In December, I went back to the States for what I called “Winter Break”. Then I returned to Panama, and got into “Summer Vacation”, which involved the excitement of teaching summer school, helping at a PCV-run Dance Camp, a field trip by the fresh blood the new future TE PCVs, and my parents' visit in February (not in that order, and other than Summer School which I believe I already told you about, will be covered shortly).
First, though, as I raked my yard with my neighbor's rake, I realized that it was Autumn. Well, sometime that feels like August, but acts like October...maybe September, which would logically be the option to fit between those two. But, it's been “summer” (the dry season- everything that isn't a tree is turning dried-up-yellow) for a while now, since about mid-December I think, and the rainy season, hereafter known as “winter” is expected around April or May. And I just spend an hour raking leaves around my house, although who knows where they came from since every tree I can see is full and verdant. And have little mangos growing...:-D Actually, a PCV friend has informed me that she already has ripe mangos in site, so nirvana is coming back! Going by last year, there are a couple weeks where the ground is basically carpeted in delicious mangos. That makes up for the fact that I haven't had more than a trickle of water in the single lowest faucet in my house for going-on-three-weeks. Fortunately, the ~two weeks of too-hot-to-even-consider-physical-activity passed, and now it's just really hot, and it's even “cold” in the morning. “Cold” means about 80 F. here; 60 is freezing.
So, “summer” is coming to a close (at a glacial pace, just like everything else that happens here), it's “fall” going by the leaves on the ground, and so on to tell you about the excitement that was February and the first half of March, although February was much more exciting.
The very last day of January brought my parents on their very first time to Panama! After a noisy, brief night and an early morning trip into the campo, I sent them up to my house with my key, crossing my fingers that the bus driver understood my request to drop them off at my house while I went to a few hours of Peace Corps meetings in the Regional Capital of Penonomé. (Isn't that exciting?) We spent a couple nights at my house, but decided that it was Too Darn Hot, and spent the remaining nights in various hotels here and there, which had A/C (that is exciting- one even had a pool, but no hot water...win some, lose some). Over the course of their visit, we walked around my community, and I made sure that they had some Genuine 100% Panamanian Hammock Time, and courtesy of my neighbors, fresh lemonade, with a lemon-ish fruit fresh from their tree, and fresh, home-made raspadura (cane sugar). They also got to taste very fresh caldo, the juice straight pressed straight from the cane. It tastes like sugar and grass- who would have guessed that sugarwater from an overgrown grass would taste like that?!? We hiked (for a couple hot hours) to a pretty river and cooled our feet while eating oranges provided by my host mom and another local friend who led us to the river. It's funny how similar parts of Panama can be to Colorado- reddish rocks, lots of dust, funny little scrubby trees, and very strong sun.
Away from my town, we went to see the Church at Natá de los Caballeros, which is the oldest church on the Pacific Coast (I believe), which was beautiful and impressive and really, everything I'd expect it to be. Although we arrived with as little fanfare as possible, a scant few minutes after we arrived, a local woman rushed in to tell us about the church, history, and decorations, and answer any questions that we had. I felt a little bad that she had obviously rushed in to help us, and was very pregnant, but she was very knowledgeable, friendly, and informative. We also stopped at the Parque Arqueológico del Caño (the Archaeological Park at el Caño), which is a museum and current excavation of burial mounds in a town called, you guessed it, el Caño. It's a nice little museum, and it has a mostly excavated burial mound, a second burial mound currently being excavated (with cooperation from National Geographic), a set of large volcanic rocks of which they've identified the mountain of origin, but not the mode of delivery, and a lot more unexcavated mounds. One of the most interesting thing about the Park was to compare this ancient culture's burial mounds to those around Cincinnati and St Louis. There are plenty of similarities and differences which would be terribly significant to someone who knows more about burial mounds than I do, but still, interesting. The current theory is that these mounds are from the ancestors of the current Ngobe people, who've since moved further into the mountains from the plains, which is where the mounds are located. The mostly excavated mound contains the bones of some guild heads, including a woman, and an artist. Artists were special, apparently, and buried differently than the guild heads, royalty, or normal people. The mound being excavated is thought to be that of a chief, and contains him, and his entire family except his main wife and his oldest child, who was left to succeed him. There's one way to cut out sibling rivalry, no?
We spent a day in El Valle de Antón, which is the crater of a long-dormant volcano about an hour's drive northeast of my town. We arrived by the grace of my dad's driving skill, as we went via my friend Julie's town, along a road that she assured us was in good condition. And so it was, until we got to the crest of the rim, and began to descend via a series of cutbacks. The straight bits of the road were fine, but at every turn, the road abruptly disintegrated into uneven, rough chunks of concrete and gravel. With minimal seat-grippage, we made it safely down to the center, and didn't even damage the car! In El Valle, we went to the little zoo, which is simultaneously impressive and depressing, the mercado where Dad bought his very own Sombrero Pinta'o, proving himself Coclesano! We wandered over to see the Piedra Pintada, a huge rock about the size of my house with squiggly carvings that may be a map of El Valle, and a quintessential tropical waterfall/swimming hole. We had a typical Panamanian lunch at a restaurant...well, Julie, Mom, and Dad had typical Panamanian, while I had a hamburger. Panamanian food held its own, for the trip, I think, though it can tend towards the bland. The best part of El Valle is arguably the climate- it actually isn't hot! It was a refreshing break from the energy-sucking heat of my town, enough so that we didn't even use the pool at our adorable hotel, in which our room was our own little cabin with a shower grotto, and a little pond/river running through the open-air restaurant.
After El Valle, we went to Coronado, so my parents could experience the thrill that is...drumroll...a Panamanian Grocery Store! For reference, think of any Kroger/Meijer/any big food-and-more variety of store that's essentially ubiquitous in the US. However, it was exciting for me because it involved the procurement of a fabulous inflatable easychair and footstool from which I'm currently writing, and a charcoal barbeque grill, on which I'm still working out the operator problems. We took the plunder back to my house, where I assembled the grill and my dad FIXED MY TOILET SO IS NEARLY FUNCTIONAL AT A NORMAL LEVEL! Now, when I have running water in any quantity again, I can turn on the water to my toilet, and use the flush mechanism!
After such a wildly eventful day, we wound down at a cabin we rented right on the beach to relax and pretend that the ocean was cool enough to produce a refreshing sea breeze. The water was chilly, but beautiful as always. As one might expect when one is travelling without terribly much forethought, we arrived at the beach with exactly 0 towels between the 3 of us, because we're just that good. But somehow, we still managed to enjoy ourselves (plus, the water was cold, which limited our swimming a bit).
For pretty much all of the aforementioned adventures, my parents had rented a car which we returned after our day at the beach, before heading in the City for the last few days of their visit. Panama is a country roughly the size of South Carolina. I think South Carolina has more than one city, but Panama just has one, and that one holds about half of the country's population, and might as well be in South Carolina for all City-Panamanians know about the rest of the county.
In the City, we got around with a series of taxi drivers of varying friendliness and economy, and I can honestly say that there were only 2 or 3 out of the double handful who I wouldn't recommend...if I'd gotten more names and numbers to give recommendations. We went to the Old Town, current political center, called Casco Viego, or Casco Antiguo (Old Shell), and to the edge of the Business District, where the new Trump Tower keeps company with the Hard Rock Hotel and the other shinyshiny skyscrapers, expensive hotels, and office buildings. On a walk along the Cinta Costera (a new project currently under construction, building a loooooong park with a walking and bike path along the coastal edge of the city, my dad wearing a non-indicative t-shirt and his Sombrero Pinta'o attracted the attention of several construction workers who were taking 5 at an entrance to the active construction zone. Without a word in English or Spanish, one rushed over to my dad, his face lit like a child's at (wait for it), and he waved his compatriots over, and blurted out the word - “SANTA!” (The word from before was 'Christmas') He then orchestrated a picture on his phone of himself, his fellow workers, and the Panamanian Santa. Incidentally, Santa had also been recognized by a family of Panamanians in El Valle, when we went on that mini-hike to see the ancient petroglyphs and waterfall in El Valle. So, if you were wondering what Santa does in his off-season, he vacations in Central America. Or, does some personal recon for those twice-checked lists...watch out!
We bussed it up to Colon where we received repeated warnings NOT to walk around, and so never took more than 10 unaccompanied steps in the city itself, visited the Duty-Free zone which is The Place to go for, well, duty-free items. Most of the stores are bulk suppliers for other stores, but I hear there are some great deals to be had on electronics and the like. After the Duty Free zone, we had another bout of luck with the taxi driver who took us on a brief tour of Colon, out for a peek at the Caribbean, and down to the Train Station. He also told us a bit about the history and people of Colon, the Canal and its commerce- and spoke a bit of English, too boot! The main reason we'd gone to Colon was to take the Canal Train back to Panama; in years gone by, it was the principle way to travel, but now it's primarily tourists, and the price has adjusted accordingly, but the view is still gorgeous. Much of the ride is over Lake Gatún, which is most of the central portion of the Canal, and looks like a lake. But, the train also passed through tropical jungle, and there is a brief glimpse of the locks and Miraflores and...well, the locks immediately north of Miraflores.
The next day we actually went to Miraflores, and went through the 5ish story museum which covered the entire history of the Canal, and an overview of the coming expansion, and when we reached the top, were in nearly perfect timing to see 2 cargo ships entering the first set of locks, and watch the water drain and drain and drain and drain, and the ginormous doors in motion. The locks really are an incredible feat of engineering, with a mess of politics, economics, and suchlike thrown in- if you haven't read McCullough's book or been to the Miraflores museum, you should. Preferably the latter, and visit me! On their final morning, we went to the airport, and I woefully made my way back to town...on the first full day of Carnival, so I got to spend a lot of time in line to get on the bus. Note for that visit to the Canal Museum- don't plan on travelling much around Carnival. The roads get packed, although I did get to go through the tunnel under the future airport near my part of the country!
That's probably enough for a blog post- I'm closing in on 3 pages in the program in which I'm typing, and more than 2000 words- if only school reports were this easy!
But there's still Baile Tus Sueños, and the Field Trip! Oh, what the heck. My parents are probably half my readership, and they already experienced most of the last 2000 words.
So, after my parents left, I hid from Carnival in my town and made faces at the Culecos (people who throw water in the traditional Panamanian Carnival celebration which was minimal in my town). After about a week, maybe a week and a half, during which I made final arrangements for the 23 Aspirantes (hopefuls, aka, new batch of future TE volunteers) to come visit my site, talk to some of my teachers, tour around, and have lunch, I took off for Chiriquí to help with a dance camp, called Baile Tus Sueños, or Dance Your Dreams. I arrived on Monday and left on Friday, and in the middle, we taught 30ish kids a couple basic hip-hop choreographies, had a failed attempt at a swing class (one hour, lots of kids under 12, outside on a hot afternoon, plus inexperience...), team building activities, environmental education, sexual health education for the handful that were 12+...it was fun! The PCVs whose pet project it was were going utterly mad, but I think it went really well, and would fully endorse them to run it again- particularly taking into account the 20 million lessons learned over the course of this week.
I rushed back to my site on the Friday, to run around my site making sure that everything was in order for my 30 guests coming the following day (23 aspirantes, plus their PC handlers, driver, greeter volunteers, and Julie who came to help actually on Friday). After a brief scare in that the chairs I'd requested from the town representante hadn't appeared, my host mom discovered that they were At That Moment being fetched, and sure enough, they arrived in short order, and my host brother helped me set them up in the Casa Comunal. My co-teachers who'd agreed to talk to the group both arrived in good time, and wonder of wonders, everything went smoothly, and even on Hora Americana! I didn't have water, to let the Aspirantes refill their waterbottles at my house, but my wonderful neighbors invited the whole group to their large, covered, tiled porch, where they provided cold water and fresh starfruit to everybody. I like my town <3. Once we had rested and cooled down, we went down to visit La Cascada del Río Antón, and the Aspirantes got to dip their feet in a real, live Panamanian river (they'd just arrived in Panama on the previous Wednesday, so it was nearly the first time they'd gotten to see anything). The greeter volunteers commented that it wasn't quite fair, since my Teachers who came speak respectable English, and everything is perfect here (except the lack of water, and excessive heat).
Then came the beginning of the school year, and here we are. I'm in the second week of working with my first teacher of the term, and started my Friday classes at the multigrado Primaria, and the beat goes on. Happy Autumn!
in the house. There are others, but they aren't as photogenic, so there you go. This walk started out much like any other; it was a hot, dry day, and I don't remember for sure, but at that point I don't think I had a lot of running water (and by not a lot I mean a trickle that ran for a few hours/day).
