One week into Panama.
I can’t believe I’ve been here a week. In one way, the days have flown by. But they have also been giving us so much information and I’ve been trying to absorb everything that it feels like we’ve been down here for months. But here are some highlights from the past week.
Sunday we all got on the buses in order of our houses, and got to our communities for training. The CEC volunteers (Community Environmental Conservation) are in another town about 20 minutes from us TE (Teaching English) volunteers. My host parents are Reyna and César. They are about 60 and are super sweet. César is a taxi driver, so he frequently works from 3-11 and so Reyna and I usually eat breakfast (he sleeps later than us because he comes home so late) and dinner by ourselves. She is always checking to make sure I feel ok and am liking the food, which is really nice. I am the 5th PCT they’ve hosted, so they know the drill.
On that note – the food has been really good so far. Lots of carbs, but that doesn’t bother me all that much. Some of my favorite meals have been 1) arroz con guandu (rice with the little green beans that I have never seen before), carné (beef), and tomato and 2) sopa de vegetales (vegetable soup – with several vegetables that I haven’t ever had before, but are good) and rice. I also had fish yesterday and have been eating a lot of arroz, though not as many beans as I was expecting. We also had tortilla one morning for breakfast and also one night with dinner – it’s not like tortillas that we are used to, but it’s ground corn and plantains made into a thicker patty and then just cooked on the stove. It’s pretty good, though I like to put some kind of sauce with it to give it a little more flavor.
My favorite drink so far has been chicha – it’s basically a fruit smoothie. Mi madre made chicha piña a few days ago by just putting pineapple in a blender, adding some water and sugar and boom – chichi! I have also had chicha de maiz which was the extra corn stuff from when she ground the corn for the tortillas mixed with water and sugar and I think some milk. The other good one I’ve had was arroz con piña which was basically the same kind of chicha piña as described above, without as much pulp, but plus water that has been boiled with rice, and plus some sugar. It’s actually pretty delicious!
As for my house – it’s a 3 (small) bedroom house with a living room and kitchen. It’s a nice rosy color and the windows are just little decorative openings in the wall. During the day all of the doors to the house are left open as well so the breeze comes through and cools things off. The shower is outside, but attached to the house. The water works in our town most of the time, but sometimes it doesn’t when the reservoir needs to be refilled to increase the water pressure. So most of the time it’s a normal (but cold) shower, but other times it’s just a bucket bath. It’s been good though – really not too difficult to adjust to. As for the bathroom, we have a “latrine” though it really just feels like an out-house where you don’t have to flush. There is also a little sink in the latrine where you can wash your hands, brush your teeth and César shaves there. We also have electricity, which is nice at night so I don’t have to rely only on flashlights.
The weather is still really nice. From about 12 or 1 – 3 it’s probably in the lower 90’s, so it’s really hot when you’re walking around in the sun, but in the shade it’s not bad. Also now, since it’s the dry season, there is a nice breeze that is pretty consistent which feels good. But it did rain a little for a few minutes a couple of days ago, which cooled things down nicely. At night it also cools down – probably to 65 or so, which, for me, is perfect. I usually don’t even need the fan that Reyna gave me at night. Though sleeping has definitely been a bit difficult between all of the dogs – both wild and owned, all of the chickens and roosters, and the little iguanitas that croak at night and crawl along the top of the walls.
My room is small, but pretty nice. I have a standard sized bed, pillow (yes, I’m saying this because not everyone has a pillow), bar and hangers to hang my clothes, a little desk and chair, and an overhead light. But really, my favorite thing about my house is our hammocks on the front porch. This is a big thing here in Panama, and I love sitting on our porch, looking out at the community and reading.
But I’m definitely happy here – the people are great and I’m quickly learning all I can about Panama and the Panamanian people! Our schedule is usually language classes from 8:30-11:45 am, then home for lunch, then from 1:00 – 5:00 we have technical sessions where we learn about our jobs with PC and with the schools. Basically we’re here to support the teachers and help bring new teaching ideas to the classroom
A couple of funny little tidbits:
- I found a Panthers shirt in a tiny little shop in La Chorrera – the larger city closest to our training communities.
- One of the women in my group knows by best friend at home’s old theater teacher. SMALL world!
- I also found out that Panama ranks 129th of 139 countries tested for educational systems, so working with the schools and the English teachers down here will certain have it’s challenges.
- Recently a big plant that needed many English-speaking engineers was going to put an operation in Panama, but because of the lack of English speaking engineers, they couldn’t and they moved it to Argentina (I think… someone told me this story and I don’t remember all of the exact details). So if you were wondering why I am in Panama working in the schools, these are some of the reasons! Just having a native English speaker in the classroom is a HUGE asset to the teacher and gives the kids access to someone with a different accent as well as a different culture.
So that’s a not so short overview of my life here so far! I don’t have internet in my training community, that I know of as of now, so I’ll only be able to update when I come into the PC Office.
Besos de Panamá!
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