Living Panamanian

The Black Christ Festival

2009-11-13T17:22:00.002-05:00

Check out our friend Marin's blog to see our trip *(and pilgrimage) to Christo Negro. The post is titled Walk It Out.

UPdate for June, July and August!

2009-09-08T10:45:00.001-05:00

Hello to all for June, July and August.
It has been a busy month or two (or three) for Brandon and I recently as we have been in movemiento the past several months. We’ve had quite a few visitors in the past several months, as well as a number of varied work-related responsibilities recently. The beginning of June had us preparing for and hosting four new Peace Corps Trainees (Volunteers-in-Training). They were towards the end of their 10 week training that is mandatory at the beginning of every volunteer experience here in Panamá, and we were to host them with a week of Caribbean coastal culture- Afro-Antillean style. Brandon and I went through the same training when we first arrived, but obviously with a different volunteer (one who turned out to be a neighbor here on the coast.) The week typically involves staying with a host family in the community that you are visiting for the week, learning about the culture through said host family and the community, and participating in different activities that are planned throughout the week. While we hosted culture week we organized a bake sale with the school kids and trainees to raise funds to buy paint and supplies for a world map that we would be painting on the exterior wall of the school. We also worked in the school garden, preparing the beds for planting, and held sessions on cultural exchange and gender inequities in the region.
We also tried to have a Congo dance demonstration by community members; unfortunately there is a very strong religious presence in town that has taught our community members that it is unholy to dance outside of church. Thus they don’t practice, and have lost, many of their beautiful cultural traditions such as the Congo dance. (We will make sure to put up a specific blog entry on the Congo dance, as well as some photos or even video of some of the dances here in the area- as not every town has lost their cultural means of expression.) So, pretty much, the week went off without a hitch (thank goodness) and the trainees were sent off to finish their training- not to be seen again until one of them (Marin!) became our neighbor in the middle of July.
Then came our 2nd (!) wedding anniversary (the first three will all be in Panamá if you can believe it,) and Ashley’s family visit. On June 15th four of the Horn clan - Ashley’s Mom, and sisters Meggan, Morgan, and Hillary all came down for a two-week visit. It had been only 6 months since Ashley’s mom had first been to Panamá, but it was the first time that we had seen my sisters since before we had left for our Peace Corps service in April of 2008! Most of their time here was spent just relaxing (aka: trying not to roast, or fry) in our little town, going for swim-breaks in the Caribbean, and doing some small craft projects with sea shells they collected. The girls made friends with some townspeople, and everyone here thought that they were giants for being only 15yrs old (beautiful ones though!) Towards the end of their visit we headed back into Panamá City where we stayed in a hotel (yippee!!) and saw some of the ‘big’ city. Meggan and Morgan turned 15 (!) while they were here, so Brandon, Mom and I tried to surprise them by taking them out on a Panama Canal boat tour through Lago Gatún (the lake that feeds the Panama Canal) and its surrounding areas.
The morning of their birthday we woke up early and headed out on a covered fishing boat (with birthday cake hidden, but in-hand) to cruise around Lago Gatún looking for monkeys (we saw Howlers as well as Capuchins), lizards (we saw a small variety of alligator) as well as sloths (a 3-Toed sloth was spotted) and various types of exotic birds. After about an hour or two out on the water, tooling past large container ships that dwarfed our boat, we arrived at our afternoon destination- a very Swiss-Family-Robinson-esque floating house boat where we had a beautiful (and delicious) Panamanian lunch and the (by then discovered) birthday cake. After lunch the twins went off to go fishing (of course) with Brandon and some other folks on the tour, and Mom, Hillary and I decided to go kayaking to a remote waterfall and swimming hole. It had been a beautiful day until about 2pm when it started to downpour (which is typical this time of year in the city,) leaving the waterfall full of debris and more muddy than swimmable; so we took some photos and turned back around before our non-tied-up kayaks decided to float away without us in the rising creek water. Needless to say we were all soaking wet (fishermen/women included) from the torrential downpour by the time we arrived back at the houseboat. The Girls and Brandon decided then that they might as well go for a swim, diving off the houseboat’s 2nd story balcony, made especially for creative jumps into the lake. After several cannon balls and mid-air jumping-jacks, we all dried off as best we could from the rain or the swim, gathered our things together, and hopped back into the covered fishing boat to be returned back to our hotel for some warm showers and a hot dinner.
The rest of their visit was spent relaxing in the city, doing a little shopping and visiting the Panamá Canal Museum before they took off, headed back to the States. (Just for the record- Meggan, Morgan and Brandon caught about 20 fish between the three of them within an hour’s time!) So at the end of the month, the whole bunch of them left, to leave us with just two weeks of actual work before Brandon’s family came to visit in the middle of July.
The Gries family arrived on the 15th (just in time for my birthday!) and made a quick trip out to visit our community. Robert (Brandon’s dad) was able to practice his Spanish while he and Linda were meeting everyone (a tradition we have is that we take every visitor around to each community member’s house to introduce them to everyone in town… Peace Corps volunteers excluded, as they are able to introduce themselves and usually feel more comfortable just wandering around town on their own.) He quickly learned that even if you may be able to speak Spanish in the States, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to understand it as spoken here, especially in our thick-accented community, (as many other American-taught Spanish speakers find out.) After the family/community introductions Linda and I got down to business making ice cream cone cupcakes to hand out to community members for my birthday. After the birthday wishes and Spanish-speaking intents, we headed back out of town to stay over in Panama City before making our way to Chiriquí.
The next morning we headed out to Boquete (in Chiriquí). Boquete is famous in Panamá for great white water rafting, world-renowned coffee plantations and being home to lots of ‘gringos’- and with good reason. Boquete is like a perpetually beautiful, mild, spring day in lush, mountainous Colorado. Plus, for the relatively small size of the town, there are a plethora of small, intimate restaurants with authentic, diverse, and very tasty menus. We were able to try a good number of them while we were in town; from an amazing authentic Sicilian restaurant that served enormous calzones (see photo) and jumbo shrimp to a hole-in-the-wall local Panamanian fresh strawberry stand that served freshly made, delicious, strawberry shakes. They were all very, very delicious- and now greatly missed!
First up on our list of things to do in Boquete (other than eat really good food) was to go to a coffee finca or farm. Brandon’s father has an affinity for good coffee so we took a tour of one of the most ecologically friendly and highest-quality coffee farms in Boquete: Café Ruíz. There we had a Panamanian tour guide who walked us through fields of coffee as well as the processing plants, teaching us the different stages of coffee growth, different varietals, and the various stages of coffee production- from bean to bag. At the end of the tour we enjoyed a great coffee tasting and received a free bag of beans. Next up on the list of activities was horseback riding. So the next morning we rode out of town in an uncovered 4x4 Jeep that took us to a small town outside of Boquete to the east. There we encountered our horses and took off for a several hour horseback ride through parts of the town as well as its surrounding areas. It was a beautiful day and we were able to see a lot of the surrounding countryside from a vista point we stopped at for a snack break. On the way back to the ‘stables’ Brandon’s horse had decided it had had enough of taking it easy, and walking slowly in line with the rest of the horses, so it took off and the two of them (Brandon and the horse) made it back a good 5-10 minutes before the rest of us.
Then, as if that weren’t enough the next day we went on a zip-line canopy tour, high up in the mountains above Boquete. Transportation to the zip-line was on a private, mostly mud and gravel trail with potholes the size of a small vehicle, which lasted about ½ and hour (to get 2kms mind you.) Once we arrived at the top we were given a debriefing and safety talk and signed our lives away to fate, hopped back into the vehicles and continued onward and upward (as we were not at the top as we had thought!) Another 15 minutes in the vehicles brought us to the first part of our zip-line ride, very high up in the mountains. Fully geared up, we walked anxiously to the first part of the line and one by one were clipped on and sent on our way over tree tops and streams, and probably a number of unknown dangerous animals that would have gladly eaten us if we had by chance fallen. But, luckily, none of us fell and we all arrived happy and safe (if not a bit more exhilarated) back at the debriefing point. There we all enjoyed a cold drink and took some more photos of the view before heading back to Boquete.

More to follow, but no time to write so you’ll have to wait until the next installment… the End of July and August!

Love you all!
Ashley and Brandon

"Free Time"

2009-05-29T00:47:00.007-05:00

Just thought I would give an update of some of my (Ashley's) hobbies here in Panama- the things that are currently keeping me sane!

A 'typical' Panamanian day is never like the next except in that you probably have at least a good 6 -15 hours during the morning/day/evening that you have nothing- absolutely nothing planned. This is a great time to start working towards your next (or current) 'in-site' or community project(s), doing research, finding out what kind of interest around town there might be, or making materials for your project. However, it is very difficult to fill weeks or months upon end of 6-15 hour days of researching, gauging interest, or making materials for a particular project. Don't get me wrong- I'm sure some people do- but I would like to think that I am a very efficient researcher (because I love it), interest gauger (also helps that I live in a tiny community with my husband), and materials maker (thanks ID/Graphic Arts training!) SO, I am left with a plethora of time on my hands.

Many volunteers will spend their free time pasearing or walking around town visiting people all day, maybe taking in a couple movies or doing a half-day marathon of watching telenovelas (soap operas). Others may sit and talk with families, one-by-one, working their way around town (possibly looking for a free home-cooked Panamanian meal) until they get too tired to go to the next house (especially the case if you live in the mountains), and decide to move on home after one, last, cup, of sugar-laced coffee. But, because I just so happen to live in a very tranquilo (laid-back) town, that just so happens to house no more than 20 lived-in homes, that just so happen to be smack up against each other and built on a very flat beach, it usually doesn't take much more than a couple of hours walking around town to get to everybody's house to hear the bochinche or our version of the news (aka: gossip). (We also happen to live in THE MOST centrally located house in town and have almost every single community member walk by our house more than once a day, saludaring us or just saying 'hi'.

SO, while I am suprisingly busy these days (in and outside of the community), I still happen to find time for my current hobbies: Crocheting and Gardening.

I learned to crochet here in Panama from a girlfriend of mine that I met while in our Peace Corps 'de-briefing' in Miami before flying to Panama. I spent a good week in her community a while back, and during one of our 6-15 hour, no-plans-days she taught me how to crochet, and I immediately announced that I would make a blanket. So, 3 or so months later (and many nights of sore, callused & blistered fingers), I have now crocheted the sq. ft. equivalent of a 'body-blanket'.

Here you can see it being tested out on my loyal test subject.

Yes, that's right- I only have a 1/4 of it finished! My fingers are dying- but I can't stop now, I only have 3/4 of the thing to go. (I'll post a photo of the finished project... hopefully before we leave the country next June.)

My other hobby- gardening, also happens to be a lead-in to a community project that I am trying to drum-up interest for in right now, and I'm sure you'll never guess what it is... That's right, you guessed it! Its growing your own fruits and vegetables in a town that doesn't, ever, sell them! I know it is a crazy idea, but I think it just might work.

So far I am growing spinach (a great vining kind that gets as large as a 10' Christmas tree... I think I might actually put lights on it at Christmas.)

Arugula (Which neither Panamanians or ants like, which means it's all mine... and maybe Brandon's)

Tomatoes (this one happens to love where I planted it)

Cucumbers (you can't see it now because he is just a little guy, but it will be ama-zing! I might even get ambitious and make pickles. You like the homemade campo trellis don't you- another by-product of ingenuity... or an extra 6-15 hour day to kill.)

And, last but not least, Green Beans. Can you spot the green bean in this photo?

Most of the plants have taken really well (with the help of a little horse-poo) and hopefully within no-time we will all be eating home grown veggies (given that it starts raining someday soon!)

So- that's my current hobby list- check back for more updates, but don't expect an update all that soon on the blanket thing... its going to be a while.

Love from Panama

Lawn Mowers, or Another Wonderful Use of the Machete

2009-05-16T13:18:00.007-05:00

The machete here in Panama is a fairly ubiquitous item. It can be found in every household, in every finca (farm), and in every Panamanian man's (or small child's) hand at one point of the day. The machete has so many uses it is ridiculous, and many an hour are passed listing the multitude of ways that machetes are useful. (We once saw a Panamanian changing a tire with the help of his machete. No joke.) But mostly machetes are used for clearing monte (the forest), killing animals (usually culebras aka snakes), or if you are us- for cutting your lawn. That's right, cutting the grass. Now don't get me wrong, we don't have an acreage. We have about 10 linear feet of grass to cut, which really doesn't sound like a lot- until you have to cut it with a machete. My heart goes out to those volunteers that actually have a yard, and have to cut the entirety of it with a machete- kudos.

(Our side yard)

(Our Back yard)

White Water Rafting

2009-05-16T12:20:00.013-05:00

While there are a plethora of activities to do in Panama, white water rafting is one of the more popular ones around. Rafting in Panama is usually good for around the beginning of May until September/October, when the dry season starts. Many of the good rafting rivers (Chiriqui Viejo is the best, with multiple class 4 and 5 rapids and few straight-aways) can actually be found in the area around Boquete, and with many new outfitters popping up, it is getting easier to be on your way. Brandon and I went on a rafting trip at the beginning of the month with some of our Peace Corps friends, and had a fantastic time.

You can find more photos of our trip here.

Dengue, Christmas and New Year´s

2009-01-20T10:21:00.001-05:00

We want to wish a very belated (but loving!) Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all! The holidays found us at home in our village- with Peace Corps friends at Christmas and our community members for New Years- plus Ashley’s sister in the first part of December.
While Courtney was visiting we saw some great sites in Panama City that Brandon and I had not ventured around yet (Casco Viejo, The Panamá Canal, and Casco Antigua), as well as showing her around our village- and she survived the trip to our site amazingly well for someone who has a tendency to get motion sickness. The second part of her trip we had planned on going to the west side of the country to visit some of our Peace Corps Volunteer friends and (hopefully) to climb Vulcan Baru, the only volcano in Panamá. Unfortunately, we ended up spending almost an entire week in the city of Santiago because Ashley got Dengue. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this particular illness (and be very grateful that you are!) we invite you to Google it. Ashley spent the entire week hobbling between the hotel and the hospital, getting injections, popping pain pills and sleeping. Towards the end of the whole ordeal, she even got to spend a night in the hospital! Thankfully, she recovered in time for us all to make it back to Panamá City to see a few more sites and to send Courtney off (who has now vowed to come again to see what she missed, and PS- Ashley pulled through like a champ!)
Several weeks then passed without incident, and Christmas was upon us before we could say “Feliz Navidad.” (Sorry we had to.) We were very lucky to have Peace Corps friends that were willing to travel two days across the country to come and spend Christmas with us. (We are sure that the lure of the beach had nothing to do with it.) We had a full Christmas meal, including a ham, mashed potatoes with gravy and an apple pie. Everyone pitched in to help, and it was almost like being at home with our families (minus the yelling and drinking—joking!). We played card games, listened to Christmas music and had a white-elephant gift exchange. (Ashley received a magnetic photo frame, and Brandon a beautiful mermaid sculpture souvenir.)
Our visitors stayed for several days, and by New Years, we were again in the company of our neighbors. We spent a quiet night inside, playing cards to pass the time and drinking a cheap bottle of sparkling wine; but with no ball drop to look forward to, we passed out early and closed up the house. However, around midnight we woke to the sounds of bottle rockets and roman candles, and opened the front door to find almost every member of the community out and about, wishing happy New Years to everyone they passed, with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Not wanting to be left out, we decided to head out and share our own well wishes, and after an hour, turned back in and fell asleep.
And so our holidays passed. Resolutions having been made, we walked into the New Year full of ideas and drive. On January 5th we officially started teaching English with an Intensive Summer English Course- 8 weeks and 24 hours of English per student. We currently have more than 40 students from the ages 3-50, in four different age group classes. Children before lunch, and youth and adults after dinner- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays every week until March 6th. The course was primarily designed with the high school students in mind, who are only in town during their summer vacation (January – March), but we had such an overwhelming response from the entire community that we opened three other class times for them.
Aside from English classes, we will be starting an environmental group for the youth in February, where hopefully we can instill in them the importance of taking care of the earth – or at least their own community – and how to have some fun doing it.
In between preparations for classes and our environmental group, we have been taking it pretty easy. We have started a small garden around the perimeter of our house where we have planted carrots, green beans, cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon, as well as several herbs and spices. So far, we have promising sprouts and we are working on making kitchen-scrap compost to aid our plant growth. We are also trying to grow our own spinach, lettuce and artichokes (which will hopefully be the bulk of our produce.)
As for other fresh produce (which has been a problem in the past due to irregular/difficult/expensive transportation) we have found a route whereby we are able to walk from our house to the next town via a long gravel road; once there, we can catch a bus, use the internet, or buy produce. The route is about 5 miles one way, and we have to cross a river, but the walk is flat and quiet and the river is usually only knee-high. We have walked it about once a week in the past 2-3 weeks to buy fresh produce and use the internet, (which is what we are doing today!) as well as get out of town for an afternoon.
With the influx of hormonally charged high schoolers who haven’t seen friends and family in a long time, our town has become, how do I put it- LOUD. From 7am until 11pm, there’s the constant sound of children screaming, singing, playing soccer (fútbal) or baseball (béisbol), throwing stones (literally…at each other), and lots and lots of Spanish pop-music. Add to this several new puppies who keep the entire neighborhood on watch at all hours- alerting us if anything happens to walk past them (Unfortunately, these puppies are not ours, as it makes it much more difficult to get rid of them! Joking.) Needless to say, our new 5 mile walk is nice and a big thank you to Courtney for bringing us an industrial sized pack of ear plugs.
In our spare time, we have also been reading a good number of books. Taking advantage of the down time we are able enjoy, to read (at last) some of the books that we have been meaning to read for years (Atlas Shrugged- Congrats Brandon!) or new books/authors that have been introduced to us through our fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (thanks Abby for our introduction to Bill Bryson!)
February however, brings more work as we continue our weekly rigor of English classes, and add to that our new environmental conservation group. We will also be hosting a good friend of Brandon’s from high school who is on is way back from China to the United States via South America and Central America (read- Panamá!). Yay for Justin- our second visitor! We are very excited for the upcoming month, but already tired. With New Years come and gone, we have our first measureable projects underway, and our days of assimilating are over; this is it, we have arrived! It is hard to believe that after so much time mandated for learning, adjusting and settling-in, that we are finally Volunteering. Our community members seem very grateful and excited to learn English, as for environmental topics- we’re getting there. Our strategy has been, and will probably continue to be- start with the kids- they’re still pliable.

Love from Panamá, (Only 1.5 years left!!)
Brandon and Ashley (Roberto y María)

Recycled Elephants

2008-10-14T09:18:00.006-05:00

Just some quick photos from the Trash Seminar that Brandon and I mentioned in our last blog entry. We had some great opportunities to visit with some schools that were working hard to teach their students about the importance of using recyclable materials to make unique art projects and gifts. So here goes:

One of the school teachers showing me how to make a 'pollera' or traditional head-piece (more on that in another blog) out of recycled plastic bottles.

Teacher and I with finished product.

Here's a close-up example of a finished product and the bottle that it was made out of.

A recycled clothes-softener bottle, transformed into an elephant.

A paper mache vase holding paper flowers.

Some other Recycled projects... this bus was made out of a broken-down toy and a cardboard milk box.

At one of the schools there was a large fair and a competition to see who could be the most creative in coming up with a recycled outfit.... the girl's dress above is made out of hand-sewed newspapers (!.. check out her shoes too)

Check out this stud!

Her skirt was made up entirely of pre-paid phone cards- sewn together.

And this little girl's dress had bottle caps fastened all over it.

Red, Orange, Yell-ow, Green, Blue, Pur-ple...

2008-10-12T21:06:00.008-05:00

This past week, Brandon and I began teaching English to seventeen 1st through 6th grade students. Seventeen 1st-6th graders who have had no formal English training, now walk (or skip) through the 'streets' of our small town singing the pre-school song about colors in english. Don't get me wrong, they don't actually pronounce all of the consonants (or vowels for that matter) but they definetly have the tune down. For those of you who are not familiar with this particular song (those unfortunates, like Brandon, who were cheated out of a pre-school classic) it goes like this:

"Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple
Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple
Red, orange, yell-ow, green, blue, pur-ple,
Makes the rainbow bright!"

It has been great to see some actual progress in our community this past month. Brandon and I had been working the first part of September preparing for a trash seminar where we learned some new techniques for helping our community start a trash and recycling program. We are hoping that we will be able to work with individual families in our community to start separating their organics from their inorganics so that we will be able to start compost piles as well as a recycling program where non-biodigradeable products will (hopefully) be sold to outside parties. This is more of a lifestyle change and mentality change, and we know that it will take a while to catch on with some people, so we are hoping that poco a poco (little by little) we will eventually have the entire community separating their trash. Right now the only trash system in town is to pour all of the garbage into a small garbage pit at the back edge of town- much like we do in our city dumps. This will be filling up quite quickly with the increase in tourists (which will be coming in a few years) and also with the over-use of plastics and non-renewables. The goal would be to reduce the amount of garbage that actually needs to be put into the landfill, thereby extending its life, while at the same time providing a small incentive for people to separate their plastics, tin, aluminum, glass etc. through the resale of their recyclables. This program would also provide a great organic fertilizer/compost that could be used in the home gardens that (cross your fingers) will be catching on soon.

We then spent the last part of the month preparing for a 'site visit' from our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director, Aka: Boss) Francisco. His visit came the first week of October, and the intent was to gather the community together for a 'reunion' or meeting and go over what Brandon and I had learned about the community so far, what they thought our purpose in the community was, based on what we had talked to them about over the past several months, and also about what our work may be during the coming two years (a year and nine months actually!). We had been working dilligently the previous 3 months to collect information for this meeting, as well as to help us understand how the community functions, who its dominant/leading members are, the social system, health care, basically everything about how the community functions and its history. So during the end of September we were kept quite busy putting all of our found-information up on posters (the usual form of presentation here), in spanish, for all of our community members to paruse during our meeting. All in all, we ended up with over 20 posters (with full-text spanish), including a 3'x4' hand-drawn community map- to us it seemed like a 300-level final project for a spanish class. The night before the meeting I was kept busy making homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, one tray of 9 by tray of 9 as most of the ovens here are quite small and no one has a baking sheet to speak of. (It ended up taking me 8 hours to bake 150 cookies inside of a medium-sized cake pan.)

When the day finally came, everything was set up an hour or two ahead of time, but we didn't end up starting until about a half-hour late (this is actually quite punctual in terms of Panamanian time- or so we've heard.) Our boss gave a good speech to the 'crowd' of 17 people that attended (also good attendance for a town of about 60 adults), informing them of what Peace Corps is, what the Peace Corps mission is, why we were placed in this particular community, and what we would possibly be working on in the upcoming time. Group participation was decent as we asked for questions or comments, but all-in-all we were quite pleased with the people that came, the information that was provided (and hopefully retained), and the thought that people in town have a more clear understanding of why we are there (and it's not just to teach english!)

We then spent the night in town, only to leave the next morning to go to a regional meeting, where all of the PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) in our region (kind of like a county in the states) get together to discuss what's been going on, go over office news, and things of that nature- mostly pretty boring stuff, but this time we actually found out about a great book exchange for children's spanish books through our office. Brandon and I had been thinking about a way to spend time reading with the kids as most of them don't read outside of what is required in school, and they don't have access to any children's books or literature, so we had been thinking about just purchasing some spanish-language children's books to have in town to read with the kids- like an after-school reading program. Well we found out that there have actually been a few donations from people state-side to start a lending library here in Panama for children through the Peace Corps office. We will now be able to check out a bag of books every 3 months to take back to our community and use in any way we choose. After three months, you return the bag and can check out another one. Brandon and I are really excited about this as we can use the books any way we choose within our community. We have decided that we will be starting (or try to start, depending on community interest) an after-school program where the children will sign up for a time to come and read with us in our home for an hour or so, one night a week. We will try and help them with their homework, practice their english, or they can choose to read with us one of the new childrens books that we will have in our house. It will be kind of like a 'Book-It' club, where after 10 or 15 (yet tbd) completed 'meetings' or 'sessions' they will be rewarded with an american-style dinner with us in our house. We figured that it would be a good way to get to know the kids a bit better, to help them to learn more outside of the classroom, to hopefully cultivate an interest in reading and knowledge, and to also share some of our american culture with them through a meal. It all seems great on paper, but we will see how it goes in practice- we are hoping to start in the coming weeks after we get settled into our house.

Yes! We have a house! Isn't it exciting!? We finally, after living with relatives, friends, and host families in the states and in Panama since APRIL, we finally have our own space (well technically we aren't living there yet, but will be, hopefully, by the end of this week.) We have taken the only house that is currently available for rent in town- smack-dab-in-the-middle of everything. We have neighbors on all sides, and are inbetween very frequently used trafic paths (foot trafic, as there are no vehicles in town)- but the house is great. This past week we have spent about 8 hours a day, every day, scrubbing 10 years of neglect and mold (and a bit of crumbling paint) off of the walls and floors, and finally started painting this past Thursday and Friday. We will have 3 (!!!) bedrooms, a bathroom (sans sink), a kitchen (sans refrigerator), a living room and a small porch at the front. (We will make sure to take pictures for the next blog-entry.) The outside of the house is a schmorgasboard of colors including green, red-orange and purple. The inside however, will be all white (it is currently a mix of dark blue, green and pink- all crumbling off the walls) with blue and green trim. At first we were pretty disgusted by the interior as it has been neglected for quite a while, but after a good couple of days of hard work, it seems quite liveable and we are really excited to actually have our own home.

The coming months will be quite busy for us as well-the end of this month we will be heading out to Isla Grande in the Azuero for a Sea Turtle Seminar provided by an environmental agency here in Panama. Then Halloween is right around the corner, and the most major of all Panamanian holidays- their independence days and flag day, the 3rd, 4th and 5th of November (and lets not forget Brandon's Birthday!). Then several weeks will pass and we will have another training- IST (In-Service Training) with Peace Corps where we will hopefully be learning new techniques for working with our communities and in-country agencies. The day after IST ends is Thanksgiving, and we will be headed to the western side of the country to get together with other PCV's in Panama for an american-style Thanksgiving, complete with hiking a volcano and making diner together in a hotel. Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving my sister will be coming (yay Courtney!) and will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. Then before you know it, Christmas will be here! This year already seems to be over, but we haven't even made it to Halloween yet. We hope that all of you are not feeling the end-of-year pressure yet, and that you have a wonderful rest-of-October. We miss you all, and as always, want to leave you with this message: Write to us!!! Or better yet- come visit.

Love and hugs,

Ashley and Brandon

And So It Is . . .

2008-09-03T10:26:00.002-05:00

Hello to all! This blog and the one following mark the end of our almost first five months in Panama, the end of our first two months in our community and the beginning of our next twenty-two months as Peace Corps volunteers. Time seems to grind on here in Panama, and as our first months here have been reserved for getting to know our neighbors and the functioning of our community, most of our time here so far has been spent awkwardly trying to think of something to say or ask that won't come off as interrogating in our still rough-around-the-edges Spanish. To add to the awkwardness, most people here are quite comfortable sitting in silence with you for long periods of time, leaving you to wonder if they are just comfortable with you there, or waiting for you to leave. We have actually met and been welcomed by almost everyone in our community- being invited into homes when we walk by, or even feeling comfortable enough to simply walk into someone else's home (as is the general custom here.) Most everyone by now knows who we are, that we are here as volunteers with Peace Corps (and not long-term tourists), and that we will be sharing the next two years of our lives with them- though this last part is still being digested by them (and us). As for our role here in the community, it is still being worked out. Many people, while seeming to understand that we were sent here to work in Environmental Conservation, still have really only voiced interest in learning English. At the same time, we have been participating in a number of activities that lie outside of our environmental conservation scope that will need our attention- the major ones being the local water supply and the local education system. To start, our local water supply is irregular- to say the least. Since we have been here it has come and gone frequently, (with the rains, and not for reasons you may think) and is usually rust-colored or just plain brown. Brandon was able several weeks ago to walk the 2 hour jungle trek to the local water source- a small cascade of water that is diverted into a concrete box, that comes out the other side through PVC tubing that winds 11 times over streams, barely being propped up enough to clear the regular flow of water. After a hard rain, (which happens frequently here) the streams quickly fill with run-off water and debris- rising above the level at which the PVC tubes are suspended and putting enormous pressure on the joints until the piping gives way and breaks open. Thus leaving the town's water supply to join the already strong stream, and requiring someone to walk out through the now very muddy jungle to repair the line. When the water is flowing freely through this obstacle course of PVC tubes, it ends up being pumped into a filter (a large cement holding tank with a filter of sand and rocks) that is situated on a hill next to town, and then by gravity it is pushed into people's homes. The whole system is full of deficiencies, and problems arise quite frequently- leaving people in town to go to a nearby stream or river to bathe and wash clothes and dishes. Last week Brandon and I had the opportunity to observe in the school, a small building where the 17 students all gathered into one room, 1st through 6Th grade and had class for several hours. The students here are taught to memorize things, and in general are not taught to critically think. We are hoping we can somehow help with this situation. Other issues in town include a trash problem, (many people litter and burn garbage outside their homes) sea turtle problem, (many people kill the sea turtles for their meat and decorative shells and also steal their eggs for food) and poor diets (many people live on staples of rice, plantains, green bananas and other starchy vegetables with little protein and usually no nutrient-rich veggies). Brandon and I have been slowly figuring out ways to start our work (in its conventional context) here, and decided to go ahead and start a vegetable garden. While the garden is for our own vegetable production, we thought that it would be a good way to spark the community's interest in home gardens *(as to supplement their poor diets and possibly to sell for additional income). So last week we started our first home garden together. Coming from the Midwest, we realized that growing vegetables here would be a lot more work (as the ground is a mixture of sand and clay- very little organic matter), but didn't realize how much! We decided to use a double-dig garden bed technique, digging 2' deep into the ground to aerate the soil for better root production, adding organic matter to the soil (in our case 'balo' tree leaves, which contain an abundance of nitrogen and chopped up platano tree trunks, which contain an abundance of potassium) as you go. In one day we had dug a 12' long by 4' wide by 2' deep hole into the hard-packed clay ground (which had also been a trash heap in the past, and was filled with half-burned garbage) working 8 solid hours in the Panamanian heat. It was definitely rough work, but we had a great response from the community, with people stopping-by to see what we were up to and why- it was *and has continued to be* a great teaching tool. We still have a long way to go, as we have 2-3 more beds to dig, a fence to put up,shade-providing roofs to construct, plants to sow, and a compost pile to start, but we are definitely looking forward to it. We are now in a transition phase from being students and observers, learning about the history of where we are and the people who live here, to becoming teachers and demonstrators- showing what abundance can be head with little resources and some hard work. It is a difficult line to cross as we are continually defining our own jobs and status in the community, but our little garden has helped to make that transition a bit smother. This upcoming month will see the end of our host family stay, as we have been looking for a house. While our host family has been more than generous to us, after 5 months of living with families we are ready to move into our own home. There are several options available to us at the moment (which is amazing for a town of 40 buildings) , all of which have plenty of space for guests... We will be making a final decision on one of the homes in the next several weeks and hopefully be moved-in by the beginning of October! We hope that all is well with everyone and we hope to hear from you soon. Love and hugs from Panama. Ashley and Brandon.

At Home Empathy Fun: The Shower

2008-09-03T10:21:00.001-05:00

For all of those missing us back in the states, we have thought to mention some way for you to be here with us without having to travel. The Shower: our site has quite the irregular water supply that is out as often as it is in order. Therefore, bathing and the like become a more interesting affair than what one is accustomed in the states. Adding to this, the electricity can also be temperamental. The state of the electricity is relevant since the oppressive heat of the sun during the day as well as the consideration of sunset at seven in the evening; it is preferable to shower after dark.
To bathe during the periodic circumstance when both utilities are nonfunctional we follow these steps:
To begin, our host family maintains a reserve capacity of approximately 250 gallons of water, which is acquired via rain-catchment. Principally, there are two 55-gallon plastic tanks and a 130-gallon plastic tub; the rest of the water is stored in five-gallon containers. The 55-gallon tanks are for the sink and toilet, the 130-gallon tub for washing clothes and the five-gallon containers are those used for bathing.
Note, in despite of the fact that the reserves are derived from rainwater, at times the water may contain enough suspended solids to leave it with a translucent consistency; this is, however, consistently vastly clearer than the water derived from the stream-sourced water supply and at many times the water is quite clear.
Now to the supplies: As most of you in the states will not have been maintaining a rainwater reserve the best alternative is likely to be your home’s outdoor faucet; this should give you the approximate water temperature as well as allowing the opportunity to walk it back to the shower. In the shower is a five-gallon bucket; this should be filled completely. Hoping that you have the luxury of being in possession of some form of headlamp or lantern, find a form of battery operated light that could be hung from someplace in the bathing cavity, as we will be showering with the lights out. Next, grab a pack towel if available or head towards the garage to fetch a super shammies if you have one (both are approximately the same); if not your regular towel may be substituted. Finally, and for your enjoyment (AJ we are speaking to you especially!), find the nearest whip cream container and empty it to your hearts content; this will become your shower ladle. Finally, be sure that you have all of you typical bathing products with you. You are now ready to enjoy the shower!
If any should be so adventuresome to try this, you may be surprised at how easy this mode of bathing can be and how well it rinses; the control over the water is rather effective and we are also only in need of using about two-thirds of the bucket for either of our showers in despite of Ashley’s long hair or the fact that I also wash my undergarment (but that’s a another story). Finally, we will note that given the temperature here, the cold water is refreshing many times and this may of course not be the same for everyone in the states. However, Ashley for one really loves the solar shower that has been sent by her mom and this is used whenever there is the opportunity!

Our City Adventure- One Month In

2008-08-03T07:54:00.002-05:00

Hello all!
We have officially been in our own site for a month. Four weeks solid of being completely immersed in the culture and lifestyle of our new town- which also means four weeks without e-mail, groceries or modern amenities like hot water. Needless to say, we have been looking forward to ¨getting out¨ for a couple days for the past few weeks now, slowly preparing our list of things to do when we get to the city; the least of which not being to take a nice hot shower! So Brandon and I have ventured into the city for the first time since our öfficial¨ Peace Corps duties began- and it has been great. We showed up on Friday and went straight to the office to use some free Internet and pick up love (aka packages and mail!). We then spent the rest of the evening taking advantage of the hot water and watching Food Network (one of the few English-without-subtitles channels (plus it is just great to see that there are people making great food out there!)
Most of Saturday was filled with grocery shopping, as we don´t have a grocery store within about 3 hours of us (not to mention the boat and bus ride), and we won´t be back out of our site most likely for another month or so. Buying groceries for a month and a half, and knowing you will have to carry them all on your back is a quite difficult task. It really makes you think about what is most important- as for me, I made sure to grab a sugary bag of chocolate cereal with marshmallows and 4 boxes of ultra-pasteurized skim milk. Our community and area and most of the country for that matter are sadly lacking in their variety of vegetables for consumption. What our community members call ¨vegetables¨ include: ñame, yucca, otoy, and platanos or bananas (of the unripe green variety). These are all basically equivalent to our nice starchy potato- from which little nutrients are found. SO, we also get to carry on our back a meager amount of fruits and vegetables to try and even out our nutrient intake (while trying not to destroy them in transit). One of our favorites so far, is Broccoli as it is about the most dense, rich, dark green thing that they sell in the supermarket, which our host mom doesn´t like in the least. We have started several seedlings so far of onions, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and some spices, hopefully to which we will add a bunch more and make our list of vegetables to buy in the city almost non-existent.
After all of that shopping and walking around yesterday (I´m pretty sure that we walked about 7 miles...) we decided to go out to dinner (thanks to the great folks in the Bennigans headquarters for realizing that some people want American type food everywhere, even in Panama) and then go to ¨The Dark Knight¨--The new Batman movie. We had originally decided to do this at the mall with which we are most familiar (Albrook), but we had heard of a theater where you could order food from- where else, Bennigans- and sit in a fully reclining ( and I mean fully reclining) LazyBoy of a chair (overstuffed and all). So we decided to go there, but hitting up Bennigans before going to the movie, so that we could make the most of our free time. At the restaurant, Brandon had decided to order a Burger to make up for the lacking of beef and American cheese (plus just it being a sesame seeded bun was a great piece of Americana for him), and I decided to order what I thought was a club sandwich. However, when it came out, it looked more like someone had accidentally dropped my sandwich (which was sans any type of vegetable) into a crazy Iowa State Fair deep fat fryer machine, and then they decided to, just for good measure, coat it in powdered sugar and give me some raspberry jam- just in case there wasn´t enough sugar on my ¨club sandwich¨. Needless to say- Brandon ate more of it than I did, and we brought the other part back to the hotel to eat for breakfast. The movie however - did not disappoint. It was fantastic to be able to watch a western drama (as our host sister watches Barney non-stop (literally) all day long, and very loudly might I add). The story line to the movie was fantastic, and in the words of Brandon it spoke to bigger issues than just the characters or the movie itself¨.
So that has been our city trip this time. Today we will be ¨shipping out¨ leaving quite soon to go to the bus station and catch the first of our buses to our site. We have been very happy to hear from those of you that have written e-mails to us, and are thankful that it sounds like you are all healthy and doing well. Once again- I would like to remind you that we would love to hear from everyone (fill us in on what is going on in your lives) and you can also call us!! Just find an international calling card, and give us a call. Our cell phone number is 011.507.6406.0177, we usually have reception all the time- and the call is free for us! (We would LOVE to hear from you!!!)
We love you, and will respond to all emails next month on our next city adventure.
Love,
Ashley and Brandon

Nuestro Sitio (Our Site)

2008-07-10T08:59:00.002-05:00

So we have been happily living in our new town for the next two years for the past week or so. It is GORGEOUS. It is approximately 5-6 hours from Panama City, and 3 hours from Colon, and it is right on the water. We have so far been ïntegrating¨as that is our job for these first three months that we have been there. This means basically that we have been adopting their lifestyle, which is suffice it to say- very laid back. The town is made up of less than about 50 buildings, most of which are just small single-family homes. Most of the people in town work their own land or someone else´s land very close to town, or they live and work in the city of Colon during the week, and come back to town on the weekends. There are anywhere between 100 and 50 people (depending on who you ask), and it is generally pretty quiet. The town is situated near another small town that lies on the opposite bank of a fairly wide river- which makes us getting to our site interesting as we have to take a boat past the mouth of the river on the ocean. So far we have been very lucky as we haven´t had to pay for gasoline for the boat ride as of yet- but as it is getting more expensive I expect that that will change. The town is also in a small, flat cove off of the ocean, and on the other side of the peninsula is a long gorgeous yellow sand beach, which according to Brandon is the most beautiful beach that he has ever seen. It is pretty gorgeous. It is lined with fully mature palm trees, and the beach is religiously cleaned and taken care of. There are only three houses on this beach, which are vacation homes for those living out of country or in the city somewhere, and are rarely inhabited, which makes for a great private beach for whoever happens to be there for the day. Nothing in our town including the amazing beach to the side of town are more than a five minute walk. It is pretty small. The people so far have been amazing. Everybody has the nicest smile, and have been welcoming to us, and open to us living in their beautiful town for two years. We are a bit apprehensive as most of them are very content with the way that life is right now (they have semi-interrupted water and electricity which usually doesn´t prove to be a problem) so there isn´t a whole lot of incentive for change- but there does seem to be a strong interest in an English class- which they will be needing. So far we have heard that there is one Pan-American who has purchased a large chunk of land directly behind the town where he plans on building about 100 tourist cabanas as part of a resort in the town, and another American has purchased the tract of land where the cleaned beach is. In the coming years this little town of ours will be teeming with tourism- they will definetly need the english language skills. As for now, we are very happy and content with our family. They always allow us our personal space (they also have a great house), they help us with our spanish (correcting us when necessary), they are always laughing, and they let me cook! Anyway... my time is running out on the computer, so I will say adios. We hope that you are all doing well, and that you have an amazing summer. We hope that we hear from you soon (as very few of you have been filling us in on your lives!!!)
Lots of Love,
Ashley and Brandon

Swearing In!!!

2008-06-28T19:43:00.006-05:00

So we are officially Peace Corps Volunteers, which means that come tomorrow (*sunday) we will be moving to our new home for the next two years. This is pretty intimidating, but we are very excited. I am unable to write too much as of right now, but I wanted to put some pictures up of our swearing in ceremony which was held at the US Ambassador's Residence in Panama City.

Group 61!

Brandon and I with the World Peace Corps President

Waiting for the ceremony to begin.

The minnesotan of the group and I

At dinner afterwards.

We love and miss you all!

Piquancy for Fodder

2008-06-16T15:12:00.002-05:00

Here are a few piquant anecdotes as yours to savor:

At the commencement of our most recent site visit on Thursday, which we are now returning from, the last leg of our travel (the crossing of a river thirty meters in breadth and two in depth at the midpoint of the five kilometer span between our community and its most adjacent neighbor) came to be defined in our redressing of an otherwise botched effort of a bovine transiting straight truck to traverse the same waters in the opposing direction.
It was none less than providence for this less than fortunate fellow whose weighty passengers had spelled his fate that we (Your authors as well as our community’s mayor and his lieutenant in his mid-sized pick-up) as well as a well inebriated horseman happened upon his circumstances. In short strident form the horseman took to loading the hoofed passengers and returning them to whence they had come while seamlessly maintaining aimless inaudible small talk as we, concurrently hitched the unoccupied vehicle to our, allowing now for a successful river crossing. At this, the ordeal was over and all parties resumed their original business. It is our expectation that this none to far from the fold of experiences that we will be audience to in forthcoming chapter of our sojourn.

More briefly enjoy that:

We have yet to dispose of toilet paper in the toilet, needing instead to dispose of our spent, soiled tissue in a trash bin, due to poor water pressure, and that this is emptied only we full of siblings. Expect as well that when said trash bin is emptied, its subsequent home is either a small scale landfill adjacent to one’s home or to be burned. Curiously, the practice of soiled tissue escaping the soiling cavity is transcendent and has carried over to outdoor latrines!?

Hot showers are nearing the realm of mythology as we have only indulged ourselves with such luxury on only two occasions since our arrival here.

It has been discovered by Brandon that the eyes of a fried fish taste deliciously like cooked spinach.

Due to absence and infrequency, we have acknowledged that we have an acute Pavlovian response to the sight of foods containing colors, especially primary colors, as our diet has been otherwise defined by starches in perpetuity whose family of color have failed to breach yellows, browns and whites.

Smiling and nodding is an entirely acceptable manner carry on small talk, native or not.

Your lower lip can serve as an excellent satchel three to five recently expired uncooked hermit crab tails that you intend to use as fish bait.

Without fail . . . expect more to come . . .

Update

2008-06-07T16:58:00.003-05:00

So we have a lot of information coming when we will be in our site (only 3 weeks away folks!) as we have a lot of things we would like to share, but too little time to write anything up, which will change soon! Anyhow, we wanted to give you all an update as to what is going on in our lives as of right now. We will be leaving next week to visit our communities for the first time, and meet our ¨counterparts¨ who we are supposed to be working with for the next two years. During this time (approximately one week) we will try and set up our living situation for the 3 months we will be living with a host family in site, as well as doing a general community analysis and figuring out what types of work we will be doing in the first three months. Everyone is pretty excited about starting to form a picture of the next 2 years in their brains and we are not excluded! We only have 3 weeks left of training before our official Swear-In as Peace Corps Volunteers, and we are very excited.
Last week we jumped back into the swing of training after two weeks out in the ´campo´or field learning hands on techniques to many of the projects we might be possibly working on. This past week was pretty difficult as we had to prepare and pull-off an eco-fair for 250 some kids at the local elementary school (only with the time we had this week) as well as do a community proposal for a possible solution to the sometimes good, sometimes bad water situation in our host town. All of this was finished up on Friday with a group of us going to the next closest town (where some of our other trainees are staying) to see a local typico band play. We all showed up around 9pm, and Brandon and I could only stay until 12am (before one of the best typico bands in the country even came on stage...), as we were already so exhuausted from the week. Today we are back in Chorrera for more classes, and tomorrow we have a free day, then Monday (Our one year wedding anniversary!!) we have classes like normal again. It´s been quite an intense past couple of weeks.
So that´s our update for now, we will try and write more soon! Love and hugs from Panama!
-Ashley and Brandon

Some Love

2008-06-07T16:39:00.004-05:00

So we have been asked quite a few times if there is anything that we would like to have sent. Obviously our first answer is ¨Yes!¨who doesn´t love recieving mail?? Then we sat down and started to think about it... there are a few things (few is a relative term..) that we would love to have sent to our doorstep. This is not a list of things that we are expecting to get, or a request- simply an aid for those who keep asking!

- Licorice. Any kind of red yummy licorice will do.
- Granola bars. Also any kind of super-healthy yummyness will do.
- Magazines. Any kind of fashion, Interior Design, Health, Construction, Music, News or other type of magazine will do (and we would love to have your would-be recycled ones too!)
- Powdered Gatorade. Electrolytes are good!
- Books. Anything that you think we might like! (We would however like a book called ¨The Barefoot Architect¨, any book on flora and fauna for medicinal purposes, a medical book, and any classic book you could think of. Plus David Sedaris books!
- Ashley would like a ¨spa kit¨as it is ¨really difficult to feel girly down here!!!¨
- Red Hot Chili Peppers Album ¨Stadium Arcadium¨- Ashley forgot her copy, and it is scratched up as she listens to it incessantly.
- Seeds. Any type of fruit or vegetable seed you can think of (I am not sure if you can get these, but we would be really interested in artichoke, asparagus, strawberry, spinach, eggplant, etc... you get the idea)
- A really good pair of tweezers!
- Fruity flavored candy! (skittles, chewy sweet tarts, starbursts, etc..)
- Pistachios!!!
-Cook books! (Probably vegan or vegetarian, as meat, cheese and milk are hard to come by here)
- Anything else that you can possibly think that we would enjoy!!!

Caribbean Sea

2008-05-25T10:21:00.005-05:00

So I am going to post photos now, and write later as I am running out of time....

So We went to the Province of Colón to stay with the volunteer shown in the photo on the left, and while we were there for our culture week, we learned how to shred coconut with a special type of tree branch and then made coconut rice.

The beach that we were staying approximately 20´away from.

Some Coconuts being used to sprout new trees
We went to a finca or farm one day in this site as well to plant yucca...

The group we planted with-

The farmer´s house..

Learning to dance the conga...

Going sea fishing and snorkelling.....

More Photos

2008-05-25T10:19:00.001-05:00

A Finca or Farm that we were walking towards to plant rice-

Local waterfall near ourhost town, and some of our fellow volunteers.
Our Garden that we have been working dilligently on.

Photos

2008-05-25T10:05:00.002-05:00

So I just wanted to post some photos of our past month or so here...

Diablo Rojos that we frequently take throughout the city. This is the standard public transportation here.

Our bedroom at our host family house.

These are all just photos of our host family house at our training site.

Update

2008-05-25T09:58:00.002-05:00

Here is a quick update for last week.
Hello All! (Warning this is a bit long)
We have officially been living in Panama for a month! It is quite hard to believe. We have done and have learned so much since we have been here, and we still have 26 months to go! So much has happened I don´t even know where to start. We have been continuing to take classes (technical and spanish) every day, and have been learning a lot. We had our spanish placement tests last week, where both Brandon and I had improved quite a bit since first landing in the country. Conversations with our families are a bit easier now, but we are definetly still working on improving. Last week was also the week when we had our ¨Site Announcements¨. Everyone in our group (of 47 people) came into the city of Chorrera last week for classes (which happens almost every other week) as well to find out where Peace Corps had placed them for the next two years of their lives. This is a BIG deal. The week before we had second interviews with our Associate Peace Corps Director as to where we would like to go in the country, what type of work we would like to be doing, and what type or size community that we wanted. Brandon and I were a little unsure of where we thought we would be going, and I spent the next several days quite anxious to find out where our actual site would be. SO.... we were extremely exited to find out that we will be living in the Province of Colón at a beach site. This city is built directly above the high tide line, and has approximately 130 residents. The Carribean ocean is said to be extremely calm and clear here- and great for spear fishing! Brandon and I will be working on sea turtle and iguana conservation, trash management, and promoting environmental education in the schools. We also have the chance to work with an indigenous tribe to the east of us, named Kuna Yala. This group currently has no Peace Corps volunteers working with them, so we might be an avenue to open that door. We will also be working with another community across the river from us. This community formerly had a Peace Corps volunteer working with them, and is comprised of approximately 500 people. Most of the people in the two towns are of Afro-Antillian backgrounds, as well as a combination of indigenous people. Acording to our Associate Peace Corps Director- this is his favorite site this year for the CEC (Community Environmental Conservation) group, as it is spectacularly beautiful, and has a wealth of development opportunities. We are very exicted to move there at the end of 2 months. As for right now, we are about to leave for two solid weeks of traveling and training. Next week is ¨Culture Week¨ where Brandon and I will be going to the Province of Colón to live with a new host family for a week and visit a current volunteer on the Carribean coast (very close to where we will be living) to learn more about the Afro-Antillian people. Part of our training includes learning how to open a coconut and make rice w/coconut, learning how to samba, as well as hiking on the beach and snorkelling. It is not all fun and games though, as we will also be working in the schools, and meeting up with agencies in the area that we will be working with for the next two years. After next week, we will leave for ¨Technical Week¨where we will travel to the province of Herrera to learn more techinical skills such as how to build a vented stove out of mud (a lorena stove, or estufa llorena), how to work in the schools, and how to work with the agencies in the area- among other things. We aren´t necessarily looking forward to this week quite as much, as we will be in one of the hottest places in Panama (think Phoenix in the summer) and most likely working outside. But we will be glad to have two more weeks under our belts.

We love and miss you all and hope to hear from you soon.
-Ashley and Brandon

Pre-Weekend Departure

2008-05-02T10:36:00.003-05:00

Brandon and I are currently in the mall in Panama City again and able to use the internet!!! (And eat regular food!) We are currently enroute to our Peace Corps Volunteer Site Visit, where we will be staying with a current volunteer at their site for an extended weekend. The volunteer we will be visiting is near the coast in the province of Herrera. Herrera is supposed to be ¨cowboy country¨ being mostly a large desert because of all of the clear-cutting and cattle ranching. Our volunteer is apparently working on some mangrove reforestation, working in the schools, and some community projects (We´ll try to post more on our return trip back to our training site.) Anyway, not much has happened since last Friday- More classes, more homework, more interesting food- We are really looking forward to a mini-vacation!

Please note that we changed the mailing address at the side. If you have already sent something to the other address, I think that you will have to contact the post office, or whoever you sent through and let them know about the change. ALSO: We have a new cell phone number!! Please call Brandon´s mom ( Linda), my mom (Kim) or my sister (Courtney) for the cell phone number. (Due to privacy restrictions, we won´t be posting it online). We are able to recieve incoming calls for free, and have cell phone reception aveces (sometimes) at our site, and always when we are out of our site. It is best if you purchase a calling card from Sam´s or Wal Mart with a 5ç a minute plan- we´ve been told that is the cheapest and easiest way to use them. It is pretty pricey for us to call out to the states (about .50ç a minute) so we may give you a call and have you call us back! Anyway, we can´t wait to hear from you!

We love you and miss you (and would like more e-mails from everyone letting us know how you are doing!!!!!!!!)

-A & B

With One Week Behind Us

2008-04-25T17:51:00.002-05:00

Hello all,
We are currently in training and are happy, healthy and safe. Our days start out with our host mom (Marta) making us breakfast in the morning (this can include anything from sliced hotdogs with plantains, to a tomato and lettuce sandwich with some kind of Panamanian mayo). we then are off to class. last week we had our language classes in the morning and our technical training in the afternoons, with an hour off to go home for a home cooked lunch. We usually finish with classes around 5 or 5:30pm and then we head back home for dinner, some spanish conversation with our family (just a mom and a dad- Nicanor y Marta) and some spanish television, and of course homework.
If it didn´t seem so by the brevity of different subjects in the day, trust us the day is packed and we barely have any time to ourselves to think or have free. We have had the opportunity to meet a lot of volunteers that are currently serving in country and they have all shared with us their feelings about how long and intensive these ten weeks of training can be. We are excited about what we have learned (composting, reforestation, MACHETE WEILDING!!) and are glad to have week one behind us. We get to see each other about half of the day each day and we are very glad to have one another. Our host mom´s humor is great and has made for a very comfortable host family environment. We will probably continue to have challenges in contacting folks very frequently and we are working on establishing a more consistant means of communication.
Some other things that we have done since we have been here have been that the first day we were were we went to bingo with all of our families. The community takes this very seriously, and we were in the open-air community center for over 2.5 hours. It was a great way to start our time out there, as it provided an activity for us to do to break up the akwardness of arriving to live in a house with a family who doesn´t speak the same language. Monday night while we were here we went to a host family house of a friend of ours and learned how to make öjaldras, or basically fry-bread. Tuesday was Earth Day and we put on a showing of ¨FernGully in spanish for the local children. We had a great turn-out and sold our ojaldras and salchicha (cut-up hotdogs with tomato paste) all night. Today we are in the nearby (as in .5hr away bus ride) town, where we will be having classes several times. Tomorrow we will be going to the city where we will be having a bus tour and some time to get to know the city. Then we are back to a full week of classes, plus going on a several day field trip separately (brandon and I will be together) to visit a current volunteer and stay with them at their site.
As for everything else- our host family is very nice, as mentioned before, and we have the ye-ye or "fancy" house in town. We have indoor plumbing including a fully tiled shower and indoor flush toilet with soap and water at the sink, plus our own bedroom including an oscillating fan. Most of our fellow trainees are not so lucky and have an outdoor pit latrine (usually with no tp) and an outdoor shower. As for the weather- it is VERY hot. It is usually about 90 degrees outside, and it usually feels similar to the feeling of stepping out of a hot steamy shower in a closed room.... except everywhere. It is very humid here, and we are slowly getting used to feeling constantly slimy. We eat really well (especially compared to other trainees who usually only get rice and beans) and we get a good assortment of fruits and vegetables, but mostly yucca. Our host mom does our laundry every day and so we just really have to focus on studying to be ready to go to "site".
We love you all and miss you a ton and will send out updated contact information as soon as we get it. As we said, we are working on getting a phone to work, so we will send that out ASAP.
LOVE YOU ALLL!!!!!

-Ashley and Brandon.

PS: sorry for the poor grammar- the keyboards over here are a bit different, plus we are short on time, spanish dictionary... etc.

Ready for Our Hosts

2008-04-19T17:39:00.003-05:00

So that everyone knows, we have been here, safe in Panama for three days now and have been engaged in the preliminary portions of our Pre-Service Training (PST) for Peace Corps (PC) service. However, tomorrow will be an exciting day. Tomorrow we will finally be place with the host families that we will stay with for the duration of training. We are nervous, excited and anxious! This extensive period of living out of our bags and not yet having the opportunity will be somewhat alleviated but being passed it will likely be forestalled until we arrive at post (even then for some time into that); so, it is something that we just need to continue to be patient with. Suffice it to say that we are very glad that we have eachother here.

For all who might still be anxious for us trust that we are safe, in good hands and well fed; we are very well fed.

A Brief Farewell on an Early Morning

2008-04-16T05:03:00.002-05:00

So it seems that we are off. We awoke at 4:40 this morning to ready ourselves for our departure from Miami to land in our long awaited destination of Panama! THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING TODAY! Nearly all of the people who are traveling in the group with us have been waiting patiently for this moment for nearly as long as we have. We are all energized, optimistic and excited to be embarking on this journey. We want to thank all of our friends and family for their continuous support and we are going to miss all of you. Please keep us in your thoughts as you will be in ours.

Out of the Midwest

2008-04-02T16:51:00.002-05:00

Our trip in the midwest is coming to a close, and with it time with our families in the midwest. Tomorrow we will leave from my Dad's house in Greenfield, Iowa to go and pick up our vehicle which is finally fixed! Then we're off to Omaha to do our final packing and then catch a plane to Arizona to see my mom and sisters. It has been an exhausting couple of weeks, but we are anxious for our trip! We love and miss you all, and hope that you send us lots of letters and packages and e-mails! (Mostly the former though!) Brandon and I found another couple that is serving in Peace Corps in Panama, Jeff and Foy, who are also from Iowa State University, and they have provided some good insight for us and our preparations. (Thank you!) We will post another message once we are in Arizona, but we hope that you are all doing well! (We miss you already!) Love, A&B

Car Trouble

2008-03-25T10:52:00.004-05:00

It seems that the worst time for your car to break down is typically when it happens, like when you are moving across country carrying all your worldly possession and leaving the country in three weeks; thanks Murphy! So we pulled into our first stop in Iowa on Sunday and just as we showed up in town our Trailblazer, all of the sudden, started making this awful stone crushing sound or as though a piece of iron was being slammed into the vehicle's drive shaft causing the axle to lock up and not move; we had never experienced any problem with the vehicle before that moment. We have taken it to a shop and they are going to have to replace the whole front differential and it may take over a week to do the work.

Thankfully, we had been driving two vehicles so we were able to move into just one. We are also very, very happy that it happened at a destination instead of in the middle of nowhere. It sort of sucks that the repair will take so long and that it is suck in Eastern Iowa and it needs to be in Nebraska; but we can figure something out about that. We keep everybody posted and hopefully this kind of excitement will subside.

P.S. In our absent mindedness we forgot some of our clothes that we need for Panama in our hotel in Indiana that they will be mailing to us. We do not appear to be making this trip very easy on ourselves!

We're On Our Way

2008-03-23T06:04:00.002-05:00

Finally, we are on our way to Panama! We finished at our jobs this past week and moved out of our apartment in Bethesda; it has been a long time coming, and we cannot believe that we are finally headed somewhere!

By yesterday, we had said our goodbyes to our apartment, Maryland and friends; signing off over a fantastic and enormous breakfast! We drove for all day, really only 10 hours (a little weak by our own standards), but we made it to our hotel in Gary, Indiana for the night. We have a ton of family and friends to visit over the next three weeks, and it is all starting today. Happy Easter!

To kick off, this morning, bright and early, we will be headed to Ashley’s Grandpa & Grandma McInroy's, outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa for brunch and as well as to spend Easter afternoon, then we will take off for Ashley’s Grandma & Grandpa Evenson's, in Osage, Iowa, for supper (about a 3hr drive). After two nights, we will head to our alma mater in Ames, Iowa to see some friends from college and stay for a couple of nights. Next, out of Iowa, we will be heading into Omaha to see Brandon's parents and some friends on Thursday and Friday.

Are you tired yet...? We will be…but there is more. Next weekend we will drive to Sioux Falls, South Dakota with Brandon’s family to see all his extended family and grandparents. After the weekend, it is back to Iowa; we will head to Greenfield, Iowa where we will visit Ashley’s dad and extended family for a couple of days. On Thursday, back to Omaha, we will make the final prep of our respective backpacks (the only things we will have for two years!) and then fly with nothing more than that on Saturday morning into Phoenix to see Ashley’s Mom & family. This will be followed by a long drive up to Flagstaff, and receive a frenetic greeting from her sisters to begin our, get this, WEEK long stay! Seven uninterrupted days, we have already explained to them how spoiled they are to have us visiting them for this long but we purchased the plane ticket before we had figured out how many stops we would be making along the way. Anyway, from Phoenix we will fly for staging to Miami for two days of intense Peace Corps pre-departure orientation before flying out to Panama. It will be a fast, very busy few weeks; but we are really looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family.

Seeing so many people…not to worry, we are prepared; we purchased an enormous pack of Airborne- and plan on downing it every couple of hours for the next couple of weeks!

They love us!!

2008-03-03T07:15:00.000-05:00

They really, really do love us! We have FINALLY been officially invited to join Peace Corps service in Panama! We are BEYOND excited- Panama is a beautiful country with modern amenities (for those not-so-campy travelers), without the mass quantities of tourists or over-manicured resorts.
We have been told that we will be living 2-16 hours outside of Panama City (however we are not sure if this is by foot, boat or car) and living either in a village or with an indigenous tribe. If we (like 70% of our fellow Peace Corps Panama Volunteers) end up in a village, we will be living in either a cinder-block house with concrete floor, or an adobe house with a zinc roof- just like the locals. On the other hand, if we are like the other 30% of our fellow Panama PC Volunteers, we will be living with an Indigenous tribe in either a grass hut or a bamboo hut on stilts overlooking a river.
We have not been told what area of the country we will be living in yet, whether or not we will have running water, phone service, or the internet for that matter. We will certainly do our best to update this blog as often as possible with postings, information, status updates, and of course-everybody's favorite- photos!
We would love for everyone to write us back and leave posts up for us to read- as I'm sure that we will (eventually) get home-sick.