Life as a Volunteer

I've been a Sworn-In Peace Corps Volunteer for a full week now!  And life is...Peace-Corps-y, I think.
This week, I'm hanging out with my counterpart, aka, the sole English teacher at the Primary School (Primeria), observing his classes, teaching strategies, all that jazz.  Yesterday, he didn't go into school, so I had the day off.  Substitute teachers don't exist here in Panama, so if the teacher needs a sick day, or is at a seminar, or just doesn't feel like coming in, the students don't have class at all.  One of the many cultural quirks that are now part of my life ;-)
On my "day off"- that from school, not from Peace Corps, of course, I did my laundry from the past week, and my host mom took me to see Cabuya, a nearby town.  I'd heard that it was bigger, but rather than being more like a city, it seems to simply be very spread out.  We took a half-hour bus ride up to Cabuya-Arriba, and walked down for a while, before we started trying to find a ride back down to Santa Rita.  We stopped to meet the mother of a former PCV who bought a house there (the mother bought the house), and has lived there for the past 8 years.  She bought the land, and had a house built by the son of a neighbor; the daughter had been a PVC in health 20 some years ago.
I'm getting better at laundry; I'm not washing my clothes on rocks in a river, rather a sink at the house, although much of the time we don't have running water, so I try to wash my clothes and rinse them using as little water as possible.  Fortunately, yesterday the water was coming, so I could actually rinse almost all of the soap out!  Very exciting, I assure you ;-)
This morning, a little bat flew into my room- now that is real Peace Corps, no?  Of course, that a bat in my room is unusual perhaps is less Peace Corps, but we in TE tend to be in more developed areas...I've heard that one fellow not only has running water, but hot water!  (I don't believe that such a thing exists, but I suppose stranger things have happened).  Anyway, this poor thing flew in my room and landed on my floor for whatever reason, and was crawling around for I-don't-know-what.  I didn't want to tell my host mom about it, because going by what others have said from their experiences with bats, death is the general solution.  Eventually, I trapped it in a shoebox and took it outside, where it flew away, as happy and free as a bat could be!  Isn't that a nice story?
And now, I'm sitting in the main office of the Primeria because the teacher whose class we're supposed to have right now is at a seminar, and as I said before, that means that her class hasn't been in...this week...  But, the internet is relatively reliable here, just disappears occasionally, but generally exists.  Yay!
I'm sure there are other things for me to say, but I'm not thinking of them now...I've run into a hiccup with my possible future house- someone else is living there now...but I'll get something.  I like my host family, but currently I'm locked out of the main house all night, which isn't a problem at the moment, but I'd rather that not be the situation.

This is a sunset from my backyard:

Hasta luego!



***P.S.  Happy World Water Day! Feliz Dia Mundial Del Agua***

Finally, a simple answer!

At long last, I can finally, wholly truthfully, answer that I am a Peace Corps Volunteer.  No more 'applying for', 'nominated', 'invited', or 'trainee'- all of those stati that I've been trying to explain for the past year and a half- I am an English Teaching Volunteer in Peace Corps Panama, as of about 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.  (Note on times- in the we don't do Daylight Savings time here, so unless I miss my guess, we're on Central Time now.)

This is a Tire Toucan- they're all the rage here in Panama- old tires cut and painted to be hanging planters; super cool, and we have several!

I live about an hour and a half of bus rides from the Geographical Center of Panama!

 ~This is my new Host Family~

 Another view of my Primeria (Primary School, K-6)

There's a banner that they made from me, and there are potted plants and murals all over the school.

Also, those seats and the end table are as you may have guessed, more old tires :-)

Starting on Sunday, I'm going to be living and working in Santa Rita de Anton, working with my counterpart, the primary school English teacher, and my 3 ciclo/premedia/media (7th-10th grades).  I'll have pictures of the Ciclo eventually, but it isn't nearly as pretty!

(and this is a pretty picture from a Rio that my new family took me to)