Feliz Año Nuevo!

A lot has happened since I last posted: I celebrated Panama’s Mes de la Patria, Mother’s Day, and a graduation, had a fellow PCV visit my site, survived 72 hours of nonstop rain, visited Chicago, and made it back to Panamá.

November is Panama’s Mes de la Patria; the month is littered with holidays celebrating various independence days and is a time to really show national pride. The biggest holidays are November 3 (Independence from Colombia) and November 4 (Celebration of National Symbols). My school hosts a huge activity celebrating November 3, so the 2^nd we spend all days preparing. We cook Johnny Cakes (coconut bread) for every single person in the community and all the students, plus prepare all the food for the big lunch. I helped out a little, but was mainly the cheerleader and moral support (because my gente are really good at what they do and I am slow). It was great, until the evening. Once it was dark, we continued to work under the light of one single bulb and suddenly something stung me on the neck! It was dark and I just flicked it off, but instantly knew it was something more sinister than a mosquito.  My gente deliberated and decided that it (most likely) must have been a scorpion that fell from the thatched roof onto me. Luckily scorpions in Panama are not poisonous so I was only left with a swollen, red welt on my neck that healed in a week. November 3^rd and 4^th we have presentations of poetry, songs, dances, and lots of fun games for the students to play!

Later in November there was a parade in Chiriquí Grande (the nearest port town to Barranquilla) and I got to walk with my school. The kids danced baile típico (Panamanian dances) the day before and I met them and the teachers the next morning. It was a brutally hot day and our group started the parade route promptly at noon and spent the next three hours sweating it out in the sun. Despite the heat, it was a great day spent with my kids made even better by the fact that nobody passed out mid-parade!

 

This year also market my second Thanksgiving in Panamá. Last year, I was in Barranquilla due to a hurricane warning for Bocas del Toro. This year, there was no hurricane and I’m no longer living with a host family. So, I hosted (my first ever) Thanksgiving at my house! For the meal, I went with the theme: All the Sides. I invited Chona over (one of my neighboring PCVs) and we cooked up a campo feast: mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and veggies. I used every single pan in my house and it was a huge success!

Thanksgiving Dinner

I also had a despedida (goodbye party) for the end of the semester of my English class. For our party, we ate, played English music, and practiced talking in English. It was a great end to the semester!

 

 

With December came the worst of the rainy season. There were many days that I was stuck in my house, unable to leave because it rained so much. The first week of December was very exciting because it was Graduation time! My school goes to 9^th grade (that’s when kids here graduate and then go on to 3 years of high school) and this year my host sister, Irinelda, was one of the 17 graduates. Because Irinelda was graduating, my host mom’s oldest daughter came to Barranquilla and brought her 3-week-old baby (my host mom’s first grandchild). I got to meet my host niece and she’s pretty adorable. The baby doesn’t have a name yet (it’s very typical to wait to name a child until she’s at least a few months old), and I offered my unsolicited advice that they should name her Emily. I helped the teachers set up and decorate our rancho for the graduation dinner. We ate, listened to speeches, and toasted the soon to be graduates! The next morning, we had the graduation ceremony. It was surprisingly similar to a typical graduation in the US. It started with a procession of the graduates, then lots of speeches (including one from Irinelda), and finally awarding of the diplomas. Irinelda was first in her class and won a scholarship for high school! Afterwards, I (being the only person with a camera on my phone) became the official photographer and took dozens of pictures of the graduates and their families.

      

 

December 8 is Panamanian Mother’s Day. I spent part of the day with my host family as we celebrated my host mom and everything she does for the family. It was extra special this year because she had her grandchild home with her too!

A few days later, another PCV, Shellee, who lives in Coclé came to visit Barranquilla. Just a few hours after she arrived, it started pouring and didn’t let up for 72 hours. Because of the rain, we spent a lot of time hanging out at my house and visited a few of my gente. On our outing we even braved crossing what is usually an ankle deep stream that had turned into a swift moving torrent of water. It was totally worth it because we got Johnny Cakes out of it! It was still raining the morning we set out to leave, which meant that the chiva situation was very questionable. We got insanely lucky because a chiva showed up before 9am!! The rivers were so flooded that the seats inside of the car got soaked as we drove through the largest river. The rain hampered a lot of our activities, so we ended up spending a few days in Boquete before I headed to Panama City to visit Chicago.

A 3am wake up call was the start of my trip home and by 1pm I was at home! Mom, Maya, and Ian greeted me at the airport and laughed as I bemoaned the cold (40 degree) weather. I spent just over two weeks in Chicago; I saw friends, family, celebrated the holidays, and ate SO MUCH food! It was a wonderful and much needed break. But all too soon I was on a plane back to Panamá with two bags loaded with goodies from the States.

It was amazing how quickly my mindset readjusted to Panamá; there’s something about being back in the heat and humidity, seeing my Peace Corps friends, and staying at my usual hostel that naturally eases the transition. After a few days of relaxing and slowly meandering my way closer to Barranquilla, it was time to make the last leg of the journey and go home. I hauled all of my stuff to the bus station and one bus, one chiva, and 4 hours later, I was at my house. I waved and said hi to all my gente on my walk to my house and stopped to talk with my host family for a while. Then I tackled the daunting task of unpacking and cleaning my house after nearly a month of being unoccupied.

It’s coffee season, so a lot of my gente are harvesting coffee in Costa Rica or Boquete while school is on vacation (it starts again at the end of February). I’ve helped my host family harvest some of their coffee and discovered that it tastes even better when you’ve helped harvest it! The last couple weeks I have been in Barranquilla hanging out with my minions (and showing them some new games I brought), catching up with my gente, and getting visits from my neighboring PCVs. The rest of January will be primarily focused on reviving my English class and getting set up for February.

 

 

Un Año!?!

 It’s been another month in Barranquilla. I spent the beginning of September in Panama City for a training event and a bunch of doctor appointments. Good news: no parasites or cavities for me!! My group (G79) stayed in the City to celebrate our ONE YEAR mark. We’ve all made it an entire year in our communities and we had a great time in Panama City! It’s hard to believe that an entire year has passed so quickly, yet I struggled to get through my fair share of slow days in site. PCVs like to say, “slow days, fast weeks” and I think that describes it perfectly. I am surprised (and a little impressed) at how much I’ve learned and managed to overcome in the last year. Living in the campo isn’t always easy, but I have a great community that supports me (even more than I support them, I suspect).

Sometimes I look nice

Then: From my first week in site

Now: Just a few days ago

In the last few weeks, I visited a neighboring Volunteer, attended a series of funerals, and weathered my second hurricane in Panamá. I hiked three hours to a nearby Volunteer’s community to help her facilitate a seminar for her Water Committee. It’s a beautiful hike during which I have to cross: 3 rivers, 2 cow pastures, several streams, countless rickety log bridges, and one bamboo grove. It was great to visit another Volunteer and see the beautiful areas around my community.

Pretty countryside 

Not another uphill...

Halfway there!!

Sadly, two of my community members died on the same day: September 16. One was Nanda, an old abuela who taught me to make kras (traditional Ngabe craft) and always gifted me oranges. She was like the abuela to the entire community. I attended her velorio (an overnight vigil of the body that is similar to a wake) and funeral with the rest of my community members. The other was a one-year-old girl, the daughter of my neighbor. Despite going to the hospital, Ortencia was already too sick and the doctors could not help her. These deaths have certainly been trying for me as well as my entire community. We essentially spent two weeks in mourning, attending many nights of velorio and both funerals.

I also had the opportunity to spend a day with some of my minions at a presentation of traditional Panamanian dances. The kids have been practicing every day after school for months to prepare. School come from all over the area, but my school was the only one from a very rural and "out there" community. They did a fantastic job and are continuing to practice for a big parade in November to celebrate Panama's Independence Day!

They're ready to dance!

¡Muy cool!

Love the polleras (traditional skirt)

Just as I was preparing to attend a regional meeting for my province (after spending a month straight in Barranquilla), a hurricane was passing north of Panamá through Nicaragua and Honduras, heading for the US. It turns out the storm came close enough to the Caribbean side of Panamá that it was causing torrential rains, mudslides, and high wind. In Barranquilla, we only suffered from the high winds. It was 24 hours straight of huge wind gusts. My gente said that they hadn’t seen this kind of wind in 20 years. It was so strong that zinc roofs were blowing off houses, trees were blown over, my shower got blown down, and the gusts would shake my entire house. Luckily, there was no major damage to my house or in my community, although we did spend some time chasing down sheets of zinc and parts of my shower.

Taking selfies as I wait for my chiva...

Coming up in October, I have a visit from one of my bosses to meet with my community and set up a work plan for my last year in Barranquilla. Then it’s November, aka the party month. The ferias start and won’t really end until New Year’s. And, I’m excited to say that I’ll be coming to visit the USA for a couple of weeks in December!

Selling oranges to the construction guys 

My youngest host sis is almost 1!

Nap time at Buchi's

My host family got 2 new bunnies!

Just bringing supplies to the tienda (store)

       

Training and Tías

The beginning of July was rather slow. I spent a lot of time in Barranquilla and worked with my Water Committee to continue organizing the group. Since then, the time has flown by: I helped train the new group of WASH Volunteers, had one of them visit my site, received specials visitors from the US, and have nearly completed one year in my site!

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!!

Jacob and I on a hike

Checking out the water source with my counterpart 

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.

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!

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!!

Getting oranges for lunch!

Baby in a bag

Construction on the road to my site