Up to this point I have been absolutely woeful about maintaining this blog. Partially because of computer difficulties, and partially because the life of a Peace Corps trainee is regimented to the point where you never really have more than an hour or so of free time. But, all that being said, I am currently sitting in a seedy internet cafe in the town of Chriqui Grande, within an hour of being picked up by boat to be taken to my site in Bahia Ballena, Bocas Del Toro, Panama, and the inspiration to connect to my social network has struck.
The past two months have been a whirlwind. Along with 20 other volunteers, I have spent my time mostly in the training community of Los Mortales - a town of about 250 people, who survive through subsistent farming and picking up odd jobs in nearby town. Despite being a rural location, it is within an hour and a half of Panama City and is thus able to obtain many of the modern amenities (ie electricity, a solid water system, and an elementary school), which are largely taken for granted in the US, but make Los Mortales relatively developed when compared to similar rural communities in Panama. I lived with a family for two months that consisted of 7 people, 5 dogs, multiple birds, and a conejo pintado (basically a large rat - which disappeared about half way through my time there. I´m pretty sure it was eaten because it is considered a delicacy).
I connected very well with my family, especially the matriarch who treated me like a son of her own. Like many housewives around the world, the backbreaking work she did on a daily basis was greatly underappreciated by her family, and thus I never missed an opportunity to tell her how much her welcoming nature meant to me. My host father was a very respectable, hardworking individual, but unfortunately impossible to understand given his country Panamanian accent, and missing front teeth. Towards the end of my time we understood each other well enough that we both agreed we would miss one another. Amongst the 5 children, it was a big difficult to connect. They were all of adolescent age, and extremely shy around me. The one exception was 11 year old Thalia who became my human shadow throughout my experience...always very curious, albeit shy.
There are dozens of anecdotal stories from Los Mortales that would be great to share, but to try to recount them in bulk after so much time has passed would be to cheapen the experience. All I will say is that the people were wonderful, addressed us at times like aliens & at times like celebrities, and all got very sad when my group left. We ate some VERY different cuisine (Iguana being the highlight...or maybe the lowlight for me), learned some very different day-today routines and costumes, but ultimately realized that despite our language barriers and lack of common ground we bridged gaps without incident and became very close in the end.
My group and I spent our days drinking from the firehose of information that is Peace Corps training. 7 hours of technical and languages classes, 5 days, a week with intensive all-day-long assignments for the weekends. The rollercoaster ride of stress brought on by an onslaught of new information and culture was at times extremely difficult, but by leaning on eachother we all managed to get through it, swimmingly and as of Thursday this past week, training commenced and we were sworn in as volunteers!
During swear-in we were lucky enough to meet the Panamanian Ambassador as well as the Panamanian first lady, and the national news even picked up the story. Without a doubt, the highlight of my first two months was being able to deliver a speech in front of the aforementioned dignataries on behalf of my group. Having to do it in Spanish was an extreme challenge, but one I very much enjoyed. Speaking in front of a room of 250 people is enough to make you pass out...and I nearly did...but the adrenalin rush that follows is nothing short of phenomenal.
So after a brief respite to gather ourselves, and our immense amount of luggage, we are all headed to our sites! For the next two years I will be working with an Indigenous Ngobe community in Bahia Ballena, along the carribean shores of the Bocas del Toro province. My first impressions of this site upon visiting it two weeks ago was that it is not short on beauty, nor is it short of obstacles to overcome. The people of Ballena subsist on fishing and harvesting robusta coffee cherries which they then sell to a buyer who distributes nationally. The problem being that their coffee farms have recently fallen victim to the deadly Coffee-Borer Beetle (known as La Broca in Spanish), an infestation so disasterous that it nearly destroyed the entire coffee industry in Costa Rica. They may have to raize their farms and start from scratch. It is my assignment almost immediately upon entering my community to help them work through this problem. Trial by fire it is!
In any event, I must be on my way, as my boat arrives in 15 minutes! I will be doing my best to update consistently every few weeks, and pictures and videos will be included in future postings. I hope every one who ends up reading this entry is doing well in their endeavors. Talk soon!
