Details about Abuelo & Veronica's Visit

Hello friends. Time for some details about Abuelo... then a description about Veronica's visit! The two are not related... don't worry.

First, let's rewind.

Last time I updated I said that I had just gone on a tour of the seco and rum factory in my site with another PCV who came to visit me. It was actually really interesting, so I'll fill you in a little bit.

Varela Hermanos S.A. is the largest liquor factory in Panama - and it's right here in my site! Not only is this the sole largest factory (even though there are others around) the company itself also has about 80% of the liquor market in Panama.  Both Ron Abeulo (literally, Grandad rum) and Seco (a clear almost vodka-like liquor) are made here in Pesé - both distilled from sugar cane that comes from the fields that surround our town. Seco doesn't have to age, it is simply distilled and bottled, ready to go. But the rum is aged anywhere from 3-5 years (the cheap stuff), 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years (the most expensive version.

The sugar cane is harvested between February and May (the growing cycle is about 10 months long), initiating the processing and production of the liquors, continuing through June or July. After this process is complete, they take apart the huge machine that processes the raw sugar cane, and clean it - a process that takes about a month. The workers are given a month of vacation, then in October they go back to work to reassemble the machine and prepare the plant for  the harvest again. It was shocking how much the building where they distill the liquors still smelled like rum - even though there hadn't been any liquor in the huge containers in several months. I can't imagine what it must smell like during production!

The most interesting aspect of the tour for me was learning about how the rum is distilled. Now, it's not all that different from how other rums and liquors are distilled but I think I discovered why I somewhat enjoy this rum, as opposed to the dark rums that I typically dislike in the US. In the US there is a law (so said our tour guide) that barrels cannot be used more than once to age liquor, so after they are used in the US, they are shipped other places to be used - like here in Panama. Varela Hermanos gets their barrels from a company that produces whiskey. The rum that is then aged in these barrels comes out with a slight whiskey-esque flavor.

Voilà! The reason I like this rum - it tastes a little like whiskey.

So that was my fun fact for the next few weeks after we went on that tour - I definitely found it interesting though! This factory employs at least a quarter of my town - so it's definitely the largest industry around. Not to mention all of the labor that is required to plant and harvest the sugar cane.

Right after that friend left I had another, wonderful friend come and visit from home - Veronica! The trip was short, but we did a TON. We're similar travellers in that we want to do and see as much as we can while we are there.

The first night we had a typical (though somewhat pricey) Panamanian meal to introduce her to the country! The next day we skipped out of town quickly, stopping at the beach for a couple hours - leaving just before the rains, finding an amazing cigar factory that produces thousands of cigars a day (400 per worker, usually before noon - pretty impressive) that are then exported to the US and sold for $8/cigar (seems pricey to me! though I know next to nothing about cigars), all on our way down to Chitré. We were so lucky that we were spending that particular weekend in Chitré because there was a huge festival going on all weekend - Fiesta de Fiestas (yes... it was called Party of the Parties) - that showed off some of the unique and wonderful parts of Panamanian culture for Veronica to see!

Saturday brought a day full of travelling - we hit up Pesé, Ocu, a tiny town where we saw someone who makes the typical, hand-embroidered dresses, La Arena and Las Tablas, all before going back to Chitré to see the parade in the afternoon. Veronica got to see the typical dresses called polleras, diablo sucios from La Arena, typical outfits/parade costumes from Colon, and much more. It was wonderful! I hadn't seem some of the things yet either, so we had a great time. At night there was another parade with all of the reynas (queens) on their elaborate floats. Think Brazil's Carnaval, and you'll get the idea.

Back to Panama early on Sunday to sight-see in the city: Panama Viejo, Cerro Ancón, and the canal. Then finally we took a break to nap and relax for the afternoon so that we could enjoy going out that night! It was a Sunday night, so the bars/clubs were pretty dead, but we had a nice dinner of room service :) then had a drink on a roof-top bar before dancing for about an hour at a club. We didn't want to stay out too late so that we could enjoy the last day together, but we also wanted to make sure we celebrated her birthday in style!

Veronica's birthday was the last day she was here with me in Panama, and I hope I helped make it memorable! One of the best things was that I called down to room service before we went out the night before to ask if they could bring up a cake while we were out. The message got a little mixed up, but it ended up wonderfully anyway - they came right before we were about to leave with a delicious cake, her name on the plate, candles, and balloons to boot!! It was so great.

So the last day was our most relaxed day of them all - we spent a long time in Casco Viejo walking around, buying souvenirs, and enjoying the food! We had delicious ice cream, ceviche, then came across one of the only microbreweries in Panama, so of course I had to have a Pale Ale - my first real beer (aside from the crappy <$1 canned ones) since I've been in Panama. It was glorious. I'll post pictures at some point... but we used her camera since mine is breaking, and we couldn't upload them to my computer... so as soon as I get them in the mail, I will share!

She left super early the next day - September 11th - but I stuck around in the city to relax a bit, then headed back to site to jump back into the swing of things. It was tough - I think having her here made me miss people at home a lot. But thankfully after maybe 10 days or so (only a few of which were particularly bad) I got back into the groove at school.

I've been doing a lot since then - in school and out. But that's enough for this post. Another one will quickly follow with updates on my work! Charlas, frustration, successes, and a small injury. All to come!

Stay tuned!

Secondary Projects & the End of the Trimester

As I’ve gotten more comfortable with my role in the schools, I’ve been working on some secondary project ideas that will hopefully come to fruition soon. One is a computer class that I was sort of roped into doing by the manager of the community training center. These classes will probably start in September sometime and will be for adults in the community. A second project is a girls’ exercise group. Several girls have asked to join me when I go running. I would love for them to come, but when they do, I don’t get much of a workout. But I definitely want to encourage them to exercise and live a healthy life, so I’m hoping to start an exercise club for them that has some curriculum regarding body image, healthy living, and girls’ empowerment. If any of you have resources or curriculum for this, please let me know! But, I realized that as we are getting towards the worst of the rainy season (October and November), this might not be the ideal time to start the club – so I think I may put that off until the next school year.

Other ideas are an English conversation club, a recycling program, and a life choices/sex-ed workshop for 9^th graders (I’m probably partnering with a few people who work at the school for this, which will be great).

I’m also working with another PCV, Miranda, on putting together some seminars/workshops for our teachers. We’re planning on doing several of them over the course of the next few months. So I’m is going to be busy for sure through the end of the year!

As for right now, we’re wrapping up the second trimester and anticipating the week-long break the first full week of September. I didn’t have too much to do the past couple of weeks since the teachers were mainly reviewing, but the past week I’ve been planning fo the next trimester. It’s been nice to actually have some free time to plan (I definitely didn’t have that at the primary school – they don’t have exams, so don’t have any down time).

In other news, I was able to go to the beach in the province of Chiriqui this past weekend, which was a lot of fun. It was my first time in that province (it’s the most south-western province in Panama, bordering with Costa Rica). It’s gorgeous! The Interamerican highway isn’t in great repair in areas, but the trip is beautiful – huge, lush, green mountains along the way - then add nice beaches to that! I stayed at a hostel one night, roomed with three of the guys in my group and joined in the guys-night dominoes game after we left the other girls, then in the nicer hotel with the girls the second night - the boys didn't run me out, I just wanted a hot shower! We celebrated Sydney’s birthday, so I took Funfetti cupcakes as a gift (thanks for the mix mom!).

Unfortunately because we had to wait a while for the bus, I didn’t make it all the way back to Pesé on Sunday. But that just gave me an excuse to visit another volunteer friend north of Santiago (the capital of the Veraguas province). Her site is in the hills leading up to the mountains, and has some gorgeous views as well!

Lastly, I had a friend from the province of Bocas del Toro (most north-western province, next to Costa Rica) stay with me last night. It was great to hang out with her and we made some delicious meals; tacos for dinner last night complete with sour cream, salsa, and cheese then black bean burgers and a tomato/cucumber/onion & vinegar  salad for lunch. Yumm!!

We also got an impromptu tour of the Varela Hermanos alcohol factory here in Pesé and it was super interesting! We even got to wear hard-hats at one point haha. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera, but I’ll write a detailed post about that soon.

Now I get to look forward to the visit of my friend Veronica from the US! It will be great to see a friend from home!

For now, I’ll leave you with an interesting article that I saw recently calledWhat if Jesus Meant All That Stuff? by Shane Claiborne. Whether you’re a Christian, atheist, or any other religion, I think it’s an interesting and insightful article. I’m also in the middle of reading the author’s book – The Irresistible Revolution. So far, it’s great – I’m sure you will be hearing more about it from me when I finish it.

HERE’s the link.

Happy mid-week!

Sav

In-Service Training

The day after my parents left, I went straight into two weeks of Peace Corps Training. My friends and I left Panama City, but I actually had to go back to Chitré to go with my friend from Pesé to her doctor's appointment. For those of you who keep up with my blog, you'll remember Ana - my friend who I offered to go with to a psychiastrist appointment, well, of course it happened to be the first day of training. But it was ok - my other PCV friend let me crash at her house closer to Chitré, and I was able to with Ana. I was glad I could be there for her - she was brave and did very well. Though it took an absurdly long time - for an appointment that lasted about 45 minutes, we spent about 7 hours at the social security office (like a hospital almost with lots of different doctors). So that was a little frustrating, but I finally got to the terminal to head back to training around 1.

I was sorry I missed the first night with everyone together, but it was nice walking into training and having a lot of people who I hadn’t seen come up and hug me. It was awesome to be together with my entire group again after 4 months of being apart. Coming down here with them, we bonded really quickly in this totally new environment, so they are my support network here in Panama and I loved hanging out with them for two straight weeks! Training consisted of sessions from 8-5 with lunch in there somewhere. Then nights we would chill, party sometimes, and occasionally went down to the beach (about a 40 minute walk).

On our free weekend, most of us went into Panama City, enjoyed hanging out at the mall, seeing the new Batman movie (SOO good! Go see it if you haven’t already!!), then going out to a club. I skipped out a little bit early on Sunday so that I could spend a couple of hours on the beach at Santa Clara before heading back to the training center.

Over the course of the two weeks we got a lot of good information – the most helpful came from other volunteers who came and presented. But it also was a little bit overwhelming – we didn’t have a whole lot of time to process all of the information. The information presented by the other volunteers from previous groups was inspiring and made me want to follow in their steps, but most of it also requires a significant amount of time with each teacher, which just isn’t feasible for me with 11 teachers to work with. So coming back to site with those kinds of ambitions and expectations was overwhelming. Add that to leaving all of my PCV friends after 2 weeks together following on the heels of my parents’ visit and coming back to a (somewhat) new job – working at the colegio – and the first few days in site were a bit rough. I was sad to leave my family and friends, and I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do anything productive in my schools I just kind of holed up in my house for a couple of days, but on Monday I had to go to school. Of course, this is the thing that made me feel better.

Once I was in school for a couple of days, I started getting used to the new routine at the colegio and realizing that while I might not be able to make the big changes like I learned about at training, I was doing some good and people were enjoying and benefiting from my presence in the schools.

Hicks/Dunn Panamanian Adventure

On July 14^th my parents touched down in Panama Tocumen International Airport! They landed at 9, so I just decided to meet them at the hotel. They got there around 11 and it was great to see them! It had been 6 months and 3 days – the longest I had ever gone without seeing my parents (or being home, for that matter).

In the hotel!

The first couple of days we spent in Panama city. After spending a relaxing morning in the hotel, first on the sightseeing docket was Casco Viejo – the old city that was founded after the original colony was destroyed by pirates. We walked around, had a nice lunch, and saw the Canal Museum (the same place where I had my swearing in ceremony). That night we had a delicious dinner at Beirut – a Lebanese restaurant.

Views of the city from Casco Viejo

Mom posing next to colonial ruins 

More views of the city - you can spot my favorite twisty-building on the left.

The next day we headed up to see the Canal, which was really cool. To think that it was built over 100 years ago is pretty incredible. They are currently expanding it, to be finished in 2014. We watched 2 huge ships go through with only a couple of feet to spare on either side – pretty impressive!

 Locks waiting for a ship to enter - the one on the right/far side is full and just had a ship go through it, the one on the left/close side is empty and about to let the ship in. 

Locks opening!

Pretty amazing that these huge ships pass through the locks 

with just a couple of feet of space on either side.

Huge container ship that just passed through... 

Wonder where it came from and is going?

 

After that we saw the Summit Zoo and Botanical Garden  - it wasn’t all that impressive, but we saw a few cool animals and plants:

 

Necklace-plant (so-called by Mom)

 

Turtles sunning next to a pond

 

huge palm trees!

 

Oh hi - just hanging around...

 

On the way back into the city, we stopped at the Peace Corps office to let my parents meet a few of the staff, had lunch at Pan y Canela – where PCVs go all the time when we’re at the office, we drove up Cerro Ancón (the highest point in the city), then we had a drink on the Amador Causeway before heading back to the hotel and dinner at an absolutely delicious Italian restaurant. 

View from Cerro Ancón

On Tuesday we rented a car and headed out of town. After a detour that made us drive through La Chorrera, we stopped in Santa Rita to meet my first host family. Unfortunately only my host mom, Reyna, was there. I really enjoyed seeing her though – I had a great time living there for the first couple of months.

From there we finished driving to El Valle de Antón. El Valle is in a crater of a volcano that has been dormant for millions of years (I think I’m remembering that right). Now it is one of the best places to go birding in Panama, which is already one of the most bio-diverse places on earth. We stayed in a small hotel that caters to birders. We were there with a group from the Audobon (sp? I hadn’t heard of this before…) society and one other family. Good thing that other family was there because they were in just about the same position we were with regard to bird knowledge. It was great to get to know them – their daughter is working as a music teacher in Panama City and her parents came to visit, just like mine.

Us and the family we met on the hotel's bridge

Views from the hotel

 

The one full day we were in El Valle, we went on a hike with a birding guide. We saw a few cool birds, but the coolest ones were the hardest to see, and I don’t have quite the patience required – but we also saw some cool other animals and insects including an iguana and a big spider catching a fly.

Mom and Dad on the hike in front of a gorgeous waterfall

Awesome spider wrapping it's catch of a fly.

Banana flower!

Beautiful, colorful birds

This lovely lady was nesting in a planter on our porch.

Can you see the little birds tucked underneath her?

After showering after the hike, we drove around town, had lunch at a cute restaurant, then dessert at a nice restaurant/hotel. 

On Thursday we finally headed down to Pesé and Chitré. After checking into the hotel and a lunch at Ebenezer’s (a PCV hotspot in Chitré) then finally to Pesé. After a quick stop at my house to drop off some stuff that my parents brought and take inventory of what we needed to buy. We quickly met my landlady and family, my host family, and my counterpart – César. Then we drove back to Chitré, bought a table, futon , and shelving for my kitchen. After a scarfed dinner, we drove back out to Pesé and put my house together for a couple of hours, then finally back to Chitré to crash and go to sleep.

The next day we did another run out to Pesé to have breakfast at my host family’s house (Bruni definitely put a lot of effort into it, which I was very appreciative for), stopped by the primary school (my parents were a big hit), finalized things in my house, and then headed back to Panama City.

 

Me with my landlady (almost 75 years old), her daughter and her grand-daughter

 

My host mom and her grandson sporting their gifts from NC!

 

It was a quick 6 days, but it was great to have my parents here, to see and hang out with them, and to show them my life and friends here in Pesé.

The other major perk was that I got to enjoy air conditioning, really comfy beds, and hot water for the whole time we were together. Also, since they left on an early flight the day before my training was supposed to start, so they were kind enough to rent me the hotel room for the night as well. A couple of friends and I enjoyed the pool, a massage, and room service. It was a little piece of heaven and DEFINITELY a vacation from Peace Corps life!

I was sad when they left, but it wasn’t like saying goodbye last time since I know I’m probably coming home for Christmas! We had a good trip and I hope that they will be able to come back next year.

Last Weeks in the Primaria and Explaining MEDUCA

Continuing off of my English Week post – I spent the next couple of weeks tying up loose ends and cleaning up the school after the English Week celebrations. I also was trying to set some goals to accomplish before my time at the primary school came to an end. My main goal was to help the teachers implement phonics. In order to explain why I thought this was important, let me explain a little bit about the English teaching and educational system here in Panama.

The Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) hires people to be English teachers who have studied English in college – this means that most of the time the English teachers have not actually studied teaching and that speaking English (at least on paper) is one of the only requirements. This results in having some great teachers that are completely dedicated to their students and will go above and beyond to be the best teacher they can be. But also, on the flip side, there are also a good number of teachers who don’t know much about teaching techniques and aren’t very motivated to improve. They care about their students, of course, but they just view their job as an 8-3 (or, as it may be here, 7-1) job and they aren’t willing to do much outside of that. Of course, these are generalizations and there are teachers all over the spectrum, but that gives you an idea of the source of some of the issues in the schools here.

In order to help their teachers improve their methodology, MEDUCA provides a week-long summer seminar (during their summer – January) and other workshop opportunities throughout the year. By attending these seminars and workshops, the teachers earn MEDUCA points. With these points they can apply for better jobs within MEDUCA. I don’t quite understand this system for one main reason – while the couple of seminars that I have attended have been useful information and well presented, the teachers don’t always implement what they learn, implying that they aren’t actually changing or improving their methodologies, so the points don’t actually correspond to whether or not they are good teachers (for example, one of the best teachers that I work with is only a second year teacher, and one of the worst has years of teaching experience, is a permanent teacher, and can’t speak English very well).

The result of this system is that students are graduating high school after having English for 12 years and are not able to speak or understand the language. This is why MEDUCA invited Peace Corps volunteers to work alongside their teachers so that we could bring some fresh ideas into the system.

So… one long explanation later – I decided that one of the things that I might be able to successfully implement with my four primary school teachers was teaching phonics. They weren’t teaching phonics, and a lot of the way that they are used to teaching pronunciation is to write letters that, when said with a Spanish pronunciation, will sound like the English word. While this can be helpful at times, over using it will teach the students only the Spanish-pronunciation word, not the actual English word.

I wanted to show my teachers that if they start teaching the pronunciation of English letters and words from a  young age, the students will have a much better accent and be able to sound out words instead of always looking to the teacher when they encounter a word that they don’t recognize as a sight-word (word that they’ve just memorized). Granted, phonics won’t be as effective for ESL or EFL students as they are with native speakers because the ESL/EFL students won’t have encountered as many words in conversation, but it can still be an extremely useful tool for pronunciation and word recognition.

In the couple of weeks I had left at the primary school after English Week, I tried to plan with each of them to implement some phonics lessons. I even gave them suggestions as to what letters/sounds to teach with each of their lessons for the trimester and went to each one of their classes and gave a sample lesson with phonics. This had mixed results because I ended up trying to do it all in the last week I was there. Of the days that I actually taught, one of the teachers had something else planned that day, so I didn’t actually get to show him the lesson, another teacher had a prior commitment, so I ended up teaching half of his classes without him there, and half of the other students were too young to really start teaching phonics (I decided to start doing this is 2^nd grade). So, it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped, but hopefully with continued encouragement from me, they might end up working it into some of their lesson plans.

After that last week, I was kind of sad to have to leave the lower school because I felt like I was finally truly getting into the rhythm of things there and figuring out how I could be of the most help. But, then it was time to switch to the high school. But first – my parents came and I had two weeks of training. Descriptions of those to come in the next couple of posts!

I'll leave you with a few pictures from English Week:

A group of 6th grade students performing The 3 Little Pigs (plus 2 of the teachers assisting)

 The lovely English teachers with me after pulling off English Week!

 

The students (one from each grade) that participated in the Monday Meeting.

 

 

The 9th grade boy who I found wearing a Vanderbilt Commons shirt!! SMALL world!