Volunteer Visit

For the past 4 days we all got sent to go visit current volunteers in different parts of the country. Most people were sent in pairs but I got sent alone to visit Sarah and Sean, a married couple who live in a very small community about an hour and a half away from Panama City. They came to Panama last April. The volunteer visit was very well timed - I think we all needed a day off from training. It was awesome to see exactly the life I signed up for. They have no electricity, no water, a very simple but awesome life. Sarah is an English teaching volunteer (though her program is slightly different than mine) and Sean is an environmental conservation volunteer. It is summer now so I got to see the summer camp they are holding for the kids on Friday. I also got to see a typical Panamanian teacher's style and teaching methods on Saturday because she was having biweekly Saturday classes about various topics during the summer. That was very interesting because once I get to my site I'm going to be working side by side with Panamanian teachers who might have totally different methods of teaching than we are used to in the States. On Sunday we hiked an hour up a mountain to see an amazingly beautiful view (of course I didn't bring my camera) and simultaneously to get cell phone service. It was a great few days. Training has been so hectic and busy and exhausting, it was nice to see what we actually signed up for: the life of a volunteer. There will be a lot of down time, time to relax, to read, to do whatever.

My visit to Sarah and Sean definitely included some classic Peace Corps moments. One day we got served cow stomach for lunch. I love trying weird stuff like that and ate it all but definitely wouldn't eat it again. Also, they don't have electricity, so at night we sat around with candles but it was still pretty dark. One night I went to take a drink from my mug and felt something tickle my lips. I was like, oh whatever, it's probably just a little bug. I got my headlamp and looked inside and it was a spider. Still alive. With two legs missing. Which means I probably ate them. Awesome. Also, their area had severe flooding and landslides in December, so their water hasn't been working since then. Which means I haven't showered in five days. I never thought I'd long for my usual bucket bath. I really didn't mind though. How can you complain about landslides messing up your access to water when they also completely washed away some people's homes? All Sarah and Sean have to do is walk a few minutes to a well, fill up two buckets of water, and carry them home. It reminded me of the old Peace Corps joke: An optimist looks at a glass of water and says it's half full. A pessimist looks at a glass of water and says it's half empty. A Peace Corps Volunteer looks at a glass of water and says, "Yeah, I could take a bath in that." Yesterday I got to swim in the river which was an amazing turquoise color and was really fun and was the cleanest I got. Sarah and Sean's life is exactly what I pictured when I pictured Peace Corps. It's exactly what I want for the next two years.


PS: Some awesome things to send me that I can use in my classroom: bingo, uno, twister, books in English and Spanish (they love juevos verdes con jamon), coloring books, markers.