Moving On!

The last week of training was full of excitement. To finish off our training of appropriate technologies, we built both a Lorena stove and a trash incinerator. To build the incinerator, we used old metal drums. One of the drums had previously been used to hold rubber cement. So get those cogs a rolling, and think what might happen if you light that residue on fire. KABOOM! It was pretty amazing actually. hehe Note to self, pour out all flammable substances before using an incinerator to keep toxic smoke to a minimum. Lesson learned.

We organized a Despedida (going away party) for all of our host families and had that on Sunday. We got in our last games of ultimate Frisbee, slack lining over the river, and a game of capture the flag. I'm bruised up from the first two, but at least I didn't get clotheslined by barbed wire in the third like one of my friends did. Ouch! Then bright and early Tuesday morning, we left our training community (and beautiful garden... sorry for the unturned pic) behind and made it back to Ciudad del Saber.

The past two days have been filled with more meetings and admin matters. The whole office is in full swing with last minute preparations for our swearing in ceremony and big 45th anniversary celebration later today. Unfortunately that means that my laptop will remain a doorstop for a few months until I can get boot disks sent from the States and start over. (Courty and Mom, could you start searching for those for me? Thanks!!!) Updates might be a little less frequent until I get that taken care of. I was able to copy off my pictures before my laptop decided that it really didn't want to function, so I won't be losing anything when I erase the hard drive.

Later today we swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers at the Ambassador's residence. Then we've got two days to play with until we report to our communities on Sunday. My address there is:

Kerry Piper
Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General David
Provincia de Chiriqui
Republica de Panama

It's basically the equivalent of sending a letter to the capital of your state, and then retrieving it through a series of cubbies labeled by the first letter of your first name and the first letter of your last name. It's a good thing sending mail isn't too popular within the country! Although the David post office hasn't had many problems, it is recommended to put some religious insignia on things sent to add that little extra guilt factor in keeping people from opening mail that isn't theirs. hehe

I love and miss you all!

Site Visit!

I am looking forward to moving to a place with reliable power. I tried plugging my computer in at home last night since my host family wasn’t there when I returned, but it just kept turning off. I couldn’t figure out what was up, so I unplugged it from my surge protector. Then when my host dad was taking a shower, all the power in the house kept going off. So that explains it… I’m hanging out at Sally’s Café in Chorrera right now, which is like a little slice of America.

The eco-fair was a success! I’d be lying to say I wasn’t stressed out the week before with all the planning, but I was so happy to see it go well. We were very organized with the flow of the classes. The kids loved the activities, even the ones that didn’t quite work out how the aspirantes wanted them to. The teachers at the school were impressed and picked up some ideas that they can bring back to their classes. Carlos is even thinking about continuing it for next year. I’m so glad I brought my environmental ed guides, as many of the aspirantes thumbed through them to pick out their activities.

Following the fair, we had our community analysis presentation. That too went well. We had interviewed our families prior to learn more about the history of the community, environment, and problems they saw. Then we took their most pressing problem (water) and worked with them to find a solution to it (form a water committee to bring more of a voice to their problems). We’ll all be responsible for doing a similar analysis in our communities which we have the first three months to work on.

I love my community! It is on the base of Volcan Baru and looks out over Boquete, David, and the Pacific Ocean. The houses are separated by sugar cane or tomato fields, creating a very spread out town. I like to think of my town as a lollipop with the majority of the houses in the middle of the left side of the pop. During my first three months I plan to live with three different families: one above the center of town, one below, and another on the right side of the lollipop. Then I’ll be free to live on my own in probably either a bloque (cement) house on the lefthand base of the loop, or in a wooden house more toward the center. Both only have latrines a ways from the house, but they are closer to town or offer more privacy from neighbors than the two other options.

In town there are a ton of groups. I hope to work closely with the conservation group in town that has a vivero for their reforestation project and has made five trails up in the park of about 7km each. One of the trails has five waterfalls on it, which I can’t wait to see. They are also waiting on a $30,000 Biological Corridor grant to build an eco-cabana at a lookout along one of the trails as well as expand their vivero. They already received a grant from ANCON and built a little house to hold their meetings in next to the vivero. I’d love to decorate it with lots of pictures of Volcan Baru and all the flora and fauna found up there like Quetzals, Harpy Eagles, monkeys, sloths, and orchids. I’ll also be helping them map their trails so tourists can use them too.

There is also an abono organico group that makes compost, an association of the farmers in the area who the current volunteer, Kirsten, helped make an aqueduct with, and Padres de la Familia (Panamanian PTA) that she just started up a chicken project with. Each group also has a lot of big ideas, like building greenhouses for their tomatoes so they can harvest year-round, expand the aqueduct to the other side of town, etc etc. The community has potential for a women’s group, and youth groups like Panama Verde (Peace Corps started eco-group), Muchachas Guias (Girl Scouts), and Boy Scouts. In the center of town there is also a basketball court that would make a great meeting place, but the roof was never completed. Perhaps that might also happen with a little support.

Needless to say, I won’t be without things to do. One of the teachers at the school (there are only two) wants me to be the sole English teacher for the kids. That is not going to happen. I’ll have enough on my plate without taking on that job. I will probably continue Sunday classes with the adults, like Kirsten is doing. I won’t be following in her footsteps with the rest of it like she did her first year.

I paseared (visited) all the houses in town over my first two days there. A word on pasearing… Panamanian culture is such that you can hardly ever stop to say hi at someone’s house without being offered something to eat or drink. Perhaps chicha, maybe coffee, even soda will be served. One family in town makes plum wine which was delicious. Another offered Kirsten and I a whole bunch of bananas. Now each offer taken separately is surely appreciated. Even taken all together, I appreciated the hospitality of my community. I sure was stuffed though! We each ate 8 of those bananas before we made it to the next house! And then we went back to my community guide’s house for lunch. Hehe On Father’s day we were offered lunch at one of the houses. After negotiating, we were only served a half plate of rice, beans, and meat. However, when I got back to Ada’s house for real lunch, I was served more rice, roasted chicken, and fried plantains in one bowl. …And I was also served another bowl the size of a dinner plate filled to the brim with sancocho, a Panamanian soup that contained yucca, name, two chicken legs, a chicken breast, and what tasted like chicken liver too! Boy was I stuffed!

All in all, I was very satisfied with my site visit and can’t wait to get back there on June 29th. (They’re having a big fiesta that day too, which I like to think it is for my homecoming. Hehe)

Eco-Fair!

Okay, so sorry that last posting-email was a bit of a teast. I was at an internet cafe where I had to prepay. (Aka, they kick you off after your time is up.) I promise I´ll fill in the details eventually...

On Tuesday we started in earnest to plan our Eco-fair for the school. After two weeks of being out of the community, we weren´t even sure if it was still goign to go through. (Oh yeah, and Carlos put me in charge of the fair too!) What a nice surprise! hehe We also had to give our community diagnostic presentation on Friday and were informed that we´d be in the city on Thursday (instead of working on any of it). Oye! I also started Ngabere classes on Tuesday which on top of everything else was stressing me out.

Even though the language class and teacher were awesome, I couldn´t rationalize sticking with it and maintaining my sanity. I did pick up some of the pronunciation and a few key phrases. (Ti ta koin! I am good. etc) I´ll be getting the manual to self study in site and talk to the Ngabe in my site. So on Wednesday I told my teacher that I was too busy to go to class. Instead I went with two of the other girls to interview the Representante on the water situation in town for our presentation, make a poster for that, write out my lesson plan for my activity for the fair, draw up a poster for the fair, and todo! Then we chilled at the chorro which was much needed!

Thurday we made it in to the city for an environmental fair. I picked up lots of posters to decorate my house as well as networked with some of the agency personel. And then of course we had lots more planning of the next day´s activities.

Friday morning I used the keys I got the day before to open up the Casa Comunal for everyone to start setting up our fair. Kids arrived later, rotated through our stations (with the aid of schedules and maps directing them), played games, and learned about soil, water, trees, and animals. It went really well, especially considering we only had three days to plan it! Most of the activities came out of my Project WET, WILD, and Learning Tree books or adapted from them. I´m so glad I brought them all!

Later on Friday we presented all the information we had gathered about the community to the residents and our teachers. We found that the biggest problem there was water, and took the town through an analysis of the problem leading to a recommendation of starting a water committee to have more of a voice and education about the issue. They really got behind it which was great to see. Afterward, we all felt like we had completed finals week with our main projects done for the moment.

That night we went into the next town over for a baile. One of the two best Typico bands in Panama was playing (something Negros). They came on at midnight and I stayed for a couple dances after that. The thing with typico and it seems most music here are that the songs are sooooo long. My host dad kept introducing me to others to dance with which is pretty awkward to dance with a random guy (for example a drunk old man with many missing teeth) for at least fifteen minutes while bumping into others in a crowded room... You get the picture. The music was good, but I have not yet heard enough to judge just how good. My host dad woke me up at 4:50am when he got home calling out to anyone and everyone in our house and knocking on my window. I got our of my mosquito net, unlocked the door to my room, and by the time I got to the family room, he finally figured out that the front door was unlocked! Oye! I love him though, but I sure was missing my sleep!

We got up bright and early this morning to come to Chorrera to learn about all the poisonous plants and animals here. Hmmm, I think it may have been more helpful to learn about them before we got our bites and rashes. lol Next week we are headed to our communities for site visits. I can´t wait to get to know some of the people I´ll be living with and working with for the next two years!

La Comida

I just got back from two weeks of traveling. Looking ahead to this month, we've got a week in Santa Clara, a week at our sites, another week in Santa Clara, then a week in Ciudad del Saber, and finally Swear In when we become official Peace Corps Volunteers. It's a lot of traveling and moving around, but I can't wait. Catching up from where I left off last, I headed out to the mountains of Chiriqui for my Cultural Week. Think lots of coffee, lots of mountains and trees, lots of rain, lots of mud, and more rain. I walked through a coffee plantation to get to my host family every morning and night.

You might be thinking that with so much Arabica coffee growing, and home to the most expensive coffee in the world (that hasn't passed through an animal's digestive system), we would be drinking some pretty fine coffee. Well, just about all of that coffee is shipped out to customers such as yourselves. Panamanians drink Duran, which I've been told by an organic coffee grower contains a mix of roasted coffee beans not fit for higher grade brands and burnt corn for added volume. Yum! I'm not the connoisseur yet, and still can't taste much coffee regardless due to all the sugar each cup contains. Every morning my cup also had a nice surprise of cheese hidden in the bottom. We're talking a chunk of cheese (queso fresco) about half an inch thick, an inch wide, and another two or three inches long. I don't think it flavored the coffee too much, and I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a nibble of the cheese. Therefore the family dog could probably tell you how it actually tasted better than I can.


Panamanian dogs have been indispensable in maintaining my relationship with host families. Anything I can't or don't want to eat goes to the little guys. I have a rock at my house in Santa Clara where I can dump off any leftovers for the dog. My Chiriqui host mom took the bus to work before I woke each day, leaving me free to feed the dog any fried Spam or coffee-cheese I didn't want to consume. The dinners were all great, so I didn't have to worry about sneaking food away when the family was there. In Herrera, I ate all my food, no matter how full I was since my host family was so great to me. I did have several theme songs running in my head as I was eating. For example, the morning when I was served two whole hotdogs for breakfast (in addition to several tortillas, a cup of coffee, and a cup of crema), I had the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" stuck in my head. They just reminded me so much of Ballpark Franks you can buy in the States. Hehe. Then on another morning when I was served a monstrous portion of alhaldres (fried dough), I kept thinking of my high school field hockey coach yelling "Finish It!" from the sidelines. Growing up we got to draw a line down the middle of our plates and only eat half if we couldn't finish. Too bad the same rules don't apply here!

My first experience with crema deserves a word. Evidently there are several types of crema.
However, I have only been served one type, appropriately named crema de harina, aka cream of flour. Basically, you pour some milk and flour into a pot, heat it up until most of the flour dissolves into the mixture, and are left with a thin yet chunky batter. Yum! There are also cremas made with strawberry, others with oatmeal, etc. Speaking of oatmeal, I also had my first taste of oatmeal chicha.

Chicha is the all encompassing word for juice here. It can be blended fresh from pineapple or mixed up from a packet of Tang. We made some chicha de caña, squeezed right from the sugar cane stalks. It is quite a lot of work, but well worth it especially with a bit of lemon juice mixed in. I even had banana chicha made by cutting a banana in quarters, popping it in a glass, adding a bit of milk, sugar, and cinnamon. This one is eaten with a spoon and was by far the most delicious concoction that I have tried. Best of all, I had banana chicha in Chiriqui, which means there is a very good chance of having it in my community many times over the next two years!

These last two weeks were filled with activities. I toured and worked in organic farms and school gardens, introduced to the Ngobere language which hopefully I´ll be adding to in site, shown many medicinal plants, learned how to make sombreros, taught in the schools, had an amazing Despidida (goodbye party) and can´t wait to see my Herrera host family again.

Chiriqui!

On Wednesday we all gathered in Chorrera to find out our site announcements. I’m headed to the mountains of Chiriquí, just below Volcán Barú National Park. That means the climate is cooler and a great place for people to visit. Hehe, actually, I’m not kidding! Come visit! Chiriquí Province is located next to Costa Rica in the western part of Panama. Above it are Bocas del Toro Province (think lots of islands) and Comarca Ngobe Bugle (a reservation for the Ngobe Bugle peoples). It is considered the bread basket of Panama, as the climate is great for growing all kinds of veggies and coffee. I’m looking forward to starting a garden of my own. I think the school has a garden and chicken project too.

My community has 300 people, 70 houses, and electricity! I’ll be headed out to a site next to mine for Cultural Week where the Aspirantes of each Province gather together to learn more about the food, language, housing, etc that each has in store for us. My main projects are reforestation, environmental education, ecotourism, and aqueducts. I’ll need to have an EH (Environmental Health) volunteer come visit to help me with the aqueducts as I know nothing about them and won’t be learning anything in this first ten weeks of training. We do have IST (In-Service Training) where we can get specialized training on topics relevant to our work, but that won’t be for quite a while.

The school in our training community has been closed all week as the community leaders decide what to do about the fiberglass panels that make up the ceilings of most of the new classrooms. The decision has been made to start class up again next week in various locations around town (four in La Casa Cultural, some in churches, some outside…). The school won’t be used until August since they’ll fix the problem in the two week break in July. “Fibria del vidrio”, as it’s known, is a hot topic throughout Panama with some schools without class for over a month. Kids go to school for about 4 hours a day in the morning or afternoon, so hopefully they’ll get them back and learning again soon.

We were going to be doing an Eco-Parade with the kids at the school, but since we haven’t been able to sit in on any classes and pump the kids up about it or anything, we’ve canned that idea. Hopefully we’ll still be able to do more of an Eco-Festival. I’m heading it up, so cross your fingers for me!

Last night a bunch of us were hanging out after dinner. It turned out that all six of us who went swimming earlier in the day were there, plus another CEC and one SAS. (After checking out another finca, aka farm, and riding horses for tech class, Carlos and Francisco took us for a break at the chorro, aka waterfall. Three guys and three girls jumped in while the rest just sat on the rocks around the pool. And boy was it nice to cool off!) Anyhow, we’ve got a great group of people down here!

Our garden is looking amazing too. We’ve got it all fenced off with chicken wire complete with a swinging and locking gate made with some bamboo and other materials. Our seeds have sprouted in our semillero. We’ll be transplanting the tomatoes later tonight before we head off to a baile in the town next door. Our beds are sprouting too with cilantro, peppers, beans, some natural insecticide, and a bunch of tuber plants. We just planted some pineapples yesterday so I can’t wait to see if that takes. Our medicinal plants are just about ready to transplant into our double dig beds, made with our very own compost. We’ve also built a huge structure to shade all of our little plants until the rainy season really takes off and the sun isn’t quite so harsh on them. We were going to try to make a whole Swiss Family Robinson-style watering system for all the beds with bamboo, but we decided that it might be too much work for the one day we have before we take off for two weeks. Hopefully one of the families in town will water everything while we’re gone or the rains will start!

I leave early tomorrow morning, perhaps 4:30am or 5am, to catch a bus into Panama and then another bus and chiva to Cultural Week, followed by Tech Week in the middle of the country. I’ll try getting online between the two, but I can’t make any promises! Oh, I have a phone too now. So if you want, you can call me at: 011-507-6602-9142! (That’s complete with country code, cell phone 6, and my phone number.)

Week 3

I finally plugged in my computer today to charge it for the first time. The extension cord hanging into my room just can’t handle it. I bought a surge protector and have it plugged into the main extension cord that comes in through the living room window and feeds the tv, the fan (when it’s not in my room), and another extension cord. That cord is connected to the kitchen/family room/dining room light bulb, the mini-fridge for the kitchen, and an extension cord into my host family’s bedroom (parents, baby, brother). That cord feeds a light in their room, a fan that I think broke, and an extension cord that runs into my room. While the only thing I have plugged into my room is another light bulb and the fan (from the family room at night), you can probably see why it wouldn’t charge my computer and why I was hesitant to force it without a surge protector. Grandpa, you can rest assured that I’m not fearful of an electrical fire, as our house is made out of cement! So to make a long story short, I am typing up this update before I get to Chorrera. (I´m posting it today in Arrejan as I didn´t make it to internet then. The pic is of my ranchito behind my house along with some neighborhood kids I play with.)

We’ve been busy in Tech class as we’ve prepared double-dig beds, made and planted our semillero (seed growing house), took cuttings of medicinal plants and have those growing in our vivero in little bags, made special soils, 14-day compost, learned community assessment tools, leadership skills, and more! Currently we’ve split into three groups to continue work on the garden, implement a community environmental activity, and coordinate a school eco-parade. I’m in the eco-parade group, yet we are all helping each other with our respective projects. We’re also going to be do a big community assessment complete with maps of the community according to different perspectives of residents, calendars related to holidays/crops/etc, daily schedules of different types of residents, biodiversity surveys, etc, etc, etc. One part is FREESOP which includes family (f), economy (e), politics (p). Another is more specific to our sector which has been dubbed BADCEG (pronounced Bad Keg) which includes water (a), soil conservation (c), and environmental education (e). It will be great practice as we’ll be responsible for doing this assessment in our own communities once we’re on our own.

Spanish class has improved by leaps and bounds. We’re practicing a lot more and even giving mini-charlas on topics we’ve learned about in tech class. Mine today was a little disorganized as I skipped out of class just as she called me to give it. Then I jumped right into it after Carlos dropped me back off. She still had lots of compliments, and my errors included things like Islas Caribes instead of Islas del Caribe or something like that… You see how much I retain new information! My biggest problem is I know the grammatical rules, but I still don’t use them all when I talk. Poco a poco…

So as I mentioned, I went on a volunteer visit last weekend. My volunteer had a site up in the mountains of Chiriqui on the border of Costa Rica. It is coffee country up there with lots of plantations everywhere. The weather was leaps and bounds colder than here, as I don’t think I took off my polar fleece the entire time! Okay, so it was probably just around 60’, but I’ve become a wimp to the cold. I do know that it never gets above 80’ there and that’s saying something for a country so close to the equator. Her community was rather small (or at least going by the number of houses in the town center where we pasear-ed which is basically just small talking neighbors. I think the population is actually around 300. However it skyrockets during the coffee harvest when at least 500 Ngobe Bugle (an indigenous group) arrive to work in the plantations.

We peaked into La Amistad National Park which straddles the two Central American countries. It is a beautiful park filled with rolling green mountains shrouded in clouds. Howler monkeys could be heard in the distance with their bellows echoing at the start of the rains. We hiked up to an eco-lodge (pictured) an eco group in town received funds to build. However, it was a little disappointing to see parts of the park, especially surrounding the ANAM ranger station, clear cut and planted with more coffee or tomatoes. I suppose that’s part of the reason why I’m here. Teaching environmental education and developing alternative economies in my community will be an uphill battle. We’ll find out next week where we will be placed. I have my second interview with Francisco, my APCD, to help determine my placement as well as take tabs on my progress in Tech class. I think he decided many of the placements before we even got here. Many of the kids in my group already know where they are going. But at least I can put in my two cents after what I liked and didn’t like about the site I visited.

I’ll wrap this up for tonight. I’m dying to take a shower, but I want to wait until the water comes on instead of taking another bucket bath. I have no clue when that will be, but I know it’s sometime after it’s dark and the sun is setting right now. Until next time! Keep the emails coming as I love hearing from you all. And if you haven’t written yet, know that I can receive emails about once a week when we come to the city. I miss ya’ll and have been decorating my room with your pictures.

First Week of Training

Buenas!

We took two busses to our host family community and boy did we need it with all the luggage I brought! Though we were each dropped off at our new homes, I still had help carrying my bags from the roadside my house. Packing was pretty easy, as I don’t have any drawers or a dresser, so all my clothes are pretty much in a mess on the ground. I do have a table, but I basically just keep my hairbrush and a backpack that I don’t even open on there. I should probably change that…

My host family is great! I’ve got a mom, dad, 12 yr old brother (Mario, aka Piro), and 2 month old baby sister. (She doesn’t cry at all though!!!) I also have a 10 yr old brother (Juan) but he doesn’t live with us. (I still haven’t figured it all out.) And I’ve seen the 15 yr old brother only once. I have no clue where he lives, as I don’t think he lives with all of our neighboring uncles, aunts, cousins, or grandparents. So basically everyone who lives nearby is related to our family. That means that I hang out a lot with the other volunteers in those families which is nice.

I’ve got my own room with a light (yep, I’ve got electricity!!!), a FAN!, and a DOUBLE bed. I still haven’t set my mosquito net up but don’t tell anyone! My house has an indoor bathroom complete with a flushing toilet! We’ve got a shower with a showerhead and everything, but we only have water for a few hours everyday. I can never seem to figure out when, so I usually end up taking a shower by pouring a cup of water over my head from the bucket, lathering up, and pouring another cup over. I definitely invested in a bottle of Pert Plus to cut half the time out of washing my hair. We also have a minifridge which is great because I get ice in my drink for lunch and dinner. (Breakfast is of course coffee.)

Speaking of meals, did you know that you can fry baloney? That and fried hot dogs are perfectly acceptable for breakfast along with fried cornmeal, or fried dough, or fried (you fill in the blank). Some of it is quite good, and I especially liked the lunch of fried platanos (think French fries) and fried egg with ketchup!

Training is going well. I´ve learned how to properly sharpen my machete, limpiar el monte (cut down everything in sight to plant crops), and start a fast compost. And it´s only been the first week! Today we met in the bigger city for our weekly training on culture and general PC matters. Tropical diseases was probably the highlight of this one. Yes, a lot of us will be getting Dengue, so we have that to look forward to!

Last night I played soccer with my extended family (brothers and cousins). Man, I seriously never gave enough credit to those who play on the dirt with sharp rocks BAREFOOT! I could barely run as it hurts so much. By the end of these two years I´ll be an expert though! Then again, most of the kids only come up to my waist, so perhaps it´s not too high of a goal to reach. Hehe

That´s about it for now. I should be getting on the internet each week after class in the city. I still need to figure out a way to charge my computer as the pealing electrical extension cord hanging from my ceiling for power does not like my charger. (Popping sounds and melting plastic smells are NOT a good sign when dealing with expensive electronics!) Once I figure it out, I´ll try getting some pics up.

Also, the address is game to send me things. Mail is really slow coming through Panama City, so nothing big is needed at this point. (Letters may even take multiple months to get here.) Once I move outside of Panama (as the province is called), mail should be better.

First Steps in Panama

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

Landing in Miami, I found some fellow volunteers at luggage claim. Ha, a guy on the plane (not PC) mentioned how it is rediculous not to travel light on an airplane anymore. Little did he know that in addition to my backpacking pack carry-on, I also had another, bigger pack in addition to a rolling duffle that I checked! So I definitely brought more than necessary, but do I regret it? No. In fact, I already snuggled in my sleeping bag as everyone in my villa froze when we couldn't find where to turn off the AC. Perhaps I'll never use it again, but at least it served me well. (I probably won the prize too on the first day of introductions our partners had to introduce us to the group with the weirdest item we brought with my taxidermy kit!)

I've had people come up to me not only asking if I was the one with the weird stuff, but also thanking me for setting up the facebook group. Little do they know, until now, that I wanted to find out who was in the group too! Everyone is really cool though. They come from all different backgrounds and have some type of experience in their program area.

After hours and hours of lectures, group work and presentations, we loaded onto two busses for a ten minute trip back to the airport. A couple hours later we boarded the plane and a few more after that we landed in Panama. As we approached Panama City, the sets of waves made perfectly straight lines across the coastline. The buildings of the city rose out of the surrounding lowlands accompanying the famous canal. An egret on the tarmac greeted me as my first Panamanian bird. And the humidity didn't waste any time with its welcome.

Beside the Miraflores locks is where we are currently staying along with PC headquarters. We are still being oriented to the country and PC with full days of presentations and interviews. Our country director is an amazing guy and even jumped into the pool after our swim test with all of his clothes on to teach us how to make a floatation device out of our pants. Yes, that means he stripped down in the pool too. All the girls had a bloodtest to check if we were preggers. (Some of the guys got a kick out of thinking how big a surprise that would be now that we've made it here!) Then we had out language interviews where I didn't spit out all of my conjugations. I've still been placed above the level I need to be sworn in as a volunteer, so I'm happy. In my medical interview I found out I only need one shot (Hep A booster). That is great news as one guy needs eight shots!

And finally I had my project interview where I probably confused my director more than helped him in placing me in a site. I started out by saying that I would prefer to have a primary project other than environmental education because I feel I could always pick it up as a secondary project and combine it with other things. But then I got really into talking all about EE for the rest of the interview, so who knows! Truth be told, I'd be fine with EE as a primary project. So what happens, happens. :) During the medical interview I found out that you have to take Larium if you are in the eastern part of the country... So as neat as living in the Darien would be, I don't know if I want to do that. (Mom and Dad probably wouldn't be too happy about it either! hehe) So tomorrow everyone goes to get Yellow Fever shots while just a handful of us get to watch. Then we meet in our Spanish groups, have some more presentations, and head off to the mall for dinner.

I'm still really excited and any nerves I may have had keep drifting away day by day. We'll be moving in with our host families this weekend. Boy does time fly!

Too Much!

So I am just finishing up packing and have way too much stuff. To my credit, I am bringing less than I did to Alaska or Florida or South Carolina. It's probably about 1/4 the amount I had at UCLA. I am probably bringing the same amount I did to Argentina. But I still feel like it is too much for the Peace Corps, as it's much more than recommended on the Panama Welcome Book. But alas... I think what matters most is if I will regret bringing too much, more than not enough. I doubt it.

I'll bet that I won't end up using quite a bit of what I bring. Perhaps I still won't use my tent to camp out on the beach. Perhaps I won't really be chilly enough to use my sleeping bag. Perhaps I'll never need to sew anything or feel the need to try my hand at taxidermy again. But what if I do? Granted I could have the over abundance of socks that I am taking sent by mail to me once I get there. Or I could have more shirts sent. Or my Carhartts. But what if I just brought them now? From experience in Argentina, by the time it arrives by mail (IF AT ALL), I might not need it anymore. True, I could probably purchase things in country. And if you know me, I probably will. (Definitely will: I'm keeping my rubber boots here and buying new ones in Panama already.)

The way I figure it, I know I'll have to move quite a bit within the first few months. I'll need to fly it to Staging in Miami (1), get it to Ciudad del Saber for the start of training (2), move into a home stay (3), move to site home stay(4), move into my own housing (5). I imagine I'll still be able to roll things for the first two moves. Then when we go on volunteer visits, technical training, and cultural training, I am praying that we only have to pack for that week and not take everything we own with us. And when I move into my own house, I figure I'll be in the same general area, so I can make a couple trips if need be. So that really boils down to just two moves (aka two days of my entire service) that I could potentially be moving everything at once, on my own. If I had to, I could do it... even if that means that I'll be taking Tylenol the next day. Hopefully I'll make friends and get helpers. Perhaps I'll wear a pink shirt on those days, as I seem to always get more offers of help when I am wearing such a color. lol. All my luggage is a type of backpack, so it is semi-manageable. Plus I'll be bringing locks for my luggage in case I need to leave one bag behind for a bit. We'll see!

So what exactly am I bringing? Here's a list. Okay, so it's not exact, but that's about it. Some things I want to bring but just can't for the life of me find them. (Binoculars??? They've gotta be around here somewhere!) And undoubtedly, I'll throw in some things last minute. Last minute? Me? lol