The day has arrived and to be honest I'm not sure how I feel about it....
I was unusually nervous this morning and I think that might be adding to my uneasy feeling right now...
MY OFFICIAL SITE FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS ISSSSSSS
Las Minas de Herrera in the Azuero Province of Panama
It is a smallish community in the mountains of the peninsular area of Panam
Typical daily temp: 60 degrees (according to Accu Weather)
Population: 1500-2000
Working with: elementary and middle school (this I don't know how I feel about but it will be awesome regardless)
I am less than an hour from the western coast and beaches and we have the highest concentration of volunteers in our area so that is a HUGE plus.
I am sure I am just suffering from the natural lull after a huge amount of anticipation and excitement....kinda like the day after christmas after all of your presents are opened
Everything happens for a reason, and even though it isn't what I was necessarily expecting or looking for it will be wonderful and I will make it an awesome experience!!!!
Friday, April 5, 2013
PRACTICUM TRAINING
Off to Penonome for practicum week in the schools. I was in the High School with five classes of about 50 10th grade boys in each class... twas quite an interesting time. But real talk, I LOVED IT it was a thrill being in the classroom teaching about gerunds and superlative and comparative adjectives, and just getting the chance to share about life in the U.S. was sweet.
The school was huge and beautiful and it is exactly what I want my site to be like, in a bigger city with a big school= fingers crossed
Our host family site was YE YE as hell (real fancy) we had air conditioning, cable tv, hot water, a flushing toilet AND wifi; it actually made me a bit uncomfortable and made me miss the simplicity of life in Santa Rita and some of the natural beauty. Our host mom actually went to U of Michigan and her daughter is there now and her son graduated from University of Pitt so they were pretty awesome- and extra plus, they have homes all over the country so we have a free place to stay anywhere we want!!! Holler
Downside of practicum week, it is exhausting and we are working from 5:30 am to 6 everyday... I could do without that
The school was huge and beautiful and it is exactly what I want my site to be like, in a bigger city with a big school= fingers crossed
Our host family site was YE YE as hell (real fancy) we had air conditioning, cable tv, hot water, a flushing toilet AND wifi; it actually made me a bit uncomfortable and made me miss the simplicity of life in Santa Rita and some of the natural beauty. Our host mom actually went to U of Michigan and her daughter is there now and her son graduated from University of Pitt so they were pretty awesome- and extra plus, they have homes all over the country so we have a free place to stay anywhere we want!!! Holler
Downside of practicum week, it is exhausting and we are working from 5:30 am to 6 everyday... I could do without that
Just beachin around
Okay I know that was far from clever... but I'm tired. For the Saturday of Semana Santa weekend a group of us decided to head to Santa Clara for the day. We left at 6 in the morning got on the bus and trekked our way over to the beach. It was a lovely day full of sunburns and salt water and sandiness
Highlight: jammin with some Argentinian Artisans and sharing stories of travels, turns out one of them knew some of my friends from Mendoza= SUPER RAD...from all the fun I won the grand prize of awesome burns and tan lines all of my body and a series of interesting photos....which will be uploaded at a later date when I find my camera cord.
Highlight: jammin with some Argentinian Artisans and sharing stories of travels, turns out one of them knew some of my friends from Mendoza= SUPER RAD...from all the fun I won the grand prize of awesome burns and tan lines all of my body and a series of interesting photos....which will be uploaded at a later date when I find my camera cord.
Semana Santa
It's been weird not being home for family gatherings but being here in Panama makes you quickly forget about pretty much any sort of traditional holidays. For Good Friday I went with Keara and Erin to my family's finca out in the campo (country home) it was AWESOME. We spent the entire day in hammocks taking naps and jammin on the geetar and eating copious amounts of food.
It is technically my host grandmother's house and when I think of Peace Corps this is what I expected. It was cool and surrounded by rolling hills and orange trees and sugar cane and it was equipped with rancho's and rivers and things. My host mom was telling us about how they make chicha (juice) from sugar cane by pushing the cane through a turny thing that is pushed by horse. Erin and I took turns pushing the thing around, it was a lot harder than it looked. For lunch we ate some strange paste like yellow gunk with rice and beans and spaghetti with tuna? It was interesting but not terrible.
Highlights of the day include:
Writing a song about our training group to the tune of "Good Riddance"
Watching a herd of cattle meandering to the river
Drinking Sugar Cane juice. it was green
Trekking to the nearest bus stop...it was an adventure apparently no one is really hospitable during Holy Week so we walked for a long while
Finding out that eating pigeons has a miracle like quality of healing if eaten in a soup...
It was an incredible day and I loved being out in the fresh air away from the stench of burning trash and I hope to be able to get back there before we head into our sites.
We ended the night as we went to Part two of Santa RIta's Passion of the Christ performance, it was impressive to say the least, so impressive that it took four nights of 4 hour performances to get through the entire process but it was probably the most exciting thing that has ever come to Santa RIta, and as such it was well equipped reporters and videographers and important people it was wild.
Alright... that's all for now
Ta ta
It is technically my host grandmother's house and when I think of Peace Corps this is what I expected. It was cool and surrounded by rolling hills and orange trees and sugar cane and it was equipped with rancho's and rivers and things. My host mom was telling us about how they make chicha (juice) from sugar cane by pushing the cane through a turny thing that is pushed by horse. Erin and I took turns pushing the thing around, it was a lot harder than it looked. For lunch we ate some strange paste like yellow gunk with rice and beans and spaghetti with tuna? It was interesting but not terrible.
Highlights of the day include:
Writing a song about our training group to the tune of "Good Riddance"
Watching a herd of cattle meandering to the river
Drinking Sugar Cane juice. it was green
Trekking to the nearest bus stop...it was an adventure apparently no one is really hospitable during Holy Week so we walked for a long while
Finding out that eating pigeons has a miracle like quality of healing if eaten in a soup...
It was an incredible day and I loved being out in the fresh air away from the stench of burning trash and I hope to be able to get back there before we head into our sites.
We ended the night as we went to Part two of Santa RIta's Passion of the Christ performance, it was impressive to say the least, so impressive that it took four nights of 4 hour performances to get through the entire process but it was probably the most exciting thing that has ever come to Santa RIta, and as such it was well equipped reporters and videographers and important people it was wild.
Alright... that's all for now
Ta ta
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