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 2nd 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 3rd
and 4th 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 9th 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.
I also am helping Peace Corps identify new communities that
are good candidates to receive a Volunteer. I spent a day hiking to Guabal, a
community about 2.5 hours further up into the mountains. It’s a beautiful (but
hilly) hike along a gravel road and from certain spots, you can see the ocean
and other Volunteer’s communities. Along with some other Volunteers, we met
with community leaders and evaluated their interest and feasibility to have a
Volunteer. 
In the next few weeks, I will be working a lot with my new
Water Committee and starting to work in the school. Vacation is finally over
and my minions will be much busier now that classes are starting. And at the
end of the month, Maya is coming to visit!! We have big plans and I’m so
excited! 
