Hey yáll!
I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer!! I swore in two weeks ago and am moved to my site of Boca Chica, Chiriqui. For those of you who don´t know, Chiriqui is the best province in Panama!! My community has about 200 members. It is a fabulous place! It is on the water and there are over half a dozen different ports. Most of these ¨ports¨are patches of sand or mangrove. Majority of the people are fisherman or work in the tourism industry. There are TONS of hotels near me. Soooo visits??
For those of you who don´t know I am a proud owner of a puppy! He is 10 weeks old and sooo cute. At my training site my host uncle´s dog had puppies while I was there and I fell in love. His name is Megalodon and as I explanined to my parents, he´s a fabulous companion but not so fabulous as a pet. He is my ¨sombre¨or shadow and that is great except when I want to pee, or shower, or sleep. About an hour ago he was neutered and he took it like a champ. He is sleeping it off in his crate right now.
I had a whole list of things I wanted to tell you guys but in typical Madye fashion, I forgot it at home. I´ll tell you about my day instead. I wake up at around 430am to the roosters ¨singing¨as the people call it. I call it screeching but that may just be a culture difference. I wake up again at around 6am to Donnie (Megalodon is difficult for the people to say) crying so I feed him and start my day. Most of my outfits consist of collared shirts and a skort or jeans. Also, Panameños (the people of Panamá) are very particular with personal hygiene. Georgia wouldn´t fit in very well here. If you have even a spot of dirt on your clothes, you are dirty and need to change and possibly shower. The people here shower at least 3 times a day. -Anyway back to my day; my mom cooks breakfast and I eat with the family. Breakfast is different each day. Sometimes is boiled plantains with some salt, others is fried ham, and if I´m really lucky (or Donnie) it´s liver. Not a big fan of the liver. I also learned that I don´t like pig foot soup. Pig foot soup is a traditional meal of Panama and it is grotesque.
After breakfast my 11 year old host brother then goes to school from 730am to 1230pm. The school is a 3 classroom school. One class of grades 1,3,5, another of grades 2,4,6 and another of kindergarten and Pre-kindergarden. However quite a few of the children don´t go to kinder or prekinder which is kind of bizarre because school is free and the kids don´t do anything else except hang out and play in the streets. If the kids want to continue to high school they have to take a 30 minute bus ride to the next town over and go there. A lot of them do and continue through colegio or university. But at the same time a lot don´t and work on the boats with there fathers fishing.
While my brother is at school, I help my mom clean, pasear (visit people´s houses and chat), or just work on my community analysis. A community analysis is my only job during the first three months of service. It´s acutally all Peace Corps volunteers´ jobs for the first few months. In October I will be presenting my findings to the community in a meeting and my supervisor will be there. It´s a big deal for a volunteer but most of the time community members don´t show up. The community analysis consists of many different aspects but it´s kind of self explanitory.
Anyway I am on a boat a lot. This weekend I went fishing with my host family. Fishing is having some fishing line with a hook, weight and a piece of bait. But don´t you think that you can´t catch anything, we caught a baby Black Tipped Reef Shark!!! For those of you who don´t know, they grow up to be l3 feet long! Anyway as we (aka my host dad) are pulling him up to the boat he gets away! ¡Que lastima! But I suppose it´s for the best. OH OH I also watched them herd cattle. It was really cool. Now you think herding cattle and you think land. Oh no! They animals swim. The first time we went we had to tie them to the boat (think large canoe with a motor) and drag them across from the island to the main land. It was cruel and frightening for the first few minutes but after a half hour it was awesome.
The second time we went the cows swam. Now I really mean swam. In a group of over 50 cows they all swam together about a fifth of a mile. It was awesome. Also, cows poop, a lot. Like more than babies.
Back to the schedule, then at around 1pm we eat lunch together. And at around 7 we eat dinner while my dad and his buddies watch telenovelas. My mom doesn´t like them and I don´t really like them either but I do like the actors. I never understand what is going on (except when someone pulls a gun out or they have a romantic scene) but the actors are good looking.
I have a very good friend here. She is so nice and very talkative and three years old. She follows Donnie around and hence, follows me around.
Oh and I found a scale and weighed myself. I thought I gained weight here but it turns out I lost 7 pounds.
Randomness (incase above wasn´t enough)
Me in a white pollera (the traditional outfit of brides). Google it. It´s a good laugh
A kid flat out told me I had a big nose
I have gone to Evangelical churches over half a dozen times. WOW what an experience
I can cook, and cook well!!
I have had a marriage proposal but didn´t meet the son.
Kids here are really mature but at the same time most teenagers and quite a few adults love the disney channel and 10 year olds like nick jr. and barbie movies. My host brothers from training (16 and 8) loved Camp Rock and High School Musical. Yes, I am normal here for liking Wizards of Waverly Place.
Well I have to go, time is running short on my internet usage.
Sorry for the lack of spell and grammar check
Miss you all!!
OH OH MY MAILING ADDRESSED CHANGED!!!!!!!!!!!! I forgot to bring that too! But I can receive emails (HINT HINT mom). Madyeb@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment