New experiences

 

October 4, 2014

One month in site

 

A list of new experiences thus far:

Moldy clothes.

Washing all my clothes by hand in a bucket.

Taking days for your clothes to dry.

Eating sardines for breakfast.

Having sore muscles in places I didn’t know I had muscles.

Rarely seeing yourself in a mirror.

Not being able to contact anyone outside of the community.

Reading about the U.S. news as international news in a Panamanian paper. In Spanish. (Ebola anyone?)

Being at least a head taller than almost everyone in my community.

Considering sleeping until 8am; “sleeping-in.”

Rarely being able to sleep past 6am.

Being itchy all the time. (my legs are torn up with bug bites and poison ivy)

Seeing starving animals and knowing there is nothing you can do about it.

Seeing animals being treated differently. (cats and dogs are not “house pets” here)

Hiking through the jungle for hours nearly every day.

Seeing conversations take place where the two people never look each other in the eye.

Hiking for an hour, piling in the back of a pickup truck with 20 plus other people to drive an hour to another community for a school cultural event. Arriving to said cultural event sopping wet because it rained the entire drive there.

Being the only white person in a crowd of people as well as clearly being the tallest person.

Eating a LOT of rice.

Having conversations in your head with all the things you need to tell certain people and then forgetting to actually tell them because you thought you already did.

School cultural event

My host sister

A view driving to my site

 

See that mountain range right-center in the clouds? That's my site

 

Host family's house

Host family's kitchen

Where I dry my clothes

My alarm clock...

Who ever said cats and dogs don't like each other?

Hiking in to my site

It can get a bit muddy

And wet

Did I mention hilly?  

Harvesting balo for compost

So many beautiful orchids grow here!

The school

October 15, 2014
Yesterday I had to go to a meeting with the ministry of agriculture and left my site at about 5:30. I thought I would be able to catch a chiva at 6:30 from my stop. There was no chiva. I then had to hike an additional two hours to another community to get one. My legs are sore. I have several blisters on my feet. I have to hike back into my site today. A bit of craziness, but the view walking on the road as the sun was coming up was worth it!!

 

One week in site

September 12, 2014

After spending one week in my site I have a better understanding of what the next two years will be like.

I have no electricity and no cell phone reception.

I have a 45 minute hike, and a two and a half hour chiva ride to get to the nearest decently sized city. (A chiva can be a type of mini-bus, but the ones going to my site are pick-up trucks with revamped beds that have a cover, two benches, and a door on the back.)

My site is absolutely beautiful.

The houses are very spread out. From my host family’s house I can only see green rolling mountains and clouds. I also can only hear the sound of birds chirping, the river down below, and the occasional giggle from my host siblings or the music on the radio. It is very peaceful here.

From sitting on my front porch I have seen toucans and what I believe to be green macaws (or some sort of marvelous green and blue parrot) fly by. And in this moment I am actually watching a sloth, hanging upside down in a tree, cleaning its face.

It is cloudy here about 90% of time and because we are up in the mountains, the temperature is nice and cool. I wear leggings and a sweatshirt at night because I’m cold. (never did I think I would say the words “I’m cold” in Panama.)

My host siblings are very curious and shy (a girl almost 9 and a boy 7). They don’t talk a lot to me yet, they mostly just stare. (They are both standing over my shoulder watching me type this...) All the people in my community are very reserved and soft spoken. They don’t speak a lot, and when they do it is very quiet.

I wake up around 6am to the wonderful (noT) alarm clock that is a rooster right outside my room. This is also about the time it gets light out. After breakfast I am led to a house in the community by either my host mother or host father (who is also my community guide). We usually sit in awkward silence while I occasionally ask questions about their family structure and what they grow on their farm. After about a week the long pauses of no one talking (which is normal here) is beginning to feel less awkward to me. We come home and eat lunch and I then usually spend my afternoon staring out at the rainforest watching the clouds dance among the treetops.

 

The view from my porch

Other side of my host family's house

a pop of yellow in a sea of green