I hope that all is well with you and yours.
Anyways, this is my first 'official' communique from Panama. In case you didn't know, I am currently serving with the U.S. Peace Corps ( http://www.peacecorps.gov ) in Panama - I am currently finishing up training and will become a volunteer after the swearing-in ceremony next Friday, 28 March. After that I will move to my site in Chiriqui, the western-most providence in Panama. I will live and work there with a small community for the next two years - it is a 2 hour Chiva ride from the Provincial capital, David. ( A chiva is a miniature bus, not unlike the Toyota toaster-campers in the U.S.). After the 2 hour chiva ride it is 1 hour walking up into the mountains. It is very close to Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama and is quite a scenic place. The community is latino and there are just less than 200 people living there. The people there practice subsistence agriculture and sell the extra crops. The soil is quite nice there and there is enough rain to grow lots of vegetables.
OK - here is a somewhat brief and thoroughly rambling explanation of what I have been up to - and I apologize for my English, I don't get to practice very much:
I left home on January 4rth for Staging in Miami, Florida. There, I recieved some information on Peace Corps, met my training group, and prepared to leave for Panama. January 6th, early in the morning, all of the trainees and myself (22 of us in total) made the 4 hour flight down to Panama. When we arrived we were greeted by a bunch of the Peace Corps Staff and escorted around customs (working for the government has some advantages).
After that, we all rode to a hotel in Panama city, all the while one of the other trainees was vomiting out of the window - she said she had the flu, but I think it had a lot more to do with her celebrating her birthday and last day in the U.S. the night before. We stayed in the hotel for a week. received survival Spanish, orientation to training and Panama, and more shots in the arms and but than I care to remember.
Next, us 22 trainees were driven to our two training communities. They are located 1 hour (driving) west of Panama city. - The idea here is that each of us lives with a Panamanian family for training to become accustomed to the culture and language - so-called "community-based training." I live in a small semi-rural town of about 1000 people. I live in a concrete house with a zinc roof, and it even has electricity and a phone. My family has 4 people and they are really nice - My mom is exceptional in that she studied English in London for four years after high school. But don't let that fool you, we only talk in Spanish in the house.
Training is really intensive - there are hardly any real days off. A typical day is like this: wake up at 6:30. eat breakfast. water and tend my garden. go to Spanish class at 8:00AM. lunch at 12. technical training 1-5. nights are almost always free - I usually play volleyball with the neighborhood youth in a court next to the cantina (bar) in the middle of town. I play pretty well, for a gringo. This schedule serves for monday through friday, and then we usually do different stuff on the weekends, such as take trips to national parks, Panama city, beaches, etc.
The site I ended up in is basically exactly what I wanted and what I asked for, so no complaints there. Actually, most everyone in the training group likes their site. The next big thing was the Partner's Conference. Basically, all of the Trainees, Peace Corps staff, as well as 1-3 people from each of our sites met for a conference in Cocle for 3 days. The purpose was to get to know eachother, as well as clarify their expectations and responsibilities for having a Peace Corps volunteer in their site. After this conference, the Trainees parted ways, each of us going to our future sites with our counterparts. We each visited our site for a week. During this week, I introduced myself to the community formally in a public speech and privately by visiting people's houses and participating in community activities. For example, I played volleyball and other games a few times with the kids, went swimming in the river, helped transplant 2,000 pepper plants, and observe the various projects going on there.
This current week I had my interview with the Country Director and I have my final Language Progress Interview on Friday. Next week, we all go back to Panama city. That will be week 12, the final week of training. We receive our official ID card from the Foreign Affairs Department - it is usefully for all sorts of stuff, most of which I have yet to learn ( it is informally called the "get out of jail free" card). Also, we get our bank cards and some other last minute stuff, and then we swear in next friday March 28th, becoming 'official' PC Volunteers. After that, we are basically on our own to get to our site by Monday March 31st. Obviously, I am starting to get excited about all of this. Training is cool and all, but I want control of my life again. We are all pretty tired of classes and being led around the whole country. Especially, I can't wait to get control of my diet again! I made an ethical compromise during training for the sake of my health - I have been eating chicken, turkey, and duck because I basically would not be able to meet protein needs otherwise. I hope to be able to return to a vegetarian or near-vegetarian diet once I am in site.
Time and Money: I make $10 a day. I also get an extra $300 at the begining which is the so called "Getting Started Allowance" - useful for things like matresses, kitchen utensils, machetes, etc. Regarding time: We are basically working all of the time, except that we get 4 personal days and accrue 2 days of vacation time each month. Personal days are for R&R and going out of town to restock supplies, check email, endulge in nice food, etc. Vacation days are for things like traveling out of country and visiting home. A few of my plans for vacation time are: visiting all of the different indigenous cultures here in Panama (there are 6 I believe), getting my Scuba certification and diving and snorkeling in some of the 1st class Archipalegos here, backpacking from Coast to Coast through Cocle (it should take about 5 days), climbing Volcan Baru and some other cool looking 4rth class mountains in Chiriqui and Cocle, navigating the Panama Canal on a barge, visiting the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (on an island - you need permission to visit), and other stuff for sure. Vamos a ver (we shall see).
Language: I am amazed at how quickly I am learning Spanish - I have been here only 10 weeks and I have learned far more than I did in 4 semesters worth of Spanish in college. I have a long way to go, but I have the basic grammer structures down and just need to practice fluidity and vocabulary and work on minimizing errors. There are some really neat things in the Spanish language, but that is for another time. It is really neat. For instance, the subjunctive tenses - they express possibility and doubt - there are no such verb tenses in English, (but there really should be!).
Technical: - Peace Corps is divided into four sectors here in Panama - Community Environmental Conservation (CEC), Community Economic Development (CED), Permaculture, and Environmental Health (EH). CEC, my sector, deals with stuff like: organic farming, reforestation, environmental education, micro-watershed management, waste management, and appropriated technology such as composting toilets and more efficient wood-burning stoves. CED deals with increasing economic resources. Permaculture deals exclusively with agriculture, reforestation, and small-animal husbandry projects. EH deals with health and sanitation education, aqueducts, latrine construction and similar issues - mostly having to deal with water sanitation and human waste management.
Food: RICE. Yeah, Panamanians eat rice. There is a reason why there aren't Panamanian cuisine restaurants in the US. It isn't that bad, but really, no one should have to eat this much rice. Perhaps it is an aquired taste, but then again, white rice is white rice, right? Not much flavor there to acquire a taste for. On the other hand, I am not sure how I'll live without banana, mango, passion fruit, marinon, orange, and guanabana trees growing in my backyard once I go back to the States. If you haven't had a fresh guanabana, you really don't know what you are missing - the are about soccerball size, lime green on the outside with a lot of spikes, whitish yellow inside, and they taste like, um, guanabana. I quite simply did not know what "fresh fruit" meant until coming here. mmmmmmmmmmmmm...................
Oh, and name an animal native to Panama that we haven't heard of or have seen only in zoos or pet stores and chances are, Panamanians eat them. Parrot hunting is something of a pastime. Sort of disconcerting, but then again, they are about as common as pigeons and some areas and wipe out the corn crops. They don't taste bad either. Yep, I ate a parrot when it was offered to me - It was cute - red and blue feathers, small yellow beak - tastes like chicken. I ate a Ptarmigan (sp?) and part of an Iguana too. That is about it as far as weird food goes.
O.K. - enough of the formalities - now for some more fun and interesting stuff. Which is to say, what I did during my few days off. Panama is really beautiful. I have been to immense tropical rainforests, 4 of the 12 national parks, a few picturesque beaches, swam in a pool created by a cascading waterfall, to name a few.
Animals: I have seen a couple different species of monkeys. Also, I saw a lot of different kinds of parrots, toucans, and other birds that I have never seen before. And then weird animals like Conejo Pintados (sorta like a giant mouse crossed with a baby deer if that makes any sense. nevermind it doesn't) Tapirs, and other animals that I only know the names in Spanish because we have nothing like them in the States. I hope to see some stuff like Jaguars, Harpy Eagles, and Tigrillos before I leave.
Oh yeah, I have my laptop with me and a solar charger. I have been rocking out on some new music when I can find the time, so keep your eyes peeled for a new algorhythm release during your summer (my winter) - the new stuff is more mellow and maybe even somber than my "older" stuff. sorry, no pulsar.
that is in the states.here is a track I just finished called "something imparticular":
http://www.algorhythmz.com/sound/algorh ... icular.mp3 - let me know what you think; no one but me has heard it yet!
OK - that is about it. Hope you aren't too bored from reading this. Take care and keep in touch. email me or something!
sincerely,
:: algorhythm :: http://www.algorhythmz.com
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