You know you are a Panamanian peace corps volunteer when...

You know your a Panamanian peace corps volunteer when... 1. You are so jealous that the person next to you on the bus is eating fried chicken at 8:42 in the morning. 2. You start incorporating "thanks be to god" in daily conversations. 3. You thrill at the arrival of packages from the united states that include clothing, topatío hot sauce, girl scout thin mints, red vines, and bounce dryer sheets(!)  4. You get super excited about finding .25 cents on the ground. Or if you drop .25 cents search until you find it.  5. You travel 7 hours to hang out with friends.   6. You lose your ego and are not beyond asking for help when you need it, also referred to as "not beyond begging" for financial support for projects and accept support from sleazy local  politicians.  7. Although you didn't find Panamanians particularly attractive initially, you begin to find them attractive as more and more months pass. "So what if he doesn't have teeth?" And so what if Panamanian relationships are influenced by intense telenovelas? The peace corps Doctor Lourdes refers to these new sentiments as "jungle goggles"  8. You completely forget about holidays back home, dude I totally forgot about St. Patricks Day. Oops.  9. You eat anything, including scary looking fruit that a random man passes to you on the bus. And eat more, as he continues to hand you more... 10. Did I mention loving family members and friends so much more for taking the time to send packages?!  This list really makes me laugh. I hope others find it funny. I think humor is so important for development work. And for life. I remember asking Paul Farmer ( humanitarian that started partners in health, also Tracy Kidder wrote Mountains beyond Mountains about his work) what characteristics he thought were absolutely necessary for someone working in development work and he said patience, humility, and humor.  Success story: Saturday night I held my first community activity, a movie night at the school. The movie night was our first fundraiser for the schools recycling project. We showed Avatar! I wanted a movie with an environmental context, not realizing that i was indoctrinating my community members. If anyone has read the articles about the Ngobe indigenous protests about mining in Panama and hydroelectric construction, the parallel between the movie and Panama was actually pretty coincidental. Anyways, we raised 22 dollars! Over 65 community members attended the movie night. It was awesome. I asked both of my counterparts for their support, one of which is a teacher and works with me on the environmental committee and the other is the president of the reforestation group. It meant a lot to me that they both helped. Also my host sister collected the .25 cent entry. I am so happy that it worked out. The cable on the projector wasn't working all day and then miraculously worked Saturday night. Thank you universe. I look forward to hosting another movie night in the near future, just as soon as I am able to find the new cables for the projector.  I just finished Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, highly recommend it. The story of the extraordinary opportunities that the Beatles, Bill Gates, hockey players born in January, KIPP school, etc. We are products of parentage, patronage, and the world in which we grow up and the opportunities that that world gives us. It's super good, please read it.  This last week, I spent four days in a good friends community. Beth had been coordinating with community members to build compost latrines (also known as outhouses). In four days beth had planned on building 4 latrines. Next week she will be building 5 latrines! Essentially shes kicking ass.  Shes also coordinating with Global Brigades, which offers week trips to university students from the united states and Canada to come to Panama. During the week the students participate in projects in rural Darien. The students helped build the latrines on Wednesday and thursday while the technicians taught them to lay the bricks, pour a cement floor, seal the walls with cement, cut rebar and wood, etc. The global brigades students also all contribute 100 dollars to the community, imagine 4,500 dollars being donated to a rural community for community projects ---it's incredible. And they brought in the resources for all the latrines and were paying the technicians. Global brigades also provides communities with medical brigades, environmental brigades, and business brigades. The only bummer is at the moment they are only working in the Darien... Thats all for now,  Hasta pronto, Sonia   

Tengo Algunas Fotos de Carnivales!

Gracias Blog, 

I have been so giddy with all of the emails I have received about making donations. I need your addresses to send thank you postcards. Thank you to those that emailed me (especialmente mis primas!). I was genuinely concerned about funding for the recycling project and for the Internet stick. Last week visiting the Panamanian agencies was just so disheartening.  Randomly however the environmental agency, ANAM, dropped off five concrete sacks to my house. They apologized for only being able to provide all ten sacks but I was still pretty impressed. Transportation is still an issue. But my old supervisor mentioned to my site mate before he left that we should just begin recycling. All of it would have been burned anyways, so at least we are attempting to recycle and we are providing recycling education to the community in the mean time. I have put a lot of work into this recycling project and the invitations have been sent out for our first recycling day. Now the project is in my communities hands. My counterpart at the school, maestra Jacinta is under the impression that a lot of community members are going to participate. We shall see April 2nd...

I just want to put it out there that I love emails, fb messages, phone calls, text messages for those that are reading this feel free to send messages my way (I feel that I am better at communicating if someone initiates the conversation)

What else is new? I have begun teaching recycling education at the elementary school. I have 22 teachers to work with from pre-kinder hasta sexto grado. I have worked with 8 teachers so far, they teach 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. The activities I have shared with them have been fun. Recycling soup was the most successful activity. We threw water bottles, soda cans, batteries, white paper, and milk cartons into "our drinking water." I asked the kids if they still wanted to drink the water. They all said "que no, que no."I explained to the group that we would be recycling all of these things this year.  And then I went into recycling definitions.  I also used 3 short recycling videos on the projector which they seemed to like. I have also started observing the science teachers in the afternoon (junior high) and I would like to start working with them next week.  

I have started doing yoga at my home and I love it. I even play the long time sunshine song at the end of my workout. I forgot how difficult yoga is. Downward facing dog is so difficult.  I am using one of Deepak Chopras videos that is absolutely amazing.  I have been trying to keep it a secret from my community though, I dont know what they would think aout it. They might think, "ugh, what is that crazy gringa doing now?". They already laugh and make fun of me enough when I go for jogs. 

I have more kids participating in my English classes every week. They are so funny. We have been working on pronunciations and sounds. Today they were learning "a man" and they all kept saying "amen." Once I have an opportunity to take a picture of them, I will. They are so cute! I have decided that their homework will always be to borrow and read three books from my book shelf. Their reading levels are really behind. And their reading skills are so much more important than their English skills. 

Panama according to a friend of mine out of 139 countries surveyed ranks 129th in terms of education. The kids copy all day long. They are not asked to think critically or creatively.  In waiting for superman, the narrator refers to great teachers as professional athletes.  I am beginning to agree with this description. Great teachers take an avid interest in their students lives, their abilities, and their goals. They are willing to come early and stay late. They keep the lectures up to date. They go out of their way to support their students. I would hope that they take an interest in the community in which they teach. They are like professional athletes. I will write more about education woes in the following blog.   

Okay ya, 

Hasta Luego, Sonia