On Sunday, July 22, I headed to a place called called Rio Hato in the province of Cocle, about two and a half hours from my site. All the volunteers from Group 70 (both Teaching English, or TE, and Community Environmental Conservation, or CEC) met at this camp-type place for a second round of training that lasted two weeks.
Sadly, we and the CEC volunteers parted ways after only two days. However, in that short time, we played Capture the Flag and enjoyed each other's company quite thoroughly.
We spent our two weeks mainly in a large conference room having several seminars a day, teaching us various things, from how to get grant money for our projects to how to approach the mandated curriculum and adjust to make it more realistic to our students' levels. It was a long two weeks, considering that we were sitting down and in class for about eight hours a day, but it was great to see all my friends again. The seminars they gave us were much more specific and relevant to the work we are doing, so going to this training session has gotten me very excited to go back to school and implement these new strategies. And it was the perfect amount of time away from site. Every now and then I need some time to decompress. I got it, and now I'm stoked to get back to work.
During our two weeks, we had a free day on the first Wednesday. Most of us went to the nearby beach and hung out by the water all day, which was great. I definitely needed some sun, seeing as how I had spent most of my time indoors. Then, that Saturday, we had a free day and night. A large group of us went to Panama City and basked in the modernity of its largest mall, Albrook Mall. We took advantage of the wide variety of food, shopping, and even saw The Dark Knight Rises together, which was awesome! And it was subtitled, not dubbed. I was so thankful for that. We got to live it up in the city and enjoy the nightlife, but then it was back to "school," if you wanna call it that.
When the training was over, no one wanted to part ways. That's pretty customary with our group. So, most of us headed to a nearby beach and stayed the night there, trying to get our fill on friends before we had to leave each other. I came back home yesterday, and I'm very excited to be home.
And today, I quickly met up with a friend from home, a guy who was in Glee Club with me. He has a friend who is also in Peace Corps, who he was visiting for about a week. It was only a few hours, but I'm thankful that Brian took the time to get in contact with me, and now I'm glad to have met Jess, his friend, because now I have another person in the country to visit.
A fast-paced two weeks filled with activity. Now it's back to school, where life will slow back down to a sloth's pace. Can't wait.
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