Merry Christmas!

It is almost Christmas here and aside from strands of lights here or there it doesn´t feel much like the holidays to me. I am used to some nice crisp weather, wearing a warm sweater and seeing some snow not wearing flip flops and trying to stay out of the heat. I have been suprisingly busy the last few weeks which is good since it takes my mind off the fact that I am missing time with my family. I have been living in my community now for almost two months and am starting to feel more at home, which is good. Everyday I learn more about the people and relationships that exist there. Some of my favorite moments have been sitting on the floor of peoples houses talking or most likely eating. People ask a lot of questions about how things are in the United States which is a challenge to talk about since most of ideas they have are from movies or tourists who visit the island here. But is good for my Spanish to tackle things like politics and geography.

I hope to move into my house in the next month which will be amazing. It has been really hard not to have much privacy. Plus, the noise really gets to me after awhile and it is difficult to find a place to sit quietly or do nothing if I want to. I feel fortunate to have a great host family and in some ways I think I will miss having them around. They have been very warm and always include me in whatever they are doing.

We have a group of tourists coming for a few days on the 25th, which will be an interesting experience for me. The tourism group and i have been working hard to prepare for their visit and I have been told that I am definitly part of the show. I am pretty sure that means wearing a traditional nagwa or dress and doing tradional dances with them. We shall see how that goes. I hope all my friends and family have a great holiday, know that I am thinking of you and sending my love.

A few photos for you all to enjoy. At the top, view from a typical wooden boat, cacao drying in the sun of my neighbors house, walking out in the finca.

Dia de Madre

Just as in the states, November and December here in Panama are filled with lots of holidays and celebrations. November is "Mes de la Patria" or the patriotic month here and they celebrate everything from independence from Colombia, independence from Costa Rica as well as local celebebrations to mark the day each province was founded. Students recite poetry and salute the flag, there are tons of parades and lots of eating. Think 4th of July all month long.

December is no different and it started off a few days ago with with Dia de Madre. I know most of you are thinking, isn´t Mother`s Day in May? Not here. It is December 8th here in Panama and my first Mother`s Day was a few days ago and it was an experience. In my community, the fathers fundraise for 6 months prior to buy gifts and food for every mother in the village. Food preparations start the day before since there is so much to do. I helped the women bake bread for breakfast and we used over 70 lbs of flour. The men butchered a whole cow, which was certainly something I hadn´t seen before and I didn´t realize it was so much work. The day of, all the women are presented gifts, play games to win prizes and are served mountains of food, but the highlight was watching the women try to climb a greesed pole to reach a bag of prizes at the top. I think this is something we should make all mothers do back in the states and it was hilarious to watch. I am posting a little video for you all to enjoy as well as some photos from the day off.

This is a photo of our community "rancho" all decorated for dia de madre. It is in the middle of town and serves as the main gathering point for any event, meeting or graduation as well as a sometimes-classroom, playground when it is raining, and basketball court.


These are just some of the cooks working hard in the kitchen. Most of them stayed up all night cooking. The guy on the bottom left in the blue shirt is my host dad, Martin. One the menu was rice, marinated beef, potato salad and "chicha", which they use to refer to any is any sort of beverage. I think they made tutti frutti punch.




I just posted the video below and as you can see is not turned the right direction. I tried changing in my camera and on blogger, but I can`t figure it out. It is short so turn you head side ways and enjoy. I think this was the fourth attempt at trying to reach the top and it took them only about 10 minutes. These ladies were not giving up.



I think this is my favorite photo from the whole day. It is the host-aunt, Leyda. She is awesome and I like her a lot. She is nineteen and usually around the house so we have gotten to know each other pretty well. She has an adorable 4 year old son, Christian and lives in my house with her man, Poe. She is normally pretty quite and reserved, so when she saw this photo she couldn´t stop laughing. Neither could I. Needless to say I can`t wait for Dia de Padre. That is in June and all the women are already talking about how they are going to out-do the men. Better gifts, better food...etc. Overall, I was nice to see a whole community come together to express appreciation for the work the women do. They work hard in the village to take care of the kids, cook, wash and work in the farm. Made me think about my own mom...I wish she was there to celebrate as well.

Impressions of Panama

It is hard for me to believe that in such a short amount of time I have seen and experienced so many amazing things. I decided to put up some of my favorite images of my Panama to give everyone a better sense of what I have been lucky to see so far.

Here in Panama, it isn´t a real piñata unless you put a ton of flour in it. This was a party we put on for families who hosted us for culture week in a community in Bocas called Valle de Risco.

During training we spent a week up in the mountains near the Costa Rican border. I was beautiful and reminded me a lot of being in the mountains of California. Every morning was crisp and it smelled like pine trees. The area is home to most of the coffee produced in Panama. The hills are covered with coffee bushes and the photo on the right is a small part of the Cafe Duran plantation, one of the largest coffee producers in Panama.

We had a free weekend during training and went to the beach. A few of us woke up early on our last morning there and went for an early morning swim. Below is a picture post swim of Dorine, me and Lisa. They are two great friends I have made here in Panama.


We were lucky enough to tour a family owned and operated coffee farm called Finca Hartman. They are a small operation that produces very high quality coffee for smaller buyers all over the world including the US, Europe and Japan. It was very interesting to see that process from start to finish. They also did a "cupping" for us, which was equivalent to a wine tasting but for coffee.

I hope this gave everyone a idea of where I am and the wonderful things I have been seeing. I can´t wait to take photos of my site and put them up for eveyone to see.

This is a photo was also taken while I was in the mountains near the Costa Rican border. We were watching as the sun was setting over the border and a storm was rolling in. A few minutes later the the valley below was filled with fog.

Goodbye Santa Clara, Hello San Cristobal!

Here it is, my new home! This is the view from the school and the community is below. I am so happy to be somewhere that has a beautiful view of the water. I have a feeling this will be a good spot for me to collect my thoughts and recharge.

We officially swore in as Peace Corp volunteers this last Wednesday, very exciting. The ceremony was held at the US ambassadors house, which was very nice to say the least. There were some nice speeches and there were hor´dervous afterward. I have to say my favorite part was the cocktail napkins that said "United States of America" on them in gold lettering. It just made me smile.

Above are some photos from the party we threw for our host familes as well. It was great time and while we were all excited to be moving on to our sites, it was hard to say goodbye. My host mom and sisters are above on the right. I will post more when I have a chance. Thanks again for all the emails and phone calls.

Only 7 Days Left

It is nearing the end of October now and we are in the last few days of training. This point seemed a lifetime away when I think back to a little over 2 months ago when I arrived here in Panama. More and more the realization is setteling over the group that this is it and the "vacation" is soon to be over. It is hard to put into words the feeling I have knowing that I will soon be leaving the comforts of new friends, lots of structure and a great host family. While I have experienced lots of new beginnings before in life....starting college, moving to a new city, starting a new job...etc...this is something different entirely. It is sort of like moving closer and closer to this ledge of unknown. I am preparing to jump in to this next three months with an open mind and I feel this will be the biggest test that I have put my self up against yet....it is exciting and a bit terrifying.

The next few days are going to be a whirlwind of activity as we lead up to our swear in ceremony. We are having a despedida or party tomorrow for all of our host families in Santa Clara for which we are making italian food, having piñatas and painting faces. It should be good time, but bittersweet. Monday we have our final language interview and then we move back to our original home of Ciudad Del Saber for the last few days of seminars and information gathering at the Peace Corp office. We plan on spending the weekend at the beach together to celebrate and then a week from now I will be officially a volunteer and living in my community. I am looking forward to having some time to relax and share more time with the friends I have made.

From here on out any love letters, postcards and care packages can be sent to my new address:

Piper Frode
Cuerpo de Paz-Panama
Entrega General
Bocas del Toro, Bocas del Toro
Republica de Panama

Same rules still apply...padded envelops work best and certified mail is a good idea. All the mail goes to the main island so I will probably be checking once a week or so. Thanks again for all the emails and comments.

I can´t believe it is already October...

PHOTOS!!!! I have finally gotten around to posting some for you all to see. I hope you all enjoy! Left is a photo of our Bocas crew. From top left is Kaitlyn, Brian, Joe (the volunteer we visited), Old David, Ray, from bottom left Jesse, Ben and me.

This last month has flown by to say the least. We are entering the last few weeks of training and you can feel the nervous excitment in the group. The end of September was full of lots of travel, fun, and of course hard work. We spent two weeks away from our training site, Santa Clara for both cultural and tech training. For culture week everyone from my group who will be living in the Bocas Del Toro province traveled to say with volunteer who lived in the area. We stayed with indigenous host families and learned a ton about the history, culture, people and agencies in the area. Some highlights of the culture week:

• visiting an organic cacao cooperative


• hiking four hours uphill in the mud to see how the aquduct system worked and then taking in the view of all of the islands of Bocas from the top of a mountain...while drinking fresh pipa (a variety of coconut) juice.


• trying to peel green bananas in the dark with a machete


• visiting a cacao farm, eating fresh cacao (tastes like a green apple) and planting banana trees.
  

This is a picture of the volunteer´s porch. It was a sweet house and I can only hope I am as lucky.

Me learning how to make a Chacra bag from the local womens artisans group. The bag is a traditional woven bag made to carry firewood, bananas or whatever else needed to be hauled around. Men and women also carry them as a purse.

The photos above are a few photos from the town we stayed in, Valle Risco. all the house we pretty similar. Wood with a palm or penca roof. Most of the houses were on stilts and the families hung out underneath in hamocks or on the concrete floors. The town itself was in a beautiful valley and every morning, there was mist in the trees. Our host families there were really hospitable and despite all of us getting sick in one way or another, we had a positive experience.

Technical week was also great. We stayed in a coffee producing area that was high up in the mountains. It was actually cold and we got to sleep with big comforters everynight and wear jackets! Quite a change from what we live in everyday so that was nice. It felt like fall weather on the central coast. We gave several presentations in spanish on marketing, accounting and also taught a lesson in the elementary school. Needless to say we all came home pretty tired but felt accomplished.

We are all working hard at our language skills and this coming week they will be put to the test when we visit our sites for the first time. Needless to say I am pumped to visit my community when I will be living and working for the next two years. I am tired of feeling a homeless so it will be awesome to finally picture myself settled. I will post some photos of that when I get a chance.

Thanks again for all the emails and comments. I love reading them so please keep them coming!

So where exactly are you going again?....

As most of you know this has been one of the most frustrating questions to answer of the last few months. The general answer to this has changed quite a bit over ranging from "Somewhere in South or Central America" to "Panama". I am happy to say that I can finally tell you all where I will living for the next two years! We had our site announcement ceremony today and it was amazing. We watched clips of JFK`s speech that started the Peace Corp, and it was inspiring. I had never seen it before and as cheesy as it is to say I felt honored to be a part of something that is bigger than myself. Enough about that.....drumroll please......

So, I will be living in a Province called Bocas Del Toro, which borders Costa Rica on the Carribean side of the country. I will be living on an island called San Crisobal. It is an indigenous community of about 600 people. I will have several primary tasks including:

1. Aiding artisan and cacao groups with production, marketing and sale of merchandise.
2. Assisting artisan and tourism groups in management and promotion of newly aquired tourism infrastructure.
3. Maintaining contact with foreign donor agencies that support the community.

In addition most all volunteers have secondary projects including teaching english in schools, working with kids and working with other country agencies to promote tourism. From the info I have so far, it sounds like I will not have many amenities including electricity, plumbing or running water (i am not totally sure on that one). I am a follow up volunteer and apparently everyone in the community loves her, so I have some big shoes to fill. In addition to Spanish people speak Ngobê (pronouced No-bay) so it should be interesting trying to learn that as well as improve my Spanish. It takes two days to get there from Panama City because you have to take a boat to get there. I could go on, but there is a huge smile on my face and I can´t wait to find out all of your reactions.

This coming Saturday everyone else who is in my province is going to a current volunteer site for an orientation to the culture which I am looking forward too. The week after that half of my CED group is going to a different volunteer site for technical training. I love all the travel we are getting to do during this time...I love seeing more of the country and meeting other volunteers out in the field. I believe the second week of October I get to go to my site by myself to check it out. Needless to say I have am so excited for the challenge of living with out the usual luxuries. I will post more this coming week when I am out there for culture week.

On a separate note, I finally have my address with me so here is the lowdown.

This is only my address during training (through October). Once I move I will repost new info. Padded envelopes do much better than boxes and registered mail helps. Generally they say things take about 10 days from the US. The address is:

Piper Frode
Cuerpo De Paz-Panama
Edif. 104 1er Piso
Ave. Vincente Bonilla
Ciudad Del Saber, Clayton
Panama, Republica de Panama

Things have gotten lost before, so please hold back on sending me all expensive gifts you have sitting around for me. Thanks again for all the wonderful emails, please keep me updated on how you are all doing. I will post again soon and put up some photos as soon as I have time. We are off to have pizza to celebrate!

Volunteer Visit

There have been several questions about my mailing info. I am sorry that has not been posted yet, whenever I seem to be at a computer I don´t have the address on my, like right now! I promise to come prepared next time with some snail mail info.

This last week has gone by so fast, I can´t believe it is already September 1st. On Thursday morning all of the trainees in my groups we sent out to spend a long weekend in the field with current volunteers. All of us were so excited to get out and see more of the country. I ended up going with my friend Monica, which was fun. We went to visit a volunteer named Emily who was living about 4 hours outside Panama City in the Veraguas province (it is called Veraguas because it is the only province that touches both the pacific and carribean, so Ver-Aguas means see-water).

Her site was relativly close to the capital city of Santiago, so overall is was fairly developed. She works with a boys buisness co-op, several muchacasguis groups (AKA girl scouts) and an Ecoclub. We got to go to a girl scout meeting, attend an Eco-fair and meet several other current volunteers who lived close by. It was great to be able to get her perspective on all things Peace Corp. Emily has been here over a year, so had a lot of great insite and knowledge to share with us. All in all it was a fun four days.

The week we have an interview with our program director (also know as our APCD) Zach about what we want out of a community. We should be finding out in a week or two where we will be spending the next two years, so all of us are on pins and needles. The visit this last weekend was a great chance to really ask myself what I want out of the next two years, what kind of environment I want to live it. I am looking forward to talking to him about where he sees me fitting in best. They really do work hard to get to know all of us well so that we will be happy wherever we end up.I am off to catch a bus, but I miss you all. Thanks for all the great emails and I will post again soon.

Training!

First off, thank you all so much for the emails and comments! We have very limited access to email, so please keep writing even if I don´t write back right away. It is great to hear what is going on back home and to know that all of you are reading my blog :)

So we moved into our training community this past Sunday which was very exciting. It is a beautiful place and the families have made us all feel at home. It is relatively small and is set in an area with beautiful rolling hills. There is only one payphone in town (which doesn´t often work) and no one has internet or landlines. My host family is awesome and they have had five previous trainees at their house. My mom´s name is Edna, the dad is Eric and they have two daughters, Genesis who is 15 and Erika who is 11. Genesis reminds me a lot of my own sister so it has been a nice reminder of home. They also have a bunch of chickens, rooster, 2 dogs and a pig. Everyone has electicity and running water (although it isn´t always running). Most houses have latrines but a few people have American style indoor flush toilets. You can imagine they are pretty popular :) All of the houses are made of concrete with tin-type roofs. The weather is really intense and getting used to the humidity is hard. I have come to love my cold showers.

Everyday I have technical class from 8-12 then language from 1-5. Technical class is only with people in the CED group and focuses teaching us about the agencies we will be working with. My language class is really intense and the approach the spanish here is total immersion. I am in an intermediate group with two others and our teacher only speaks spanish. I can´t believe how much I have improved in just the last week alone. The cool thing is that all of our classes take place at a house in the community. Our "classroom" for tech class is in the backyard of someones home and my language class meets on the porch of another host family. It is definitly different but amazing. We are going out on our own next week to stay with a volunteer which should be an experience to say the least. I miss all of you and will update again soon!

Bienvenido a Panama!

I am sorry it has taken me so long to put up my first post! I intend to try and put up a new entry at least every couple of week. I left home a week ago tomorrow and it feels like so much has happened I don't know where to start. We arrived in Panama on Wednesday and have been staying in an area outside the city called "Ciudad de Saber" or City of Knowledge. It is an old US government "city" that was turned over to the Panamanian government when they gained control over the canal in 1999. It houses the Peace Corp office as well as several other NGO's and US govenment organizations such as USAid and USDA. It is right across the street from the canal, which is awesome. It is not that hot here, but the humidity is intense so we are all adjusting. There are 35 people in our group and are divided into 2 sectors, community economic development (CED) and environmental health (EH). A lot of people are in their early 20's, but there are a good amout of people around my age/ early 30's as well. We also have two married couples who are in there late 20's and two guys who are in their 50's. So far everyone is awesome and we are having a great time getting to know each other.

The staff here is incredible, both the US staff and local Panamanians. Each group, CED and EH has a project manager, plus we have a country director, medical officer....the list goes on and on. Our project manager, Zach, is so inspiring and did his service here in Panama in a very remote are of the country. We have all been up at 6:30 am every morning and in seminars by 8 am. We have gotten vaccines, taken swim tests, learned how to make flotation devices out of our jeans, taken language interviews, medical interviews, been debriefed by the US embassy,...needless to say we are being throughly prepared for our sites and any possible issues that will arise over the next two years. This morning we all went out to a current volunteer site to see an example of where we could be placed in the next two, which was great. I will say more about this later when I have time. Tomorrow, we are leaving to move in with our host families for training which will be an experience to say the least. I could keep writing, but I have to go pack up. It has only been one week and already this experience is more than I could have imagined and it is only going to get better.