A Vacation at Home

NOTE: I meant to post this before September but didn't download the pics in time!  Some info here is outdated but i'll update it in the next post!
Hello again!  I know it has been a long time since I’ve last updated my blog, I’ve just been so busy.  In one week I moved into my new house with the puppies and a friend, attended a conference for the weekend, went to school every day, packed to go home, and left for the US!  I was really lucky that my friend Shaylee stayed at the house to take care of the puppies while I was back in the US, so I was able to have a relaxing vacation at home without worrying about the puppies. 

The week before I left, we had a weeklong celebration in Parita.  August 4^th was the day of our patron saint, Santo Domingo, and the town partied hard!  There were lots of parades, masses, and bull fights.  The bull fights aren’t the same as they are in Spain where they kill the bull.  Here, they block off the plaza and people run away from the angry bulls that they let in one by one into the plaza.  Some people even try riding the bulls.  It’s really just an excuse to drink and spend time with friends.  But one of my teachers showed me a video from the previous year when a bull jumped the 5-foot barrier wall and ran through a crowd of people, so I guess there’s always an element of danger at these festivals.

Here's a picture of the bull fights in the Plaza.  Apparently its fun to almost get trampled by a huge animal and its always a big turn out. 

   
The plaza at sunset is always beautiful!  And the party lasts all night!

     Another component of the bull fights is cattle roping.  It's a big honor to be one of the chosen caballeros who competes.

     This is my friend Cesar outside of the cattle cars that they used to bring them in on.  One of the many!

My vacation to the US was really spectacular; it was wonderful to see all of my friends and family again!  I got to surprise my family too which was great!  I told them that my flight was coming in later that day and had my boyfriend Chris come pick me up when it actually arrived, then we showed up at the house to surprise them!  I walked through the garage door and found my dad sweeping, he looked up quickly and said “hi” then continued sweeping for a few more seconds until he realized who I was.  He thought I was my sister!  It was really funny! 

            I probably won’t surprise them again though, my mom and sister were so shocked that they started to cry!  Next time I’ll just stick to the original plan.  It also almost blew up in my face because I gave my mom fake travel information which said that I was going to be staying overnight in Dulles and she tried to get me a hotel room for the night!  I had to convince her that I would sleep in the airport and that I would be fine but it was a close call! 

     I was really excited to see my dog, Lily, and for the first 10 seconds so was she but then she got over it and went looking for her ball hahah.

            That Sunday we had a party at camp so I could see all of my friends.  It was great to have all of my favorite people in one place!  It was such a beautiful day, we had a BBQ and went out on the boat!

   
     I was lucky enough to make it back in time to see my friends from Bulgaria and Macedonia who work in Burlington during the summers!  They're some of the best people I know!

            The rest of the week flew by!  I went to a baseball game, saw a movie at the drive ins, went out to dinner, stayed at camp, witnessed some beautiful moon rises, and got to spend some quality time with my family and friends.  I even got an extra day at home too!  My flight was scheduled to leave on Sunday the 17^th , but when we went to the airport we found that the flight had been canceled due to maintenance problems.  So I spent that day with my friends and had a great family dinner.  While it was great to be home, I missed Parita and was happy to come back to my life here. 

     Here's a picture of my family and I out on our rock at camp.  We were really lucky to have such great weather!

 
 My boyfriend Chris and I hanging out on the porch at camp.  It was nice and cold while I was there so I actually got to wear a hoodie for the first time in 7 months, it was awesome!

            When my flight was canceled on the 17^th, I was really disappointed because I thought I would miss the most important celebration in Parita.  The towns day of foundation is August 18^thand I didn’t arrive back in site until very late that night.  I thought I had missed all of the cultural parades and festivities, but my friend told me that they were celebrating on the 28^th instead!  So I was able to go to the celebrations and participate in the festivities!  I got all dressed up to look like a Pariteño!  My friend Cesar has a cousin who lent me some clothes to wear and did my makeup in the traditional Panamanian way, meaning that my eye makeup was so dark it looked like I got punched in the face!  I was wearing the traditional shirt (una basquina), a necklace (for some reason its called “una bruja” which translates into “a witch”), my Panamanian sandals (cutaras), and a beaded hair clip (tembleque).  I also put on the traditional skirt (pollera) for a few pictures, but I was dying of heat so I took it off after 10 minutes.  Here's a picture of me as a traditional Panamanian:

            The rest of the day I spent time with my friends in the town.  There were many floats with marching bands, and at night there were floats for the queens of all 7 districts of Parita.  And of course, there were lots of fireworks throughout the day.  It was great to take part in this cultural activity!

     The whole town gets together on this day for the festival!  Here I am with some family friends I ran into:

     The people of Parita are very creative!  This mini stroller float made me laugh and they stopped so I could get a good picture of it!

     There were lots of floats with children dressed in the traditional Pana way:

     And more floats with queens than I could count:

    Here's my friend Cesar and I in the Plaza watching the parade dressed in traditional Panamanian clothes:

            The puppies have grown to be so big!  I have had the two girls puppies with me, and I think all of the locals get a kick out of watching me take them for walks around the town on leashes.  Its funny to them because no one really takes care of dogs here like we would think is normal in the United States.  They only give them food and maybe let them stay inside but that’s about it.  So watching me walk them on a leash throughout town is really funny for them.  On one of our walks last week a passed a little girl and she fell in love with Scout.  She asked her mom is she could have her and her mother agreed.  It turned out that my friend who I thought would take Madeline couldn’t make it work, and I had been looking for a home for one of the puppies.  I always said that I would take the one that no one wanted, and it looks like its just going to be me, Madeline, and Reina.  I’m really sad to say goodbye to her, but she will stay in town and get to live with a little girl so I’m confident she will have a good life.  I also found out that the mother is the older sister of one of my friends, so I have inside information that this is a good family that will be able to take care of her very well which is reassuring.  It will still be really sad to say goodbye though.  I would love to keep all of them, but I think sometimes its still crazy to keep two let alone three.

      Here they are helping me clean!  They love chasing after and biting the broom, most times I have to pick them up in order to get anything done!  Necias! (A pana word for 'naughty' I learned it in my primary school hahah)

     They like staying under the sink where its cool:

     And how can I say no to this face?  They're so cute I almost forget how necia they are!

            Next week I begin my In Service Training (IST) with the rest of my group!  It’s a two-week course where we will learn more detailed and specific information about our work, like how to write grants and other resources that are available to us.  It will be really great to see all of my friends again after so long, I can’t believe its been four months since we’ve all been together!  I’ll be able to update the blog when I get back to let you all know how it went!  Hasta luego!