Santa Maria, Madre de Dios… Santa Maria, Madre de Dios… Santa Maria, Madre de Dios

This is where I will live after homestay time... I´m pretty sure it´s the nicest place in Peace Corps. You might notice the air conditioner. Sigh... I feel like I´m missing out on the suffering aspect of this job.




My Deutsch-Panameño buddy Jaime at novena




My best friend and hunting partner Jonathan. He later chased me around with a piece of cow shit. ¡COCHINO! "Pero es SECO" I don´t care... it´s still gross. This is why we tite son.









This pretty much sums up my site.




I'm finally settling into my site. It's been quite the roller coaster. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking but I do have one odd story to tell. This week was Novena, the celebration of la Virgin del Carmen. The story goes that in 1998 Santa Maria saved some people from drowning on the beach here. Well, every night there has been church services with songs and fireworks. Usually the women and children go inside the church (well… the kids usually run in and out yelling) and the men stand outside and talk. On the final night, the night of the procession, the Padre came to deliver a more formal mass and he was furious about that tradition. He told the congregation they were disrespectful and that he was ashamed and then he left. Keep in mind he got paid for this. Maybe you had to be there, but it kind of reminded me of a Marquez novel in the sense that some pompous authority figure comes in, takes the money, insults people and runs. Instead of the procession being led by the Padre, people would randomly spit out Hail Marys and sing whatever parts of the songs they knew. So, in the end, the Virgin got an awkward spin around the block. It was quite the topic of conversation the next day. Some people thought the Padre was really unprofessional, and some people were ashamed that we couldn't be more respectful of the service. It was a little of both really.

The next night was a baile and I'm happy to report that I'm alive. I live next door to the cantina so I was really apprehensive about the craziness. Luckily I managed to get some sleep. The two bailes I've been to follow a formula so I think they all go like this: first off there is one band but nobody really dances. Men use this time to get really hammered. A few women participate but mostly they just sit at the tables looking super pissed and checking out what everyone is wearing. Then comes the Panamanian version of freestyling. Last night's topic was whether women or men are better. At the other baile it was a straight up diss contest that ended when one dude killed the other with a line about his gallina sitting on his huevos. After this comes the main event. People push the tables out and a new band takes the stage and people start to get down. Usually there is a fight in there somewhere.

I was considering leaving at the first part of the baile because the singers' mics were up WAY too high. You know if it's too loud for me, it's too loud. I was really tempted to go up and help them mix that janx. The thing is… in most típico music, at least around here, you begin each verse by doing a modified gritar (yelling/yodeling) so if you have people doing that at the top of their lungs… while choking the mic… while it's turned up WAY over the guitars, it's going to be painful. And it was physically painful. But anyway. I'm glad I stuck around because the dancing part was fun. People were patient with me not knowing or caring what I was doing. The whole town was having a blast and it was great to see everybody tear it up.

Last night's fight was way better than the one last week. This one guy pushed the other off his chair and spilled a bucket of ice on him. There was only one really good punch but it cracked off the dude's chest like a whip. Other than that there was mostly a big show about throwing chairs. There were no police in town last night so my Brazilian (meaning he's a lot bigger than most Panamanians) buddy and about four others helped hog tie the offender until they could get there. As long as you keep your distance, it's all part of the entertainment.

On the work front, I'm going to start teaching in the school next month. I'm giving English classes Thursday and Friday because Maestra isn't there those days. On Wednesdays I want to share lesson plans with her in order to make it somewhat of a learning experience for the both of us since she won't be able to observe me. I'm planning the all-important first meeting of the tourism group. I think the most sensible avenues for this town would be to have an artisan group, figure out what services we can offer surfers, and/or sell plants, trees, and compost to gringos. Well see if the community in general is down with all that or if it's only the people I've been talking to who like the ideas.

Some is rich and some is poor and that's the way the world is

I GOT TO VISIT MY SITE!!! First I want to apologize for not taking pictures. I was thinking it would be better to hold off in order to avoid coming off like a tourist. They'll will be plenty soon. It started with a conference in Coclé; we got to meet our community guides there. Miriam was great and she really made the awkwardness of it a lot less awkward. I'll spare you the details of the conference other than the fact that it was pretty useful. We had some really long bus rides (It's about a 7 hour trip from the city) and when we got to Las Tablas, the biggest city near me, we were set to take another bus but fortunately, Miriam's boyfriend was in town with his buddy and he was able to give us a ride. I was really relieved because I'm finally starting to feel poor. The boyfriend is a gringo and I was surprised at how many there are here. Brody seemed really friendly and useful in terms of clueing me in on the ex-pat drama. There is a lot of it. I'll think I'll have to keep some distance from Brody in some ways, sadly. If I'm over there aprovecharing his hot water or guitar, how would that look? Not very good. I came away from this week realizing that I should just stay away from the gringos here. Word on the street is that the best ones are naïve about Panamá and the worst are mentally unstable. Not many people are acting with the communities interests in mind. Granted, some of the problems may be due to poor communication. For example, there is a law that you have to wear a shirt in town but the gringos are thinking "Hey I'm coming back from a tropical beach. No shirt, no shoes, no problem" so they go without and the corregiadura doesn't enforce the law for them. Both of my counterparts take it as a serious lack of respect though. If anything, I'll see if the tourism group wants to improve communication with the hotel owners or just do their own thing. (Hmm… I smell a UNION! …just kidding Peace Corps please don't send me home)

The tourism group is very promising. My first meeting with them was really awkward though, even for me, and I'm usually pretty awkward. I really hadn't put much thought into it so I just read a little speech. I choked on my Spanish but that always happens when I'm nervous. At least I expect it now. To be fair, my Spanish is way better than most gringos here. A few don't learn at all apparently. It’s a good confidence booster. Anyway, at the meeting I even forgot to ask people's names! Afterwards, things were much better talking to my counterpart Alexis and his brother. His brother spends most of his time in Germany but even he still seemed to take a real interest in the work here. There is a vivero set up to grow trees to sell to the hotel owners. It just needs some cleaning up before planting. The previous volunteer set it up as a way to combat deforestation while getting the community dollars. Genius! I wanted to do something with deforestation as a side project anyway. So, since the community has the motivation and material needed to do something good, it looks like my main task is to get the committee organized and set up a business model for the tree thing.

I also got to visit the school. The English teacher works only three days a week in my site and the rest in Tonosí. I'm getting the feeling that they will actually want me to teach in the school which is what I was afraid of. I have to ask myself how sustainable that would be to just teach the class myself but I suppose if the kids learn English they will still know it when I'm gone.


As far as where I'm going to live after my homestay, there are two options. One is actually the Centro de Communicación Ambiental which would be great because it's a modern building in the center of town with a flush toilet (for when there is running water). There is already a bed and a kitchen so I wouldn't have to buy all that much with my moving in allowance. Plus, I get to live where I work. The drawback is that I definitely would not be living like a community member, so it's not very good for pasearing. The other option, this house on a hill I have yet to see up close also has the same problem because it's so far for people to just drop in.

The people are really friendly here and they have lots of yummy fruit! Miriam's ten year old neighbor is totally in love with me so he brings me mangoes. He's this adorable kid with a hoarse voice that I assume he got because he yells all the time. He likes to catch pe'ca'o and play baseball and cards. I taught him and his cousin Slap Jack (he says it "Flep Jerk) and they wouldn't let me stop playing. I won him over when he saw I had a biombo (slingshot) I had made at culture week. We went iguana hunting right away. He hit one and made it made so it dropped its tail, fell out of the tree, and escaped. I'm glad it got away because it would have been too small to eat. We would just have killed an animal for no reason. I've noticed that my attitude towards animals is definitely changing. I kicked a puppy. Not hard though.

My host mom's niece invited me to watch a movie (Tropic Thunder… sorry Walt… again) with some of her friends. One of the friends was dog sitting for Americans so we watched it at the big house. It was super nice, even by my middle-class American standards. The owner also has a house on the beach! Mind you, we are already in walking distance. I don't think the niece understood why I was gritting my teeth when she told me that. I had been holding my poop, bathing in the creek, and bucket bathing because there was no water and now I'm watching a movie on a flat screen with Rock Band hooked up to it. You better believe the house had water too. I'm not complaining per se. The creek bath was really fun. It's just that my sense of justice was quite offended. My momma always said that life's not fair though. She's right.

I met an evangelical here who almost converted me. He's a good talker. Maybe I just liked him because he had a monkey.

The beach here is beautiful! It's black sand and I have to be careful because the waves are huge!!! I got knocked on my butt a lot. Also, every so often there are drug runners on the shore at night. I don't say this to embarrass the community (Peace Corps please don't send me home). They know it goes on. I don't say this to worry you back home. It's just the reality of life here. America's and Europe's bad habits are Panama's troubles. The truth is, there isn't anything to worry about as long as I don't do anything stupid like ask questions of a sketchy person. I feel really safe here already, in fact. The community is tight-knit and if I've got a problem, they'll help. Also, there are a lot of cars around so I can get out easily in case of emergency or illness. In Peace Corps you can't have a car but I'm mulling over the idea of getting a horse! It would be good for going to the beach. I think it's too far to ride out to Tonosí regularly but it would be nice not to have to rely on a bus.

That's about it for first impressions. I really lucked out with my site. I don't really feel like I'm in the Peace Corps, in a good way. Not that I want to rub it in the faces of my brothers and sisters in the Comarca and Darien but chances are good that I won't get amoebas. (Chiggers though… JEEEEEEEEEEEZ. I had a run in with them after my hunt for iguana. I woke up the next morning with my shirt bloody from scratching and my feet look like I have small pox). I'm just getting eaten from the outside and somehow that makes it seem better.

AZUERO VISIT!!!

Jonah demonstrating some machismo for the camera!


This is Katie and I cooking some Chicha from corn. Yum yum. She´s clearly ready for lunch.



An iguana from the iguana farm! They raise them for food and release 10% into the wild to support the species. One of them bit me. It hurt and bled a lot but they are still cute.

So I´m getting tired of being at the internet cafe but I felt compelled to update this blog so I´m just gonna copy and paste a letter home. Enjoy! Culture week was a blast!!!

This week I had "culture week" which means that we went to our region to learn more about the culture in that specific place. It was a load of fun. The azuero is all about cowboys so it was a really wild trip! We went on a really long hike through beautiful cow pastures (and cow poop) and got to swim in a nice little swimming hole. Who knew that deforestation could be so beautiful. We worked on a little farm and also helped kids plant crops at their school. Little kids are really good with machetes here. Could you imagine a school in the states letting 11 year olds hack up the yard at their school? I got bit on the finger by an iguana when we went to work on an iguana farm. Those little jerks can bite hard! It´s pretty much healed up now though. They raise them to eat but they release a percentage into the wi ld to preserve the species. On our last day there we had contests and a baile (BIG OLD DANCE PARTY) with our host families. For the contests we had a sling shot competition, a rodeo competition (our host Jonathan and his buddy wrestled down a cow!), a dance off, and a salomar competition. Salomaring is the Panamanian equivelent of yodeling but it sounds like a cross between a dog and a rooster. It´s nuts. It´s very much the wild wild west out there. The only downside is the machismo. Men are men and women are... in the kitchen. Que va. I really hope my town is similar to the one we visited. My site is on the beach in so maybe there will be fewer cows but we´ll see. I can´t wait to check it out next week!

Tech Week

Well, its been a really tough, but rewarding week. We spilt up by sector and headed out for some hands on training in our areas. We taught a class, helped students with a recyling project, and helped make a brochure and webpage for El Cope´s tourism group. El Cope was absolutely beautiful. Nice mountains and cloud forest. We hiked in Omar Torijos National Park

My host family there was great! They were almost too nice! I didn´t feel like I was worth all the fuss. On the last night, they had me and my buddy Nicky dress up in Polleras. It was pretty hot if I do say so myself. Right now I´m in Chitre for the night gearing up for culture week so I don´t have too much time for an in depth post. I´m totally drained but still having a good time. Next week. I can expect more dancing, possibly milking cows and plenty of salomaring (look it up it´s awesome).

Dile "No" a las Drogas

This past week I had my first awesome malaria meds dream. It took place at my parent's house which makes it even weirder. 50 cent and the fat Columbian guy from Vice City were trying to get me to buy their kilos of cocaine. They start to fight over who would sell to me and when I said I wasn't buying they came after me. All of a sudden, I am at my best friend from childhood's house and 50 cent is coming after me with a hand grenade. He blows himself up trying to blow ME up. I wake up. I start chuckling to myself.

Now, there is a telenovela here that my family watches about a Columbian cartel and in my Spanish class we had a quick discussion about why it's really important not to confuse "coco" with "coca" so it makes sense why that was part of my dream but I have no idea where 50 cent came from.

I was able to spend a good chunk of time with my host family this past weekend. My fake mom taught me how to sew… I thought I knew how but I was doing it all wrong apparently. I ripped my pants on the hike in Bocas and I went to repair them but she saw what a terrible job I was doing and coached me through it. It's a good thing too because it wasn’t going to hold for very long the way I had it. My fake mom has been great about teaching me stuff. She seems to understand that I want to be able to do things for myself for the most part. She also led me through doing laundry with the semi-automatic machine. It's kind of rough on the clothes but she got stains out of my socks that the washer back home never could. It's pretty cool to learn this home ec type stuff that no one seems to think is important anymore in the US. On Sunday we made tamales to sell to fund Christmas celebrations. Preparations began the night before and early in the morning I went to the neighbors where a big work force was already going full blast and helped grind some maiz for a while. Mostly, I watched and hung out with my SAS (Sustainable Agriculture Systems) buddy who lives there. I was so excited to try one of the tamales and it was well worth the wait. They were so good! They were cooked in banana leaves and the masa was well seasoned with broth from the chicken and all sorts of spices. There were bits of bone-in chicken and peas inside. Yum.

After cooking I went with my fake mom and sister to my fake aunt's house. It was a really nice place with a balcony that had a nice view of this beautiful sloping green hill. We played bingo and I got taken for 2 dollars. Some advice: never challenge a Panamanian at bingo. They will win.

After participating in the national past time, we all got eaten alive by mosquitoes while waiting for the bus. My fake sister did a little dance to keep them away. I've even got some bites on my butt. It's pretty amazing. I also have a perfectly straight row of bites on my left foot. I'm assuming it was an OCD mosquito that got me there. On my right, I've got one on my little toe that is probably getting infected. There is a lot I really like about this country but I have to say that I am getting really tired of feeling like a feed bag for the bugs.

Also, I just saw a cockroach the size of a mouse. For real.


But the REALLY big news is that I now know where I´ll be!!!

It´s a SURF TOWN in the Azuero region (Panama´s heartland... where all the traditional craft stuff and cattle ranching goes down). This is where the biggest Carnaval parties are so plan your visit accordingly. It´s funny that Walt always jokes about how I´m going to spend two years on the beach and now I actually am! Not too many sites were by the water. I don´t want, and am not supposed to, say the site name on this public forum but if I know you, you´ll hear me talk more in specifics. For now, let is suffice that there is all kinds of fun ecological side projects for me to get into, protecting sea turtles, beach clean up, giving information on why deforestation is bad... maybe I´ll even plant a few trees on my own time. My main goals though are working with the tourism organization (I´m so glad they have one) and teaching English. The town is really interested in learning the business aspects of tourism so I plan to put a lot of energy there. They already have surfers come in and people checking out the nearby national park so it´s just a matter of getting the money to stay in the community. There is a foreign owned resort in town so that could be good or bad. The good is that they hire people from the community to do dances for the guests and the bad is that the community has to compete with that kind of capital. We´ll see how it all goes. The site is pretty ye ye (rich-snooty-preppy) I should have potable water and electricity. The only thing is that it´s an hour´s hike to get cell phone reception. I might try to do without but we´ll see. The public phone in town is broken so I´d be bien incommunicado. Anyway, you should expect to schedule your calls with me ahead of time :-P.

Miss you all back home!!!

Que lastima

So I don´t really have too much to say but I have some extra time to kill in the internet joint. Training is going well and next week we find out our site locations. From what our trainer has told me, I´m very excited. I´ll keep you all posted. The sad news is that I seem to have neglected to pack my camera battery charger so there won´t be any pictures for a while. They don´t sell it in Panama apparently but my dad has been nice enough to agree to hook me up. WHAT A GUY!

I really, really miss all you folks back home so please leave some comments saying how you´re doing!

Elections

This is where I have class


Crazy dancing for el cumpleaños de mi hermano


View of Panama City

This is my host house

So the big news around here has been the election. Last Sunday was the big show. My family was for Balbina for president but Martinelli won. The night of the election was really intense especially since I stay near the school where all the voting goes down. There were celebrations going until 2 in the morning and nobody got much sleep. People don't really sleep in around here. My host mom's brother in law ran for local office but lost so he was really disappointed. Politics is a very different process here than in the US. To start with, voting is essentially mandatory. You need to vote to get a cedula (ID) and you need a cedula to do everything… at least this is how it was explained to me. Also, people are much more open about their politics. Americans, with many loud exceptions, are really hesitant to ask people who they support and talk about policies but here there is little pena. In our training town pretty much everyone has a party flag flying and a poster of their favorite candidate.

The following day was my host brother's birthday party. His actual birthday was the election but there was no time for a fiesta. A handful of the guys got kind of out of hand in a benevolent way. One was dancing and gritar-ing by himself from about 5 when I got home from class until 10:30 when we all went to bed. One gentleman decided to take a rest in the grass for a while. There were fireworks left over from the election and a truck of beer. There was arroz con pollo which may be my favorite dish I've had here. Everybody had a pretty great time and a few other trainees even stopped by and met my family.

My day to day schedule is pretty off the wall during training. We have language class and technical class, in which we talk about development and teaching and whatnot. That is the basic day but we have also had field trips to Panama City, Arraijan, and Chorrera doing scavenger hunts to learn the bus systems and have talks on health and things. Tomorrow we go to visit current volunteer sites. I'll be going to Bocas del Toro, the furthest province to the West. It's going to be an overnight trip and I'm a little nervous about all that traveling but luckily I will have another trainee making the journey with me. Everything I've heard about Bocas sounds really beautiful. It may be too remote for my tastes but we'll see when I get there if I would be comfortable in a site like that. I'm looking forward to narrowing down what I want.

The other big news is that I have a cell phone! Let me know in an e-mail if you want the number. I can receive calls for free and calling Panama can be dirt cheap so don't hesitate!