Redefining "Grateful": My First PCV Thanksgiving

     Happy Thanksgiving friends!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday filled with lots of food and family.  This year, I spent my first Thanksgiving away from my family.  It was sad not to be around my loved ones during this time, but I was lucky enough to spend it with friends.  Every year, a sector of the Peace Corps organizes a Thanksgiving celebration, a chance for all 200+ volunteers to come together and eat great food!  These celebrations are legendary here in Panama, and I was so excited to go this year!

     I left for Thanksgiving early in order to stop by my friend Meredith’s site.  She lives in a town called Alto Caballero located in the Comarca, which is a province in Panama consisting mainly of indigenous Ngobe Bugle people.  Their culture is very different from the Latinos that live in my site.  The women wear traditional dresses called ‘Naguas’ and decorate them with the triangle patterns called "dientes" or in English "teeth".  Here’s a picture of me and Meredith in Naguas doing the infamous "Ngobe Stare":

     The first day we went to Meredith’s adult English class.  She has a group of about five students who are really motivated to learn.  It was great to see how much success my friend has in her site.  Here’s a picture of her in action:

     The second day we went on a hike to another volunteers site.  In the Comarca, many volunteers have a site that they can only access by hiking in and out.  The volunteer that we visited, Nick from G 75, has about a two hour hike to his site.  It was a lot of work, but it was definitely worth it!  His site is at the top of a mountain, and the view was incredible!

     My friends and I after our hike up the mountain.  My muscles are still sore!

     On the way back, we saw a dead tarantula, the first one that I had seen here so far thankfully!  I was so afraid that I didn’t take the time to take a picture, and it made me very thankful that I don’t live in the mountains!  Other than that, it was an incredible hike and we were beat afterwards.  The next day, we all left for Cerro Punta. 

            Thanksgiving was an incredible experience!  I was able to spend time with friends that I hadn’t seen in a while and I also met a ton of new people!  Thanksgiving is held every year in Cerro Punta, Chirriqui, which is known for its cool climate and agriculture.  It’s always so amazing to see how versatile this small country is, and Cerro Punta is the exact opposite of my site.  It is a beautiful, mountainous region where it rains daily and temperatures drop to around 50 degrees.  I was able to wear my jeans, socks, and flannel shirt for the first time here!  It was awesome to be cozy again! 

            I arrived there on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because I had a training for a GAD summer camp facilitator position I was chosen for.  GAD is a sector of the Peace Corps Panama program that stands for Gender And Development, and the summer camp is an annual four day event for selected Panamanian students 12-18 years old.  This year, we will have four camps throughout Panama because there is such a large number of volunteers who want to participate in it.  At the camp, the kids learn about goal setting, values, decision-making, how to protect yourself, and sexual education.  It has been a huge success in the past, and I’m really excited to participate in it this year.  I’m paired up with another volunteer to lead the green team, and we’re thinking of getting the green man suits and going all in with team spirit for the kids.  I might also wear my green t-rex costume that I bought this year for Halloween.  Either way, the green team will be killing it.  “Green team dream team!”

            The GAD training took place on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, then people started arriving for Thanksgiving.  On Wednesday night we had a talent show, and I didn’t know this before but PCV’s are pretty talented!  Here’s some pictures from some of my favorite performances:

    My fellow Azueranos and their Panamanian version of "12 Days of Christmas"

    My friends Kelsey and Amanda doing an interpretive dance to the song "Hot in Here"

     We had a great salsa dancing couple.  The guy tried to teach me how to salsa dance later that night, but gave up after 5 mins:

     I'm still not really sure what this group did, but whatever it was they looked good doing it:

      We had a really talented group of ex-street performers come together to give us a performance, they were fantastic:

     And of course, we ended with a tribute to the US by singing national anthem and cracking a Budweiser:

     After the talent show, we had a huge dance party in the lodge.  It was a great way to end the night! 

     The next day was spent prepping for the Thanksgiving meal.  Volunteers could sign up and help with the cooking/prepping/serving to get a discount off their meal.  While that was going on, we had a huge volleyball tournament.  It was province against province, and my friends and I represented Herrera!  We didn’t make it past the first round, but we had a lot of fun playing anyways. 

     Team Herrera!

      I also went on a hike to the cabanas where some of the volunteers were staying.  They were beautiful, and reminded me of ski lodges back home.

      On the way back, my friends and I past over a really beautiful bridge, and we decided to stop and take in all the beauty:

     This picture might be my favorite Abercrombie ad of all time:

     That night, we all sat down and had Thanksgiving dinner together.  It was incredible to see the amount of effort the PCV’s put into making enough food for 200+ volunteers.  The meal was great!  I couldn’t remember the last time I ate that much good food! 
     
     Heres a picture of the big assembly line for Thanksgiving dinner:

     My friends and I right before we stuffed our faces:

     My friend Kelsey really goes all out:

     After dinner, we had a superlatives contest.  Basically there was a survey and you could nominate people for different categories.  Here are some pics of the winners of the superlatives:

     Most metido: the PCV hidden away in their sites that you never see or hear about:

    Most ye ye: that PCV that hasn't given up the American style of living

    Most Panamanian: my friend Lexi won this category, she wants to live in her community forever

   
     Most likely to become a politician:

    Most likely to get rich or die trying:

   Most stylish:  My friend Sam won this category

     That night I was really tired, so instead of staying up for the dance party I went back to my room.  It was a beautiful room that I shared with two of my friends.  It had a fireplace and everything!  I tried to light a fire....it did not work I ended up smoking up the whole room.  Good thing I’m not a CEC volunteer! 

    The broken fireplace:

     The next day I left to go home, but before I did I bought a HUGE bag of vegetables for only $5.  I couldn’t believe it, it must have weighed 20 lbs.  I ended up splitting it with another volunteer because I didn’t want to have to carry it all back to my site!  But all in all it was a great week!

     Right now school is wrapping up for the year and people are getting ready for Christmas and summer vacation.  I still can’t believe that my parents and sister will be here in only 13 more days!  I’m running around right now trying to find a house before they get here, so it’s a little bit stressful.  My landlord told me a few weeks ago that she is moving back into her house at the beginning of next year, so I’m trying to get everything squared away with before my family comes.  I don’t want to be stressing out about anything when they are here.  We are going to be at a resort for Christmas, and then they are coming back to my site for a few days before we go to Panama City.  They will be here from the 22^nd-30^th and I can’t wait!  More updates to come after the holidays.  Merry Christmas everyone!