- I've started going on runs in the morning! (sometimes haha). As I jog north along the back roads of SF and Silimín, I gaze up at the tree-covered cerros of Gallina and Mesa looming in the distance and wonder what my gente are doing at that moment. I also get to hear how the town wakes up. The quebrada laundry slaps and gravelly voices singing hymns in the Comarca becomes the whirring of washing machines and accordion riffs of típico on the radio in San Félix.
- Going out into the campo for a few days to visit volunteers and then getting to come home to a comfortable house is a really nice thing. I've been particularly enjoying my real mattress instead of the foam pad I had in site, the smooth, cool concrete floors, and having ice cubes in the fridge.
- When volunteers stay at my house, some of them have been super enthusiastic about helping me clean the place out. We've gotten rid of a lot of filth and junk so far. This house has been in Peace Corps for many years and so much stuff has accumulated. I'm still not sure what to do with the multiple snorkel sets I found?! I also found (and disposed of) a huge mouse - over a foot long including the tail. So glad I wasn't alone when that happened, everyone got a kick out of my shrieking.
- The San Félix band has been marching around town, busy practicing for the 3rd of November. But their rehearsal hours just seem odd to me. They parade past my house playing Despacito and Olha a Explosão on repeat at 10 pm... I guess marching at night beats the heat?
One of my first tasks as RL was to deliver rejection letters, and boy was I dreading it. Every year, Peace Corps has to prepare more communities than there are volunteers, because there's always a chance that something could come up at the last minute and a community isn't able to welcome a volunteer. But this year, no communities dropped, so there were three sites in the Comarca that were anxiously awaiting their first PCV...and they didn't receive one. And I was the lucky messenger that got to go deliver this news. I showed up at one site I had never been to before with my only instructions to "find Jesús that works next to the school". After asking around a bit, I found him. He excitedly greeted me (in English!) and invited me into his house. He seemed like a smart guy so without beating around the bush I handed him the letter. He carefully read it over and then looked to me for more explanation. I explained that Peace Corps loved the community - the WASH project manager had just told me on the phone the day before - but there were simply too many good communities and they have to give preference to follow-up sites. I expected annoyance, anger, disbelief, really anything but the forgiving and understanding response I received. He said that they would be eagerly awaiting a volunteer next year. He said they would do anything they could to make sure that next year they made the cut. I assured him that his community was on the top of the list for 2019. Then he brought me to meet some teachers in the school and meet all of his extended family. We sat down and ate spaghetti with chicken and chatted for a hour or so. Then I left for the chiva stop and he wished me God's blessings and invited me to come back to visit whenever I wanted. Later that night I was making my way through folders on the expansive Comarca RL Google Drive and learned that many communities wait years after reaching out to Peace Corps to receive their first volunteer. My own community, in fact, filled out the paperwork in 2010 and received their first PCV in 2014 - I had never known this before. So I ended that day incredibly humbled, as always.
I also spent two weeks helping out with a research study of adolescents in the Comarca, including surveys, STI testing, and health education. One of the weeks we traveled to Ñökribo (in Ngäbere, "big water place") and it was amazing to see how the Northern side of the Comarca lives. Instead of going up the mountain in a chiva, you go up the river in a lancha or cayuco (dugout canoe with a motor). I'm not going to write much about the study here on this blog since it involves human subjects.
Up next...regional meeting! Thirty-three volunteers, three Peace Corps staff members, and several Panamanian agency counterparts will convene for a two-day event in San Felix and at the beach in Las Lajas, and I'm the gal in charge. *nervous laugh* We'll see how it goes, I'm excited to have all of the Comarca together for the first time since the arrival of the new group!
Heading out to the port on the 6 AM motorboat from Kankintú.
A kra big enough to fit an adult!
Our team for the 9th week of the study.
Dressing up in ridiculous costumes for the self-empowerment and healthy relationships portions of the seminar.
Leaving Chiriquí Grande in a lancha (launch).
Visiting new volunteer Ailyn.
Cleaning out the bookshelf in my house. Termites rather artistically chewed through this one.
Visiting new volunteer Forrest. Here's neighboring volunteer Ailyn and me with his counterpart Monchy checking out a water source.
We teach comprehensive sex ed to the teenagers. We talk about all of the options: getting tested, being faithful to your partner, abstinence, condoms, and birth control. And two volunteers in the Bocas del Toro province were upset because their local government health centers continually were "out of stock", even though they are required by law to have free condoms available. So we went to the HIV clinic in San Félix and talked to the doctor. He gave us some people to contact and promised to hold all of the clinics accountable in the future. And then in the meantime gave us many bags of condoms for our seminars! So we had to take a selfie.
Having a lunch meeting with an agency counterpart in San Félix with some agriculture volunteers! Chantal, Lucy, me, Chaneen, Aziza, and our counterpart Fela.
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