So,
a couple things happened recently. I took a vacation, and then I went to Panama
City for Mid-Service Training.
SAN
BLAS
Being
in the Peace Corps has its difficulties at times, but being in the Peace Corps
in Panama most definitely has its
perks.
San
Blas, also known as Kuna Yala, is an indigenous reservation located on the
Caribbean coast of Panama, East of the Canal. In addition to being home to the
second shortest people in the world, it is also a popular tourist destination
for backpackers in Panama, given that it has some of the clearest, most
beautiful waters in the world.
Living
in Eastern Panama means that, strictly geographically speaking, I don’t live
very far from this Caribbean paradise.
A
vacation in San Blas generally doesn’t run you too much, and a few of my
friends and I got a pretty sweet discounted vacation when a fellow PCV (Amber)
had to cancel a San Blas trip with her parents and brother after they got sick
following a trip to her site in the Comarca Embera-Wounaan. They had to cancel
the trip at the last minute, after having already paid the deposit.
This
was very unfortunate for Amber’s parents. It DID however, mean that Amber, three
other PCVs and myself were in a great position to take advantage of a discount
trip to San Blas. Cover the half of the trip that was not paid for by the
deposit and—just like that—we’ve got a four day, three night vacation in
paradise!
It
was a wonderful break for a Peace Corps Volunteer. We stayed on a small island
with beautiful beaches and crystal clear water, we snorkeled over to a
neighboring island, looked at beautiful coral and fishes, toured out in the
boat, and played beach volleyball for about three straight days.
The
best part of the trip? Kuna people. I would have thought they’d be jaded by the
amount of tourists that constantly come to their island, but it turns out that
they rotate tourist duties every three months. There are many San Blas islands,
some serve as homes to the Kuna people who live there. Others have been set up
as tourist destinations, with cabins for guests to stay, toilets and showers
for bathroom needs, and restaurants to supply meals (included in the vacation
package!). A person charged with working on the tourist island is only there
for three months at the time, and then returns to their normal life at home
while someone else in the family takes up their post for the next three months.
Because
of this (I’ve decided), the Kuna people are always ready to play volleyball
with us. It’s awesome. As soon as they get a free minute from their duties
(driving boats, filling water tanks, cleaning rooms, cooking food), they’re
first question is “WHEN ARE WE PLAYING VOLLEYBALL?! LET’S GO!! GET AMPED!!”
And
boy do they play volleyball. They have so much energy! We had a lot of good
laughs. Mostly at Pedro’s expense, since he was often mentally absent during
games and therefore dropped the ball on quite a few plays.
I
also, of course, had a fantastic time hanging out with my East Side homies.
Their sillyness keeps me in stitches. Needless to say, none of us were ready to
leave the island when we did. I don’t think anyone ever willingly leaves San
Blas!
MID-SERVICE
TRAINING (MST)
MST
is a new facet of programming for Peace Corps Panama. The volunteers in my
group all had to meet with their respective programs (Teaching English or
Community Environmental Conservation) to discuss what is and isn’t working in
our respective projects’ programming, the future of the program, and also look
ahead to our close of service (which occurs in one short year—my, my how time
flies). We closed discussing graduate school opportunities as well as
opportunities to extend our Peace Corps Service.
The
critical portion of our meeting was exhausting at times, but I’m glad we got
through it. Man, it takes a lot of energy to make effective critiques! You have
to articulate and qualify your points so that they are well understood, while
maintaining a good level of diplomacy so that all parties feel that their points are being understood and
considered as well—man it’s a struggle! All of us in the Teaching English
project are public service oriented, though, and really want what’s best for
the Panamanian people and institutions that we serve, so it was refreshing to
have that platform by which we were able to have some input into the direction
of the project in which we work.
On
the last day of training, we looked ahead at our individual projects for the
next year and even went as far ahead as to consider our lives after Peace
Corps—we finish service in a year! (Unbelievable.) This was the first time I seriously
considered the fact that I won’t be in the Peace Corps forever, and the first
time I seriously considered the fact that I MAY not be ready to leave after two
years. We talked about opportunities to extend into a third year as a Peace
Corps Volunteer and, although I’ve recently been getting pumped for grad
school, I started to think that grad school can wait, and having this
opportunity to gain full-time experience in grassroots development and to build
relationships with the Panamanian people and with the amazing Peace Corps
Volunteers that I’ve grown close to—that’s not an experience I’m going to be
able to have again. What am I going to do with my life?
Who
knows, though? At this point, I’m still very on the fence about it, but I’ve
got time to decide! My close-of-service conference is in December, so I won’t
have to begin seriously considering extensions until September. My service ends
in mid- to late-April next year. Beyond that, who knows? We’ll see where I end
up next year this time.
By
the end of Mid-Service Training, I was a little sad to leave my original set of
government-issued Peace Corps friends (collect them all!). I never see Group
72, so coming to training felt like a weird high school reunion—I don’t know
them anymore! Even so, leaving them after training to come back to my province
may kind of foreshadow what it will be like to leave them in a year. I’m going to
miss those guys!
But
never mind all this crazy talk—we still have another year in this country,
and—like I’ve said before—we are going to make the most out of it!
No comments:
Post a Comment