So, I was both really excited and a little nervous to have my parents come visit me in Panamania.  I love my life here, but I knew it would be a little...grittier than previous international travel experiences that they've had and I didn't know how they'd react.

On the appointed day I went to Panama City to pick them up at the airport.  We have fancy IDs that allow us to meet people at the gate, but the process is a little confusing.  Luckily my friend Jody was meeting her parents around the same time (Unofficial Peace Corps Panama Parents Week 2016), so we were able to navigate the process together.  Jody and I split up after we got through security because our parents were arriving at different gates.

When they finally arrived we zipped through immigration and security to get to the hotel.  At the hotel we relaxed for a bit (I took a wonderful, rare hot shower) before going out to dinner at Tantalo in Casco Viejo and then wandering around and getting ice cream before crashing hard.

The next day we woke up early and went to the Canal.  There's a really cool museum at the Miraflores locks.

The Panama Canal

Parents!

After we went to the Canal we grabbed lunch like tourists at the TGI Friday's in Albrook (I was easing them into Panama).  After lunch we went to the Biodiversity Museum, which is a really cool relatively new museum out on the Causeway.

One of the sculptures in the museum

I'm not really a person who takes photos in museums, so that's the only one I have (other than the one that I took of the ellipsoidal lights that were lighting one of the exhibits...I miss theater life).

After the museum we ate dinner and went to sleep early because the next morning we were going to Veraguas :)

We got up early and got on a bus to Santiago.  Four hours later we arrived and I took them to Kandela's (the best fonda, traditional Panamanian restaurant in Santiago) for lunch, did some quick grocery shopping, and then got on another bus to head to my house.

I introduced them to Canela and we went next door and met my neighbors and then made dinner at home.

The next morning we had a quiet breakfast and then went to school so they could meet the English teachers and the rest of the staff and kids.

The students were gardening that day, making flowerpots out of tires

After school we went into Santiago to have lunch with Kelly and Roxana and go grocery shopping because we invited my neighbors to dinner that evening.

My neighbors loved dinner and the next morning they invited us to breakfast before we left for Santa Catalina.

Parents and Neighbors

We ate breakfast and then got on the road for the long trip down to the ocean.

We hiked on the beach and went snorkeling at Coiba.  It was beautiful and really fun.

Sunset at Santa Catalina

Hanging out on the boat

After Santa Catalina we made the long trip back to Panama City.  The next day I took them to the artisan market at 5 de Mayo and then to the airport.  I was sad to see them go, but I think they had a really good time and I loved sharing Panama with them.