This blog and all of its posts express solely the views of myself and does not represent the views or opinions of The United States Peace Corps, The United Sates Government, or The Panamanian Government.
No space left un-stuffed
June 16th
Finally the packing is complete. With the help of my
wonderful mother and sister I have successfully stuffed the next two years of
my life into three small bags.
Staging
Safely arrived in D.C., I ran into a fellow volunteer at
baggage claim (thanks for sewing the PC patch on my pack mom!). We proceeded to
wrestle our luggage out to a taxi and to the hotel we will be staying in for
about 14 hours. The first step of signing in, receiving loan deferment forms
and debit cards, and checking that our PC passport, visa, and airline ticket
all has correct spelling is complete. Now I get to introduce myself to several
people in large groups, just what an introverted anti-social person likes. Let
the awkward mingling begin.
June 18, 2014
It is 7:08pm in Panama City, we left the D.C. hotel at
2:30am. You do the math (remembering Panama is an hour behind D.C. at this time
of the year). Getting to the airport at 3am then finding out check-in doesn’t
open until 4:30…. I could have slept three hours last night instead of two. I
end up standing in line to check-in until about 5am, for our flight leaving at
6am. Thankfully I was able to sleep the two hour flight to Miami. Arriving in
Panama felt like a weight off my shoulders. I had finally made it. I had
finally arrived in Panama to start pre-service training.
Boy is it humid here. It smacked me in the face as soon as I
stepped out of the airport.
Not too humid to keep our group from a little physical
activity before dinner. Running and ultimate Frisbee were played. No I did not
catch a single Frisbee, I know this will be very disappointing to my sister
when she hears this, but it’s only my first day! Surely I can get better at it
(and running) in two years time.
A few current Panama Peace Corps Volunteers greeted us at
the airport and proceeded to endure a bantering of questions from us all
concerning cell phones and language barriers to site locations and living
conditions.
Behave
Word of the day: behave.
Basically a day full of all the rules that you must follow
or will be “administratively separated” (aka: fired and sent home). Also a day
learning acronym after acronym. There are so many acronyms that they give you a
three page index of them in the back of the packet. (Can you tell this is a
government organization yet?)
I have successfully gone running (aka: jogging with short
walking breaks and coming back drenched in sweat and unable to breathe because
of the heat and humidity) two days in a row now. Only last about 15 minutes but
I’m determined to improve. It definitely helps having a motivational roommate,
my PST roommate is pretty awesome all around. (See how I’m already being molded
into using their language? PST: pre-service training.)
Medical Kits
June 20, 2014
Today we learned about every different kind of medical
illness we could possibly contract while living in Panama. We also were spoken
to about safety and security and all the bad things that could happen to you
including theft, burglary, and assault. It was a great day full of reassuring
presentations and being told how many times we will get diarrhea over the next
two years.
A great medical kit was provided to each volunteer and a
medical office doctor is available by phone 24/7, however when every disease
has practically the same symptoms and there is a very high likelihood of us (my
group at least) having very limited to no cell service at our individual sites…
yeah.
In the evening we all took a trip to the Albrook Mall, I had
been here once before, but actually having the stress of finding and buying a
phone and a bus card and not being left behind (and trying to understand/speak
Spanish!) made the mall seem even bigger. Now, if you don’t know about this
mall, it is THE largest mall I have ever been in. I mean it is ginormous. It’s
like the largest mall in Central and South America, but I’m pretty sure it is
the largest in the world. Huge.
Finca Visit
June 21, 2014
Wow. Today was a really packed day. The SAS (Sustainable
Agricultural Systems) half of the group went to visit a current volunteer’s
site and community. They were a lovely couple and had an amazing (PCV standards
here people) home and home garden. Seeing an actual volunteer site made me very
excited to receive my site placement (after training) and begin settling in. We
spent all day walking through two different farms (and boy was it hot and
humid! Never stopped sweating!!) and learning all about the different crops and
products they produce and why and how they make a living and what challenges
they are currently facing, etc. I am very excited to start training so I can
then start working with my assigned community!
I also drank water in the community today, it was
semi-filtered, not really sure what that means or how to explain it, but I am
positive (in the reassuring way, to myself) that it was safe and I’m feeling
great. (but we won’t really know that until tomorrow, right?)
