Celebrations and more Celebrations

After a relaxing weekend in a beach haven, the sworn in-volunteers of group 64 Peace Corps Panama are on their sites. For most, that means getting to know people with whom to work, and show communities how they help their organizations.

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)

36 out of 36 Volunteers Swear-in in Panama!

Today is a special day, because all 36 of the original Trainees of Group 64 of Panama's Peace Corps are swearing in as volunteers! I have been given the special honor of giving some small words on behalf of the Community Economic Development group during the ceremony. Here is the speech (in Spanish) so you guys can see some of the things we have done during the past 10 weeks here 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 de Chiriquí hasta en Darién todos vamos a empeñarnos para demostrar que es posible mejorar el bienestar de nuestras comunidades.

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!

It can get cold in Panama....

Sorry to the 5 people that read my blog! I have been busy here in Panama for a while now.

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#

Turtle Watching and Riding Horses in Veraguas

Last Wednesday, we found out where we were going for our services. It was a great time, and I found out that I will be following up a very successful volunteer in the southern part of the Veraguas province, where I will be assisting with a youth coop, IT instruction, and other organizations in a small town of about 250 people. There will be electricty and running water, so this will not be the super rustic experience that many people think about when they think of the Peace Corps.

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!

Suprising facts about Panama

Rather than continue giving a recount of things about my life on every single blog posting, some of my postings will talk about random things about life in Panama that people with some Latin-American experience may find interesting..so here is my first list of things that have surprised me so far in 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!

Training Continues...

Our training in Panama continues. We have learned a lot about development, panamanian customs, and the panamanian way of life. Last Sunday, we were given a day off and a group of us went to the Casco Viejo, the old colonial part of Panama City.
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!

Community Based Training - Panama Style!

On Sunday we reached our community-based training location. We have each been graciously assigned to a host family. My family is a great elderly couple who has a very comfortable house just down the hill. My bed is actually bigger than the one I left at home! Everyone is great here, and we are all getting accustomed to the Panamanian way of life (with its intricacies). Training is pretty much like college, most likely like summer school (if any of you have experience). In case you want to see a few pictures, go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jannick.taboadaPC