Thursday, April 29, 2010

Poco a Poco

Hey there! First off, I appologize for the horrible grammer and punctuation, but these keyboards are arranged a little differently an I'm still getting used to things... we completed our first couple days of pre-training and moved in with our host families in a community called Nuevo Emperador. Our whole group has been split up in to our different sectors in 3 different communities. Not sure what I mentioned before in my blog but we have 4 hour language classes in the morning and then 4 hour tech classes after lunch. We spend the rest of the day either hanging with friend or our host family ... my host family is awesome and super nice. They have been nothing but patient because my spanish sucks and communication has been pretty awkward. Every day gets a little easier tho, and in reality we are spending 80% of our day speaking spanish so we are all learning really quickly. My spanish has already improved more in 4 days than in 3 years of college classes, go figure!

My host family consists of Eloisa and Simon. who are about 45-50 years old. Eloisa stays home all day and takes care of the house and of the baby, who I will get to. Their daughter Lidia is married to Carlos or Monche (his nickname) who are the sweetest people on earth. They have a little baby who we call Carlito, who is by far the cutest little thing to walk this planet. Actually his birthday is today, he just turned one, and the kid is already running around the house climbing gates and furniture. He is wicked smart and knows exactly what he isnt supposed to do so he'll wait patiently until you are watching and then unplug something important from the wall to get a rise out of people. Rules are super lax here when it comes to children compared to the states, which is really refreshing, but they still take amazing care of Carlito and he has no lack of love from the family. And then Eloisa has a younger son that also lives in the house, Marcos, who is 11 and my new best friend. He is honestly the coolest 11 year old I've ever met and I help him with english every night, which he is improving really fast. He wants to be a vet when he grows up so have SO much in common, so there has been a lot for us to talk about when we are just chillin. One thing that has been difficult for me to handle tho is there is this little dog that got hit by a car outside the house and broke his front leg (very obvious break) and camped out under my window for the past 3 days howling and in extreme pain, and I just want to scoop him up and take him to a vet... but there are probably only 3 vets in all of Panama and way too expensive for me or my host family to afford, so I've had to fall asleep to this little puppy screaming all through the night. Marcos and I have been giving him food and the other night he spent 20 minutes collecting a bunch of things lying around he yard to make a baracade around the puppy so that no other dogs couldnt get to the food. The whole time he was talking about how people don't have hearts and they should take better care of animals, which just broke my heart. No one has the money or interest in spaying and nuturing the feral dogs here so they are every where, and usually are viewed as pests and disease-carriers, so to hear Marcos say that was really moving. Anyways, the house is very small for 7 people but they have cleared out a room just for me and feel really bad that I'm always pouring sweat ... so they actually follow me from room to room with the only fan in the house so that I'm comfortable. I feel bad for everything they've sacrificed for me and its extremely frustrating that I can't quite communicate my gratitude accurately yet in spanish, but after 3 months I will be way better at speaking and can let them know then. This Saturday they are throwing a huge party for Carlito and I assume all 300 family members that live in Panama will be there (Eloisa has 8 children total, all of them have several children... so on) so that will be interesting! When I arrived at the house for the first time there was a huge pig head just chillin on the kitchen table for the party Saturday that Eloisa started to tear apart with this huge butcher knife as she was describing the family - so we were off to culture-shock-filled start!

So, I have sooo much more to say but right now we're in a little city next to N.vo Emperador and mis amigos are all leaving the internet cafe to eat dinner so I must go... I will update as soon as I get back online!!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Safe in Panama!

Hello All!

Just wanted to touch base and let y'all know that I am safe 'n' sound in Panama! We all met up in Washington D.C. and had a grueling 7hr. orientation about the PC and got to meet everyone. After we went out for a drink and came back to enjoy all 2 hours of sleep (or lack thereof) before waking up and leaving the hotel at 3am. The plane ride from DC to Panama was something of a spectacle: all 54 trainees taking up half the plane and not ONE is conscious. I turned around and very single person I saw was completely contorted in their seat and mouth wide open. But we arrived in Panama around 1pm and got right to training. PC doesn't waste a second, well at least not in training. Headquarters is in this little fenced in community near Panama City right on the canal. We get to enjoy the views of the canal on our many walks to and from classes and presentations. The place is quite beautiful and convenient. We even found a bowling alley tonight. Meals are provided right now, and let me tell you, they are GREAT. Especially after a whole day of signing papers, taking pictures, giving blood and meeting PC staff. Today we learned what the different sectors do and the different projects that have been created. The sectors of our group are CEC (Community Environmental Conservation - thats me!), TEA (Tourism Education and something I can't remember) and SAS (Sustainable Agriculture Something). We also had language efficiency interviews and placement interviews today on our previous skills and experience. Tomorrow we get poked with a ton of needles and get our credit cards, sounds like a productive day to me!

We are staying in these cute little bungalow type houses which have AC, and we are all trying to take advantage of some of our last comfortable nights of sleep in a long time. At night there is usually soccer (futbol) and frisbee going on which is nice after sitting all day. Tonight we were throwing around and the frisbee went into the gutter on the road ... it wasnt our frisbee and Sammy who owned it wasnt there, so a couple of us walked all the way across the compound and found some cops to help us crow-bar the manhole up to find the frisbee. The cops was like "uh yeah sure... I'll do it tomorrow .... " and probably thought we were crazy for bothering him with something so trivial. But we found a security guard who viewed it as a challenge and they spent 15 minutes trying to get this manhole up for a freakin frisbee. There were 2 security guard cars, lights flashing, parked around this manhole. Every volunteer that walked by thought there was a terrible accident. Nope, all this for a frisbee. Anywho, they got it and we will continue to throw around every night ... away from the road.

Everyone I'm meeting is so friendly and cool, and I don't feel uncomfortable walking up to anyone and just starting a convo. In fact, several of us sat around tonight and talked about beaver deceivers (look it up) and sloth defecation for 2 hours. Totally my type of people. This weekend we take a field trip to somewhere they haven't told us yet, and then next week we move in with a host family to begin language, culture and skills training. Apparently it will be the most hectic, overwhelming time we've ever had - sounds like fun! I will be able to get online to update y'all here at headquarters, but then next week my access to the internet will probably be limited somewhat. Hope everyone is safe and sound and I'll be keepin in touch!

-Bless

Saturday, April 17, 2010

It's Official!

Its official y'all - I'm leaving Tuesday for Panama! After a nightmarish 3 weeks of trying to deal with medical holds on my account, everything is sorted out and I've begun the arduous process of packing and saying goodbyes. Twill be a sad 3 days but I'll be keeping very busy which will make the transition a little easier. I'll be writing in here as much as possible so stay updated! Miss everyone already!

-Bless