Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Carnavales

Last week was Carnaval, the four/five days before Ash Wednesday. I knew Carnaval was huge in Brazil, but I think Panama is trying to give Brazil a little competition. Many volunteers flocked to the Azuero Peninsula where the biggest celebrations are. I spent two days in Las Tablas, the biggest celebration in the country, and then three days in Ocu, a friend's site, where Carnaval was smaller but still awesome. Carnaval consists of queens dancing and waving on floats, murga bands following in their wake, and water trucks spraying water on the crowds. (Which is a good thing, because it's really freakin hot.) I mostly concerned myself with nonstop dancing in the streets, trying to get hit by the water, and catching the free tshirts they were throwing (I got 8). In Las Tablas Jen and I even managed to get invited up on to the top of a water truck where we spent the afternoon wielding the hose. (It was quite a power trip and I'm still bragging about it.) I don't think saying it was the most fun five days of my life would be an exaggeration. I'm having trouble trying to describe Carnaval in words, so here are some pictures.


Friday, February 3, 2012

New Year

I guess I dropped the ball on this blog, didn't I? Well, things are going well. I went home to the US for the holidays and had a great time. I thought it would be hard to come back to Panama, but I couldn't stop smiling after my plane landed. That was a pleasant surprise, to realize how much I like Panama!

It's summer here now, so we don't have school. Most of us were working on region-wide summer seminars for Panamanian English teachers. Jen, Leah, and I held a week-long seminar last week for the English teachers in our region, Panama Oeste. It was a lot of work, and certainly interesting trying to work under the organization of MEDUCA (the Ministry of Education), but it ended up being a great experience. 43 teachers showed up and seemed really invested in learning and improving as teachers. I don't usually like public speaking but after the first day I loosened up. I especially enjoyed one presentation I gave on assessments and rubrics. (I love rubrics.) It was a good experience for me to put under the "personal growth" column.

This past weekend I had a trainee from the new group come visit me for four days. She was really great and it was fun to have a visitor. It was so weird to think about my visit as a trainee to Sarah and Sean a year ago and how much I've changed since then. I can't believe I've been here for a year already. Before I came here, 2 years sounded like such a long time, but it's really not. It's going by so fast.

Summer's almost over - the teachers come back the 13th, the students two weeks later, so I'll be busy again soon. I've heard rumors of some changes that will be happening at school this year, so I'm excited to see if they're true. I think it will be a very different year. I'm much more comfortable with both my Spanish and my teaching skills, as well as the community as a whole.