One Short Day in the Panama City

Day 2: August 8, 2015

My dorm room had long emptied by the time I regained consciousness at 10am, just in time for more antibiotics. Ben had left hours before on a bus to his site in the Darién, and the other travelers were off sightseeing. I moved upstairs to the sunlight to work my way through a champion’s breakfast of popsicles and coffee. Seneca, another PCV finishing his service, joined me and we discussed our major life changes.

After a lazy morning, I was starting to feel human again by mid afternoon as the dark clouds started rolling in. Knowing it was my last chance to go to the indigenous store, I mustered up my energy to brave Cinco de Mayo- a street bursting with stores, street vendors, and crowds of every age and ethnicity.

Resisting the temptation to buy another paruma, I settled on a Kuna headscarf, then dashed off into the rain to catch a bus to the mall. It had been three years since I had done any real clothes shopping. Walking into the fancy GAP, I felt like a fraud. At any moment one of the staff members was going to realize that I didn’t belong here and would kick me out. They didn’t. I bought a pair of sandals and a shirt.


Back in the hostel, I made mac n cheese with a side of popsicles for dinner and tried to pack my bag. It took me no time to decide to take my day backpack to the Darien and to leave the rest in the hostel for the week. Although I had been awake for less than twelve hours, I soon found myself snuggled back in bed. After a bedtime popsicle, of course.

Today I'm grateful for feeling well enough to be able to visit Cinco de Mayo one more time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#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
Read more

"...Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

After an excruciatingly long and arduous 9 hour bus trip, I was finally able to open my letter. I will be going to HONDURAS and I start orientation on FEB 22nd. I will be in training in Honduras then until May 12th when I move out to my site and then will finish my contract with the PC on May 12th 2014. My job title is 'Environment and Water Extensionist' meaning that I work with other government agencies and private voluntary organizations like Engineers Without Borders to:  1. To design and provide technical support for the rehabilitation, construction, or expansion of rural water and sanitation systems. 2. To provide training of rural community water associations and system operators. 3. To deliver environmental and sanitation education to community groups. There's another 20-some pages describing what all of that means, but I'll spare you those details. Right now I have a ton of things to read and an acceptance letter to write to officially accept my
Read more

$omething They Forgot to Mention...

Getting ready to go on this adventure is expensive. I mean, we're not talking college tuition or buying a house expensive. Just recent-college-grad-living-paycheck-to-paycheck expensive. Sure, PC will give a living allowance and a regular 'salary' once I am sworn in, and during training we'll have some 'pocket money', but for this part, the between time from accepting the invitation to getting on that plane has its costs. First, I need stuff. I am a theatre technician and run around all day in paint covered jeans and tank tops. Neither are going to be good choices for Honduras as they are not professional enough for the situation nor appropriate for the weather. (Jeans in that kind of humidity? Gross.) So some new wardrobe pieces are essential. Also, last Christmas my laptop died, and I bought a stellar new one. An expensive, fast processing, great graphics card, 17" screen laptop that is wonderful for AutoCAD, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and my design wo
Read more