So blogging in Panama, there are harder things in the world but there are also easier things in the world.
I have been in the country for about twenty days now, when we got here they said that the time would fly by and yet the first few days seemed like weeks but here we are a couple weeks in and the weeks are beginning to feel like days.
I don’t know where to start or how to start, I don’t know what to say to describe how amazing I feel, how beautiful this country is, or how extraordinary the people are. How do I begin?
I wouldn’t say I’m constantly happy, but I’m the farthest from sad, its hard and I get frustrated, but it’s fun and I’m learning amazing things, so to describe my feelings about panama exactly I would have to say I feel correct, right. I feel as though right now there is nowhere else I should be there is nothing else I should be doing. Panama is correct I feel no regrets in my choice to come here and each day I am more excited for the next.
The country is gorgeous and I can’t wait to see more of it, I just wish there was a bit less trash, but hey that is what I am here for. I love the mountains, the beaches, the canal, el campo, and the jungles. I love the bus system and I love the relaxed way of life here. The people are more or less good, I’ve had nothing but kindness unless I just can’t understand that Spanish well enough to notice people being mean.
I am currently living in Santa Clara with a wonderful Panamanian family that has opened their wonderful home to me. They are amazingly patient with my lack of language and always willing to help me learn more. We live a short walk up a hill in a four bedroom cinder block house with a tin roof. I have my own room but share a ceiling with my host parents. We have electricity, running water, and a television but no toilet and our shower and kitchen are on the back porch. Along with my parents two of my siblings live here as well and two of my siblings kids. My other two siblings live in adjacent houses. Most of Santa Clara is related to most of Santa Clara. I also live with 14 chickens, 3 dogs, 11 puppies, 3 ducks, and countless geckos.
A typical day in my life as a CEC PCT in Panama begins at 6 am when I wake up and do some abs on the floor until 630 when I shower and eat some breakfast and drink some luke warm tea. Following that I rush to do my Spanish homework that I did not do the night before, at 740 I walk across town to Spanish and start my constant sweating. After four riveting hours of learning and harassing one another in Spanish I continue sweating as I walk home for a hearty lunch of what is most likely chicken and rice. Following lunch I walk to the school for 2 hours of learning technical information in an air conditioned classroom where I do not stop sweating even for a moment. Following that I spend two or three hours doing such activities as making fertilizer, getting people to pee in a bottle to make pesticides, digging holes with a koa to build a fence, removing the top from an oil drum with a machete to build an incinerator, cutting the grass with a machete, using the machete in all ways possible, watering the garden, planting seeds, burning trash, and using a pickax as a rototiller among other things. Following that I continue my sweating as I return to my house where I am greeted with what is probably a heaping plate of rice and chicken or my other favorite chicken and rice, and I sweat as I eat it. I shoot the breeze as best I can with my family, kick around a soccer ball and retrieve that soccer ball repeatedly from the pond/river/lake/hole with water. I do some Spanish homework maybe and attempt to read the newspaper aloud for my family. I might watch a bit of tv but without a doubt I am sweating, so I eventually shower and crawl into bed where I continue to sweat until I fall asleep. Rinse and repeat.
Plot twist, not all days in panama are typical. In fact most are not even close to typical. I guess I will just list things now that I think are noteworthy events thus far in my Panamanian life in attempted chronological order.
Every Sunday I take two malaria pills and have tripped out dreams.
We played some futbol with the youth of Santa Clara and all got shown up by an eight year old.
A couple of us went to the rio together and bought a watermelon for the walk jumped off some rocks and had a super grand time. I got a sun burn. Going to the rio is an innuendo in Panama, but we actually just went to the rio.
Some days we go spend eight hours in the office and get injected with some vaccines, watch some PowerPoints about diarrhea, botflies, and dengue and maybe grab some ice cream, crash the internet, get some money. Today is one of those days.
Also Carnaval happened while were here but we weren’t allowed to drink, but we still danced like Caucasians in a circle, followed la reina around for hours, and watched while the majority of the population get plastered.
We visited the nearby city of La Chorrea and talked to strangers while figuring out the bus situation. And I bought a 4 dollar egg shaped soccer ball.
Then we all headed out in different directions to visit PCVs in their communities and get a feel for what our next two years will be. In my case I did a lot of sweating, jewelry making, seed planting, kid entertaining, pasearing, wine appreciating, river swimming, hitchhiking, not chicken and rice eating, learning, and getting excited. I also watched some chickens eat the head of a different recently killed chicken.
Some of us met up Chitre after out visits and let of some steam by eating burritos, drinking some beers, dancing tipico, playing pool, and talking to taxi drivers.
And I guess that is panama so far in a nutshell.
