June and July were filled with work days, an unexpected
celebrity moment, meeting of the new group, saying goodbye to the old group, a
much need week of vacation, and an early addition.
An early addition to my host family that is.
Meet my newest tiniest host sister. She was born a month
early and weighed only two pounds. In the picture above she is six weeks old.
She is gaining weight and doing very well. I was shocked when I first saw how
tiny she was and to learn she was only a month early. It was a very real
reminder of how malnutrition continues to be a big problem in
the rural parts of Panama.
June consisted of meeting the new volunteers from group 76 (I’m
in group 75) whom are in my same province. This was visual confirmation that we
(group 75) are no longer the newbies! This was followed later in the month by
celebrating being in country one year. An entire year in Panama, I can’t
believe it. It feels like yesterday we were stepping off that plane into the
humid Panamanian air with fear and excitement flowing fresh in our veins and
every other sentence out of our mouths a question. (Now that I think about it I'm still uttering a lot of questions, but mostly in the form of: "como?" meaning; huh?/what?/could you repeat that cause you are talking way to fast and/or mumbled and I have no idea what Spanish words are coming out of your mouth.)
I was reminded of this
newness and excitement when I hosted one of the new trainees (from group 77,
arrived in June, the new set of agriculture and environmental health
volunteers) for a week in my site. It was a little surreal to realize I was now
supposed to know what I’m doing and impart my year of experience and knowledge on
a member of the incoming group. We spent the week working on projects, visiting
families, and working in my garden. She survived living with a stranger for a
week in a pea-sized house and ate every campo delicacy I conjured up without so
much of a peep of complaint. What a trooper, I have high hopes for her next two
years of service. One of the fun things week did that week was hike to the
waterfall in my community.
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| My "desk" for the weekly reading program I have for the kids |
We also got some pretty good picture of toucans. (Taken from my front porch.)
Yet another reminder that we are no longer the new kids of
the block was having to say goodbye to the old group (73, the group that was
here a year when we (group 75) showed up) of agriculture volunteers. It was
particularly heart wrenching to say goodbye to a couple whose site was pretty
close to mine and helped me tremendously in so many ways through my first year
of service. I’m still not sure how I’m going to survive the next year without
them.
On a lighter note, I was informed by someone in the office
(i.e. someone with daily access to the news) that I was in a photo in a
Panamanian newspaper! The article is about how a new school is being built in
my community and every material needed for the construction has to be hiked in
from the road.
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| See me in the top picture to the right? |
I took a week of vacation and was able to spend time
relaxing with family and exploring a tropical paradise.
Some of you might have assumed Panama is a tropical
paradise... tropical? Yes. Is my site beautiful? Absolutely. However living in a
house the size of a shoebox with no electricity or indoor plumbing or cell
phone service does not a “paradise” make. I love my community, but I also loved
spending a week with amenities and stuffing my face with American food.
Work projects in my site are continuing to evolve and grow,
but more on that will come later, for now here are some pictures from June and
July.
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| Fish Tank Construction |
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| Coffee Pruning |
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