Overall I feel like I’ve had a pretty successful past week or 2 even though I also feel like I’m slacking off half the time.. which is awesome because that’s pretty much what we do. I went to penonome for a peace corps city tour, did that and ended up pretty much hanging out there for 3 days. Couple days later I went to Barrigon to help Kayla with a project at her school, and ended up pretty much hanging out there for 2 days. I gotta get a little better at bringing my camera around cuz I’ve taken no pictures lately.
One day I went to penonome only to pick up a package (which ended up coming in the next day.. ill grab it later this week) so that day coulda been a total slack off day.. but I decided to introduce myself to ANAM in Cope (my hub town if I hadn’t mentioned it before) on the way there, when they told me about a recycling parade the next day, giving me one more little success in the midst of doing nothing haha. Then I went to the parade, which had a little drum corps and students marching around with flags (again, no pictures.. I’ll probably google a picture to give you an idea, it looked exactly the same as the eco-parade my training group did, but I also have no pictures of that ;) ). I ended up meeting up with Glenda the volunteer in cope, getting some beers and playing smash brothers at the video rental store. She introduced me to someone who works with tourism in cope, giving me a way better idea of what ultimately needs to be done with the project in LB, so I got that little success for the day. Even if all I did for one day was walk around and meet one new family, its something. Today I finally met the family who I’m gonna rent from.
Considering the 3 peace corps goals are 1. Help the community, 2. Share American culture with them, and 3. Learn Panamanian culture and share it with Americans (this blog).. I think so far I’m on track. I taught my family here (where I’m actually moving out of this weekend) about werewolves and the full moon. None of them have ever heard of them and a few actually thought it happens in the states which was funny, so I obviously had to show them how hairy I am and tell them I’m a werewolf.
What else? I taught my 10 yr old host bro how to say “domo arigato mister roboto” and konichiwa.. so they think I’m a genius cuz I can speak a million languages. Counting to 3 in Japanese, german and hebrew helps too. Whats crazy is this kid can remember the words from the freakin styx song in Japanese but can’t remember the easiest words in English that he learns over and over.
I’m actually surviving without my ipod since my phone has its FM radio, even though the stations with American music play the worst stuff of all time so I usually listen to regatone or tipico (edit: i actually found some good music, drained the battery in one night listening and playing snake.. got a high score hah). If I really feel like treatin myself nice I’ll bust out my computer with my own music. OH, so I finally found harry potter on the streets lol (compared to the book.. eh, but it was alright). Now I’ll probably sit around one day and listen to the 7th book on tape again after I finish the banana book. I’m actually in LB on my comp right now, which is probably why I’m rambling so much. I’ve been playing a lot of guerra lately (war). My bro is a huge tramposo, I used to catch him but now I just let him do it so the game can end faster. Panamanian card games are kinda funny/ridiculous, so guerra is the way to go. I just learned cribbage and I’ve been wanting to play but its pretty unteachable here so I needa meet up with a volunteer to play.
I decided I’m probably not gonna start teaching English yet, at least not in the school until next school year starts. Brianna has been teaching this year.. shes leaving in a month midway through the schoolyear but I think I’ll wait. She also does one day a week of environmental ed which is what I’m gonna keep up. I’ve been her apprentice pretty much in the schools which is cool cuz its helped me ease into everything. Other work I’ll eventually get going on is in the viveros (tree nurseries for reforestation), random work in the granja, and the tourism project. I want to start some work on the trail, which doesn’t need money, just some manual labor.. building the visitor center looks like its at a stand still for now. Poco a poco.
