Long Weekend: Carnaval, Casco Viejo, and more! (Written Feb. 21, 2012)

A time for celebration for all of us. Over the five days we found out our sites (where we`ll be for the next two years) and then had four days of Carnaval to chill out, or "reflect" as our superiors so eloquently said. So I´ll break it down by each day because a lot can happen in a long weekend.

Thursday: Cultural Day. Our Spanish language classes got together to prepare a Panamanian-style lunch (except without the rice, which usually accompanies every meal). The preparation involved killing a chicken. I definitely wasn´t up to the task of taking its life, but I helped remove the feathers and cut up the carcass. Now more than ever, I truly appreciate rotisserie chickens available in the US, because with those it´s much easier to consider it food, as opposed to a dead animal with a face...and organs.


(Defeathering the chicken...pobrecito)


(GUTS!)

Our meal consisted of chicken, spagetti, and pico de gallo with tortilla chips. In addition to cutting up the chicken, I also served as the chicero (juice maker) and made chicha de maracuya. We all drank passion fruit juice that I personally prepared. It was a tasty meal, and more importantly, an accomplishment for all the trainees.

Friday: Site Announcement. We went to the Peace Corps office to find out the fate of our lives, where we would spend our two years of service. And I will be placed in the lovely province of Veraguas! (E-mail me if you´re dying for more specific information.) They certainly built up the suspense for quite a while, though. First, our Program Directors talked about the placement process. Then, we met our Regional Leaders (third-year volunteers who have extended their service to assume a leadership position), who explained their role in our service. Only after an hour and a half did they finally start announcing the sites, divided by province or region. It´s exciting to know where we´ll be, but we know very little about our sites, so it´s difficult to make any real judgments. I´m ready to visit my site in about two weeks.


(The trainees who will be placed in Veraguas; all great people with whom I´m very excited to work)

Saturday: Carnaval (kind of). I ventured to a nearby town to check out the festivities, but it turned out Saturday was a slow day and a good amount of people were still working. A group of trainees and I scoped out the place, but there wasn´t much going on. However, we did catch the queen passing by for a short--and I mean short--parade. I finished off the day by taking a dip in a nearby river.


(The reina of El Espino coming down in her float)

Sunday: (Carnaval again). I spent the majority of the day at my host mother´s mom´s house, the same place I was for the birthday celebration a few weeks ago. Later, I went over to the town where the Environment trainees are living for a Carnaval coronation and dance. It was great to hang out with everyone, because usually the two groups are segregated and only see each other on Fridays when we go to the Peace Corps office. The ceremony took far too long. The hosts sure dragged it out, even long after the judges (three Peace Corps trainees and therefore unbiased parties) were finished deliberating. Finally, after all that was over, the dancing started. Some interesting African dances, and then lots of baile tipico, the standard. However, one of the trainees requested reggaeton. When the music started, Panamanian pena (shyness) kicked in and they formed a circle. A perfect opportunity. I decided to take center stage and get the party started with some serious krumping. Other trainees joined in and it became a hip-hop spectacle the likes of which that small town had never seen. Then, we made a dramatic celebrity exit, quickly packing 20 people into one bus and heading home.


(They ain´t never seen dancing like that before!)

Monday: Casco Viejo. A group of trainees and I visited the historic district of Panama City, an area crawling with foreign tourists, but beautiful nonetheless.


(A pretty little part of town)


(A picture taken in Casco Viejo, with a nice view of the Panama City skyline in the background)

Tuesday: Chill Out Day. Decompress. I didn´t party hard, but it´s still nice to just lounge. Right?

Summer English Camp (Written Feb. 17, 2012)

Starting February 1, two of our Spanish language classes began giving free English lessons to interested participants in our town. We literally put up signs and spread the news through word of mouth. It seemed sort of willy-nilly. However, during our sign-up day at the school, people showed up. It turned out to be a large affair, and on any given day, there were about 75 students split up into one of six classes based on age. The classes were an opportunity to see how Panamanian students behave in class, and to have a first-hand experience of teaching a class (lesson planning, adapting, learning from mistakes, etc.). I co-taught a class of 12-14 year-olds. The group began with an almost overwhelming 22 students, but ended at a manageable 12-16 students per class.

At first, it felt like getting thrown into the fire. We had no idea of the students' previous knowledge. My co-teacher and I had never really planned a lesson before. And furthermore, since our students are complete beginners, we had to start from square one, which is actually a lot more difficult than it sounds. Where do you start, aside from Hello and How are you? How do you, as a teacher, determine for your kids what is and is not important? And most relevant of all, how can you make any real progress in only 8 two-hour classes? All very pressing questions. But we had to go for it anyway.

The classes ended up being a positive experience, enlightening in the best ways, and never at any point unbearable. As any teacher in Panama can attest to, classroom management and shyness when speaking the foreign language are two of the largest challenges I faced. Thankfully, I already sort of knew that going in, so I knew what to expect. Of course, coming face to face with a classroom full of students-and having to conduct an introductory English class entirely in Spanish-is a great way to learn about teaching in Panama. And to learn what you're made of.

After the initial anxiety subsided, routine set in and the classes ended up going rather smoothly. My co-teacher and I planned our classes, often with lofty objectives and activities, usually the night before the class took place. We entered the class with a set-up consisting of an entrance activity, new material, review of the old stuff, and a final activity. We also made sure to include as much fun as we could in the class. We kept it as simple as possible, focusing on the following concepts:
-intros and greetings
-colors
-numbers up to 100
-feelings
-school supplies
-family members
-this, that, here, there
-other things I can't think of

So if approached by an English speaker, my students would (hopefully) be able to say (or at least answer the following questions):
-How are you?
-What's your name?
-How old are you?
-What's your favorite color?
-How many people are in your family?
-What is this?

I guess I should be proud, because before that, they only know the few Panamanian words borrowed from English, such as pritty (their spelling of pretty) and icing.

On February 11, we had a special Saturday class, a day filled with fun and games. The purpose of that day was to give every Teaching English trainees the opportunity to conduct class, since up until then only about 12 of the 31 trainees had been teaching. We basically ran around with the kids all day and had one real English activity.


(The Store. The English teachers and I planned an activity where students had items they had to buy at different stations in the classroom. We gave the students a list of items in order to review classroom objects, colors, and numbers. They then had to ask in English for their items. Then we had a follow-up where we asked students about each other´s items.)


(Playing Red Light, Green Light with the kids)



(A group playing Double Double This That, one of those old-school hand slapping games)

February 15 was our last day. In honor of that momentous occasion, we played extra-fun games, including BINGO, which they take very seriously in Panama.


Our class (12-14 year olds)

In the end, I think our students liked us a lot... I mean, we did give them cookies.

One month done. Highlights:

New Favorites:

-maracuyá (passion fruit) juice and smoothies
-summer in January
-commercials with singing and dancing that almost remind me of the old school GAP ads
-swimming in the river with four generations of host families
-good telenovelas (such as Los Herederos del Monte) (Note: It's important to sift through the bad ones to get to the gems.)
-being invited places by strangers, or people to whom I'm only connected through my host family
-super well-endowed mannequins

What I Miss from Home:

-being able to pet the animals without wondering where they've been
-walking places without people staring at me intently
-wearing shorts without being considered immature or unprofessional
-living far, far away from crowing roosters
-women not breastfeeding in public, little boys not whipping it out and urinating in public...general discretion about nudity

Chicha de pipa, river baths, and birthday cake (Written February 5, 2012)

A wonderful day centered around my host mother's 24th birthday started with American cheese and ended with birthday cake leftovers. My host mother served me bollo frito (corn meal in the shape of a hockey puck) with American cheese on top. Our hosts seem to have this odd assumption that we, as Americans, love American cheese. Later, my family (Dad, Mom, and 4 year-old brother) went to meet up with my host dad's mother and grandmother. Both of these women host other trainees, so it was a family affair of Panamanians and Peace Corps hopefuls. A family friend drove us to my host mother's mom's house, which is about a half hour away. It's closer to the community where the other Peace Corps sector from my group (Community Environment Conservation) is living. There we met up with the other half of the family for a fun-filled day.

First we ate pipa. Pipa is a form of coconut, but a less mature variation that looks green, yellow, or gold. My host father took a giant pople to knock down the heavy fruit from where they were hanging, high in the trees. Watching our heads, some of the men and I ran down to gather the fallen pipas. Then we ate. First, you open the pipa and drink the juice (the word commonly used here is chicha), cutting the fruit just enough to release the liquid contents. After drinking the juice, you cut open the giant fruit with a masterful swipe of a machete. I didn't do so well... My host father had to do it for me.



(My host father, showing off and climbing the trees)


Then, the women showed us how they prepared the food in giant pots, throwing in rice, onions, peppers, spices, and pork in a delicious mixture of authentic Panamanian goodness. But the women didn't want us to eat and then go swimming. The old wives' tale of waiting an hour after you eat exists here too. So we went to the river before we ate. The ladies left the food in the pot, covered with palm leaves from a nearby tree.

River fun came next. We drove down to a river where lots of locals were "bathing." I make the important distinction between swimming, which is somewhat rare, and bathing, or simply getting wet, which is what normally happens. Four generations of Panamanians and Peace Corps trainees were in the water: my host brother, the 4 year-old, host mother and father, both of their mothers, and Mama Rita, the great-grandmother and matriarch of the town. Watching an eighty-plus year-old woman play around in the river was definitely a highlight of the day, and of my time here thus far.

We went back to eat the delicious food awaiting our return. So delicious, I went back for seconds. Then we ate birthday cake (most of which as a layer of dulce de leche in the center) and drank passion fruit juice. YES!



(Little Edier, my host brother, the cutest little necio (brat) you'll ever meet)

An Idle Mind is the Devil's Workshop (Written Jan. 29, 2012)

I've been in country for nearly three weeks, and have had an amazing time thus far. The Peace Corps has thrown a lot on our plate, teaching us about why the Peace Corps is in Panama, how we can protect ourselves from illness, attack, or cultural faux pas, how to teach English (a little), and so on. As I mentioned before, our schedule is mostly fixed, with Spanish classes in the morning and tech/ Teaching English classes in the afternoon. However, they continue to switch things up. On Fridays, we go back to our original stomping ground, the former military base closer to the capital known as Ciudad del Saber, for full-group tech sessions about this or that. Only then do we Teaching English volunteers get to see the other group, Community Environment Conservation. In addition to that, we have occasional outings to various places. We've gone to a place called La Chorrera, a larger city in the province, for a fun adventure day where groups of us had maps and had to arrive at various spots, ask directions, and figure out how to manage ourselves using Spanish, and how to have our wits about us at every moment.

We had a similar day in the capital city of Panamá, and there's a funny story there. At that point, I had not been able to get a cell phone. The Peace Corps had suggested that we all get cell phones to keep in touch both with each other and the Peace Corps. So on the day we were all in the massive Albrook Mall, hoards of trainees bombarded the Digicel kiosks and stores. I, unfortunately, did not get one. So on this Panamá adventure day, I was without cell phone. This is an important detail. Our group's plan was to meet at 8 in the morning...somewhere. And therein lay the conflict. I thought we were meeting in front of the school where our tech classes take place. Evidently, that was not the case. It turned out they were about 200 meters down the road at the bus stop. So, since I never met up with my group, they left me behind. It was a bit terrifying in the moment. I called the emergency number for the Peace Corps, known as the Duty Officer, and she suggested I just go myself and...BAM! The pay phone cut off. I went to a small hub for getting buses ten minutes down the road, called the Duty Officer again, and she said my group would most likely be waiting for me when I...dial tone again. Stupid pay phone. But I made it to Panamá without any problem. I believe I got there at around the same time as some of the groups, considering that I was only one person, as opposed to a group. So it all worked out in the end.

However, I since a bit of antagonism from Panamanians to gringos. It's pretty standard for the men on the buses to try to pull a fast one on us and charge more for a ride than they would charge natives. And when the groups of trainees went to the cell phone kiosks, they occasionally tried to claim that they were closed. On an individual basis, it's a bit better. People stop themselves and ask, Does it offend you that I'm calling you gringo? Considering the rocky past with Americans and how many people in the countryside have no exposure to foreigners, I suppose it comes with the territory, so I shouldn't complain.

This weekend, Peace Corps sent us out to visit current volunteers to see how their life is, ask them a million questions and all that. However, as it's summer vacation, there isn't too much to do. Although I've enjoyed my time here, I have realized something very important: I need to keep myself busy to avoid going insane. La pereza me saca de quicio...and that's fa sho. Thus far, homesickness hasn't hit me too hard, but it does come creeping up when I have nothing else to focus my thoughts on. On a free Saturday last week, for example, we had nothing going on. It was an especially difficult day, since the roads near my house were being repaired, and thus there was no running water. It was hot and sticky. My clothes were dirty, but I couldn't wash them. Small things can build up, and by the time dinner rolled around and no one was sitting with me to eat, a frog got lodged in my throat and I missed home. To avoid that, I have to take advantage of everything I have. I need to read the books I brought. I should go visit the volunteers, who, thankfully, are still right around the corner. I should make the effort to not only absorb knowledge by reading and listening, but be active in my learning of Spanish and talk, talk, talk. But it takes a while to get over the pena.

I believe I've realized an important truth for having effective service: keep myself busy. Now I just need to implement it into daily life. So on my daily checklist, at the very top I will undoubtedly see: do something.