At the end of July, I traveled to Panama City to help train G81, the newest group of Volunteers who arrived in Panamá in early July. I spent a few days co-facilitating their training on identifying leaders in the community and working with counterparts to plan and facilitate activities. It was a great opportunity to meet the new Volunteers, especially because some of them will become my new neighbors. I got to visit their training community and abuse the electricity and refrigeration for a few days!!
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| Jacob and I on a hike |
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| Checking out the water source with my counterpart |
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| Jacob lost his boot in the mud! |
The trainees each spent 4 days visiting a Volunteer from my group to get a feel for an actual Peace Corps community. It was their first time in the campo! I had one the trainees, Jacob, visit my site. We met my host family, teachers, and spent a lot of time pasearing at all the houses in Barranquilla. Jacob met my gente and got to practice his Spanish and learn some Ngabere. We hiked to my site neighbor and toured a cacao farm. The owner even let us eat the fruit covering the inside of the cacao pod. We also hiked to see the stream source that provides water for my community's aqueduct. And we saw the tank that stores water for the community. It was a lot of fun to hack our way through the jungle with machetes and the help of my counterparts. we climbed down the stream-bed and then had to create our own path to the tank...clearly my gente don't visit the tank very often...
On our way leaving my site, we waited for a chiva and the car didn't pick us up. We waited at the usual spot, and for some reason the car didn't stop at my community. Jacob and I had to run after the chiva as it was leaving us, but we didn't catch it! Luckily, after we hiked for an hour, we got a ride out and Jacob made it back to his training community.
After Jacob's visit, my stream of visitors continued when Aunt Jean and Aunt Cheryl came to visit Panamá!! We had an amazing week together traveling all over the country. I met them in David and early the next morning, we traveled to Barranquilla. After a 2 hour bus ride and my 1 hour chiva, we made it to my house. They were amazing travelers and put up with all my insane transportation. We relaxed at my house, met the gente, and visited the stream where I wash my clothes. At the stream, we almost got attacked by a loose cow and then decided to head back to my house. We made brownies made of pure cacao and spent a lot of time chatting with my host family and playing with the kids at my house. We got to drink fresh coconut water and pifá, an orange fruit that is something like a mix between a squash and a potato. The consensus about many Panamanian foods (yuca, pifá) was that they are essentially shitty potatoes.
My host sister offered to take us to see the river and a cacao farm. We saw some women washing clothes, kids swimming, and took in the gorgeous views as the sun started to set. We cooked food at my house and relaxed on my porch. It was tight fitting everybody in my house, but we made it work!! The next morning, we grabbed a chiva out and headed to Boquete. By late afternoon, we made it to our hotel in Boquete and finally were able to take hot showers! We walked into town for dinner and
then slept in our adorable bunk bed room.
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| Sorting coffee beans by hand |
The next day, after our 3 course breakfast, we went ziplining through the jungle canopy. It was a great time and the views were beautiful. In the afternoon, we went on a waterfall hike...but it started to rain just a few minutes into our hike. We saw one waterfall, but didn't make it through the entire 3 hour hike. As we waited, soaking wet, for a bus, a nice old man pulled up in his truck and offered us a ride into town. We hopped in and had a very interesting ride; the man explained the history of Pamamá to me and was familiar with Peace Corps because his daughter worked with a Volunteer. He is a descendant of the Ngabes, and saved us from more time in the pouring rain!! We ate dinner in town and went back to warm up and shower!! It was a really fun day!!
We toured a coffee farm and got to see the plants, the processing center, and sample different types of coffee! It was delicious and really interesting to learn about because many of my community members move to Boquete from November to March to work harvesting coffee. Some of them likely even work at the very farm we toured. It was cool to learn about the jobs they do and see where and how they live when they're not in Barranquilla. We took a 1 hour flight (as opposed to the usual 8 hour bus ride) to Panama City. After a lengthly taxi ride (the driver got very lost), we made it to our hotel!
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| Beautiful Boquete |
The next morning, we visited the Cinta Costera (along the water front) and the old part of the city. We narrowly escaped a rain storm and had margaritas for lunch! Then, we visited the Panamá Canal and got to see a ship pass through the locks. It was a really fun last day in Panamá!! I had so much fun hanging out with my aunts and showing them around Panamá!!
After having lots of visitors, I was back in Barranquilla for about 3 weeks. I spent time with my gente and continued working on WASH projects. I started teaching an English class for kids, adults, and teachers. I teach an hour of class every day and they seem to love it!! It's a lot of fun for me, even though it definitely can be frustrating. We're practicing lots of the basics and learning a few English songs!
September officially marks one year spent in Barranquilla, and just one year left. It's exciting to think about how much my gente, my site, and I have changed and grown together in the last year; and to start planning my last year with them. I am spending this week in Panamá City for Mid Service Training. It's a week when all of the G79 WASHers have a bit of technical training and lots of doctor and dentist appointments. It's a great chance to hang out with my group and make sure I haven't been unknowingly harboring parasites for months!!
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| Getting oranges for lunch! |
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| Baby in a bag |
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| Construction on the road to my site |
