Monday, November 16, 2009
Celebrations and more Celebrations
But that's not the case for me. Since I'm a follow-up volunteer, I know exactly what I will be doing (for the most part) and just have to shadow a fellow PCV (Peace Corp Volunteer) until she leaves in January. In many ways, it makes my job quite easier, since I can get working from the get-go. But still, It's no piece of cake, as she is quite liked both by our our community and Peace Corp Panama Staff. High expectations are coming!
For now, however, we have focused on celebrating the many panamanian holidays in late October/all of november. That means
that we have celebrated in only 20-something days here in my site, the following days:
Student day at the school
Independence day
Flag Day
Day after Flag day(today)
Grito de Los Santos
Festival Mi Ranchito (2 days)
Day after "Mi Ranchito"
This entails plenty of tipico music (traditional panamanian music-more to come on future posts), games, Balboas (the most popular national beer), and "arroz con pollo". What surprised me the most was that the bailes (dances) for these patriotic days had as much non-panamanian music as panamanian music. So I heard some good reggeaton, bachata, and merengue. I was also surprised at the amount of poetry and memorized speeches given for these patriotic days.
I have updated my pictures, in case anyone wants to see more new things about Panama (in particular of two events, a party or our community where we trained, and another for our swear-in ceremony)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
36 out of 36 Volunteers Swear-in in Panama!
Muy Buenas Tardes distinguidos miembros de la mesa principal, invitados especiales, y compañeros.
Cuando nosotros, los 19 miembros del grupo de Desarrollo Económico Comunitario vimos la ciudad de Panamá, el 12 de Agosto desde la ventana del avión, muchos no sabíamos mucho de este país hermoso. La mayoría no sabía a lo que venía, solo teníamos el interés de trabajar con la misión de Cuerpo de Paz.
Durante los 2 meses pasados en nuestra capacitación, hemos aprendido más sobre la misión de Cuerpo de Paz. Con el equipo de capacitación, aprendimos como desarrollar un plan de negocio, como trabajar con la juventud panameña, y como conocer a la comunidad. Sin duda, lo más que nos gustó fue el concepto de la hora panameña.
Al cabo de nuestra capacitación, el pueblo panameño ha abierto sus hogares con una gran hospitalidad. Con ellos, hemos bailado la música típica, comido como por ejemplo un poquito de arroz, y compartido historias de nuestras vidas. Mientras nuestras familias anfitrionas se asombraban de todo lo que se encuentra en los Estados Unidos, nosotros nos asombrábamos de los 10 tipos de guineos en panamá.
Hoy día, en una ocasión tan importante, nuestro grupo afirma que va a hacer lo mejor posible para ayudar a nuestras nuevas comunidades en Panamá. Desde
Voluntarios, hoy día quiero terminar con un dicho muy aplicable para esta ocasión. La madre Teresa dijo: A veces sentimos que lo que hacemos es tan solo una gota en el mar, pero el mar sería menos si le faltara una gota. Espero que nosotros podamos contribuir a crear un gran charco en Panamá.
Muchas Gracias.
Afterwards, we plan on celebrating in one of the city's hippest districts - Calle Uruguay. Good times!
Monday, September 21, 2009
It can get cold in Panama....
After "Culture week" with the turtles and long walks by the beach, we went to the comarca Ngobe Bugle region of Panama. This is a region much like a reservation, where the indigenous of Panama live. In our case, we visited a very breathtaking Ngobe site in the mountains of Panama. In here, we had what Peace Corps/Panama calls "Technical Week", where we do the things that
our specific project does. In our case, that means that we analyzed businesses and taught leadership classes. Our group in particular worked with a gentleman who had his own kiosk and wanted to make more money. With him, I can tell you I had my first "Peace Corp Moment", where I felt like I truly helped someone out.
As I was saying, we were high in the mountains, which means two things that I would not have expected to find so well in Panama. First, we had a breathtaking view of the Pacific and the mountain range of the Continental Divide. Second, it was COLD at night. I mean like mid-fall weather in the Northeast of the US (well..maybe DC, MD, and VA mid-fall). Regardless, do not be surprised if you find yourself cold in Panama. It
happens.
For more pictures of this particular part of my trip, see:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jannick.taboadaPC/TechWeek#
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Turtle Watching and Riding Horses in Veraguas
In order to acclimate to the life of Veraguas, the three of us who are going to th province have descended on a small town right on the beach. In what seems to be a great respite from the hustle and bustle of our normal training site, we are divided in smaller groups and do more cultural activities rather than (often dragging) presentations.
As you can gather from the title, this means that we are turtle watching and riding horses around the beach. In addition, we have visited a very awesome waterfall, learned how to make hammocks, gone fishing, and learned how to cook. YES--Peace Corps life is tough.
I now have a cell phone! Call me at 507-6895-9112!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Suprising facts about Panama
1.) Bachata is HUGE..and by bachata, I mean mostly Aventura
2.) People drive MUCH better than they do in the D.R., Peru, and even some bigger American cities.
3.) flavored drinks (aka drinks where you mix a powder and a water) are very popular
4.) You can drink water from the faucet. Can't do that in the DR, Peru, Mexico...the list goes on.
5.) On TV, you will see Sabado Gigante....on Sunday
We'll other than that, I'll be finding out where i'll spend my next 2 years on Wednesday September 9th. This means soon I'll buy a cell phone! Watch out!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Training Continues...
This week, each of us went to different parts of Panama to get a better glimpse of the life of a Community Economic Development volunteer. As for myself, I went with a fellow CEDer to the Azuero region of Panama, to a community that is even shown in Lonely Planet. Pictures have been updated!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Community Based Training - Panama Style!
http://picasaweb.google.com/jannick.taboadaPC
