Feelin Like Christmas On the Isthmus

I hope you can feel our smiles up in The States. Things are so good here, and the next few weeks are looking to be even more exciting.
A lot has happened since I last posted (I apologize, but I rarely feel clear headed enough to sit down and write a thoughtful blog) PC keeps us incredibly busy during training. They also do a good job of breaking the training up so that we are never more than two weeks in our training site before a break- and those two weeks fly by because we are so pumped for our next adventure.

some of TEA enjoying our Saturday

The Rio of Rio Congo

For Tech Training Week Sean and I were split up as he did CEC based training in Veraguas and I did TEA training in Punta Pena (there should be a tilda over that second n but I can't find it on this keyboard). Sean has some awesome pictures and will do his own post, as I can't do justice to his experience, but rest assured that it was fun, productive and included an attempt a lassoing a calf.   Punta Pena is a good 9 hours by bus from Panama City near Bocas Del Torro and it is gorgeous! It is right in the mountains with beautiful green vegetation everywhere. The volunteers in site are a married couple, both in the TEA program, with the wife more focused on education and the husband more focused on tourism.

We stayed with families during our week there, I was with fellow aspirantes Liz and Sara and we stayed with a fisherman and his family. They were incredibly generous people, sharing their small two bedroom house with the three of us when they already had at least 5 people staying there everyday (sometimes more). We didn't realize how generous until they left the door open to their bedroom and we realized they had given us the only two beds they had.  The wife was an incredible cook and she cooked up so of the husbands fresh catch. DELICIOUS!

 Host mom in Punta P making patacones

Liz and I with dinner the 1st night. Tastes better than it looks!

 One morning I went to take a shower, and this is what I found...

Sisters and our mamma

We did a lot of work during Tech Week,  mainly teaching. We all taught at least six classes and observed two half days. The volunteers somehow managed to get 5 schools involved, a Latino school, an indigenous school, a school with both indigenous and Latino students, a private school, a high school and an elementary school. This ensured that everyone would have some variety in their teaching experiences. I taught 2nd, 3rd and 7th grade and observed the same grades. Good experiences...mainly teaching me what NOT to do. I am still super nervous about teaching, less so about informal eduation...

 We are on school property here...pretty nice view from class, eh?

Another great part of the Tech Week was seeing the informal class at the volunteers' house. They had a zoo of kids hanging out, reading books in spanish and english, coloring, doing puzzles and asking questions.  Some of the children that attend their informal classes (which usually aren't so busy but they could only do one that week since we were in town) do not go to regular school. Some of the have never read a book, even in Spanish. For these kids it is not possible to start teaching them English because they need to learn Spanish first. The informal atmosphere helps them reach many different levels at one time. I am seriously thinking about implementing this at our site, so I might be asking for beginner books in Spanish and English and magazines/puzzles, etc. Just a heads up.  I also know I will be teaching elementary school English, but more about that at the end of the post...

At the end of Tech Week we had a free overnight!!! Sean and I met up in Las Lajas (half way, more or less, between our training sites) and had an awesome time relaxing on the beach. These pictures are of our trip. It was just one night, but it was such a treat.

View from our Cabana

Las Lajas

We got back from our trip on Sunday and on Tuesday we got our site announcement! Most of you know by now that it in Parque Nacional Chagres, near Panama City. The name of the community is Boqueron. Sean will be working on pretty big deal landfill project (we are replacing a volunteer who spent much of his service writing grants to secure the fund for this project) and I am going to be working in an elementary school (55 children, 2 teachers, grades 1-6), helping a group that makes honey and working with an existing tourism group that has great dreams and just needs some structural help. It also looks like we might be able to work on some trail building! There is running water but no electricity, which is absolutely perfect.

 This map shows all of group 65 and where we are for our sites

As if all of that wasn't awesome enough, my birthday was Sunday! It was incredible. We started the day by hosting our community development project- a day of awareness about the environment for kids. It included a play (with us as the stars), a song (La Limpieza, done to the tune of La Bamba. A Chris U Original), crafty projects using plastic bottles, a seed planting class also using plastic bottles and a trash pick-up extravaganza. The kids loved it!

Advertising on a budget

Acting!

maracas!

Learning about seeds

Making maracas with plastic bottles, rice and paint

These girls sang me the Panamanian version of Happy Birthday!

The day ended it with a party at Liz's house. Friends came together and made delicious Mexican food for me and we had cake and ice cream. Sean put everything over the top by surprising me with a Pinata. Picture him with a Pinata on a Panamanian bus packed full of people..he had to take multiple forms of public transportation with this thing, along with all of the supplies for tacos that he made for me and our host family...it was the best birthday present! All of the kids at the party loved it, but I think I loved it more...

Birthday girl got to start things off

Yes, we let the kids play too

Sara T. fighting little children for the candy

 Finally got that pony I always wanted

enjoying Mexican food!

Cake!

best hostess ever

So here we are. One week from today we will be in Boqueron for the first time. We will test everything out for a week, come back for a few days and swear in officially as volunteers on the 25th. I can't believe that PST is so close to being over and our volunteer service is about to start. I cannot express how excited I am for July to get here!Next week will be great though, allowing us to meet our host family/ies, see the school, meet the teachers and get a real idea of where we will be living for the next 2 years!

*** could not find proper spanish accent marks on this keyboard. also, many pcitures stolen from Sara T...you can find more of her awesome pics at http://tease.smugmug.com/I-live-in-Panama-now