Back to Back Winter and Summer Vacations!

Since my last post, the events of which I hardly remember such that they seem to have taken place months ago, there was another week or so of end-of-school-year festivities, a retirement party for the assistant principal and 2 teachers at the Elementary school, my going to help a fellow PCV with a program called "Elige tu Vida" (a program aimed at 14-17 year olds, with a split focus on decision making, in work and sex; popular program that I want to run in my site this year), and probably a few other things, but nothing that I haven't already covered to some degree or another.

On December 19th, something very exciting happened.  In case you weren't aware, I WENT BACK TO THE US!  It was a whirlwind trip which involved almost everything I could have wanted: a night of swing dancing, shopping, family time, the Festival of Lights, birthdays, Christmas, schinkenfleckerln, Skyline, Graeter's, hamburgers, and snow.  :-)  

Almost exactly a week after arriving, I once more boarded a plane to Texas.  This had some excitement as a couple hours before we were planning on leaving, I received an e-mail that my flight had been cancelled due to a blizzard that decided to smother everything north of Cincinnati on that day; after an additional scare of there being to available flights until Sunday (by which time I was scheduled to have moved on from Texas altogether), we found another flight from another airport, so all's well.  I landed around midnight, and was met at the airport by 2 of my most fabulous friends, one of whom came to visit me here in Panama (Cecily!), and the other whom I'd not seen since graduation- frankly, entirely too much time elapsed (Mollie!)!!!  

Having graduated from college and moved on to lives of responsibility (or something like that), we naturally went straight to bed in order to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for a full day of wedding prep- because Cecily and I were there for Mollie's wedding!

And as you probably know, that's a lie because naturally, we spent 3 hours covering years of catch-up and hang-out until we all started falling asleep mid-sentence in our positions sprawled around on the floor.

When daytime actually came, at a we got up not-too-late hour, and spent some time doing errands, a little more hanging out whenever possible, wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, and this-and-that.  It was great fun  to reconnect with the handful of other Prin friends who were there, most of whom I hadn't seen for too long :-D

So, after a brief just-over-2-days outside of Dallas, Saturday brought another plane ride, but this one was just a hop over to San Diego, CA to spend a little more than a day with another most fabulous friend, Lauren.  Our time together, though brief, was full of laughter, Broadway (specifically Wicked), near constant drizzle, a hailstorm, a couple rides on a carousel, cupcakes, North&South (a British miniseries that Mollie introduced to Cecily and me that I had to finish before leaving the country) and country-line dancing.  My visit with Lauren ended with meeting another fabulous friend from college, Joe, for breakfast, in a delightful quasi-last-minute contrivance. Yay!  

The last day of 2012 I got to spend with my grandmother Connie!  In another casual, laid back day we went kayaking on the San Diego Bay, with a fish-eye view of a couple aircraft carriers, then we rented bikes...I don't remember where, lunch by the Del with a view of the ocean, an imax movie, and we brought in the New Year with a concert by a delightful rock cover band...and although delightful doesn't quite fit the vibe of the band, I'm going to use it anyway, because it's true and better than any other words that come to mind at the moment.

Connie and I observed as much as possible of January 1st, 2013, by waking up at 5AM to take me to the airport for my final flight for a long spell back to Panama.  I'm feeling honest, so I shall confess that I was feeling decidedly reluctant to return to the Panamanian campo.  I don't know how it happened, but as much as I love nature and being outdoors, being out of sight and out of earshot of civilization, I do love to be in the city.  So, joyfilled from a stuffed-to-the-brim 13 days (including travel), I made my way back to Panama, to be blasted by humidity in the heavy summer city air.  In an unexpectedly fortuitous turn of events, there was a fellow on both of my flights wearing a shirt covered with birds and sporting the word "Panama", so I started chatting with him, found that he was flying down to visit his son, and through this and that, this father-son set were kind enough to give me a free ride to my hotel from the airport! For context, I'd been worrying myself about getting a reasonably-priced taxi by myself after dark, so it was a great relief.

Still dragging my feet, the next day I made my way back to site, and found my steps growing lighter as 'home' drew nearer.  By the time I got to my house, I was ready to embark on another year as a PCV, valiantly battling the educational system in a hopefully-not-in-vain effort to get some good TE -ness going on.  Although I spent the first several days, after an obligatory "I'm back!" visit to my host family, holed up hermit-style in my house watching movies with the blinds closed and all.  Over the few days, I slept and relaxed until that partial week passed, and I was ready to spend the next week reacquainting myself with Santa Rita and my neighbors therein, and preparing for my 2 week booster class for the incoming 10th graders

This 2 week class was at the request of the Director (aka, principal) of the Secondary school, and was a requirement for all students entering 10th grade (roughly equivalent entering freshmen).  However I was given no guidelines as to assessment or content, timing, length, nada.  But, with the help of a couple of my PCV friends in a hotel room and afterward, I pulled together the course, and even I felt that it went well.  And as much as I tend to try to interpret feedback as negatively as possible, I am compelled to take it as a compliment that when I asked for written, anonymous feedback, the most frequent suggestion was that the class was too short.  It was a rewarding experience, and I certainly learned a lot about teaching, teaching english, Panamanian students, 10th graders, and myself personally and as a teacher.  

I learned that to feel more or less confident in front of the class (2 class sessions, about 30 students in the morning about about 50 in the afternoon), I needed to script the classes nearly verbatim and actually have the script where I could read it throughout the class.  I learned that being a little silly, not to the point of clownishness, but just little hints of fun can relax and re-engage a class that may be starting to drift.  (For example, pointing out the pronunciation difference between "park" and "bark", and barking in class.)  I learned that these students, at least, are interested in learning English, but don't know how, and frankly, don't have good teachers...hence MEDUCA* requesting Peace Corps assistance.  And I learned that I still don't want to be a teacher as a career.  I have nothing but respect for teachers, but I still don't want to join your number; you are inspirational, invaluable, so often underappreciated, you share so much wonderfulness with your students, and have so many opportunities...but I don't think it's cut or for me, or I for it.  But, we can't all be teachers, and who knows how I'll feel at the end of another year of teacher training.  I have had marvelous teachers over the course of my life, interspersed with less laudable examples, and from them I will draw my inspiration.

Since ending that class last Friday, I've been working on coordinating a Peace Corps event (I get an early chance at the new group of TE volunteers who are starting in Feb- they're all coming to visit my site 3 days after showing up to Panama, so I get to pull together teachers and a lunch and basically all of the logistics for really what is their first look at Panama.), and cleaning my house for the next Very Exciting Event.  Actually, on Sunday I went to the beach with some of the City relatives of my familia panameña, but other than that, cleaning and preparing for this Very Exciting Event, in which My Parents Arrive in Panama!  In about 20 minutes from writing this, I'll be heading to the airport to pick them up for over a week here!  They'll leave as Carneval heats up, then will be a week of recovery, a dance camp in Chiriqui where I'll teach swing, beginning internet, and beginning Word, and then back into the school year- will the fun ever end...?

And no, you don't get any pictures here.  Like a very silly person, I left my camera battery charger in Panama, and so was reduced to pure enjoyment and direct commitment to memory of this visit instead of being distracted by recording it all.  And I was so busy enjoying and doing that I didn't even have time for the big photodump I'd been hoping for- and that one I am sorry for.  Maybe later.  For now, have a lovely night/day/morning/whenever...have a lovely time.

*Ministry of Education

The Glory of Acting My Age, and other stories (aka, Lump post!)

Pictures added!

A while ago, I promised the Story of the Puppy, so here it goes.

One rainy day in November, which was pretty much all of them actually, I was taking some scraps to my compost pile in my backyard, when I see a little black lump by my wall.

Spot the puppybutt!

It’s about the size of my 2 fists together, and fuzzy, but with some matted/wet spots- but definitely looks too young to be by itself.  Some weeks previously, the neighbors had warned me that Mamadog was pregnant and had taken up residence in my backyard, and that she tended to be particularly temperamental, but this was the first clue that I’d had that she’d had a pup.  I figured that perhaps her backyard den, under a cement block thing, had been flooded, hence the appearance by my wall, but Mamadog was nowhere to be seen.  After a bit, Mamadog came back, and sniffed around at the Fuzzball, and soon laid down by it, and it got to eat- a relief that she wasn’t abandoning it to my care, adorable as it is!  Because everything was sodden, and because projects are fun, I cut up a couple boxes from care packages- you see, they are appreciated ;-)!, and cut up some grocery bags to waterproof the boxes, and made a bedbox for them.


And it was very cute.

I'm finally adding these pictures after visiting facebook and being slammed with news and opinions of the shooter in Connecticut, and in light of this, I hope you take a minute to collect some warm fuzzies in the cute purity of a well-loved puppy, and then distribute them to whomever you encounter for the rest of the day.  It's amazing what even a few minutes of compassionate attention can do for someone, particularly when it's unexpected and unsought. (12/16)

     Ooh, and reviewing the last post, I owe you all Thanksgiving- in the confusion of packing and getting ready to travel across the country, I neglected to get a charged battery in my camera, which is unfortunate for you, but I rather enjoyed, since I could just enjoy and experience, instead of trying to record it.  The traditional Peace Corps Panama Thanksgiving is a fundraiser by VAC, which is something like Volunteer Advisory Council.  Or something.  It’s held out in a town called Cerro Punta, near Vulcan Baru, Panama’s active volcano, and has frigid temperatures reaching down into the 50s. (yes, fahrenheit.)  It drizzled the entire time we were there, and I wore my fleece nearly constantly; loved it!  I left my house at about 4:30 in the morning on Wednesday, and after a neither rushed nor particularly slow 12 hours of traveling, arrived at the resort.  I heard that there were over 100 volunteers in attendance, which means that probably more than half of PCPanama was there.  Wednesday was hanging out, catching up, and meeting some other people from different projects and provinces.  On Thursday, more hanging around, and I went on a hike in Vulcan Baru National Park (I think that’s the name), which involved a 15 minute ride in a trailer behind a tractor into the park on a dirt road that was mostly there to a cabin where we all changed into rubber boots, and then a hike out to see a gorgeous waterfall.  Despite the boots, my pants still got muddy, but I was grateful for the boots, since quite a bit of the “path” was creekbed and/or flooded, and more than once the mud was at least ankle-deep.  Other than hikes, there were decent spa services, massages, etc, which some volunteers took advantage of, and a nice gathering area with fireplaces- again, freezing 60 deg. temperatures made the fires so delightful.  Thursday morning were also meetings by VAC and another volunteer committee that non-officers were allowed to view/attend, which was interesting to see.  Possibilities for the future...
And Thanksgiving Dinner.  There were teams of volunteers working through Wednesday and Thursday morning to cook a giant traditional Thanksgiving meal, with turkey, ham, stuffing, biscuits, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and more.  And it was delicious (and I got to take a pack of leftovers with me for lunch on the return trip, and Thanksgiving leftovers are delicious!).  We had dance parties and there were foosball tables, and pingpong tables, and good times were had by all.  And I got to have a brief ballroom dance sampler with the brother of one of the other volunteers, who happened to be visiting her over Thanksgiving, which was positively delightful!
If you’re thinking of coming to visit me, it’s far away, but northern Chiriqui (Cerro Punta, Boquete, Vulcan) are by hearsay and this experience, well worth consideration.

While I’m catching up, I’ll mention the Special Olympics.  Peace Corps works with the Special Olympics people here in Panama, and provides volunteers to help facilitate the Events as necessary.  There were big ones in Panama City with lots of different events and stuff months ago, but I worked at the Cocle and Veraguas games, and had a lot of fun.  Most of our participation was escorting the competitors to and from their events, making sure that they never wandered off by themselves.  Most of the competitors were middle school age, with outliers on either side.  (In case you aren’t familiar, Special Olympics are for those individuals who are diagnosed with mental challenges, while Paralympics are for those with physical impediments.) We also set up chairs and tents, assisted in giving prizes, and generally did whatever the people in charge asked of us.  Because I worked at the Cocle Games on the previous weekend, when I went to the Veraguas games on the way home from Thanksgiving, the Volunteer Coordinator asked me to explain to the PCVs who hadn’t volunteered before, what exactly we were supposed to be doing.  At both sets of Games the working volunteers were a combination of PCVs and Panamanians, with a few other foreigners who were in Panama on different programs, namely Fulbright people and a group of Germans who live and work in the same community as one of my groupmates.  Both games had wonderful atmospheres of love and support from all sides!

Athletes in grey shirts and volunteers in yellow bringing the Torch around the track in the Opening Ceremony.

And to wrap up, Acting My Age.
Since coming to Panama, my role as been Peace Corps Volunteer with other Volunteers, Peace Corps Volunteer in my community, Teacher in the classrooms...and what non-PCV social experiences I’ve had have been with people, well, not twice my age anymore, but significantly older.  Actually, a lot of them probably are more than twice my age...anyway.  Most people between 17 and 40 or so seem spend at least half of their lives working in the City, or in the case of the 17-24ish’s, in school, since we don’t have a high school, let alone a university, in my town.  Not that I’m complaining about my company, mind you- a good proportion of my social acquaintance throughout my life has been significantly older than I am.  But sometimes it is nice to get let go of the responsible, Representative of the United States thing, the Peace Corps Volunteer thing, the University Graduate thing, and just be a person.  And frankly, most Peace Corps social events aren’t my cup of tea either, for a few reasons.  HOWEVER, this past weekend was the 6th Agricultural Fair in my town, with dances on the 3 weekend nights- discoteca style on Friday and Sunday, tipica on Saturday.  I didn’t attend on Friday night, not having quite the nerve to go unaccompanied to the drunkfest that I thought it was likely to be, but I could hear the music until past midnight; according to my host family, it went on til 6 AM.  I went to the Fair itself on Saturday, bought a pair of cute sandals that I hope last, and watched the Great Mother’s Day Giveaway.  December 8th is Mother’s Day here, by the way, and was celebrated in both of my schools, as well as at this Feria, mostly by every mother in attendance getting a number, and then getting the present associated with that number.  (Side note, I happened upon the Mother’s Day celebration at my main Primary School, and got roped into singing for the 50-odd mothers- I did Amazing Grace, since it was the only vaguely appropriate song I could think of at the spur of the moment, and that I could remember most of the lyrics to...not my best performance, but it was kinda fun).  Julie, my PCV friend who lives relatively close to me, came by to the Feria also, and we went to the Baile (dance) that night.  The featured performer was an accordionist, and I was enjoying the music, but there were unsurprisingly, a lot of drunks thinking that they could dance.  I did dance one number with Some Random Guy, who actually did stay on rhythm, and danced well, considering that tipica dancing is basically a two-step, and they don’t do turns or anything to break the monotony...well and good if you’re drunk and/or really into your partner, but as a social dancer, it isn’t my favorite style.  I’m getting to the point, I promise!
Sunday, Julie and I had scrambled eggs with salsa, homemade rosemary bread with cream cheese and jelly and banana-orange-pineapple fruit salad, because Peace Corps life is rough, for breakfast.
      Later that afternoon, after Julie’d gone back to her town, I went back to see how the Feria was winding up, and got there just in time to see the end of the Electric Slide, with a good number of people actually doing the dance!!!  That pretty much made my day, but when watching the forthcoming dances, the girl sitting next to me and I started exchanging random comments (breezy, mosquitoes, music, etc), which turned into something of a conversation- and she’s a 24 year old who works in tourism in the City 3 or 4 days/week, but spends time in town too, and has a fair number of friends who were also at the ‘discoteca’ dance on this Sunday night.  She arranged for me to dance with a friend of hers while she danced with her brother, and introduced me to others of her friends (none of whose names I remember, and barely the faces, but I blame loud music and scarcely existent lighting), and so I got a couple dances in with their group, including a bachata, in which I kept messing up the timing on the turns, but was dancing with a guy who could actually lead!!, both in changing the frame shape, and moving around the floor.  Al final, I walked back to my house with this group, and my new friend said she’d take me around the city some free weekend.  So, I got to hang out with people who were roughly my age, not drunk, friendly, and who could dance.  What more can a girl ask for?

Patronales- Independence Day(s)

Ok, so it was a bit more than a couple days to get this next post up- I was too busy collecting material for new blog posts to write old news.  But, you'll have to wait for that :-P.
Coming soon: Furball! (no, I'm not keeping it), and Thanksgiving in Cerro Punta

In the meantime, Los Patronales and the Anniversary of the Separation of Santa Rita from Cabuya.

For a few weeks, I'd been hearing about the coming 23rd of October.  They were selecting the Reina, and as the time grew nearer, getting decorations up and even put a grandstand by the Casa de la Cultura (community center/space).  All of my schools' bands were practicing daily, and it seemed something was up, although it wasn't clear what for, or why the 23rd of October was particularly important.  I've found it rather difficult to get answers to cultural things, perhaps because they forget that I'm not local, and haven't been observing their holidays for my entire life.  So many things we as people take understanding for granted, which is far from intuitive or clear to an outsider.
At any rate, eventually the Expected Date rolls around, and what do you know, but all of the significant mucky-mucks of Santa Rita are there, and my schools' bands, as well as a couple other groups!  And they are celebrating, as mentioned above, the separation of my town from the next town up the road.  Because they do like their independence days, as you will soon read!
It was pretty exciting to see the hard work of the marching bands, and the practicing at all hours of my school-age neighbors, pay off in the form of a parade around la vuelta (the loop).  The bands were impressive, considering I believe only my secondary school had more than “lyra” (some vaguely lyre-shaped xylophone cousin) and drums; they have a brass section as well!  The parade was ended by the Reina in Carnaval-esque costume (think sort of heavily sequined mermaid with a matching headdress) and one of her Damas, in a traditional pollera.
And then there were brindis, and socializing, and soon I ran away to do some grocery shopping in Anton.  Woohoo!
 (Side note on this, at the post-parade segment, a woman who lives in a little town up the road invited me to a mass/celebration in a town called Loma Larga, which means Long Hill.  It was noisy, and hearing English is hard enough in a crowd, let alone interpreting Spanish, so there certainly was some room for misunderstanding...at any rate, as far as I got it, we arranged that on the 28th, I would meet her at a certain bus stop, and we would go to this celebration together, because it the town is a bit of a hike off of the road.  So, I get to the appointed stop, and wait.  And wait...for about an hour...yeah, I know, hardly any time in Panama-time, but that's an aspect of the culture that I'm reluctant to embrace.  Eventually, I start to wander, end up talking to a lady who owns a store, who hooks me up with another lady who was about to head to what I believe was the event I was invited to, so she showed me the way.  I never did find the lady who invited me, but 2 other ladies ended up sort of taking charge of showing me around, and I ended up with their contact information, an invitation to another event in December, and vague plans of taking them on the walk to El Valle!  The event on Loma Larga was their Patron Saint Day, Saint Judas.  There was a mass, a procession (walked perhaps a quarter-mile and turned around to return), and the brindis, because there are always brindis.  Yay free food!)

And now we come to the Patronales, which I eventually figured out weren't about Patron Saints, but rather the weekend of Independence Day- related things.  National Anthem Day, Flag Day, and The Anniversary of Separation from Colombia are all together, but I don't recall the exact dates of each.  Whatever the dates, my schools participated in parades for the entire long weekend!  On Saturday the 3rd, we had the parade in Santa Rita, which was very similar to the 23rd, but with more bands, and -amazingly- uniforms!  Everyone was suddenly decked out in snazzy uniforms, with funny hats and matching boots and everything!  In all of the other performances I'd seen, other than folclorica stuff, all of the kids just wore their school uniforms, but now suddenly they seemed bands worth considering!

(Another side note: I'd promised Julie, my friend and one of my closest PCVs that I'd go to her town that night to go with her to a baile that her town was having, for the Patronales, so after watching the parade, I skipped town to head over to hers.  There, we hung a shelf in her house, chatted, wandered over to their Casa de la Cultura a couple times, returning to Julie's house because the baile still hadn't started, but eventually went back, and ended up watching a cock-fight before the dance actually started.  Have I mentioned that a “baile” is a dance?  Well, if not, “baile” = dance.  It was...interesting.  More interesting watching the audience than the birds, but not sufficiently so to make me need to see another.  My hitherto undefined inclination to see a cock-fight was satisfied, and even now it makes my stomach turn a little to think about how one of the rooster's spur would occasionally get stuck in the flesh of the opponent.  However, certainly another cultural experience to check off of the list!)

On Sunday, my schools went to the town of Rio Hato for another Patronales parade, but I hopped back into Santa Rita to see a bike race at the invitation of a lady in the community, actually, the woman who teaches the folclorica dances at the schools- and it was the real deal!  It was one of the most official looking things I'd seen, for all that it still did start in hora panameña (ie, late).  There were 4 or 5 teams of bikers from around Panama, mostly in real bicyclist-looking apparel, and it was another pleasant surprise (after the uniforms in the parade).  Perhaps it's unfortunate that my expectations of what to expect have rather been lowered in my months here, but it is delightful to be thusly surprised!  There were, of course, brindis, after the race, and there was a group selling soda and grilled chorizo to raise money for a Christmas party for the community kids.

Monday brought a big parade, again with my main Primaria and Secondaria, in Antón, a name which should be at least slightly familiar by now.  Due to a connection that my neighbor PCV Richard had made with the Mayor of Antón, we were Invitado to watch the parade from the grandstand- a big honor!  As invitados (~invited ones), we got to sit in on the opening meeting.  Also, a portion of the brass section of my Secondary's band was chosen to play the national anthem!  I walked through the parade route with my Primaria, because there wasn't a specific place in the line-up for Peace Corps Volunteers, until we got to the grandstand where I broke off to go up and watch the rest of the parade.  It was really cool to see band after band from all over the country come through, ranging from elementary to colegio, which is 10-12th grades, but are divided into areas of study.  I watched 10s of bands and performance groups go by, when what do I see but another friend-PCV marching with her school!  The parade started a mere half-hour late, practically on time around 8:30.  By about 3, I was ready to go, particularly upon finding out that it would probably last until 6 or 7 PM.  Apparently there are 80-some school bands that come...and then there are the “private bands.”  It was all very impressive, but I was done parade watching by that point... and I had to get to Penonomé for a very important “V for Vendetta” watching party with some other PCVs, because it was Nov 5th :-)  Heading eastward on the Interamericana (the Pan-American Highway) was the most traffic I'd ever seen on it, but fortunately I was heading west, which was clear as usual.  I got to Penonomé without issue, though thoroughly exhausted, and we chilled in the hotel, interneted, and went to see “Skyfall” in our months-old movie theatre-  yep, “Skyfall” opened in Panama before it did in the US :-D.  We picked up a couple pizzas from a gas station that serves surprisingly good pizza, and eventually watched the main feature.
The following day, Tuesday Nov 6, did feature a huge parade there in Penonomé, for which I didn't stay, though I did get to see the beginnings of the Election Day coverage before I left to come back home.  And thus went the Patronales.

I'm writing this on Monday, November 26th, which I had off of school due to Wednesday, the 28th, being the Anniversary of Independence from Spain.  I'll let you know if I get to see something interesting related to that ;-).

Next time (barring further distractions, which will almost definitely come as the school year comes to a close), PUPPY and THANKSGIVING!

(Note, due to my week-charge of internet running out, I'm actually posting this on Saturday Dec 1- IT'S DECEMBER!!  I was going to add pictures, and even had them selected, but apparently the fates don't want you to see them.  They're not even pretending to upload.  However, when I go Home for the Holidays, I should be able to orchestrate a massive photodump onto the interwebs- woohoo!)

It's the Holiday Season! (Part 1)

Here in the campo, however, it looks rather different from how it is in the States.
October didn’t have so much by way of actual holidays, but each of the Primarias around had its own “Día del Campesino”- “Day of the Peasant” (according to my dictionary...I’m living with the Panamanian peasantry!  (and there are pheasants as well)).  We also had the "23rd of October", which commemorates the Separation of Santa Rita (my town) from Cabuya (neighboring town), Halloween stuck in for the various Americans here, and then the 4 days of Separation from Colombia parades/celebrations from Nov 3-6.  Oh, and Día de los Disfuntos, Day of the Dead, on Nov 2.  And then later this month we have Thanksgiving, which you'll hear about in time, and the 28th of November, which is Independence from Spain.  And then la Navidad, which is a combination of Christmas and Christmas Eve, and New Years (which I will be spending in the good old US of A!!)...oh, and Mother's Day is coming on Dec 8, graduations (since the school year ends in Dec here).  And then some other little things in there for fun, which I believe includes a patron saint day in a town near Cabuya in December as well.  So, now, a peek at some of these festivities!
       
        Since I attended the Días of my Primaria, my other Primaria arriba, the Primaria de Cabuya Arriba, and “Rayitos del Sol”, which is a preschool-type-thing in town, I’ve gained a fairly strong understanding of what goes into one of these presentations.  The biggest was my main Primaria, which makes sense as it seems to be about the size of the other 3 put together, but the formula was essentially the same.

        The sites were all decked out in bits of folclorica, woven pencas, bundles of rice, oranges, grapefruits, bananas, and that sort of thing.  Very cultural :-)  Bits of folclorica involves the giant rice-pounder thing that I forget the name of, examples of traditional clothing (in addition to that worn by the participants).  Pencas, as you may recall from a previous post, are woven palm fronds, and the rice, oranges, etc, are displays of the local produce- it’s a celebration of farm life, so they celebrate the trappings of campesino-hood.
At my main Primaria’s day, 5 or 6 of the “neighborhoods” built ranchos in which members of these communities sold traditional foods and more produce.  Every festival is an opportunity for the local families, and the schools, to get some fundraising in, so there are refreshments always available- generally for under 2$, for a decent amount of food and beverage.


This being Panama, the vast majority of events require a Reina, the Queen, and her court, which consists of a princess or two, and the Damas- Primera Dama, Segunda, and sometimes Tercera Dama, all with their caballeros (gentleman, or knight).

Bewildered little flower girls

        The actual showcase is distinctly Panamanian- firstly, each presentation started at least 30 minutes late, and then began with the entrance of the previous year’s Reina,  and the current year's court.  These lovely ladies are chosen by votes and/or fundraisers at their schools, and are sporting the full pollera with heads full of trembling beaded tembleques (tembleque loosely translating to “tremblers”).  To the sounds of traditional music, either live or canned, the Royal Court enters, and after an array of ladies and flower girls who are generally 5 or 6 years old and completely clueless about their directive, the new Reina enters.  Each of court lady entrances involves the girl coming in with a caballero or 2, making a couple loops around the performance area, some dance steps and forms, and going to a seat behind the performance area.  

hint: La Reina's the one on the right

The new Queen enters, naturally with the fanciest pollera and glitzy-est tembleques, and the previous Queen coronates her and makes her exit.
Once the Court is in position, the Conjuntos de Baile Folclorico from the host school as well as 5 or 6 guest groups each perform some traditional dances.  The performances at each of the Días was nearly identical, with most of the events featuring the same groups performing the same dances.  Downside: I admit, even for me, the novelty wore off after seeing the same dances over and over, particularly as some of the groups repeated dances of another group in the same Día, but Upside: seeing the same dances repeatedly, and by different groups, gave me the opportunity to gradually make sense of the announcer’s words, and put names to the dances, and get an idea of the general choreography of the dances.

One of the common dances was the “Fogon Caliente,” or “Hot Wood-burning-Stove”, which involved in parts, the boys holding the backs of the girls’ skirts and waving their hats, and at other parts, the boys putting their heads to the girls’ stomachs to be covered by skirts (or on the girls’ shoulders, as the little kids danced it, to the high amusement of the audience).

Another repeated on was a rice harvesting dance which used props- the girls carried wooden trays with some rice, and the boys used fake machetes...and one of the elements of the dance involved the boys leading(?) their partners around in the circle with their machetes at their ladies’ necks.
These performances generally lasted several hours, though the audiences weren’t shy about moving around during the pieces.




Here are some of my favorite pictures:

This one is perhaps my favorite, particularly photographically; also this pollera had the best movement ;-)

Palo de Mayo (Maypole)

fun fact: Maypole (palo de Mayo) has a tune strongly reminiscent of “Limbo”, and is regarded as traditional panamanian culture; technically this was at a Tourism Fair at my Secondary school, but had a lot of things in common with the Días Campesinos.  Main difference was that many of the classes were assigned a province and decorated their classrooms in accord with the characteristics of their province.  But they still had the queen, court, and interminable set of perfomances, including a couple little dramas, and the produce and food vendors.

These guys are apparently tree spirits, despite looking like some sort of deer-god thing. 

Las 4 Negritas, the 4 little black girls.  2nd graders in blackface singing about how their father would beat them for not knowing how to do certain household tasks...

The Queen and I

            Coming soon, hopefully in the next couple days, while they’re still fresh in my mind: Separation of Santa Rita from Cabuya (independence from the next town over), and the 4 days of parades for Día de Independencia de Colombia!

            In the meantime, may as well finish October.  Except the Separation from Cabuya is the 23 of October...but it’s a parade, and sort of an independence day,  so it can stay postponed.  So, Halloween! Now, if you know me at all, you are probably aware that I’m rather fond of this holiday, and take great delight in getting costumed up.  The prevailing Panamanian belief is that Halloween is all about Satanism, and they’re actually seriously scared of the idea.  I’ve heard several sincere accounts of witch encounters, and multiple instances of duendes (mischievous imp/brownie/elf/dwarf critter)  I’ve had the pleasure of explaining to a few of my neighbors the true importance of Halloween, that being dressing up as something you’re not, and having fun, and eating candy.  And, although the Panamanians aren’t keen on Satanism, their beliefs haven’t rubbed off too much on the ex-pat community, and so the American owners of a restaurant in Veraguas had a Halloween party with free pizza for anyone who came in costume; this drew about 20 PCVs to congregate in the town of Santa Fe, which is gorgeous, by the way, up towards the mountains.  So, if you haven’t seen it on facebook, here’s my scrounged pirate costume:

Ok, one more, to finish this post- Día de los Disfuntos, or Day of the Deceased.  Completely unrelated to Halloween, this is observed on Nov 2 by going to the cemetery and putting new silk, and some families real, flowers on the graves of the relatives interred there.  I went to the cemetery in Cabuya with my familia panamaña when they went to do their duty by the maternal ancestors.  The graveyard is on a beautiful hilltop with a 360 view of mountains and the ocean.  And there were brindis of hot chocolate, coffee, and arroz con pollo (chicken and rice).  Brindi means free food :-)

View Southish (and slightly eastish) towards the Pacific

View north/northeastish towards the mountains

And view South, but now to the right (westish) at a storm in between the cemetery and the ocean !

P.S. There were also brindis at all of the Días del Campesino, in case you were wondering; generally for Invitados, but by dint of being the only Norteamericana, or Peace Corps Volunteer, or somesuch excuse, I generally count, 'cuz I'm a VIP ;-)

Projects!

I don't like to be bored.  Because of this, I try to fill my time with activities, crafts, projects...all that great stuff.

Now, I have my official Peace Corps assignment of working with the English Teachers in my schools, my long-awaited and sparsely-attended community classes, a weekly English Practice/swing dance class, and 1 day/week teaching at a second, English-teacher-less Primary school in town.  Then there's the drawing, the macrame, the cooking, the crafting (wire things, weavings...)- something for every mood!  Perhaps by the end of 2 years, I'll have learned something, like how to draw something that I can stand to look at once it reaches completion.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share my shelf projects.  Here is a picture of the first set of shelves I attempted:

String and cereal boxes.  Structural integrity was lacking, but I still might add some support, or just redo the entire thing.

 And here's the second attempt at shelves!

Wood from my friend Julie, and used real hardware to put it together, and it lasted through  the first night!

You see, despite the double challenge of living in the 21st century of electronic everything, and living in Panama where nobody reads, I still accumulate books.  These books have outgrown my livingroom-to-kitchen window that I'd been using as a bookshelf, and so in order to be able to use and part of my table as more than a pile'o'stuff, more storage was essential.  Woohoo!  Successful project, but I shan't let you see details.  Suffice it to say that it broke the screwdriver in my multi-tool thingy :-(, so I had to get a little creative.

Doesn't that look nice?  If you look carefully, you can see my hammock modifications too! 

Also, yesterday I received this darling invitation from my neighbors, to their Dia de Campesino celebration!  One of the few signs of local handicraftness I've seen.

My main Primary school had their Dia del Campesino festivities last Friday (pictures coming soon...when they load!).  I got to impress a lot of Panamanians and teach my host family how to make traditional Panamanian decorations- woven 'pencas'- coconut palm fronds!  The pencas lined almost all of the doorways, archways, and pillars at school, adorned with oranges, rice stalks, leaves, and other local products.

The picture that results from trying to coach a 7 year old girl who was watching me through taking a picture- and she said she couldn't do it!

Most of the woven side of this was my handiwork.  Another woman started it, but then went to help with cooking or something...at any rate, it seemed like it was safe to pick up where she left off :-)

I started my little garden in the backyard, too!  So far, I have greenbeans planted, chaya, possibly a cucumber, and hopefully some tomatoes!

Overacheiverism

     My friends are a pretty cool group.  By sophomore year of college, there was a high probability that a good friend of mine was studying or working in a different country.  At any given time since then, I can probably say that I know at least one person living abroad, working on some cool project; and these friends are the Americans, not the wonderful people who are from "abroad," and doing wonderful things at home, although they certainly are fabulous as well.  Reasons for going abroad vary, some studying, some working, some travelling, and usually there's more than one of those going on.  Now, I'm in the Peace Corps, where I join a selection of acquaintances who have been or are serving in various projects around the world, and my "cool friend" quota is definitely increasing.
     There are more than 200 PCVs serving here in Panama as I write, in 4 or 5 projects, all over the country.  (I'm going to use the PCV Panama community as my focus for this post, but the relevance certainly isn't limited to this group.)  When a group of PCVs get together here, there's the usual griping about trouble at work, venting about issues with co-workers, and gossiping about Panamanians and other volunteers.  And we talk about project challenges and successes that we've had, and projects that other volunteers are doing.
     Here's where the problem I see is.  We talk about our projects and the projects that other volunteers are running, and the other volunteer's always sounds so amazing.  That PCV has community engagement, organization, energy, and according to the grapevine, great results.  We wonder why we can't pull off a project like that; why our community is so hard to work with, and why can't we be a better volunteer, like that one.  First of all, an accurate comparison is basically impossible here, given the differences in everything from projects, to communities, to resources, to the PCV's interests and talents.  It's like comparing apples to oranges, and does no credit to any party involved.
     The second, more severe problem, is that there are these admiration conversations on how productive Superstar PCV A is being (Superstar PCV A not being present in said conversation), and then later, on a separate occasion, Superstar PCV A is talking about how his/her project isn't talking off, s/he don't think the project is working, but if only s/he could be more like Superstar PCV B!  People are just too...individual to be usefully compared.
     It's wonderful to have goals and standards.  It's great to have to internal drive to constantly be pushing oneself to improvement, ever striving for improvement.  And competition can be a wonderful motivator, as has been demonstrated in the Space Race, many solar car races, in school, sporting events (fancy that!)   But is it possible, or do I ask too much, for us to somehow learn to see what we are doing and acknowledge the progress, or at least hard work, that we are doing?  For me, I've learned that no matter how hard I've worked at something, or whatever results I get, I find a million ways I could have worked harder to achieve a better result.  And yes, that pushes me to do better next time, which certainly improves "next time."  But constantly finding fault and highlighting the failings of what's been done, past practices, means that it's very rare, and very difficult to find satisfaction in a job well done.  Perhaps I just haven't worked hard enough yet, and if I keep trying, I'll get there...but somehow, I don't think that that is the way it works.
     Reflecting of the conversations with other PCVs and friends outside of Peace Corps, I can't fault us for being dissatisfied with aspects of our performance that we know we can improve.  Maybe, though, we could practice seeing ourselves through other people's eyes.  Not to the point of narcissism or self-adulation (little danger of that, given where we're coming from), but just distanced from ourselves enough to see ourselves and our efforts from another perspective.

PRODUCTIVITY!...vs. Panama

     Thanks to my brother for ordering and Cecily for bringing my replacement computer battery, I am writing this blog post by candle light.  Now, I don't really need light to type on the computer, but before writing this post, I was handwriting notes from the computer, and then I did need the candlelight.  I'll type up the notes eventually, but I suppose I'm still old-fashioned enough that if I need or want to really think about something, it has to travel down my arm, though my hand and pen, and onto paper.  Maybe getting split down both arms to be computer typed divides the information into nonsense.  I don't know.  Either way, I'm in the funny, quasi-modern situation of working from my computer by candlelight.  My candle is developing a really cool sideways stalagtite-y wax formation, by the way.
     I'm using the candle, by the way, because the light went out for the second day in a row.  Today and yesterday we had light for most of the day, until about 4:30.  Last night it reappeared at about 10PM, and I hope it'll do that again, and recharge this miraculous thing known as my battery.  Water's also out- boo!
     In case you've missed the news, I finally caved and/or build myself up to getting a magic internet stick, which has made my life both more and less productive.  It works best immediately in front of my house, generally decently just inside of my front door, and doesn't exist more than a foot inside of the house.  But, it's enough for e-mails and uploading pictures, and if the clouds are angled just right, I can watch youtube videos with just a couple pauses to load!  It's fun to be in the 21st century again, here in rural Panama.
     The aforementioned notes I was writing are for my first COMMUNITY ENGLISH CLASS!  I'm doing a set of 5 classes, starting tomorrow and happening until 5 Tuesdays from now.  (I'm writing this on Monday night.)  I simultaneously hope that I have a good number of students, because then I could smoothly and easily bring them to perfect fluency ;-), and that no one shows up, so I don't have to actually teach on my own.  I think that I'll have a good handful, at least, though.  My host mom, at least- it's kind of her job as my adoptive family member here, right?  And she is actually interested in learning English, even asking me how to say various things when I'm at her house.
     Next Thursday I'm making myself available for official homework help for 5-10th graders- this one I hope to transition into peer-tutoring, yay sustainability!  And on Friday, I'm going to start more solo-teaching (ack! What am I doing?!?).  There's a second Primaria in town, just 70 students, but they don't have an English teacher, hence my not being assigned to work there as well, but as the students go to the Secondary from there expected to have learned some English, some parents have requested that I teach their kids too.  So, they get their own real, live, Native English Speaker once a week too!  We'll see how long this goes.  I think I was smelling too much of the neighbor's garbage when I was setting all of this up, else I would have at least spaced it out a bit more.  Oh well- in for a real (nickel, pronounced rey-ahl), in for a dain (dime, pronounced dine).  Wish me luck!
     Ooh, and unless I do already have enough going, there are a couple other things I'm working on with other volunteers, this fantastic thing known as a Magic Circle that I want to start at the Primaria, and my new neighbor volunteer (neighbor being in the next town up the road) swing dances, and we're talking about getting the kids in his community and/or mine dancing!
     Ok, I was going to finish with the English planning fun-ness, but I've got to talk about Magic Circles.  A Magic Circle (which I like to capitalize) is a form of permiculture, or a strategy of permiculture, or something like that.  Basically, you dig a hole about 3 or 4 feet diameter by a foot or 18 inches deep, and through 'trash', whatever organic material you feel like, into said hole.  In the ring of dug-up-dirt which you left around said hole, plant plantains, yuca, whatever you want.  As time goes, add whatever more organic material you have to the pile in the center.  The guy who introduced this technique at our trimestral Peace Corps meeting is a former PCV who has since started his own farm here in Panama, outside of Penonome, called “Finca de los Perezosos”- “Farm of the Lazies.”  So, according to John Douglas, the former PCV, this yields significantly more produce than the usual Panamanian methods, while cutting down on the amount of trash left to burn.  Win-win!  I'm talking to my Primaria teacher about starting on at the school, which will help them, and then I/we/someone can use it as a model to teach other members of the community about this alternative strategy!  (I want to do one in my backyard, too :-).)


One more note: I think I accidentally had a big bowl of vanilla pudding for breakfast this morning.  Panamanians use cornstarch for a lot, including a common breakfast known as ‘crema.’  I had a box of cornstarch for when I need to make chocolate pudding, and since I didn’t have anything else breakfast-y, decided to try it.  Halfway through the process, I realized that it was almost identical to the chocolate pudding, except without the melting-chocolate step.  And more vanilla added.  And raspadura, which is minimally processed cane sugar (but sugar goes in either way.)  It’s a curious sensation, to expect to eat breakfast, and eventually realize that it was actually pudding.  ;-)

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Continuing on Tuesday, since I didn’t post this before now:
So, the much anticipated class came and went!  Exactly none of the community members who seemed excited about it showed up today.  Which was ok, in a way, because the guy who was supposed to give me the key to the building and pull out the whiteboard and help me get everything set up forgot that today was the day, and was in Penonome (the city about an hour’s drive away).  But, we got the key to the space from another guy in the community (though not the key with access to the supplies), and on a ‘hunch’ I’d brought a stash of poster paper and markers.  Just in case.  Despite none of the adults coming up (even my host mom didn’t come to the class), I did have 8 youth-students, ranging from 2nd grade to 9th.  They acted like Panamanian students, that is to say, irresponsive to about everything, but when asked after the fact, said they enjoyed it.  I think I could be a good teacher...not that I’m changing my intention to never make that my career...but who knows, maybe I’ll keep saying never through a career of it (eek!).
    We’ll see what happens next week; it’s slightly possible that the culprit for the thin attendance today was a band meeting that lasted much longer than anyone had anticipated...vamos a ver.   In any case, I came back home to relax, put together a random outfit which I then inflicted on the community between my house and the store, and came home.  They say Peace Corps is a learning experience- this particular event taught me that I have 4 main coping mechanisms for disappointment/disenchantment/discouragement/etc- (1)nature meditation (2)fashion whimsy (3)dancing (4) creative output in crafts or food.  Makes those nasty things rather more pleasant, when I know the fun that follows ;-)

    Tomorrow I have a happyfunplanningsession with my Primaria teacher, Thursday meeting some other volunteers to work on a possible collective book grant, Friday starting teaching at the non-English-teachered-Primaria, then a nice full weekend.  Oh life, you’re so funny.

Also, I’m on day 5 of a 2 day charge on my magic internet stick, not sure what’s up with that, but hey- internet’s cheaper by the day!