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

Mail!

I know you've been holding your breath waiting to know where to send me letters. I trust Panama mail much more than Argentina mail. It doesn't have as far to go, right? In fact, just yesterday I received my Christmas presents that never reached me down in Ushuaia. To keep it safe until I get to know the mail system better, please just send things in envelopes. Boxed items tend to get opened more often or assessed fees by customs. So here's my address:

Kerry Piper
Cuerpo de Paz/Panama
Edificio 104, 1er Piso
Avenida Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panama, Republica de Panama

Thanks in advance!!! :)

It's Official

I am headed to Panama for the Peace Corps in April! I accepted my invite a few weeks ago and sent in more paperwork. My assignment is Community Environmental Conservation which I'm really happy about. Before I go further into all that, I figure I better tie up some loose ends from my previous post since it's been awhile.

I'm happily back in the States and enjoying getting ready. I'm still working on tying up loose ends with Golondrinas. I updated this blog a bit with some more pictures and some editing. I've been traveling between North Carolina and Delaware as the wind blows, shopping, and attending environmental education workshops.

For those interested, here's a timeline of my progress toward becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer:

8/28/07: Submitted online application
9/11/07: Received email from recruiter to set up interview
9/17/07: Final reference submitted
         Interview in DC, Fingerprinted
         Nominated to Environmental Education (but asked for different nomination)
9/18/07: Nominated to Protected Areas Management in Central/South America leaving mid-May 2008
9/24/07: Medical packet received in DE (I left for Argentina 9/22/07)
10/25/07: Received medical packet, scheduled appointments
10/31/07: Doctor's appointment (Labs completed entire month of November)
11/1/07: Dental appointment, Women's health appointment
         Departure date moved up to mid-April
11/9/07: Eye appointment
12/5/07: Sent in medical packet after final doctor's appointment (missing one lab)
12/8/07: Mailed and emailed results of remaining lab
1/7/08: Re-emailed results of remaining lab
1/8/08: Medically cleared!
2/12/08: Received invite!

Below is the information regarding my invite:

Country: Panama
Project: Community Environmental Conservation
Job Title: CEC Extension Agent
Staging: Miami, 4/14/08-4/15/08
Pre-Service Training: 4/16/08-6/26/08
Dates of Service: 6/27/08-6/24/2010

I'm working on a packing list and hoping that I'll be able to stick within the 80lb luggage limit. Geesh! I don't think I've ever kept under that this past year with all my jobs and travels. And I now have three huge curriculum manuals that I want to take. Perhaps I can squeeze those into my carry-on along with my laptop. Yes, I probably won't have power... but even if I use my laptop just a few times, I'll be happy. :) I just bought an mp3 player too since I doubt I'll be able to play music off my PC. I still haven't taken it out of the box, but that will be for another day. So that's it for now. I better finish up my taxes. (Who woulda thunk that I even made enough to pay so much back to the government this year? And thank you all for paying your taxes too, thus funding my Peace Corps adventure. lol)

Yay!!!

I'm coming home!!! I'll be back in the States on Christmas Eve to return to normal life. It is unfortunate that my experience down here was not as great as it could have been and the problems couldn't have avalanched at a worse time. That said, I can't wait to get home and wish everyone in Argentina well.

Ushuaia

Ushuaia is a pretty place. Snowcapped mountains surround the city at the edge of the Beagle Channel. Tourists come into this port from cruises with calls on Antarctica and other islands dotting the Austral waters.

That said, I believe there are many other places in the world I would rather live. Don’t get me wrong, I do feel lucky to be here. But a short trip of two days would do. The weather down here is a little less than desirable. In fact, Laura told me the government pays people mounds more money to live on Tierra del Fuego just because of that fact. Ushuaia was originally colonized as a penal colony. Do you think they’d build a prison on the banks of Iguazu falls? I think not. hehe Without fail the wind blows through the city and whips through the valleys in which I work daily. The wind moves the storm clouds which calls for rain every day. Will there be heavy rain just as we start our nest checks? Probably. Will the rain pick back up again just as I am headed from the city center back to CADIC? Probably. Will it give us a break as we have to push the car for the upteenth time because it never starts on it's own? I sure hope so.

My waterproof pants have again failed me. I bought a pair for my work up in Nome, Alaska which were soon destroyed by faulty construction. My new pair was double the price. Double the quality, right??? Well, they are very nice and I wouldn’t trade them in for anything. (I did get a full refund from REI from the first ones, so it was just like buying those again.) But they just can’t hold up to the wind and rain here. After yesterday’s nest checks, my jacket (down jacket that is only water resistant), my longsleeved shirt underneath, “waterproof” pants, and warm pants beneath those were all soaked through. My left foot was nice and dry, but my right foot was a little wet from a small hole in the borrowed rubber boots.

I live in CADIC which resembles a Soviet bomb shelter in its numerous long hallways and little light. At least that’s what I would picture as a bomb shelter, granted this sprawling complex is above ground. I believe the design lends itself to keeping those who live and work there out of the weather, which would be quite important in Ushuaia. I share a room with both Alicia and Amos. It certainly makes things more interesting.

I have to correct that last paragraph. I sometimes live in CADIC. The other time I live over an hour outside of town in Harborton. It is basically a ranch dating back to the 1800’s by an English orphan adopted by a minister. They have since trimmed down their stock of animals due to poor weather and theft. Now they give tours (me too!). One of the buildings on the property houses a museum full of marine mammal bones. You know the smell when you find a skull or some other body part that has mainly decomposed but still needs a little more time? Yeah. The museum covers the bottom floor in a big warehouse looking room. Then there are the bathrooms (two for tourists, one for all of us) and the kitchen. Behind that is the “lab” which houses more bones which aren’t on display. The number of bones is amazing. There are bones from over 2,500 whales, dolphins, seals, etc and even more of marine birds that have washed up on the shores over the years. (Think of ocean currents and the fact that Tierra del Fuego is the only part sticking out into the southern circulation.)

Upstairs are four bedrooms where the girls volunteering at the museum stay. It is carpeted and heated and all together quite quaint. Then if you go through a door, up some more stairs (now above the warehouse type room), and some more stairs you come to a door that is about four and a half feet small. This is our room. It kind of reminds me of slave quarters back in the day. Perhaps the room that Anne Frank stayed in was a bit like this. Who knows. Against one wall are all the paint buckets, sealants, and general toxic smelling things. To each side of the room is a cut out to the eaves of the attic with more general storage. Then there are two beds with a non-functioning computer on a desk separating them. No pillows, no sheets, nada. Oh, no heat up there either. If I hadn’t brought my sleeping bag against recommendations, I would have froze. The whole building lacks electricity. Supposedly a generator is to come on to provide basic light from about 9-12pm. It’s broken.

So that’s Ushuaia for you! I miss you all!!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Journey

To make a long story short, I arrived in Ushuaia!!!

The whole story involves over 60 hours of sitting in a bus (including a couple hours of sitting in bus terminals waiting for late buses); five different buses (including two unscheduled bus changes), more kilometers than you can count on your fingers and toes (about 3000km), two border crossings, four new passport stamps, and a special two hours of waiting in Ushuaia that lacks a bus terminal making countless calls to someone, anyone to pick me up. On the way I was treated to a view of las pampas which in Spanish translates to scenery that consists of plains as flat as can be vegetated with small shrubs in varying shades from dead yellow to gray-green.

Oh, but I wouldn’t have taken a bus if that was all! Looking out the window, I could sometimes spot some waterfowl, wading birds, or even bunnies in addition to sheep and grazing cows. In the last few hours of my journey the trees grew taller, the landscape morphed into a deeper green, and rolling hills rose into precipitous mountains covered in snow.

I also made a pit stop in Puerto Madryn, which sits at about the halfway point between Santa Fe and Rio Gallegos. After stepping off the bus, I went to a travel agent in the terminal who kindly called a hostel for me and found me a bed. My only requirements were that they could book me activities for the one day I’d be there and that they’d pick me up from the terminal since I didn’t want to lug all my bags. I ended up having to take a taxi and pay for it. Then once in the hostel, the lady said that there was absolutely nothing that I could do there since I was just staying for one day and arrived after 8am which is when all the tours leave. We went back and forth with me refusing to believe that a tourist destination such as this did not have anything for tourists to do. She was adamant that there wasn’t. So I left. At another hostel I was first shown a room, able to put my bags down, and then helped in hiring a taxi to take me out to Peninsula Valdez which has an abundance of wildlife. Take that mean lady!!! (As such, I highly recommend Los Choiques Hostel.)

On the peninsula, my driver spotted a falcon eating a furry critter on the side of the road. Then we saw alpaca-like animals as well as emus. Awesome! He took me to the marina where I got in a boat pushed into the water by a tractor. That’s one way to do it without docks! The ride was quite rocky, but it was amazing because we saw whales and lots of ‘em! I suppose there are no laws in Argentina governing the proximity a boat can get to marine mammals. In fact, the Southern Right Whale is a threatened species and we were probably only 15 feet from them with the engines still running. We had free reign over the boat, and I climbed into the crows nest for an overhead view of the moms and babies. After almost falling off the top of the boat after one too many strong waves, I decided it was better to observe them from the deck. About half the schoolchildren accompanying me got seasick. Haha. At least I didn’t get pucked on!

So, back to Ushuaia… It is breathtaking here. Think of pretty Alaska, not permafrost Nome, and you’ll get a good idea of what it looks like here. Lots of rivers, lots of snow splotching the pointy mountains, lots of trees. Okay, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I’ll get some up! Our sites are all at tourist destinations. How much better could that be? One is at least an hour away which is home to a marine mammal museum and the embarkation point to see the penguins on the nearby island. Another is at an inn, which is a popular destination for cross-country skiers in the winter. Our last site is used for peat extraction but is adjacent to a popular camping area with fly fishers too.

The Alicia and Amos arrive tomorrow. I’ll write more about CADIC where I am living then. J Marcela is having a party/dinner at her house tonight that she invited me to. Yes, it begins at 10:30pm, so I am pretty much starving now!!! ttyl!