Parties and Puppies!

     Hello friends!  Its about that two week mark when I have to update my blog again.  The World Cup started up last week, and almost everyone in my town watches it religiously.  We don't have a TV that works in my house so I haven't kept up with it, but that's ok because I'm not a huge soccer fan anyways.  I did get together with some other PCVs at a local bar/casino to watch the US vs. Ghana game though, which was fun!  Other than that I just catch it whenever I hang out in the teachers lounge.      Last Thursday, June 19, the town celebrated Corpus Christi, a very famous religious holiday for the Paritanians.  For this festival, the town made these beautiful "alfombras" or carpets made out of flowers on the street.  They outlined the picture first in chalk then filled it in with flower petals and colored salt.  I was really disappointed that I didn't get to see it...due to some miscommunication I thought that the alfombra would be on display all day but it was gone by 12 p.m. and I was working in the school up until that point.  I will definitely make the time to see it next year though, because the pictures that I saw of it were incredible.
     The Paritanians love their festivities, and are celebrating Corpus Christi for the next 2 weeks!  According to Wikipedia, Corpus Christi is "a Latin Rite liturgical solemnity celebrating the tradition and belief in the body and blood of Jesus Christ."  It's a big deal here and the Paritanians have long performances during the weekend called "Diablicos Sucios" and "Diablicos Limpios" where they dress up in elaborate costumes and paper mache masks and dance.  Diablicos Sucios (or "Dirty Devils") came to Parita back when the Spanish colonizers conquered the Azuero region.  My friend explained to me that because the Spaniards and indigenous people couldn't communicate verbally, the Spaniards dressed up as devils and danced around to scare the indigenous population into compliance.  If it sounds horrible, that's because it is.  But this tradition was born from that, and now it's a big part of Parita's cultural heritage.  Here is a picture of me with a friend dressed up as a "Diablico Sucio"

     This is what a "Diablo Sucio" looks like.  Typically, they wear suits with red and black stripes to represent the fire and darkness of hell, but the costume has evolved over the years.  They're called "dirty" because they jump around erratically as part of the dance and sweat, hence the name "dirty."  They also carry an inflated pigs bladder that they tie on a string and use it to beat the ground.  I'm not really sure what the significance is but it  definitely adds to the craziness of it all.  For this dance, the masks are usually made to look like a devil of some sorts.  This one is a devil with a skull above it!   I actually got to meet the mad who made these masks, Dario Lopez.  He is a local artist and does an incredible job making these, he even let me help out one day!  I might be working with him in the future to expand his business to attract English speaking customers.  Here's a picture of my friend dancing the Diablico Sucio, and you can see in his right hand he has the inflated pig bladder.

     "Diablicos Limpios" or "Clean Devils" have a different costume and dance.  Their clothes are brighter and more colorful, and their masks depict animals as opposed to devils.  In this performance, the dance is more of a group effort and it depicts a fight between devils and angels, and in the end the angel kills the devil so he can't tempt humans any more.   Here is a picture of some of my students and friends dressed up as Diablicos Limpios:

     The Paritanians also reenact the story of how the Spanish conquerer Hernan Cortes defeated Montezuma and brought down the Aztec empire.  My friends participated in the play, one as Hernan Cortes and the other as the captain of his army.  Here they are mid performance: 

     The festival was held this weekend and will continue next weekend, so i'll probably have more pictures to post for my next update.  

     In other news, I have 7 new additions to my family!  On Sunday morning my host mom told me that a stray dog had had puppies in the abandoned lot next door!  At first I couldn't see the mother and I was worried that she had abandoned her puppies, so I went looking to find a way into the yard.  While I was trying to see if I could climb the fence, I saw the mother on our side looking for food.  So I followed her and found that where the fence ended on the other side of our house was replaced with a tin slab that had been pushed aside so that the dog could get in and out.  She had given birth under a bush next door to 6 puppies: 3 white with black spots (2 male, 1 female), 2 brown/black/white (1 male, 1 female) and 1 black with white (male).  They are all adorable and seemingly healthy!  The dog is such an incredible mother too.  I was told to be careful because she is aggressive, but I haven't had the slightest indication of that.  She is timid because she lives on the street, but she lets me pick up her puppies and hold them and has not once showed signs of aggression.  She is such a good dog, I want to try to take care of her after her puppies have gone.  I've been told though that she is the community dog and everyone gives her food.  She looks healthy enough but I want to get her fixed, her whole body just sags because she has had so many puppies.  Here is a picture of her with all of her puppies: 

     The bush that she had given birth under didn't provide much shelter, so I fixed up this little shelter for her with a water bucket and some food.  It's not too bad if I don't say so myself:

     Here I am with a lap full of puppies!!  They're only 2 days old here so they all fit!  I'm really trying hard not to get too attached, but I don't know how well that's going to go....I haven't named them yet which is a good sign, but that might not last too much longer.  

     Here are all the puppies together on the ground!  They're really beautiful dogs, and their mother is a really interesting mix.  Surprisingly, none of the puppies really look like her with all of her spots.  I'm starting to promote these puppies amongst my friends to try to find good homes for them.  I already know two people who are interested, so that's a good start!

     They're so tiny that they can fit in my hand!  They hardly ever make noise either, so I think that means they're happy and healthy :)

     

     I was trying to put off getting a dog for as long as I could, and was seriously considering not getting one at all.  Having a dog is a huge responsibility and really complicates life and my ability to travel.  This was just such an unexpected surprise!  But since their arrival I have been so much happier, I think I just needed something to love and take care of...and now I have 7 dogs to share that with!  I will definitely keep taking pictures of them as they get bigger, more news and pics to come in 2 weeks!  

A Constant State of Sweat: Life So Far in Parita

     I have officially been in my site for over a month now, and a lot of things have happened!  I have started my three months of observation in the school, and so far its been going great!  I will be working with 10 English teachers, which is perfect because I like to stay busy.  I made an observation schedule where I will be observing two teachers a week so it won't take too long.  By the end of the week it gets pretty tiring.  I have actually had the last three weeks off of work.  The first week was because the teacher who I was supposed to observe went to Panama City, so I couldn't go in.  Then the next two weeks the students had a week of exams followed by a week of vacation.  I will start school again on Monday and I can't wait!  So far I have observed two teachers and have had a great time getting to know the students and other teachers in the school.

     One of the craziest things happened to me right when I got to my site.  Dora, my host mom, was wearing a shirt one day and I noticed that it said "The Rutland Herald" and "Established 1794" on the front.  I remember thinking "That's the name of the newspaper company in Rutland VT, about 1.5 hours from where I live!  But this couldn't be the same one, what are the odds?  Dora has never been outside of Panama and speaks no English, how could she have a shirt from VT?  It must be referring to some other Rutland in the US it's probably a common name."  But when I did the research, I found out that it is actually THE Rutland Herald from VT which was established in 1794!  When I asked Dora where she got the shirt, she had no idea.  No one in her family had ever been to VT.  I'm thinking it must have come to her through some GoodWill donation that Panamanians can buy at a low cost.  But I was just blown away at the coincidence!  I'm taking it as a sign that I am supposed to be here in Parita!  Here is a picture of me and Dora wearing the famous shirt!
 

     Religion is a very important part of the culture here in the Azuero, and Dora goes to a Catholic church every week.  I think that it's important for me to go to show support for something that means so much to my community, and it is a great way to get out and meet new people.  Not being a particularly religious person myself, I have found that going to church is a great time to reflect on my own personal thoughts without any outside distractions.  I have learned to like it and its important that I go.  The church is also very beautiful!  Here is a picture inside of the church. 

     They have many religious festivals throughout the year, and it seems like every week they are celebrating some patron saint.  For these celebrations, they oftentimes make a float filled with real flowers and have a procession throughout town.  Here is a picture of one of the beautiful floats they have made: 

     I have been lucky enough to make some great friends here too!  They are a part of a church band here in Parita made up of people my own age.  They're wonderful people and have been so nice to include me in their group!  So far we have traveled around to a few nearby churches and performed at the services.  I joke that I'm a traveling church band groupie because I just sit there and watch while they perform!  Its great to spend time with them and they are really talented!  They brought me up to the top of the tower of the church, where you can look out and see all of Parita!  It is my favorite spot!

     My new friend in Parita was also nice enough to take me to Sarigua, a national park in Parita.  It's called an 'albinca,' meaning land that is now a desert but was once part of the ocean.  

     There were a lot of sand dunes, cacti, and lizards to see!  It was really cool to find old shells and the remnants of salt on the sand.  It's incredible to see the vegetation that can grow in such an arid climate. Although it was really hot, it was also very beautiful.  

     At the park there is a very rickety stand that is about 20 feet tall that we climbed to see out onto the park.  While I was scared for my life, it was worth the view!  Here is a shot overlooking the park: 

     This is my new Paritanian friend Cesar who brought us to the park: 

My friend Shaylee was just as nervous about climbing down the stand as I was!

     A dry forest also surrounds the park.  When Cesar and I walked through it, it reminded me of a scene out of the Jungle Book with all of the vines hanging down: 

     Cesar also brought me to meet a local artisan, Dario, who makes incredible devil masks.  Here in Parita, there are many religious festivals throughout the year, but one of the biggest ones is the "Diableco" where people get dressed up wearing these devil masks and parade throughout the town.  It was incredible to see how he makes these masks out of paper mache and then decorates them.  I even got to help make a small one!  This is a local business, and he relies on tourists as his main source of income.  No one in his family speaks English, and I'm thinking potentially teaching a son of his to speak English so they can sell their product to a bigger market as a secondary project.  Hopefully I will be able to work with them in the future, they're amazing people!  Here's a picture of me with one of his creations:  

     The next town over in Palo Grande has a huge archaeological site where a ton of excavations took place back in the 90's.  This land has incredible remnants of ceramic artifacts from the indigenous population that predated the Spanish conquest in Panama back in the 1600's.  I had always wanted to go check it out, and thankfully my friend Cesar knows the man who owns the land!  We hiked over to the village one day and got to go digging around his land and found some amazing stuff!  We found painted pieces of ceramic artifacts, handles of jugs, a big stone tool called a 'mano' that was used to grind corn, and a flattened stone that I think was used as an old iron!  It was such an amazing day!  Here I am with some of the artifacts that we found! 

     I have had many adventures in the one month that I have been here.  I can't wait to see what the next two years holds for me in Parita!  More updates to come!

     

From Aspirante to Volunteer: Peace Corps Swear In Ceremony

     On Wednesday May 30, 2014, my group G74 took their oaths and swore in as official PCVs!  The ceremony was held at the US ambassadors house in Panama City.  After 10 long weeks of cultural, language, and technical training, the day had finally come to bridge the gap from Aspirante to Peace Corps volunteer.  Below is a group picture of G74 before the swear in ceremony:

     And another picture of the other Teaching English volunteers in my group:

     All of the teachers, trainers, and PC staff were present at the ceremony along with other volunteers.  It was nerve wracking because we had to go around and present ourselves in Spanish, which is a very easy thing to do but is daunting when you have 100+ people watching you!  Afterwards, our Country Director, Pete Larousse, made an opening statement thanking everyone who had helped to get us to this day.  

      After his speech, the US Ambassador to Panama Jonathan Farrar talked about the important impact that Peace Corps Volunteers have on Panamanian society and thanked us for embarking on this mission.  I was lucky enough to get to talk to Mr. Farrar afterwards, he is a really wonderful and interesting person. 

     Before officially swearing in, both the TE and CEC group needed to give a speech, and the representatives from our group were two of my friends Nick and Sam.  They did a great job giving a funny and accurate representation of the cultural lessons we had learned so far while living in Panama. 

     After all of the speeches were concluded, it was finally time to take our oaths.  We all stood up, raised our right hand, and pledged the following oath: 

     "I, (insert name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the          United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the    same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I  will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.  So help me  God." 

     And just like that, I was officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!  It was a very grounding experience, and for the first time since I got to Panama it really hit me that I was in the Peace Corps.  Afterwards we had a reception and spent time talking and taking pictures.  My group loves taking funny pictures, they're always so much better than serious ones: 

  Here is a photo of all of the new PCV's in the Azuero region with me:  

     This is the Breakfast Club!  Every morning during training, this group of ladies would come to my house for breakfast.  It was a wonderful way to start my day, they always had so much energy and I learned a lot from them!  I will truly miss them.

     I had to get a picture of the two UVM'ers in our group.  This is me and my friend Sydney.  She graduated from UVM with me but we never crossed paths back in college.  Now we're serving together in Panama!  It's a small world.

     This is a picture of me and my friend Christina, a volunteer from the CEC group.  It's probably my favorite picture of the day!  She is really awesome and will be serving in Bocas in an indigenous community, I will definitely be going to visit her within the next two years.

     After the ceremony, we all went to TGI Fridays.  It was great to have "American" food for the first time since coming to Panama.  It was also Happy Hour all night, so we stayed there for a few hours and celebrated our new achievement.  To end this great day, we went out to some other bars and experienced the nightlife of Panama City!

Saying Goodbye to Santa Rita

     Hello friends!  I can't believe how long it has taken me to write a new blog post, I've been in site for over a month now!  Another PCV described her days as going by slow but the weeks fast, and that has been true for me so far.  Also my computer broke the day after I got to site, so that hindered my ability to write a blog and after that initial set back I couldn't seem to get into the swing of things.  Thankfully, my host cousin knew of a friend who was able to fix my computer and now it is up and running!  I am going to try to update my blog every other Sunday, so that my experiences don't pile up on me like they have today!  The first thing I need to update you on is our final days and 'despedida' or 'goodbye party' in Santa Rita.
     During the last week in our training site, PC threw a goodbye party for us in the community to thank our host families for everything they had done for us over the 10 weeks we stayed in Santa Rita.  My host mom Mabel made a HUGE pot of arroz con pollo (chicken and rice, a classic Panamanian food), salad, chicha (natural juice), bread.  There were probably 100 people at the party, and we had a great time!  The language teachers performed a skit for us about the conquest of Panama, below is a picture of two of my favorite professors in costume!

     Some of the members of the community are accomplished musicians and performed the traditional Tamborito music for us.  It consists of hand drums, singing, and 'salumar' (a Panamanian campo call that is typical in the Azuero region).  It was really impressive!

     And of course, Panamanians love their dancing!  Here is a picture of my host mom dancing with one of my friends Sean: 

     Our language teachers have the most amazing sense of humor!  Here is a picture of one of my Spanish teachers dropping it low and another PCV having no idea what to do about it!  Definitely a highlight of the day Panamanians know how to party!

     Another PCV from my group, Tom, took the initiative to lead the congo line!  My TE group also made a presentation for our community members.  Two volunteers sang a song to the ukulele and violin, and then our group danced to a compilation of Cupid Shuffle, the Electric Slide, the Wobble, and the Cotton Eyed Joe.  We finished with a choreographed dance to the Beach Boys Surfin' USA.  It was really fun but the Panamanians looked at us like we were crazy!  Our group loves to have fun!

     PC bought a piñata for the kids of Santa Rita.  This is without a doubt my favorite picture of the day.  This is my friend Brittni aka 'Big Red' because of her flaming red hair, and thankfully she has an amazing sense of humor as well!  This is a picture of her and 'Little Red' made perfect with a photobomb from our PCV rep Witt.

     The kids had a great time with the piñata.  The adults even ran to get the candy when it broke.  Below is a picture of the happiest child I have ever met, Hector, taking a turn at the piñata.  

   It was a memorable day filled with great food and friends.  My host mom gave me a pair of matching blue shorts and a shirt.  Here in Panama, it is very common for Panamanians to match everything from their clothes to their make up, so I guess now I am an official Panamanian!  That night, Hector's father threw the volunteers a party at his house.  I went with my host mom and Delfina, and when we drove up in her car everyone started whistling and calling me a 'yayacita' (meaning someone who is very fancy) because we drove there instead of walking!  At one point in the night, Delfina got up and showed us how to do the 'Baile de la Coneja' aka 'Dance of the Bunny,' which is a popular Panamanian song.  We had a great night dancing, talking, and laughing.  It was a perfect send off from Santa Rita.

     The morning we left to go to the PC headquarters in the Ciudad del Saber, we had to be at the bus stop at 6 AM with all of our stuff.  My host mom is amazing and woke up in time to say goodbye and drove me to the bus.  We were both so flustered and sad about saying goodbye, that we didn't realize that the metal gate on the driveway was closed and Mabel backed the car right into it!  Thankfully there was no damage to the car or the fence but it definitely woke me up!  It was really hard to say goodbye to my host mom, I had truly enjoyed my time living with her and being a part of her family.  I will hopefully be able to see her often though because she has family that lives only a half hour from my new site and I will be able to visit her when she comes down.  Here is a picture of my host mom Mabel, myself, and my host brother Yelin: