On July 5, 2007 I was invited to serve with the Peace Corps in Panama as a Community Economic Development volunteer. I left my home in Portland, Oregon, on August 12 and I will be in Panama for 27 months- returning home in October, 2009. Crazy, right?
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16 November 2007

Can I Come Home Yet?

Don´t get me wrong, I love Panama, but I miss home so much lately. I´ve been in my site for almost three weeks and it is exhausting trying to process Spanish all the time. It can be so frustrating to know exactly what you want or need to say but have absolutely no idea how to say it. So I stumble out a mix of the words that I do know, fully aware that I probably haven´t expressed what I really intended. Despite whether it was true or not, I used to think of myself as a rather eloquent person with a decent vocabulary, but in Panama that is so not the case! As a result I´ve been burrying my nose in books far more than I should, although there could be worse things. I´ve read a lot of really great books lately (30 since I got to Panama). My two current recommendations are The World According to Garp and Under the Banner of Heaven. Definitely read them if you get a chance.

Anyway, so other than impersonating a mute and missing home, things have been pretty good. Our Halloween party at the beach was awesome and, as promised, I´ve got some pictures to share. Because my host family in Santa Clara always watched 80's music videos, I opted to go for the 80's look, with the ripped bright pink t-shirt, side ponytail, and big jewelery. Logan (in the picture with me) was dressed as a maleante.

Oy, the formatting is all messed up on this. Anyway- Greg and his wife Lisa were women´s doubles partners (and Greg played the role very well)

The other Lisa and her husband Matt went as a popular Panamanian dish- Arroz con Pollo (Rice and Chicken), which was pretty cute. (I made Matt´s shirt- it took amazing skill, as you can see). Jake was a cat but the funny thing is that Jake is 6'8 and he was all about playing the part. If only I had video...
We also had superheroes. From the left, Andrew was Captain Paternalism (long story), Franco was Batman (he shaved the bat symbol into his chest), Rebecca was Quailman (from the cartoon Doug) and Steve was Superman.

There were a ton of other great outfits but these are some of my favorites. Unfortunately I didn´t actually get any good pictures of the beach, which was very peaceful and the ocean water was like bathwater. It wasn´t, however, the crystaline blue that we´ve heard about. Apparently that´s on the Carribean side and we were on the Pacific side. Oh well, I´ll get there someday. I´ve got two years, right? :)

In Panama, November is the month of celebrations. There is a holiday at least once a week and generally more often than that. For each holiday there is usually a parade, where all of the participants dress in traditional Panamaian styles from different periods. Last Friday I marched with my Girl Scouts troupe in the celebration of the separation from Colombia. They were really really cute. The first three on the right are my cousins (I live with their grandmother).




This girl is really cute but she never smiles, ever. Her dress was beautiful, though her and the rest of the girls in similar dresses had to hold their arms out like that for the entire parade.
These two were my favorites. She kept trying to steal his drumstick. His outfit was the best, I thought. He´s wearing the traditional Panama Hat, white woven shirt, and leather sandals. But he also has a chakra, which to me makes the outfit. Chakras are ¨purses¨that are woven of a thick hemp like material and they are very common here for men and women (though mostly men). I plan on bringing back a lot of them. They're one of my favorite Panamanian things (though I think they aren´t specific to Panama).
That´s it for the photos. Next week my friends and I are going to the mountains to celebrate Thanksgiving. Every year all of the volunteers in Panama get together, if they can, to celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving. There is cold weather (by which I mean 70 degrees), turkey, football, etc. I can´t wait! We´re spending two nights up there, which is going to be a little crazy because I think there are over 120 of us going this year. And I´ll also hve wireless internet so I might get a chance to post to my blog again. So, until then, ciao! (Like in Ecuador, people answer the phone with English ('alo?) and say goodbye with french. I don´t think I´ve ever heard anyone say adios...