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!