La Vaina

So I'm still in the office waiting for an article to pop into our magazine, La Vaina, and be done with it. :) It's a comfy office though with internet, couches, and everything I could need. I think we have to spend another night in the city since the country director needs to sign off on the final product. I was going to meet with some other volunteers in Penenome about environmental education tonight and was planning on teaching four classes tomorrow in the school tomorrow. So those plans are off. But heck, a free hotel room with cabel tv and a hot shower are hard to pass up! :) Plus, I'm happy with the changes I've been able to impliment thus far. Lee, who was the editor before, has been a little resistant to our ideas. He really is into the status quo, even though there are things he doesn't like about La Vaina. (He hates the pink boxes on the top of the pages which were left over from the previous editors over a year ago. He hadn't taken the time to change them and didn't feel the need to do it this time either.) I really wanted the pictures that are put in each article to make a little more sense and match the content of the article. And I won! But we hardly got any picture submissions, so a lot of the pics are from the three of us which I feel is kinda weird. (Lee picked one of mine for the front cover. Jay picked another for the inside cover. And I put one on the next page. In all I have at least ten photos in there. But, you gotta admit, I am good! jk)

The next round in September, Jay and I are going to be changing EVERYTHING. We'll use Adobe InDesign instead of a ghetto old version of Adobe Pagemaker. That will make the layout a lot faster and much cleaner. (Lee likes eyeballing things.) We'll be picking a theme to carry through the mag to make it more cohesive. And we also want a group of writers and photographers that we can call on for some quality work, like I had on Semester at Sea. Basically we want to shift the whole focus to the volunteers more instead of having the staff scramble to write something at the last minute and fill up half the La Vaina with things they've already emailed us. It's going to be good though!!! And I hope it will be something to be proud of.

If nothing else, it has been and will continue to be a great experience to draw on once I get back to the States and am looking for a job. I'm working closely with the senior staff to get their articles and plan for future editions. I'm doing lots of editing which is good experience for any job. (Plus all the best people to write me letters of recommendation or netword to find me jobs are seeing all my work first hand.) Putting together the newsletter is something I could see myself doing in an environmental education center or national park depending on what I end up doing down the road.

La Vaina

So I'm still in the office waiting for an article to pop into our magazine, La Vaina, and be done with it. :) It's a comfy office though with internet, couches, and everything I could need. I think we have to spend another night in the city since the country director needs to sign off on the final product. I was going to meet with some other volunteers in Penenome about environmental education tonight and was planning on teaching four classes tomorrow in the school tomorrow. So those plans are off. But heck, a free hotel room with cabel tv and a hot shower are hard to pass up! :) Plus, I'm happy with the changes I've been able to impliment thus far. Lee, who was the editor before, has been a little resistant to our ideas. He really is into the status quo, even though there are things he doesn't like about La Vaina. (He hates the pink boxes on the top of the pages which were left over from the previous editors over a year ago. He hadn't taken the time to change them and didn't feel the need to do it this time either.) I really wanted the pictures that are put in each article to make a little more sense and match the content of the article. And I won! But we hardly got any picture submissions, so a lot of the pics are from the three of us which I feel is kinda weird. (Lee picked one of mine for the front cover. Jay picked another for the inside cover. And I put one on the next page. In all I have at least ten photos in there. But, you gotta admit, I am good! jk)

The next round in September, Jay and I are going to be changing EVERYTHING. We'll use Adobe InDesign instead of a ghetto old version of Adobe Pagemaker. That will make the layout a lot faster and much cleaner. (Lee likes eyeballing things.) We'll be picking a theme to carry through the mag to make it more cohesive. And we also want a group of writers and photographers that we can call on for some quality work, like I had on Semester at Sea. Basically we want to shift the whole focus to the volunteers more instead of having the staff scramble to write something at the last minute and fill up half the La Vaina with things they've already emailed us. It's going to be good though!!! And I hope it will be something to be proud of.

If nothing else, it has been and will continue to be a great experience to draw on once I get back to the States and am looking for a job. I'm working closely with the senior staff to get their articles and plan for future editions. I'm doing lots of editing which is good experience for any job. (Plus all the best people to write me letters of recommendation or netword to find me jobs are seeing all my work first hand.) Putting together the newsletter is something I could see myself doing in an environmental education center or national park depending on what I end up doing down the road.

New village, new digs

Boy has it been a crazy month! As much as it was nice to get out and about in Panama, I really did miss having some stability. Heck, one of my reasons for joining Peace Corps was to settle down in a place for two years after all the craziness of seasonal jobs from northern Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. So much for that!

So much was left up in the air. I didn’t have answers to where, when, or how until it happened. When we first came to Panama, we knew ahead of time when we would be moving from one place to another during training. By the fifth week, we received a packet of information about our new communities. By the ninth week, we were met by a member of our new community at a Community Entry Conference and then preceded to our sites for a week long visit where we figured out where we would be living for the next few months and beyond. Then after the eleventh week and conclusion of training, we moved to our new homes.

I was told the names of three potential sites almost two weeks after I decided to change sites. Then I visited one of them (which had become the only option) two weeks later for about two hours. And two weeks after that I finally moved to my new site in Coclé. However, not until I arrived last night did I know where I would be staying and parking my stuff. I must say I’ve got a really nice place to live. It is the first house I’ve stepped into, much less stayed in that has painted walls, tiled floors, and screened windows. It’s just like home! (Okay, maybe Edenton is a little nicer… hehe But this is as good as it gets here!) I’m staying with an older couple who are related to the one of my community guides. She does a lot of crocheting and he fixes tv’s as a hobby. And they even have a lady come cook and clean for them! I’m livin’ the high life now!

My room is just being finished, as they moved here three years ago and complete the house poco a poco. So I have a curtain for a door and lack a place to hang or stack my clothes. But hey, I sewed my door-curtains in Chiriqui and have got my own room. I’ve certainly had worse! Ohhh, plus I have not one, not two, but three electrical outlets! Oh the luxury!!! I certainly have enough electronics to fill all of them, but I’ll try not to suck all of their electricity.

I visited a potential house to rent. Ummmm, hmmmm. How do I describe it? It is certainly nicer than some of my friend’s mud huts. It has wooden slab walls and a thatched roof. It does have electricity, though just enough to run a light bulb. I doubt my energy-star refrigerator would work on the homemade electrical job. It does have running water, though it’s about twenty feet outside of the house from a spigot. And I’d need to put in a new latrine, not to mention other repairs to the house which has been abandoned for the past three years. There is a rancho with a zinc roof in front of the house, which they want enclose and make into the living quarters and leave the original house as a kitchen. It is has a leak in the roof and dirt floor, so there’s some work to do before it’s livable to Caribean slope raininess. So it’s not exactly at the top of my list, as it needs work and I don’t get the same amount of money to fix it up had I moved here right after training. We’ll see. If it turns out to be the only option (I still haven’t seen inside of it as it was locked), you can bet I’ll trick it out and make it into a home. I might dig into my stateside bank accounts to do it, or perhaps save up by eating just rice and beans for a while. Hehe I’ll sure miss my refrigerator though! Crazy how you get attached to things…

I visited the school again today, and as I expected, the community doesn’t quite get the difference between my sector and that of the previous volunteer. I just don’t know a whole lot about agriculture, as my specialty is conservation and animals, not plants. I corrected the director of the school when he told all the parents at the PTA meeting that I would be doing the same thing as the previous volunteer. We’ll see, it might just turn out that way! I want to teach computers though and environmental ed instead of just working in the garden. And I’ll even teach the colegio kids English as she did, if for no other reason than one of the teachers for those kids is really nice and I wouldn’t mind working with her.

I’ve got a mountain of names to learn and a maze of a community to decipher. With houses tucked into the trees and down footpaths that cross innumerable streams, it is the picturesque tropical community. But it doesn’t help trying to figure out where I am and where others live. The typical response of “over there” is no less helpful here than “up the hill” was in my last town.

Speaking of which, I had a marathon of a day yesterday. Heck, it already seems like ages ago! I woke up at 5:30am to pack up the last of my things. Then I waited until Franklin came and tried to back his car up to my front door. Mind you, I live up an embankment. I cringed as I watched him first practically flip the car as only half the wheels made it onto the highroad and then hit into a small tree before he gave up. Thank goodness! We loaded up the car and headed up to catch the ladies at church. We made it there just as the service started. I attended Catholic mass while Franklin took a stick to beat the dent out of the bumper.

We then had a little meeting explaining that I was leaving the community and relocating to Coclé. They didn’t get the full story, but it’s just as well. I started crying before finishing my first sentence, thanking all of the women in the community who stepped in as my mothers. I proceeded to give out all the reports, certificates, and money I was holding for the groups as more people in the church teared up. Then came the hugs which as you can imagine weren’t any easier. My little host sisters and Girl Scouts were there and gave me big hugs as well as all the kindergarteners. (They are awaiting their first and second communions and thus got out of school to attend.) Ladies who I never even worked with thanked me for what I had done in the community, and neighbors who never invited me into their homes cried at my departure. It was a tough departure.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete two years in Cabecera, but could I really do it all over again in a new place? I was having major second thoughts on things which were only made worse by my boss calling and telling me that he would keep to the rule that I can’t leave my new community for three months. I had specifically asked him about that on several occasions as things came up and he reassured me that he wanted me to come out to help train the new group and again to work on the Peace Corps newsletter. So much for that! I was thinking about quitting altogether because of it, and I still don’t know if they will be okay with me going home in July. (Don’t worry, I’ll come home one way or another!)

After dropping off my fridge, kitchen stuff, and bedding in Penenome, Brandon, Franklin, and I headed on up to Vaquilla. Brandon asked me a couple of times how I was doing, and I think I didn’t respond on at least one occasion because I didn’t want to burst into tears again. The lack of sleep was definitely catching up with me. And that’s about when I settled into my lovely abode here. J

Here’s a description of the next town over called Chiguirí Arriba, about a 4 mile walk away…

“Directly to the north of El Valle is Chiguiri Arriba, a five hour hike away. It is an area rich in history because the nearby Cerro La Vieja was the hiding place of the romantic guerrilla-hero of the campesinos, Victoriano Lorenzo. He fought for the poor at the turn of the century, long before it became fashionable, in the tumultuous days of pre-independent Panama. It is a lush, tranquil area where frogs sing you to sleep and songbirds awaken you. Every hill has its own stream with cool, refreshing pools and idyllic waterfalls. This is truly an area to commune with nature in a tropical rainforest wonderland.”

I think I can get used to it!

Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!

Flux

Being in flux is kinda like being on an unending vacation. I have decided to change sites and it seems as though everyone (Security Coordinator, Country Director, and APCD, Francisco) are all behind it. Just nothing has happened yet. So when I met with my boss and Security Coordinator last week, he suggested that I go visit my best friend in Peace Corps and spend a week with her. I reminded him that I didn’t have any clothes with me, so I couldn’t leave immediately as he suggested.

So on Wednesday night, I went up to my site, packed up my bag, furiously cleaned up my house and got a good night’s sleep before heading out to Cocle the following morning. By late afternoon I was skipping across the rocks of the river and up the path to Kayla’s house. I met her parents and so began my adventure for the next couple of days.

We left the following morning for Pedasi on the Azuero Peninsula and stayed there for two nights at a fun hotel called Dim’s Hostel with a great outdoor area. We took a boat out to Isla Iguana which is a wildlife refuge due to a huge breeding colony of Magnificent Frigate birds.

There were about 5,000 pairs with clouds of the birds hovering over schools of fish and squid in the ocean and more on the island. Their enormous black wings and pointed tails are recognizable from afar, but the inflatable red pouches of the males were a treat to see up close. To attract the females, the boys blow up the pouch in their throat to the size of a balloon while others around them held their beaks up high and made clicking sounds to regulate their temperature. It sounded like Jurassic Park with so much noise and otherworldly creatures.

Snorkeling and reading filled the rest of our day on the island which I wouldn’t mind being stranded on for the rest of my service. We then moved on to Las Lajas, my favorite beach in Chiriqui. The cabins on the sand were a perfect complement to bodysurfing waves, magnificent sunset, and innumerable starts.

I’m hanging out in David tonight before I head into the city tomorrow for two nights and then a training of trainers seminar. I’ll be back in my site in a while, but it sure has been nice to get out for a while and decompress! And heck, I’ll be back out again with my family whom I can’t wait to see!

Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!

Busy two weeks!

I feel like I haven't stopped running around in two weeks. PML, Project Management and Leadership, was a week packed with seminars for volunteers and their community counterparts. We received the bulk of the material back in Pre-service Training, so this was geared toward our counterparts. Basically, I babysat for the week. The president of our Padres de Familia, secretary of the conservation group, and position holder of other groups in town backed out at the last minute. As it is the middle of the tomato harvest and planting time, any of the guys in the conservation group who own a farm wouldn’t be able to come. Many of the mothers wouldn’t be able to pawn off their kids at a moment’s notice and would probably have to attend the rescheduled Padres de Familia meeting anyhow.

This left me with Jesus, who is a dedicated student in my Eco-English class and a member of the conservation group. He is a hard worker which I figured would make him the perfect person to take. Boy was I wrong. Now, he was certainly loved by all there. He told some great stories. But I think he got a little intimidated by the other counterparts. Instead of working on the real problems facing the group, he babbled off advice to other groups facing some of the same problems that our group hasn’t even begun to address. Instead of focusing on a single project and carrying it through all the sessions such as writing a letter to an agency or presenting in public, he jumped like a fish out of water hitting everything under the sun. Me: No, we don’t need plastic bags for reforestation, we just filled 5,000 with dirt and still haven’t collected any seeds. Jesus: So we should ask for MORE bags. Me: Ummm, no. (Did I miss something here?) Jesus: Let’s ask for a roof for the basketball court. (This suggestion was followed by a long story about basketball plays and games.) Me: What does that have to do with the conservation group and trail building project that is pending?

I eventually stopped trying to pull him back to conservation topics and the reason I brought him. I know he learned a lot during the week and was certainly proud of what he accomplished and people he met. In the end, that’s all I could hope for. Perhaps his talking about what he learned will spur others in the community to ask questions. And hopefully I’ll be around long enough to clear up anything that he may have missed during his tangents.

The first day of the seminar I celebrated my 24th birthday. I began my day at 7am to pick up Jesus in the chiva to Potrerillos and then David. He informed me when he got in the chiva that he didn’t eat breakfast yet. (He gets up at 4:30am every day, so why would he pick today to skip breakfast?) So I bought him breakfast in David and we got on a bus at nearly 11am. I bought him lunch in Santiago and then we finally arrived at CEDESAM at around 4:30pm. (It seemed more like it was his birthday than my own.) That’s nine and a half hours sitting hip to hip with a Panamanian who reminds me in many ways of my uncle. It was intense. Then we had sessions until 8:30pm!!! Finally I escaped with some great friends to the casino to celebrate my birthday. Kayla made me a delicious cacao cake and everyone in the entire casino sang to me (the Panamanian version of the song of course). It was a great birthday, well worth the long day’s wait.

I had my regional meeting on Friday and a group of us took off for Lost and Found Ecoresort to continue bonding. Volunteers from the Comarca kept us company. Now, for any of you interested in staying at this “resort”, be forewarned that it is most certainly a hostel. There is a steep climb up uneven stairs to reach the place (I’m talking at least 10-20 minutes of huffing up all of your stuff, which for me was a week’s worth of presentable clothes from the seminar.) The dorms, or the one that I saw, consisted of four platforms filled with end to end mattresses for perhaps 20 people. It is a great place for Peace Corps volunteers or those adventurous folks looking for a cool place to crash. It’s not so much a place for parents or those accustomed to a little more comfort. I was actually in the “house”, which they told me was their new addition. It is actually just an old house, in the middle of two others a hike away from the main hostel and common area. There was nothing special about the house, and I’d suggest trying to stay in the main hostel if you get the chance. We did see capuchin monkeys on the morning walk back to the hostel, so perhaps for no other reason, it was worth it to stay out there.

Upon my return to town, I had a meeting with the mom’s sending their daughters with me to Girl Scout camp which went well. And the following day I had a meeting with the conservation group, which went… okay. It turned out that we needed to get all the paperwork for the Biological Corredor grant in by the following day, so I arrived at 7am to start cracking on it. (Mind you, I had scheduled a meeting weeks before to get it done, which the group then canceled on me without telling me.) Anyhow, we got a lot accomplished and I left at around 3pm to print off maps and letters that we would need. I then handed the three maps and three letters to the member of the group who said he would be responsible for it all. All he had to do was get three more signatures from members of the group and get the letters signed by the president and secretary who are both his neighbors.

I left for camp with four of the seven Muchachas who were supposed to come to camp. One was close to the Costa Rican border with her dad, who wouldn’t bring her back to town to come. Two others were blocked by their parents from coming who offered me one lame excuse after another to delay their decision in letting the girls come. I wish they had just been honest and upfront with me so at least I could have offered the opportunity to other girls in town. Oh well.

Camp was definitely a Panamanian affair. We were given a schedule, but didn’t keep to it. Instead of lunch at noon, food was never ready until 2pm. Instead of bedtime at 9:30pm (which is late for me to begin with) activities went until 11pm, midnight, or beyond. The one constant was a wakeup call at 6am or 5:30am if you are sleeping in a tent with little ones who want to get in a shower before the morning exercises. In fact, I didn’t even sleep in the tent the whole week with them. Our tent was actually made up of two tents with a large fly draped over them. I had four girls in each of the two tents, and I was left in the middle. The middle was not only a thoroughfare for dirty shoes trampling through, but also had a lovely large skylight made ever so pleasing with the downpours at night. Two nights of getting soaked and I had it. I headed for a cabin which didn’t offer much more in terms of warmth since I only brought sheets, but made up for it in comfort with a real mattress and pillow.

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves despite the downtime. Peace Corps volunteers did our best to fill in some of the gaps with games and activities of our own. There was a great charla about HIV/AIDS with dinamicas and videos. If you get the chance, I strongly recommend googling “Forrito” which is a singing, cartoon condom. I was a little surprised that they showed the video to 10 year olds, but hey, it’s a cartoon, so it can’t be bad. Hehe Perhaps they even have an English version of the videos, I don’t know, but they were really funny.

Other charlas were not as good. A 40 minute charla on making heathly food choices stretched to two and a half hours. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was really productive, but no. I learned that drinking ice water makes you fat, bet you didn’t know that! …Yeah, so it was lacking in factual information. Girls were falling asleep and most just weren’t paying attention at all. They all seemed to have forgotten about that come time for the evaluations and only remember the problems with the food. (For example, they completely ran out of food for my entire patrol on the second day. So they were finally served something whipped up from the kitchen an hour after all the other girls had eaten and left. )

Camp was an overall positive experience though. My girls learned not just about HIV/AIDS but a little about responsibility too. (Over the course of the week one of my girls lost her sandals, found them, lost her dished, borrowed mine, found hers, returned mine missing a spoon, lost her glasses, and lost her hat, not to be found again. ) They also made friends all over Panama and had an experience they never would have had sitting in town watching TV or what-have-you on their summer vacation.

I got back to town and was greeted by a disastrous house. Okay, so not quite a disaster, my house was still standing. But really strong winds and a lack of closing windows made for quite a mess. My bed that had been made before my departure had the blankets and sheets stripped and covered in dirt and leaves. I left a stack of printer paper on my table which spread all across the floor with a healthy film of dirt on top. Dishes fell in the kitchen area, and light bulbs, perhaps through the vibrations of the tin roof, wiggled out of the sockets and shattered on the floor. It’s all clean now, and I just have to buy some more bulbs today.

I had another meeting with my conservation group. I was told at the beginning of the meeting (which started an hour late in true Panamanian style) that the list of participants was missing three names so we would have to redo it and that our letter of solicitude was still missing. I mentioned that I printed it off, and asked what happened to all those papers. It turns out they just sat there the entire time, without any signatures or mention that they were ready to go. Now we need to turn in a letter from the local authorities supporting the group by Friday, which means that the letter I had printed off still needs to get down to that office in Potrerillos so they can write up the letter we need. I’d like to say I couldn’t believe that no one did anything and then refused to believe me when I told them that I had printed off everything they needed and they only had to sign it. The group is pretty much falling apart, and I think it would almost be better if it did and they could get some new leadership in there and start anew. I told them that I couldn’t and wouldn’t do everything on my own, so we’ll see what happens.

In other news, I received a grant for $60 from the Volunteer Advisory Council which I’ll be using to put together a kit with materials needed to run a FlyingWILD birding festival. It will keep me busy getting it all ready, but it should be fun and rewarding. I think I’m going to stick with a theme like Survival, hitting on the threats to bird populations and adaptations of birds.

Carnival is at the end of the month which will be a fun time to catch up with friends in a wet and wild atmosphere of the Azuero Peninsula. I’ll keep you posted and hope all is going well up in the freezy north!