Meeting New People and Fighting Bacteria

Having spent just two weeks in my community, I have returned to Panama City sooner than expected.  A long lasting stomach bug was enough to make the Peace Corps doctors decide to bring me in and give me some medication.  After some testing, I'm glad to know I don't have worms or anything too disturbing.  Apparently it's a bacterial infection from food, so I know I need to to more careful what I eat.  Tomorrow I will head back for another long trip.

Other than the sickness things have been going quite well.  Starting to live in a new place with a bunch of people that don't know who you are and don't speak English is always a little tough.  Everyone speaks Spanish but since it's an indigenous community, it's their second language.  Fortunately the teachers at the school speak Spanish very well, so I've found that I get the best practice from talking with them.  Everyone in the community practically has told me that I need to start learning Embara, the indigenous language.  I've gotten a start, but it's going to be a challenge, especially while still trying to work on my Spanish.  The language is pretty basic as far as the structure, but the pronunciation is really different.  There are certain sounds that I think my mouth just cannot do.

My host sister in front of the house

Most of my time so far has been spent walking around the town meeting people and explaining who I am.  The majority of people are pretty curious about why there is a very tall gringo walking around in their back yard.  I must say it is pretty awkward sometimes just going up to somebody's house and asking to talk, but people are very friendly and usually just tell me to climb the ladder and come inside.  All the houses are on stilts about 6-10 feet off the ground, so as I walk around people can look down at me from the shadows of their thatch roofs.  Now I understand even more what they call the fishbowl effect.

It's been interesting hearing all the stereotypes that people have about North Americans, and I've done my best to combat them.  According to the people here, every person from the United States is: a millionaire, white and blonde, lives in a skyscraper, etc.  People have many questions about the US, and some have asked if I will take them there when I go back home.  The curiosity makes for fun conversation.

Community futbol game

Some guys working on a piragua to
make it seaworthy

My goal for these first few months is to work out a community analysis.  In other words I want to figure out what the needs of the people are, what their strengths are, and how to best facilitate positive changes.  I'm expecting things to continue to get better as I get to know people better and feel more comfortable.  As for now I'm headed back to my hostel to hang out with some other Peace Corps Volunteers who are taking a break from their sites.

Almost Official

This week the Environmental Health group said goodbye to Santa Rita, our training community for the past two months.  We ended one chapter of our service, leaving our Panamanian host families to head off to Panama City.  Just about all the other volunteers who have been in Panama for a while that I've talked to have been surprised at how fast time flies during their service.  Seeing our training all of a sudden come to an end, I can definitely believe it.

We had a chance to celebrate a baile tipico in Santa Rita before we left.  The way they announced the start of the party was marching around the block with flags, fireworks, drums, trombones, and throwing candy.

In the midst of all the craziness and busy schedules throughout our training time, I've actually had more peace about starting my service here in Panama.  The abundance of material we've been learning, along with greatly improving my Spanish, has given me more confidence to be working on my own.

This afternoon we will officially swear in as Peace Corps Volunteers.  The ceremony will be pretty classy with speeches, presentations, and important people like the US embassador.  Thinking back to when our group all got off the plane together two months ago, it's amazing to see how much we've come together and learned from each other.  These people will be a great support throughout all the challenges we will likely run into. 

After a few free days to celebrate at a beach somewhere, all of us will be heading out to our different sites across the country.  I will be in Nuevo Vigia for the next three months before we meet again for more training in Panama City.  Thinking about being out there on my own is a little daunting, especially since we've been in such a structured environment up to this point.  The contrast between Panama City and my community is amazing considering how small of a country this is.  I'm going from flashy skyscrapers, super malls, and freeways, to houses made of wood and leaves, open jungle, and rivers.  From a place where people have more money than they know what to do with, to to a place where there's hardly any money at all.

Since I will probably not be finding internet very often, I thought I'd give some contact info.  The unique thing about living on the east side of the country is that there is so little development, you don't really feel like you're in civilization unless you go all the way back to Panama City.  There are no roads except the Pan American highway, which comes to an abrupt end just east of my site.  Let's just say it's out there.

My new postal address closest to my community:

Benjamin Vander Plas
Meteti
Darien
Panama

As you can see, there is so little going on in the Darien that real addresses aren't even necessary.  Meteti is the closest "city" to me at about a 2 hours away, and has a post office.  You can still send mail to the address for the Peace Corps office, but it generally takes a lot longer that way - and I have to go to Panama City to get it.

I now have a cell phone with two numbers:

(507) 6540-7421
(507) 6926-9273

And that's where I'll be after this weekend.  I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone in the community, moving into a house, and just getting more comfortable there.  Doing that will be a long process, but nothing about development work is fast.  There are so many things to think about for the future, but I'm trying to focus on the present, just taking it a day at a time.