New Roomate and Foreign Service

I kind of accidentally have a new roommate.

He was out on the road in front of my house one evening looking kind of lost, so I let him crash for a night. It's not the kind of thing I would normally do in the States, but hey, I guess Peace Corps changes you.

That night he keeps making a lot of noise while I try to sleep, and even tries to climb into my bed with me SEVERAL TIMES, but I don't let him. (Peace Corps hasn't changed me THAT much.)

The next day, a couple of my friends come over to hang, and my houseguest doesn't even come out to say hi. He just stays inside my house and makes insane amounts of noise.

Needless to say, I kick him out that day. If he's lost, he'll find his way eventually.

Two days later, though, I awaken to hear him yelling on my porch at 2 IN THE MORNING. He has the nerve to come BACK to my house after I KICKED HIM OUT. I can see him through the wooden slats in my wall. I ignore him and go back to bed. When I wake up around 7, he's STILL THERE. I leave my doors closed and go about my morning as usual. Eventually, though, I have to open my door, so he makes it into my house again. I decide to just let it happen.

He stays for another day, so I give him some food, and he's been hanging around ever since. I guess I have a new roomate, now.

At first, he wouldn't let me pet him because he was afraid, but now all he ever wants is to sit on my lap and/or crawl into my bed when I'm trying to sleep. (It's better if he doesn't; Cartucho is a tiny kitty and I move in my sleep. I might crush him.)

I've never been a cat person, but now I have a cat! I can't say I'm upset about it.

In other news:

-I feel like I've been doing less work, recently.

-A lot of gringos have paseared by my house, recently.

-I've been seriously considering entering the US Foreign Service and becoming a diplomat, so I took the written exam (Foreign Service Officer Test) and PASSED on the first try without studying. That's right, I'm a genius.

-One time I had a super bad day (I NEVER have one of those, I'm generally pretty upbeat), so I closed myself in my house and ate grits. I felt better immediately. #ImFromTheSouth

-I successfully baked banana bread on top of a stove a couple of days ago. . .I told you, I'm a genius. I'm going to go Betty Crocker today and pasear around my town with baked goods to make my gente remember how awesome I am!!!!

Saludos a mi gente en los EEUU. No estaré este año para los días feriados, pero todos Uds. estarán en mis pensamientos. ¡Hasta la próxima, pues!

Estoy perdida

In Panama, when you haven't seen someone in awhile, you tell him/her that s/he has been "perdida," or lost. Ever since In-Service Training, I'm sure my community thinks I'm perdida. It's been awhile since I've even dropped by my neighbor's house!

So what have I been up to? Here's a recap:

WORK

1. SEMINARS! As an East Side (especially Darien) TE Volunteer, I want my primary goal during my service to be to support the multi-grade teachers in any way I can. These are teachers that work in small schools with very few students (we're talking K-6 schools with 11 students, even) that teach all subjects, including English. That's difficult to do when you don't speak English! Therefore, I want to provide as much support as I can for these schools that are often forgotten about by the government.

My first plan of action in this respect has been implementation of seminars for multi-grade teachers to learn basic English pronunciation and grammar, and to learn easy techniques for teaching vocabulary in class. (I didn't create these seminars, I'm just bringing them to the EAST SIDE! where they're most needed.)

I hope to continue this professional development in the future, and hopefully even visit more of these schools!

2. TE STRUGGLES :( PCVs are only in country for two years. Peace Corps gets a new group of Teaching English (TE) Volunteers once a year. The other TE PCV in Darien (ya know, the one that's not me. Her name is Kim) leaves in a few months, meaning that if the next group of TE Volunteers does not include one that's placed in the Darien, I'll be along, which makes my previously proposed project about 15 times harder. Darien getting cut out of TE site placements is a very real possibility, so this might be a struggle. (But have you met me? Come on now, I'm gonna fight, and strings are already being pulled!)

3. ADULT EFL CLASSES On the bright side, my adult EFL class keeps me sane. I have 5 students who are motivated to learn. They are fabulous!


PERSONAL (NON-WORK):

1. FOOD: I have hit a hot streak recently when it comes to free food. Lately, Darien has been raining food upon me, free of charge. My observations during the past eight months suggest a strong positive correlation between the length of time you converse with a Panamanian and the likelihood of recieving free food. If you ever visit Panama, feel free to exploit this information.

2. FSOT For those who don't know, I've been considering entering the US Foreign Service, and the first step in becoming a diplomat for the State Department is a written exam known as the Foreign Service Officer Test. It's free to take the test and you can take it once a year, so I decided to register for it, go to the Embassy and take it cole (without studying) to see how I do and to get an idea of what the test is like. (Luckily I was still able to sit the test, even during the government shutdown in the States).

The verdict? It wasn't that bad! I won't know whether I passed for about another month, but either way, even if I fail, I know that it won't be to hard for me to study up, get good and ready and give it another shot next year. Knock on wood!

Here's to hoping the government's up and running before the week is out. What up United States?

ALSO I'm going to the Panama v. USA soccer match on Tuesday! USA! USA!

Love you all! Shout out to the States, especially 803, 704 and 919 (in that order) mwah!*

*(I'm going to be perdida for the holidays. I'm not coming back this year, sorry y'all, but I love you all!)