Pastry Queens and Patron Saints

My view of the classrooms for the last three months.

My “observation period” is finally over and things are about to get real busy real fast. I have to catch you up before things get crazy. Well…crazier.

I struggle with how I want to write this blog. I haven’t been journaling, so this serves as the only record of my experience here. A big part of me just wants to describe the big events that have happened since my last entry. Both so that you can know what’s been going on, and so that I can remember. However, these descriptions barely begin to capture the FEELING of being here. The beauty, joy, smells, tastes, sweatiness, successes, doubts, frustrations, etc. I'll work on giving you something more poetic next time, but for now here's a brief summary of what I've been up to. 

Last week of June/first week in July: Natural Resources Week (and also English Week for the high schoolers). The science department put on a grand celebration of natural resources for two weeks. The students made murals, drawings, and art made out of recycled materials. There was a parade with signs promoting conservation, and they even had a fashion show with recycled dresses.

The winner!

As the international judge, this was my favorite.

"If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today"

Squeezed into this hoopla was English Week. Each day we held a different contest and the students participated to win certificates and fabulous(ish) prizes. There was a dictation contest with ecology-themed vocabulary, one where they had to describe their science week murals, and one where they had to describe their recycled dresses. It was a bit rushed and not super fun, but at least it happened. The elementary school teachers have been pushing English Week back for a month now, so we’ll see how that goes. It's hard because they keep getting interrupted by seminars and meetings with barely any notice and then we have to reschedule.

July 4^th: My friend Genevieve (a sustainable agriculture PCV from another town in my province) came to visit me for the weekend and we marathoned the entire third season of Orange is the New Black. I’m not proud of it, but I’m taking advantage of the free wifi at my host family’s house while I can. On July 4^th, Kelly joined us and we had a patriotic barbecue!

Kelly/Dad whipping up some delicious burgers!

Panamanian beer, American spirits.

Second week of July: Friday I presented myself to the Padres de Familia (the PTA) and then rushed to Santiago to see my host sister sing in the Manuel F. Zarate Folkloric Song competition. A bunch of schools from all over the province came with religious hymns, cumbias, tamboritos, gritos, and salomares. (look up Saloma Panamena, I dare you. Experience the majesty of Panama’s traditional yodel)

Third week of July: In order to raise funds for special events like Student’s Day, my school had a "Debutante Festival" aka a beauty pageant. People paid the entrance fee and we sold food outside. The local folkloric dance group danced, the contestants showed off their beautiful dresses, the math teacher played a piano cover of a Prince Royce song…and my host sister and I sang Titanium by David Guetta. What a blur...

"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose. Fire awaaay fire awaaay."

The next night was the crowning of San Francisco’s pastry queen. Well, not really her crowning yet- she just got the sash for now. There’s a Pastry Festival in January in San Francisco, but the queen for next year needs to start raising money for her fabulous outfits and float already in July. Apparently. Anyway, half the town came out for this event and a local news station even covered it! A TON of folkloric dance groups and singers performed and there were so many adorable little girls dressed up in polleras (the traditional dress with the giant skirt) and tembleques (plastic flowers in their hair). The new pastry queen wore a pant-suit version of a traditional pollera, which I thought was edgy and cool.

That was a folkloric dance at the pastry queen's party! I had a moment while watching this performance when I thought "I can't believe I'm here right now. I can't believe this is just a part of my regular life." At the beginning of my time in Panama I used to have those moments all the time, but now they're farther and fewer between. I've gotten used to a lot of things that would seem weird to a new visitor to Panama, but there are still times when I find myself on the outside looking in, thinking "What a strange and wonderful turn my life has taken..."

Existential epiphany aside, the next day I finally met the local priest. I'd been going to mass on Sundays since it's the most popular, and really the point of me going was to be seen as a trustworthy church-goin' gal by the most people possible. Unfortunately, the guy who preaches on Sundays comes from some other community. It took me until the weekend before my Community Analysis was due to realize this, find, and introduce myself to the real local priest who leads the less popular weekday services. 

Turns out Padre Marco is the biggest mover and shaker in town. Forget the mayor, the priest is the guy who makes stuff happen. Within an hour of meeting him, he appointed me a co-leader of a local Scouts troop and set up a time and place for me to give a community English class for adults who are finishing their high school degree. Whaaaa-?! Like my dad said, he's got "higher"connections.

Not pictured: their adorable neckerchiefs.

So yeah! The Scouts troop is such a gift for me here. It's a co-ed group of 30 kids ages 6-16 (so far as I can guess) with a few leaders, including the priest, the president of the PTA, and her husband. They just started meeting, so I'm excited to work with the other leaders to make this group a real opportunity for youth development. The first day we hiked over the river, through the woods, and up the Cerro. The next week I taught them a bunch of games and then we played volleyball. Hopefully we'll be able to go camping, explore more of the province, and do some cool teambuild-y leadership-y activities. Yay Scouts!!!

The rest of that weekend I had to write my Community Needs Analysis report. Basically it was about everything I learned about the community and the school, all the goals/needs I identified with my counterparts, and the action plans we’re going to implement to reach those goals. On August 14th I'll give a big presentation about this for my principal, the mayor, the priest, all my teachers, and my Peace Corps project supervisor. In Spanish. No big deal...*sweats nervously*

Last two weekends in July: Patronales! Santiago's patron saint festival. Kelly and I accidentally attended the opening parade last weekend and it was yet another "I can't believe I'm here" moment. There were floats with beautiful mujeres empolleradas pulled by oxen and followed by groups of musicians and dancers. Some floats threw goodies at us! It's what I imagine Mardi Gras must be like, but with way more accordion music and straw hats. This coming weekend is apparently the crazier, party-in-the-street half of the festival, so...I'll report back with findings. 

Next week: I start two English clubs for my students, start the community English class for adults finishing high school, continue working with my teachers, help prepare the Scouts for San Francisco's upcoming patron saint festival (which is surprisingly NOT Saint Francis), prepare for my Community Needs presentation, continue searching for used furniture and appliances for my future house...and try to have as many "I can't believe I'm here" moments as possible.

Til next time, folks! Chao!

One Month in Site

3rd grade boys goofing off during the Virgin Mary Parade
near the end of the trimester

I’ve been in San Francisco for over a month now. Sometimes that seems like f o r e v e r and sometimes I get worried how fast it’s flown by. I’m still in my “observation period” where I’m supposed to be learning about my school and the teachers. It’s a strange time…the students just finished their first trimester at the end of June. This means two out of the four weeks I’ve been "observing" have either been exams or school vacation. Not a whole lot to observe.

So, instead, I’ve been having adventures! 

First, I visited the nearby town of Santa Fe with my host family. About an hour north of San Francisco, Santa Fe is up in the mountain range that runs through Panama, the Cordillera Central. It's also possibly the cutest town I've ever seen. I'll definitely be back there and take better pictures next time. After Santa Fe, we kept driving north along the single, winding mountain road, taking in the sights. I felt like I was on the set of Jurassic Park; the tropical green mountains rising up so high that clouds rolled over the sides like a misty blanket. It was so alien in its beauty. I can't wait to do some hiking around this area and experience the mysterious jungle outside the safety of an air-conditioned Acura. 

During the vacation, some other G76 gal pals came to visit me! We enlisted the help of my friend who works at the bakery, Yosi, to hike up San Fran’s big hill, the cerro. On the way, she showed us the Chorro del Espiritu Santo (the waterfall of the holy spirit):

This slice of paradise is hidden down a wooded path that a passing tourist would never notice. It's things like this that make me so proud and happy to be living here. Not just in San Fran, but in Panama in general. Everywhere you go, there are secret little corners of beauty.

After we finished marveling, we climbed through pastures with barbed wire fences and scrambled over rocks to reach the top of the cerro. We went exactly when everyone in my town told us NOT to go: at midday. I could feel the heat radiating up from the ground as we climbed. By the time we got to the top we were all drenched in sweat, but the view was SO worth it. Here's San Francisco! I labeled some of the important spots:

Team Veraguas flashing our classic "V for Veraguas" gang signs! Left: Kelly, Center: Yours Truly, Right: Kara

El Salto

After the hike, we went to San Francisco’s more swimming-friendly waterfall, El Salto. I plucked up some Gryffindor courage and jumped/dove from the cliffs (it feels a lot higher than it looks in the picture) just like the local kids. Super fun! After we were good and tired, we headed back to my host family’s house for food and a sleepover.

For another perspective of this adventure, read my friend Kelly’s blog post about it! 

The next day I headed northwest to the gorgeous mountain village of Los Valles de Cañazas to help another volunteer, Ben, with an Ultimate Frisbee/Leadership camp. Ben organized this week-long sleepaway camp for teenagers to teach them life and leadership skills through Ultimate Frisbee, presentations from local agencies, and other fun, team-building activities. Several PCVs from all over Panama, not just Veraguas, came to help facilitate the camp. We covered topics like goal-setting, self-image, sex education, teamwork and “tank-filling,” healthy relationships, and of course, Frisbee! The mayor donated food for the week. The kids bathed in the river and slept in the school dorms. It rained every day, but that didn't stop us from playing!

I thought this was a really cute photo until I noticed the
kid about to get decked in the head in the front row...oops.

This was probably the coolest experience I’ve had in my service so far. I’ve worked at a camp for the last few years in the states, so I’m a firm believer in the power of camp to empower youth. Even though I was only there for a few days, I got to witness Panamanian teens going through that familiar process of starting shy then opening up, making friends, and having a great time. Plus it gave us the opportunity to talk about some important issues for Panamanian teens. 

Certified hero and youth program director at APLAFA, Nathaniel,
grossing out some teens with pictures of STIs.

And I’m not just talking about teenage pregnancy or STIs (although those are serious issues here and I’ll be doing a lot of collaborating with Panama’s version of Planned Parenthood, APLAFA, to educate the young’uns). What I’m talking about is helping build kids’ confidence in their ability to control their own future. Same as in any rural, low-income area, the odds are stacked against these kids (especially the girls) on the path to becoming professionals. It's cool to show them there's a whole community of people who can support them, people who want to see them succeed. I know it sounds like cheesy high school guidance counselor talk, but…it’s the first time a lot of these kids are hearing something like that.

Anyway, after the camp school started back up and I was back to observing. Except, the first week back I took a trip to help another volunteer facilitate a program called “Elige Tu Vida,” or “Choose Your Life.” This is like a mini-version of what we did at the camp. It’s a five-hour presentation for teens in two parts. The first part is about goal-setting and the second part is about safe sex (aka, the most common obstacle that stops them from reaching their goals). Again, I was super glad to be a part of this and I look forward to giving my own Elige Tu Vidas at my school.

Torio!

The next day was my first regional meeting. Every three months, ALL of the volunteers from Veraguas meet in Santiago (the big city) and get updates from HQ and generally check in with each other. In Veraguas, the only sectors are TE (teaching English) and SAS (sustainable agricultural systems)…plus like two CEC (community environmental conservation) volunteers. It was cool to meet everyone else from my province!

After the meeting a bunch of us headed south for a weekend beach vacation in Torio, Veraguas. It’s “winter” here, aka the rainy season, so there was hardly anyone at the beach. We pretty much had our own private beach (plus some Panamanian fishermen who caught fresh lobster for us). The hostel we stayed at was also super adorable. It was fantastic relaxing and getting to know the other volunteers. 100% recommended, would go again.

So, that was my vacation to celebrate one month in site…since then I’ve been observing the afternoon “turno” at my school, which is 7^th-12^th grade. Very different from the elementary school scene, but there are a lot of opportunities for me to spice things up with these groups. There’s a big need for more interactive activities and opportunities for speaking practice. Hopefully I can work with the teachers to co-plan and co-teach some fun lessons. I’m also starting an English Club, which should give kids the chance to practice outside of class and (again, hopefully) have a blast doing it.

For the next two weeks (1^st week high school, 2^nd week elementary school) I’ll be helping with “English Week” celebrations. This means plenty of English-related games and contests like spelling bees and poetry readings. We’ll see how it works out! Chao until then!

Endings and Beginnings

Well folks, I finished training and now I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. Ta-da! Sorry I haven’t posted in almost a month, but turns out volunteer life is really busy. Let me catch you up a little. Rewind to the last week of April. Our final day of tech class we gave our community analysis presentations and then immediately hiked to the nearby river for some quality waterfall jacuzzi time.

Our last week in Santa Rita was bittersweet. While I was glad to finally be wrapping up with the intense craziness of training, the end of training meant the end of a lot of other things. It meant the end of my daily Spanish classes/group therapy sessions, it meant the end of our G76 TE family’s time together, and it meant goodbye to my Santa Rita host family:

(Not pictured is the extended family…so, basically half of Santa Rita). I can’t thank them enough for helping me adjust to Pana-culture in my first months here. We threw all the host families a goodbye party with comedy acts, singing, cupid shuffling, tons of food, and traditional Panamanian outfits. My friend on the right is wearing a full on pollera, I’m just wearing the faldón. My friend in the middle is wearing a nakwa, the traditional dress of Ngöbe women.

After we said hasta luego (but never adios) to Santa Rita, we spent our last week of training together with the G76 CECs in Ciudad del Saber getting ready for the swear-in ceremony. Finally came the big day!!! We got all spruced up, headed to Panama City’s historical Casco Viejo and took our oaths in front of a panel of public officials to serve both Panama and the US for the next two years as Peace Corps Volunteers.

So then it was official. We spent the weekend in a super fun hostel in Casco Viejo celebrating and savoring our time together before we would be scattered to the humid, tropical wind to start our service. Here are some highlights:

The view of the Cinta Costera after a DELICIOUS cup of ceviche fresh from the Fish Market.

The view from underneath the Biomuseo, a biodiversity museum designed by Frank Gehry to make visitors feel as if they were walking under a rainforest canopy (so cool!)

View of the city from one of Panama City’s national parks, Parque Metropolitano. We saw a family of spider monkeys here! Also lots of leafcutter ants and cool birds!


So…after our city adventure, we shipped off to our respective sites and the real work began. This is my third week in San Francisco and so far, so good. Actually, so far, REALLY good.

For the first three months that we’re in site, we’re supposed to just be getting to know our community, our school, and our counterparts. Three months sounds like a long time (trust me, I know), but all the previous volunteers told us it’s essential to spend that time gaining the trust of the people and learning how everything works before we jump in and start any projects. This is especially true for us TE volunteers because we need the time to observe the teachers who we’ll be working with so we understand their needs & goals. My first week I gave a presentation to my 6 teachers about my role at the school and together we came up with a game plan:

So that’s what I’ve been up to at the school. Each week I’ll be observing and interviewing a different English teacher to find out how we can work together to make their job easier and more fun (we’ll practice English too, of course).

Outside of the school my job is basically to be seen around town, hopefully make some friends, and assess the needs/opportunities for projects in my community. Already in my first week people were coming up to me expressing interest in community English classes and an after-school English club. The interest is there! Now it’s up to me to come up with some action plans to actually make these things happen.

I’ve been going to church, hanging out at the local bakery, and going to any and every event that people invite me to (folkloric dance practice, a birthday party, a traveling circus, teacher hang-outs, etc.) I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my host family and extended host family doing everything from making cookies from scratch (a big deal for them!) to four-wheeling in the pouring rain (a big deal for me!). The point is…slowly but surely, I’m getting to know the people here and getting used to this incredible new job.

For example, this is Jesús. He’s a heavy metal fan, internet café owner, father to a very chubby baby, and also the first grade English teacher I spent all last week observing. I was nervous that, because I don’t have any formal teaching experience, I wouldn’t have the knowledge or skills to help my counterparts. But after my first real week with Jesús, I feel like I totally CAN help them! I have plenty of experience with kids/youth…I’m a native English speaker…and even if I don’t know some of the more technical teaching methodology stuff, I have a ton of resources at my fingertips. I don’t have to have all the answers, I just have to listen to my gente and be willing to help.

Okay, I think that’s enough bragging about how affirming my life is for now! Next week is the break between trimesters, but after that I’ve got a BUSY and EXCITING three months ahead of me…Which is just how I like it. :)

San Francisco: First Impressions

I’d like you all to meet Oscar. Oscar is my counterpart. That means he’s the one who requested a Peace Corps Volunteer (aka me!) for the school where he works in San Francisco. By day, Oscar is an English teacher for third, fifth, and sixth graders at the Escuela Pedro Arrocha Graell. By night, he’s earning something like the Panamanian equivalent of a fourth master’s degree and he’s preparing to study abroad in Washington DC through a program called “Bilingual Panama.” His English is amazing and he’s one of the most motivated, hard-working people I’ve ever met.

This was my first impression of what kind of people I’ll be working with for the next two years in site. Pretty great, huh?

Let me rewind a little. So, two weeks ago on a Friday we got our site announcements. The following Monday we traveled to the Peace Corps office to meet our counterparts. The next day we shipped off to our sites with them for the entire next week. It was kind of a big emotional jump from learning where I’d be going and then immediately GOING there. Luckily, Oscar was there to smooth the transition. We talked the whole 4 hour bus ride from Panama City to San Francisco until we got to the school:

This place is huge! In the morning “turno” (7am to 12pm) Pedro Arrocha is an elementary school with pre-school through sixth grade. In the afternoon turno (12:15 to 5:15) Pedro Arrocha switches into a middle school (grades 7 through 9) and a high school with a focus in science (grades 10 through 12). There are four English teachers in the morning and two in the afternoon who rotate around to each class several times each week. All six teachers seem excited to work with me…which is a very happy problem to have. I see a lot of full planners in my future!

Anyway, I met the principal and got a quick tour of the school. It seems big, but I’m sure I’ll know it like the back of my hand after three months. It’s also super nice- they have a library (though I think it only has textbooks, not books for fun), a computer lab, and a separate classroom for students with special needs. These are all serious luxuries in Panama.

After the tour of the school, I was whisked away on a tour of some of the town’s big attractions with Oscar and one of the high school English teachers, Gonzalo. First on the list was the quesería!!! A little ways north of my town is a cheese factory/café called El Mirador. The cows and goats live in the pastures right outside and the little factory where they make the cheese is attached to the café, so you KNOW it’s fresh. Plus, they add all kinds of great flavors like jalapeño, strawberry, oregano, raisins, etc. We got a little wheel of cheese and hung out in the café overlooking the countryside…but not before I was introduced to some adorable baby goats.

So soft! After the cheese factory we went to church. But, not just any church…THIS church:

This is the colonial church my director mentioned when he first announced my site. Now I see why. It was built around 1630 by Spaniards who colonized this town on their way up the mountains stealing all of Panamá’s gold. The inside is full of super detailed carved wooden altars depicting scenes from the bible. I wanted to be impressed, but living next door to a gothic cathedral in Spain kinda spoiled me as far as churches go…It’s not fair for San Francisco that I got to see where all the gold ended up before I saw where it came from. This church is a National Heritage Site though, and tourist groups from all over Panamá come to see it. I can tell it’s a big source of pride for the people here.

Religion also seems SUPER important to everyone I met this week. Every person I talked to for more than fifteen minutes asked if I was Catholic. I have a feeling I’ll be going to church quite a bit in my initial months so I can integrate into my community. Not this church, though; they hold mass every evening in the new church they’re building right behind the colonial one:

After the church, my counterparts dropped me and my stuff to my new host family’s house. I’ll be staying with a brand new host family in San Francisco for the first three months before I’m allowed to move into a house of my own. This is also to help me integrate into the community; my host family can introduce me to people, show me around, and generally help me adjust to life in San Fran. The funny thing about my host family is that the mom is also an English teacher at the school, so she’ll be my mom AND my co-worker. So that’s pretty cool!

Anyway, that first day my host mom wasn’t home yet because (like Oscar, and, I’m assuming, most of the other teachers at Pedro Arrocha) she works a second job. So the only people home were my new 8 year old host brother, Kyle, and his tutor/babysitter, Jessica. Kyle was watching Warm Bodies, so we immediately bonded over our mutual love for zombies haha. I sat and made friends with Jessica for a while and then it was time for dinner.

My school community did a really cool thing for me this week: for dinner three nights this week I went over to other people’s houses and ate with their families. The first night I ate with a second grade teacher, another night with a third grade teacher, and another night with the assistant principal. This was an amazing opportunity to get to know more than just my host family and everyone made me feel SO welcome in their homes. Each night I spent hours talking to them about my life, travels, Peace Corps, their families, etc.

That first night I met the rest of my host family: my host mom, Militza, and my 15 year old host sister, Genesis. They are both super nice. Honestly, I can’t stress enough how much I already love my San Fran host family. Militza reminds me a lot of my real mom- she’s hilarious and smart, she works unbelievably hard, and she has a HUGE heart. This is her teaching some second graders numbers in English:

There’s so much I could say about my host family, I could write a whole blog post just about how much they helped in changing my attitude about getting San Francisco as a site placement. Suffice it to say that people really do make a place.

And man, San Francisco’s got muy buena gente (good people). Over the course of this visit I was introduced to what felt like every teacher and public official in the whole town and all their families. One afternoon I just went for a walk by myself around town and three different families invited me onto their porch for a drink or a mango, curious who I was and wanting to make me feel welcome.

I only spent a week in San Francisco, but I can imagine myself living there for two years. It already feels familiar…a suburb of a bigger city…it’s like a Panamanian version of where I grew up in the states! It’s definitely going to be a DIFFERENT experience from how I pictured my service when I was preparing for Peace Corps in Panama. But just because I’m not living in a hut in the jungle with an indigenous tribe doesn’t mean I can’t make a huge difference in the lives of my gente here in San Francisco. I’m so excited to get started. :)

Tech Week & Site Announcement (aka Lessons in Flexibility)

This blog is going to encompass a lot of very intense experiences and it’s not going to do any of them justice. But I have to try because the longer I wait to write about the things that have been happening, the harder it’s going to be to capture how they felt.

Alright, so two weeks ago was “Tech Week” in Penonomé. The point of this week was to be paired with an English teacher and do a crash-course version of what our next two years will look like. We were supposed to spend the first day or two observing, the third day co-planning, and the last two days co-teaching (as per the holy trinity of TE).  

Unfortunately, very little of that actually happened in my experience. I was paired with a really motivated third grade teacher at a beautiful elementary school in downtown Penonomé. The first day I observed her and everything was great. The second day, school was cancelled for a teacher in-service, which, while interesting, was not very helpful for the purposes of tech week. The third day, my teacher was too sick to come to school so I was moved to a nearby high school to partner up with another trainee’s 7^th grade teacher.

Although this teacher was also AMAZING, the trainee who’d been working with her for the last two days had already made plans, so I just observed again. By Thursday I’d caught whatever illness my first teacher had and was too sick to come to school. Friday I came in, determined to at least get one day of co-teaching with this rock star teacher…but surprise! A dentist came to the school and gave a talk about dental hygiene to each 7^th grade class exactly when they otherwise would have had English.

So, although I didn’t get to put much of our technical training into practice during this “tech week,” I did learn the important lesson of being FLEXIBLE. These are the kinds of challenges I’ll have to face in the next two years, so I might as well start dealing with them now. School might be closed for strange or seemingly insignificant reasons. Teachers get sick or don’t show up and there’s no such thing as substitutes. A teacher might have a great lesson planned and instead all her students have to attend a surprise assembly on dental hygiene. Who knows? Better to just go with the flow and not let changes of plan get you too disappointed.

Anyway. Another reason why tech week was so intense was because the last evening we received our SITE ANNOUNCEMENTS (cue dramatic music and lightning crashes in the background). All week everyone was a bundle of nerves waiting to hear where they’d be spending the next two years of their life. Finally, Friday afternoon all 50 trainees from Group 76 gathered in the Penonomé branch of University of Panamá. In the front of the room was a giant map of Panamá with stars on each of the places where a trainee would be sent. In the back of the room was a crowd of Regional Leaders, current volunteers, and other PC staff also waiting eagerly to find out which of us would be serving in their province.

One by one the Program Managers described each site and then called the name of the trainee who would serve there. The trainee then had to walk up to the map, find their star, and place their picture on top of it. They started from the west and worked their way east...and as more and more of my friends ran cheering up to the map, my heart began to pound. I’d been hoping for a small, indigenous site. These types of sites are mostly found in the western provinces of Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui…I watched as those stars disappeared and my name still hadn’t been called.

Finally my program manager said something to the tune of: “Next in the province of Veraguas is the town of San Francisco. It’s half an hour from the city of Santiago and it’s famous for a beautiful colonial church. This site would be perfect for…Roxana!”


In that moment all the air in my lungs imploded into a tightly squeaked “oh.” 

I stared at the map for a second in disbelief as everyone starting clapping before I could fake a smile, get up, place my picture, hug my program manager, and sit back down with my site description in hand. I was hoping for a small, indigenous site in the mountains. Instead I’d been given a purely latino suburb of a huge, centrally-located city.


After everyone was placed, we split up into our province groups to meet our Regional Leaders and ask questions. The current volunteers from Veraguas tried to cheer me up by telling me about all the great restaurants (including a Cheesecake place?!) in Santiago and how I’m so lucky to have amenities like paved roads, electricity, running water, trash pick-up, cell phone signal, and even wifi! The more they talked, the worse I felt.

One of the biggest reasons why I joined the Peace Corps is because I wouldn’t mind serving under conditions of hardship, so I feel it’s my duty to do so…because if not me, than who? There are people in Panamá living in extreme poverty and I was prepared to live WITH them, learn from them, and hopefully empower them. Having wifi and living close to a Cheesecake Factory were definitely not part of the vision I had for my service. I felt guilty, confused, and crushed.

After the placement ceremony was over, our group spent the night in cabanas at a nearby beach. I was still sick, exhausted, and now overwhelmed by my site placement, so I wasn’t looking forward to a night of celebrating. Thankfully, my amazing support network of G76 friends didn’t let me stay mopey for long. Folks in my group, including people who I’d never really talked to before, made sure I was okay and helped me to change the way I was thinking about my site.

It came back to flexibility: I may not be serving somewhere remote or with a lack of resources, but that doesn’t mean my service will be any less meaningful. The teachers in San Francisco asked for a volunteer to help them with English, and here I am. Also, I’ll have opportunities now to work on bigger projects than I would have if I’d been isolated in an indigenous reserve. Instead of being disappointed about what my experience WOULD have been like somewhere else, I started to see the possibilities that were open to me in the place where I’d actually be going.

After our site visits this week, I had the chance to talk to my program directors to see WHY they placed me where they did. Apparently they see things in me that I’m still working on seeing in myself. They think I’m capable of initiating some big things, so they wanted to put me in a place where I’d have the support and resources to do anything and everything. I guess my one director actually wanted to place me in an even BIGGER city, but thankfully my preference for a smaller site was taken into consideration.

I don’t really believe in fate or signs from the universe or anything like that, but…I’ve been handed a heck of an opportunity to grow here, and you best believe I’ll make the most of it.

Spoiler alert: Turns out my site is great and I already love it there. But more on that next week. :)

One Month In!

Hola everyone! It’s hard to believe we’ve only been here a month and some change. Then again it’s also hard to believe we’re not even halfway done with training. SO MUCH INFORMATION... It’s worth it, though, because I’m finally starting to feel confident in my English-teaching abilities. Hooray for that!
Let me fill you in on what I’ve been up to for the last few weeks! Starting with my volunteer visit!!! So, a few weeks ago we each went to visit a current TE volunteer for a week to see what real Peace Corps life is like. The volunteer I visited has been serving for a year with her husband (who is a CEC volunteer) in the south of Panama in the province of Herrera. Words barely begin to describe how beautiful her community is. I’ll just let you see for yourselves:

Here is the view from the front porch of her lovely cabin (note the “Howler Monkey Mountain” in the background):

Her site is on the rural side and would be considered “medium-sized” with around 100 houses. Spending the week in this type of close-knit community definitely solidified that I want a smaller site. It was so nice to be able to walk around with my volunteer and feel like everyone knew her as we passed and wanted to talk to us/offer us fruit.
At this point I want to introduce you to a term you’ll be hearing a lot from me in the next few months: pasear. To “pasear” means walking around town, visiting people, sitting on their porches and chatting while they offer you coffee and snacks (fruit, tortillas, pieces of sugar cane, potentially an entire meal, etc). Because everyone is just hanging out on their porches after dinner anyway, this is the perfect opportunity for a volunteer to get to know her community. My first three months in site will pretty much be: observe in the school all day, pasear all evening.
Anyway, my week with my volunteer was like a beautiful vacation from training. We pasear’d, we made delicious food, we played music and sang, we attended a town baile (which is so much more than just a dance), we napped in hammocks, we had deep philosophical conversations over breakfast, and we worked in her garden (I learned a lot about compost this week, you guys). We also went on an intense hike to a sort-of-secret waterfall:

So, above all it was a fun week. We did more than just relax, though! This was my opportunity to see a TE volunteer in action, so I went with my volunteer to the school and saw how she works as a resource for the English teachers to help them practice their own English and to plan more engaging, interactive lessons.
This is something that’s important to understand: TE PCVs are not in Panama to teach students English. The goal is to be a resource (as a native English speaker and as a person trained in TEFL techniques) for our Panamanian counterparts to improve their own abilities as English teachers. This way, even after we leave, they can continue using the skills we helped them develop. Three cheers for sustainability!
Something else I loved was helping my volunteer facilitate an English club meeting after school. Her school (like many Panamanian schools) has students who come from smaller, far-away communities. These kids stay in a dorm during the week so they don’t have to hike three hours every day to get to class. Once the school day is done, though, there aren’t typically any planned activities for these kids. So having a game-based English club was something fun and educational for them to do. This was definitely one of my favorite moments of my visit. :)
A major take-away from this visit was that Peace Corps life is going to be extremely self-directed. There is no boss to report to every day, no rules saying we have to spend X amount of hours doing this or that…everything is up to the volunteer. If I have awesome, motivated counterparts, I could spend every day in the school working with them. If I think I could be more helpful doing secondary projects outside the school, I could do that. If I want to plan a huge seminar for all teachers in my region, I could do that! If I need to just take a day to decompress in my hammock, I could do that too. I’m going to have to be a very organized, motivated, self-sufficient person to be successful at this job.
But I look forward to growing to meet that challenge.
Next week we’re going to Penonomé for “tech week” where we’ll be paired with an English teacher and putting all our training into practice!!!
And at the end of next week we get our SITE PLACEMENTS. Ohhhhhh my gosh. I’m so excited to find out where I’ll be calling home for the next two years!!!
We had an interview with our Program Director and he asked us for three adjectives to describe our perfect site. I said small, mostly indigenous, but close enough to other volunteers that I could still collaborate on big projects/seminars. We'll see what happens! Truthfully, though, my attitude is what matters- it doesn't matter what kind of site I get, it'll be up to me to make the most of it.
Well, hasta la próxima!

Training-palooza!

**note: this post is a week behind, because the PC office internet is being
mean to me. So from this point forward, posts on this blog will be published by
my sister! Thanks, sis!**

Hola from Santa Rita!

It’s been a whole week here in the training community and
let me just say I’ve ever had such an AFFIRMING experience. Even though it’s
been crazy busy, there’s some little thing every day that makes me think I made
the right decision in coming here. This is where I’m supposed to be and even
though it’s gonna be hard, I WILL be able to make a difference. You guys, I’m
gonna be so good at so many things by the end of two years it’s already blowing
my mind.

And with that introduction…lemme fill you in on what I’ve
been up to this past week!

Sunday we moved to our training communities! The CEC
trainees are all living in one town and us TE trainees are living in Santa
Rita. It’s on the smaller side as far as towns here go, although we’re about a
twenty minute bus ride from a big city. The houses are all made of cinder
blocks painted really fun, bright colors. Some people have indoor toilets and
showers, some have latrines and outdoor showers. Some have washing machines,
some wash clothes by hand. Most everyone has a hammock. Most everyone has
chickens and a guard dog. Most everywhere is BEAUTIFUL.

Our group of trainees is spread all over town with different
host families. I live with a mom and dad in their 30s (fun fact: my mom’s
nickname is Cookie), their 13 year old son who is a stereotypical teenager
(always on his phone and way too “cool” to hang out with me), and their 7 year
old daughter who is already my best friend. My host dad works as a driver in
the bigger cities in Panama, so he’s not here during the week. My host grandma
lives in the house next door and there are aunts, cousins, nephews, etc. also
nearby. This is my house:

It seems like most people in this town are related SOMEHOW.
It’s very different from my small, spread-out family from the US, but I love
it. There’s always someone to visit, some child to play with, always someone to
make you smile. If I ever feel lonely in Panama it will be entirely my own
fault.

I have so much more to say about Santa Rita and my host
family, but I wanna actually FINISH this post tonight so I can use the internet
plaza’s wifi tomorrow, so it’ll have to wait for another time.

I do want to talk about training though. Let me give you an
idea of my schedule for the past week:

-Wake up 6:45 AM, take a bucket shower because the water is
already out (It’s the dry season...long story I’ll tell another time.)

-Eat the breakfast Cookie made...could be a tube of boiled
polenta called a bollo, could be fried yucca and chorizo, could be hojaldre
(which is basically funnel cake), could be patacones (fried, mashed plantains),
but definitely COFFEE. One part coffee, one part sugar. Ay ay ay.

-Go to language class at one of the other trainee’s houses
by 8 AM. I love my language class. The teacher is challenging us to use more
complicated Spanish, but she’s really patient at the same time. Later on in
training, our class is going to do some kind of community project to put our
Spanish to use.

-Come back home for lunch at noon. Typical lunch might be
sancocho (soup with ñame and chicken). Maybe a slice of pineapple from the
freezer to eat on the way to class. Mmmm.

-Go to technical class from 1 to 5. This takes place under
some nice old man’s covered porch. Here Peace Corps staff and current TE
volunteers have been giving us all the tools we need to be successful future
volunteers. We’ve been learning everything from Panama’s education system, to
Peace Corps’ approach to development, to TEFL strategies, and even just how to
integrate ourselves into our communities. Super helpful stuff. Especially for
someone with no formal teaching experience.

-After class our group usually does some type of exercise.
We’ve done yoga, this week we’re going to do Zumba, but my favorite thing is
climbing the loma. The loma is a big hill just outside the main part of town
and this is the view from the top:

-After we’re good and sweaty, I come home, take another
bucket shower, and eat dinner with the family. Dinner is always some
combination of rice, beans/lentils, and fried meat. If I’m really lucky we’ll
have a salad of tomato and cucumber slices. Although the other day Cookie did
make a big pile of squash instead of rice! My goal this week is to help her
cook dinner & learn how to make some of this stuff myself.

-After dinner I usually play with my host sister and one of
the little cousins who are always hanging out in our house. We might watch tv
or play my ukulele (they’re getting pretty good for second graders!). They’ve
taught me Panamanian card games in return, so it’s an even trade. I also might
help Cookie and my host grandma to peel beans that grow on a tree outside our
house. I might also do laundry (as evidenced by this pic of our backyard):

-By 9, I’m in bed texting or writing in my journal…and by 10
I’m out cold. Not even the roosters at 4 AM can wake me anymore.

And that’s a typical day for me! It’s busy and hot, but FILLED
with awesome moments. For instance tonight my friends and I were hanging out
eating duros (a bag of frozen fruit juice) when we saw a SLOTH climbing along
the power lines.

This is my life now. It’s crazy to think we’ve only been in
this community for a week. It’s already starting to feel like home. Alright, that’s all
for now. This week (the 16^th to the 21^st) I’m going on a visit
to a current volunteer’s site to see what real PCV life is like, so I’ll have a
lot to say soon! Until then, keep it real, U.S.A!

Week Zero

Well, I made it. I’m here. I’m in Panamá. 

This week has been insane in a good way. We’ve been staying in the Ciudad del Saber (the City of Knowledge) since we arrived. This place is a former US Military base from back when the US was controlling the Panama Canal. Now it’s a compound of NGO and International Aid offices, including the Peace Corps! We’ve been staying in these very nice air-conditioned dorms on the campus and walking a few blocks to the PC offices for training sessions:

The training sessions have been all day long, cramming in tons and tons of information and logistics. We met our APCDs (who are like our supervisors) and they’re really kind and helpful. We also had language interviews and got placed in different level Spanish classes. I’m in the top class for TE volunteers, but I still have a long way to go before I feel totally confident and fluent. 

I feel like a lot of my language growth will come from me letting myself make mistakes and not getting too nervous about trying to make every word and conjugation perfect. Apparently this is something I’ll be telling Panamanians a lot about their English. Current PCVs say it’s a struggle to get their students to “dejar la pena” (let go of their shame.) 

Language aside, we’ve had a lot of sessions on how to keep ourselves safe while we’re over here. Protecting ourselves from theft and assault and giardia and roundworms...all those nice things. We got mosquito nets and we start taking our malaria pills tomorrow, so hooray for not getting malaria!

Everyone on the PC staff here seems GREAT. I’m so glad these are the people who are watching our backs. All the current volunteers who came to Panama City to help us with training still have positive attitudes after 1, 2, and even 3 years of service, which is encouraging. They’ve been super helpful and patient answering our million questions. 

In the evenings after our sessions, we’ve had free time to get to know each other. We’ve been exploring, playing Frisbee, doing yoga, having ukulele jam sessions, etc. I already feel so welcome with these people I just met a few days ago!!! We’re from all over the US, but we’re crazy enough to be doing this now, so we’ve all got something really substantial in common already. 

Some facts about us: We’re the 76^th group of volunteers to come to Panama and we’re all either Teaching English (TE) or Community Environmental Conservation (CEC) volunteers. There are 50 of us total, and 24 of us are TE. Although we’ll be spread across the country once we get our sites, we’ll still have opportunities to visit and collaborate on projects.

 Friday night we had a field trip to Panama City’s Albrook Mall, the largest mall in all of Central America. We got bus passes and Panamanian phones and just kinda marveled at the endless maze of stores. That brings me to a really important point I wanted to talk about in my first blog post, but I ran out of time: Why are we serving in Panama? Isn’t it pretty well-off???

Well, here’s the thing. Panama’s big CITIES are well-off. Panama City is as developed as any big American city. There are a lot of very wealthy Panamanians who live in the city and in the nicer surrounding towns. But once you get so much as half an hour outside the city, the gap between the urban elite and the rural poor is VISIBLE. More than 65 percent of Panamá’s rural population and 95 percent of the indigenous population live in poverty. Panama has one of the most unequal income distributions in Latin America. So…that’s why the Peace Corps has been asked to serve in Panama.

Today we visited a current TE Volunteer’s site to get a taste of what our lives might be like after training. She lives in El Cacao, which is a small town two hours from Panama City by public transport. We got there in less time on our private bus, winding up the steep roads. When we arrived, she gave us a tour of her school:

Several other volunteers from nearby sites came as well and they all shared what they’re working on and we spent hours asking them questions about life as a TE PCV. It got my spirits up big time. Then we went to the volunteer’s host family’s house and they made all of us lunch. All of us! How nice is that?! 

Apparently this was a typical Panamanian meal: rice, plátanos maduros (cooked sweet bananas), potato salad, and chicken. We also drank chicha, which was fresh fruit juice with sugar. Sooooo good. There is zero chance I will be going hungry here. In fact, I might have to work a lot harder than I thought to LOSE weight haha!

We got a tour of the town and did a little scavenger hunt asking random people in her town about what it’s like to live there. Most everyone had brightly painted cinderblock houses with tin roofs, with latrines in separate buildings behind the house. This volunteer’s site did have electricity and running water, which is great. They did lack some infrastructure we take for granted in the US, though, like paved roads and trash pick-up. 

Despite this, the area was GORGEOUS. There were beautiful birds and orchids everywhere, green mountains in the distance, hot but with breeze and a little rain, dogs and chickens all over, adorable children running up and talking to us… This is gonna be a-okay.

Tomorrow we move to Santa Rita to live with host families and start our more TE specific training. Wish me luck!!!