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!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
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.
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.
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