Update

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

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

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.