June and July

I came to Panama 2 weeks shy of a year ago with 41 other volunteers. Over the course of the last 11+ months we've lost 10 people for various reasons but the hardest for me was my friend Kelly. Kelly, CoCo, and I (photo) have been close since we left the training community last October and we were all geographically close too, within two hours of each other. But Kelly hadn't really been feeling the Peace Corps life for awhile and she left Panama for good the same day that I flew back to the states to spend a couple of weeks with my friends and family.


One of the nice things about Peace Corps is that, although they encourage you to serve the full 27 months and they do their best to make it a productive and successful tour, it is pretty easy to leave if you decide it isn't working. I'm really bummed that Kelly is gone but you have to do what's right for you.

Anyway, after saying goodbye to Kelly at the airport in Panama City I flew to Portland. It felt amazing to be home. My mom, Dad, and little brother Justin met me at the airport. I was only in Portland for 12 days and it went by crazy fast. The reason I flew back was for my best friend's wedding reception (photo) but I took advantage of the opportunity to see a movie (so expensive!), drive cars (the freedom!), and eat lots and lots of great food. I gained back about 7 pounds from the 50 I'd lost in the previous 10 months, but I've lost those seven again, being back in Panama. For some reason I just don't have as much of an appetite when my options are white rice and lentils.

Christy's wedding reception was beautiful and it was really great to spend time with her. My parents were really amazing and they threw me a huge party the Saturday before I left so I got the chance to see all of my friends and family. Thank you so much to all of you who drove from far away lands to come do relay races, drink cocktails, and jam out on Rock Band!

On July 1st I flew out of Portland at 4:30am with my friend Adie (who I've known since I was 8) and her boyfriend's sister, Liz. We landed in Panama City (photo) that night and hopped a 3 hour bus ride to Santiago, where we stayed in a hotel. The next day Adie and Liz met up with a friend in Santiago and headed to Boquete, while I went home to unwind. A couple of days later I met up with most of my Peace Corps buddies at my friend Captain's house in La Mesa where we had a July 4th celebration. Late that night we busted out sparklers and sang an alcohol inspired rendition of the Star Spangled Banner for all to enjoy.
I didn't see much of Adie and Liz during their trip, which actually worked out pretty well. As much as I love to have visitors, it can be expensive for me to run around the country with them, especially since I've already seen most of the touristy places. Which is why I love it when people come down in pairs. :) Adie and Liz were able to see Boquete, El Valle, and Bocas del Torro.

Towards the end of their trip they visited me in my site and then we went to Santa Clara where we stayed in a (slightly stinky) cabin on the beach, swam in the warm ocean, and soaked up some hammock time in little thatch-roofed huts. It was pretty perfect.


We met a music teacher from Florida who had never left the country before, was traveling alone, and didn't speak a word of Spanish. He totally cracked us up. Adie and Liz (photo) sampled all of Panama's national beers (nothing to write home about) and suffered through some not so pleasant restaurant food. We then parted ways, me back to Atalaya, and them on to Panama City to tour the canal and fly home.


After Adie and Liz left it was time to get back to work. I was invited to join a few of my friends doing an AIDS charla (presentation) in the Comarca. A little background- the Comarca Ngobe-Bugle is a large chunk of land in central western Panama that is similar to an Indian Reservation in the states. The indigenous tribes of Panama have been forced off their lands and into designated areas where they have sovereignty, more or less. The individual communities are very impoverished, living on less than $2 per day, generally. Because they receive government handouts they've learned to rely on handouts almost exclusively. The handouts, however, are hardly sufficient and the children are malnourished. There are some that believe the insufficient supplies are intentional, but that's another blog all together.

Anyway, my friends and I went to the site of a friend of ours in the Comarca. His house is a simple wooden structure on stilts with the most amazing view of the jungle. The picture hardly does it justice- you can't tell, but the Pacific Ocean is clearly visible in the distance. The level of education in the Comarca (and throughout most of Panama) leaves a lot to be desired and one of our goals as Peace Corps volunteers is to spread the word about AIDS, among other things. We presented our information to just over 70 Ngobe children around the age of 10. It was a lot of fun and a really great experience for all us.

While I thoroughly enjoy working with my Girl Scouts and my EcoClub, I hope to focus more on AIDS charlas in the future. It is tempting to believe that AIDS, while problematic everywhere, is mostly an issue in Africa. Sadly, it is rapidly spreading throughout Latin America and the education, due to inadequate information and funding as well as the abstinence promoting Catholic government, is severly lacking. Also, it just feels good to know that you are making a difference in a child's life. (And the silly games and condom demonstrations are just plain fun!) :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

I feel like I've been going nonstop for over a month now. It feels like there is always something going on or something about to happen that I have to prepare for. Last month went by crazy fast- it's hard to believe I've been here almost 10 months now.

A couple of weeks ago I went out with all the kids (about 300 of them) from the elementary school and we planted trees. It was crazy and frustrating, but it was also a lot of fun.

We divided into groups of about 20 kids per teacher and then took a bus to a predetermined area, where the kids were set loose with a few shovels and boxes full of plants. In all honesty, I think the machete happy boys killed more trees than we actually planted, but it's the thought that counts? 

At one point the kids headed off into the hills and started planting random plants in random places (abandoning our mission to stop soil erosion near the river) but the view up on the hillside was pretty amazing. This photo is what most of the area I 

live in looks like.

The following weekend I had a mini- Project Management and Leadership workshop with my friend CoCo for my youth cooperative. We had around 40 15-18 year old boys attend and it was a lot of fun. We taught them about public speaking, working in teams, planning for the future, and self-esteem.

We played a couple of games, including one about filling buckets. In the Panamanian school system there is not typically very much encouragement or positive reinfo

rcement. CoCo and I passed out slips of paper and tape and asked that the boys right nice things and tape them to each other's backs. At first they were too cool for it but soon everyone had pieces of paper all over them. Even CoCo and I got a good amount of compliments. One of the boys told me he liked my sandals.

We also played an ice-breaker called Hombre, Rifle, Tigre (Man, Rifle, Tiger). It is exactly like rock, paper, scissors, except that each of the two groups takes the position of the character they've chosen on the count of three. Man wields Rifle, Rifle kills Tiger, and Tiger kills man. The funny thing is that, without fail, Panamanians always choose Rifle so it is always a draw when two groups of Panamanians play each other. CoCo then inserted herself into one of the groups and after a lot of persuasion, convinced her group to be Hombre and they ended up winning.

I think overall, the mini-PML went really well. This is me and some of the boys in my co-op. They are a really great group. The two kids on the right are from CoCo's youth co-op, about 2 hours from my site. They came down to help us out and hopefully we'll be able to go up to their co-op and do a mini-PML for them in a couple of months.

Right after the PML ended, I headed to Costa Rica for my flight to Honduras (the Costa Rican airport is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Panama airport). But in order to get to Costa Rica Dennis and I had to spend 9 hours on a bus, which was about as fun as it sounds.

Our first stop once we got to Honduras were the Mayan ruins in Copán. I'd never been to anything like it before and it was pretty awesome to wander around and imagine what it had been like so many years earlier. I took a ton of pictures but these two give you a pretty good idea of what it was like.










There were tons of these beautiful rainbow colored parrots all over the place. They were really loud, although they weren't saying anything that I could understand.



After Copán we headed to La Ceiba and then onto the Bay Island of Utila. The Bay Islands are home to the second largest coral reef in the world (the Great Barrier Reef in Australia being the largest) and have world famous scuba diving. Because there are so many dive shops on the islands Utila is also one of the cheapest places to dive. I am not a certified diver but I was able to scuba dive for the very first time for only $60! It was beautiful and addicting and everything you can imagine. We swam with squid (just little ones) and there was so much purple on the reef- it was amazing. I didn't have an underwater camera so I don't have any pictures but this is the view from the hallway of our hotel room.

I only had a week in Honduras and then I flew back to Costa Rica. The photo from the airplane is of the huge lake in Nicaragua, I think.

So, now I'm back in Panama, which is kind of a relief, in some ways. The trip was incredible but also stressful because of all the traveling and how much everything cost. I've gotten used to Panama and how inexpensive everything is, so it's nice to be back. I've got less than two weeks before I leave for the U.S, though, which I'm sure will give me even more sticker shock. But I can't wait to visit and see everyone again, although 12 days is already feeling like too little time stateside. Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

My First Visitor From Home

This past week went so fast! My friend Amber, from that lovely little town of Corvallis, flew down last Saturday, sick as a dog, but ready to see Panama. We hopped around the center of the country, first to El Valle de Antón, then to the Decameron Resort, and then to my community in the province of Veraguas. Poor Amber was a trooper, putting up with the long, crowded bus rides, some of them absurdly hot. But I think it all turned out to be worth it in the end.

In El Valle we enjoyed the cold(er) weather and the artisan market, and a cute little toucan in a cage behind our hotel. It sucked that he was caged but he was really adorable with the most beautiful coloring on his beak.

From El Valle we headed to the Decameron Resort, which is more amazing than I would have thought. It is an all inclusive resort (including alcohol) and the food was great. With my diplomatic status I pay less than half what foreigners pay, which makes it all the more worth it!

Thankfully Amber was feeling a little better when we got to the Decameron. It really is like a tropical paradise. There are palm trees everywhere, the beach is beautiful with little huts to sit under, and the pools are gorgeous. It also doesn't hurt that you're never far from a bar and a strawberry daiquiri. I'm a pretty big fan, if you couldn't tell already. They also have horseback riding on the beach, ATVs, windsurfing, parasailing- I'm beginning to sound like a Decameron ad...

Anyway, we only stayed at the Decameron for one night, just enough time to get some good food and take a quick dip in the ocean and one of the pools. Oh, and we got to see one of the resident peacocks. He was pretty cute, though he never spread his feathers. Oh well.











Our next stop was my community. We went out to dinner with the Captain in Santiago, then spent the night at my house. Amber got to see some of my cockroaches and my bat Murci talked to her a little bit. She thinks he sounds like a rat. Maybe he is, hard to say. He lives in the ceiling so I can't be positive.

The next day we spent a good chunk of the day in hammocks on my front porch. It was wonderful. It wasn't too hot, and we got a lot of reading done. It was very relaxing.









After that we headed back to Panama. Amber took this photo of the mouth of the canal from "El Puente de las Americas" (the Bridge of the Americas) just outside Panama City. You can't see all the cargo ships waiting out in the ocean, but it's a pretty cool site in person. Sometimes there are nearly a hundred out there waiting to go through the canal.







I had to take a photo of this. Some of the street names are actually significant dates. The second sign down says 'Calle 12 de oct' which means October 12th Street, my birthday. Columbus discovered the Americas on October 12th. If I haven't ranted to you about how lame it is to have your birthday be Columbus Day then I'll be sure to do so next time I see you (I know you want to hear all about it).




On Amber's last night in Panama we went to dinner at Habbibi's, an Indian(ish) restaurant. It was delicious. Then we went to a club down the street called Bamboleo. There was a five dollar cover but the MC convinced us to come in and it was so worth it! There was a male stripper, a female stripper, and a singer, and the MC was hilarious and a lot of fun. Amber tore up the dance floor with him and I think broke his heart when she left. He was pretty damn cute, I thought, and one hell of a dancer! So hot!

I was pretty broken hearted to see Amber leave this morning, too, but she couldn't stay forever. We had a really great time and she's helping me plan for future visitors, letting me know what was fun, what wasn't; what to bring, what to forget, etc. Hopefully I'll be all ready to make Adie's visit in July, Jenny and Maddie's visit in August, and Steph and Dan's visit in September the best trips they can be!

This last photo was taken at the All Volunteer Conference in March. From the left: Alicia, (Rob, in the back), Coco, the Captain, Dennis, Lisa, Shawnito, and Kelly.