Piper's Panama Pages

Just a typical workday...

2011-05-05T15:31:00.000-07:00

April has passed in the blink of eye... and May has arrived bringing with it baseball and some hot hot weather! It also signals the halfway point of my third year extension, just six months left. My job as regional coordinator has been very different from my first two years and I have gained a valuable new perspective on Peace Corp and development work. A lot of people ask if this job is more 9 to 5 or Monday thru Friday.....my answer is usually "sometimes but...well not really....it is kinda hard to explain." So, I took some along my camera on a recent site development trip to try to better explain what I am doing in beautiful Panama.

Back home a "business trip" usually involves driving and flying to meetings usually wearing heels and a suit. Here the preferred modes of transport are usually 4 wheel drive vehicles, hiking, public buses and my personal favorite boats. Professional attire usually means a polo shirt and jean skirt. Here I am traveling to a community meeting with a few other volunteers and Peace Corp staff.

There are three meetings that myself and the staff have with a community before they are eligible to receive a volunteer. The first meeting I visit the community, usually with other PCV's who live nearby, to walk around talk with local leaders and generally check it out to gauge interest in Peace Corp. If that visit goes well, I set up a second meeting where the program assistant comes out and talks more about what is Peace Corp, who are the volunteers and what are the commitments the community has to make to work with Peace Corp. The third meeting is then with the director who talks about the project the community was to work on with a volunteer. The above photo is of one of the programming assistants, Antonella, presenting the information at a school.

Plenty of space to park and its free. No need to read the parking rules here. Complete with security guards and everything!

Back home, an early wake up call usually means rushing to get to the airport or jumping in your car to make it somewhere on time. While waking up early never gets easy, it doesn't hurt when you are treated to sunrise over the Caribbean. I will miss being out in nature almost everyday....except when the weather is bad!

These next few months will be full of visiting volunteers, working out in the campo, and helping to train the next group of regional coordinators. I am trying to enjoy my last few months here, while still planning for what is to come.

Panama Carnival Tour 2011

2011-03-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Panamanians love to celebrate and have a good time. Any reason to call up some friends get a caja (case) of beer and put on some music and it is a party. Even my neighbor tells me that ever Friday is Sabado Chiquito or little Saturday...that alone is reason enough to celebrate right?! But a party that lasts that lasts for 5 nights and 4 days, you can guarantee they look forward to that all year long and pull out all the stops. I know we have Mardi Gras in the US, but I have never experienced a entire country shutting down to party. Carnivals happen all over, from huge New Orleans style celebrations, to smaller Carnival like fairs, to neighborhood gatherings. Here in Panama key elements of a good Carnival include water, music, dancing, street meat, reinas (queens-in both senses of the word), and a beer or two. To celebrate Carnival has its own verb, "Carnavalear" or "To Carnival"...in action, one says "Carnavaleando" or "Carnivaling". "Estoy carnavaleando!" or "I'm carnivaling!"

One of my favorite outfits! The Geisha Reina.

After a little convincing from my friends and remembering that this is my last year here in Panama, I headed down to what is considered the heartland of Panama, an area called the Azuero. It is a big peninsula that juts out into the pacific side of the country. It is also home to the biggest Carnival in Panama, in the town of Las Tablas. There are almost no hotels in the area, and to take advantage of the huge influx of visitors, local families rent out there homes. They literally clear out everything and move into the backyard for 5 days. Several Peace Corp volunteers who live in the area, rented out houses so it was one big sleepover.

Carnival kicked off Friday night March 4th with parades and a huge dance party that went all night. Then Saturday day was the start of the culecos or huge tanker trucks filled with water that are parked all around this huge square. In between getting sprayed, dancing and eating, the floats start to come through. Here in Panama, there is Calle Arriba and Calle Abajo. These are the two queens and each one has their own floats, outfits and bands. After the culecos end for the day everyone goes home to nap, eat and get ready to go out again that night. Another huge dance party Saturday night followed by another Sunday of culecos...all until the party comes to an end Tuesday night.

A view from one of the tanker trucks looking out over the streets in Las Tablas. The band for one of the floats is in the middle.

I left the party Sunday afternoon with my friend Joanna, but on our way back we decided we hadn't had enough Carnival. So we called up a few other friends and went to another party in a town called Dolega, in the province of Chiriqui. This one was much more mellow, more like a fair. There was still culecos, lots of music and food. We even decided to go back that night to go dancing. While i was dead tired on Tuesday as I headed home, I was so glad i got to experience not one, but two very different Carnivals.

New Digs

2011-02-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

I know, I know....I have been a huge disappointment to my loyal blog readers! Not writing an update since September is inexcusable. But I am back on track and realize that just because I no longer live in my community, lots of great things are still going on here in Panama. So, whats been going on in the four months since I last updated? Lets recap.

October found me wrapping things up in San Cristobal and getting ready fo

r my move to Changuinola. It was a busy month as I was rushing to finish my last project of improving the artisan stores. The goal was to make our two stores more tourist friendly by painting them, making signs and putting up information about the community in English and Spanish along with the awesome community maps the kids created a few months prior. Below are a few picture of the finished product.

All in all they came out really great. It felt good leaving my women's group with a visible reminder of my time in the community. Aside from finishing that up, I spent a good amount of time visiting with people, taking family portraits and having a goodbye party! My party or "despedida" consisted of two huge piñatas, lots of food and general chaos. It was a great way to go out. Below are photos of me with all the kids and also of my women's group in their traditional dresses or "Nagwas".

Needless to say it was very hard leaving my community at the end of October, but knowing that I would be able to visit over the coming year made it a little easier.

November found me jumping right into my new job as Regional Coordinator. I visited seven volunteers completing their first year to evaluate their progress and seven new volunteers who had been in site for one month. I also spent a week with the sub director of the sustainable agriculture program visiting meeting with communities who want a volunteer in the coming months. It was a great month of traveling and I got to be inspired by the work my fellow PCV's are doing.

December found me in the states for a month of much needed vacation! It was great to see family, friends and relax for the holidays. It made me look forward to coming home at the end of this year.

January found me back in Panama...and happily returning to my shorts and sandals! I visited a few volunteers and spent time organizing a tour of Changuinola for a new group of volunteers as coordinating our regional meeting which takes place every four months. I found myself visiting government agencies, booking meeting rooms and running all over town so that things went off without a hitch. All in all it is good to be back. I am happy with the work I am doing, but I am looking forward to see what this year brings. It will be full of transitions and for that I am grateful. To the left is a photo of my new house....it even came with a dog!

What is better than 2 years in Panama? 3!

2010-09-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

As my second year here is coming to a close, my friends and family have been asking THE QUESTION....¨So, when are you coming home?!¨ A few months ago the answer was ¨I am not sure, I might stay, who knows...¨ But I can now say that 2011 will find me here in Panama, extending my service for a third year. While most of my close friends and family know I will be staying, most don´t know exactly what it is I will be doing. So I have finally sat down to explain how my next year will be spent.

Here in Panama there are several options if you want to extend your service. You can stay on in your community for a few extra months or up to a year if you are finishing up a big project or working on something specific. For example, my friend Kaitlyn is staying for an extra five months to finish a project to bring rainwater collection tanks to her community. Another option is to take a coordinator positon for a certain project, but not necessarily working in the same community. For example, my friend Jesse (and closest volunteer) is moving to David (a large city) where he will be coordinating composting latrine projects that are happening around the country. His home will be in a city and he will travel to help people with construction and implementation. Peace Corp is going through lots of growth so there has been lots of opportunity to create your own job.

I have decided to go for option number three which was to apply for a postition as a Regional Leader or RL. Peace Corp Panama started the RL program and it is now used as a model for other countries as well. A RL is a third year volunteer who lives in a regional captial and acts as a liason with Peace Corp staff. Ideally, the will have lived for two years in the region as a volunteer, so they know the area well. I applied a few months ago and got the job! As the RL of Bocas Del Toro, I will have three main responsibilities.

First, is site development. This means coordinating with the various programs directors to find communities in my region who want volunteers and have work. I will be responsible to doing intial visits, talking with people, seeing if it seems like a good place to live, gathering information. There is a lot that goes into developing a community to recieve a volunteer but that is the simplified version of it. I am excited about this part of the job because it means getting out, hiking, boating, who knows...maybe even a horse ride, to meet communties. I have dedicated myself to one community for two years, so it will be great to see more of this area.

Second, is volunteer support. This involves a lot of things from personal support, to keeping track of them in an emergency, organizing regional meetings, offering advice, and letting people stay at my house sometimes since it is in the capital.

Third, is agency relations. This means maintaining a working relationship between Peace Corp and different government agencies that partner with us. (for example in the US this would be akin to department of health or EAP etc.). This helps us connect on projects and work opportunities that are happening in our area. I guess you could say I am the Peace Corp representative they would work with.

Needless to say, this was not an easy decision. I miss my family and friends and I know there are things I have missed out on. But, more than that it is a great opportunity for me to get more work experience and I owe it to myself to go after anything that is helping me to define who I am, my goals and helping me create a vision for who I want to be in the next several year. Plus it doesn´t hurt that I will now have a house with electricity and indoor plumbing.

Milestones

2010-08-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

August. I knew this month was coming closer with every flip of my calender, but it snuck up me as it usually does. This year, August has brought with it many important milestones in my life. First and foremost, the 17th meant turning 29. Scary to think about entering the last year of your twenties. The twenties have been good to me and I don't want them to end. Secondly, the 14th meant exactly two years here in Panama. Those of us from my group (62) who have stuck it out, got together to reflect, talk about where we go from here and to celebrate our accomplishments. It is sad to think about leaving my community and not seeing the great friends I have made here on a regular basis. Third, and maybe the most exciting is that my mom is here visiting! She came to celebrate my birthday with me and see Panama. We spent some time in the mountains, three nights in my community and of course are seeing some of the beautiful beaches of Bocas.

A highlight of the visit, was that my Mom and I planned an small afternoon workshop for my women's group. Being an artist and teacher, my mom really wanted to do something creative with them, Spanish or no Spanish she was pumped. We put on a workshop she taught them how to make fabric beads out of fabric scraps and straws, knot buttons, and a new wrapping technique that they can use for their necklaces and bracelets. It was great and the women were pumped that my mom actually came. Below are some photos of the visit and the activity with my mom.

Hope everyone is well! Sorry I haven't gotten to some of the questions that have been left, Erin...wink, wink....but I haven't forgotten!

Paradise Found

2010-07-27T15:03:00.001-07:00

For as much as I get tired of the heat and the bugs, living in a tropical paradise does have its perks. Rain forest, animals, beautiful beaches...the list goes on. Fortunate for us volunteers we get the chance to discover all of the out of the way places other tourists do not often have the time or know-how to go see. In between the business seminars that I wrote about in my last post, I took a few days vacation to head out to Coiba, an island that is a national park in the Pacific.

On the map below you can see Coiba just above where it says "North Pacific Ocean"

Coiba National Park has been on my "Panama must see list" ever since I read about it in my guide book. The n

ational park includes Coiba island, 38 smaller islands and the surrounding marine areas within the Gulf of Chiriqui. In July of

2005 the entire park was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site for the rich biodiversity.

It is part of the Galapagos chain of islands and Coiba is the largest island in central america with an area of over 50 square miles. About 80% of the island is untouched forest and is home to rare plant and animal species found only on the island. It is surrounded by one of the largest coral reefs on the Pacific Coast of the America.

If that wasn't enough to make you want to go there, a

penal colony was built on the island in 1919. During the years that Panama was under the Dictatorships of Omar Torrijos and Manuel Noriega, the prison on Coiba was a feared place with a reputation for brutal conditions, extreme tortures, executions and political murder. Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed in the prison during this period, but sources claim that the number could be close to three hundred. As such, the island was avoided by locals, and other than the prison, was completely undeveloped. The prison was closed down in 2004, but there are still police officers stationed there to protect the ruins, watch for poachers and to help the environmental authority protect the park.

Sounds pretty great right?! Scary prison ruins, snorkeling, undiscovered paradise. The only hitch, it is over two hours in a boat to get there, each boat is $500 dollars and the only place to stay is a few cabins that are near the ranger station. So when my friend Mateo organized two boats to go out, I said sign me up!

Me and 11 other volunteers spent two days snorkeling, touring the prison ruins, drinking pipas (young coconuts) and having a great time. We saw whales, dolphins, snorkeled with sharks, turtles, beautiful fish and incredible reefs. It really was the most beautiful and wild place I have been in Panama.

Rumbo al Exito

2010-07-12T16:26:00.000-07:00

Being a community economic development (or CED) volunteer here in Panama is a job that has many parts to it. Obviously the bulk of our efforts and work as PCV’s is focused on one community and often one group and one specific business. The range of projects amongst CED volunteers is pretty amazing. Some of us work with fisherman’s cooperatives, chocolate producers, farmers, artisans, tourism groups, and community microfinance. Big or small, Latino or Indigenous, CEDers work to help people improve their businesses, by helping identify areas that can be strengthened and teaching them the skills to do so.

In addition to the work we do in our communities, we often participate in and facilitate seminars which are designed to help us with our work. For example, a seminar that all volunteers attend with their counterparts is Project Management and Leadership or PML for short. (Side note: a counterpart is our main work partner in a community. Often the president of the group or someone motivated to organize a project. My counterpart is Esperanza, the president of my tourism group). PML teaches basic project planning and management skills such as time and money management, organizing a group, running a meeting and problem solving.

Recently, there has also been a push to develop a comprehensive seminar to teach professional business planning. Over the years PCV’s have worked to develop and adapt material to most effectively teach the material to people who often have no formal business training and little or no computer skills. Last year, I was able to participate in the seminar "Rumbo al Exito" or "Path to Success". With the vice president of my tourism group, Sergio, we wrote a professional business plan complete with full qualitative and quantitative analysis of the business. It was a lot of work, especially in Spanish but we both learned a lot. This year, those of us who took the seminar we asked to serve as facilitators. We had over 40 participants...20 volunteers and their counterparts took part in the seminar which took place over two weekends...one in June and the other just finished up on July 9th. The first seminar focused on the qualitative information then in the month between they were required to gather information about all the costs. It was a lot of work, but a great experience. Below are some photos from the two seminars. Enjoy!

Pumping up the energy with some games or dynamicas. A favorite is a version of rock, paper, scissors called "hombre, tigre, rifle"

Maria, a officer from a IPACOOP (Panamanian government agency that manages cooperatives) and Ben G. talking about including salaries for your employees to your operating costs.

Teachers extrordinare! From left, Lisa S., me and Lisa A.

Part of the group hard at work. We divided up the room by type of business. This is the tourism table.

Burning Questions Answered

2010-06-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

In response to my request for questions on my last blog, I received a handful of great ones from my great friends Erin and Daphne! Hopefully the answers will give more insight into what my life is like here in Panama.

- Do you have a daily routine or is every day very different from the next?

When I first got to my community, this was one of the hardest things for me to get used to. Sometimes I would wake up and think "What am I going to do today?" and have a feeling of dread. I was used to working hard, being busy and having very little free time. Now I would say there are routine things I do everyday but the "work" part varies quite a bit. Everyday things like cooking, laundry and cleaning also take more time because I don't have running water or electricity. When I am in my community I also spend a lot of time visiting with my neighbors, walking around...just being out. Sometimes I have meetings with my groups, will hang with the women while they are doing artisanry, in the afternoons I usually end up at my house reading, helping the kids with their English homework, lending out games and books. Some days I have nothing to do and other days I don't have time to everything I planned. All bets are off when it is pouring out. No one leaves the house, including me!

- It sounds like the locals can be very silly. Are the types of things that make them laugh very different from what makes us laugh here in the States?

Ha! This is a great question. The people I live with have a great sense of humor and are not afraid to laugh at themselves. Some of the same things that make use laugh at home most definitely make them laugh here. Kids doing funny things, bodily functions, sex, life in general...they aren't ones to hold back. The type of humor that I often find myself missing is sarcasm, play on words, humor that only is only understood by people who are English speakers or from the same cultural background. Something things strike me as funny and I am left cracking my own self up! One example is the crazy t-shirts people wear...see example below. How do you explain why this is funny? You can't. It just is.

- What's the best local meal you've had in Panama? Most memorable?

There are some common foods you will find out throughout all of Panama, like rice, chicken, plantains and yucca (kinda like a potato). You might think the food is similar to Mexican, but it is actually very different. A tortilla here is a small cornmeal cake and you have to search to find things that are spicy. Since we are bordered by both the Pacific and the Caribbean you can also get fish, shrimp and other seafood. Bocas del Toro (the province I live in), you can find lots of fish, lobster and lots of foods made with coconut. One of my most favorite local meals is Rondon, a fish stew cooked with coconut milk, onions, peppers. Add some curry in there and serve over rice. Amazing. Most memorable food experience was probably eating boiled green bananas and white rice everyday for almost three months while living with a host family. Hard to believe but it kinda grows on you after while!

- What surprised (or continues to surprise) you the most about where you work?

Hmmm. I wouldn't say it was was one thing, everything was a surprise. I have never started a job where I didn't have at least some point around which to orient myself. When I arrived, I knew nothing about the culture, was learning the language, didn't know anything about the project I was going to help or understand the thinking of the people who were running it. At least when you are new on the job in the states, people speak English, you understand the business mentality that drives our culture and when all else fails there is usually someone there you can talk it out with.

- Daphne would like to know if you've finally met Carlos, your Latin lover? Also, did the two of you get married in a small, quaint island ceremony, where you exchanged starfish and promised to be together forever?

Sounds so romantic! Unfortunately I haven't had the experience of actually dating a

local, but I still have time, so who knows! I feel like it would complete my cross cultural experience. Don't worry Daph, my ladies will be the first to know when I meet my Latin love.

Thanks for the great questions, keep them coming!

Forgotten what I look like cause it has been so long? Here is a photo from a birthday party I went to last week for the girl in the photo, Amy. Food, cake equals good times.

Vida Volunteers

2010-06-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

June is rolling right along here in the tropical paradise that is Bocas. Today the sky is a brillant blue, a slight breeze is blowing and the water looks like there are thousands of little mirrors floating on the surface. Had a fresh mango smoothie for breakfast with a few friends and life is good!

This last Saturday, my community hosted Vida Volunteers, a huge group of medical volunteers who were traveling throughout Costa Rica and Bocas Del Toro. They often work with Peace Corp because we work in areas that they target, so it works great. We can do a lot of the leg work and small details they are not able to. My community was the only stop they made out in the islands so it was a big deal. The week leading up to it was hectic as I worked to coordinate cooks, promote the visit and figure out where they would work. The group consisted of medical students from Wisconsin, a group of dentists from England, and even a group of vets who came to spay, neuter and deworm animals in the community. There were also doctors from Costa Rica and Panama in the mix so it was quite a group. They pulled up at around 8am in three boats, set up the equipment and got down to work within a half and hour! They were very experienced and while the day was exhausting for both them and me, it was very sucessful.

The doctors worked in the community center and formed groups of three to four with a translator.

The dentists worked both inside and outside (as seen in the photo) of the health center. Most of my time was spent helping out here translating and getting the kids to open their mouth! They did a lot of extractions, some fillings and a lot of showing kids how to brush their teeth.

I love this picture because the girl standing in front had two teeth pulled and doesn´t look very happy about it. Perfect poster child for the Glasgow Dental School!

While I avoided going to the school classroom where the vets were working, it was probably the most popular place to be. Everyone was crowding around the windows and door to see their poor dogs being imasculated! The jokes were flying all day. Someone even asked me where the bag of balls ended up at the end of the day and I almost peed in my pants I was laughing so hard.

As compared to my first year here, I feel like something blog worthy is happening all the time! Do my readers have any questions about my life here, Peace Corp, Panama in general? Any special topics I should cover? Please feel free to leave a comment with questions and I will answer them.

Maps Galore

2010-05-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

I have recently started working on several tourist information signs which will placed around the community. They will have the history of the community in English and Spanish, a map of the community and a map of the islands. This will help make San Cristobal more tourist friendly, help orient them while walking around and provide some much needed information in English.

So, I was sitting in my hammock the other afternoon, making a few sketches of the community, when I had a moment of inspiration. Why not have a competition among the 3 middle/high school classes to see who could create the best community map? I went to talk to the three professoras and they loved the idea. I was pumped because the kids hardly ever get to do anything creative and I was excited to see what they would come up with.

We started by brainstorming the important things they should include on the map, such as the artisan houses, the small stores, the hostel, the local centro de salud, the Christian and Evangelical churches, the schools, athletic fields and cemetery. Each class then divided up to work on a rough draft and once it was approved by everyone then got to work. Below are some photos from the three days it took us to complete the activity.

Above, one of the rough draft sketches. Below, the kids working to color in the final version.Professora Ida's class won first place with their version of San Cristobal, pictured above. The winners were chosen by the tourism group I work with. Most of the community is centered along a central walkway, so the maps begin at the public dock in front and go all the way to the cemetery which marks the beginning of jungle and people's farms.Professora Lilybeth's class took second place with their map.

Third place went to Professora Gloribeth. I was a hard choice and I will be using all the maps on two signs and the third will be posted in the hostel. More photos of the finished signs to come!

Cast of Characters

2010-05-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start a new series on my blog highlighting some of the my most favorite people in San Cristobal. My first profile is of one of the grandmothers in my community named Isabel. But no one actually calls her that...¨Ma¨is her nickname of choice. I will say that most of the abuleas, grandmothers, are called that so if there is every confusion she also goes by Isa Cri. Cri literally means ¨big¨in their dialect and since there are also two Isabels, she is the older of the two hence big Isa. She is a member of the artisan group and mother of two of the other women I work with.

When I first arrived, I thought she hated me. She would sort of shout to me in dialect, and when I didn´t know how to respond, she would stare for a minute, give me a wave of her hand and give me a frustrated Ahhh! and walk off. Slowly but surely, we bonded. I could say a few things, and my spanish/dialect combo seemed to win her over and even thought she doesn´t speak any Spanish, but that didn´t seem to hinder our hilarious converstions. She teases me about boys... especially when cute tourists are around, worries about me when I am away, and calls me her hija. I in turn bring her banana bread or brownies and love to be around her cause we always end up cracking up about something.

The other day I was eating some chicken soup that the women´s group had made and just hanging out with the ladies in the artisan group. It was really hot that day, which in Panama means the perfect day for soup. We were all sitting around sweating, some us laying on benches, just talking. Ma, happened to be eating her soup aross the table from me, when she looks down at the chicken foot she had in her hand. She starts to chuckle to herself and when I look over, she holds up the foot in the air, points to it and then points to me. I give her a look of confusion, then she points to her own arm, then me, then the chicken leg again. At this point, she is near the point of tears she is laughing so hard. I realize she is saying that my arm is so white it looks like the chicken leg.
All of the other women start laughing to and I am in tears. Ma, can hardly breathe she is laughing so hard. I happened to have my camera on hand, and we decided to document the moment. I developed this picture for her a week ago and when she saw it, we cracked up all over again. Spending time with her reminds me of my own grandmothers and I will miss her gentle teasing and her laugh.

Stayed tuned for the next installment of cast of charaters! Shout out to former PCV´s Jay and Julia who inspired this blog.

Ojo de Dios

2010-04-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

We are heading quickly towards the end of April, which means I am officially entering my last six months of service. It is hard to believe, but true. I feel like there is still so much to do and so little time! I have to remind myself to finish the projects I have started and just enjoy being there. On thing that I am going to put more attention to in these last six months is my Muchachas Guias (girl scout) group. My mom especially sends me project ideas all the time and I need to get on the ball.

A few months ago I promised them that we were going to do an art project called Gods Eyes or Ojo De Dios. Needless to say, I got busy, went home for a vacation and time got away from me. But they didn't forget, cause they don't forget ANYTHING. Every time I walk around in my community at least one of them shouts "when are we going to make ojo de dios Pai?" So finally I said, "tomorrow after school!" After sending them out for twigs and cutting lots of yarn, we got underway. Everyone was busy working and some got the hang of it quicker than others, but in the end they all left with an awesome Gods Eye, some even managed to make two. I took photos of everyone and have seen Gods Eyes appearing in doorways and windows around the community. More photos of craft projects to come!

Home Hangover

2010-03-30T14:26:00.000-07:00

I looked forward to it for months, and now is has come and gone. I just got back to Panama from my first trip home since August 2008. At first I was a little nervous that I would get there and feel like I had missed out on everything. That all my friends would be grown up and I would just be their crazy friend with no home, no car, wasting my time in Panama. Some things had changed, but the things that really matter were still the same. My friends were still awesome, family still supportive and in a lot of ways it felt like I had never left. I also realized that this experience has been anything but a waste of time. Seeing the city skyline from a cab and I left the airport, riding around on the bus, speaking Spanish, it felt good to come back. This has become one of the many places I call home.

All in all, I visited three states, took two roadtrips, went to one amazing wedding. I had great lunches, breakfasts, birthday dinners, coffees, walks, waiting room laughs (that ones for you Becky), potluck BBQ's, a spa day with my mom...the list is endless. I enjoyed every minute of it! Looking over my photos, I was reminded what true friendship and love really are and that is what this trip was for me. Below are some photos from my great 3 weeks.

Beautiful California! Driving to San Jose from Los Angeles, we took Hwy 46 which cuts through the middle of the state over to the coast. All of the wildflowers were in bloom, oranges, yellows and purples.

Family time in Idaho with sister, stepmom, Dad and two brothers. Below, making pizza in my Dad's home made bread oven.

With my mom and grandma in Ashland.
With my ladies at my old college roomate, Sarah's wedding.

Liz and Kuna (dog) spending some quality cuddle time in the backseat on our roadtrip up to San Jose from LA.

I also realized that people actually read my blog! I will try to keep it for my numerous fans :)

More latrine fun!

2010-02-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

The year is off to a busy start, just the way I like it. After my Global Brigades group left, my focus became finishing off the small composting latrine project that was started by the previous volunteer in my community. I didn't have very much money left to work with, but after revaluating what supplies were needed, it turned out we had just enough to finish the last latrine that had been started over a year ago. In total that would leave us with three finished latrines. After a long day of getting concrete, sand, gravel and other supplies to the work site, two of my fellow bocas Environmental Health volunteers Jesse and Harold came out to help. Here are a few photos from our 3 days of work.

Our crew of helpers and errand runners. These are the kids who live in the house where we were building the latrine.
Taking one of many breaks for cold soda at one of the stores in my site. There is nothing better than a cold Squirt out of glass bottle.

Jesse building the "table" inside the box. The table is made to support the weight of the concrete that gets poured on top. This layer forms the floor of the latrine.

This is how the latrine looked before we started. What you see is a concrete "box" that is dividing in half. Part of the problem is that it is on a hill so water seeps in from the front. Since the point of a composting latrine is to keep the material inside dry, that is a bit of a problem.

Jesse and I applying a layer of waterproofing concrete to the inside of the "box" to keep it dry. I have no idea why, but I really like this part. It is meticulous and you into this zen mood applying it

Looking at our handywork. The buckets are put in to leave holes in the floor for the seats. There is still work to do such as installing the seats and building the "casita" or house that encloses the latrine. More photos to follow!

Global Brigades in San Cristobal

2010-01-16T07:07:00.001-08:00

My new year is off to a busy start here in Panama. The 4th through the 8th, my community hosted a group of univesity student who came through a student volunteer/development agency called Global Brigades. The idea of Global Bridages is that groups of students get together to form a club or "brigade" on their university campus. There are several different focuses a brigade can have including medical, architecture, engineering and buisness...it depends on the knowledge of the students. The group is then paired up to a project in a host country. Here in Panama, they have relationships with governmental agencies as well as Peace Corp. Different project proposals which outline the details of what the students would be working on are submitted to the group, who then decide what they want to work on. I wrote a proposal to have a buisness brigade come and work with my tourism group. My proposal was picked up by a brigade of 8 students from University of Pennsylvania. All and all they spent a week in my community during their winter break, the first part was talking with people to get an idea of what the needs were and they planning trainings in the second part. In addition to the training component, the brigade also brings a investment component of $100 per student. Throughout the whole week they talk to the group and me about how the money can be best spent then at the end of their time, they present the group with a detailed list of where the money is going to go. It was a lot of work on their part and mine but it was a great experience. My group as well as other store owners in my community recieved accounting training and they came up with new ideas of how we can improve tourism. They also invested in materials for a rainwater shower, flyers, a sign to put out front of the community and a donation to the school. Even though they have gone home they will continue to follow up on the project through me and my community.

Below are some photos from the week.

We also did fun cultural activities like making tye dye t-shirts will dyes made from plants. Super fun!

The group working on a sign to put out front of the community. It says "Welcome to San Cristobal. A Ngobe community."

The group giving an accounting presentation to the tourism group and to the other buisness owners in the community.

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday back home. I was thinking of all my loved ones and sending best wishes your way. I spent Christamas in San Cristóbal and made spiced cider and Swedish gingerbread cookies to share with my friends and neighbors. It brought a little of my holiday traditions here to the tropics. 2010 has taken me by suprise and I can´t believe that this is my last year here. Looking back 2009 has been an amazing time...I can only imagine what this next year will bring. So far, it looks to be very productive and I have lots of work ahead.

One great suprise that appeared in my inbox the other day was a copy of this article which appeared in a national newspaper here in Panama, La Prensa. It is a huge boost to my group and they were just as shocked as I was. The photo is of the hostel we are working on and was taken when the US ambassador came to visit my site last September. It even mentions there work with Peace Corp ( that would be me!). The headline reads ¨San Cristóbal and Salt Creek: Examples of Ethnotourism¨and the strip in yellow says ¨On Bastimentos Island, Bocas Del Toro, two indigenous villages proudly show their culture¨. It goes on to talk about what the community offers tourists and how they have recieved support from Peace Corp. It also mentions my counterpart, Esperanza by name and talks about her leadership. It was a great moment to see their hard work pay off!

Best of 2009

2009-12-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

The end of the year always means lots of "best of" lists. The best songs, most popular toys, top 10 news stories...you name it, they probably can find a way to make a countdown about it. So to say good bye to 2009, I decided to post some of my favorite images from the last year. Enjoy!

I took this photo at a kids birthday party. Ronnie is holding his candy from a pinata that was filled with flour.

Awesome koi fish in Boquete. The colors of the fish and the tiles of the pool were so beautiful.

A street performer in Costa Rica.

A tourist hanging out with the artisan ladies. She is learning how to make string out to a plant fiber. The women then use the string to make bags and whatever else they can think of!

Casco Viejo at sunset.

I am now obssessed with turkeys. I love how their waddles turn bright red when they are mad.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I spent time in my community and had a great time making apple cider and pepperkoker (swedish gingerbread) for my neighbors. It was the next best thing to being with my family and friends back home. 2009 has flown by and I am looking forward to the New Year!

Graduation

2009-12-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

December mean one things to the kids here in Panama besides Christmas...Graduation! The school year here starts in late March, so the end of this month means schools out for the summer. The colegio, or high school celebrated its graduation this past week with nine students being honored. One of the traditions is that you ask someone to be your escort, or madrina or padrino. If you are a boy you ask a girl to be your madrina...and vice versa. Think of it as being a godmother or godfather to the student, but only for an afternoon. Duties include walking in with the student, sitting with them and bringing a gift to present when the ceremony is over.

So you can imagine my suprise when my friend Joel asked me to be his madrina. He was first in the class, so I was very honored. The ceremony started like most events in my community...three hours late. But if that is all you got going on that day what does it matter right? After the presentation of the certificates and presenting the graduates we ate lunch and there was even a cake which one of the teachers brought. Below are some photos from the day.

Me, Joel and his aunt Griselda. She was his other guest, but I was the official madrina. Got to have a photo with the gifts! I cheated and asked him what he wanted. He got two new shirts.

Our community rancho all done up for the ceremony. I am sitting on the left up in the front. No event is complete without a dog in the mix.

Joel with his professor Demetrio and his mom Valentina. I have no idea why, but the minute you take a photo of anyone in my community they stop smiling, it is a cultural thing. It is so counter-intuitive! I have to sneak up on people to get a smile.

All in all is was a great time. It made me think back to my high school graduation, how I felt that day. I remember being scared, sad, happy, overwhelmed but mostly excited. Like that was the day my life was going to being. Moving out, college...I had no idea what lay ahead. Most of the kids here have parents who only completed sixth grade, so to continue on into high school takes motivation here. It was wonderful to see these nine students being celebrated and I was grateful to take part.

Thankgiving!

2009-11-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

Thankgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the weather, the chance to spend time in a cozy house with your family, the food, the leftovers...the list goes on and on. Every year here in Panama, a decicated group of volunteers organizes a blowout Thanksgiving. Last year I was unable to attend, so this year I couldn't wait. There aren't many places that fell like fall here in Panama, but the celebration was held at an amazing lodge high up in the mountains called Los Quetzales. It was beautiful, crisp weather and the lodge had amazing fireplaces and lots of couches for lounging. Over 100 volunteers came and we all had a great time relaxing, eating and having improptu dance parties. While it was hard to to think of my family back home, I was so grateful to be celebrating with my Peace Corp family for the holiday.

In Spanish, Thanksgiving is translated "Accion de Gracias", or literally the action of giving thanks. Like most Spanish to English translations, it struck me as funny. I found myself repeating it over to myself.....action of thanks...somehow it just wasn't the same as the "giving thanks". The more I thought about it, I realized that during the last year, I have been actively giving thanks for something almost every week, sometime more, sometimes less. Occasionaly the thanks is given out loud to no one imparticular or sometimes just reflected in my journal. So for this day of actively giving thanks, I thought I woud create a list of some of the thinks i give thanks for almost everyday here in Panama.

1. My friends and family. Sometimes you forget who you are here, and they are there to remind you.

2. On a great day, the opportunity and privledge to be here.

3. On a really bad day, that I only have one year left!

4. My health.

5. Being an educated woman.

6. Challenges to rise above and learn from.

7. A home cooked meal.

8. Music, Music, Music

9. Clean underwear. You can be dirty, but as long as your underwear are clean, things are good.

10. My mosquito net. It is the canopy bed I always wanted as a little girl.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

The world of Peace Corp work

2009-11-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

As most of you can imagine, the focus of Peace Corp is education. Giving people information so they can use it to make choices and improve their own lifes. Knowledge is power right? Power to run a small buisness, power to improve community health, power to be a leader...whatever the project might be, the main focus is always transferring knowledge to empower people.

Most education takes place in a very informal setting. Whether it be in small meeting with your group or one-on-one teachable moments, most of the time it doesn´t feel like you are teaching anything at all. The question of how can we as volunteers most effectively transmit the information so it makes the biggest impact is always at the forefront of what we do. Aside from the informal settings, a popular way of transmitting information here in Panama is seminars. While Peace Corp puts on large scale seminars ranging from leadership to writing a buisness plan, individual volunteers also put on smaller scale seminars in their own communities.

Several weeks ago my friend Eli called me up and asked if I would want to come out and help with a water committee training seminar they were putting on in the mountains on the pacific side. Would I be interested in giving a talk about how to interact with government agencies and write professional letters? I had yet to facilitate anything in Spanish that was outside my own community so I jumped at the chance to see another part of the country and visit some other PCV friends.

The seminar was being held about a 30 minute chiva (covered pickup truck. think of it as a rural taxi service) ride up the mountain in a community called Corotú. The participants were members of about 4 local water committees all from over the area, some of whom hiked an hour and half one way to get to the seminar. Myself and the oraganizers, fellow PCV´s Eli, Gaurav and Dave stayed about a 40 minute hike away in Gaurav´s community. The seminar itself was over a series of weekends and I was participating on the last day of the training. In an hour and a half I talked about being professional and went over different kinds of professional letters. We did activities and I even had them get together and write their own letters which they then had to read. Below are some photos from the day.

Me playing the secretary at an agency. Brave volunteers came up and had to present thenselves and try to get past me.

A group photo of the participants with their certificates. Can you tell which one is me? I stand out like a ghost.

Below, a pic of my notes on ¨How to interact with agencies¨. Main points were things like confirm appointments, be early, dress nice etc...

The seminar ended with almost all of the particpants recieving 36 hours of training on how to manage a rural water system. Topics ranged from cleaning a water tank and protecting your water source to how to manage finances and write a letter of solicitation. For me it was chance to see something new, visit some PCV friends, and gain more experience working and presenting in Spanish. I can´t wait for the next one!

Cooking in the Campo

2009-07-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

Food is a big topic of conversation among volunteers. Whether it is talking about food we miss from home, where to get pizza or how we never imagined there were so many uses for a banana....food is always on everyone's mind it seems. At home, we have all stared into a fridge and thought..."I have nothing to eat." Here most of us live without refridgeration and modern conveniences, so when I am staring at my shelf of food that question seems to pop into my brain at every meal.

While sometimes, I give up and just eat cereal or pasta, I can say I have enjoyed the challenge of trying to come up with inventive things to cook. Some home runs to date have been curried black bean veggie burgers, crepes with carmelized apples, curried chicken soup and homemade pasta sauce with sardines. One of my favorite things is baking in my MacGyver style oven, which consists of a pot with a tuna can in the bottom on which you place a pie tin. The tuna can allows the tin to sit off the bottom and with a lid on the warm air circulates around and just like that you have an oven. I make a lot of banana bread, cacao (chocolate) brownies, and pumpkin bread...which turned out more like a bread pudding.

Last week my campo cooking genius moved up a level and I hit a cooking grand slam. It was pouring outside and I was sick of reading so I stared at the stuff in my kitchen and looked for inspiration. I wanted something desserty and was into the carmelized apples I had made for crepes the day before. I really wanted some apple pie but certainly didn't need to make a whole pie,
because I would have ended up eating most of it...plus I only had two green apples. The wheels started turning...what could be a single serving pie tin? I had a tin from powdered millk but was to tall. Then in a moment of of brillance I thought...a tuna can! Why not?! I cut up an apple and layered the slices in the (really clean) can and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar on top. Then I made a small amount of dough with some flour, salt, sugar and a spoon of crisco. I rolled it out and put it over the mound a apples. I sealed the edges and poked some holes in the top, put it in the "oven" and waited.

Pretty soon it smelled like amazingness. I peaked under the lid and I saw perfectly browned crusty perfection...and it tasted as good as it looked. Apple pie in a tuna can. Amazing.

So what exactly are you doing out there anyways?!

2009-06-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is one question that I am sure most PCV´s spend their time trying to answer. The longer I am in my community, the more I realize that the answer to this question only becomes more complex instead of clear, harder to answer instead of easier. The culture, history, my relationship to the people, their relationships to each other...navagating through all of these things my biggest job of all...the actual ¨work¨becomes secondary.But, now that I have been living and working in San Cristóbal for almost seven months, I feel I can try to give a better explaination of what I do day-to-day and what my overall role had become there.

Officially, I am a community ecomonic development volunteer working for the Peace Corp. Peace Corp is a grassroots development agency, meaning it takes a bottom up approach to development as opposed to top down. We are considered grassroots because our focus is people, process over a product whereas other topdown approaches work on a much larger scale bringing lots of money and big projects. While these top down approaches have good intentions, they sometimes fail because time isn´t taken to get to know the people and what they actually want. We live in our communities for two years in order to build relationships, gain trust and through those relationships work together to transfer knowledge and accomplish goals the community themselves have identified as projects they want to make happen.

My primary project is helping my community tourism group with all aspects of running a sucessful tourism business. We work on things like accounting, basic record keeping, marketing, putting together tour packages, building a hostel and working with outside tour operators who visit the community. I have also become a link between outside agencies, such as USAID and other NGO´s, helping my community to navagate things like paperwork and excel documents. I also spend a big chunk of time doing physical working with them, whether we are hauling wood, cleaning our nature trail, cooking food, or making artisanry. When and how we work on these things depend on them. They have lives, families and responsibilities so I also try to keep things on track to help us complete important paperwork. Obviously, I don´t work on this project all day everyday. I have also started some secondary work which includes starting a girl scout group (yup, just like in the states minus the yummy cookies) and working with the english teacher who works in the school.

I consider San Cristóbal my home, so I do normal stuff like laundry, hang out with my neighbors, color with the kids, sew, read in my hammock and gossip with my friends. In a way I think it is these small everyday things that have the biggest impact. People see me as there friend, adopted daughter, the gringa who lives next door who lets us color in her house, as Pai. Those things are far more important to me than having people see me as a Piper, Peace Corp development worker. At the end of the day, they will remember that I spent the afternoon making bread with them just visiting, not that I helped them balance a check book.

Here are a sampling of photos I have taken over the past few months.

I have started sewing more and have made a few dresses for the little girls and new babies in the community. Everyone calls this little girl Muñeca, which means doll. She is one of my favorite babies and always makes me laugh.

I went on a all day hike across my island with some friends and we came across this grandpa hauling a load of bananas back to his house.

I have started taking photos of all the new babies so the mothers can have a copy. This is Yasi, the new baby girl of one of the artisan ladies, Darmaris.

Where did the last two months go?!

2009-04-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

I guess that is what living on an island does to you. All sense of time sort of slips away...like living under an imaginary rock of sorts. I am doing great and have been getting more into the groove of work and life on San Cristóbal. My main project is helping my tourism group get a hostel up and running. The area of Bocas del Toro is currently booming and the country is pushing tourism hard, so there are lots of agencies and other NGO´s here working to promote sustainable tourism, ecotourism, ethnotourism, geotourism....pick one and it is happening here. Luckily the community I work is motivated to take advatage of the action, so we are working on completing this hostel/hotel so people will have a different option for accomodations here in the islands. We already have a group from France that comes to stay every other month or so for a cultural exchange, so they will be happy to have a place to stay. I have been working with the president of the group, Esperanza, do things like track expenses, work on creating a price list of activities, and whatever else... including builiding a composting latrine for people to come use when they come visit. Lucky for me the latrine is right next to my house!

View of my house and new latrine from the hostel. The guy working hard is my friend Jesse or Krawdi as he is know, who lives about a 40 minute hike away in a neighboring community called Valle Escondido.

Fun times with concrete. I have a new respect for anyone who does construction/mansonry. It is hard work and mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow in the heat is no easy task. Pai seems to have caught on as my nickname of choice. I was dubbed Melly when I arrived, but only a few people use it anymore. Fine with me, I like Pai better.
My friend Brian, or Kogira, he came out to lend a hand. He is in the process of having me dread his hair so he looks a little more crazy than normal.

View from the second floor of the hostel at sunset. Pretty huh?

The guys working hard to trim the inside of the thatch roof. I got up there to help out too. Not easy work.

Last but not least here is little video I took of my house. I have been living there for about a month and it is wonderful. I love having a place to feel at home finally unpacked the slippers my mom gave me almost 6 months ago. I have been enjoying cooking and having some nice quiet time in the evenings to read. I do miss my host family thought. I always felt a part of things and didn´t have to do much to be out and involved in daily activities. Now I have to go out and search people out. Kind of a weird switch to make...luckily I have no shortage of visitors.

It is hard to believe I have been here almost 8 months. A new group of Peace Corp trainees, group 63, arrive in a few weeks. On the one hand, I am almost a little sad to know I won´t be a new volunteer anymore but on the other I am happy to have training and the first few months in site behind me.

Home Sweet Home...almost.

2009-02-01T10:10:00.001-08:00

One of the biggest projects I have been working on this month is fixing up my soon to been house. It can be a bit of a long process because you have to find a tree, cut it down and then haul it out from the jungle. Luckily the woman who is my landlady had a tree on her farm, so after that got cut into boards we spent two days hauling wood. I can honestly say, I never in my life thought I would be hauling 2 x 4 on my shoulder out of a jungle. But when it is for you own house, it is not hard to find the motivation.

Luckily, we are just fixing it up at you can see from the photos so once the wood was there, it wasn´t to hard. As you can see from the top two photos, we are fixing that corner, which is the kitchen and the front half of the house also got a new floor and window for my sink. The man in the red shorts is my host dad, Martin. It will still be a few weeks before I can move in because we used up all the wood and still need more for the shutters and some furniture. That means going through the whole process again. A bit of a set back, but that is the way it goes.

I have been in Panama for almost 6 months now and have loved living with both of my host families, but I am ready to have a place to call my own. I can´t wait to finally unpack my bags, put up photos and cook my own food. There will be lots of room for visitors, hint...hint!

Time Flies

2009-02-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

Top photo: the view of my neighborhood, Middle: My host sister, Leyda, hanging laundry we just got back from washing, Bottom: My host families living room.

I can´t believe it is already one month into the New Year. I am getting more settled into the pace of life here and this last month has just gone by in the blink of an eye. The first few weeks of the year, I got sick with a bad cold, followed by a nice bacterial infection but I am back to feeling great and enjoying life.

The ¨job¨part of Peace Corp is starting to kick in and I have spent a lot of time working on a community analysis as well as talking with people about what changes they want to see. I just attended my first regional meeting which is where all the volunteers in my region, Bocas Del Toro, get together to talk about projects, issues, life, and get updates on what is happening at our headquarters. As volunteers we are responsible for reporting and quantifying all of our work in site and worldwide Peace Corp is implementing a new system for tracking so we were also given an introduction to that. It is important, but I guess even in the Peace Corp you can´t escape bureaucracy.

In one week I have a week long in-service training with all the other volunteers in my group, 62, which should be fun. We have language instruction and lots of different seminars on topics such as basic accounting, the current economic situation here in Panama, starting youth groups and group leaderships. I am really looking forward to it since I haven´t seen a lot of them since we left training so it will be nice to share stories and see how everyone has changed.

Thanks for all the great comments and emails! I love reading them. Hope eveyone is happy and healthy so far in the new year.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T08:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T09:27:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-10-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

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?....

2008-09-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-08-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

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.