Sunday, January 16, 2011

It has been a while.

My last post was September 17... what have I been up to since then?


A lot has happened in the last 3 months. My projects are still coming along slowly, that is the fault of Panama not mine. Too many false promises from governement agencies and delays from community member laziness (or theft). Although I have had many different delays with my aqueduct we are finally able to perform our primary goal. Wednesday we have our first work day planned in order to start the digging required to bury the 600ft of PVC. This will require a couple days of work so I am looking forward to the blisters I will have on my hands after we finish.

My other projects, teaching, sustainable farming, and world map are also coming along well. The school schedule here is opposite to the United States and therefore they are enjoying a two month summer vacation. My finquita is also growing slowly. Using the organic ferilizers is a slow process which requires a lot of preperation but over time my plants have started to thrive. My six types are trees are growing at different rates but all look healthy. All of my food plants (sugar cane, yucca, banana, plantain, daschin, and otoi) all will be harvestable for when I have my despedida or going away party in a couple of months. The final project that I have been working on is a world map. This is a project a fellow volunteer is performing in a site only 45 min away from mine. The map is 6ft by 8ft. It has been a great project and because he chose to place it in the school we hope that it will be useful to the teachers in the years to come.

As for other Peace corps activities we had our All Volunteer Conference. It was great to see all of the friends that were placed on other side of the country. Although it was great to see friends, as usual it included a lot of boring conferences that were a waste of time. Information that doesn't pertain to my site or my projects. Oh well, I got paid to be there and got to see some friends.

What have I done for fun?
There have been many holidays that have passed.
My B-day:
A lot of fun, we went out to the Festival de la Mejorana and spent some time at the beutiful beaches in Los Santos. We rented a car and it was great to have the freedom that we grew up with. Leaving when I want to leave and going where I want to go without have a person sitting on my shoulder or playing their music really loud was amazing.
Thanksgiving:
We spent Thanksgiving in the mountains of Panama. Over 140 volunteers got together in Cerro Punto to celebrate the day of thanks. We had a fellow volunteer cook a lot of great food. I ate my self sick and don't regret my decison for a second. Once again it was great to see a lot of volunteers. I have some good friends in my community but it is great to be able to speak english and identify with other americans once and a while.
Christmas:
I went to USA! Amazing. Gretchen and I got to enjoy a week with the family in California. It rained for a second but the weather was great for the majority of our trip. I gained 5 pounds in a week so you can imagine how much good food I consumed. Sushi, steak, fast food, mexican, whatever type of food I could find I ate as much as possible. I got to surf, went to a hockey game and just enjoyed the company of my family. My younger brother Duncan also got back from the war in Afghanistan so it was great to hug him and tell him how much I missed him.
New Years:
We got back to Panama on the afternoon of the 30th so we ended up spending the night in the city with all the other volunteers that had just returned from their trips home. It was fun, we ate, drank, and danced. Pretty much your classic New Years celebration.

What do I have to look forward to?
Work. Work. Work.
A lot of my work is going to revolve around motivation. It is going to take me a lot of effort to get the members of my community motivated enough to work for a couple days digging. This doesn't sound hard but when the work benefits others in the community than them they can be very selfish and choose the hammock very easily.
I also will be assisting my neighbor in the painting of the world map at the school in Milla 10
There aren't any good celebrations to look forward to though. Although if the Packers keep playing so well I will have to get out to keep watching the playoffs.
GO Pack GO!

I will try to stay more up to date on my posts from now on.
countdown= 5 months