The One Where it is About to get Real

Buenas!!!

Training has come to an end. It definitely had its up and downs but overall I am not sad to see it end, other than the fact that I am going to miss all my new friends!

The past 2 weeks included many long days in the Peace Corps office. We were briefed on more safety topics, had a lot of time to go through the resources library, and spent one morning in the pool learning how to make a flotation device out of our pants….That was definitely a highlight!

On Thursday October 22^nd I was officially sworn in as a United States Peace Corps Volunteer. The ceremony took place at the house of the US Ambassador. It was a very nice ceremony, there was a lot of Panamaian press ( I will let you know if we shoe up in the newspaper). We are all very proud of our group, because we are the first group in the past 8 groups that has made it all the way through training without anyone dropping!! Here are a few pictures from the Ceremony. The First Picture on the left is the CED (Community Economic Development) Group. The one on the right is the EH (Environmental Health) group. And the last photo is the US Ambassador in the middle with our Peace Corps Country Director to her right, and a director of a national service orgainization to her left.

The past two nights we spent celebrating for the last time as a group. Now we have all split our separate ways. It was really sad to say goodbye to my friends. We have all become so use to being around each other all the time. Suring the past 10 weeks, we have all grown really close. Because my trip to my site is so long, I am staying tonight in David.

Tomorrow will be the beginning of my new life in Bocas! I have a lot of emotions right now; nervous, anxious, excited etc. Thank you to everyone who has sent me words of encouragement. They are probably going to be more and more helpfully now that I am about to venture out on my own.

I am not sure when the next time I will have an opportunity to update my blog. I am hoping at least once every other week

As Peace Corps says, “Life is calling”……. And I am finally on my way.

~Miche

P.S Sorry the blog is a bit short.... didn;t have much time on the internet =(

And here are some pictures that I took from a friend of mine. They are from all during training. For those of you requesting more pictures of me, you will find some here. But I must say they are not the most flattering of pictures..... Enjoy =)

http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/20091025?feat=directlink

The One with some Pictures

Buenas,
Quick Update. We have left our training site and home stay families and are back at Fort Clayton. Today is the last day of training (hard to believe). Tomorrow by 4 pm. I will officially be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer =)

I plan on doing one more blog post before I head to my site on Monday. Until then, I wanted to share some pictures with you.


This first link has pictures from a few different days we spent as tourist in Panama City, some of them you may have already seen, but I added a few from Panama Viejo and Casco Viejo. It was great learning a little more about the history of this amazing country!
http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/PanamaCity?feat=directlink

This link has pictures of our going away party at our training site. I was of course designated as the photographer, so you will find pictures of nearly every family with their trainee =)
http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/Despidida?feat=directlink

Enjoy!
Meti

The One Where She Visit Her New Home

Welcome to Buena Esperanza!!! Here it is…… my home for the next two years. Not bad huh?
I tried not to take to many pictures because I didn’t want to come in looking like a tourist. But I managed to snap a few photos when no one was around.

So here is how it went down... Last Tuesday we had a conference in the province of Cocle. All 36 of us each had a “community guide” who traveled from our community to pick us up. This was so amazing because I would say about 70% if not more of these community guides had never traveled out of their province before.
My guide proved to be a bit shy during the conference. I could tell he felt a bit uncomfortable being out of his element. After a very full day at the conference, we headed out, for my third, 2 day journey across the country to Bocus!! However, this time I had to add on a 2 hour boat ride to the end of it. Of course, because this is Panama, once we got off the bus in Almerante and it was time to catch the boat it was pouring rain!!!! We were sitting under this tiny zinc roof next to the water when all the sudden my guide muttered something really fast in Spanish and just ran off into the rain. I had absolutely no idea where he was going and when/if he was coming back. Turned out, he did come back…. 3 hours later!

However, those 3 hours turned out to be very entertaining. I conversed with an interesting aray of people. My first visitor was an indigenous woman selling oranges, she was very interested in me, she told me she didn’t have name and did not know how old she was or where she was from. She sat quiety right next to me for the entire time I waited. My next visitors were 2 old Latino men who had a very intense conversation that lasted about an hour about whether or not Peace Corps was part of the CIA or not. I decided to stay out of it and once they were done, the bought me an orange from my Indian friend, handed it to me and went on their way. Next was a young kid, in his teens old who seemed really motivated about his future (which is kinda rare here) He sat and talked to me about what he wants to study in college and how he really wanted to learn how to speak English. Right when we were in the middle of minie English lesson my next visitor showed up. This one was an extremely drunk cowboy who spoke nonsense to the three of us for about 20 min , while we all tried not to laugh. Then he stood up real ubrubtly, bought an orange from my no-named friend, handed it to me stumbled on his way. My final visitor was a professor from Bocus island. He didn’t say much to me, he walked by, asked what I was doing, I told him I was with Peace Corps, then he bought another orange from me friend, handed it to me and walked away silently. So 3 hours and 3 oranges later my guide final showed up. I never actually did find out where he went…..So, I parted ways with the Orange selling Indian woman and the motivated teenager and begin the 2 hour boat journey to Buena Ezperanza.

Basically, the only reason this boat ride took 2 hours is because the boat we were riding in was a very narrow dug out canoe, that leaked and had a 15 horse power motor. We loaded all my stuff (two years worth) into this tiny little boat, I sat on top of my bags indian style. Behind me, my guide maneuvered the boat while scooping buckets of water out so we didn’t sink…. Did I mention it was still pouring rain. Regardless, of course I still had a big smile on my face!

By the time we arrived at site, it was dark. A few of the community members met us at the dock to carry my bags to my host families house.

So by now, I kind of know what to expect with a host family. However, this family caught me a little of gaurd when I walked into a room that had 10 kids all under the age of eleven!!!! Needless to say it was a long 4 days in that house! Here is a picture of some of the kids… There were cute yea, but only to a certain point. Anyway, my 3 days in the community were pretty jam packed. I had 2 community wide meetings planned where I had to give a speech about me, Peace Corps and what my role in the community will be. Also, my guide and I went to every single house in the community (about 40 houses). Everyone was very welcoming. The People in my community live a very simple life. They all have farms (fincas) and live off their land. Like I noted before, there are no latrines, no aqueducts and no electricity. Because of the tourism in the region, they have had a lot more western influence and have a desire for a higher standard of living. They are also not as traditional as other Nogabe sites. While they still speak their own dialect, they do not were the traditional dress. They do however all have Ngabe names, as do I! Drumroll.... My new name that my community will call me from now on is.....Meti. Has a ring to it dont you think?
As of now, I am not exactly sure which way my work will take me within the community. They have many needs and a lot of potential!!!

I am very much looking forward to beginning my 2 year adventure with the people of Buena Ezperanza! Only 2 more weeks of training!


I hope everyone is doing well back home!
I am starting to realize how much I am going to miss seasons. I can’t believe that it snowed 5 inches in Tahoe already... Even though it is probably all gone by now. It is also strange to me that this is my first Fall in 16 years that I am not going “back to School."

On another note, if you haven’t read a book called Siddhartha, I think you should =) It is a small book, you can read in a day. Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse…. I am sure a lot of you have read it already. I am not sure why it never crossed my path until now. Wonderful book!

Peace for now!
Michelle

The One About Tech Week

Ok, this one will not be quite as long as “The One About Culture Week .” Our Tech week was spent in the Commarca. As a reminder a commarca is the Panamanian equivalence of a reservation for indians. We were in the Comarcaca Ngäbe Bugle. This is the first time that CED volunteers have gone into the commarca for tech week.

To get to our tech week site, we had to take an 1 ½ Chiva ride through really steep but beautiful mountains! Even though it was probably one of the most beautiful drives I have ever been on, most of my attention was focused on not getting sick…. Which I was successful at thank god. The site was way up in the mountains, a good elevation for growing coffee.

After culture week, I had high expectations for my host family. This week, my host mom turned out to be 2 years younger than me, and had 2 really cute kids. While that was my host family, of course there were about 10 other people that stayed in the house. To tell you the truth, I never was able to figure out how there were all related. They were all very interested in me and would watch my every move. The grandmother only spoke Ngäbere and thought I did too. Our conversations were very interesting to say the least. I would say something to her in Spanish and she would rattle off in Ngäbere while I just stared at her blankly until her daughter stepped in to translate. My food situation was the worst it has been yet. Basically, it was hot white rice in the morning and the same rice, but cold, for dinner. There were also a few boiled bananas thrown in there. Our house was made of what appeared to be branches lined vertically side by side to make walls, the floor was dirt/mud when it rained, the roof was penca, there were no doors, no electricity, the closest latrine was literally a hike away (impossible at night) and the beds (tables) were made of hard wooden planks laid side by side and elevated off the ground. Lucky for me, “miss vegetarian” my family provided me with a lovely cow hide to sleep on. I was the only one who had to sleep on a dead cow all week. Here is a picture of it if you don’t believe me. And below that is a picture of my family in front of part of the house.

The logistics of tech week included splitting up into 7 groups to work with different business in the community. My partner and I were paired to work with a family run business that makes clothes. The first day we interviewed them about their business practices. Then we prepared a “charla,” which is basically a lecture, to give to them. We concluded from our interview that they needed help with basic financial matters. So we put together a presentation and taught them about money management, cost analysis, how to track costs and use a calculator, all in spanish of course. On the last day of tech week we did a community wide charla, were everything kinda came together! I think the really got it! Here is a picture of my group after our personal Charla.

I took advantage of being in such a beautiful spot for that week by hiking every morning. Three of the mornings a few of us did sunrise hikes. Here is a picture from one morning. It was absolutely gorgeous!!! And we could see the Pacific Ocean from up there. Which brings me to my next topic…
After tech week, all 36 trainees meet up for one “free night” we had before heading back to our original training site. After spending 2 straight weeks in very harsh living conditions, and demanding training hours, we were all but ready to have a free night! We rented these sweet little cabanas ($5/per person) that were literally right on the beach. A few of the volunteers actually had water come inside when the tide was high. It was the first time I had been to the Pacific since I have been in Panama, it was great to see what I like to call “my ocean.” We spent the day swimming and surfing. At night we got some awesome Italian. After dinner, we did some dancing at a German bar and then found a big group of people from Boquete. Boquete is a popular mountain town where a lot of gringos live and tourist go, suppose to be beautiful! The next morning I spent surfing a bit more and strolling the beach and collecting seashells. It was a very relaxing and much needed break!
Now, we are back to the same old schedule of training, but not for long! Wednesday I am headed back to Bocas!!!! But this time, I actually get to go to my site. This is the very first time since I have been in Panama that I will not be with someone else from Peace Corps. I am so excited/ nervous/anxious to see my site, and meet the people. We only get to stay in our sites for 4 days to do some assessment on living situations, work possibilities, and just to get a feeling of what to expect. Then we are back to training for 2 more weeks and then I get to go back to my site and actually stay….for 2 years!!!
On a more somber note, the ex-president of panama died on Tuesday. His name was Guillermo Endara. He was the president that lead panama to their independence in 1989. The day after his passing was a day of mourning, no one in panama worked and no kids went to school, everything was closed.
Sorry to end on that note, but it is part of my job to do some cultural exchang .. and I think that is something everyone should know about.
You probably won’t here from me until after my site visit….. Wish me luck!!!
Oh and here are the two links for culture week pictures and Tech week pictures, sorry I forgot it last time =)

http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/CultureWeek?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/maguilar317/TechWeek?feat=directlink

Much Love

The One about Culture week.

Buenas!
Ok, you guys ready for this... I have a lot to say!!!

As most of you know, I spent the last 2 weeks doing, what I like to call “travel training.” So far I have only had time to write about culture week

Here is a Recap of what went down:

All 36 volunteers were split up according to what region of the country your site is in. There ended up being 11 out 36 trainees going to Bocas Del Torro, we by far had the largest group. Here is a picture of us. The typical trip from our training site to Bocas takes about 14 hours (not including wait time). By the end of training I will have done this trip 4 times in 7 weeks!!!! Luckily, since it is such a long trip Peace Corps gives us enough money for a hotel so we can split the trip into two days. We usually stay in David at a hotel where all volunteers stay at when they are passing through. They have hot showers, great prices and have a well established relationship with Peace Corps. One can pretty much assume that any gringo you see in this hotel is a PCV.
When we stayed in David, on our way to culture week, there was a huge motorcycle event going on (made me miss my pop). It was cool to see all the bikes! I guess because there are so many differences between my life in Panama and life in the US, I often find myself pleasantly surprised when I encounter things that are the same, this motorcycle convention being one of them.
Anyway, our entire culture week was spent on the same site I was at for my volunteer visit. It is a little island in the Caribbean, close to the capital of Bocas, Isla Colon. Most of the community members, especially the kids remembered my name. I could walk down the middle of town and hear someone way off in the distance say “hola mechell” (that is how they pronounce my name). Also, all the girls form the Girl Scout Group remembered doing yoga with me a few weeks before, and it didn’t take long before they had me leading a very loosely structured class of yoga every afternoon at the school. Here is a picture of some of the kids holding a pose.

The volunteer that was hosting all 11 of us, did a great job planning the logistics for the week. Each of us were matched with a host family in the community for the week. The volunteer knew from the last time I visited that I was a vegetarian; she assured me that this would not be a problem with the host family I was with. She said she spoke with each family many times to guarantee they understand the “special needs” of each trainee. As an example of how things can culturally be interpreted differently; the first night I was with my new host family, they gave me a huge fish for dinner…. I am talking with the Head, fins, teeth, eyes and bones sticking out all over the place. Even if I wanted to, I would not have known how to eat this thing without doing some serious damage to my face, because of course I didn’t have a fork. The family understood why I was unable to eat there fish, and seemed somewhat pleased to hear (as if for the first time) that I don’t eat meat. The meals for the rest of the week included a mixture of white rice, lentils, beans, eggs, and for breakfast these amazing fried pastries called “ohaldrines.” Boiled bananas and a vegetable called Pifa are also staples in the Ngäbe communities. Both of these are physically hard for me to take in. To be honest there were a few times that I threw my food out the window to the starving dogs when the family wasn’t looking =)
Apart from the food, I was really pleased with my host family. Historically, Ngäbe families are large. My host mom and dad had 6 kids between the ages of 9 and 31. The oldest actually went to Cuba to studying medicine, and now works in the Hospital in Panama City, she is kind of the star of the town. And she happened to be visiting her family during the week I was there. It was wonderful getting to talk to a Ngäbe Indian who has some experience, not just outside her community but out of the country as well. Even though she spoke some English, our conversations were always somewhat limited. So, most of my free time was actually spent with the youngest daughter. After the first day, I noticed that almost all the women in the community have their hair pulled back in braids. Out of curiosity, I asked one of the volunteers how to say “braid” in Spanish. Later that night, while making conversation with the youngest daughter (9), I asked if she knew how to braid. Her face lit up, and long story short, I showed up to culture class the next day with 40 plus braids in my hair. Here is a picture of me drinking a coconut showing off my new harid do!! Also, Here is a picture of the house I stayed in.

There were two rooms, I slept on the floor in a tiny room with 4 other people. Because the house was on stilts it would sway back and forth when people walked, which made it fairly difficult to fall asleep at night. There were also large cracks in between the wooden planks on the floor, some large enough to be a tripping hazard. Just in case the swaying house, wasn’t enough of a sleeping distraction, early in the morning there are roosters, which actually I have become somewhat accustom to because they are all over Santa Clara as well. However, here, every morning this one cleverly cruel rooster would go underneath the house and position itself directly under my head and “cock-a-doo-dal-doo” at the top of his lungs every 15 min from about 3:30am until I got up at 6am. I could literally lay there on the floor and see his shadow right below me through the cracks. He and I both knew that there was nothing I could do about it.
During the week we had different cultural activities planned. The artisan group did a demonstration for us on how they make their bags . The entire bag including the die comes from plants that grow in the region. Here is a picture of one of the women working on getting the fibers out of the plant. We also went on the medicinal plant walk, were we encountered a sloth!!! It is so funny how slow those things move. By looking at a sloth, one would think it is harmless, but they actually are carriers of leishmaniasis, which humans can contract from mosquitoes that get it from the sloth. Ewwww
Another one of the days we went out swimming in the ocean. All the little boys in the village have their own dugout canoes. They are tiny little boats that hardly float. I was in one by myself with one little boy about 7 years old, wearing only his underwear and paddling for me. The whole set up reminded me a little of the gondola boat ride I once took in Venice, Italy. But, this ride was a lot less romantic!! Right when I got in the canoe I thought for sure we were going to tip. Let me tell you, it was quiet an ab workout balancing that little boat until we got past the very dirty water that acts as a bathroom for the village. Once we got out a few hundred feet, the water was crystal clear, we were swimming around this coral reef that tourists would pay hundreds of dollars for a boat to take them too. There were 25 of us out there swimming and we had 1 broken mask and one flipper, that happened to fit me =) As we passed the one broken mask around and we were able to see what was below us, everyone’s reaction was one of aww. How lucky we are to have been given the opportunity to live in Bocas for the next 2 years!!
On the last day on the island, we hosted a little farewell/thank you party for out host families. There ended up being what seemed like 200 kids under the age of 10 at the party. We had a Piñata, and as tradition goes, we filled it with candy and… flour!!!! OMG I have never seen such madness. Here is a picture of the kids stacked 3 fold, covered in flour fighting for the candy. The picture hardly does it justice.

Another little highlight of culture week is this little guy. He is a quiso. I don’t think he has a name in English. The boy next door had him as a pet. The only thing I know about them is that they are nocturnal animals and have proven to be very smart and trainable. Maybe I will get one when I get to site =)

By the end of the 6 days on the island I had really grown to enjoy the company of my host family, I shared a lot of fond memories with them, either playing volleyball, doing yoga at the school, braiding hair, washing clothes on a rock, bathing (fully clothed) in the waterfall, and much more. However, there is one memory that I wasn’t able to share with anyone because there was no one else around, but I would like to share it with you. First, let me preface this short story by explaining that this island village just recently got a generator for electricity. So they have access to electricity for about 4 hours every night. During this time, around 7pm-11pm everyone in the community is either staring at their TV’s or blasting music. The norm in my host house was TV, usually cartoons. So, I would go to bed around 8 every night, I would sleep with ear plugs to try and block out the noise. On my 4th night there, I was woken up around 10:45pm by my host brother (age 25) singing loudly and in English to The Eagles, which I am sure you all know is my favorite band. He was able to sing the entire song “Hotel California,” though I cannot be sure that he knew what he was saying. Even though I was woken up, my initial reaction was comparable to when I saw the motorcycles in David, delighted to encounter not just the familure, but the best of the familure! There was something so comforting about hearing that song at that moment. I remember laying on the floor, listening to him sing along with Don Henley and thinking to myself how amazing it is that him and I lived a world apart and lead completely different lives, but we both were finding enjoyment in the same type of music. And who would have guessed, less than 2 months ago, when I was listening to that very song, that there was someone in a small village, who is part of an indigiounious community I had never even heard of, who speaks a foreign dialect, who is somewhat isolated on an island in the Caribbean listening to the same song. For some reason this incident made an impact on me. I just thought I would share it with all of you in hopes that is serves as a reminder that sometimes, even if most of the evidence points to all our differences we still are more similar then we may think.

Well, those were some of the highlights from my culture week. Here are the links to look at more pictures.
I am planning on going to the City on Saturday, so I will try to do my update about my Tech Week experience in the Commarca then.

Paz out.