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.