Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
A Vacation Home
Two weeks home and it felt like only hours.
After spending two weeks at home I am sufficiently tired and full of food. I don't know if I reached my goal of gaining 5 pounds in two weeks but I was really close. I ate enough sushi in one night to last me a year and finished my last day with INN-N-OUT for lunch and Pizza for dinner. Quite a way to go.
I was busy every day that I was in California, I got to see my beautiful sister get married. Welcome to the family Ryan. I got to see my friends from Ventura, the beach, and USC. I didn't have quite enough time to see everyone but don't worry I will be back in another year. For all of you that I did not get to spend some time with it just gives you more of a reason to come down to Panama and spend some time in the tropics.
The main reason for the trip was my sister getting married. The wedding was everything I am sure my sister imagined. The ceremony, which was done by my brother Zach was beautiful, the reception was full of dancing and drinks. It was great that a lot of the extended family from Wisconsin was able to come out and enjoy the beautiful California weather and some time with the long lost shulergang of California. As for other activities I was lucky enough to score some of that epic El nino surf I had been hearing about. The last four days of my trip included head high surf with low wind conditions. Neptune truly painted a wonderful picture for me to enjoy.
I was happy to see everyone and learn that you all seem to be doing well. I hope that I got the message across that I am really enjoying my Peace Corps experience. I spoke to everyone that asked and answered the question " What are you doing down there?" a million times. It was nice to know that everyone was so interested in my life and very supportive and excited for the work I am doing.
Back in Panama now and sweating like crazy. Of course it is also rainy but I am here with friends and ready to start working again after my two weeks vacation home.
After spending two weeks at home I am sufficiently tired and full of food. I don't know if I reached my goal of gaining 5 pounds in two weeks but I was really close. I ate enough sushi in one night to last me a year and finished my last day with INN-N-OUT for lunch and Pizza for dinner. Quite a way to go.
I was busy every day that I was in California, I got to see my beautiful sister get married. Welcome to the family Ryan. I got to see my friends from Ventura, the beach, and USC. I didn't have quite enough time to see everyone but don't worry I will be back in another year. For all of you that I did not get to spend some time with it just gives you more of a reason to come down to Panama and spend some time in the tropics.
The main reason for the trip was my sister getting married. The wedding was everything I am sure my sister imagined. The ceremony, which was done by my brother Zach was beautiful, the reception was full of dancing and drinks. It was great that a lot of the extended family from Wisconsin was able to come out and enjoy the beautiful California weather and some time with the long lost shulergang of California. As for other activities I was lucky enough to score some of that epic El nino surf I had been hearing about. The last four days of my trip included head high surf with low wind conditions. Neptune truly painted a wonderful picture for me to enjoy.
I was happy to see everyone and learn that you all seem to be doing well. I hope that I got the message across that I am really enjoying my Peace Corps experience. I spoke to everyone that asked and answered the question " What are you doing down there?" a million times. It was nice to know that everyone was so interested in my life and very supportive and excited for the work I am doing.
Back in Panama now and sweating like crazy. Of course it is also rainy but I am here with friends and ready to start working again after my two weeks vacation home.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Paradise Found
John Milton may have written that Paradise has been lost, well I am sure that I have just found it.
The Carribbean coast of Panama is lined with several island chains that are full of postcard worthy beaches. Many of these have been discovered, settled, and sold to gringos who in turn develop them into luxury hotels that try and seperate you from the environment. The island I visited is still untouched.
Mike and Amanda Smith, two of my friends and fellow Peace Corps volunteers met Rogelio, a man in their town that has 25 acres of coastal property on an island called Escudo de Veraguas. Rogelio runs a small fishing business from Escudo and has a couple small houses he uses for his employees while they are working. After talking to Rogelio for a while he mentioned that he could take Mike and Amanda out to spend a couple of nights on the island. Nobody lives there permanently! A couple of houses for people that fish or hunt lobster but they are only there a couple of months out of the year. Mike and Amanda asked if they could bring some friends and Gretchen and I were lucky enough to be included along with Brandon and Jacey two of Mike and Amanda´s friends from the states that were visiting.
Three hours on a dug out wood boat with a 40hp motor and we arrived to our own little paradise. Aside from three of his workers, there wives and children we were the only people on an island that is over 225 acres. We arrived and were instantly in aww, green everywhere, torquoise blue water with coral and fish. We swam all day the first day and found little hidden beaches to relax on. Some of which I am sure very few peaopl have ever enjoyed. One Beach you actually had to swim through a little cave to get to. AMAZING. We finished the day with some wine and a freshly caught and prepared fish dinner. He literaly caught the fish in the front yard and cooked it for dinner.
Day two he gave us a complete island tour. We saw sloths, birds, and plenty of fish. We would occasionaly stop`at one of the countless beautiful beaches to enjoy a little time in the water but after a while we could choose because there were literaly too many. After a walk on a long beach and a good sun burn we were all ready for a little nap and chose our repective locations under a nice tree to dose off for an hour or two. While the others were a bit sunned out I took Rogelio up on an offer to go fishing. I went with two of his workers, Auriel and Chicho to go trawling for some fish. I caught three Benito before we filleted one and went after something bigger. It wasn´t too long before we had a 30 pound wahoo on the line and it took all three of us to get him in the boat. While a 30 pound wahoo doesn´t sound like it would be too much of a fight try to imagine that we were doing all of this with line in hand. We didn´t use any fishing poles the whole time and all three of us sustained some type of injury before I successfully knocked it over the head with a peace of wood and we could get him in the boat. We called it a successful trip after that and returned back to the house for another fresh cooked fish dinner and wine by the fire.
Amazing. Gorgeous. Pristine. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TO
Don´t worry I took a lot of pictures and will be sure to share the beauty with all of you.
The Carribbean coast of Panama is lined with several island chains that are full of postcard worthy beaches. Many of these have been discovered, settled, and sold to gringos who in turn develop them into luxury hotels that try and seperate you from the environment. The island I visited is still untouched.
Mike and Amanda Smith, two of my friends and fellow Peace Corps volunteers met Rogelio, a man in their town that has 25 acres of coastal property on an island called Escudo de Veraguas. Rogelio runs a small fishing business from Escudo and has a couple small houses he uses for his employees while they are working. After talking to Rogelio for a while he mentioned that he could take Mike and Amanda out to spend a couple of nights on the island. Nobody lives there permanently! A couple of houses for people that fish or hunt lobster but they are only there a couple of months out of the year. Mike and Amanda asked if they could bring some friends and Gretchen and I were lucky enough to be included along with Brandon and Jacey two of Mike and Amanda´s friends from the states that were visiting.
Three hours on a dug out wood boat with a 40hp motor and we arrived to our own little paradise. Aside from three of his workers, there wives and children we were the only people on an island that is over 225 acres. We arrived and were instantly in aww, green everywhere, torquoise blue water with coral and fish. We swam all day the first day and found little hidden beaches to relax on. Some of which I am sure very few peaopl have ever enjoyed. One Beach you actually had to swim through a little cave to get to. AMAZING. We finished the day with some wine and a freshly caught and prepared fish dinner. He literaly caught the fish in the front yard and cooked it for dinner.
Day two he gave us a complete island tour. We saw sloths, birds, and plenty of fish. We would occasionaly stop`at one of the countless beautiful beaches to enjoy a little time in the water but after a while we could choose because there were literaly too many. After a walk on a long beach and a good sun burn we were all ready for a little nap and chose our repective locations under a nice tree to dose off for an hour or two. While the others were a bit sunned out I took Rogelio up on an offer to go fishing. I went with two of his workers, Auriel and Chicho to go trawling for some fish. I caught three Benito before we filleted one and went after something bigger. It wasn´t too long before we had a 30 pound wahoo on the line and it took all three of us to get him in the boat. While a 30 pound wahoo doesn´t sound like it would be too much of a fight try to imagine that we were doing all of this with line in hand. We didn´t use any fishing poles the whole time and all three of us sustained some type of injury before I successfully knocked it over the head with a peace of wood and we could get him in the boat. We called it a successful trip after that and returned back to the house for another fresh cooked fish dinner and wine by the fire.
Amazing. Gorgeous. Pristine. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN TO
Don´t worry I took a lot of pictures and will be sure to share the beauty with all of you.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Panamanian Easter Egg Hunt
So I know its not Easter and I know they're not eggs but I organized a project to entertain, protect, and hopefully educate a few of the kids in my town during there summer break.
There is no electricity in my site, therefore many people use batteries for radios and flashlights. after these batteries have been used the people simply throw them out the windows of their houses like the rest of their trash. Some end up in the trash piles others in the creeks that run throughout the town. What these people don't realize is that while these batteries are sitting in the water or in the forest they are contaminating everything around them. Including the water they bathe in.
So I designed a project in order to take all of the batteries out of the environment and place them within cement of a tower that a radio company is building right outside of my town. I told all of the kids that for every three batteries they brought me I would give them a piece of candy and the kid that brought me the most batteries would receive an entire bag of candy. The kids heard candy and got excited. The result from the contest were more than I imagined but after 8 dollars and 5 pounds of candy I successfully removed 1148 batteries from the environment and encased them in cement. The winning kid brought me 161 batteries.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Bocas Beats Chiriqui
Today I find myself in Changuinola having some meetings regarding my aquaduct and altrine projects. My first meeting was at 9am and with the unreliable transportation in and out of my site I was teter-totering back and forth of whether to risk being late or to go the night before and stay at the Regional Leaders house for the night.
After futbol(soccer), baseball is the next biggest sport in Panama. Mariano Revera is from Panama and therefore 3/4 of the country loves the Yankees. This is easily seen in the amount of NY hats that can be found on the streets. Well after a short talk to my regional leader I found out that there was a baseball game between Bocas and Chiriqui tonight. Chiriqui took us out of the playoffs last year so it was a little bit of a payback game. So my decision became easy for me and I was lucky enough to catch a cab out opf town to get to the game during the second inning. The first batter I got to see got hit by a pitch and threatened to charge the mound. No fireworks though as he just walked to first nursing a sore back. That started the game off well as Bocas roled on to a 6 nothing win and the pitcher threw a one hitter.
The game was only part of the experience. For one thing Jim and I were the only two white people to be found in a stadium that probably held 2 thousand people at standing room only. We paid two dollars to get in and it was well worth it. There was music and noise the entire game. The highlight had to be these two men that were hammered and had megaphones. They would both spend half the time yelling things at the other team and the other half of the time yelling over all of the other noise at each other. Every time something went right for Bocas the two of them would turn their sirens on and just blast it for 5 minutes until the game got going again. Too funny.
As for a cultural experience it was definitely different from a Dodgers game. Although Dodger stadium has a majority of mexicans there was a higher percentage of latinos at the game last night. Also I forgot how accostomed I am to having the Jumbo screen to tell me everything that is going on. I couldn´t hear the announcer and therefore knew none of the players names. I actually had to pay attention to the strikes and balls to keep track of each batter.
Needless to say I had fun and arrived at my meeting on time.
After futbol(soccer), baseball is the next biggest sport in Panama. Mariano Revera is from Panama and therefore 3/4 of the country loves the Yankees. This is easily seen in the amount of NY hats that can be found on the streets. Well after a short talk to my regional leader I found out that there was a baseball game between Bocas and Chiriqui tonight. Chiriqui took us out of the playoffs last year so it was a little bit of a payback game. So my decision became easy for me and I was lucky enough to catch a cab out opf town to get to the game during the second inning. The first batter I got to see got hit by a pitch and threatened to charge the mound. No fireworks though as he just walked to first nursing a sore back. That started the game off well as Bocas roled on to a 6 nothing win and the pitcher threw a one hitter.
The game was only part of the experience. For one thing Jim and I were the only two white people to be found in a stadium that probably held 2 thousand people at standing room only. We paid two dollars to get in and it was well worth it. There was music and noise the entire game. The highlight had to be these two men that were hammered and had megaphones. They would both spend half the time yelling things at the other team and the other half of the time yelling over all of the other noise at each other. Every time something went right for Bocas the two of them would turn their sirens on and just blast it for 5 minutes until the game got going again. Too funny.
As for a cultural experience it was definitely different from a Dodgers game. Although Dodger stadium has a majority of mexicans there was a higher percentage of latinos at the game last night. Also I forgot how accostomed I am to having the Jumbo screen to tell me everything that is going on. I couldn´t hear the announcer and therefore knew none of the players names. I actually had to pay attention to the strikes and balls to keep track of each batter.
Needless to say I had fun and arrived at my meeting on time.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Where's my Ngobe?
Just finished my Project Management and Leadership training and to tell you the truth it was more fun that I expected. All of the volunteers that attended had to bring a community member with them. Someone that held the position of a leader in the community or someone that they thought could use some training in order to fill a leadership position in the future. I chose to bring the President of my aquaduct directive and it was an interesting few days. To start off Ngobe Indians are known to be timid around new people, second he had never been as far in the country as I took him. So basically I was baby sitting a 27 year old man that has 4 kids at home with the grand parents. The first day I don't think he said more than hello my name is Lucas to anyone in the training. As the days went on though he slowly opened up and I think he had a great time. I had one of the girls in my group ask him to dance during our culture night and I haven't seen him smile or laugh as much as he did during that night. All in all I think he had a great time. I got some great information and I hope that he will retain some of the important information that was taught during our few days in Cocle.
On another note I received a few calls from the United States. Pete Carroll is leaving us. My heart and hopes for the USC football team both stopped. Until I received another call notifying me that Lane Kiffin will be the new head coach, and also maybe more importantly that Norm Chow will be returning as the offensive coordinator. So my hopes are back up. I am optimistic and ready for the next season to start. With a quarterback that seems to have a lot of potential I can't wait to see what he will be able to do with a little help from Norm Chow. Who did groom two Heisman Trophy winners. Well, although I will miss next season as well, I am ready to read updates on the computer and maybe see the occasional game on the island. When I get back our team better be nasty, because I am not unlike other USC football fans in the way that I do not stand for our team losing. Go TROJANS
On another note I received a few calls from the United States. Pete Carroll is leaving us. My heart and hopes for the USC football team both stopped. Until I received another call notifying me that Lane Kiffin will be the new head coach, and also maybe more importantly that Norm Chow will be returning as the offensive coordinator. So my hopes are back up. I am optimistic and ready for the next season to start. With a quarterback that seems to have a lot of potential I can't wait to see what he will be able to do with a little help from Norm Chow. Who did groom two Heisman Trophy winners. Well, although I will miss next season as well, I am ready to read updates on the computer and maybe see the occasional game on the island. When I get back our team better be nasty, because I am not unlike other USC football fans in the way that I do not stand for our team losing. Go TROJANS
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Work? You mean I have to do work in the Peace Corps?
January 7 2010
So I left my site on the 23 of December to go to Costa Rica and spent a few days there and it was the most enjoyable and relaxing time I have had in the 9 months I have been away from home. After my pleasant excursion to Costa Rica I ventured down to Panama city for New Years with several of my Peace Corps friends. I also had a great time in Panama although I do have to say there was a little more alcohol involved in these my activities than there was in Costa Rica.
The New Year arrived with Gretchen's Mom and brother and we traveled together to David before I left them to go on there way to Gretchen's site for a couple of days. After a long discussion and some serious convincing, Gretchen got me to agree to get out of my site again and spend some time on the island in the Caribbean with here family. It was a rough choice but I had to pull the trigger and make the call to decide over Caribbean beach town or Ngobe land and bugs. I was torn.
So as for the work that I heard I am here to do I guess it is coming along. The Panamanians really now how to drag out a holiday season and still have yet to do any work since the beginning of November. My Farm is going. I have yucca, sugar cane, corn, bell pepper and bananas growing. I also just started some tomatoes that were barely sprouting when I returned to my site for the short two day stint to say hello and goodbye. Other than that my job has consisted of some traveling and relaxing lately. I will continue to try and get the people in my site to do some work but as of right now I am just adjusting to the Caribbean life style and kicking my feet up and relaxing a little bit.
So I left my site on the 23 of December to go to Costa Rica and spent a few days there and it was the most enjoyable and relaxing time I have had in the 9 months I have been away from home. After my pleasant excursion to Costa Rica I ventured down to Panama city for New Years with several of my Peace Corps friends. I also had a great time in Panama although I do have to say there was a little more alcohol involved in these my activities than there was in Costa Rica.
The New Year arrived with Gretchen's Mom and brother and we traveled together to David before I left them to go on there way to Gretchen's site for a couple of days. After a long discussion and some serious convincing, Gretchen got me to agree to get out of my site again and spend some time on the island in the Caribbean with here family. It was a rough choice but I had to pull the trigger and make the call to decide over Caribbean beach town or Ngobe land and bugs. I was torn.
So as for the work that I heard I am here to do I guess it is coming along. The Panamanians really now how to drag out a holiday season and still have yet to do any work since the beginning of November. My Farm is going. I have yucca, sugar cane, corn, bell pepper and bananas growing. I also just started some tomatoes that were barely sprouting when I returned to my site for the short two day stint to say hello and goodbye. Other than that my job has consisted of some traveling and relaxing lately. I will continue to try and get the people in my site to do some work but as of right now I am just adjusting to the Caribbean life style and kicking my feet up and relaxing a little bit.
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