Beaches, Bichos (Bugs), and Birthdays

Last Sunday was my birthday. I am like a small child when it comes to my birthday. I always have been and I imagine I always will be. Thankfully, my friends and family humor me and my narcissism during this important holiday that usually goes beyond just one day of Emily-centric living and becomes a month long event. Sadly, last year my birthday fell on the first day that I was in my new community, and was kind of lonely. But this year I spent my birthday at the beach with a few close friends, swimming in the warm waves, playing poker, and swatting mosquitoes. Afterwards we went to David, saw Tropic Thunder (oh my Ted, hilarious), and lost money at the casino. It was pretty perfect.
When I got back to my community my host family threw me a mini-party. My host mom and host sister came over with a slew of kids in tow. They brought me a cake and sang Happy Birthday to me in English (which is pronounced Appy Bairf day) and in Spanish. We didn't have candles so they put matches on the cake that 5 year old Yosuet kept blowing out.
Thankfully I have a lot of crayons to keep the kids entertained when they come over. They hung out on the floor of my living room drawing pictures for my walls. Clockwise from the girl in pink pants: Yurielis, Yalineth, Gisel, and Yosuet.
My good friend Liz, who lives in my community, also came by with some home made Sangria. She made it from Clos (a boxed wine here that I am not ashamed to admit I rather enjoy), pineapples, apples, and grapes. It was delicious!

A couple of weeks before my birthday I went up into the Comarca Ngäbe Bugle to visit my friend Dennis in his community. About a month earlier the two rivers that converge in his backyard, the Soloy and the Fonseca, flooded, killing 6 and leaving many homeless. Dennis took me on a tour of the community and showed me some of the damage. This bridge crosses the Fonseca River, which was almost as high as the bridge during the flood, and is the only way to get to the many small communities that head up towards the mountains. In some spots it was hard to imagine the before. I would be looking out at a big open space and he would tell me about all of the houses that were there only a few weeks earlier. Two Peace Corps volunteers, a married couple, lived about a forty minute walk down the river and their house, as well as those of almost their entire community, were washed downstream. This used to be a branch of the Soloy River but, as you can see, it is nothing but debris now. Dennis was fortunate. His house is up on stilts and wasn't damaged by the floods. This is the inside of his house. It is tiny, but somehow perfect. It is just one small room that has a bed on the floor, a counter with a camping stove on it (his water source is about half a block away) and a table with two chairs. He uses a composting latrine that he built with a few other volunteers recently, which is just past the water spigot a short walk away- although not a fun walk in the rain/mud, or if you have those ever present stomach problems that come from living in an area without clean water.

It was really fun to get a chance to see Dennis' version of life in the Peace Corps. I admit to being a little jealous of his site. I love my community, Atalaya, but it is a lot more developed than I was expecting for my two years of service. Sometimes it doesn't feel like I should really be able to call myself a Peace Corps volunteer. So I take every opportunity that I can to go see other communities and get a feel for life on the other side.

One of the greatest things about the Peace Corps is the ability to really get to know the country. While I spend the majority of my time in my site, I really enjoy visiting my friends and helping with projects in their communities. But my focus in the coming months is definitely going to be on Atalaya. I'm about to start teaching more in the schools and I might start up a newspaper project with my Ecoclub. The kids will be responsible for doing interviews and writing articles and then we will sell each paper for around 15 cents each and use the profits to travel to other communities and spread the word about environmental health.

I'm also going to start helping my community look for ways to raise money so they can finish their long ago abandoned Casa Comunal (Community Center), which they hope to use for social gatherings, pageants, dance lessons, etc. And there are a group of men and women who do a variety of crafts including woodworking and card making that are hoping to form an official group of some sort, though they aren't sold on the idea of a cooperative. So, I will definitely be keeping busy in the coming months, and hoping to help in some way.

And, as always, my door is open. I now have two (2!) guest beds so come on down. So far I have had 7 visitors but I don't have anybody who has signed on to come down from here on out. I can't have visitors in my last 3 months so you have until July 15 to get down here! :) And hopefully by the time you get here I will have fixed my damn termite problem. The stupid little beasts are eating all my doors!

My house itself is made of concrete but the door frames and doors are wood. The annoying thing is not just that they are there but that since they can't tunnel through concrete walls they make their little trails in plain site, so I can't pretend they don't exist. It's obnoxious to see hundreds and hundreds of termites marching up and down your walls and be powerless to stop them. Oh, don't get me wrong, I try. I have gone through many a can of raid but they don't care. The second they plummet to their deaths a hundred more poke their heads out of the ceiling and pick up the path again. I hear you have to kill the queen. How in Frank's name do you find the queen? My neighbor tells me she lives in the ground out by this old tree in my yard. I have this vision of this giant 5 foot termite snuggled up in the roots of the tree, surrounded by her thousands of little drones. I creep myself out.

Either way, I've told my landlord and I'm praying she fixes it before the termites find my bed or start eating my closet. I'm okay with the thousands of ants, the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of daddy long legs spiders, and the plethora (good word, right?) of cockroaches. But I do not like termites in my clothes.

So yeah, I'll work on getting that fixed and you work on coming down to visit! :)

Photos

It's been awhile since my last post but I don't have a lot of time so this one is going to be mostly photos (a crowd favorite) with brief explanations. Enjoy!

My friend Deb has a Girl Scouts troupe with an indigenous tribe in Chagras National Park, near Panama City, about five hours from where I live. We decided to have an AIDS awareness training as an excuse to bring our two troupes together, which turned into an excellent cross cultural experience. Deb's girls are the ones standing, in traditional Embera skirts and my girls are the ones sitting down, in traditional Panamanian skirts.

A group of us had to go to Panama City for random reasons (including seeing the new Batman movie in English, only offered in the capital) and went out to dinner at an all you can eat Italian place. From back left to front right: Jake (chewing on Jen's ear), Jen, Danny, Me, Dennis (on the left), Deb, Lydia, and the Captain.

And then the long awaited arrival of Aunt Jenny and Cousin Maddie. We had daily morning photos, as well as a word and a phrase of the day. The first few days they got their words down great but towards the end of the week enthusiasm waned...

Jenny rented a car, which was the most wonderful thing ever. I didn't realize how much I loved Panama until I didn't have to ride crowded, smelly, hot buses everywhere I went. You can't come to Panama without going to the canal so we swung by the Miraflores Locks and watched a ship go through. It would probably have been more exciting if we didn't have locks where we come from, too.

We stayed at an awesome hotel that was slightly less awesome because the water park was closed down during the week. There were monkeys in cages and this crazy bird. The monkeys weren't so big on having their photos taken but this guy was all about posing. He followed us everywhere.

While staying in the city we went to my friend Deb's site, my favorite place to take visitors because it's so cool to see an indigenous site. Maddie, Jenny, and I rode in a motorized dug out canoe. I feel terrible but I don't remember this guy's name. He was our guide, and Jenny's Panamanian boyfriend. It's a shame you can't see how short his beaded skirt was- he has great legs. There's a plant in the jungle that has a fruit filled with a clear liquid that becomes dark navy blue after it touches your skin. The dye lasts between one and two weeks so we got a couple of tattoos while we were there. As you can tell from Maddie's face, she felt it made her a badass. After Deb's site we went on a really long but joyous-singing-filled car ride to the Caribbean coast, getting there just in time to see the sun set. Maddie, squeezing the sun.

Maddie's boyfriend, Fran (pronounced Frahn). They left a few weeks ago but he still asks about her. Poor kid is heartbroken. The cutest thing is that neither one ever had any idea what the other one was saying.

We spent a couple of days at my house in Atalaya, enjoying the hammocks on my front porch and a couple of aguaceros (crazy beautiful rain storms).Jenny decided to take advantage of the rain one day and clean our filthy car. The rain just happened to coincide with a terrific thunder and lightening storm and Jenny nearly gave my neighbor a heart attack, she was so scared for Jenny's safety. She later lectured Jenny in Spanish, which I dutifully translated while simultaneously promising my neighbor that Jenny would never do anything like that ever again. One day I dragged Maddie and Jenny with me to La Mesa, the community of my friend, the Captain. A group of volunteers and I were doing an AIDS/HIV awareness day for 120 locals. In the photo are Shawn, Dennis, Me, and Deb. I'm glad Maddie and Jenny got a chance to meet all of my friends and they were really good sports to sit there during our all-Spanish presentations and amuse themselves. The next day we went to the beach but I don't have those pictures- they are on Jenny's camera. After Maddie and Jenny left Panama I had two more visitors. Every year there are 2 new groups of volunteers that arrive in Panama. The first group arrives in April, the second in August. During the second week of their training, each volunteer goes and stays for 4 days with a current volunteer. My aspirantes (trainees) were Piper and Monica. It was a blast having them stay with me. We ate cheesecake, saw a movie, played cards, and did a little work on the side.Last week there was a Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) meeting in the city of David. I am the treasure of VAC. There are 4 of us on the VAC board (including the Captain and my best friend CoCo) and we are the voice of the 160 volunteers currently serving in Panama. A lot of volunteers came out for the meeting and we had a really great time with Gringo Dance Parties, great food, a basketball game, and bowling. Above: Whitney, Jen, Joanna, and me. This is my living room wall. It is where I put all of the cards that have been sent to me. (My birthday is October 12, hint, hint). Every time I get a new card or photo I put it on the wall and the people in my community come look and ask me questions. My uncle Jeff sent me a photo of his house covered in snow last year. They love that photo. This guy is awesome. You can't tell but he is actually really big, at least 4 inches long. This might be one of my favorite photos I've taken here.

So that's it for the photos. Hopefully I'll get more up soon and get a chance to talk more about the stuff that's going on down here. I have really been loving this crazy Peace Corps life lately! :)

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!) :)