Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!

Last month I went to a rural village up in the mountains with my host family. I got a couple of really great pictures up there. The first is of my host mom, Gudelia, and her grandkids, Yosuet (the little boy) and Yuri (the little girl). It was a really great experience.

The day after we arrived was the final day of celebration for the Virgin of Guadeloupe. People in neighboring villages had come from miles around (some walking for as many as 10 hours through the rocky, hilly, winding roads) 7 days before and had camped for the past week in the shrubs behind the church. My host sister, Yaneth, took me through the “hotels” so I could take pictures. I felt like I was a National Geographic photographer and she was my guide. It was very awkward. But, for the most part, people were open to being photographed. They were definitely roughing it, though. There were at least 50 people sleeping in the bushes, on newspaper laid on the ground. There were no tents or tarps. What you see in the picture is exactly what each “room” was like, though they did have a little fire pit for cooking off to the side. As we were leaving the next day it was crazy to see all of the people walking home, knowing that they had many hours ahead of them in the 90 degree weather, with baskets on their backs.


For Thanksgiving I was also up in the mountains but in a completely different part of Panama. The volunteers rent out an entire resort every year and take over the kitchen so they can cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was a lot of fun, though I didn’t take many pictures. This one is of Andrew, Deborah, and me, with other volunteers playing touch football in the background.

Christmas here is a lot like it is in the states, at least it is in my part of Panama. The whole town was decorated with lights and nativity scenes. It was absolutely gorgeous. And my Girl Scouts group went to the local children’s hospital and put on a Christmas play for the kids there. They were really cute.

For Christmas Eve and Christmas day I wanted to be with friends, speaking English, so I rented a house up in the mountains with 9 other volunteers. To get there we hired a random guy to take us in the back of his pick-up truck (though I don’t think his wife, who was in the front seat, was very happy about it since it was a 3 hour detour on their way home from the grocery store). The house we rented was amazing. It was all by itself on the side of a huge hill and the views were breathtaking. There wasn’t a neighbor in site and all around us was. My mom sent me a package that I got a couple of days before Christmas (thanks, Mom!) and inside there was a miniature tree. I brought it with me and we set it up in our rental and put all of our presents for our White Elephant gift exchange underneath it. It was perfect.

On Christmas day a group of us spent most of the day in the kitchen cooking. In the very back of this photo are me and Mike. Then there is Shawn, Andrew and Coco, with Kelly in the front. We had a really great time.

These are some random photos:

The first is a shot of the canal from a bridge just outside of Panama City. I love going over the bridges and seeing all of the container ships. I'm kind of a dork like that.
The second shot is a cool flower I came across that was very photogenic.



The hand is Greg’s. I think I’ve mentioned before that all the men here carry machetes but Greg accidentally slipped and sliced his hand open on his. The worst part is that the first doctor didn’t do a very good job and it had to be re-opened and re-sewn. At least he’ll have a pretty cool scar.




The final photo is my friend Whitney. I’m pretty spoiled and have a washing machine in my house (no dryer), but Whitney lives in an indigenous village called Ngobe Bugle and has to do her laundry by hand in the river. I think it’s really cool, though I’m sure it gets really old pretty quick... ☺


That’s it for photos. In general things are going pretty well here. I miss home like crazy and it was especially hard during the holidays (this was my first Christmas away from home) but now that it’s January and I know I’ll be home to visit in six months I think I’ll be okay. This month is going to be pretty busy, which is always good for homesickness. Anyway, that’s all for now!

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...

I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer!

After 10 long weeks of training, I am finally officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! In a ceremony at the Canal Museum in Casco Viejo, 37 of the original 42 trainees were sworn in. I can't even begin to express how amazing it feels to be done with training. We left our training site on Tuesday (it was really sad to say goodbye to the kids in my host family) and we've been staying in Cuidad del Saber. It's been great for us all to be together because on Monday we move to our communities and we won't all be together again until February. It's hard to think about because many of these people who I have seen everyday for the past 11 weeks will suddenly be many hours away, spread throughout the country. But, in celebration of our accomplishments and our last night together we went out in Panama City and had a great time. It's now 2 in the morning, we just back, and I am dead tired. our bus leaves at 9 tomorrow morning for the beach (2.5 hours away) and I still need to pack. So instead of write much more, I'm just going to post some pictures. Miss you all! (These photos are all out of order...)




Franco, Ashley, Me, Logan, and Jordan before our swearing in ceremony.













Panama City from the bus on the way to swear-in.












I'll be serving in the province of Veraguas with Andrew, Adam, Shawn, and Ashley














The Boys!!












The girls!!












Panama's bird is the harpy eagle, which is huge and beautiful/scary looking. We got to see one close up and watch him fly. It was pretty cool.












In Santa Clara we hosted a Masquerade Ball for our families before we left. My host sister, Irania, is on the right with the feathers.












This was my bedroom in Santa Clara. I love my mosquito net! It's like a little safe fortress.











To get to NY Bagel Cafe you ask the cab driver for the head of Einstein, literally.











New York Bagel Cafe- Best place on earth after a couple of weeks in rural Panama. It's a lot like a Noah's Bagels with great food, Snapple, comfy couches, wireless internet and, best of all, the owner is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer!















This was my host family in Santa Clara, during my ten weeks of training. I am really going to miss the kids and the mom, who was only 2 years older than me.