It’s been exhausting and exhilarating and—I’m not going to lie—emotional. I don’t have too much time left in Panama with my crazy new gringo friends. After all we’ve been through, our little Peace Corps family will be spreading across the US and across the world pretty soon!
I’ve been on some adventures recently. I took a trip around some parts of Darien I had yet to see. That was another crazy and exhausting experience. It’s pretty amazing that Peace Corps has granted me the ability to visit and really get to know some corners of the world I may never have gotten to visit otherwise. (Tourists have to go through a lot of red tape from border patrol to get out into the Darien Gap/Sambu region, but as Peace Corps, I can hop on boats and travel out there whenever I want!) During this trip I attend anniversary celebration of the indigenous reservation, Sambu. The indigenous people out there know how to have a good time! It was a very fun, family-friendly environment. Basketball tournaments, dance competitions, hold-your-breath competitions, etc.
Anyway, I can’t just talk about Darien, because I’ve been EVERYWHERE during the past three weeks.
Among other things, I went to Chiriqui to give a youth development seminar on the Costa Rican border with a few other PCVs. My friend Logan had invited me out there to participate. I was glad he did, because his site is on the other side of the country from me! If he hadn’t have invited me for this seminar, I may not have made it out there. I was so glad I did come out. His site is BEAUTIFUL! I also had a great time hanging out with my chiricano PCVs (PCVs living in Chiriqui). Living in Darien, I never get to see them.
The seminar was given to about seventy ninth graders in Logan’s school, and it was a huge success! Those kids are smart as a whip and understood all of the big ideas we were feeding them—values, self-esteem, goal-setting and sexual health.
Following three days in Logan’s site (and after he bought us all delicious fried chicken. . .that’s another story), I took off for San Felix (another town in Chiriqui) to crash at another PCV house for a few days. I stayed with Ben and Rachel, a couple of East Siders who moved West a few months ago. It kind of felt like a little mini-reunion!
After that. . .three days in Cerro Punta, Chiriqui. Beautiful town. Nice and fresco (chilly) as we like to say. I went there for a two-day training of 45 PCV facilitators for the Gender and Development Board’s summer youth conferences. I also practiced for our World AIDS Day Flashmob and, of course—celebrate Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving for me went a lot more smoothly than expected, given the amount of work I needed to get done during the festivities. The playlist for the Thanksgiving dances was bangin’ (thanks again to Logan) and there were generally positive vibes all around during the celebration. Like I always say, spending Thanksgiving at a celebration with Peace Corps Volunteers isn’t like it is with your family back in the States, but is always a good time spending a holiday being thankful to have your new family in Panama. :)
Side-bar: I won a superlative!
At Thanksgiving we always vote for Peace Corps superlatives for fun. (Most Panamanian, Most Crushed On, etc.). I won ‘Most Likely to be a Future Politican/President’. And then all my Peace Corps friends told me they’d vote for my (decidedly non-existent) ticket and we all decided what their individual cabinet positions should be. (I’m surprised those guys aren’t tired of listening to me talk after two years! Gotta love those people.)
Yea, Thanksgiving was a blast this year. The party’s not over then, though. I still had quite a few things to do. After spending a day at the beach (because I can), I traveled back to Panama City to participate in the Gender and Development Board’s Second Annual World AIDS Day Flashmob. It’s exactly what it sounds like. We flashmob in a public place, then we hold up posters with information about HIV and AIDS in order to promote awareness. We flashmobbed four times in the Cinco de Mayo/Casco Viejo area of Panama City.
That happened. It was SO MUCH FUN. It was hot. I was completely soaked in sweat from head to toe. I ran around in various stores on the shopping strip with a 10 second blurb about why I wanted to use their speakers to blast five minutes of pop music so that my group could dance. The participants had a great time.
After that was over, I hauled all my personal belongings and all of the Gender and Development Board’s work supplies over to Ciudad del Saber, near the Peace Corps office in Panama City. I’d be staying there for a week for the last leg of my journey out of site—COS Conference.
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