One down. . .fifteen to go

SUCCESS!! After 9 months of work we have finally built our first ecostove! I received a grant through ECPA (the environment and climate partnership of the Americas) to build ecostoves in my community.  As part of the grant community members need to contribute to the project as well.  The families in my stove group are responsible for getting sand and rocks (that get mixed in with cement), ash (used as insulation to fill the stoves) and dirt from a specific type of ant (used to stick together the bricks on the inside of the stove).  Also, we did fundraisers (in the form of raffles, people donated small prizes and everyone sold tickets for a quarter, they LOVE raffles), to raise money to pay for the gasoline needed to transport the bricks.  A member of my community works for an NGO called Cosecha Sostenible (Sustainable Harvest), and used a Cosecha car to do the brick transport for us.  ANAM (the ministry of the environment) helped me transport the cement, rebar, cement blocks, and wire that we needed).  We also did fundraisers for money to purchase gasoline to power the saw to cut the bricks. 

 

Now, before I show pictures and explain the construction of the ecostoves I guess I should explain WHAT an ecostove is.  In Panama traditional cooking is done over an open fire, generally women use 3 rocks to balance their pots and cook on top of this.  This method of cooking using a LOT of firewood, leading to deforestation.  It also gives off a lot of smoke and is dangerous for small children and pets.  Ecostoves are a more efficient way of cooking with firewood.  They are much more efficient, burning hotter which allows food to cook faster, requires less firewood and emits less smoke.  Also the flames are enclosed, so children are less likely to be accidently burned.  The volunteer before me built some stoves in the community, and when I got to site many more families were interested in the stoves.  We are going to build 16 family stoves, and hopefully 3 industrial (larger stoves). Here are some pictures of the stove building process!

 

we had to move the bricks to where we were going to cut them

cutting the bricks. . .in 6 hours we only cut the bricks for 3 stoves, it's a LONG, dirty, process

 

 

haha everyone told me that it looks like I'm about to give a sermon. . .

you have to soak the bricks in water or else they suck all the water out of the cement when you stick them together

kids collected rocks to mix with the cement

best little helper ever! helping me shovel sand into a bucket

we reinforce the cement table with rebar

putting down the cement blocks

mold for the table and completed rebar

 

mixing cement!

this is the inside part of the stove, we use mud to stick it together because cement breaks under too much heat

inside of stove

building the outside part of the stove

almost done!

CSIP- Cosecha Sostenible Internacional Panama

CP- Cuerpo de Paz

Finished stove! that is ash in the middle to act as an insulator

I'm officially Panamanian because. . .

1. I have killed a chicken.  Yes, I seriously have.  Gallina de patio (aka the chickens that people raise in their "yards") are really popular, and killing chickens is a big part of life here.  So, one afternoon, my two good friends taught me how to properly kill, pluck, clean, butcher and then make pollo con macaron (chicken and noodles in a tomatoish sauce, quite delicious).  I thought I was going to wimp out, but I managed to go through with it, and still eat the chicken afterwards. 

 



2. I now pronounce pescado as pescao . . .pintado as pintao . . .aka have developed feo spanish. 

3. I consistantly use the phrase "si dios quiere" when I don't want to do something. . .most recent usage - " Will you be my girlfriend one day?" my response "si dios quiere."

4. I am now dark skinned. . .haha ok even though I am the tanest I have ever been in my life I will NEVER be mistaken for Panamanian.

5. I know how to, and have now successfully made, two sombreros!

6. I LOVE yucca, especially with huevos de patio (aka the eggs that the gallina de patio's lay).

yucca unpealed

yucca, eggs and peppers. . .yum

 

7. I wear jeans even when it is 90 degrees out.

8. Any time their is a lag in conversation I just bring up the weather. . ."hace calor!" "Brisa fuerte!" "Sol fuerte hoy!" "Me encanta la brisa."

9. I can pilar with two hands!

 

 

10. I can squeeze myself into any full bus or pick up truck and I have no shame sitting on random people's laps or forcing men to stand on the bumper so I can have a seat.

11. I lip point. . .what is lip pointing you ask? Just what it sounds like, instead of pointing with your finger you point with your lips.

12. A rope holding up my hammock broke and sent me crashing to the cement patio floor.  According to people in my community this makes me Panamanian haha.











A Quick Update

A ginormous apology for my lack of blogging.  I could spend forever writing all of my excuses but instead I will just try to give you the highlights of what's been going on in the last few months. 

Panama Half Marathon
On December first, along with a bunch of other volunteers, I ran in the Panama Half Marathon! It was HOTTTTTT, but a lot of fun.  A friend of mine got 2nd female foriegner and I got 3rd. 

Eco Stove Project
So what most people in my community wanted was more eco stoves.  Traditionally people in Panama cooking using the "tres piedras" method.  Another words they balance their pot on three rocks and create a wood fire underneat.  This is not very efficient, emits a lot of smoke, and is dangerous for children and animals running around.  It also contributes to deforestation because of the amount of wood needed to keep the fire going.  There are many forms of eco stoves being built, the type I am doing is called an eco-justa and made out of bricks.  The stoves are pretty pricey, but last up to 20 years if cared for correctly, use a lot less wood, keep the fire contained, and emit less smoke.  After writing a grant in english and in spanish and going to a seminar with a member of my community I recieved a grant to help build about 24 stoves in my community! The community members have to contribute things as well.  Now I am working on organize the transport of materials etc. 

Family Visit!
My family, mom, dad, brother, sister and her bf, came to visit over Christmas and New Years.  It was a lot of fun to see them and to play tourist a bit! And to have hot showers and eat out.  They even came to visit my community for a day. Here's a pic of my host mom and family!

One Plus One is Four Hundred and Fifty

Me- I adopted a community
Fellow pcv- YOU ADOPTED A CHILD?
Me- uh no. . .a community
Fellow pcv- OOOOOOOHHHHH
Me- but actually, I think a community is worse than a child, 150 people instead of just one
Fellow pcv- very, very true

So how, you may ask, did I adopt another community?  Well here, is the short version of a very long, but hopefully somewhat interesting story of how I ended up with two communities. 

First, we need to go back to the 2nd PCV ever to be put in my community, Loma Bonita (the first was in the 90s and was part of a different sector that no longer exists).  Peace Corps CEC was originally asked to put a volunteer in Loma Bonita by ANAM (the ministry of the environment) because of an environmental group working in the community.  This environmental group (APPEP) was/is working with the Biological Corridor, a branch of ANAM.  Peace Corps placed a volunteer in LB after this request.  Fast forward three years (this PCV extended a year) and Peace Corps placed another volunteer in LB to work with this group.

Well, this group has proved to be very difficult to work with for a myriad of reasons.  First, there are two presidents of the group.  One, works outside of the community, and is only in the community on Saturdays and Sundays. . .if that.  The other, lives in the neighboring community, La Mina.  Secondly, they are simply not organized (a common problem with groups in Panama). 

Currently the group is working on building a house for ecotourism.  In my first few months in site I kept asking them when they had meetings, when they were going to work on the house. . .but never got a real answer.  I did manage to get a tour of the house, but that’s about it. 
 




Fast forward to my community analysis, and when my supervisor came to have a meeting with my community.  He gave a little speech about how the volunteer was put here to work with this group, and in the past it hasn’t happened, which is why when he came for his meeting before I arrived he AGAIN asked if they were going to cooperate with the volunteer and they assured him they would. . .yet so far, they have not etc etc.  Only two members of the group were at my meeting, so he agreed to come back another day and have a meeting with the whole group.
A week or so later I was at my school and the woman who cleans the school approached me and asked if she could talk to me when I had a minute.  So, after sitting down and talking with her, I learned that not only was the president of the group from La Mina, but over half of the members of the group were from La Mina.  And she, and the other La Mina folk, did not understand why, if Peace Corps was put here to work with APPEP, and APPEP has members from Loma Bonita and La Mina, the Peace Corps volunteer has only ever worked in Loma Bonita.  I had no answer for this. 
So, we planned a meeting with my supervisor and APPEP.  And, during this meeting, it was decided that I would go to La Mina (it’s about a 30/40 minute hike from my town) and check it out and see if I can work there and in Loma Bonita or if La Mina should have their own volunteer. 
In turn, I headed to La Mina one Friday, met the teachers, got a tour of the community, stayed overnight with a family, and was taken around to meet lots of people.  Many of you will be shocked to hear that my regional leader (each province has a regional leader, they are volunteers in their third years who offer support to all the volunteers in the province and also do site development) offered to come with me but I turned him down. . .I oddly wanted to go alone. . .the girl who doesn’t like going to public restroom’s alone wanted to go to a community with people that I barely knew, speaking a language that ok, I am decent at now, but still not my first language, and spend the night.  Clearly, I am maturing.  Well, it went well, and I agreed to working one day a week in the community, however after another meeting with my supervisors we decided that La Mina really needs their own volunteer.  I have a lot going on in my community and there is no way for me to commit more than one day a week to La Mina, and La Mina has lots of potential projects as well. 




Fast forward again, and my one supervisor, regional leader and I went to La Mina and had a meeting about the potential of them getting their own volunteer, and it went quite well. 
Moral of the story, until April (when the new group of volunteers will be put in their sites), every Wednesday I head to La Mina, I teach environmental classes in the school and pasesar with the people in the community and we shall see what else.  Then, if all goes as planned La Mina will receive their very own volunteer, and I will have a neighbor!!!!!
This, is the somewhat shortened explanation of how I went from being PCV to about 300 people, to now being PCV to nearly 450. . .but honestly there are volunteers with 3000+ people in their communities.  It is not the amount of people that is overwhelming, it is the amount of projects that is simply too much for one person to handle.

 

Mi Casita

 

As a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama, you are required to live your first 2-3 months in country, during training, with a host family.  Then you must live your first 3 months in site with a host family as well.  After that you are free to rent a house and live alone. 

The community is required to have housing options, or help you build a house.  My community had 2 options for me.  One, was a cute, newly built house, however it was RIGHT next to the owner’s house.  I was warned against living in this house from day one, because it would be the same as living with a host family, no one would come pasear to my house, and the owner’s have bravo dogs (aka dogs that bite).  My second option is where the past volunteer lived, while living there he had his computer stolen and although there are bars on the windows now, many people didn’t like the idea of me living there alone.  Plus I would have had to build a shower and a latrine.  And, although there are pleanty of empty houses in the community, most are very far from the main road, and have no neighbors. 

In turn, I ended up staying with my host family.  However, I basically live alone.  My host family is a 74 year old woman, and her house is 3 buildings, and where I live, above one of the houses. 

 

Her kitchen is in the bottom part, and that is my little room/house above

 

The little building is an old store I believe, but now has 2 beds that she uses when family visits.  The bigger one is wear she sleeps.

 This is my "kitchen"

My desk, and also part of the kitchen

 

my bed, and you can see part of my closet

My porch

 

 

So the best part is that all of my furniture minus the one bookshelf my host mom gave me to me, as well as the gas tank, and pots, pans, utensils, cups, bowls, mugs etc.  Very sweet deal. As per usual the internet is not working so well and I can't upload anymore pictures, but this gives you a good idea of where I live.  I was trying to upload a picture of the backyard, shower and latrine, but I guess I'll leave that for another day.  



La Escuela

 

The school in my town, CEBGLB (Central educativa basica general Loma Bonita. . .or something along those lines), is actually more or less two schools.  The Primaria (pre kinder through 6^th grade) and the Telebasica (7^th-9^th grade).  The school day starts at 7:50, primaria goes until about 1:30/2, Telebasica until 2:30. 

The Primaria is multigrado.  This means that there is more than one grade per teacher.  In some schools this can mean one teacher teaches 1^st through 6^th grade.  In my school, it is one teacher per two grades.  1^st grade and 4^th grade are in the same classroom with the same teacher, 2^nd and 5^th are together and 3^rd and 6^thare together, the 3^rd and 6^th grade teacher is also the Director of the school.  As you can imagine, this is not an easy way to teach, and often leaves one grade sitting doing nothing while the teacher is working with the other grade. 

The Telebasica, is basically our version of middle school.  The telebasica in my town is made up of children from three neighboring towns as well as my town.  Now, not all middle schools in Panama are considered Telebasica’s.  The idea of a Telebasica is that there is one teacher per grade.  The teachers have a DVD that the students watch, and complete activities in a workbook that correlates with the DVD.  It is meant for schools that do not have enough students to warrant teachers for each subject.  In theory, it is a reasonable idea, in practice, especially in my school, it is not so great.  We do not have electricity, there are small solar panels on our school but I do not think they have enough power, ESPECIALLY during the rainy season, to run 3 TV’s at once all day.  Also, the TV’s the school has apparently don’t work either.  This leaves the teachers with the responsibility of teaching 13 different subjects including chemistry, physics, religion, art, phys ed, Spanish, history, geography, technology (which since we don’t have electricity and in turn no computers, involves the students working in the garden and on the school grounds), math, agriculture, natural science and English. . .I think those are all of them lol).  An overwhelming repertoire to say the least.  This, is why, I have found myself teaching English.  I really like the Telebasica teachers, and they are exceptionally underprepared to teach English, not knowing English themselves, and the students once done 9^th grade, will travel to either Cope (the nearest pueblo) or some go to the cities, where they are all way behind in English before they even start.  Plus, the Telebasica teachers actually sit in on all the classes that I teach and take notes, and sometimes I work with them after school on their English as well, so it was hard to say no. 

With that being said, once I agreed to do Telebasica English I couldn’t not do Primaria English, especially since all of the past volunteers have taught English in the schools.  In the beginning, I HATED it, however, it is growing on me.  I LOVE 3^rd and 6^th grade.  We did body parts and I taught them the hokey pokey. . .EVERY SINGLE DAY since then, they go “hokey pokey? Hokey pokey?” it is hilarious.  Plus they are always excited and energetic.  1^st and 4^th is ok, 1^st is hard because many of the students still can barely write Spanish, lot alone learn a new language.  4^th grade there are only 5 students haha, but I like them.  2^nd and 5^th is my biggest challenge, the 5^th graders think they are too cool for school (similar to that age in the US) and although they always act excited when I come to teach, they often refuse to write the vocab, or draw pictures etc.  The second graders are adorable, but the combo of 2^nd and 5^th is difficult.  Telebasica English is also growing on me, however, I suck at English. . .it is WIDELY known that I cannot spell.  Plus, I have NO IDEA what the students have learned in the past, and some of the students are way more advanced than others, probably depending on the Primaria they came from. 

So yea, Tuesday’s I teach Primaria English and Thursday’s Telebasica English.  Then on Wednesday’s, I do what I am really supposed to do in the school, and that is teach environmental classes.  At this moment I really only do envl classes with 1^st and 4^th grade, that is the only teacher really interested, but hopefully, slowly but surely I will also work with the other primaria classes. . .

Just like most schools in the US have a PTA (parent teacher association) or some form of parent group, here in Panama they have a Padres de Familia.  Unlike in the states though, every parent MUST be in the pardres de familia if they have a child in the school.  Our Padres de Familia is, well, intense.  A lot of drama occurred last year in the school, splitting the padres de familia down the middle, and it is quite evident during the meetings.  I kid you not the meetings have lasted for over 4 hours.  There was once a 30 minute debate about beds for the Telebasica teachers.  The telebasica teachers live at the school (in Panama teachers are assigned schools, they could be sent anywhere, it doesn’t matter where they live), and there were not enough beds at our school for the teachers, apparently teachers are expected to bring their own beds.  Now, each of them has to take at LEAST two modes of transportation to get here, including the cars to my site which are pickup trucks with benches in the back, I have NO idea how they would feasibly bring their own beds.  Well, anyway, someone in town made them beds, charged them the bare minimum, the directive (president/vp (actually there is no vp right now. . .another 4 hour meeting worth of drama)/secretary, treasurer etc) agreed that the Padres de Familia would pay for the beds.  Apparently, they didn’t consult the entirety  of the Padres de Familia prior to this agreement, in turn their where some very upset parents.  When the teachers (who were present during this debacle) said they would pay for their own beds, the parents said no, that was not necessary, they were just upset they weren’t consulted first.  It was around this time, that the mom sitting next to me said “Vamos Yei.” Which means “let’s go Yei.” At least I wasn’t the only finding the meeting ABSURD.  All in all though, it is nice that the parents play an active role in the school.  Each day mom’s cook crema (kind of like a nutrient fortified cream of wheat) for the children in the morning and lunch for them.  Every Thursday father’s come and work on the school grounds. 

 

And that is a brief summary of the school and what I do there. 

A picture is worth 1000 words

                                          Playing my game at my com an

still playing the game

talking to the community at my com an

                                
                                              the national park near my community

view of the pacific from the lookout at the national park

                                        huge waterfall in my community that they want to build a good trail to

6 Ways I’ve changed in the first 6 months

In honor of passing the 6 month mark in Panama (July 11^th to be exact) I am going to write a list of 6 ways that I have changed since setting out on this journey 6 months ago.  And for the record, this is 6 months since the day I arrived in Panama for training, as opposed to 6 months from the day I got to my site (I am just about hitting the

1.       I will eat just about anything. . .seriously. . .liver, fried hot dogs, spam (not gonna lie, fried hot dogs and rice/fried spam and rice aren’t too bad lol), mystery meat, meat that has been sitting out for multiple days, sardines, water from questionable sources (I believe this is how I ended up sick for three weeks though. . .soooo I should PROBABLY be a little more cautious with that), cereal that has become ant infested (just pour it out of the bag, pick out the ants and wa-la. . .good as new), soup that is filled with ants (my host mom’s comment after I told her, “oh, I THOUGHT the bones I used to make the soup were filled with ants, oops”), and really anything that people decide to feed me. 

2.       Physical- This will be lumped together as one lol

a.       I am the tanest I have been in my entire life. . .no joke.  I have an awesome choco tan line on my feet, and a pretty good farmer tan.  My stomach however, glows in the dark lol. . .guess I gotta head to the beach a bit more J

b.      My hair is the longest it has been at least since senior year of high school, possibly in my entire life.  Also probably the lightest in color that it has been in a long time. 

c.       I am becoming quite buff. . .seriously. . .my arm muscles are getting intense.  This is thanks to pealing rice, corn and coffee, grinding corn and coffee, carrying tons of crap (luggage during the first few months, now mail and groceries and other necessities from the city to my town and full gas tanks to my house), transportation (yes, it is an arm workout, traveling in converted pick up trucks on mountain roads requires a lot of upper body strength), running hills (my poor legs, which are also getting more muscular, need all the help they can get), hand washing my clothes (solid hour plus of an arm workout every week haha).

3.       I’m much more independent- pretty self-explanatory considering where I am and what I’m doing 

4.       I have no fear of dogs.  Seriously.  During training I was still a little skittish, now, I don’t even get the tiniest bit nervous.  Odd, considering many people in my community have a fear of the dogs around here, leaches do not exist, nor do fences really.  But I have learned to just scream “YA!” and fake to throw a rock at them, or pick up a stick and threaten them.  Yes, for all you dog lovers out there I know this seems pretty mean. . .but dogs here are not like dogs in the states, and the people here do not treat them the same way either.  In turn, every dog here is conditioned to fear being hit. . .I have never hit a dogs, but if it tries to bite me all bets are off. 

5.       I go to bed early, and wake up early, and I love it.  I get into my bed at about 7pm every night. . .seriously.  With no electricity most people head to bed at about this time, they may not go to sleep right away, many listen to the radio, but 7 is a pretty normal bedtime.  Once it gets dark, the bugs come out in full force, so I also like being able to tuck myself into my mosquito net as soon as the sun is gone lol.  I then usually read for an hour or two before going to sleep.  I wake up at 5:45am every day, I don’t even need my alarm anymore, and head out for a run before it is too hot and when there are less cars on the road/less people out so the cat calls/honking/hissing are at a minimum lol.  And I do mean I do this every day, weekends included. 

6.       And of course, I have to mention this one. . .my Spanish is getting pretty good.  No, it is not perfect, yes, I still find myself smiling and nodding sometimes, but I have had some solid hour long, storytelling conversations with community members.  I have also been able to tell my own stories, even make people laugh.  All of this is solid proof that my Spanish is coming along.  Can’t say the same for my English though, definitely getting worse ha. 

And that my friends, is a little look into the new, Panamanian me J Crazy to think I have already been here for half a year. . .

What I HAVE been doing for the last 3.5 months. . .and what I WILL be doing for the next 20.5

As I think I have explained before, the first 3 months in site are really just to get to know the community, work on your language proficiency, learn the culture and have people get use to your presence.  After three months you have a meeting where you invite all of your community and the agencies you will be working with (for me that is ANAM, they are the ministry of the environment) and my APCD (i.e. peace corps boss) comes.  Kind of intimidating to say the least. . .I was one of the last people out of my training group to have my meeting, hence it being closer to 4 months in than 3.  But. . .I’m happy to say it is over, and went pretty well I think. 

It was supposed to begin at 10am, of course there were about 2 people there at 10.  But by 10:45 there were over 30 members of my community (plus an assortment of children), the ANAM person from Cope (the closest reasonable sized town that has real stores and some Fondas which are kind of restaurants) and the ANAM person from Penonome (my nearest city).  I was quite excited, since in order to invite them I had to type up formal letters and hand deliver them to their offices (seeing as I am a wimp that in itself was difficult for me lol), and often time agencies here say they will come and then don’t.  Also, the MIDES (ministry of developmet, the group responsible for giving out the Panamanian equivalent of welfare and also has a women’s group in my town) also showed.   All in all not a bad turn out, there wasn’t much more I could do to let people know about the meeting, I put signs in the 3 tiendas, paseared and told people, made an announcement at the Padres de Famila (like the PTA) meeting and at the women’s group meeting. 

The first part of the meeting I had to show the people what I learned in the first few months.  I made a wheel out of recycled materials (see pic below), every color on the wheel correlated to colored bag with prizes.  The people spun the wheel, I asked a question, if they got it correct they got a prize from that bag. 

Then my boss spoke.  Then we started talking about what types of projects the community wanted.  The people were a little slow to speak up, but in the end the list boiled down to the following

1.       Recycling

2.       Ecostoves

3.       Working with APEP (this is an envl group that TECHNICALLY exists in my community and is in the midst of building a house for ecotourism, this group is the REASON there has been Peace Corps volunteers in the town. . .however they are not very organized.  But after a talking to, we are going to try to fix up there group and really get to work on some things for ecotourism, at least I hope)- this is the project that has the potential to be the most fun, and also I think the most beneficial to the community. . .there are no jobs in my community, literally, bringing in tourists would bring in money and create more jobs, even if only for short periods of time

a.       Building a trail and platform to the big waterfall in my town

b.      Advertising

c.       Planning what tourists can do- i.e. harvest/toast/grind/make/drink coffee straight from the trees, learn how to make sombreros, harvest oranges and make fresh orange juice, clean up trails other than the waterfall trail and make signs, cooking lessons, people to cook for the tourists etc

4.       New/larger/better solar panels for the school- our school has solar panels, but they do little more than power the lights.  Although it is rumored electricity will be coming to the town soon, this rumor has been going on for years.  And even if they were to get electricity, they would have to pay for said electricity, whereas solar panels are better for the environment and after the initial cost are free. 

5.       Reforestation- this is a little more low on the list, there are a few hills in the community that completely lack trees due to cattle grazing and slash and burn so that when the rains come the water just flies down the hills. 

Then, let’s not forget that I also have been and will still be working in the school.  Although I don’t really like it, I teach English to grades 1-9.  Actually the younger kids are a lot of fun, the 7-9^th is kind of miserable.  I don’t know what I am doing and they are all WAY behind where they need to be. One of these days I will write a whole post on the school and explain more into all of this and why I gave in and am teaching English even though it is not in my project description and I more or less don’t like it lol.  I also teach environmental education to the younger kids using hands on activities and will be helping re-establish the environmental club and helping with the school garden. 

So, yea, lot’s of stuff haha.  But, we will see what really ends up working out.  The ecostove project is a continuation of the past volunteers project, recycling was also done in the past but seems to have kind of disappeared. . .so here goes another try.  A lot of what is needed for these projects is the money to do them. . .yay to lots of grant writing. 

But, I will be starting with one or two things and working my way up.  Recycling and ecostove will be first, and trying to get this envl group into a more functioning manner.  Vamos a ver. 

A good catholic girl??!!

As most of you know, I am not exactly what one would call religious.  My father is Jewish, my mother Catholic, and although I went to CCD every Monday night a child and made my communion and confirmation, I probably spent more of that time making glue balls (sorry mom, and all the catholic school kids whose glue we “borrowed” over the years) then learning about God.  This is not to say I don’t believe in anything, or don’t have faith, just that organized religion is definitely not my thing.  I believe in Mother Nature, and I go to church every time I step onto a road or trail and begin running. 

                Well, Panama is a Catholic nation, and Loma Bonita is no exception.  In the school in my community every morning is begun with a prayer, usually a religious song as well, and religion is a class.  We have a church here in Loma Bonita, that holds masses every Sunday morning.  However, it is not often that a priest holds the masses, it is usually a community member.  I actually enjoy the masses more when a community member leads them then when a priest does, simply because the sermons always relate SO much better to the people and the community.  From the beginning of my time here, when people ask what my religion is I tell them I am Catholic, a1. Because technically I am, b2. Because most people here are not familiar with most other religions and really would not understand my mother nature/running explanation of religion and c3. Because being Catholic gives me something in common with 99% of my community. 

                With all this explained, you will now understand how I find myself sitting in church every Sunday morning at 10am.  This however does not explain, how I ended up going to chtourch 13 times in 16 days.  Hands down a life record for me, probably more times than I have been in church in the last 10 years truly. 

                It all started because my host mom asked me to go with her to a mass in a nearby city.  My host mom sings deseos and tamborito, and they wanted someone from Las Lomas (the corregimiento Loma Bonita is in. . .basically like a county in the states) to go and sing and represent the area.  My host mom is 74 and doesn’t like to travel alone, but anyone she asks to go would have to pay for their travel and most people in my community don’t have a few dollars to spare, soooo she asked me.  I said sure, and this is how I found myself taking a car, and 2 buses to a nearby city, then siting through an all day church service on a Saturday.  It was kind of interesting though, the service was for a priest who passed away some years ago, but did a lot of things to help campesinos and protect the environment.  If it hadn’t been so outrageously hot I may have even enjoyed it, they had the mass, people sang, some little kids did a dance, they had speakers on the environment AND free arroz con pollo and durros for lunch.  All in all not the most miserable of events. 

                                                                           The mass

                                                                    adorable kids dancing

My host mom singing

Actually this was the second such event I went to, the first one, a few weeks back (I tried to post something about it but the videos where not uploading >:-o) was an ecological walk and mass that I went to with about 25 people from my community.  Again, the heat ruined in the event for me, but it was definitely my kind of mass.  We hiked about ¾ of a mile to a clearing in the woods, stopping along the way to talk about the environment, then they held the mass in the clearing, and again people sang and danced.  I felt lot’s of town pride when my host mom and a girl from my community sang and 2 of the 3 drummers were also community members J. 

                                                              Lots of people

                                    Host mom singing (her shirt totally says I <3 my boyfriend)

Ok, but that is off topic from the 13 masses in 16 days. 

                The week directly following the Saturday thing, was the beginning of my towns Patron Saint (San Antonio) celebration.  During this time they have a novena (9 evenings of church), a procession and then a mass on the last day (and I learned the hard way that during the novena, church is still held on Sunday morning and then AGAIN that night. . .haha).  The novena was a bit rough, church started at 6 and night and just went on and on.  One night I did not get home until 10. . .and let me tell you walking in the dark on a trail that a man killed a VERY LARGE viper on  only days before is a tad unsettling. 

The procession was quite the experience.  4 men carried a HUGE float for the whole 3 hours that we walked.   The float had lights on it, to have the lights lit, they put a generator in a wheel barrow and pushed that alongside the float.  They also put an amp in a wheelbarrow for the guitars.  In addition to the guitars there was a 4 piece marching band.  We walked and said the rosary and sang and stopped in all the different sectors of my town (or at the entrances since some are pretty far off the road). 

The mass was QUITE the event.  Women began making arroz con pollo at 4am.  I showed up at about 730am and helped them cook.  It was a lot of fun, and a great way to bond with the women in my community (recently I also went and made empanadas with the church women).  The mass began at 10, and the church was PACKED, people from surrounding communities came and they were doing baptisms as well.  After the mass everyone got free arroz con pollo, bread and chicha de maracuya.  There was also a feria where people could sell things.  My community had been preparing for this event for MONTHS, so I was glad it all went so well, and glad a participated, even if it was a BIT too my church for me. 

ALSO recently, my town and the towns around me had a gringo invasion.  About 50 missionaries from Kentucky were doing some work at a church 2 towns over, and were also putting on skits/singing songs/talking with community members.  Imagine my surprise one afternoon when I was re-organizing my room (I will write a post sometime soon bout my living situation), and a group of gringos walked up to my house haha.  They were all extremely nice, I enjoyed speaking in English, and I also ended up doing a lot of translating, impressing myself with my new found Spanish abilities haha.  It was also neat to hear my community call me one of their own.  Members of the missionary group also said a few prayers for me, which as said, I may not be the most religious but I still REALLY appreciated it, it was nice to be supported and I needed all the help I could get seeing as I had been sick for about 3 weeks (I believe drinking some not so clean water was the culprit).  I gave them my blog address so, if any of you are reading this, thank you very much for you support and kind words! Also, my community members honestly loved having you all visit, one told me the other day that they love when North Americans visit because unlike the rich Panamanians we eat with them, talk with them, sit with them etc.  I don’t know how true the comparison is, but it is always nice to know we are appreciated and doing something right!

Ok, so longest post ever, but I haven’t written in a while so this should make up for it.  I hope to be adding a lot of posts soon to make up for my lack of post recently!  And I will try to have more photos and not bore you all to death haha.  Unfortunately my camera was out of battery for about 3 weeks straight and charging my phone won out over charging my camera.