The one with the National Geographic sized Spider

Ok, so if you know me at all, you know that I was bound to have a “spider story.” I am praying to god that the story I am about to share with you will be the worst of what I will encounter in the next 26 months. From the reactions I have gotten from the current volunteers I have told this to; my story pretty much tops the charts.

I will attempt to make this story short, mostly for my sake because it is difficult to relive the experience … So last Tuesday when I was in my Spanish class. The four of us were in the middle of a lesson when one of the guys in my class started yelling “holy spider, holy spider” and pointing at a large mound of dirt behind my teacher. Of course all of us turned our attention to the direction he was pointing, and sure enough there was a tarantula about the size of a dinner plate. It literally looked like the mound of dirt had legs. Now, I could understand why you may think I am exaggerating and I probably would have thought I was too if I didn’t see what happened next. Within seconds of us turning our attention to this freak of nature the spider stretched out one of its legs and snatched a bird that was passing by….. yes, a bird. The bird was probably twice the size of a typical humming bird, so it was no small defeat. All the other surrounding birds started freaking out, flying is circles and diving down at the spider. But this monstrous spider was able to kill the bird and carry it into the side of the dirt mound most likely to feast on it for the next week. After hyperventilating for a few minutes, I decided it was time to put my mosquito net over my bed!!

Moving on. Last Wednesday I left for my volunteer visit. In case you didn’t read my last blog, I was going to an Island in the Caribbean, which is part of the province of Bocus Del Torro. Total travel time one way was about 12 hours. We took a 7 hour bus ride from Panama City to David. Supposedly this bus ride is the “coldest place in Panama” because they keep the air conditioning on so high. I came prepared, so it wasn’t too bad. We all stayed the night in David where I got to enjoy the first hot shower I have had in 2 ½ weeks, it was beautiful! The next day we took another 4 ½ hour bus ride across Bocus to the Caribbean Ocean. This drive was absolutely gorgeous. I told one of the trainees I was sitting next to “I think I just feel in love with Panama.” I think it was the first time that we truly got a taste of what Panama has to offer. It was only about a 20 minutes between our last sight of the Pacific Ocean and our first sight of the Atlantic. Once we arrived on the shores of the Caribbean ocean, we took a water taxi to Island colon. This is the capital of the Bocas province; it is a large tourist attraction for surfers and has a big ex-patriot population. After spending a few hours on this island we caught another water taxi to the next island. This island was only a half hour boat ride way, but boy was it different than Island Colon. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong. Let’s just say that the indigenous people (the Ngobe) that live there don’t exactly have all the same amenities that the ex-patriots do 30 minutes away. We spent 3 days here. The volunteer gave us a good idea of what her life was like. One day, we had one of the locals take us on a walk through the farm. He pointed out different medicinal plants and gave us sugar cane and Cacao (chocolate) to eat. The next day, the volunteer had her weekly Girl Scout meeting. This was so wonderful!!! The volunteer asked me to lead a yoga exercise with the girls. The absolutely loved it. Here is a picture of them holding one of the poses.

The town had between 700- 800 people. There was no running water and the only latrine was for the volunteer (and us). We showered in a waterfall that was close by, and she got her drinking water from the rain. The volunteer was a very impressive cook, with what limited supplies she had. One night we had amazing veggie burgers on homemade coconut bread. And one night we made Cacao brownies. We constructed a makeshift oven on the stove using a tuna can…. Pretty cool!

All in all it was a great site visit. It gave me a lot to think about as far as where I can picture myself serving for 2 years.

Today, we had a one on one interview with our APCDs (basically my boss), we talked about potential sites. He told me that he has one in mind for me, he didn’t give me too much detail as far as where it is located but he did tell me that it is a small indigenous community where I could be working with tourism, artisans and children. He also said it would be a “really really really really rustic site” I am guessing that means no water/running water etc. I am so anxious to find out!!!! One week from today I will know.

That is all this time. I will try my best to keep my blog entries shorter; I know you all have busy lives.

Until next time.

Paz (peace in Spanish)

p.s I tried to upload a short video that I made but the computer connect was way to slow. I will try again another time.