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)

Voy a Cocle!

Hello!
My new site is to be Santa Rita de Anton, in the province of Cocle!

I'm close to the border between Panama Oeste and Cocle, theoretically under an hour (by motor vehicle) to the beach.  Actually, the beaches I'm near are supposed to be some of the best beaches in Panama. Woohoo!
I am supposed to have electricity and water (though how often the water goes out, I don't know), and am fairly close to a handful of other volunteers both in my group and older groups.
More information after NEXT WEEK when we actually go on our week-long site visits!  This week, aka, the end of this week and the beginning of next week, is "Tech Week" working with teachers here in La Chorrera (theoretically- we don't have to come in tomorrow, and next week is the first week of school, so the teachers will be mostly reviewing and assessing their students.  On Wednesday, we go to a couple days of "Community Entry Conference", and then we spread to our sites! Then a couple more days in our familiar Santa Rita, a little less than a week living in Ciudad del Saber, Swearing In, and then we're off!

And a few more pictures:
Panama is pretty~  this is a snapshot from my bus trip out to Chiriqui all those weeks ago.  In almost all of Panama that I've seen, you can at least see a little bit of mountain silhouette in the distance :-)

 And this is a bit of the Pacific- the uncannily warm Pacific, near the community I visited (Las Lajas, Chiriqui)

And finally, a sunset sunburst I saw when walking home in Santa Rita from a friend's house.

More pictures will have to wait, because they keep not loading.  Fie on them!

¡Feliz Cumpleaños! and political fun in Panama...

The other day, my host sister celebrated her 23rd birthday.  It was fairly quiet for the day, but in the evening, I got home from my classes to a porch full of friends and relations (of my family).  I have no idea how a lot of them are related to my family.*
Anyway, she turned 23, and it was a fun evening with a cake, ice cream, music, chatting (not so much from me), and dancing with 2 of my nieces, ages 3ish and 5ish (more of this from me).  Sometime over the evening, I was thinking about the term “cumpleaños”, which sort of translates loosely to ‘completed years’, and what that reflected, in comparison to the english ‘birthday’.  I rather like the ‘cumpleaños’ because it feels more like a celebration and acknowledgment of progress, rather than being a signifier of an event which happened, but is a static moment.
On a more sombre** note, I figured I’d address what you may have noticed in the news, or maybe through a slight rise in the price of plantains.  Starting last Monday, Jan 30th, some of the indigenous people the Ngobe were protesting a variety of issues, a key point being a mining project planned for their area, getting into how deep into the earth land rights carry.  Anyway, there are protests every so often, and usually last a few hours, to a few days.  Sometimes they block the highway (the one, the only, the Pan-American Highway, which runs from inside Panama up through Central America).
In this case, protesting groups were in Chiriqui, near where I had my volunteer site visit, as well as several other provinces, blocking the highway and in some cases, there were violent confrontations between the police and the protesters.  The protests were brought to my attention because to get back to Panama City and Santa Rita, I had to catch a bus on the Pan-American Highway in a town called San Felix, which just happened to be a key point for these protests.  So, I caught an early bus to avoid getting caught in the action (both to be able to make the trip, and because Peace Corps has a pretty strict policy of volunteers not taking political sides, to the extent of not even being at locations of political action, to avoid the perception of having taken a side).  I was easily early enough to avoid the protests, but still got to see the bus and vans of police at the cruce (intersection) at San Felix.  Police in Panama are indubitably more military than US policemen, at least in terms of arms/appearance.  (Tangentially, there are security guards that look to seriously mean business outside of all of the banks, and a lot of buses have what look to be bits of bullets in their windshields.)
This particular protest ended up lasting for over a week, and 90 some volunteers were moved out of their sites into hotels in the larger cities, some coming all the way into Panama City.  My family watched the progress on the news, as the president of Costa Rica put pressure on Panama’s Martinelli (the Pan-American Highway being the main artery for land transport through Central America, thus the protests blocking the highway disrupting commerce beyond Panama’s borders), and eventually the government and the leaders of the protesters agreed to talk, with a Catholic priest as a mediator.  Or something like that.  At any rate, the volunteers who were evacuated finally got to go home to their sites, and it seems like all is well for now.
If you heard about this, you probably know more than I do, since I’m piecing my information together from primarily Spanish sources and who knows what nuances or details I’ve missed, but that’s the gist.  Always interesting to see what can happen in the world, no?  This could be a very interesting 2 years!  Also, I’m roughly half-way through training, which seems utterly insane.

*Side note, my family is relatively unique in Santa Rita in that it isn’t immediately related to all of the other families in town...I think.  I was walking with my host sister on the first day and it seemed everyone we met was a cousin...but when family comes over, they always seem to be coming from other towns.  There are a few of us who aren’t related- mostly those of us who live away from the center of town.
** Curious etymology-ish observation- I just realized that ‘sombre’ is like the Spanish ‘sombra’ which means ‘shadow’, which makes sense because it means a more serious, or darker tone.

P.S. I'm posting this several days after writing it (on the 10th, I think), and it seems like we only have a little bit more training- this week (Friday we get our sites!!), next week is Carnaval and the beginning of Tech Week, then we have a week of site visits, a final week in Ciudad del Saber, swearing in, and then we're off!

I'm sitting in a giant mall in Panama city, using the demonstration internet to post this (that is my excuse du jour for still no pictures).  The internet is a funny thing.  Today we had an "Adventure in Panama City" which consisted of 5 questions we had to answer by going to a few spots in Panama City, using the busses, and pretending that we had decent senses of compass directions.  We had 3 hours to complete this task, but were done in about one, counting from when we actually started.  After, we -we being a small group of volunteers- decided to check out the old town, aka, Casco Viejo...aka touristville.  Really, it being a touristy area was rather nice at this point, not having heard anyone other than Peace Corps people speaking English since we got here.  Also, for the first time in Panama, we weren't the only fair, non-black-haired weirdos around.  Also, we got to have some different food.  Not that I'm complaining about what my host family gives me- it's delicious!  But variety is exciting.  I had a toasted chicken wrap at a little Italian-inspired cafe we found.  (Perhaps its a consequence of its being a predominantly Christian, or even Catholic, country, there aren't too many restaurant options open.)
But, it was lovely, with beautiful old buildings, a bit of construction, and a lot of burned out, formerly beautiful old buildings, which actually still were visually interesting.  We saw a fantastic panorama of the Panama City Skyline, the Pacific Ocean, fishing boats, and views boats awaiting their turns to enter the canal.  It was quite a day for sightseeing!  Also, we learned more about how the city is laid out, got more comfortable with the bus system, and did those things that were part of the Peace Corps obvious agenda.

Ok, so my friend and I had to head home from the mall- now I can probably get a picture up or two!  The mall is about 20 minutes outside of Panama City, at the National Bus Terminal.  My town is about an hour west of the City, a bit more as the busses keep stopping.  Silly busses, dropping people off and picking people up and delaying my trip ;-)

Finally, here are some pictures, for your entertainment/education/whatnot:
Un Catedral in el Casco Viejo:

 A view of the Panama City Skyline!

 Panama-style hutong (severely impoverished, crowded, dilapidated community in the middle of downtown, slowly being demolished and the residents displaced)

 My house!

 Little Folklorica dancers (folklorica being spanish for "folk") at the Feria in La Chorrera (main 'city' in my area now)

Well, it's been a week.

   A week ago today, I was frantically trying to be sure that I remembered everything that I wanted or needed to bring to Panama.  Now, I know that I brought too much...but honestly, I don't know what I would cut out, that would really decrease the amount.  I certainly haven't needed my fleece, but as soon as I moved that out, I'd probably get assigned to a site somewhere on a mountaintop.  Now, I'm living with my host family for our 3 month training in a town about an hour's drive from Panama City.
    We have gotten so. much. information.  En espanol, en Ingles (I'm trying to make my thoughts more Spanish than English.  It's hard, as I know relatively few words, but making progress!)  We have a relatively regular schedule now, where for some days of the week, most Mondays - Wednesdays, we have 4 hours of Spanish in the morning, and about 5 hours of 'technical training' in the afternoons.  My host family is very happy to help me with my Spanish (and they know my schedule better than I do- I'm definitely not their first volunteer).
    Some weekends, we'll be going back to the city for training at the PC main offices, sometimes we'll be doing site visits and eventually, site visits to our own sites!  We find those out in about 5 weeks.  In the meantime, every day my head feels full by about 10:30, and we have classes until about 5.  I'm trying to stay awake until 9 every day, but it's hard when I'm ready to sleep by about 7.  But, being up at 6:30 ish every morning helps as well.
   The weather is, as promised, hot and humid, though honestly, not unlike a Cincinnati summer.  Also, they have a lovely breeze here which is missing in Cincinnati so often.  And in addition, it even cools down after sunset!  So, I'd say they have better weather here than in Cincinnati, but there isn't air conditioning, so... perhaps Cincinnati is still preferable for weather.
   I have a big host family- bigger still counting the in-laws.  8 people live in my house, more nearby, and yet more in other parts of the town.  Not that the town is very big, about 2000 people, by a host brother's estimate.  There are 32 TE volunteers, and so far it seems that our families are all more or less related.  Everyone my host sister and I passed when we were walking around on Sunday seems be a cousin.
Our day in Miami was full of orientation information from about noon -7PM, and that was an accurate introduction to our future life.  Every day I can think of since then, other than last weekend, has been a set of meetings and presentations with the occasional interview from 7AM-6PM or so.
    On Saturday, though, we got a field trip to a local volunteer's site, east of Panama City, in a community of about 6000, where she works with 6 teachers at the local school.  On Sunday, we came here, to our training community, where we'll be living, or at least leaving our belongings, for the next 9 weeks.  Last night (Sunday), my host sister and I went to Mass, which makes the second Mass I've been to in my life- the other being in Quebec (service being in Quebecois and Latin).
     As I was saying earlier, we have loads of classes morning and afternoon, but also a lot of field trips.  Sometimes it seems like our host families are more an easy way for PC to feed and occasionally house us, than an actual cultural experience.  But at the same time, we've only been with our host families for less than 2 full days, and will only have been in Panama for a week on Wednesday.  Time flies in strange, incomprehensible circles.
I'll get pictures up soon, with luck, but in the meantime, I want to give the internet back to my host brother.  It's magically stored in a USB drive!  But apparently, I might be one of a very few people who have access at all here.  Woohoo!  Buenas noches <3

A New Adventure

Every trip starts with a plan.  Mostly, anyhow.  I am not planning my trip, as that is Peace Corps' lot.  I am getting set to spend the vast majority of the next 27 months in the lovely Central American country known as Panama, where I will be teaching English.  The country itself is conveniently situated around the Panama Canal, or at the very southern tip of the North American continent, if you prefer.

Since I'm not really planning this trip (beyond planning to embark upon it), I'll continue to the next step, which is packing.  Packing has been a lovely multi-layered riddle, as it requires me to decide what of my possessions would be most advantageous and/or necessary and/or desirable to have with me for 2 years and 3 months, and how to pack them into 2 checked bags, a carry-on, and my "personal item."  My primary luggage consists of a backpacking pack which has already wandered Europe (though not on my back), a wheeled duffle which was purchased for this adventure.

On Tuesday, January 10, 2012, I board an airplane to Miami. FL, where I will officially become a Peace Corps Trainee.  (I'll be a full-fledged Volunteer March 15, barring unforeseen circumstances.)  On Wednesday, January 11, at 12:05 PM, I'll board another flight, this one to Panama City.  Tuesday marks the beginning of a long line of firsts for me- first time in Florida (though I'll be spending the time in the airport and an airport hotel, but I'm counting it anyway), and my first one-way ticket on that day alone.  Wednesday, my first time in a country south of the United States.  Thursday, I won't try to predict.