Arrival to Site! Part 1

Where to start… I think I’m going to break this week up into bits & pieces because there is so much to say! Let’s start with the Community Entry Conference, my counterpart and the town where I’ll be working.

The entire TE group went to Rio Hato in Coclé to the Centre de Desarollo Sustenible del Ambiente // Center for Sustainable Environmental Development aka CEDESAM (Panamanians like their acronyms). We arrived on Wednesday afternoon after a morning of packing/doing the last few things in our training community. A group of us walked quickly down to the beach where we ran into the water which felt GREAT. That is until we realized there were a bunch of tiny little jellyfish in the water that at first just kind of itched, but then when one really got you it would hurt a bit. But it was beautiful either way.

Then we went back, got dressed, then had dinner and met our counterparts! Our counterparts at the representatives from our communities that came to meet us and go with us back to our sites. My counterpart is César and he is the coordinator for the English department at the colegio – 7^th-12^th grades (see previous post for explanation of school system). He is nice and speaks pretty good English, so that was a comfort. We also had meetings the next day – as is typical of PC, then just as the CEC folks were arriving at CEDESAM we took off! César drove us back to our town, along with Miranda, another volunteer who is only 20 minutes away from me, and her counterpart, José. It took about 2 and a half hours to go from Rio Hato to Pesé.

We passed so many sugar cane fields on the way. My town is famous for 2 major things: seco (alcohol) and a Good Friday re-enactment. The largest seco factory in the country is in Pesé and it is owned by the vice-president of Panama. I haven’t yet gone inside the factory, but I did get to see the place where they process the sugar cane for the liquor. It was really interesting and I got a half-tour even though I wasn’t supposed to because I’m new and special haha.

César also took me, and my host family, to his friend’s home where they have a mill for sugar cane that produces juice. Normally the hook up a horse to turn the mill, but César and the two young boys just pushed it. They feed the raw sugar cane in, and juice comes out! It was absolutely delicious. César also brought some ginger to add to it, which gave it an amazing flavor.

As for the Good Friday re-enactment, it’s a whole event that goes on the entire week preceding Easter – called Semana Santa (Holy Week). I’m looking forward to it because everyone tells me that it’s beautiful. The main event is the re-enactment of the Last Supper through the crucifixion of Christ.

But the town and district of Pesé is beautiful – there are rolling hills, beaches not too far away, trees lining the streets, and my town is pretty clean! It seems to be a pretty well-off town in general. It seems that everyone has running water and electricity and my host family even has a big tv and a Wii. Certainly brings up the question in my mind – why would they place a PCV here? But it is becoming more and more clear that the English teachers could use the help, and English is such an important language for Panamanians. They have made it their second official language, and with all of the international tourism and business, it’s becoming more and more important. People who can speak English have many more opportunities than those who do not. 

More to come and I'll put up photos once I get them onto my computer. 

Sav

Tech Week and Oliver in Coronado!

So last Wednesday started our tech week which meant that we had meetings on Wednesday with our APCD to talk about what would happen and prepare for going into the schools, then Thursday we coordinated a bus to take us all into La Chorrera to our schools by 7. Turns out we didn’t have to be there until 8, typical haha, so we chilled in front of a tienda (little grocery store – imagine a large gas station store) until we could meet with our teachers. At 8 we met the directora (aka principal) of the school, then were given a tour by the head of the English department. I was in a colegio which is a secondary school that includes grades 7-12.

When you start 10^th grade you have to choose a specialty – kind of like college majors. The school where I was working had a concentration in business and language arts/social sciences (called letres, I can’t quite find a good translation), so English is very important for these students. However, that doesn’t mean that they realize that or are very advanced. The teacher that I worked with on Thursday gave us the impression that the students were at a very low level and that they wouldn’t understand very much at all. We didn’t get to experience the reality of it until Tuesday. Friday most teachers weren’t in my school because they had finished their lesson plans, so none of us went to the school – though we did go into La Chorrera for a meeting and to go to the grocery store.

Saturday all of the trainees met to plan for the next couple of weeks, then I did some chores around the house (started packing and did some laundry). I also cooked dinner for my family! I made chicken with a balsamic vinegar, olive oil and basil marinade/sauce and pasta salad with corn, peas and tomatoes with a balsamic vinegar sauce as well. I originally wanted to make BBQ chicken, but sauces are the most expensive thing here, so I decided to use the balsamic vinegar twice. I thought it was really tasty! My host mom liked it a fair bit, and my host brother loved it, but my host dad didn’t like it at all haha. Apparently cold pasta is NOT a thing here in Panama and it was a bit too strange for him haha. Oh well, at least some people liked it!

Lastly, on Sunday I went to a beach to visit a friend from college! Oliver moved down here after we graduated just to take a break before he goes to law school, so I got to hang out with him and his girlfriend for the day! It was really nice to see a familiar face – like a little taste of home. We just hung out at the beach, at a pool, then at his girlfriend’s house for the afternoon. It was like a mini vacation for me! haha

Monday brought the first day of school and it was a typical first day where not much is done, but it was nice to meet the teacher I would be working with for the two days and see the students. My profesora (teacher) teaches 5 groups of 10^th grade students. Tuesday (today) I actually got to see classes in action though which was fun. I ended up teaching/leading about half of the first class, and most of the second – which was actually a two period block. So getting the first teaching stuff under my belt was good! Calmed some of my fears about teaching too, which was good. (Kate Burks, if you're reading this, I was thinking about you a ton and almost called you for advice! We'll talk soon.)

Since it was the first real day of classes, we just reviewed greetings, goodbyes, and some personal information. I also used the Beatle’s song “Hello, goodbye” and got them to sing through the first verse! Learning more lesson-planning tips every day. It was a great look into the realities of Panamanian schools.

Tomorrow we travel to meet our counterparts (teachers from our school) and then on to our sites on Friday! I’m excited to finally see it and meet the people I’ll be living and working with for the next two years! Then we only have a few more days in our training community before going back into the city for a few days, then moving to our sites permanently the weekend of the 17^th! These couple of months have really gone quickly.

I won’t have much access to internet over the next week or so, probably, but expect to hear a report from me after the 8^th!

Site Placement and Carnaval!

Site Placement and Carnaval

I’ll divide this in sections to make it easier to read because it’s so long!

Site Placement:

So last Friday we had our site reveal! I wasn’t able to post another blog before we left the office, but I was excited to find out that I’m going to the province of Herrera! I’ll be near the city of Chitre. What I know about the region so far is that it’s pretty hot and flat near Chitre, but the mountains are close and in this area there are some of the best beaches in Panama! It is also the center of culture of the country – which also means that the biggest Carnaval Celebration is in the neighboring province of Los Santos, specifically in the city of Las Tablas. It’s like our New Orleans – everyone goes there for the long weekend of Carnaval. The traffic the last few days on the InterAmerican highway, being the one main thoroughfare through the country, has been ridiculous in that direction!

Additionally, the area has a pretty thick accent, so we’ll see how that goes and how much of it I end up picking up haha. They drop most of the –s and –d sounds in words and they combine vowel sounds. So ‘pescado’ (fish) becomes ‘pescao’ and ‘como estas’ becomes ‘como eta’. Lastly, the province also has the largest seco factory in the country, which is also owned by the vice president of Panama, so I’m sure that influences the culture a fair bit as well.

I’m excited to go see it and meet my host family and community counterpart! My site is pretty big – I’ll be working with two schools. One is a primary school (grades 1-6) with 4 English teachers and the other, right next door, is a secondary school (grades 7-12) with 6 English teachers! So I have 10 teachers to work with! Yikes! That’s a lot. Especially since I was hoping for a smaller site. But my APCD seems to think I can handle it. We’ll see how it goes. This whole process is one adjustment after another, but hey, that’s what I signed up for, right?

Another thing I’m really excited about for my placement is that there are about 15 of us volunteers in the Azuero Peninsula! The Azuero is made up of Herrera, Los Santos, and a little bit of Veraguas. So while the site is bigger than I was expecting, I’m really happy that I’ll be so close to so many other volunteers. There are probably 4 or 5 within an hour or an hour and a half of me! Which is great for PCVs haha. 

Here's a photos of the people who are going to be in the Azuero Peninsula (Herrera and Los Santos).

Gracie, Sara Moore, Steve & Heather Bailey, Sally, Nick, Annie, Miranda, Me, Emily Ezell, Jessica, Harrison, Tempest, and Emily Hills

Saturday to Panama:

As for the rest of the weekend, we’ve had “Time for Reflection” aka free time! 4 days…. More than what we’ve had cumulatively so far. It’s been great. On Saturday a group of us tried to go to Ila Taboga just outside of Panama City, but the boat was full when we got there, so we ended up just spending a little bit of time in Albrook mall and exploring the Amador Causeway (where the boats for the island depart). It was a nice, relaxing day. We didn’t get to go to a beach, but a few of us did clamber down the rocks next to the causeway and stick our feet in the ocean.

 Amador Causeway!

 Nate, Catherine and I in the ocean

Sunday and Carnaval:

Then Sunday brought a trip to the CEC community to see their celebration of Carnaval. There was culeco and music – basically people dancing and being sprayed with water by huge trucks. This is the main activity of Carnaval celebrations during the day, no matter how big the town or celebration.There was also a stage where the reynas/princessas of the town stood and were introduced. It wasn’t quite as elaborate as you see in other locations, but they were dressed up, had make-up on and their hair was done. They ranged in age from probably 5 or 6 to 12 or 13. It was fun to see everyone excited for them. Those of us that went in the afternoon just kind of walked around town, went and saw the rivier (subsequently getting sprayed by a guy with a water gun full of beer :/ ). Not only is culeco the most popular activity, a lot of other people carry around water to throw on people. If you’re walking around in a town that’s celebrating Carnaval, be prepared to get wet! Thankfully I was mostly dry by the time we decided to head home around 5:00.

Can you spot the gringos in the culeco? haha

Apparently the people that went at night for the baile got to see a little parade as well, where the reynas/princessas were on floats and paraded around. Then the baile went from 7 till who knows when with mostly Panamanian music. They all had a good time though. I didn’t go because I thought that I would be getting back too late for my family (they got back around 11).

Lago Gatun:

Then Monday (yesterday) more or less the same group of us that went to Panama on Saturday went to Lago Gatún, which is about an hour from our training communities. We took a Diablo Rojo there, arriving just after 10. We found a nice grassy spot next to a restaurant to put our stuff and then we took turns getting in the water. There was an awesome rope swing which I went off of a few times, and a dock that is half sinking because it looks like one of the floats is broken. Ally and I swam around for about 30 minutes, out to a little point not too far away, then just played around the dock. It was really relaxing and probably entertaining for all of the Panamanians to watch the gringos haha. 

Around 12:30 we headed to a restaurant where our choices were sargento (I don’t know if this is the English word or not) with patacones, sea bass with patacones, or tilapia with patacones haha. Such a diverse restaurant. Patacones are friend, squashed, and fried again plantains. They’re delicious, though I have to say the ones that we make at home were better than the ones at the restaurant. Plus they took almost an hour and a half to serve us, then never brought Brennan his food. So it was a bit strange. But pretty tasty. I can now say that I have eaten an entire fried fish – head and tail on. Add that to my list of things I’ve done only because I’m a PCT haha.

Another highlight of the day was that I called my parents just before eating lunch and got to talk with some of my mom’s family in Memphis! It was nice to hear everyone’s voices together. But was strange that I wasn’t there. While we were on the phone, they looked up the lake and town where I was, which was neat for them to be able to see exactly where I was! Technology is great.

We ended up swimming a little bit more after lunch because buses/chivas weren’t leaving until 3:30 or 5:00. Because of this we also got to see some of their Carnaval celebrations starting. There was a little bit of culeco, some women dancing up on a stage, and a few people dressed up in crazy outfits – one was this huge black and red costume/suit that I think was supposed to be a devil or something. Definitely fun to see. We finally got on our chiva after the driver stopped napping at the bar and proceeded to drive as slowly as possible back to our community… haha. Typical.

Sorry, parents, I have to say I did get my first sunburn in the last two days. It had to happen eventually I suppose. Just a little on my back. Whoops.

Gringo party and Tuesday:

Then last night some of us gringos got together and just had a nice relaxing night together. Harrison’s host brother, Abraham, who is 17, also came and brought a friend, Carlos, and they taught us how to dance meringue and bachata! We also did some salsa, so it was definitely a fun night. And I got back late – around 11:45. Whoops! But I think my host family was asleep, so that was good.

Today, Tuesday, I’ve just been relaxing and getting some things done around the house. I slept in till the late hour of 8:45 (oh how my life has changed… haha), helped Reyna do some laundry, but we ran out of hangers and clips, so I’m going to finish laundry later this afternoon. We actally have a washing machine, but we can only use it when there’s a lot of water pressure. There is an old one as well, which we can use to wash things, then you have to transfer the clothes to spin them. Lastly, we wash underwear, and other clothes when there isn’t much water, in the sinks. Then hang them up to dry in the sun! Which doesn’t take too long right now since it’s hot and dry.

We’re getting ready to eat lunch – grilled chicken and I don’t know what else. Probably rice and either guandu beans or platanos (plantains). But a few minutes ago my host brother, Marcos – the one who lives close by – came in with two weird kind of round, but squishy things and asked if I wanted one. They were iguana eggs! Reyna said it was ok to eat – so I made a little hole with my teeth and proceeded to squeeze it out and eat it! It was cooked, but still soft, and tasted a lot like normal eggs, but a little richer with a slightly different taste. Add that one to the never-have-I-done-before list!

Upcoming week:

The end of this week and the beginning of next we’ll be going into La Chorrera for tech week, which consists of us being in a school and seeing how things function there. Then next week we’ll go to the beach for our Community Entry Conference where we will meet our counterparts then head to our communities for a visit!

We’ll be there for almost a week to meet our host family, see if any changes need to be made to our housing, meet the teachers and see the school and get a general lay of the land! Should be really exciting. Finally things are starting to feel more real now that I know where I’ll be for the next two years!

I'll try to post more photos later... right now I'm having issues with the internet.

Funny things that happen in Panama for today:

“Oh, you’re locked out? Sucks to have a front door!” – Jaclyn

“I didn’t have rice for lunch today… and I kind of missed it.” - Lindsey

Miss and love you all!

Exciting News Soon to Come!!!

In a few hours, we’ll find out our sites!!! Baaahhhh so nervewracking. I wanted to go ahead and post this when I know I have free time, but hopefully I’ll be able to update it after I find out as well. Joel, my APCD, gave me a few hints the other day – like it was going to be 15 or 20 minutes from a regional capital, and only about 3 or 4 hours from Panama City. So those things are great! But he also hinted that it’s a bigger school, which I’m nervous about. But I’m sure it will all work out in the end. We shall see.

In other news, this week was On Tuesday, we had several different Valentine’s Day activities haha. During class, we did a secret Valentine’s exchange. I gave mine a coconut bar that I helped Reyna make (basically just coconut, a pound of sugar and water boiled down with some pink food coloring haha), a card I made and some crackers from the tienda. Then I got a card and some delicious chocolates from Heather! It was fun to see what you got, and a lot of the cards were pretty funny – like you’re the pollo to my arroz and the bugs to my latrine haha.

Then at night we had a party!! It was a ton of fun. I didn’t realize how much I needed a night to relax American-style until we were all there. We had snacks and stuff and blasted (mostly) American music all night and danced like crazy. To the late late hour of 11, when I was headed home haha. A few others stayed until 12, but I felt like I should get home plus we walked another girl home who lives a ways away from the rest of us. The night was SO fun though. Definitely awesome to get to know the rest of my group in a different setting too haha.

Then this week brought the last few normal language (with a new teacher… kind of difficult!) and tech classes. On Wednesday my class went into La Chorrera to buy food for Thursday when we had our “cultural day” and all cooked! It was fun – my class cooked pollo asado (or something like that – basically boiled chicken with a bunch of herbs and sauces), ensalata de papas (boiled potatoes, carrots and beets with a mayo/onion sauce – I thought it was delicious), and platanos (plaintains that were cooked with fruit punch, sugar, and some cinnamon – surprisingly you would never guess that they were cooked w the fruit punch, but they were pretty good!). We also had chicha de meracoya (I think I spelled that wrong), but basically passion fruit juice. We scooped out the seeds, blended and strained them for the juice, then also boiled the shells/skin and blended and strained them too for more juice. It ended up being pretty good with a pound and a half of sugar added haha. But overall it was a fun day, learning how to cook Panamanian-style.

Then last night I went to another birthday party for a few minutes. One of the women who lives with Harrison turned 23. She’s really sweet, so I made her a card and had several of the trainees sign it. It’s nice to be able to relate to someone around our age here, but it’s also pretty different since she already has 2 kids – a 2 year old and a 5-month old baby. Her husband works as a teacher in another province, so he is around right now since it is “summer” break, but in a week or two he’ll only be able to come back once every month. So hard with kids that young! But he’s really great with the kids, so I know that’s hard.

But now we’re on the bus getting ready to head to the office. Like I said, first thing on dock is Site Reveal (why does that sound like ASB?? haha).

And then this weekend we have 4 days off! Woohooo! Also, it’s Carnaval this weekend, so hopefully we’ll be able to do some fun things and get into Panamanian culture haha.

Hope everyone had a happy Valentine’s Day and is looking forward to the weekend! For those of you headed to Mardi Gras – have a blast (and don’t die! Haha)!!

A pentacostal church service and adventures with CEC friends

2/12/12

Sorry for the delay in posting. Since I spent so long on the internet last time we were in the office, I didn’t feel the need to do much when we went on the 10^th. Also, we have discovered there is wifi at the school where we have tech classes, so hopefully I will be able to check emails/post blog posts more frequently now. Though, in typical school fashion, I can’t access Facebook or other social sites, so email is still the best way to reach me.

As for my past week – last weekend was definitely interesting. I went with Reyna and César to their Pentacostal Church last Sunday in La Chorrera. Since I have only ever been to Episcopal, Catholic, or non-denominational churches, going to a Pentacostal one was an interesting experience. The service consisted of singing several very long songs (very enthusiastically) at the beginning, then the preacher, also enthusiastically, said the sermon. While my Spanish has significantly improved, I had a fair bit of trouble understanding. A lot of this was due to the fact that there was a lot of noise other than the preacher – children were running around and playing, some were crying, several teenagers were talking (not all that quietly) and the occasional adult would also move around and/or have conversations. So whatwith my not-fluent Spanish which requires extra concentration, plus the extra noise, I had a lot of trouble concentrating enough to really understand.

Towards the end of the service, most of the congregation went up towards the little stage where the preacher and singers were. The preacher than walked among them, putting his hand on some people’s heads and preaching (again, I couldn’t understand what he was saying) and after a minute or two they would fall to the ground. Since I couldn’t understand what the preacher was saying, I didn’t completely understand what was going on, but I assume that the people who fainted/fell to the ground were having an overwhelming spiritual experience of some sort. Reyna and I were still in our seats, but César was up near the stage, though I don’t think the preacher came over to him.

  After the service, we went to Don Lee – a Chinese restaurant. I got fried rice and a chicken/vegetable mix which was pretty good. I enjoyed it but found it funny that they also served French fries, which doesn’t happen in the US; Chinese restaurants are usually one of the only places where you can’t get fries. From there, we stopped at a couple of food vendors and bought some fruits and veggies for the week, then headed home.

  The beginning of this week was typical with language and tech classes. The PCV that was in our class this week was really nice and I found out that she plays ultimate!! And that there is a group of PCVs who notify each other of tournaments/events in Panama. Ultimate seems to be a growing sport here, and one of the PCVs who was with us last week has even helped start a league near his site! So that makes me really excited!

  On that note, I finally started running again. Ran twice this week, which was the first time in probably two months (the last time I played ultimate). So I’m kind of sore today, but glad that I’m finally getting some exercise again.  

In other news, I had my second APCD interview – and will have a third one this week before I get my site placement this Friday, February 17^th. We’re all getting really excited about finding out!! But it’s also kind of nerve wracking! But whatever site we are assigned, there will be great things, but also things that we wanted, but didn’t get. So I think whatever site I’m assigned, I’ll be happy.

Additionally, we had our second Language Placement Interviews. They place us in one of the main levels: Novice/Intermediate/Advanced. And within each of  these there is a low, medium and high. The first time I was placed at Novice high, but this second interview placed me at Intermediate high! So I was really happy with my progress. Of course it’s subjective, but at least I know that I’ve significantly improved in my language skills.  

**Note - I went to my first class in the new level this morning (the 13th) and it was definitely harder! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up!  

Now for my weekend. Yesterday I helped with the English camp that the other PCTs who have the best language skills have been conducting. It was nice to finally get some teaching interaction here in Panama. The camp is open to everyone, no matter what age. I helped with the 12-14 year olds. I was working with 5 other PCTs (Niko, Claudia, Brennan, Miranda, and Sydney) We did a “shopping” activity that had them practicing numbers, colors, “I need…”, “I have…”, and school vocabulary. It went pretty well, but faster than we planned, so we just did some fun games like “Double, double, this, this” (clapping/partner game), Red light/Green light, and a few others. There were only 6 kids, but it was fun!  

Then in the afternoon, Ally and I ventured over to the other community where the CEC folks are. We went to try to catch a chiva (little bus), but after about 15 minutes, we decided to go ahead and start walking – we could always flag one down when it passed us. But after about 30 minutes of walking, only 2 or 3 had passed us, and they were all completely full. We had just come up on a little fruit stand when a taxi passed us, so we flagged it down and hopped in. We met the others only about 25 minutes after we had planned, so that wasn’t so bad! It definitely felt like a typically Peace Corps type adventure.  

We got to see their little town – a fair bit smaller than ours, but it has a nice park/soccer field – and we went to the river about 5 minutes walk away. It was nicer than the part of the river that I’ve been to in our town; it was deeper and had really pretty trees hanging over it (instead of a bridge with frequent traffic). There were about 8 of us total, so it was nice to hang out with some of the CEC folks!

We made our way back on a chiva around 5, I had dinner, then just relaxed. After running, walking for 30 minutes, then swimming, I was definitely tired. But there was a party at the house that is caddy cornered behind ours, so the music was super loud until probably 4, so I had some trouble sleeping. Thankfully today was really relaxing. I just kind of lazed around this morning (Reyna and César went in to church, and I decided to stay home), did some laundry, read some, and this afternoon I studied Spanish a fair bit and cooked with Reyna. I learned how to make some delicious coconut dulces (sweets).  

Now to start a new week! So tired tonight though… need to go to bed early.  

Also another small success: I found an outlet in my house that accommodates my 3-pronged computer charger! Woohoo! Haha it’s the small things.