Peace Corps Panama #nodaysoff: April 2018

It's been a busy month since I last posted! I have continued doing charlas with a group of women in Barranquilla, started a Reading Club for kids, taught English class, hiked a volcano, and had a visitor from the US.

In Barranquilla, I organized a dental health charla with my gente and a great group of women (and some minions, of course) participated. I explained about general dental health topics and then we made toothpaste! They liked the toothpaste much better than the soap because they could use it right away and didn’t have to wait a month this time! We used mint tea to flavor the toothpaste and it came out really good. I hope a few people will be inspired to start better hygiene practices, and maybe make their own toothpaste to save some money!

Dental Health Charla

In addition to continuing with last year’s English class, I started up a kids’ Reading Club for my school age minions. I received a donation of 45 books in Spanish and want to both improve the kids’ reading abilities and try to instill a love of reading in some of them. The first class went well and the kids are really excited about our club!

Reading Club

After a few busy weeks in site, I took a little vacation because Maya came to visit Panamá. On my way to pick her up, I stopped in Boquete and met a few friends to finally hike Volcan Baru…third time’s the charm. We had a perfectly clear night to hike up the nearly 1800 meters and the full moon lit our way for the first few hours. We started hiking around 11pm and it took us 5 hours and 22 minutes to reach the summit. It was a very long, challenging, freezing hike. I completely underestimated how difficult the hike would be. Luckily, we were rewarded with an amazing view at the top of the volcano. We saw the sunrise and saw both the Caribbean and Pacific oceans!! It was well worth the wait to get a perfect view. The 4 hours back down the mountain were less physically taxing, but much more mentally challenging. Once we reached the bottom, we basically collapsed while waiting for the bus. After some pizza, a shower, and a nap, we were feeling much better!!

That adventure led right into an amazing 10 day trip with Maya around Panamá; I dragged her back and forth across the entire country! We met in David and headed for Barranquilla to meet my gente. Both Maya and my gente loved the interaction and most of my minions couldn’t get enough of the new visitor. Even my host mom and abuela (who are usually very reserved even with people they’ve met before) chatted with Maya like they knew her! We saw the quebrada, make cacao brownies, and visited every house. It was just a one night stay at the famous casa de Buchi, but I like to think it was the highlight of the trip!

We made our way back toward David and stopped to stay at a hostal high up in the mountains. It was FREEZING. But, they have some awesome hiking and georgous views! One night bus later, we were in Panamá City waiting to be picked up and whisked off to Guna Yala, alos known as San Blas. The Guna Yala (literally translating to land of the Guna people) is one of the other Comarcas in Panamá. It is off the Atlantic coast of Panamá and composed of 365 islands. We took a 2 hour ride to the port and then a 30 minute boat ride to reach Isla Asseryaladup (Aroma in Spanish). We had a wonder four days on pristine beaches and turquoise water. We went island hopping, visited a Guna community, stayed in traditional Guna houses, and got to know some of the local guides. My favorite night was our last one; Maya and I stayed up late (the bold hour of 10pm…) and talked with one of the guides about Guna, Ngabe, Latino, and American culture. We spent our last day in Panamá City visiting Casco Viejo, the Amador Causway, la Cinta Costera, and the Peace Corps Office. It was an amazing trip and I wouldn’t have done it differently, even though I need a vacation after all our travels!