Spring Training

 

For two whole weeks in March my mom came to visit it me. We spent time in Panama City, my site, a small mountain tourist town near my site, and off the Caribbean coast. There was A LOT of hiking involved throughout the two weeks which was an adjustment on top of coming to the tropics from a freezing tundra. My mom was a trooper.

The day had finally arrived! I got up early to hike out and head to Panama City because that night my mom would be arriving at the airport. I was just about to leave my house and therefore was moving my pack to my porch so I could lock my door. It was about 6am and just getting light outside. I pick up my pack by the back handle and almost immediately feel something hard and claw-like attach itself to the top of my hand. I then almost just as immediately shake my hand to try to get whatever it was off my hand. It was still pretty dark, therefore I couldn’t see anything (probably for the better). As soon as a shake my hand I feel it. A shooting pain. The claw-like attachment is gone but now there is a sharp shooting pain jolting down my hand that causes several profanities to expel out of my mouth, mostly expressing dislike at the current feeling in my hand but also distress and curiosity as to what the heck just stung me. I grope for my headlamp trying not to move my feet (pain in my foot like the pain in my hand would most definitely put a damper on my 45 minute hike to the road. My light illuminates the floor as I franticly search for something wicked. I can’t find anything. (Just for the record my house is tiny. Tiny tiny. About six by ten feet. (My bed touches three of the walls...) It’s not like there’s that much floor space.) I’m searching all over my floor asking (out loud) “what the heck was that?” and “could that have been a scorpion?” and alternately saying “holy crap this hurts.” I had never been stung by a scorpion, I had no idea what it felt like. And then I shine my light towards my bed. And I see it. Clung to the side of my mosquito net. Huge and black with a thick curled tail and staring at me. As I reach for my machete I say to it “oh you about to die.” With a little trouble I get it onto the floor and proceed to chop off its tail and then just continue chopping until it’s in small enough pieces to make me feel like I’ve thoroughly revenged myself. Fast forward to that evening. I pick my mom up at the airport unable to move any fingers on my left hand because they have swollen to the size of sausages, or “club hand” as my friend put it. “Hi mom, no I’m fine, just got stung by a scorpion this morning in my house. Welcome to Panama!”

The following photos are in order of occurrence.

Visiting Miraflores Locks, one of the three sets of locks in the Panama Canal.

 

 

 
Eating delicious green things before a week of rice in my site.

 
Walking along the coastal strip in Panama City.

 

 
Seeing a classical concert at the National Theater in Panama City.

 

 

 

Blurry I know; my host mom and sister

 

 

 

Panama City by night

 

Traveling to my site.

 

My site is behind that mountain range.

 

 

 

The following day we hiked back out and traveled to a neighboring volunteer's site to hike up the Cero Teria.

The Cerro Teria

 

 

 

 

See the little A-frame house in the bottom right corner? That's where we started the hike from.

 

We then hiked back down, took a chiva, and hiked back to my site. It was a long day.

A few days later we hiked out of my site the other way and took a chiva to El Valle.

Hiking La India Dormida (The Sleeping Indian, looks like a girl on her back from here)

 

At the top (about on her forehead at this point)

Visiting an orchid farm. 

 



 

 We went to a "zoo" and saw the famous golden frog of Panama and others.

 

Hiking back to site.

Community members hulling logs (the size of trees!) to be used as fire wood for the school kitchen.

First Birthday Party for this beauty! (Frozen themed)

 Snorkeling off the Caribbean side. Amazing!



The Ruins of Portobello.

 

Building Muscle

The month of February consisted of another regional meeting, followed by a goat roast, a visit from my boss, starting work projects, and being reminded yet again how small this world is.

 

 

 

After this regional meeting (my second as a PC volunteer) I headed out east to partake in the highly acclaimed goat roast that the volunteers in the Darien and Panama Este put forth around the time of regional meetings. It was very fascinating to see some of the east side of the country. The landscape is very different from where my site is. In my site I am surrounded by mountains covered in lush green rain forest. Traveling east, the mountains disappear into long expanses of plains used for cattle. The road is flat and relatively straight, and after about four hours we got off and walked down a short side road to the location of the goat roast. Arriving as late as we did the goat had already been killed, butchered, and cooked (fine by me, I was happy to only part take in the eating). There was a goat soup and pulled goat barbeque sandwiches (yum!). I collapsed into my hammock with a full belly and let the star covered sky and bright moon lull me to sleep. Side note; sleeping in a hammock is incredibly comfortable.

The following week my boss (who oversees the agricultural volunteers in Panama) came to my site and we had a meeting with my community to decide what my main project will me. Main project: improving production and sale of the main cash crop in the community; culantro (very similar tasting to cilantro). Secondary projects: working with coffee, plantains, and fish tanks. The first step we decided to take in terms of culantro was to have a soil analysis done. I trained several people in my community on how to properly take a soil sample of a parcel of land and then I traveled six hours with 20 pounds of dirt to the lab who would conduct the analysis.

I had a work day in my site to commence digging a fish tank for a member of my community. I invited (asked/persuaded/begged) several other volunteers to come and help.

Making Progress

Swinging a pickaxe until you have to take pain killers because your arms hurt so badly. Agricultural work in the campo.

I also returned the favor by going to a neighboring site to help dig a tank for a member of their community.

Also in February I had the unexpected pleasant surprise of running into an old friend. Four years ago I studied abroad in Costa Rica and met many wonderful people in my program. There were a couple of people employed on one year contracts to help plan and organize on the ground activities for the group of students who was studying abroad. Image my surprise when I ran into one of these people four years later, who I haven’t seen since my study abroad and who is currently living Chile, in a hostel in Panama City! Craziness.

I also got to experience going to my first quinceañera 

 

 

 

Garden progress