Pictures, etc.

These are just a few pictures in more or less chronological order.  I will be trying to go back through some posts and put some more pictures in the 'right' places, but I'm hoping these will tide you over for now?  I know I have been terrible about pictures.  I will try to be better.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Also, I unfortunately failed at my task of finding out my new address last weekend :( For those of you that I haven't told already, please be patient with it...Finding out the address requires figuring out where the nearest/most convenient post office is and going there and talking with them.  Also, I just got an e-mail from the Peace Corps that my first letters are just now arriving at the office there...?  However, I hadpackages sent later arrive sooner...?  Who knows.  I will keep you updated.
Love,
Ally

 

My host sister, Alison, from Santa Rita and the neighbor boy, Alvin

 Alison in her pollera (the traditional dresses here; only worn on special occasions)

 Alicia, Yuri, and Alison

 The school in Santa Rita where we had most of our PST (Pre-Service Training)

 The rio in Santa Rita

 The chino (tienda owned by chinese people...very common) where we bought snacks

every day of training, and pretty much every other day too.

 The volunteer´s house where I went in Veraguas.  The one I think I will be
renting is actually the same color...

 Yasy (the special ed. teacher), her husband and her son when they took me to Boquete.

 Yasy's daughter and me :) Also in Boquete.

 A great view of the mountains in the background...one of them is Volcán Baru,
I'm just not sure which one yet...

 My new host family's dog: WiFi (pronounced wee-fee in Spanish).
They named her that because she runs around so fast...haha

 My 7 y/o host brother in Potrerillos: Jhon.  I don't know why he chose that moment not to smile...

 My (newly) 13 y/o host sister Yolibeth.

Somehow both parents and the 18 y/o avoided being photographed
for the time being...we will have to change that.

Community Entry Conference/Travel to Site Visit 2/29/12-3/3/12

The Community Entry Conference took place at CEDESAM, in Rio Hato.  It is pretty close to the beach and we actually walked to the beach on Wednesday afternoon, but there were tons of tiny jellyfish and we had to go eat dinner, so we didn’t stay too long.  At the conference, we met our counterparts (the teachers we will be working with at our site for the next two years).  Unfortunately, mine couldn’t come, but the (ready for this?) Special Ed. (!) teacher was the person who met me at the conference to take me to my site.  Her name is Yasy and she is pretty excited to have me coming to the school in Potrerillos Abajo, which is exciting, especially since I won’t even necessarily be working directly with her.  At the conference (which was 2 days, but really only 24 hours), we basically talked about what the expectations are from Peace Corps, from the volunteers, and from the counterparts, as well as some common cultural misunderstandings.

On Thursday afternoon, there were rumors that the Ngäbe-Buglé people would be closing the roads in an ongoing protest against a hydro-electric plant and possible mining in the Comarca (essentially equivalent to an Indian Reservation).  Anyway, because of this, those of us going to Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro (the 2 westernmost provinces) rushed out of the conference to catch a bus.  As it turned out, we weren’t quick enough to beat the road closure, so we ended up getting off the bus in Santiago, Veraguas and staying in a pretty awesome hotel: Hotel Gran David.  I think it fits the Peace Corps budget because like half of it is under construction.  So the 6 PC Trainees and our counterparts had basically a whole wing to ourselves.  It was super nice because not only did we have air conditioning and hot water, but cable TV, WiFi and meals at the hotel restaurant!  We ended up spending 2 nights at the hotel and to be perfectly honest, it was a great 36 hour break from reality.  We basically sat around and did nothing.

Saturday morning, we finally caught a bus at 8am and arrived in David (the provincial capital of Chiriquí) at 11am with no problems.  After that, Yasy took me to her house in David where I stayed the rest of the weekend and those in Bocas continued their journey for another day.  On Saturday afternoon, I took like a 2 hour nap because for some reason sitting around in a hotel is exhausting.  On Sunday, she took me with her family and we spent the afternoon in Boquete.  It was really beautiful (see pictures!) and I actually got cold!  Despite the unexpected travel hiccups, the whole 5 day adventure was really quite an enjoyable lead-in to my site visit.

Tech Week 2/23/12-2/28/12

This post is going to be short and sweet.  Tech week was theoretically our mini ‘student-teaching’ experience in La Chorrera.  I know all of you who actually did student teaching will laugh at the fact that mine lasted only really 5 days, only 2 of which was class actually in session.

The first couple days (really only the first day for me because my teacher wasn’t there on Friday) we spent getting to know our cooperating teacher and helping him/her set up the classroom and plan lessons for the first couple days.  Most of them were finishing up or had just finished their yearlong plan.  My teacher said he had it all pretty much together, so we just talked about MEDUCA (the Ministry of Education), teaching, and ourselves for a slightly awkward 2 hours where neither of us really knew what exactly we were actually supposed to be doing…

Monday (the first day of school) was the ActoCivico which is where they have announcements and sing the national anthem.  I can only hope that one day I will know the words.  If you care to look it up, it’s rather lengthy, especially compared to ours.  Then the day was spent in homeroom, so I just chatted with some of the students and then went to our ‘debriefing’ meeting at the library (after stopping at the ice cream shop on the way and teaching them how to make a milkshake…) and then went home.  Tuesday, I showed up ready to introduce myself in English and help with pronunciation because that is what my teacher suggested.  However, 10 minutes into the class he turns to me and asks if I want to teach the rest of the class, so I did.  Good thing I have a fair amount of experience making things up as I go.  Then we had our debriefing and then tech week was over.  That is all.

Carnaval 2/18/12-2/21/12

Carnaval, known in the States as Mardi Gras, lasts 4 days here.  We began celebrating on Saturday and festivities continue through this evening.  It is really interesting to see some of the different customs.  One is that each town has a ‘Reina’ (queen) of Carnaval and they compete as the weekend goes on to eventually be the Reina of the nearest city (here, for example, La Chorrera).  It is essentially a beauty pageant, from what I can tell.  Another is that the kids run around with buckets of water and try to dump it on as many people as possible.  There are also culecos (big trucks full of water that spray people) and bailes (dances).  These last two are often simultaneous or at least related, which is nice because then you don’t get too hot while you’re dancing.

As PCT’s, our celebration of Carnaval was limited to the nearest surrounding towns due to our lack of actual identification (they are getting our more permanent visas and foreign ministry ID’s, which requires our passports…).  I just hung out on Saturday and did a lot of reading.  Sunday, I went to Los Mortales (where the CEC trainees are) with some other people from Santa Rita for the culecos and some music.  It was pretty fun, but I got pretty sunburned (although not my worst ever).  Yesterday, a group of us went up to the lake in Arenosa (not too far, but it takes about an hour in a chiva).  It was absolutely beautiful, and really nice to swim.  I didn’t get too much more sunburned (I was much more diligent about the sunscreen).  We also ate at a restaurant up there that served only fish...  Needless to say, I just ordered French Fries and Patacones, which were also much cheaper than fish.  I was so tired when we got back that I went to bed at a little after 8!  Today has been another lazy day.  I have done some reading, played in the kiddie pool with Alison and Yuri, and typed a couple blogs and e-mails.  It will be nice to get back to a more normal schedule tomorrow.

An update on Alicia’s mom: she is still in the hospital but is doing pretty well.  She needs a pacemaker and they are waiting for the shipment to arrive from the US.  It is supposed to be here on Thursday.  They said she got out of bed today, which is a good sign.  Continued prayers would be appreciated.

I guess that’s all for now.  The next couple weeks are going to be super busy: we have tech week in local schools (in La Chorrera), then the Community Entry Conference where we meet our counterpart, and then our 6-day site visit.  After that, we have less than 2 weeks left of training!  I can’t believe how fast it has actually gone!

Until next time!
Ally

P.S. Happy Birthday, Daddy J

Site Placement: 2/17/12!!

Today was a very exciting day: we found out the sites where we will be spending or 2 years of service!!!  Some people were nervous, but everyone was excited this morning when we got on the bus to go to Clayton.  It was cool because all the regional leaders were there to kind of welcome us to the province.

My site will be (drumroll please)…Potrerillos Abajo, Chiriquí.  It is about one hour north of David, the provincial capital.  It is also about an hour away from Volcán-the volcano you can hike to see both the Caribbean and the Pacific at the same time!! I’m super excited that it is in the foothills of the mountains, so presumably cooler that where I currently am (J).  My school has approximately 225 students and 1 English teacher.  The area has a mix of indigenous and Hispanic, so maybe I will even get the chance to pick up another language!

I think pretty much everyone was excited about their site-or at least excited to know where it is and a little about it.  Now all we have to do is wait 2 weeks to meet our counterpart (the person from the town with whom we will be working most closely), and to actually go and see it.  I for sure can’t wait!

Santa Rita Halfway Point: 2/15/12

I am getting into a pretty good routine with my family now (just in time for it to change, go figure).  It started out kind of rough because my family doesn’t really like to leave the house to pasear much, which makes it difficult to get to know the rest of the community.  I found out it’s because they don’t particularly get along with the extended family who lives near us.  I’m not sure what exactly happened, but they avoid each other to what I find to be absurd lengths, but whatever.  Now that I understand a little bit more, it’s less weird that they don’t go out much.  I have started to be better about going out on my own/with other aspirantes (Peace Corps Trainees).

I have also found that there is a lot of bochinche (gossip)!  I think it has to do with the fact that 1) it’s a pretty small town and half of the town is related somehow and 2) Panamanian culture is very ‘indirect’ meaning that they avoid confrontation at all costs.  It is expected that if you have a problem with something, you will go around it and tell someone else about it until eventually it gets back to the person with whom you have a problem so they can avoid being embarrassed by the ‘confrontational’ conversation.  It’s taken a lot of getting used to because as most of you know, I am a very direct person and find it offensive/rude if someone goes to other people instead of coming to me if they have a problem with me and I try to show other people the same respect; except that here it’s rude…oops..  I think this will be my biggest struggle during the next 2 years.

On a totally different note, my host mom’s mom went to the hospital yesterday.  From my limited Spanish, she had a bubble (may also be a clot) in her heart, and they had to do surgery to take care of it.  Prayers for her and for her 12 kids would be appreciated.  It sounds like she will definitely be in the hospital the next few days, maybe longer.

I think that’s all I have for now.  I will write again next week, after we find out our sites and celebrate Carnaval J.

PST Halfway point: 2/15/12

It’s hard to believe we are halfway done with training!  My days have stayed pretty much the same as when I spelled them out earlier.  It’s nice to kind of have a routine again; I haven’t really had one since before graduation.  Last week we had our second Language Proficiency Interview (LPI), so our Spanish classes changed up-just in time for the last week of classes…  Our tech sessions have been a mixture of deathly boring and quite practical.  It’s kind of a toss-up whether the day will be engaging or not.  Some examples of the two extremes: one day we talked about the elements of language and language acquisition-very theoretical.  Then we had a guest speaker one day who came in and talked about/did some very practical activities that we will (hopefully) be able to use in the classroom.  Also, about once a week we go back to Ciudad del Saber for a Core Session about Peace Corps policy and procedure.  We have to get up pretty early to go, but it’s usually quite the treat because the office is air-conditioned and there’s a lot of pretty good food, and a pool!  A few other PCT’s and I have taken to going swimming in the Olympic sized pool during our lunch break J  Despite all of these wonderful things, I think everyone is getting a little stir crazy and ready to find out our sites and get moving forward (Friday!!!!!).

After we find out our sites, we have 4 days off as ‘Time to Reflect,’ which just happens to coincide exactly with Carnaval (the Panamanian Mardi Gras celebrations).  For several reasons, we are not allowed to travel for the holiday other than to the closest city.  I don’t think my family will be going anywhere, but I am trying to figure out how to celebrate here.  We’ll see J  Anyway, after Carnaval, we start Tech week, which is when we go into some local schools and work with teachers as they prepare their classrooms and start the first two days of school.  After Tech week, we have a couple days out of Santa Rita to process and then meet our community counterpart for our sites!  After that, we spend a week in our site meeting people and doing some observation.  Then we come back to Santa Rita for a week or so, then back to CdS for swear in!  We will be moving into our sites on roughly March 17, which just feels like really soon.  Stuff is going to start happening really fast and the last month is going to fly!