End of Training/I officially live in the Darien

It’s been a minute since I last updated. This has for real been the craziest 2 weeks of Peace Corps yet, and life just keeps happening. Let’s update on what our protagonist has been up to since we last spoke. Highlights include saying goodbye to the best host family on the planet, officially swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, giving a speech in front of the Ambassador (whoop, whoop!) and enjoying the beach at Gorgona. Details to follow.

Ok, where does our story begin? Soooo I got back to the training community about two weeks ago on a Wednesday. The bus ride back from Darien was the least enjoyable bus ride that I have had so far, given the fact that old men on the bus clearly enjoy invading my personal space. I’m telling you, man, it’s like sexual harassment going down on the daily. I made it in one piece to the city, though, so it’s all good.

I get back to the Rita, so glad to be back with the host family, and then I spent the next day in the Peace Corps office in Panama City going over some things. The next day, we have a closing ceremony type thing with the host family. That was fun. Songs were sung, dances happened, culture was shared, all that good stuff. I got to say a few words to thank the host family, but I know that nothing I do could ever repay them. I mean, my blog readers know, they are insanely amazing. The day after that was my host dad’s birthday. The family got together in Capira to eat cake and arroz con pollo (it’s not a birthday unless there’s arroz con pollo) and generally just enjoy each other’s company. The family reiterated to me several times that this is my house, too, and to bring by any visitors I get from the States, including my sister. (So Ebony, we have to go by there, I already promised.)

Following that, we had some free days, some language interviews, life happened, and then it was time to move out of the host families. SADNESS. I’m pretty sure out of Group 72, I MAY be the most attached to the training community. Nonetheless, I made it outta there without crying. Can’t say it was easy. Spend a few days in Panama City looking at the same four walls in the Peace Corps office for hours. Shenanigans with Group 72 trainees. They raised me a language level (don’t get me started on PC language assessments). We handed out paper plate awards (aka funny awards for everybody). I got ‘Most Likely to Become a Loveable Dictator.’ I can dig it.

Then it was time to swear-in.

Swear-in ceremony was held at the Ambassadors house (bow!). It was all exciting and official and whatnot and we dressed up and took the oath and all and the US Embassy tweeted about us. (https://twitter.com/USEmbPAN/status/327914995344084992). I got to give the speech for the Group 72 Teaching English volunteers, and afterward (and for the next couple of days) people kept telling me how amazing it was, so there’s another case of Group 72 constantly pumping up my ego. (Can’t say I mind, guys, keep it up! Haha.) Also the Ambassador complimented my speech. That was cool.

After swear-in, we went out for the evening at TGI Friday’s (yea, real Panamanian) to kick it with Group 72 and some of the Peace Corps staff. After that, some of the volunteers went out, but I went back to Ciudad del Saber to hang out with a small group before going to bed before midnight (yea, I can’t hang, whatever).

The next day Group 72 decided to go to the beach, so we did that. The first day we were there, the waves were insane. As in dangerous. As in I kept getting thrown up on the beach like a beached whale. There were tiny whirlpools and junk. This was my first impression of the Pacific Ocean (ahh, the irony of the name). The next day the ocean was a lot calmer and I really enjoyed swimming out in the water. All in all during the weekend, there were shenanigans from Group 72. I’m a goody-goody so I pretty much kept going to bed early, but I definitely enjoyed spending some time with the group before we all go our separate ways. (It’s not goodbye forever; we’ll see each other for In Service Training in September).

All in all for me it was quite a rough weekend, but I landed back here in site okay. Day 1 back, I’m just trying to get my bearings and check all my boxes for getting settled in. Making sure my renting option is coming along smoothly, getting schedules from all of my co-teachers, pasearing and getting to know people, hopefully getting some brain juices flowing about secondary projects. The compliments just keep flowing from people about my Spanish. I think they’re just surprised that a gringa speaks the language. They get a lot of US Army volunteers that come here for medical trips that don’t speak the language (although those medics do treat fevers and stuff, from what I hear!). People keep asking if I have family with Latin roots. One teacher today told me I speak like I’m from Los Santos. I highly doubt that, but maybe that just means I need to speak a little bit more professionally. I’m just getting to that point where I’m figuring out how to code-switch in Spanish. (For those who don’t know what code-switching is, just think of it as the difference between the way you speak with your family and friends and the way you speak in more professional situations.)

Today there was more wonder about my hair. My celebrity is beginning to be known. I’m pretty sure I got piropo-ed by some seventh graders (not cool; we’re gonna cut that out TODAY), and I went into a 5^th grade class and heard the students whispering my name—I hadn’t been in any fifth grade classrooms before today. I also had a funny moment today whereby I was looking for the last English teacher I had yet to meet. I’m sitting in the teacher’s lounge writing up some stuff when a teacher I had met a couple of weeks ago sits down and talks to me. He had introduced himself as ‘Luis’ when I met him a couple of weeks ago and spoke quite a bit of English. I wasn’t quite sure why he was talking to me so much, but eventually via context clues and questions I figured out he was an English teacher, aka one of the individuals with whom I am to work as part of my primary project. I’m so confused, because the teacher I was looking for was evidently named something like ‘Gustavino.’ Like a boss, I fix this situation by getting him to write down his contact information, since I need it from all the English teachers. This is how I learned that Luis is his first name and Justavino is one of his other names. Like a third name or last name or something, I don’t know, this guy has like four names. Irony? Anyone? I’m wondering how I’m going to find this teacher I have yet to meet, and I had ALREADY MET HIM TWO WEEKS AGO and he had been talking to me for like 5 minutes before I realized he was the teacher I was looking for. Serendipity, found him!

The last teacher whose schedule I do not have is in Panama City since her mom is feeling ill. I’ve met her and she seems nice. She lives close by, so she’ll be super easy for me to get in contact with when I need to catch up with her for work.

Other than that, some observations in my school include the fact that new teachers hang out with one another, and the ones that have been here longer tend to hang out together. There are only 8 English teachers, but they don’t all know each other, really. I think that’d be the easiest thing for me to change as an English facilitator. It couldn’t hurt to get them to start working together. . .  Also I met ANOTHER chiricano teacher. They’re pretty much all from Chiriqui!

I stuck my nose in on a PTA meeting for like 2 seconds and saw that the parents and teachers were discussing school photos. Let me tell you, Panamanian school pictures are like 5 times sassier than American ones. It’s like a beauty shot, even the ones for the guys. There is lots of photoshop involved.

Welp, I’m hoping to be able to finish getting everyone’s schedule this week so that I can have a meeting with all of the teachers and begin observing next week. I’m thinking of observing for one week per teacher. I’d like to observe for two weeks each, but I have eight teachers, so I think observing for one week each may be all I can do before I need to start brainstorming ideas for how to help with each teacher. Bleh, too many co-teachers.

Uhh, I think that’s where I’m at right now. I’m just trying to take it easy and ease pretty slowly into my first week. I’ve got a lot going on that I need to sort out. I went to visit the house that I plan on moving into in late July or August and I plan on doing a little bit of organizing in my room today so that I can get all of my ducks in a row.

Before I leave this extra-long blog post, I also have to shout out Danny’s mom! (Danny is the Group 72 volunteer closest to my site, and he informed me the other day that his mom reads my blog.) Thanks for reading the blog Ms. Danny’s mom, and thanks for raising a good kid, he’s going to be a big help to have him down the road for support during my Peace Corps service! J

Ok kids, I pretty much wrote a novel with that one. Congratulations if you actually read that blog post. I’ll keep you updated on developments as I get settled in here in site!

Also my host brother is in the next room singing along to One Direction. So there's that.

Site Visit Continued. . .

Site Visit Continued. . .

Today was my first day visiting the school where I’m going to be working on my primary project for the next two years. It was a pretty regular day. I hung around the school for the morning, walking around with my counterpart and meeting some of the teachers and administrators. They all seemed nice and welcoming. I sat in on some classes. Since they’ve had a Peace Corps Volunteer before, they had an idea of the work that I was there to do. I also happened to sit in on a meeting that my counterpart was helping to lead. Evidently there will be a Black Heritage Festival act school next month, so. . .that’s pretty cool. Also, one of the Spanish teachers at the school gave me a book that his 10^th graders are reading. I thought that was pretty cool. The theme of the book interests me (income disparities between the rich and poor, I mean duh, I’m in the Peace Corps), and it’s a light read for a native speaker, so it’s on a level that I wouldn’t find too taxing to read as a second language learner.

After school, I walked home with my host mom and host sister (my host mom is a 1^st grade teacher and my host sister is in 2^nd grade at the school). On the way home, I stuck my head in the USAID office that is RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY HOST MOM’S HOUSE WHAT?!? (Translation for confused readers: USAID=US Agency for International Development, Google it.) Office is a term that I used loosely. It’s essentially a room on the side of a restaurant that has the USAID sign out front. I went in and there was one guy typing on a computer. Since I was already dressed up in teacher clothes, I wanted to go introduce myself while wearing my snazzy Peace Corps Panama shirt, so I did that. The USAID guy seemed very receptive to meeting me, so we exchanged contact information after talking about some of the projects that USAID has going on in Darien. I hope we’ll be able to work together in the future, and that seems like a definite possibility. (Definite possibility. . .that’s an oxymoron. Anyway. . .)

After that, I ate some arroz con pollo for my lunch really fast (I put ketchup on it in true Panamanian fashion), and then I went to go meet my regional leader to essentially pasear and get to know the community a little better. It is super helpful having her here. We walked over to the house that I’m going to try and rent after my 3 months living with the host family, and it seems like that housing situation should work out pretty well. The house is pretty spacious, has running water pretty frequently, has electricity, and is pretty cheap to rent. I saw the house and everything (a previous Peace Corps Volunteer lived there) and my regional leader talked to the landlord and I have his number, so it seems like things are falling into place as far as that’s concerned. (Knock on wood!) I also met my ‘alternative’ host mom, aka the mom of the backup host family that I would move into should things not work out with my current host family for some reason.

After that, we went over to my regional leader’s house. She has a pretty SWEET setup in a gorgeous house. She got super lucky renting that place out. She lives with a Peace Corps Response Volunteer who is a former Peace Corps Panama Volunteer. (No, I don’t wanna explain the difference. Google it!) We chilled in the Regional Leader’s house for awhile, and then she showed me where the Post Office is. FYI, if you wanna mail me a letter or something, it’s SUPER easy. Ask me for the address and I’ll give it to you. It’s so easy it’s kind of dumb. You just put my name on it with the city, province and country and I can literally go get it from the post office in a couple of weeks. The post office is never busy, which is nice, but they are also super slow. With no patrons in the post office, it still took about 15 minutes for the postal worker to put a stamp on my Regional Leader’s letter so that it could go to the US. Efficiency at its finest is pretty humbling to behold.

Other than that, I talked to my dad today. Shout out to Anthony Kennedy for 1) Picking up the phone. I only had to call twice for him to pick up the phone. 2) Paying attention to me long enough to hold a conversation. Daddy, your attention span KILLS me, sometimes. 3) Actually having read my blog. I was pleasantly surprised when he referenced it in conversation and asked me how my site was. Good job, Dad, you win brownie points today!

Alright, kiddos, that’s all I got for you all today. I go back to my training community in a couple of days to wrap up training. In a couple of weeks, I’ll return and be out here in the Darien for good, and that’s when the work starts!

This is your brain on Peace Corps

I wrote this post a few days ago, just now posting. . .

I had kind of been in a funk and not quite the same ever since site placement last week, and today is kind of the first day that I started to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

When we last left our heroine, she was trying to be upbeat in the face of a small unexpected curveball. Today, she’s kind of cracked, but in a good way. You know when things start out so badly, they can only get better? Yea, that.

Let’s start from the beginning-ish. Group 72 TE went out to Cocle for our Community Entrance Conference on Wednesday and Thursday, aka this event where a counterpart from our community comes to learn more about our role in the community as a last-minute refresher before we, the Peace Corps Volunteers, actually enter the community (all of the counterparts for Teaching English are—duh—English teachers). While there, I was SUPER tired, but I powered through. I met my community counterpart, who informed me that, between the primary and middle school classes, I have 8 co-teachers in my site. EIGHT?! I was gunning for half that many. Begin mini-freak out in my head about how I’m gonna juggle 8 teachers and still try and make it out the University once in a while without leaving the high school students hanging out to dry if they want some Native English Speaker-love. (I know, why do I worry myself so? At times I question my sanity.)

My counterpart seemed pretty cool. She did, however, keep mentioning negative aspects of Darien. Her family is on the other side of the country and she’s only working in Darien in order to earn a permanent teaching position in her home province (as are many teachers who work in Darien). Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling super pumped about heading out there.

After we were done in Cocle (which is on the opposite site of the Canal from Darien, pull out your maps if you don’t believe me), we needed to somehow make it out to my community. In order to do that, we decided to head down to Panama City, stay there in a hostel for the night, and head out to Darien in the morning. Peace Corps gave us a ride into the city (about a 2 hour trip), and we stayed in a hostel, where we ran into—wouldn’t you know it?—more Peace Corps Volunteers. My counterpart and I walked around and enjoyed the weather for a bit, ate dinner, and then crashed for the night. The next morning—surprise!—I didn’t have to catch a bus to Darien, which was cool by me (I have a crap-ton of luggage). My counterpart called up her boyfriend to give us a ride out to my community (about a 4 hour trip).

I was very thankful that I had the luck that my counterpart knew someone kind enough to take us all the way out to Darien, and at the same time I was not enjoying that trip. Once you leave Panama Este heading into Darien, the roads start sucking. I don’t get carsick at all, but that does not mean I was enjoying the back and forth swaying motion of us semi-violently avoiding potholes. As a side note, on the way, my counterpart pointed out what she referred to as the worst prison in Panama and told me that sometimes criminals escape from there. I just nodded my head and grunted in agreement.

Either way, we arrive at my new host family’s house and I’m not in a good mood, but I’m pulling through. I meet my host mom who seems like a nice woman. My eight year old host sister is way excited/interested to have me there, so she’s grinning from ear to ear. I lug my things to my sauna of a room and I’m a little less than ecstatic about the lack of space. I mean, hey, I’m a big person, so when I can’t stretch my legs out, it’s a less than desirable situation.

For lunch I eat the first unrecognizable meal I’ve had since I’ve been in Panama. (Have I not told you about my Iron Chef Santa Rita host mom? Remember the context: I’ve been spoiled up until this point.) I still have some left-over crankiness, but I know I should pasear and not be a bum, so I walk around with my host mom to run some errands, which makes me feel a little better. Despite whatever electrolytes the heat may be draining from my pores, sun and being outside generally make me feel better. Whatever, the rest of that day happens. Activities include bathing/washing hair (mad sweat, yo, bucket shower!), twisting my locks for the first time since I’ve been in Panama (if you don’t know what that means, it’s okay. Sorry white people, I love you, I just don’t have time to explain), eating dinner, talking on the phone for some moral support, and going to sleep.

Day 2 of visit. I wake up, eat some breakfast (pretty standard, chorizo and tortilla, so I’m happy) and go to church with my host mom and sister. This is like Sunday school pretty much, except it’s Saturday. There are songs and children. I stand there like a winner, looking just like a champ, because I don’t know any of these songs, so I’m just watching and nodding. (Sarcasm by the way, because I’m sure I probably didn’t look like a winner, but it’s okay because there’s no shame in Peace Corps.) I think next time I’ll be able to participate, because now I’ve seen these songs once before. I did contribute to the prayer, though! We all stood in a circle and said what we were thankful for. BOOM, I can say that in Spanish without needing previous knowledge of said children’s songs and without exposing my lack of ability to recite the Lord’s Prayer in Spanish.

I come home, clean my room a little bit (I’m cleaning it in stages so it’s not overwhelming) and then I decide I want to get out of the house. I drink some water to avoid dehydration/immediate loss of conscious upon exposure to Panamanian sun, and I set off down the road in the direction of what I believe to be the center of town, more or less. I pretty much just walked down the main road until I got to the Interamericana and went to see what’s available in the biggest supermarket in town. (Spoiler alert: Doesn’t fit into my schema for supermarket, but that’s okay, because I really don’t need much. Giant tienda es suficiente para mi.) I get some cat-calls on the way, but less than I was anticipating, so I didn’t mind it at all, really. That was good.

On the way back I gotta Sprite (I don’t generally drink a lot of soda, but that heat takes it out of you, man!). When I got home, I ate a lunch that I recognized (rice, chicken, coleslaw) and took a nap. Then, I got up, took a shower (sweat, yo), and went to the little tienda to get some laundry detergent. There was no water at that point for the laundry, so I just waited and cleaned my room and wrote a draft of my swear-in speech in the meantime. Later, the water was on, so my mom rushed me to grab my clothes and toss them in the washer so I could strike while the iron was hot (yes, we have a washing machine, whoop, whoop!) Also, what I thought was my host dad invading my room earlier turned out to be him installing a lock on my door. He gave me the keys for the door. Also my host mom put a fan in my room, so it’s no longer a sauna. Also I found out my host brother speaks English. Ok, not fluently, but he DID randomly come up to me while I was doing laundry and begin forming sentences in English. He’s a freshman at the University in town, and he’s studying English. My counterpart is his teacher. I just found that out today. When I first met my host brother, he didn’t seem that interested in the fact that I was present (also I hadn’t talked to him much, since he was mysteriously missing all day), so imagine my surprise in finding out he’s excited to have me. He really wants to practice his English more. And he was missing all day because he had classes all day.

I didn’t tell the story exactly in the order of things that happened, but just know that the fan appearing in my room courtesy of my host mom was the last thing that happened in the sequence of events (after about 20-30% of the unnecessary stuff was removed from my room, thereby creating more space), so when I saw that thing, I was about ready to laugh hysterically and cry tears of joy all at the same time. Somehow, my quality of life just improved by like one thousand percent. Again, I sometimes seriously question my sanity. This is where my life decisions have led me.

This is your brain on Peace Corps.

I have a phone, now

If you want the number, hit up Ebony or email me at askenned@gmail.com.

Murphy’s Law, Yin and Yang, Whatever you wanna call it

So remember how I keep blogging about how everything is pretty much going perfectly in Panama? Friday totally made up for all of that, so we’re on even ground, now.

This is where you get out a map of Panamá.

I’ll wait.

Ok, now remember how I said I wanted to be around Veraguas, Herrera or Los Santos? Find that on the map. Now just disregard that area altogether and look East over there by the Colombian border. That’s where I’m at. Célula 5, baby, me and the FARC are gonna be kickin’ it right smack dab in the middle of Darién.

I exaggerate. I won’t actually be kidnapped by terrorists or drug lords (calm down, people!). At the same time, it was a huge shock for me when I got that site, since it was exactly the last thing I was expecting. There are 23 TE volunteers in my group, each being assigned to one of 25ish sites. What were the odds I would get the ONE site in the Darien? It was the farthest thing from my mind.

Sin embargo, my fellow Group 72 TE trainees are super supportive. Given everything I had said about site placement up until yesterday, they could all guess how shaken up I was about being sent to the Darién, so I had about 20 people throughout the afternoon trying to talk me down from the mild hysteria I suffered upon learning that I’d be in a site that was a completely different size and location from that which I had discussed in my site placement interview. They keep trying to convince me I’m being sent out there because I’m super awesome. I don’t know if I buy that (spoiler alert: I don’t), but sea lo que sea, I’m heading out there next week, and I got no choice but to make the most of it. I’m jumping in head first. Wish me luck, I’ll keep you all updated on how this goes!

It's Tech Week

Sooooo I’m in Cocle. It’s Tech Week for Panama Teaching English Trainees (Group 72, woop woop!). We’re having Tech Week in Cocle, which means for four days, we’re with some of the English teachers in the region to observe them, help them lesson plan and co-teach. This morning I feel like I reached Nirvana. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I found myself observing with one of my fellow trainees in a kindergarten classroom—this teacher I observed is the supreme being of kindergarten teachers. She is amazing. The best thing that I would’ve probably been able to do to done to help her was to help her improve her level of English, so I gave her like two tips on things she could change about the way she was saying a couple of phrases in class and she picked it up IMMEDIATELY. This woman is amazing. I want to BE her. She said she really wants to go to the United States and learn more English, and I think she’d be a great candidate for that. She’s already a fantastic teacher, so more English would not only help her, but it would help all the cute little tiny people that she teaches every day.

In other news, I’m not sure I realized how attached I was to my family in Santa Rita until I came out here to Cocle. My host fam here in Cocle is nice, but there’s nothin’ like my Santa Rita host mom yellin’ at me that I didn’t eat enough or my little host brother constantly trying to jack my clipboard when I’m trying to do homework. When I was leaving to catch my bus to Cocle, my cousin’s like “Ajaaaaaaa no te vayaaaaas.” I was like, let’s keep it real, I don’t ACTUALLY feel like going, I just want to stay here in this hammock with you guys. Alas, duty calls. I came to Panama to actually do work, so ya know how that goes. Sometimes you have to get out of the hammock. It’s a sad, sad reality.

Today I got to have the first extended conversation with someone from home that I’ve had in a while. Here with the host family in Cocle, the next door neighbors have unsecured Wifi (yea, it’s pretty fancy over there), so therefore I’m able to steal a pretty strong internet connection that allows me to Skype. I discovered this today. I got to talk with my sister (shout out 2/3!) about the awesome MGK concert she went to (jealous). I also gave her a crash course on some light Panamanian geography (the little that I’ve picked up since I’ve been there, ya know, naming the regions and such) and then I told her to focus some energy on getting me a placement in Veraguas, Herrera or Los Santos. Group 72 finds out our site placements this Friday. For those of you who don’t know what site placement means, it means that this Friday I find out where I’m going to be living for the next TWO YEARS. If you’re reading this, feel free to bust out a map of Panama (via Google) and just pray or do whatever you gotta do to get me where I want as far as placement goes. At this point, all I know is that’s it’s not Cocle. . .because the directors of the Teaching English Project are torturing us with hints about our placement, and that’s the only hint I’ve got so far.

As far as training goes, I’ve got a lot of work to get done, but I think this may be the last batch of the assignments that I’ll really need to get through for training. I’ve got a paper to write and two presentations for next week, I’ve got to finish my little packet that I’ve got to turn in on Friday for Tech Week, and then I need to write a speech for the swear-in ceremony. (My G72 homies are awesome, when we found out someone’s gotta do a speech for swear-in, they’re like “Aja, you wanna do it?” and I’m like “Heck yes!” Only now that means I gotta write a speech.)

Ahhhh, well, all I can do is put some positive energy out there and hope for the best! I’m excited for what’s to come. ¡Dale, pues!