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Showing posts from 2012

Suddenly Christmas Happened!

In my site, other than my secret stash of candy canes that I had hidden from the kids (that the roaches and ants still found), my pine tree scented candle, and the dish towel with a little Christmas tree on it from my Grandma, it is very easy to forget that it is in fact not July. However yesterday, after a crazy adventure getting out of site with a flooded out road and needing to get half a dozen small kids and a dozen gas tanks cross a 100 yd stretch of almost knee deep water, I picked up the BIGGEST care package box and raced to the bus stop. It started to feel like Christmas when I got on a NICE bus with Ben and I thanked him for waiting for me (for almost 90 min, as 2 previous buses left for the city) by splitting the rest of my cookies and chex mix from my birthday package a few weeks ago. I believe in Christmas miracles because I experienced on firsthand when as we stopped at our first border poice checkpoint and a longline of SENAFRONT soldiers ran out of the barracks, packs

A Journey to the Other Side

(this is the last post in this series. if you are still reading, i am impressed!) I have spent the last 2 weeks out of site for In Service Training and then the all Volunteer Thanksgiving. It was the first time I had been west of Panama City since Swear In, and in many ways felt like I was visiting another country!   IST- The Darienitas traveled out of the jungle together the Friday before IST so we could use electricity and internet to write our community analyses, scrub off a few layers of jungle funk with hot water, and catch some football before we headed out to the training compound for the week. The down side to the compound: they werent prepared for our arrival and we had to go without sheets for our mattresses or towels for our showers for a bit. The up side to the compound: we had mattresses and running water! The best part of the compound: there was a beach and a restaurant a 45 min walk down the road so we could hang out in the evening after our long days of si

A Moment of Thanks

(this is the post of thanksgiving)   As Volunteers, we like to rant and complain about our frustrations and challenges, and like any other job, this often times overshadows the things we love about our service. The following are the top 30 things that make me happy and that I am thankful for every single day of my service.   1. Playing with my host brothers and the other kids in site 2. Drinkable water, especially if it is cold 3. Phone calls 4. Spices 5. Sitting down to poop 6. Re-reading 6 month old letters from friends and family 7. Hammocks 8. A breeze or a fan 9. Getting emails from people other than my higher ups, my credit cards, or Best Buy 10. Having my own hut 11. Chocolate in any form (doesn’t matter if all the M&Ms have melted together!) 12. Not being sick 13. Guys that look and smell clean, and are taller than me! (and do not catcall me!) 14. My mosquito net 15. VEGETABLES 16. Jumping in the cold river at the

I Have Written This Life Update 4 Times...

...because each time I update it, I end up not having a chance to post it and life happens and makes it way out of date. So...here we go.   (this is the 'here is what I am actually doing' post)   Health Update- knock on wood, 3 months sans major illness or injury! After Giardia, 4 rounds of pink eye and an ear infection, not to mention 4" thorns in my hand and slicing my big toe open, I am healthy! I have lost some weight, seeing as nothing I own fits, but it is hard to tell how much without a scale. Also because my clothes get stretched out by beating them on rocks. It will be a pleasant surprise the next time I find a scale. I just finished 2 weeks out of site and the change in food wreaked havoc on my digestive system, but the traditional Thanksgiving food, the egg casserole and veggies, the ice cream, and cheese were worth the stomachaches.   Mental Health Update - the rollercoaster continues. Panama is great, and then it makes me crazy. I am acc

Cooking in the Campo

(this is the entertaining post)   I have been living in my own for almost 2 months now, and that means cooking for myself too. Anyone who knows me pre-Panama knows that I am a very talented woman, but the kitchen was never my forte. In college I survived on Jimmy Johns, Chipotle, Breuggars, and anything that could be microwaved. Even then sometimes my veggies in a bag sometimes blew up.   Now I live in the jungle, with a 2 burner gas camp stove, food straight from the fields, and I havent seen a microwave for more than 6 months. Results? I havent died of starvation nor blown my house up yet. I have eaten plenty of burned plantains, undercooked rice, and unsalvagable coffee, but I am learning. And whenenver I mess it up too bad I can always go over to someone else's house to visit. They will undoubtedly feed me.   However, with my very limited means I do have a few 'success stories'- and I am grateful to Emily every day for the care package of Trader Jo

My Problem with Missionaries

(this is the soapbox-y post)   Yo, Playona. The world is hard. What are you going to do about it? Don't look at me. I certainly can't answer that for you. Sometime you are going to have to suck it up and own it. You are proud, strong, and sassy. You have a rich culture and more passion for yourselves, your families, and your community than most 'dedicated artists' I know. Quit making excuses. I know it is scary to take risks and do new things. I know this girl who once left all of her family and friends behind to go live in a completely different world 3,000 miles away. It was scary, but she hasn't died yet. You are smart and capable people. Men, put your beer down, and try thinking with your brain. Women, stop making fun of so and so's shirt or so and so's hair, and try thinking about your future. Kids, do your own freaking homework for once.   I wish I could say these things. I wish that if they heard these things that they would actually b

Coming Soon...

I have 5 updates I would like to post but at the moment havent been able to sit down at a computer long enough to get them from my journal to the internet. I will make sure that happens in the next 2 weeks. Until then, check out the blogs of Danielle, Ben, and Chris, other PCVs in my program from G71. We all live in the same kind of community on the same river. Danielle is 3 hours down river from me, Ben is 2 more after that, and Chris is 4 hours from Ben. So we're pretty much neighbors! Http://theworldestaesperando.wordpress.com Http://inallthingspanama.blogspot.com Http://areamantravels.wordpress.com They are 3 more perspectives on the life I am living and are really entertaining as well. Plus, they keep me from nailing pancakes to trees. This is important. Love and miss you all, life update coming soon! Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4

Trading Spaces

I made it. As of right now the Volunteer that I have been sharing my community with, Moiz, is a RPCV. He's done. He's gone. As of now I no longer live with a host family, I am in charge of this project on my own, and I have my own hut. I am -finally- an independent adult once again. The first three months I knew were going to be hard. But they were harder in ways I didn't expect, and I think it all boils down to lack of control over my own life. Not that Moiz and I ever had any problems. I feel like we did an excellent job of creating a smooth transition between Volunteers for the community and I am incredibly indebted to him for a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight that only 2 years living with our people can bring. But I am so ready to kick my service into gear. Over the last few weeks, I have filled my days with lots of reading, lots of journaling, and lots of counting down for this point. I still visited with other people in my community and such, but I was re

Nailing Pancakes to Trees

There's a 'jungle legend' out here in the Darien that a PCV once went crazy. After several days of not being able to get in touch with this Volunteer, the PC office sent someone out to their site to check on them. The missing PCV was found in site, cool as a cucumber, busy nailing pancakes to trees because it needed to be done. So now it is not uncommon to hear one West side PCV warn us Darienitas, 'don't nail pancakes to trees!' I am coming close to nailing pancakes to trees. I have been living with host families for the last 5 months and on Monday, I get to move into my own hut. And not a moment too soon. I love my host family. I love my community. I love Panama. But I REALLY need to have my own space. To choose when I eat and how much I eat and whether I eat rice or platano. To choose when I go to sleep and when I get up and to not have to tell my mom where I am going every time I have to use the latrine. It will be amazing. 72 hours and counting. I wonde

A Day in the Life

(September 18, 2012 to be exact) 4ish AM- I wake up with a start, and I am not happy about it. I was having a really good dream about being in the US. It takes me a minute to realize where I am. Oh yea, my bed in my site. In Panama. Then, why did I wake up? It's only 4AM, going back to sleep. Oh. That's why. There's droplets of water falling off the roof above me right into the middle of my face. Awesome. I move my head 6" to the left, roll over, and go back to sleep. At least when it is raining it is cool enough to curl up in my blanket! 6AM- My 3-year old brother Feli throws his morning temper tantrum. Ugh. I lay in bed, refusing to acknowledge that I am now awake. 6:45AM- Sunlight is starting to make my room hot and stuffy. And I have to pee. I admit defeat and get up. I throw on yesterday's peruma, grab TP, and head to the latrine, mumbling a half-hearted, slightly incoherent blend of Spanish and Embera greeting to my host mom. After saying it, I

Short Stories from the Selva (Selva means jungle in Spanish)

Story #1 - Conversations with a 4-Year Old (Written September 6, 2012) Diorleni: Amber, what are you doing? Amber: Sewing my new peruma. D: Where did you get the scissors? A: The United States. D: Why do you have 2? A: Because one is big and the other is little. D: You have 2 shirts on too. Why? A: Because the top shirt comes  down too low in the front. D: (Grabs the top of Amber's shirts and pulls down) Are you wearing a bra? A: (Retrieving her shirt from D's control) Yes. D: Can I see your boobs? A: No. D: Why? A: Because I don't want to share them right now. D: How come you don't love anyone here? A: ...Uh, What? D: You sleep alone. A: I have a boyfriend in the US. D: Where? A: In Nebraska. D: Oh. I have a boyfriend too. A: Really? Who? D: He lives there. (points with her lips) A: How old is he? D: How old is your boyfriend? A: Uhhh, 25. D: Ha! Mine is 43. I have 2 boyfriends. How many do you have? A: Just one. D: Just one? A: Just one

#thirdworldproblems

A cow ate my underwear off of the clothesline. My bug bite started growing. There's a ______ on my _________. My pillow molded. I got stuck in the mud up to my knees and my neighbor had to come pull me out. I fell in the latrine and was shouting for help for 6 hours before someone found me. My bus broke down on the side of the road in the jungle at night. FARC stopped and helped us jump the battery. There's a 250 lb pig in my canoe. I took a shower in the rain. Halfway through shampooing, the rain stopped. I can't build my house this week because the moon isn't right. I can't teach English at the school this week because it is possessed and needs to be exorcised. I can't remember if I took my malaria pills this week or not. I have a double infected foot fungus. I ate an endangered animal, and it was the best tasting thing I'd had in weeks. I don't know what I am eating. I DO know what I am eating. I missed my pee cup. My boat ran out of gas halfway upriv