It's been a while...

So its been quite a while since I've posted on my blog...I will use the excuse that I live in the middle of the jungle with no electricity. But, I'm finally getting a chance to update the blog!!

When I last posted, it was right after Thanksgiving. Since then, I've been to a holiday party for Volunteers, celebrated Christmas and New Years in Panama, hit some big milestones, and moved into my own house! A lot has happened.

In mid-December Volunteers from all over Panama celebrated the holidays together. It was the first time I saw the rest of the Volunteers from my Group since we all went our separate ways after training. We had three days filled with stories from our communities and a lot of catching up!

Very soon after, I spent Christmas with one of my good friends in Changuinola, the regional capital of Bocas. We attempted to recreated as many of our Christmas traditions as possible in Panama. We made lots of good food, watched Christmas movies, decorated the Regional House, listened to hours of Christmas music, and I made sure to Skype in with my family as we did the traditional Christmas tequila shots. Overall, it was a fun Christmas, despite the separation from family and friends back home. Next year (or later this year rather), I hope to celebrate Christmas at home!

The streak of holidays and celebrating continued with New Years. I spend New Years in Barranquilla with my host family and community. It was overall a very normal few days. The majority of my community is working in Costa Rica or Boquete (another part of Panama) harvesting coffee, so Barranquilla was pretty dead as far as New Years celebrations go. The biggest event of the night was a fight that broke out and involved my host dad. Traditionally, a part of Ngabe culture is to fight as part of celebrations; men even receive "fighting names" that they only use during fights. I don't think my host dad won the fight, but everybody was certainly entertained and cheering on the fighters. There were, of course, a litany of firecrackers and I was convinced that a kid would lose an appendage or blow up a house by the end of the night. Luckily, they proved me wrong and there were no injuries or fires!

I spent most of January working to complete my community analysis that culminated in a 17 page written report. Even more exciting than a 17 page report, was the work on my house. I had a lengthly and stressful struggle to find a house because several options fell through at the last minute and in a community with only 15 houses, the options are not plentiful. I finally secured a house and started to work with my host dad to renovate it. It took nearly a month to:

1. Find a guy with a chainsaw who could cut the wood for my house
2. Carry the wood from the monte to my house
3. Complete the construction

House construction in the campo is slow going and after spending nearly four months with my host family (whom I greatly appreciate and love dearly) was becoming very difficult. The food and lack of privacy were my primary challenges. I was eating plain rice or buchu (a boiled green banana) twice a day, every day, for four months. It was time to move out.

My House!!!

After spending a few days in Changuinola for a Regional Meeting (and visiting Bocas Island for the first time), I returned to Barranquilla with my Regional Leader. She was able to approve my house (it has to meet Peace Corps Security standards) and I moved in!!!! It was one of the most exciting days in site, especially because my house is only 30 feet from my host family house, so I still see them everyday. It took me a while to clean and organize my 7ft by 10ft wooden box, but now I'm all settled in!!!

Before I moved in all my stuff

The view from my porch

Currently, I'm in David (another nearby city) because I'm traveling for IST (In Service Training). All of the Volunteers from my Group will spend a week in Coclé for classroom style training in our respective sectors. Then, the second week has the WASH group traveling to two communities where Volunteers have been working for over a year. We will be getting hand on experience working with aqueducts so that we can take that information back to our communities. It'll be two very busy weeks packed with information. At the end of February, I'll be heading back to Barranquilla to hopefully get started working with my Water Committee!

I have hit a few big milestones in Panama! As of yesterday, I have been in Panama for 7 months and in Barranquilla for just over 4 months!!! It's hard to believe I've been here for so long! Time is flying and in another 7 weeks, I will be hosting my first international visitors. Mom, Dad, and Ian will be spending their Spring Break tooling around Panama with me!

I hope to update my blog more regularly, and next time I'd love to answer any of your questions (assuming there are at least a few people who read this) about my life, work, whatever! Leave me your questions in the comments! In return, I will be posting some of the questions I get asked most frequently by my community members! They range from questions about Rambo (yes-like the movie) to astronomy and everything in between!

The kids like to hang out on my porch

I built a little chair from scrap wood!

They even help do yard work!