A Quick Hello!

I don't have too much time to write, as I'm currently using the computers at the volunteer lounge in the PC office, and we start our morning sessions in about 20 min. I have a lot of photos that I would love to post but alas, the wifi here is pretty awful and they're not going through. We finished our second week of training, and again it was a great week! The first few days here in Santa Rita I was feeling on top of the world, proud that I was able to communicate with my host family in Spanish - but this week I was definitely thrown off my rocker as I've been slowly realizing how much Spanish I DON'T know. My host mom is wonderful about speaking slowly and clearly with me, but when her friends and relatives come over and try to talk to me I am lost. My host grandfather asked me point-blank this week, "Why can't you speak?" So if anything, I want abuelito to be impressed with my speaking and comprehension by the end of the 10 weeks in Santa Rita. I've been working on expanding my vocab and re-learning complex verb tenses...

We've made several trips to the river to swing from a rope swing and in a waterfall, I've played soccer with a bunch of other aspirantes and local kids (10-year-olds wearing flip flops and skinny jeans kick my butt), we went to a Santa Rita water committee meeting and learned a little bit about some of the problems the community faces with their water supply, I watch the news every night and am way more caught up on what's happening in Panama than in the US, and on Friday a bunch of PCVs got together and I learned to dance the bachata. My host dad isn't around a lot and I haven't gotten to know him too well yet, but we had a nice lil bonding moment on Friday when I told them I was going to go dancing - he belted out "Thrillerrrrrr" and tried to do the dance - it has been a while since I learned the Thriller dance but I attempted to show him how it was actually done :) 

We went to Panama City for a scavenger hunt-type thing on Saturday and it was very fun! Checking out the downtown, visiting the mercado de mariscos for some ceviche, walking through the Old Town neighborhood, getting some great views of the city skyline, etc. Yesterday my family and our neighbors spent about five hours preparing arroz con pollo for my host mom's birthday, one of the more decadent dishes here in Panama. We made a pot that probably could have fed 30 people, and it was so good. I would totally eat that every day for dinner this week, but tonight I actually leave Ciudad del Saber and head to David, the provincial capital of Chiriquí, and then to the Bocas del Toro province tomorrow morning! I'm visiting a current volunteer, Chelsea, in her site for four nights. I am so excited to experience real campo life for the first time!