The title of this blog post will be explained a little later on.
Firstly, sorry for taking so long to update! Things have been CRAZY here and I have been pretty exhausted and haven't had much computer time. So I will try to give a quick recap of my past two weeks.
A week and a half ago, Tuesday, June 15th, the volunteers arrived in Panama! It was clearly and exciting day because the volunteers are the whole reason that we are here. 6 of the 9 of us went to Panama City to pick them up at the airport. We left pretty early from our city of Penonomé so that we would get to do a little sight-seeing in Panama City before the flight arrived at 230. We didn't have much time, but we did get to see Panamá Vieja, the old, colonial part of Panama City. Compared to the modern city, Panamá Vieja is pretty different. While many of the old colonial buildings have been restored beautifully, there are many historic buildings that are completely falling apart as well, creating an interesting juxtaposition.
So then the volunteers arrived! Which was very exciting but stressful, as 5 people's luggage was lost and the buses arrived late to take the volunteers to Penonomé. But everything ended up going well and we got underway with briefing, our 4-day training for the volunteers before they head out to the communities. We held briefing at a camp about 20 minutes outside of Penonomé - it is an evangelical campsite so there was lots of fun religious propaganda on the walls. Briefing went extremely well; we had planned for it for 2 days straight so it was definitely rewarding to see everything pay off. It was pretty stressful too because we had to observe and interview the volunteers in order to pair them off into partnerships and place them into communities. This process ended in a 6-hour staff meeting (on my 20th birthday, nonetheless!) in order to decide everything. The meeting brought out a lot of tension and strong personalities within our group, but everything ended pretty smoothly without incident. My birthday was as fun as it could have been considering what I was doing, and they bought a cake for me and all of the volunteers that have June birthdays. Briefing ended on Saturday the 19th with the volunteers being driven through a thunderstorm to their communities. Everyone arrived safe and sound so that was good news!
After briefing I had a break for about a day before I had to deal with some sick volunteers (nothing serious, just time consuming). Monday morning I left on "route" - my weekly trip spending a night in each one of my communities. I travel between my communities on buses (called "chivas" or "pick-up" - literally pickup trucks with benches in the back. For three out of my four communities, there is only one bus and driver, so I have begun to make a lot of new friends! Actually some of my favorite time throughout the week were my busrides (and the inevitable waits for the infrequent buses - i had to wait one time for three hours). But every time I had to wait for a bus I made new friends traveling to the same communities. It is so nice to actually see familiar faces around town while waiting for the bus. Apart from the bus rides, my week was both fun and stressful, for various reasons, but certainly a learning experience. I love all of my volunteers and it is great to spend time with them and see them become comfortable in the communities and get better at Spanish.
Probably the funniest part of my week was Wednesday night, which I passed in the community of Paguá. The community does not have electricity, so television and the like are not common. However, since the next day was both the Día de San Juan (some big saint's day in the schools here in Coclé) and also the 80th anniversary of the elementary school in the community, the town brought in a generator, tv, and dvd player, in order to show a movie. Not many people owned dvds (all pirated, of course), so the selection for viewing was pretty sparse. We started off at first watching the movie Norbit, a horrible Eddie Murphy movie made a few years ago. It was in English with Spanish subtitles but the tv was too small for anyone to read them. After about a half hour, we switched to "Revenge of the Eight Samurai", some horrible karate movie from the 80s that was originally in Chinese, dubbed in English, and lacking in Spanish subtitles. It was probably the most ridiculous and cheesy movie that I had ever seen, but the community was completely enthralled, despite the lack of Spanish. The title of this blog entry was one of the more funny quotes from the movie. The evening ended in a parade through the town after dark with tiki torches, and the young kids playing drums and xylophone. It was a fairly bizarre but enjoyable evening.
I got back from route yesterday evening and have been relaxing and filling out paperwork ever since. Today we watched the US-Ghana soccer game (lots of angry yelling at the end!) and had a barbecue for our neighbors and some people from the MINSA, the ministry of health. People showed up verry late (we invited them for 3 and they came at 6, but such is the "hora panameña"), but we had a great time entertaining people and using the grill that came with the house. Tomorrow we are going to the beach for a little relaxation and then on Monday I leave again for route! It is an exhausting but rewarding process. I am really enjoying being here in Panama; even though it is a lot of work i have learned so much, in Spanish and otherwise. I really feel that I can call myself fluent, which is a fun achievement.
Well I think that it is time for bed considering my big week coming up. I will try to update next weekend!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Aguacero!
Aguacero means thunderstorm, which seems to be the main motif of my experience thus far in Panama. We are currently in the middle of one right now.
So I am back from survey! I actually got back two days ago but I have had so much paperwork that I haven't had much time for the computer until now (and maybe I have watched a few world cup games as well...). Anyway, everything went really well and I am now even more excited for this summer now that I have a concrete vision in my head of what things look like. The week was pretty long so I will give a few highlights:
-Edwin, the man from the Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) that took me to my communities every day. We bonded over a mutual love of the Yankees - I am going to send him a t-shirt when they win the World Series this fall. Many Panamanians love the Yankees because Mariono Rivera is from Panama. People in Coclé are very quick to mention that Carlos Lee, of the Houston Astros, is from Coclé. Anyway, Edwin and I got along swimmingly and shared a few experiences involving broken steering columns and windy mountainous roads.
-The mountains! 3 out of 4 of my communities are located high in the mountains and have breathtaking views. It's one of those things where I literally have to pause for a second to just take everything in because the scenery is so incredible. The bad news about the mountains is that they are steep! I have some difficult uphill climbs in order to reach my communities, which can get pretty tiring. I sweat more in one day than any normal person would sweat in a month. The most frustrating thing is that 70-year-old Panamanian men can walk up these hills while carrying on a deep conversation and I am huffing and puffing and wiping away my sweat after 5 minutes. Hopefully this will change in the coming weeks.
-The people: I met so many incredible people this week, who opened their homes and made me feel really welcome and comfortable in their houses. This sounds a bit cliche, but it's true so I don't really mind. I would have loved to have had more time in each community in order to get to know people better, but I started a few really great relationships that I am sure will grow throughout the summer.
-Sombreros: I work in the area of La Pintada (a municipality within Coclé), which is famous for it's painted sombreros. (Painted..La Pintada... get it?). Anyway, ALL of the women here make sombreros that are sold in the community or to intermediaries who take them to tourist markets, and I have been able to observe the process a bit. It takes about 3 days to make one hat! Many of the women also make tiny hats that are used for keychains and things. Felicita, one of the host moms I found, said that she would make me a little hat for the next time that I saw her!
Survey was also pretty hard at times, but it was a very rewarding experience overall. Right now we are in the process of planning briefing, which is the volunteers' orientation to the country. The volunteers arrive in two days, so we have a LOT of work to do! I will try to update again in the next few days before the volunteers come.
hasta luego
Rachel
So I am back from survey! I actually got back two days ago but I have had so much paperwork that I haven't had much time for the computer until now (and maybe I have watched a few world cup games as well...). Anyway, everything went really well and I am now even more excited for this summer now that I have a concrete vision in my head of what things look like. The week was pretty long so I will give a few highlights:
-Edwin, the man from the Ministerio de Salud (Ministry of Health) that took me to my communities every day. We bonded over a mutual love of the Yankees - I am going to send him a t-shirt when they win the World Series this fall. Many Panamanians love the Yankees because Mariono Rivera is from Panama. People in Coclé are very quick to mention that Carlos Lee, of the Houston Astros, is from Coclé. Anyway, Edwin and I got along swimmingly and shared a few experiences involving broken steering columns and windy mountainous roads.
-The mountains! 3 out of 4 of my communities are located high in the mountains and have breathtaking views. It's one of those things where I literally have to pause for a second to just take everything in because the scenery is so incredible. The bad news about the mountains is that they are steep! I have some difficult uphill climbs in order to reach my communities, which can get pretty tiring. I sweat more in one day than any normal person would sweat in a month. The most frustrating thing is that 70-year-old Panamanian men can walk up these hills while carrying on a deep conversation and I am huffing and puffing and wiping away my sweat after 5 minutes. Hopefully this will change in the coming weeks.
-The people: I met so many incredible people this week, who opened their homes and made me feel really welcome and comfortable in their houses. This sounds a bit cliche, but it's true so I don't really mind. I would have loved to have had more time in each community in order to get to know people better, but I started a few really great relationships that I am sure will grow throughout the summer.
-Sombreros: I work in the area of La Pintada (a municipality within Coclé), which is famous for it's painted sombreros. (Painted..La Pintada... get it?). Anyway, ALL of the women here make sombreros that are sold in the community or to intermediaries who take them to tourist markets, and I have been able to observe the process a bit. It takes about 3 days to make one hat! Many of the women also make tiny hats that are used for keychains and things. Felicita, one of the host moms I found, said that she would make me a little hat for the next time that I saw her!
Survey was also pretty hard at times, but it was a very rewarding experience overall. Right now we are in the process of planning briefing, which is the volunteers' orientation to the country. The volunteers arrive in two days, so we have a LOT of work to do! I will try to update again in the next few days before the volunteers come.
hasta luego
Rachel
Sunday, June 6, 2010
¡Bienvenidos a Panamá!
Well I arrived safely in Panama! I left on Friday morning at 5:40 am and spent most of the day in Atlanta on a 9 hour layover, which was actually more fun than expected. The only bad part came when, after having waited patiently for 9 hours, thunderstorms began right when my flight was supposed to take off and we were delayed for another two hours. But I arrived in Panama unscathed and found my other staff members right away. We spent the first night in Panama City (which is huge and very cosmopolitan) before heading via bus to our city of Penonomé, which is in the Panamanian province of Coclé.
I realized that most of your probably don't know exactly what I am doing here in Panama so I will try to give a brief summary. I am here as a supervisor with Amigos de las Américas. Amigos is an non-profit from the US that focuses on youth leadership and multicultural understanding within the Americas. This summer, Amigos has 14 programs in 8 countries in Latin America. Each program is composed of about 9 staff members and 55 youth volunteers. The volunteers are broken into groups of two or three and placed in small, rural communities where they live for 6 to 8 weeks. In their communities, the youth from the US work with local youth groups and teach classes and do community improvement projects. As a supervisor, I will responsible for about 8 of those volunteers. Each week I will travel around and spend one night in each of my communities and generally just make sure that everything is going well. On the weekends I will live in the staff house (here in Penonomé).
Penonomé is a cute city of about 30 thousand people. We live on a quiet residential street, although there is also a shopping center and many parks. Our staff house is pretty big (a huuge living room, kitchen, dining area, four bedrooms, and three bathrooms!) so we have nicknamed it "el palacio". All of my fellow staff members are really great and interesting and we have been getting along well so far (although considering we have only been here for one night I guess that it is too early to tell...). So far we have spent most of our time here in the house training and planning for the next few weeks. Right now I am pretty nervous because tomorrow I will embark on "survey". That means that I will spend one night each in my four designated communities and I will have to figure out all of the logistics for the volunteers when they come. Considering that I have never been to these communities before, haven't met anyone who lives there, and am going by myself, it is quite a daunting task! But I am mostly excited. I should probably go pack my bag considering we are leaving at 7am!
Here are some photos of our house and the neighborhood:
I realized that most of your probably don't know exactly what I am doing here in Panama so I will try to give a brief summary. I am here as a supervisor with Amigos de las Américas. Amigos is an non-profit from the US that focuses on youth leadership and multicultural understanding within the Americas. This summer, Amigos has 14 programs in 8 countries in Latin America. Each program is composed of about 9 staff members and 55 youth volunteers. The volunteers are broken into groups of two or three and placed in small, rural communities where they live for 6 to 8 weeks. In their communities, the youth from the US work with local youth groups and teach classes and do community improvement projects. As a supervisor, I will responsible for about 8 of those volunteers. Each week I will travel around and spend one night in each of my communities and generally just make sure that everything is going well. On the weekends I will live in the staff house (here in Penonomé).
Penonomé is a cute city of about 30 thousand people. We live on a quiet residential street, although there is also a shopping center and many parks. Our staff house is pretty big (a huuge living room, kitchen, dining area, four bedrooms, and three bathrooms!) so we have nicknamed it "el palacio". All of my fellow staff members are really great and interesting and we have been getting along well so far (although considering we have only been here for one night I guess that it is too early to tell...). So far we have spent most of our time here in the house training and planning for the next few weeks. Right now I am pretty nervous because tomorrow I will embark on "survey". That means that I will spend one night each in my four designated communities and I will have to figure out all of the logistics for the volunteers when they come. Considering that I have never been to these communities before, haven't met anyone who lives there, and am going by myself, it is quite a daunting task! But I am mostly excited. I should probably go pack my bag considering we are leaving at 7am!
Here are some photos of our house and the neighborhood:
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Hey guys!
So I am starting this informal blog as a way to update people on what's going on in my life while I am traveling abroad for the next year or so. This summer I will be in Panama with the program Amigos de las Américas, and then in August I leave for Peru and other parts of South America, where I will be spending my junior year of college abroad. Because of this, I won't be seeing any of you, so I figured that it would be easiest to keep in contact via this blog. I do not intend on writing any sort of commentary on Latin America or traveling abroad, just little updates about what I'm up to and where I am. I am happy to discuss my thoughts on international development and traveling abroad, just not too much on this blog, so just shoot me an email if you're interested (my email is rachelmilito@gmail.com).
Right now I am sitting in my room at home amidst a mess of clothing and massive amounts of pepto bismol and bug spray in my attempt to pack for Panama. The weather forcasts for thunderstorms every day haven't exactly been reassuring. Tomorrow is my last day at home (read: my day to frantically throw everything into a backpack and get everything in order) before I leave for Panama on Friday at the ungodly hour of 5:40 am. So the moral of this story is that I should get off the computer and dive headfirst into my packing list.
I hope that you all enjoy my blog and please please update me on your summers/lives! I love sending emails or writing letters so please give me your email address so we can stay in touch. Also, for those interested, my mailing address in Panama is:
amigos de las américas
rachel milito
correo, entrega general
penonomé, provincia coclé 0229
república de panamá
I will certainly miss you all and want to stay in touch! But for now, back to packing.
Rachel
So I am starting this informal blog as a way to update people on what's going on in my life while I am traveling abroad for the next year or so. This summer I will be in Panama with the program Amigos de las Américas, and then in August I leave for Peru and other parts of South America, where I will be spending my junior year of college abroad. Because of this, I won't be seeing any of you, so I figured that it would be easiest to keep in contact via this blog. I do not intend on writing any sort of commentary on Latin America or traveling abroad, just little updates about what I'm up to and where I am. I am happy to discuss my thoughts on international development and traveling abroad, just not too much on this blog, so just shoot me an email if you're interested (my email is rachelmilito@gmail.com).
Right now I am sitting in my room at home amidst a mess of clothing and massive amounts of pepto bismol and bug spray in my attempt to pack for Panama. The weather forcasts for thunderstorms every day haven't exactly been reassuring. Tomorrow is my last day at home (read: my day to frantically throw everything into a backpack and get everything in order) before I leave for Panama on Friday at the ungodly hour of 5:40 am. So the moral of this story is that I should get off the computer and dive headfirst into my packing list.
I hope that you all enjoy my blog and please please update me on your summers/lives! I love sending emails or writing letters so please give me your email address so we can stay in touch. Also, for those interested, my mailing address in Panama is:
amigos de las américas
rachel milito
correo, entrega general
penonomé, provincia coclé 0229
república de panamá
I will certainly miss you all and want to stay in touch! But for now, back to packing.
Rachel
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