Happiness is a Truth: A PCV Day at the Beach!

     When we got back from our tech week on Friday, we had the next night off and were able to go to the beach!  On Saturday we left for Santa Clara, a beach about an hour away from our site in Santa Rita.  We rented two cabanas that were directly on the beach, it was a perfect set up!  Most of the people from my TE group went as well as some other people from the CEC group.  We spent the day hanging out in hammocks, playing frisbee, swimming, talking, and listening to music.  It was a much needed break from our busy schedules.

 The beach at Santa Clara was one of the best that I have ever been to!

 It was so nice to relax in the hammocks!

 I'm so lucky to have such awesome people in my group, we had a blast together!

At sunset, I went rock climbing with one of my friends and got an amazing view of the coastline!  

Tech week in Chigore!

     Hey everyone!  I just got back from my tech week in Chigore, a town that is about 1.5 hours away from my host site in Santa Rita in the province of Cocle.  My TE group was there from Sunday to Friday this past week working individually with English teachers in schools.  I worked at a local primary school called Reuben Dario Carles Oberto with Solange Albaez, an English teacher who teaches both 2nd and 6th grade.  It was the first time in a Panamanian school and I learned a lot, the system is very different from what I'm used to.  All of the students wear uniforms, pray at the beginning of class, and have school for half of a day only.  I loved working with both groups!  The younger kids were so cute and fun, I was always covered in their stickers by the end of class!  The sixth graders were great to work with too because I could have more advanced conversations with them.  The week I was there, the school was hosting a Spelling Bee.  There were representatives from every class, and I worked with each student individually to study for it.  It was a bit tedious, but I learned a lot about teaching and have a newfound respect for teachers!  Here are some of my favorite pics from my visit!

 The students performed "un baile tipica" or a "traditional dance" for us when we arrived!

 They were so cute!

 This is Solange, the teacher who I worked with.  She's so sweet!

 A picture of one of the group shots I took of my second graders, they love making funny faces!

 They loved to give me a big group hug, it made my day!

   This is what my shirt would look like after a day with second graders.  Here in Panama, only the cool teachers get stickers ;)

Volunteer Visit

     After all of the excitement of Carnavales, I got to leave my site to visit a volunteers site.  I went to visit Rosie, another TE volunteer that lives Guarare in the province of Los Santos.  It is about 3.5 hours away from my site, so it was really cool to see another part of Panama.  Azuero is the name of the region, and the people who live there are very friendly and have a very diverse culture.  It is also one of the hottest parts of Panama, so that was rough.  I learned a lot during by visit about how I want my Peace Corps experience to be and got to see some examples of what life is like as a PCV.  I also got to learn about secondary projects that we can do in addition to teaching English, and I am very excited to start some in my own site.
     Rosie's site is  about ten minutes away from Las Tablas, a city that hosts one of the biggest Carnaval celebrations in all of Panama.  I was lucky to get there on the Saturday after Carnavales had officially ended to experience "Carnavalito," which is essentially an echo of the real Carnavales with the Queen, floats, bands, and culecos, but is a celebration more for the locals after all of the crazy gringos leave.

 Here I am in front of one of the floats!

 Los culecos!!!

 The band is not exempt from getting sprayed by the culecos!  They performed really well!

Carnavales!

     Hey everyone!  Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I have been extremely busy lately.  Its crazy to think that on Wednesday, I will have been here for 7 weeks!  A lot has happened, and I'll do my best to cover it all.
     I had my first cultural experience in Panama at the beginning of March with Carnavales, a celebration that started on Saturday March 1 and ended on Tuesday March 4.  It's one of the biggest celebrations in Panama where the people party hard for four days straight before the beginning of Lent.  Because we are trainees and could not go to the real Carnavales celebrations, we had our own fiesta here in Santa Rita!  The teachers organized a party for our group at my house, and each language group had to present on a certain topic of Carnavales.  It was a great way to learn about their culture and to have fun with my group.  Below are some pictures from our party:

 This is my friend Sydney wearing a traditional Panamanian dress (Poyera).

 Carnavales occurs during the summer months, and because of this it is extremely hot.  The Panamanians have something during Carnavales called "culecos" which are basically just huge water trucks that are constantly spraying people with water.  We did something similar and had an all out water gun fight, it was the best!

 For Carnavales, there are two teams, Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo (the Upper Street and the Lower Street) and each team has its own Queen.  Each team competes to see which Queen is the best using fireworks, extravagant floats, beautiful costumes, and literally ripping money up in front of each other.  We reconverted two wheelbarrows to make their floats and dressed them up in colorful sheets and flowers.  It was a great day and we all had fun together!

A much needed rest

          This was my first weekend in Santa Rita, and it was perfect!  This last week was really tiring having to get used to everything new and adjusting to a completely different lifestyle and schedule.  I was honestly physically tired from speaking so much Spanish!  So when they told us the trip to Panama city was off due to road closures for Carnival, I couldn't have been happier!  My host family is gone to Las Tablas until Wednesday, its a few hours away where all of the really big celebrations for Carnival are taking place.  I have had the house to myself all day this weekend, and its been a great time to decompress and get stuff done that I needed to get done.  On Saturday I started this blog and got laundry done during the day, and at night a few of my friends came over to talk.  It was a very relaxing day and I really needed it!
          Today was fantastic too!  I went and "pasear-ed" (a spanglish verb we use to mean "go to people's houses to talk") with a lot of my friends who live about 10 minutes away.  I live pretty removed from everyone else, so it was nice to go into that grouping of houses to see what it was like.  Then my friends came over to my house and we hung out and shared movies/tv shows.  I have so many now I will be set for a while!  This week is filled with a lot of fun stuff, and then this weekend I will be leaving to go visit a volunteer and stay with her in her site for a whole week!  Off to do homework now (its like I'm back in college!)

Un dia tipica

          It's another beautiful day here in Panama!  Yesterday was our second day of classes, and the first day with my new Spanish teacher.  Her name is Ines and she is very nice.  They split up my original class which had 6 people in it into two groups of 3, which is great because I work best in small groups.  I have my Spanish class in the morning from 8-11:45 and then I have my technical PC class in the afternoon from 1-5.  In my technical class we focus most on teaching English and other pertinent PC information.  Its held in the town's computer center and is the only building with air conditioning, que suerte!

           I am growing more and more fond of my living situation.  In addition to having a wonderful house, it is also very much a central meeting point for PC teachers and staff.  In the mornings, there are always at least 5 Spanish teachers eating breakfast with me.  This is an incredible opportunity for me because I can ask them anything and I am learning new things all the time!  And everyday for lunch the teacher and PC staff members come to my house for lunch, which is great because I love talking to everyone.  

           I feel better after spending some quality time with my host family last night.  Instead of doing my homework in my room like I did on the first night, last night I did it out in the living room and was able to spend time with my host family too.  It was really nice, and I don't want to create a divide between us if I'm always shut up in my room.  It is good practice for when I will live with my host family in my site, and I am learning a lot.  Yelin was watching tv last night, and it was interesting to see that they have many of the same shows that we do back in the states!  I had asked him which were his favorite actors, and I thought he said "Alexander" so I asked him "Alexander who?" and he repeated it and I still didn't get it.  But then I realized he was saying "Adam Sandler!"  It was a good bonding experience, he said he would take me to the movie theatre sometime soon! 

A unique first night experience

          On the night that I arrived at my new host family's house I asked Mabel if there were hiking trails around here.  She told me that there were some by the school and offered to show me after dinner.  I agreed and thought that we were just going to be walking to see it but she told me to get in the car.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into!  What started out as a walk to the trails turned into a 3.5 hr. excursion that took me to her neighbors house, to two markets, the neighboring town, and finally to her aunts house where they were having a funeral service for a family member!  I must have misunderstood when she said what we would be doing, because the next thing I know I'm sitting in her relatives living room and participating in a Catholic funeral ceremony, or "reso," in Spanish!  I didn't have the slightest idea what to do or say, so I just sat there trying to look respectful.  It was very interesting to watch, and I was very lucky to have been able to be a part of it and experience this important aspect of their culture.  

My new host family!

          Today was an exciting day because I got to meet my first host family!  I arrived at their house around 11 am and was very happily surprised to find that their house is beautiful!  I was expecting only one woman, whose name is Lilibeth Mabel Castro (everyone calls her Mabel though) and her son Yelin, but today her whole family stopped by during the day to say hi!  I must have met 40 of her family members, all of whom live very close by.  It was a lot to take in, my first day of constantly having to speak Spanish and trying to comprehend was exhausting, both mentally and physically.  I also made my first embarrassing translation mistake today, that didn't take long!  Mabel asked me if there was anything else that I didn't eat besides meat.  I said "Yes, absolutely, I eat everything else, I love to eat vegetables, eggs...." and once I said that they started laughing and I couldn't figure out why.  Its because in Spanish, 'eggs' or 'huevos' is a slang word for testicles, and when I said "I love to eat eggs" they couldn't stop laughing!  It was a good learning experience and I'm sure I will make similar mistakes in the future.  I really like my host family and their sense of humor!

            My host brother, Yelin, is a student at the University in Panama City.  He is the same age as me and is in his last year at school.  He is studying to become a doctor but doesn't know for sure what specifically he wants to practice, he is thinking about becoming a surgeon.  He is very nice and easy to talk to, we like a lot of the same things.  And his mother the best chef in town!  I was told that before I arrived and found it to be true!  They think it is weird that I am a vegetarian, but think I'm weird in a lot of other ways too so its not a problem.  Mabel gave me a "duro" when I arrived, which is basically a type of frozen juice in a small plastic bag that you have to bite the corner off of to eat.  This kind was called "tamarinda" and it was so good, she made it herself!

            For the rest of the day family members came and went.  I met her daughter Lilibeth, her granddaughter Sophia, and many other people.  All were very nice but when they left around 3, I was ready to take a break and unpack my things.  I am living in Lilibeth's old room and it is very big with everything I could need.  I am very lucky and know that I will like living here.

Disclaimer

The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.