Monday, December 22, 2008

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.

Friday, December 12, 2008

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.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

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 piƱata 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.