Swear-In

CEC group

when I met Bill last year, he didnt shake my hand.. neither did Obama but he has a way better excuse


so we're officially volunteers.  the ambassador swore us all in at her house.  with her at the main table was the PC panama director, the panamanian vice president and the leader of a group here called Junior Achievers.  To sum it up, we got heard some speeches by each, a few by the volunteers, got sworn in, sung both national anthems and got some finger foods after.  I saw the only fat cat i've seen in panama.  haha, short post.. eating dinner, then going out to the city.

Questions?

By the way, if anyone who is reading this has any questions for me.. go ahead and post some comments, I'll reply as quick as I can

Site visit

The first 3 pictures arent actually from site visit.. the first swimming hole is from tech week in barrigon (thats where I "showered" and that rock in the bottom left was my shaving rock).  2nd picture is the captain planet environmental fair a group of CECers travel around and do at other sites. The 3rd pic is the granja in Barrigon with the rice pit in front.  

Then we have me at a restaurant at Playa Palmar, then my host family with my community guide in Loma Bonita.. housing for the conejo pintado's.. theres 14 in the project which is awesome. He only sells them to other families who want to start their own project, not to eat. Few pix of the waterfall in my community, a conejo pintado, an iguana project at the granja, a picture of 3 1-week old cats.. the 2 black ones may become my mascotas (grey one "ran" away but im guessing something made it comida).  The 2 pix of the mountains are both views from the granja.  One has a little building right in the center which is the escuela in town, and the other is just a few.  In both of them, the majority of town is to my left.

The week went pretty well, I feel comfortable there.  I got sick (up to close to 104 degree temp) for the first few days which blew, my iPod stopped working which blows.  My host family there was way accommodating, helping me out, getting whatever i needed.  When I was feeling up to it, I hiked up and down some hills, meeting families, talking.  One woman even gave me a sombrero as a gift for fathers day lol.

I met my host families for the first 3 months.. we can chose to switch every month through 3 families or stay with one or just 2 if we feel like it, so we'll see.  I'll probably change around.  I didn't meet Brianna, the current volunteer there but I saw where she lives..  I could live there too if I decide to.  Its pretty far away from the majority of town (although it has a SWEET view, where you can actually see the pacific.. ill get some pix of that soon) so I probably won't live there.  I want to live a bit closer to the chunk of people.

I met the maestros at the school, including the director who is going to be a big help in all of the work I do.  Also went to a group meeting, which runs the granja, conejo project, iguanas, and their eco-tourism projects.  They are building a visitors center and are going to work on the trails leading to their waterfall.  Pretty much for my first 3 months, I'm going to be integrating, working on my project for peace corps (community analysis) and helping them do whatever projects they already have going.  After the first few months and after I present the analysis, I'll start trying to work in the schools more with english and environmental ed as well as other projects ill take on.

I'm getting more and more excited as everything is finally starting to come together.  Graduation is today woo so we'll all be official volunteers in a few hours.

Tech/Culture weeks

so i thought i was gonna have more time here, but putting facebook higher on the priority list kinda screwed that over haha. ill write up what i can now and the rest later, and if no pictures. ill add them later too.

tech week was in a town called Barrigon, not too far from Loma Bonita.. so it was a good example of what it will look like. everyone keeps hearing bits and pieces about their site, but next tuesday were going for our week long visit to actually get the real scope of it all. anyway, we did a lot of messing around at waterfalls and playing with the hack but it was a pretty useful week. we made lesson plans (and taught them.. deforestation and national parks to 6th graders) and worked in the schools, and got more specific info on how to work with meduca/school system. checked out the nearby parque nacional, which is where i may be doing some work in the future

culture week was in ciricito arriba in panama oeste, close to the cocle border. the families were way cool and really into us being there. their participation in everything we did made the week a lot of fun. saw dancing, sombrero making, and more. these blogs blow b/c its so hard to get everything we did out in words haha. on the last day we hiked a few hours out to some waterfalls and a pretty sweet bat cave. on the walk back it started pouring, making it even more fun.. sloshing around through the river/mud and bouldering.

i played the accordion at our going away party.. oh ya i bought an accordion. i dont really know how to play but its the perfect instrument to wing it, so they all got akick out of it. we played musical chairs and i was the music haha. my buddies in the group sang blowin in the wind.. there was a piñata and cake

and saturday we went to santa clara beach, big group of people.. lots of fun. if no pictures go up today, ill get them up asap