I live by myself. :-/

I moved into my new house. This means that, for the first time in my life, I live by myself! I don’t have a roommate or anything. I live in a house. By myself. Forget moving to a new country along with new language/food/culture/whatever, nothing’s really thrown me for a loop so far, but this whole only-I-live-in-this-house-and-nobody-else thing. . .this could be interesting. I’m a people person. I like to talk, and I’m not used to having very much privacy or personal space anyway, so living in host families for me has been easier for me than it has been for some other volunteers, and I’ve actually really enjoyed that kind of life. Moving out on my own, however, may prove to be a different story. Hopefully this will not be my Achilles’s Heel.

Don’t worry, though, people! I have awesome neighbors that will make sure I don’t go crazy and that will come visit me in my house to make sure I’m still here.

You know what else happened that is super sad? I adopted a kitty from my host family’s house. She’s super cute and I named her Luz and she was content in my house for about 3 days. Then I stupidly left her out at night while I went to go hang out with some PC Volunteers, and when I got back she was nowhere to be found, and I haven’t seen her in the past three or four days. There’s a chance she may have gone back over to my host family’s house. I hope so, because that means they’ll let me know so I can come get her. Otherwise, I just have to take some time to get over that kitty before I get another one. I know a volunteer who has a pregnant cat, so I could get another one. . .bottom line, I need some other living being in my living space. The chickens that run across my floor and the neighbor’s cat who looks for food in my kitchen do not count.

Ebony-watch: Haha, see what I did, there? We spent a weekend in Casco Viejo, before I came back to Darien for work. She’s been to Cocle and Los Santos, and she’ll be in Chiriqui and Bocas Tel Toro before she comes to Darien, where I live. (These are all names of Panamanian provinces, by the way. Google a map of Panama if you want to actually understand that sentence.)

So, work. . .did a few charlas, that was cool. They were a little bit of a logistical nightmare, but now I’m learning the difference in the way I need to go about organizing things in Panama. Other than that, Adult ESL classes are still a lot of fun, and they make me feel like I’m actually doing something in my community, which is nice. My primary project is kind of at a stand-still as we come to the end of the trimester (exam time), but I’m hoping to get the most I can out of  my school work during late September and October before November starts. . .November in Panama is essentially one long feria (festival) aka almost no classes.

At the beginning of September I’ll be going to Cocle for Peace Corps In-Service Training. I feel like we just finished Pre-Service Training, so I am extremely annoyed that I have to leave my community for two solid weeks in order to spend long days sitting and listening to seminars. It’s not my idea of fun, but hey, ya can’t always get what you want. Before that, though, my sister will be visiting my community where I live, so I have that to look forward to! That’s going to be a lot of fun.

Welp, life is pretty much igual (the same), here. I bought a cheap guitar to start learning, so I can be even 

more of a stereotypical hippie (Peace Corps? Dreads? Teaching myself to play guitar? Sometimes you have to laugh at yourself.) Life’s good. Hit me up, people! What’s going on in the States? Got any questions about my life in Panama? Comment, Facebook, call me!