Church, Anteaters, Recycling/Jewelry and Vacation

After briefly skimming my last post to see where I left off, i realize that I promised about 2 months ago to tell a quick story about going to church for 9 days consecutively and also a story about anteaters.  I’ve also got quite a bit to update you all about, so here it goes:

Church:  Back in March was the day of the Patron Saint of Nuevo Paraiso, San Juan de Dios.  To celebrate the patron saint day, many people in the community organized a series of rosaries, processions, reenactments, etc for 9 days. Since my house is 2 houses away from the church, every afternoon when the 25 or so people who were attending the different church events would pass by, they would always ask if I was going to church.  Feeling to guilty to say no and continue reading in my hammock, I would almost always say yes. The few days I did say no, I ended up being the community babysitter, with all of the kids under the age of 10 wanting to skip out on church and hang out at my house to color pictures and drink lemonade.

Although 9 days of consecutive church attendance isn’t something I would rush to do again, it was a nice way to feel myself growing closer to members in the community.  Sharing the preparation of the coming of the day of the patron saint felt like a way of showing my respect for the importance of this celebration. Honestly I’m not a huge fan of saying the rosary over and over, but in a way it was sort of calming and a good way to center yourself.

Anteaters:

Alright, for those of you who have never seen an anteater (I am actually in this category) here is a picture of one.  Now, like I said, I too fall into the category of people who have never seen an anteater.  However, supposedly…they are out there.  There being in my backyard in Nuevo Paraiso.  There aren’t a lot, but the stories people tell about them make you a) want to laugh until you realize they are being serious and b) hope that you never encounter one in real life.

According to local legend a man in the community…  (to be continued when I return from the dentist)

Okay, back from the dentist with 2 small cavities and no novicane.  What?  Really though it didn’t hurt that much, it was more just a surprise to realize that she was already drilling without having put anything to numb the area.  That aside….

According to a local legend/story, a man in the community was out working in the field one day and came across an anteater.  As he approached the anteater, it reared up on its hind legs and stood facing the man on its hind legs with its two arms raised and thrashing, ready to fight.  Standing on its hind legs the anteater was about 4 feet tall.  The man, scared, but also wanting to prove his manliness, fought the anteater, eventually killing it, and skinning it for its hide.

That night when the man was in his bed in his home, he heard a gentle scraping sound at the door.  Curious and a little bit afraid, he went to see what was causing the scraping sound.  Upon opening the door, he saw, to his horror, the bloody skinless anteater that he had killed (or so he thought) earlier that day, standing ready to fight, to get his hid back.  In order to finish off the anteater, the man had to chop him up into many pieces, and store the pieces in different parts of his house.

The thing is, people believe this stuff…vehemently.  (Mom, I hope you appreciate my use of that word.)  When someone started telling me this version of the story, others joined in saying that yes, the only way to kill an anteater is to cut it into many different pieces, or to crush it with a stone that is painted with a white cross, and then cut it into many different pieces.  Basically, they think that these creatures are the devil.  To be honest, I can’t say that I am convinced of any of this, but then again I have never come face to face with an anteater.

Recycling/Jewelry

Being that there has been a lot of text so far, I will try to dominate this section with photos.  Basically, for the past 2 months I have been starting to do talks/workshops in the community about trash management and recycling, and have been trying to motivate the women in the community to become interested and involved in a recycling project, but doing jewelry workshops using recyclable materials like tin cans, magazine paper and plastic bottles.  I’ve also been doing some recycled art projects with the kids, which is a lot of fun.

(10 minutes later…) It doesn’t seem to be working to upload pictures right now, I’m not sure what the problem is exactly, but I’ll have to leave that for next time.  Sorry!

So that leaves the last topic of discussion..vacation.

Vacation

As many of you may or may not know, I went home/to China for 2 weeks of vacation.  It was a whirlwind trip…2 days home, 10 days in China visiting Scott, and then 2 days of full travel and a 9 hour layover at home, finally to arrive back in Panama in time for our 1 year medical appointments.

It was a great trip, it was really nice to be home and at least feel a cool breeze for the first time in a year, get some good coffee in downtown Ipswich at Zumis, make a quick trip to the beach, and spend (some) time with my family and with Jamie, Max and Briana.  Then I made my way to China, and I had a really great time visiting Scott, getting to see the classes that he teaches, the play that he is directing with his drama club (right?) and getting to meet his students and friends there.  We got to eat a lot of delicious spicy food, perhaps the best thing being a plate of fresh fish and vegetables cooked with all sorts of garlic, spices, etc. on the last night.  We ate at a small tent/restaurant on the side of the street, the street being filled on both sides with similar restaurant type places.  We selected our fish out of a small pool of water and then the cook grabbed the fish, slammed it into the street to kill it, and then brought it back to the kitchen area to slice it up and cook it.

We also went bike riding one day, away from the center of the city, and found ourselves at a full scale coal mine.  Manuevering around trucks filled with piles of coal, we made our way further out towards the edges, and found a cool mountainside to climb.  Climbing up and up along a semi vertical cliff-face (okay maybe that’s a little exaggeration but it was pretty steep and we had to climb on all fours and keep ourselves very low so as not to fall) we found some cool caves up near the top.

Next time I have internet I will try to upload some photos of all of this – sorry again that it doesn’t seem to be letting me upload photos right now, I’m not sure why.  Right now I’m headed back to my site after almost 3 weeks away with vacation and medical checks, and I am admittedly a little bit anxious.  It feels like it has been so long and I guess I’m just a little bit nervous to plunge back into the work without lights and internet an distant access to communication back home.  But hopefully once I get there my anxiousness will fall away and I will get right back into the swing of things and people will be happy to see me.

I hope all of you are doing well, and please send me any updates about life out there!

 

 

 

Back to School, Going to Church, Anteaters

1. Back to School

Summer vacation finally came to an end here in Panama at the end of February, and school started once again on the 27th.  I have to say I was pretty happy to start the school year – while it was nice to have lots of time to pasear, relax, read, and hang out in my community, I was starting to get a little bit stir crazy without the structure and busy-ness of the school year. Actually, that is an understatement.  Mid-February I was really sort of down in the dumps.  Not only were the students on summer vacation during January and February, but, at least it seemed to me, so was everyone! When I tried to hold a meeting for our baking group at the end of January, I found myself waiting and waiting…and no one showed up!  I felt like saying “come on people, this is baking!  We were going to make cinnimon buns!  It’s not like we were going to pick up trash or till the garden, baking is fun AND delicious! Que pasa?!  Completely bummed out, I went over to one of my old host families and told them about what had happened, and they reassured me, “No se preocupe, no es usted, es que esta el verano. Es el tiempo para pasear y para relejar. Nadie va a ir a los reuniones. Hay que esperar para la empieza de la escuela.” Translation: “Don’t worry, it’s not you, its just that its summer. It’s time to go visit your friends and family and relax. No one is going to go to meetings.  You have to wait for the school year to start.”

So I tried my best to suck it up and wait it out.  Sitting in my hammock during the afternoon some days I would end up making myself feel crazy, wanting to feel productive but honestly not knowing where to start in what felt like a desert-town.  During the day, sometimes not a single soul would pass in front of my house, as practically no one made their way to the center of town.

Finally, mid-February the teachers arrived for “2-weeks of planning” which, arguably, could be described as a few afternoons of a little planning, a little chatting, and a lot of sitting around.  But it was a change of pace from the endless days of summer, and it gave me a place where I needed to be, and a sense of forward movement.

Needless to say, I was excited when school finally did start again on February 27th.  Already I feel like we’ve been back to school forever, since things have burst back into full swing and more since the first week of school.  This year I am working in the school in my community 4 days a week.  On Monday’s I spend about half the day working with the 9th graders outside in the school flower gardens and our vegetable garden (yet to have vegetables but soon!) and half of the day helping with the English classes in the Premedia (middle school). Then after school we have a 1-hour “English Reinforcement” session.  It’s informal, fun (at least I think so) and an attempt to help the kids with their English homework, and to practice speaking and listening and engaging with English in a way that supports what they are already learning in their classes in school.  On Tuesday I also help out with English classes, but this time in the Primaria (Elementary school) with grades, 4,5,and 6.  I also get to spend 45 minutes working in 1 of the 2 multigrade classes with environmental education activites and our pen-pal correspondence with our friends at an elementary school in Gloucester, Ma. After school on Tuesday I have “English/Eco Craft” Club for the younger kids (1st-3rd) who, although aren’t actually learning English yet in school, were really eager to have “English Club” after school.  Really, there are a certain 4 very enthusiastic students in grades 1-3 who I think just wanted an excuse to hang out with me after school, so we practice basic hellos, some songs, and make crafts and drawings with whatever we can get our hands on – sometimes recyclable materials I bring from my house like egg cartons and plastic bottles.  Wednesday’s I get to work with the other elementary school class doing an environmental education activity, and I also help out with English.  Thursdays this year I leave my house at 5:55am (with a flashlight right now since it’s still not quite light out” and head to the entrance of my site, where I wait for the chiva to pass at 630 and bring me down the road to the house of a Profesora, who brings me with her to the school where she works in a community called La Honda, about 30 minutes from my site.  There I start at 8 and go straight till 2 with 1 15 minutes break.  The first 1.5 hours I teach English to the 7th gradrs, the next 1.5 hours I do Environmental Education with the elementary schoolers, then there is a quick 15 minute recess, followed by 1.5 hours of English with the 8th graders and 1.5 hours of ENglish with 9th graders.  Unlike my community, the school in La Honda doesn’t have an English teacher at all – instead, each of the 3 middle school teachers is responsible for teaching English to their group.  The only problem – none of them speak English.  So, our goal is that they can observe and take notes on my classes this year, learn from them, and try to mimic aspects of them for when they are on their own.  OR possibly, the school could recieve a teaching English volunteer in the future.  One exciting thing that just came up in this community is that the teachers and parents group have expressed interest in building a mud oven during this school year, and they want me to help them build it.  Then, they want me to teach them how to make bread, so that they can make it for the students and for fundraisers to make money for the school.  I think it sounds like a great idea, (and something I have been trying to get them interested in doing at the school in my community!) so we will see how it comes along.

 

Up next: Going to Church 9 days in a row (ahhh!) and Stories on Anteates (ran out of time this time,sorry!)