Grad School

I have made a life-changing decision.

Are you sitting down?

I have decided to apply for grad school.

Don't get it twisted: I still want to be a Foreign Service Officer!

I just mapped out my life for the next 3-4 years and thought about the 'beyond' and decided that at this point in my life, getting a master's in public policy or public administration only makes sense.

For those of you who don’t know what a master’s in public policy or public administration (MPP/MPA) is. . .it’s essentially a degree for people who want to save the world, but from a policy (read: administrative) level. It is an interdisciplinary professional degree that equips candidates with a breadth of knowledge and skills applicable to the world of public administration and policy analysis, including economics, management, political science, quantitative statistics, etc. Most programs are two year programs.

If you want to know more, click here >> http://www.idealist.org/info/Podcast/Gradschool/PublicPolicy/Transcript

This is a degree that not only would do a LOT in terms of training me in skills that would help me get into the US Foreign Service, but would also train me for essentially any job that I personally would want to have (since I DO want to work in public service in some capacity, whether that’s with the government or an NGO--all of which are careers that MPP/MPA graduates pursue).

I have spent the past week internet-obsessing over master's programs and have made a list of schools to which I think I will begin applying in July/August-ish (UC Berkeley, Univ. Michigan-Ann Arbor, Syracuse, Harvard, Princeton) in hopes of beginning grad school in summer/fall 2015. (I finish Peace Corps in May 2015. . .perfect timing!)

After looking at admissions requirements for some of the top MPP/MPA programs in the United States, I have come to the conclusion that I could stand a good chance of getting into one, if not several of these programs. The best part: I’ve researched several sources of funding for these programs! I think I could potentially get some financial support for this whole master’s degree endeavor. (Let’s all knock on wood/pray about it!) I definitely have lots of essays to write!

I’ve already taken the GRE, and I think my scores are good enough, so that’s one less thing to worry about. In the meantime, I will continue studying for the FSOT for October and keep applying for Foreign Service throughout grad school.  I want to give myself the best shot I can at getting a job offer from the State Department upon graduation.

In the meantime, I’ve still got a year left here in Peace Corps, and I definitely plan on making the most of it!

I guess this means I’ll actually be moving back to the States for a couple of years. Much love to all of my family in the 704/803! I love you all, and I’ll hugging and kissing you all before you know it!

I Moved!

I moved to a bigger house. My immediate neighbors moved, so my landlord let me move into their house. It’s like a mansion. It’s so huge. I have so much space for my friends to crash, now.

I’m planning on inaugurating my house with a family dinner with my East Side peeps.

I will miss some things about the old house, though. It was termite-eaten and pretty much falling down, but there were some good memories in that house.

Things I will miss about my house:

1. The hole in the floor. Cartucho could come and go as she pleased, even when I wasn’t there. I never had to worry about whether I was shutting her in/out. I’m going to rig up a way that she can get in and out of my new house when I’m not there.

2.Outdoor shower. My feet always came out dirty when I left the shower, but it WAS nice to literally bathe IN THE RAIN when it poured down in rainy season. There’s nothing like taking a shower in the rain. It repairs your mental health on bad days. 

3.Visitors occupying my space. (This is a plus and a minus.) Yes, it is a little stressful when visitors come over and there is only so much space to be had in my house, but I think there was something bond-building about the fact that almost all Peace Corps Volunteers on the East Side of Panama have, at some point, crashed in my tiny house with me. It just won’t be the same when we’re not all sleeping in essentially the same space, making stupid jokes in the dark until we finally fall asleep.

I wasn’t expecting to be missing my house when I moved out. (Let’s keep it in perspective: I literally moved ten feet away.) I do, however, feel that this moment kind of foreshadowed what it will be like moving away from this place (a.k.a. Darien). Seeing my old house--now empty, save the garbage--I thought about how tough it’s going to be when I move back to the States in a year. (SPOILER: Yea, I’m going back to the States. I made a life-changing decision. See: next blog post.) I’m definitely NOT ready to leave the D yet, so I’m happy I have another year, I just hope that I’m ready to leave Darien when I’m scheduled to. J

Volunteer Visits!

Talk about things coming full circle.

1)   Remember the volunteer who I first visited a year ago when I was training? Anyway, she’s a tall and lanky one, and she COSed (finished her service) recently, so, being as she doesn't want to carry all of her things back to the States, I just came into possession of a good amount of clothing and shoes that actually fit me. . .did I mention it was free? Yea, I feel like a baller right now.

2)  I just had my visit from a current trainee! My visitor’s name is Chelsea and she’s a group 74 Teaching English trainee (soon-to-be volunteer!). Chelsea is a SUPER good time, and, although it’s sad to know that she won’t be placed in Darien, I’m at least hoping for an East Side site for her JUST so we can be friends!

SITE VISIT

I was pumped to get to hang out with one of the newcomers, talk to her a little about Peace Corps life, and teach her all I’ve learned about Darien province and about indigenous culture in Darien and the Comarcas Embera-Wounaan.

While Chelsea visited, we took a short trip to visit one of my East Side buddies in the Comarca Embera-Wounaan so that, while Chelsea was out in my site, she could also get a little context about where some of the people are from. (There are a lot of indigenous people in my site that either are from the Comarca and/or make trips to my site to shop before returning to their homes.) I always have a blast visiting volunteers in their sites to see where they live and how they interact with their gente. This trip was no exception, and the three of us enjoyed hanging around the community, playing/bathing in the river, and even enjoying some jungle meat and plantains that we cooked for dinner, gifted to us by some rather generous neighbors that had been hunting that day.

We also went fishing. Quick anecdote that illustrates what a lot of volunteers experience in their communities here in Panama:

Chelsea, Benja and I decided that we were going to go fishing, just for the fun of it. Benja had a spear and some goggles, so we hit the river armed to kill something and eat it for dinner on the off chance that we succeeded in the hunt.

As expected, us gringos weren’t really that adept at the whole catching-your-own-food thing, so Benja kind of moved his efforts over toward an area where a few of the neighbors were hanging out in the river. Seeing their resident gringo in distress and lacking the necessary skills to catch his dinner, the neighbors went into action. They immediately requested the goggles and spear and went to work catching several camarones (shellfish), and even added on couple of fish that they caught with their bare hands. Added to the veggies Chelsea and I brought from my site and the conejo (rabbit) and patacones (fried plantains) that we made later, (compliments of the same neighbors’ generosity,) we had a feast that night. It was delicious.

The point of the story is, here in Peace Corps Panama, us Volunteers don’t always find that our community members are apt to teach us how to do things. However, what they are always willing to do is help out a defenseless gringo by taking over the work. If you want to get something done and you don’t really know how, just stage a poor effort in front of your gente. They’ll take over from there.

Anyway, moving on to other parts of my site visit:

In sharp contrast to Comarca life, one of the realities of my site is that I essentially run the social gathering scene for Darien Peace Corps Volunteers. Being that I live in the travel hub, volunteers are constantly traveling through my site, so although Chelsea and I did pasear a lot in my community, we also did spend plenty of time hanging out with other Darien volunteers. She didn’t seem to have a problem with that, though. :)

I wasn’t really ready for Chelsea to leave, but I’m glad she got to stay out here as long as she did. She's now headed to finish up training in the training community and find out her site placement in a few weeks. I am excited for her site announcement so that I can see where she ends up living for the next two years, and I will definitely be visiting her in site once she’s all settled in!

Once again, much love to everybody in the States! Shout out to my Dad for finally applying for a passport. Now he just has to actually receive said passport in the mail and buy a ticket so he can come see what the Dirty D is all about!

P.S. Exciting news: I’m moving into a bigger house! So excited! This will be so much more accommodating to the numerous guests I tend to have, AND I’ll be able to bust a move on my new concrete floor without making my house fall apart. I’ll keep you all updated!

“Who was that white dude and that tall black girl that kept dancing all up in the street?”

The title of this post is a loose translation of the question that my friend Rosie fielded from the gente (people) in her community after my travel buddy (another East Side PCV) and I left the Azuero after Carnavales.

We are some dancing people, so needless to say, we cut quite a few rugs at carnaval.

Carnaval in Panama is a once a year event that, over the course of a few days, commemorates the beginning of Lent season and ends just before Ash Wednesday. During those few days, Panamanians party like it’s 1999. A lot of people travel to the Azuero Peninsula for the festivities, since the Azuero is commonly accepted as the hub of Latin culture within Panama.

A WORD ABOUT CARNAVALES

CULECOS

Travel buddy and I decided that if there is one word that could some up Panamanian carnaval it is culeco. There’s even a verb form. Culecear. (Carnavalear, to go to carnaval, is also a word when you’re in the Azuero.)

What are culecos? I honestly pity the person who does not know. Now that I have learned, I can never go back.

Picture the biggest block party you’ve ever seen, but 5 times that size and with like 17 different DJs ALL playing reggaeton AT THE SAME TIME. Now throw in a LOT of people, as in packed body to body, and then for good measure, top it off with a hot, dry Azuero sun.

Your picture is not yet complete. Your fellow party-goers are dressed in flamboyantly bright clothing, there are rainbow flags and queens dressed up everywhere, and to top it all off, right when the heat of the sun begins to get to you, you just yell “AGUA! (WATER!)” and someone will gladly spray you with a hose.

There are giant trucks of water strapped with hoses JUST so people can climb up and spray everyone walking or dancing in the street. There are children with water guns. There are people with coolers of ice who just dump cold water on passersby when that ice melts.

There is an unwritten rule at any culeco that when you walk into the area, it is completely fair for any complete stranger to, at any time, soak you from head to toe.

It’s the perfect atmosphere for maximum debauchery. You don’t even have to dress up or look cute, because you’re just going to get wet anyway. Wrap your phone in a plastic bag and don’t bring a lot of cash with you, just throw on a tank top and some shorts and knock back a few beers—you are ready to culecear!