He and his wife Dominga (she will appear in a future post for sure) and their awesome kids were one of the first families to make me feel at home in Cerro Gallina, invite me to events, and make their house a place I did and still do love hanging out. Vidal is the volunteer "promoter" of the SENAPAN agricultural program and organizes work days to make compost and manage a large plot of organic corn. He is also the vocal (position that is in charge of advising the community of meetings and workdays) for the Bajo Conejo water committee AND volunteer promoter for our corregimiento representative. He is instrumental in coordinating with both me and the repre in the planning of the new government funded Bajo Conejo aqueduct (it's coming...we just don't know exactly when yet)
He is organized, motivated, asks me for help in improving his organizational skills, and makes sure I know that he appreciates both the big and small things I do as a Peace Corps volunteer. He is the definition of a good counterpart! P.s. Like everyone in my community, he never wears sunglasses and got a kick out of trying these on.
Dionicio
I'm 100% serious when I say my best friend in Panama is this 17-year old. Dionicio honestly brings so much joy into my life, from his uncontrollable laughter playing ninja to the many afternoons he spends strumming my ukulele while freestyling in a mixture of Spanish, Ngäbere, English, Buglere, and French. Not kidding, in descending order of fluency he speaks all of these languages. He is not my most advanced, but certainly the most dedicated English student in class and also in the hours we spend on my porch, mostly him practicing pronunciation but also me nagging him to help me with Ngäbere. His energy and goofiness are nonstop but lately we've been having good conversations about religion, preservation of the Ngäbe culture, his dreams for the future, and more. I can be myself around him and confide in him things that may be taboo with others in my community. Time spent with Dionicio is never time wasted. P.s. not even two days after he and Roger tried to teach me to swing on these vines in the photo - I failed miserably - I passed by this spot to find someone had chopped them all down...hmm...
Screenshotted this photo from her husband Eduardo's Whatsapp status, it was so darn cute. She's holding her granddaughter. My favorite memory of Luisa: my host parents and I were waiting for her to hike to a concert in Cerro Piedra back in February, it was 5:30 AM and she hadn't shown up yet, but we had to go without her to get there for the 8:45 service. We were just arriving in Piedra after a (in my not-so-humble opinion) brutal 3-hour hike when all of a sudden Luisa appears beside me, looking like she had just left the house in her pink nagua, her hair done all nicely, a big smile on her face, not even sweating and says simply, "I caught up!" Luisa has a powerful and beautiful singing voice, and she is one of the children's ministers along with my host mom Benita. She is a fantastic cook and always makes me feel at home in her house. And her kids are some of the brightest in the community. Right now she has a 6-month stint as a cook in our district municipality office and hikes 1.5 hours in each direction to and from work every weekday. I admire Luisa so much!
One of my first weeks in site last year, I went to a high school's tourism festival with a few of my gente. One female student from each grade was competing pageant-style to be crowned the queen for the rest of the school year, and one of the candidates immediately stood out to me. Most young women here are very shy and guarded, but this girl just radiated confidence; she looked like she was born to be on stage. She didn't end up winning but I always wondered what her story was. Since the high school is about 50 minutes from me and serves multiple communities I figured I wouldn't see her again. It wasn't until months later when I was visiting Ernesto's house and she was there that I realized she lived in my community!! My immediate thought: OMG I hope she will like me, she's way cooler than I was at 16! Her house is kind of far and she's often not at home (Dinora is a busy girl, which is why it took me months to realize she lived there) but I've gotten to know her a bit and I look forward to spending more time with her this upcoming year. A few times she's even hiked 30 minutes up the steep hill to my house so I can help her with her English homework. I have no doubt this girl is going places in life and I'm excited to hear her future plans as she'll be a senior in high school the upcoming year.
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