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.

So, They Say It's Your Birthday...

This is my second of three Peace Corps birthdays. 

Birthdays, Panama Style

Before my birthday my only Panamanian birthday experience here so far has been Prima’s birthday last week.  We sang Happy Birthday, had sheetcake that her daughter bought from a supermarket in Santiago, red jello with ice cream on top (a party favorite here), and I got to take a swing at the piñata (full of hard candies and noisemakers) with the rest of the kids.  It was a lot of fun.

·      Part 1

This year my new friend Gabby from G78 was visiting me for the week.  We spent Friday morning at school observing and hanging out with Cora (my CP who teaches English for grades 7-9).  We even did some family member vocabulary review with the students in preparation for a project that they’re going to do next week.

In the afternoon we went to El Palo de Granadillo, which is a tree in a nearby community that only blooms around Easter.  A lot of people from all over Panama come to see the tree bloom because it’s considered a holy place and the flowers have medicinal uses for pain relief. 

After we got back from the tree Gabby and I hung out for a bit and started making dinner before heading back to Prima’s house for an holajdre making lesson.  Hojaldres are pieces of fried dough that are a common breakfast food in Panama.  After our  cooking lesson we finished making dinner (quesadillas and mashed potatoes) and watched Big Hero 6 (which was not what I was expecting at all).

El Palo de Granadillo

One of the famous flowers

I finally visited the Rio (river) that my town is named after

And found the mysterious hidden IPT (technical high school) near my town

·      Part 2

The next morning on my actual birthday we spent the first half of the day at a youth leadership project development workshop at the FUSODEP office in Santiago because they’re interested in collaborating with Peace Corps to create some sustainable (led by Panamanian youth) opportunities for youth in Santiago to participate in extracurricular activities that would fill needs that the youth leaders identify in Santiago.  It’s a pretty fantastic idea and we’re really excited about it, though we’re still developing what we’re actually going to do in the community. 

The workshop was great and it was awesome to show the visiting  G78ers a larger scale project that we’re working on in Veraguas (especially because it has such high potential for being sustainable and making a huge positive impact).

After the workshop we bopped around Santiago for a bit, went to the mercado (market area with a lot of shopping), got raspao (shaved ice with fruit flavoring and condensed milk), and finally explored the new mall that they’re building on the outskirts of the city.  It’s crazy big and they’re putting in a movie theater (Santiago’s second one), but the really awesome part is that there’s a bus that goes there for free from the mercado (saving 40 cents in bus fare).  

After the mall adventure we got dinner at this really cool restaurant and hung out after to bake carrot cake and watch most of NO, which is a really cool movie about the “No campaign” that helped end the dictatorship in Chile.  Gael Garcia Bernal is a fantastic actor and I'm sort of obsessed with democratic political transitions.

Birthday Dinner with Team Veraguas and the G78ers who were visiting for the week!

Dinamicas (Ice Breakers) during the Youth Leadership workshop!

·      Part 3

The next day I did laundry, chatted with my parents for a bit, and celebrated with my neighbors.  We had cake and sang “Happy Birthday”.  I almost have all the words to the Panamanian version; it’s different than the one I learned in Chile.  After celebrating I fell asleep in my hammock with a good book (Little Bee, go read it) while waiting for my laundry to dry before eating some delicious leftover pasta for dinner.

Birthday cake with best friends

Singing Happy Birthday

Delicious Cake that Prima got for my Birthday

Singing Happy Birthday to Manuel too!

Really solid birthday.

And now for a little retrospective:

·      Ten years Ago

I was 17 and in the 11^th grade.  I spent all my time studying Chemistry and American History,  and writing and reading for English class (and for fun).  I was in Marching Band, chorus, the school musical (Bye Bye Birdie), and jazz choir.   

When I wasn’t studying or at school I was dancing (Ballet, Jazz and Irish), sitting in Greg’s living room watching B-movies, or not-quite-loitering in front of East Sevs (one of two 7-11s in my town).  I worked for my dad on weekends.  I had my driver’s permit, but not my license and I hadn’t started seriously thinking about leaving Long Island.

I had just met the girl who would become my best friend/sister and future co-star of the “Kara and Jess show” where we do things like make incredible messes while making box brownies, get lost in East Patchogue, and go “piano-man-ing” (driving aimlessly) with the windows rolled down and the music blasting.

·      Five Years Ago

I was 22 and a senior in university.  I was working toward finishing a dual degree in Spanish/Latin American Studies and International Studies/Peace and Conflict Resolution.  I was studying Arabic for fun and I had just gotten back from a semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. 

I had moved to a new apartment with old roommates where I built a free-standing wall to partition part of the living room into my bedroom.  I went back to my job working at the university mainstage as a technician (carpentry and electrics) and Box Office Assistant/House manager.  We were about to go into rehearsals for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , my last of 11 shows with the Rude Mechanicals student Shakespeare troupe.   I was back to dancing (Modern and Jazz/Contemporary) after stopping for a few years and I was almost over a severe knee sprain and I hadn’t injured my shoulder yet.

I had just gotten back from my Grandma’s funeral and been rejected by Teach For America.  I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation, but I knew I wanted to stay in DC, so I was about to attend my first tech cattle call to solicit theater work and start my freelance life.

I can’t believe how much has changed and how remote, yet recent it still all feels.

Year Bucket List

• Learn ASL
• Facilitate a seminar solo
• Work out at least twice a week
• Write in my journal for 10 minutes every day
• Read for half an hour every day
• Sew a dress for Fiestas Patrias in November
• Hike Volcan Baru
• Bake cookies with Prima’s daughters
• Practice Spanish for at least 1 hour every day
• Take the Foreign Service Officer Exam
• Retake the GRE
• Do cool stuff in site (in all the many forms that can take) 
• Visit the provinces in Panama I haven't been to yet 

The End of "Summer" (or the Month of February)

Ok, so it's not really the end of Summer (that's around May), but it is the end of February and school is about to start again.

Carnaval (Part 1)
I spent the beginning of the month (and the first part of Carnaval) madly studying to take the GRE in Panama City for my future return to study something for my MA.  I really don't know what I want to study or where I want to go to school or if I want to go back to school immediately following Peace Corps.  This may have been just another part of this quarter life crisis exercise.   The test was harder than I thought it would be (partially because I haven't taken a standardized test like that in almost a decade), but I'm hoping I did well so I can really focus on working in site this year and worry a little less about the future.

Carnaval (Part 2)
To celebrate surviving the test, I got some tacos from my favorite "hole-in the-wall" place around the corner from my home sweet hostel in Panama City.  The next morning I tried to get out of the city early (despite everyone's apocalyptic traffic predictions) to go to my friend's place for Carnaval.

In the end it only took me about 4 hours to make what should have been a roughly 3 hour trip (less apocalyptic than initially predicted).  My friends Erin, Adrian, and I decided to go out to the culecos almost immediately after I arrived at her place.  I don't know if the word is used outside of Panama, but culecos are water trucks that spray the dancing and drinking crowd with water during Carnaval (and because of all the water I have no photos).

There are also competitions for Reina (Queen) for Calle Arriba versus Calle Abajo in most places.  The division is based on which part of the community you live in. The women are dressed up in extravagant costumes and dance tipico on floats pulled by tractors.  The tractors drive right through the crowds by the culecos, which is terrifying to think about, but everyone knows to just get out of the way when the tractor comes inching through the crowd pulling a giant float on a flatbed.  Kids have water guns filled with ice water and will spray unsuspecting passersby.

Because we're in the middle of dry season (and rainy season wasn't that rainy this year) they had to dredge some of the rivers in Panama to get the water for the culecos.  We're not in a drought, but I do have friends whose water only comes for a short period of time every few days and the water that was used for the culecos could certainly have had some more practical uses (washing dishes, bathing, drinking water) than being sprayed on a crowd (though that was quite refreshing).

The next day I headed home to site (where we also had culecos, but I didn't participate) to get myself organized to start prep week for the new school year on Monday.

Campamento Muchachas Empoderadas
Right before prep week started a bunch of us spent a week in my friend Jody's site in Chiriqui near the Comarca Ngäbe Buglé (CNB) helping her with her Muchachas Empoderadas (Empowered Young Women) Camp.  The CNB is one of two indigenous areas in Panama and has two distinct indigenous groups (the Ngäbe and the Buglé).  The other Comarca is in the Darien (bordering Colombia) where the indigenous groups are the Embera and the Wounaan.

All week we spent the mornings doing leadership and teambuilding games, talking about role models, goal setting, self esteem, and making recycled jewelry and friendship bracelets, and learning the really awesome dance that Jody choreographed.

Fany sharing a valentine to herself

Laila sharing about inner and outer beauty 

(with a little help from her friends)

The last day of the camp the girls presented their work to their family, our CD, her husband, and APCD who came to visit for the final presentation.  Each girl shared something that she had learned that week in our sessions about goal making, role models (the majority of who cited their moms as their role models), and self esteem exercises (inner/outer beauty and valentines to themselves).  It was a really lovely camp.

Dancing!

Muchachas and facilitators

I spent the week at Jody's lovely little house with fellow PCVs Roxana, Kelly, Natalie, and Meredith.  It was also the first time in my life I lived somewhere that didn't have a refrigerator or regular running water.  Because it's dry season Jody's water has only been coming for about an hour every few days, but she also has access to a local spring.

Jody has electricity, but she doesn't have a fridge.  Despite how scary that might sound, you don't actually need a fridge to feed yourself delicious food.  You go shopping every day for food that might spoil quickly, eat vegetarian, and don't make more food than you're going to consume in a single meal/day.

We made oatmeal with honey, peanut butter, and raisins every morning for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch (PBJ or tuna), and a variety of things for dinner.  Because there were so many of us we each took turns cooking dinner for the group.  Dinners included: pasta with ginger, garlic, and soy sauce; roast vegetables and chicken; black beans and vegetables (with a mashed potato appetizer); black bean burgers with vegetables and fried plantains; wachu (which I can't spell; stewed beans and rice).  We even made no-bake cookies for the last day because Jody correctly anticipated the potential of entertaining our CD, her husband, and APCD at her house.  All of this was accomplished without a refrigerator (or an oven).

In general, Jody's site more closely fits what I imagined Peace Corps would be like.  She lives in a small town with dirt roads and lives in a concrete house (with Tara the tarantula who lives near the shower).  She has a latrine for a bathroom and her "shower" is a tarp cubicle next to her house with a dirt floor and a bucket.  She saves water in buckets for when it goes out and purifies water with a water filter and drops of chlorine.

Despite voluntarily joining the Peace Corps with this being my imagining of volunteer life, a year ago I couldn't imagine living like that.  But before I went to Jody's site I wasn't stressed about the water situation (the surprise tarantula housemate was even ok once we understood what eachother's boundaries were).  I missed pulling cold water out of my refrigerator and having toast with butter and jelly every morning for that week, but not so much that it was a real hardship.  Don't get me wrong, not having water (or safe water) is super frustrating, but I now know that I would be capable of doing the things necessary to live like that, which I didn't know before.

Some Empowered Muchachas with our APCD, CD, and (some of) the facilitators 

(missing Roxana and Kelly)

Prep Week
Prep week involved some discussion of diversifying teaching methods to help students succeed, which was really cool to see.  They also discussed education laws, selected school event committees (every teacher is assigned to one of about 7 committees to organize events throughout the year), organized and cleaned the classrooms (they painted over the summer!) and generally got things ready for the new school year.  None of the English Teachers were around during prep week because two of them were still studying in the US with the Panama Bilingue program and one had not yet been assigned to the school.

Birthday Celebrations!
The Friday of Prep Week was my friend Kelly's birthday, so a bunch of us headed out to dinner at this awesome Greek place in Santiago (that I didn't know existed) and then back to Kelly's for a slumber party full of popcorn, singing Taylor Swift, playing "Never Have I Ever", and the traditional PCV external hard drive media swap.  The next day Kelly made pancakes and scrambled eggs and then we all went to lunch at a fonda in Santiago before going our separate ways.

That weekend a previous English Teacher Counterpart (Maria) who left to study with Panama Bilingue in August texted me to say that she's coming back to my school this year.  I'm so excited to start working with her again!

Birthday Fun!

More Training (but from the opposite side of the table)
In theater we talk about being "in front of the table" or "behind the table", meaning are you the person running the audition or are you the person auditioning?

G78 (the next group of Teaching and Conservation volunteers) arrived at the end of February and right after Kelly's Birthday I headed back to the training community in Panama Oeste to support our PST (Programming and Training Specialist) for the first week of G78's training as incoming TELLS volunteers (Teaching English, Leadership, and Life Skills).  It was very strange to be "on the opposite side of the table".

I feel like I'm supposed to be "old and wise" or "a veteran PCV", but what 78 doesn't know is that I'm still figuring it out too.  It's really interesting to consider what I know now and compare it to my perceptions of G74 (the previous group) when they came to train us (G76).  I know more than I did when I got here, but there's still so much that I'm figuring out.

The week of training went really well.  G78 is an awesome group and I'm really excited to start working with them after they finish training.

At the end of the week we all hiked the Loma together for a bit of exercise and to celebrate the end of the first week.  It's so beautiful and peaceful up there.

The really tough part of working on that first week of training for G78 was that it meant missing the first week of school in site (and missing the first VAC meeting of the year).

On top of the Loma, one year later

(My) First Week of School
Two of my three counterparts are back in school this week and we're going to have a department meeting to discuss goals and projects for the year.  I'm also preparing to start an English Community Class and an English Club (or two, depending on interest) for students.  I tried to start my community class at school this week, but no one showed up, so I'm in the process of re-advertising and shifting location to hopefully garner more interest.

There are so many projects on the horizon that I'm a little overwhelmed with how (and when) to get everything started, but I'm confident that this will be a fantastic year.  I got to formally introduce myself to alot of the parents when they came to the school for beginning of the year parent/teacher meetings, which I think will be really helpful in starting to build some of those relationships.

Class Time!

Upcoming

• English Community Class
• English Club(s)
• Gabby from G78 comes to visit!
• Celebrating my birthday!
• Planning for a trimester break camp in June
• Starting the planning process for the Regional Reader's Theater Competition
• And many more adventures

Backpack, Backpack...

January was a wild month.  A few days after the New Year I set out on a new adventure: going back to the States to visit my family and friends for the first time in almost a year.

A summary of events (but mostly food):

Part 1: Panama to New York 

The moment I arrived at my mother's school

Getting to New York was an adventure.

I left site around noon on the 5th (with a delicious send off lunch from Prima).  It was actually pretty emotional to be leaving, knowing that I was going back to the US.

Delicious lunch from Prima

I got to Panama City around 5pm, ate wings at the Gorilla food court for dinner.  Every time I go to Albrook I get a little bit of culture shock.  There are video screens that show advertisements on the hands-free sink faucets in the bathrooms.

My flight left Panama at midnight on the morning of the 6th.  I was operating with my American sense of what international travel (or travel in general) looks like and I arrived at the airport around 7pm (being early is one of my five favorite things and I was too impatient to walk around Albrook anymore) and was told that they wouldn't start checking people into the flight until 9pm (which turned out to be more like 9:30).  Luckily I had my sewing with me and made friends with a really nice Canadian woman.

I didn't have to check any bags and getting through security was quick (though my sewing scissors didn't survive).

After finally getting to the gate I bought myself a hot chocolate for a treat.  I came back to the gate to find that we had to go through security again.  Our bags got re-xrayed and everyone (down to toddlers and elderly people in wheelchairs) had to get a pat down.

After round two of security they roped us into the now "secure" gate area.  It was a full flight so people were practically tripping over eachother with all their luggage.  I was looking forward to getting on the plane, so I'd have some more space.

The flight was smooth and we got into Newark around 5am.  I took public transport into New York and was able to get in touch with my friend Kat so we could have coffee and catch up before she left for tour.  After coffee I went to my mom's school in Queens where her 4th graders barraged me with questions.  I spent about a half hour talking to them before escaping to find some lunch at a diner and some platanos verdes (green plantains) at a local market so we could make patacones (alternately known as tostones; fried plantains).  Mom and I drove out to Eastern Long Island after school.

My adrenaline wore off pretty quickly after we got home and I ended up crashing for a few hours before someone convinced me that I should pause sleeping to eat dinner.

The Long Island part of the trip (really the whole trip) was a whirlwind of people and food.

• Sushi with my best friend, Jess, for her birthday.
• Family Christmas with my Dad's side of the family where I made them patacones and people seemed to like them (or they humored me).
• Deaf West's Spring Awakening on Broadway with my parents, my brother (Andrew), and Jess.
• Ate a delicious Italian food dinner with Jess and Theresa (before Theresa left on her Italian vacation adventure).
• Drove places in my lovely little Yoda (thanks to my brother for giving me his car for a few days).
• Ate bagels with my friend Patrick.
• Had delicious pizza and garlic knots from the pizza place next to my high school.
• Ate delicious french toast with my new friend Helen while we discussed our Peace Corps services (she was a volunteer in Guatemala) and planned cyber events for Peace Corps Week with Stony Brook University students
• Borrowed my brother's Netflix account to binge watch TV.

I also had the opportunity to talk to some students at my high school about Panama, my Peace Corps service and service in general.  It was really wonderful to go back to a place that informed so many of the choices that I've made in my life and to show them a potential path that they could take after they graduate from college.

A late Christmas with my Grandparents

Part 2: Brooklyn

After spending a few days on Long Island I went to visit my friend Greg in Brooklyn.  We've been friends since 7th grade and he's one of the people I always try to see when I'm in NY.  We hung out and drank tea and talked for hours.  It was really wonderful to see him.

Part 3: DC

After spending about 24 hours in Brooklyn I put my backpack back on and hopped on a bus to DC for the last few days of the trip.  

The first night I went straight from Union Station to dinner with my friends Alex and Gordon.  Delicious food, good company, and some DC theater scene gossip was the perfect way to come back to DC.  They very kindly drove me to Lauren and Eddie's house (friends that I crashed with in DC)

The next day I ate some Chipotle and sat in a coffee shop listening to music, drinking tea and looking at email before getting some pie with my friend Ryan, and heading up to Source to see Constellation Theatre Company's production of Equus.  

I arrived early and went to my favorite coffee shop in that part of town to find my fabulous friend Katie having some coffee.  We got to catch up a bit before she had to run to work.  Equus was beautiful and it was lovely to be back in the theater among friends.  After the show I hung out with Katie and my friend Cheryl for a bit before running to catch the metro before it closed (and tragically missing an opportunity to eat delicious falafel). 

The next morning Eddie made fantastic blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  After a relaxing breakfast I went and hung out in DC for the day.  I tried to go to the new exhibition at the Renwick, but there was a line around the block.  I decided to sit in a coffee shop with some tea and write for a bit before heading up to Theater J to see their production of The Sisters Rosenswieg.  It was really great to see a show at the J (and to bump into my friend Delia before she moved away).  The show was wonderful and hilarious.  It was great to see so many familiar faces.  After the show I got to catch up with my friend Jay, which was really nice.

The next morning I convinced Lauren and Eddie to go out to breakfast at Busboys and Poets.  I'd been dreaming about their french toast for months.  After breakfast we hung out for a bit before I started getting ready for the big event: Casey and Joe's wedding.

The wedding was lovely.  Casey looked stunning and Joe looked handsome as they said their vows with the full expanse of DC as their backdrop.  I spent the night dancing with Sara, Elizabeth, and Casey, reminiscing about college, and talking about how much our lives have changed since we graduated.  It was the perfect way to end the trip.

Roommates!
Credit: Casey and Joe's Wedding Photographer

The next morning I started my journey back to Panama, site, and (most importantly) Canela.

It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip, full of odd culture shock moments, but I loved it.

Reverse Culture Shock Moments include:

• Being able to flush toilet paper
• Not carrying a flashlight 
• Eating salad (without anyone thinking to put mayonnaise on it)
• Not washing my dishes by hand
• Not lighting the stove with matches or a lighter
• Being cold (or rather, not sweating all the time)
• Speaking in Spanglish (or just Spanish) to people who don't speak Spanish
• Forgetting words (in both languages)
• Not having to check my bag at the paquetera (bag/parcel check) whenever I walked into a store
• Having people get annoyed when I wanted to pay in cash
• Dancing more than once dance in a row with a guy (dancing with a guy for more than once dance in a row signals serious interest in Panama)

Meanwhile back in Panama...

Part 4: Camp!
There's no rest for the wicked(-ly ambitious) and in typical me fashion I had plans to go to work (in this case an English camp for students) as soon as I got back to Panama.

My friend Roxana organized the camp as an English refresher before school starts again at the end of February.  I only ended up being there for two days (silly sinus infection destroying my dreams), but we had a lot of fun and it was nice to be back in the classroom (and on the field) after being on school break since mid-December.

The students were split into two groups and each group learned a pop song in English and prepared a Reader's Theater script in addition to doing a bunch of leadership and teambuilding games.  The last day of camp we had students presentations (and speeches/closing remarks in typical Panama fashion, something I'm slowly getting better at) and brindis with cupcakes that we baked the night before.  The students did really well and I'm so excited to get back to working with students in my site.

Happy students and facilitators on the last day of camp

Upcoming Events:

• Veraguas Regional Meeting
• Taking the GRE during Carnival (#awesomeplanning)
• Girls' Empowerment camp in Jody's site
• School prep week and the start of the new school year
• Pre-Service Training (PST) for G78 (the next group of TELLS and CEC volunteers)

A Day in the Life

Peace Corps life is constantly changing and every day is different (but can still feel monotonous sometimes).  I'm slowly learning that there is nearly always more than one answer to even the simplest of questions.

So, here's a checklist of events that may happen on a sort of typical day.

Morning

• Wake up to the lurking shadow of Canelita at my bedroom door
• Open bedroom door, catch Canela as she dashes inside my room, take her into the kitchen to feed her breakfast.
• Take Canela's food out of the freezer (the only successful way to protect it from the evil biting ants) and fill her bowl.

When school is out of session

• Change out of pajamas and into house clothes (skirt and t-shirt) and cook breakfast (toast with jam and a cup of tea)
• Open front door to potential visitors
• Start checking email and whatsapp
• Migrate outside to my hammock once the sun shifts off the porch with my sewing or a book and a glass of water
• Get surprised by a parade or other celebration
• Fireworks
• Get mad at the chickens for pooping all over the porch and then immediately miss my Grandpa and his chicken sounds
• Prima knocking on my bedroom window to offer me breakfast

When school is in session

• Get dressed in school clothes (dress pants, collared button up shirt, and ballet flats), try to arrive at school by 7am
• Say good morning (Buenas) to everyone I see on my short walk to school.  
• Try to get the elongation of those vowels just right (Buuuueeeenaaaasss).
• Avoid horse poop in the street
• Arrive at school to bright excited student faces shouting "Teacher!" or "Kary"
• Participate in the acto civico on Monday mornings (a weekly school assembly that takes the place of first period) where we sing the Panamanian national anthem and get the school news for the week
• Say good morning to all the teachers, the principal, assistant principals, and secretaries
• Buy an empananda or two (fried ground corn tortilla  stuffed with seasoned pulled chicken) from the kiosko (small store that sells snacks, candy, and coffee) at school
• Head to the teacher's lounge or check my excel sheet of my English teacher counterparts' schedules to see what class they're teaching
• Spend the morning in the classroom with my teachers or in the teachers' lounge helping them with other projects

Afternoon

• Have lunch at school (potential meals include: fried hot dogs and rice, rice and pollo guisado-stewed chicken)
• Cook lunch (canned soup or a PBJ sandwich)
• Play with Canela
• Read or sew in my hammock until the heat of the day passes
• Visit with Prima or Loli
• Fireworks
• Pasear around my community (go for a walk and visit with my neighbors)
• Buy a duro (like a popsicle, but homemade in clear plastic bags)  popular flavors include Koolaid (usually purple), piña con arroz (pineapple with rice), and coco (coconut)
• Prima calling into my house to offer lunch or coming over to give me food like Platano Asado (roast plantain), pesado de nance (like applesauce, but thicker and made from nance), or fruit from their garden, like naranjilla (a cross between an orange and a lemon), naranjas (oranges), platanos (plantains)

Evening

• Cook dinner (pasta with ginger and garlic cooked in soy sauce and a salad with homemade vinaigrette is a popular choice these days)
• Prima calling into my house to offer dinner
• Eating dinner with Prima and family
• Shower (cold water feels so good after a day in the heat)
• Give Canela dinner
• Fireworks
• Check that my hammock is tied up (to prevent random people from sleeping in it, a phenomenon my neighbors assure me is a possibility) 
• Lock up the house for the night
• Finish dishes for the day and double check that all the stove burners are off
• Get my headlamp and pick Canela up, shut the lights off in the house and kiss Canela goodnight
• Shake my sheets out and check my pillow for spiders and scorpions
• Check my datebook and calendar for the next day
• Shut the lights off in my room and read until I fall asleep

Other things

• Wash laundry about once every two weeks
• Mop out the entire house with bleach about once a month
• Take the garbage out on Monday mornings
• Go to Santiago to facilitate LDGE (University level English classes about leadership) at the university with other volunteers
• Play with the neighborhood kids.  Chess is a current favorite.  Ultimate frisbee has some solid potential.
• Facilitate youth camps with other volunteers
• Teach community English classes
• Try to develop a literacy program/children's library
• Head to Santiago to run errands, have meetings, grocery shop, or meet up with Roxana and Kelly to hang out and talk about our lives
• Write letters
• Adventure to the Post office in Santiago (usually about once every two weeks)
• Write lessons and seminars, plan projects
• Listen to the pigeons running relay races across my roof and roosters crowing at all hours of the day
• Listen to the sound of rain hitting my tin roof (it drowns out all other noise and conversation)
• Stage personal dance parties (or musicals), sometimes with Canelita as my dance partner and co-star

Blogging Abroad's Boot Camp Blog Challenge: Starting January 2015

Home Sweet Site

Immediately before coming to Panama I was living in a studio apartment in a high rise in Washington, DC and I spent my childhood in rural suburbia on Long Island.  Before moving to Panama I always had access to electricity and safe (even hot) water.  It was never even a question because we see those as basic human needs when we talk about housing.  As one of my supervisors said during training "don't underestimate your ability to adapt".

I grew up in a small "one stoplight" kind of town, but it's nothing compared to the size of my community where the streets are paved, but don't have names, there are no traffic signals (but most people seem to have access to a car) and everything is located in relation to something else.  For example, I live "next door to Prima".  That's my address.

Before I came to Panama I had no idea what my house would look like or how people lived here.  From my research I thought I would be living in a wooden house with a dirt or concrete floor, a tin roof, and a latrine.  I would have a rain catchment system for water and I probably wouldn't have electricity in my house.

The reality is much different.

Training

During our first three months in-country Peace Corps volunteers in Panama live with host families in the training community.  In my host family's house they had electricity and running water, but the electricity was transferred from room to room via extension cords, depending on where people were during the day.  My 5 year old host sister spent much of the day watching comicas (literally "comedies", but in reality can be applied to almost any television show or movie) on their TV.  She loves cartoons.  

My room was a annex at the back with concrete walls and punch out windows in each wall, a tin roof, and a poured concrete floor.  I had two large plywood shelves for my things.  I used my mosquito net during training because the bugs were eating me alive (even though the windows were covered with screens).  Using the mosquito net made sleeping so much hotter, but not being covered in bug bites was worth it.

My host family also had running water from around 5:30am until about 3pm.  After 3 the water would go out until the next morning.  Some days the water wouldn't come or would come for less time.  We would save water in the dual basin sink for washing dishes (half for washing dirty dishes, half for rinsing them), and in bottles in the refrigerator for drinking.  I used hand sanitizer to clean my hands and rinsed my teeth with mouthwash when I couldn't brush my teeth at night.  

They had a nice tiled bathroom and a separate shower area around the back of their house.  The bathroom didn't have a light, so I always had my headlamp with me at night.  I took bucket showers  because the showerhead wasn't working well while I was there.  This involved taking a smaller tupperware (an old ice cream container usually) and dumping water from a larger basin over my head.  I repeated this process until I was satisfied with how clean I was.  

We washed our clothes by hand or in a small washing machine.  You fill half the machine with clothes and soap and then pour water in.  After the wash and rinse cycles you shift the clothes to the other side of the machine, which is like a centrifuge and wrings out the clothes.  You line-dry everything here.  Your soap-starchy, cleanish laundry is literally hung out for everyone to see.

Pouring freezing water over my head and showering outside by headlamp were difficult to get used to, but I survived training.

My host family's house in the training community

Host Family in Site

After we move to site we live with another host family for three months while we integrate into our communities and learn about the rhythm of life in our respective sites.  

My host family in site had TVs in every bedroom (including mine), WiFi, air conditioning in some rooms, and water and electricity at all hours of the day.  I never found a scorpion in their house and I stopped using my mosquito net.  They watched a lot of TLC shows about cars and building aquariums.

My House

After those three months we can move into our own house if it meets all the security specifications laid out by Peace Corps.  I was lucky enough to find a lovely, yeye (fancy) house and doubly lucky because it's next to the best neighbors in the world.  

My House

I live in a bloque (cement block) house that has glass slat windows that are covered with screens.  The roof is made of sheets of corrugated metal.  I have electricity and running water that is safe to drink at all hours of the day.  The floor is polished concrete.  We nicknamed it "The Ritz", mostly because I have a chandelier in my bedroom.

I have a yard full of fruit and other food bearing trees and plants.  My neighbors are farmers and I'm still learning what's in my yard.  I know that I (or "we", because my neighbors tell me to just take food from their trees and garden) have guanabana (a green spikey fruit filled with gooey white deliciousness), guandú (a kind of bean), plantains, oranges, peppers, and cilantro, but there are probably more things that I just don't know about.  There are chickens that roam the area (and poop on my porch, especially when it rains), stray dogs and cats, and a very talkative horse that lives across the street.

I still dry my clothes on clotheslines that we hung between the house and a neighboring chainlink fence, but now I wash them at Prima's house next door (or by hand in buckets if she's not around).

My landlady left a large bookshelf and dining room table set when she moved, so I didn't have to buy any furniture for the living room area and she also left a bunch of dishes and pots in the kitchen.  I've bought a few things, but mostly I use what she left in the house.

The house has three bedrooms.  I have a guest bedroom with an extra double bed for visitors, my room, and my landlady's bedroom.  My landlady doesn't live with me, but she keeps some things in the house for when she visits family in my town.

I spend most of my time at the table doing work or in front of my house sewing or reading in my hammock to beat the heat.

My Kitchen

I have a refrigerator with a freezer and a stove in my kitchen.  Unfortunately my oven doesn't work, but I just go next door to Prima's if I want to bake.  I fill up a propane tank at the store around the corner from my house so I have gas to cook with and I use a barbecue lighter to light the stove (I'm a little too chicken to use matches).  I don't have any shelves, so I just keep my dishes in a Jenga-like construction on the counter.  Most days I win, but sometimes I lose the Jenga game.  We have a formal trash pickup that comes once per week.  It's common in more rural parts of the country to burn trash, so I'm lucky that I don't have to worry about that.  

I have a blue-tiled bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink, which is the norm in my community.  I don't have hot water, but if I shower at night the cold water is a welcome relief from the day's heat, as opposed to a rude morning wakeup.

I love where I live.  My house is perfect (though it's a little big for just me) and my neighbors are the most generous and loving people ever.

Blogging Abroad's Boot Camp Blog Challenge: Starting January 2015