Site difference

I arrived back from Panama safe and sound. Although the Ministerio Publico is your typical paper pushing government agency, it served for a trip to catch up with some friends in the city. I stopped at Kayla's site on my way back which is beautiful. She's got a big river flowing in the middle of town, unlike mine that is bordered by rivers. She also has a lot less agriculture, so there are more trees than sugarcane. Okay, enough comparisons...

I helped her ecotourism group design a logo. (Somehow the color is showing up weird when posted. It should have a black circle around it and colors not so florescent...) Kayla and I fiddled with a proto the night before meeting with the group. I'm sure glad they didn't like the one we did then! Haha. Although the one we did during their meeting was quick and snappy without a whole lot of thought or attention to detail, I think it turned out loads better than the nighttime tester. Their main trail, as I understand it, goes to a waterfall. They also have a cabin for tourists to stay in which just got a retrofit from a Biological Corridor grant. (That's the grant I am hoping my group will put their ducks in a row to get.) The tree is the namesake of their town, Barrigon, which means potbelly. See why? And then at the last minute, they wanted me to stick a swallow in there. After months of working with swallows in my hands, I still couldn't think of how to draw one without seeing one again. So the kindergarten rendition of a flying bird is their swallow. Lol They seemed happy with it, and even if not, I had a great time with Kayla.

I got back to my site all ready to get to work. When waiting at the bus stop for my chiva with some other folks in town, we realized there would be no chiva. Darn! I had a girl scout meeting in two hours, so I couldn't wait the 6 hours for the 6pm chiva. I decided to just eat it and walk up. Did I mention I bought a printer too? I took my little backpack and printer and left my backpacking pack (filled with books I just got from Kayla as well as two reams of paper) at the bus stop with the other folks from town who are either too old or too lazy to walk.

All of my girl scouts were at the meeting which made me happy. In addition, they had a great time first sewing frames out of wire and mesh and then making handmade paper in their unique shapes. We didn't get to talk a lot about their induction ceremony next week, well... tomorrow. But I figure I'll just wing it and they'll be happy. (This pic is from their meeting before when they were catching butterflies.)

I then trucked it up to the top of my community to make it in time for a conservation group meeting to fill out the paperwork for the Biological Corridor grant. When I got there, it was like a surprise. (It was to be held in the house of three of the group members since the “office” or caseta doesn't yet have electricity for a nighttime meeting.) Only the father, who is treasurer, was at home and told me he didn't know anything about the meeting. Well that's funny cause your son, Chicho, is the one who picked the date, time, and place... and he's not even here. Cheema gave him a call and he simply said that there wasn't a meeting and for me to go home. Man was my blood boiling. How dare he cancel yet another of my meetings without even telling me! We have had many talks about respecting me as a professional working in the community and the importance of communication. It just isn't sinking through though. (Did I mention it was his dad that told me I should marry his son so he could come to America? Yeah, shot that one down not because he's Panamanian, but because he is so arrogant!) Anyhow, I tried giving him a call and after it rang once, it went to voicemail. Aka, he rejected my call. There wasn't anything that could have made me more mad at that point. Eventually I left the house and started back downhill.

I called Kayla to tell her about it and ran into Chicho on my way home. I asked him what happened and he fained innocence. Moreover, he went into how all the groups in town fall apart when he is no longer leading them. They all need him. My goodness! I couldn't stand it and just smiled and knodded as he continued on and on until I could dismiss myself.

Saturday I had my third meeting with my English students to plan their graduation. The first meeting no one showed. The second only 5 of the 11. And this one only 3 showed. Plus, one of the three still hadn't brought her final assignment, consisting of 16 answers to questions that are basically yes or no about the environment of Cabecera. And they didn't bring money for the dinner they want me to buy the food for and cook for themselves and their families. Yeah, I'm not that generous to do it all on my own without some monetary help if they can't even show up for classes or meetings. So I ditched the meal at the graduation and some of they are upset about that. In fact, we were supposed to have this graduation before Christmas. Then it was supposed to be Jan 10th. I figure if they aren't interested enough in coming to a meeting to help me out with it, then they can't me holding their breaths to begin with about the graduation. I might do a little something for them, we'll see.

So goes life in Panama. I went to a birthday party today for Rosalina, an 11 year old forth grader. The invitation said it would start at 3pm. I got their at 3:10, but the mom didn't even throw on clothes until 4pm, so I didn't feel bad about my tardiness. Then in the best show of Panamanian culture I have seen for quite some time, one of my English students who is in his 50's, changed out of his regular t-shirt to get dressed up too. What did he put on? A mesh tanktop! Oh man, I wish I took a picture. I felt as though since I would only be taking the picture for a good laugh, I probably shouldn't. Next time... Until then, hope you all are doing well too!