Then on Thursday morning  I woke up early to help with the cooking.  We worked in shifts, with groups of people starting recipes, finishing others, working in shifts – I worked on the Stuffing and Candied Yams in particular – and it was a lot of fun.

working on the candied yams

my friend abby with the pumpkin pies (they were DElicious)

about 30 sticks of butter, 14 cups of sugar and 4 bags of marshmellows for the candied yams. they are better when you don't know all that goes into making them.

either a thanksgiving speech, or thanksgiving poem

no rice, no beans. heaven.

my friend Beth and I enjoying a delicious Thanksgiving meal.

friends

a surprise traditional dance that followed Thanksgiving dinner

my house, and my neighbor/one of my best friends in site, Yoya (yes, she is 12)

Hopefully I will get to start my garden when I get back from IST (In Service Training) and will also be able to plant some flowers, to spice this place up.

Mom enjoying a traditional Panamanian breakfast on my front porch

Traditional Panamanian breakfast - fried plantains and boiled yucca

One other notable thing that happened during the month of October was that my mom came and visited! It was exciting to finally be able to share with someone a little taste of life in Nuevo Paraiso. Seeing her in the airport I could hardly believe that it had been six months since I said goodbye to my parents in the airport in Boston.

Me washing dishes in my kitchen

The day of her arrival we spent the day in the city, walking around Casco Viejo and trying to see a few sights of the city and eat some good food, before preparing for the trip to my site in the morning. The next day we woke up very early and headed to Chorrera, where we met Manuel, one of my host dads and one of the chiva drivers in my community, who offered to come pick my mom and I up and take us back to site, letting us ride up front where it is comfortable (and there is a seatbelt). I figured we should start easy and save the trip in the back of the pickup truck, packed between 18 people, animals, babies, corn and rice, for the trip back.

We arrived in my community around 10 on Friday and when we arrived a lot was going on. The fathers of all of the students in the school were constructing the ranchitos for the Semana del Campesino (that I mentioned before) and so there were about 45 people working on all building these little houses across from my house – which was quite the site to see. At the same time, some of the mother’s were cooking lunch for the men, and others were in the church preparing to send off the Patron Saint statue of the district, which had arrived the day before for a procession through the town. Thus my mom got to meet a lot of people all at once, which though overwhelming, was a lot of fun.

Mom enjoying her and my joint birthday celebration in my community. They made SO much rice, it was ridiculous.

Me at the birthday celebration

all. that. rice. Look at teh size of the plate to get the real impact of the size of the pot of rice. Those plates are dinner plate sized,, for reference.

In the afternoon we paseared to a few of my host families, and then relaxed when it began to rain. The next day, Saturday, was very busy. At 8 oclock we went to the school and my mom observed and helped out with the 2 English classes, the one from 8-10 with the younger kids, and then from 10-12 with the older kids. After that we were invited to a big lunch that my baking women’s group had prepared of arroz con pollo and ensalada de papas – the traditional birthday foods, to celebrate my and my moms birthdays. They sang to both of us and then dished out HUGE servings of food from an enormous pot of rice that they had cooked. However, as we ate, dark clouds began to form, and before long everyone was scrambling to clean up and get home before the rain. We hurried, but unfortunately weren’t fast enough, and got stuck in the rainstorm and had to wait it out for about an hour next to the church.

Mom in Panama City - it was windy, thus the hair.

On Sunday morning we visited the remaining host families in my community and then headed out, back to Panama City. It was a long trip back as we had to backtrack and then wait for 2 hours for the chiva to fill with people – but fill it did – and my mom got to get a taste of what my commute out is like – the long truck ride squished between far too many people, crying babies, baby chicks, chickens, corn, oranges, and who knows what else.

Sunday afternoon we finally made it back to Panama City, where we walked around some more and had some delicious food at a small Italian restaurant. We spent the evening relaxing, talking, and just catching up, and in the morning, after a leisurly breakfast in the hotel, I took her back to the airport.

Though the trip was really quick, it was a lot of fun, and now we are in the process of planning the whole families trip to Panama for Christmas.

If my mom gives me some of the pictures she took, I will post them as soon as I get them from her.

welcome to our school garden!

So it’s fall. Or at least according  me, it should be.

It should be a time when the leaves are falling to the ground, when we are all pulling out sweaters, jackets,  boots and wool socks, and the world is slowly being transformed with hughes of orange, red, and yellow coloring the landscape.

But for me, this year, none of that is happening – it is still as hot as ever, though perhaps it rains a bit more in the afternoons which does cool things off.  (Let’s be honest though, my definition of “cool” is anything below about 80 degrees Farenheight.)  I am quickly learning that as nice as it is to be toasty warm, tan and increasingly blond due to endless days of summer sun, I miss the changing seasons.  I miss fall.

That being said however, things here in the tropics are going well, and I find myself overwhelmed by the fact that yet another month has gone by.  October, like all of the months before, seems to only have gotten busier.  Going into full-time teacher mode (or Profesora mode, as the students now call me Profesora Lorena, which never fails amuse me) my schedule has been filled with lesson planning, teaching, homework grading and test writing. The majority of days have been rewarding, however I will say that teaching 7th grade physical education is NOT my favorite activity.  To be honest, given the choice, I would actually rather teach 8th grade sex ed, because at least there the students are inside, in their seats, and there is some semblance of order, granted of course this class comes with its fair share of laughs (myself included) at my sometimes not-so-accurate attempts to pronounce obscure male and female anatomy in Spanish.

In other news – I am officially, completely, moved into my own place.  And it feels so good.  In the evenings I can relax and read, cook the food that I want (NO RICE), shower when I want (and I don’t have to shower 2 times a day now just to be polite and avert people thinking that I am dirty – becuase seriously, 1 shower per day is plenty), and listen to the music that I like.  However, this does not mean that I have not received numerous plates of rice and beans sent to my house via the children of the community.  The generosity of people here seems without limit, although I often feel it is mixed with the conviction many people have that somehow, at the age of 24, I still don’t know how to cook for myself.  However I think I am finally beginning to prove to people that I can in fact cook, and cook well (I like to think). A number of people have now tried my homemade tomato sauce, and in addition to the baking group I have had numerous personal requests to bake cookies and sweet breads.

However while I am at long last, in my own house, the house is far from my own.  90% of the time that I am there there are at least 2-5 neighborhood children hanging out as well.  My 5 year old neighbor is a particularly frequent visitor, and in addition he is always touching everything he can get his hands on, asking “what is this?”, “how does this work?”, and “what kind of candy and cookies and juice do you have?”.  For the most part, I don’t mind the visits, however sometimes I would like to have time just to myself, to read or just listen to music quietly.  I laugh at self now, remembering that the thing I was most worried about, feeling alone, is probably one of the farthest things from anything I have ever felt.

typical - Nohel, the trouble maker. I was removing him from some trouble he was causing, though it is a fruitless attempt, as he always returns within 5 minutes to whatever shenanigans he was up to before

some of the neighborhood kids hanging out on my front porch - I do not know why they feel the need to pose like that...teenagers

Below – an assortment of pictures from the month:

Nohel, the trouble making 5 year old who is always visiting me, with a melon (squash) in his familys garden

planting pineapple in the school garden. they should take between 8 months and a year, so hopefully next year we will be feasting on pineapple

Arranging the bars for the cucumber and beans we planted in the school garden

Semana del Campesino:

On October 20th we had a big celebration of Panamanian culture at the school.  For the entire week before the teachers, students, and community members prepared for the big day, constructing 7 little ranchitos in front of the school, preparing what they were going to cook to sell in the ranchitos, decorating the ranchitos, cleaning the school, and practicing the dances of the queen and the princesses.  Finally the day arrived, and all in all it was a very successful day – I believe the Padres de la Familia made about $800 for the school, and probably about 200 people from different communities nearby came  to join in on the festivities.  I spent the day dressed as an Embera indiginous woman (picture to follow), as I was working in the Darien (that is the province where there are a lot of Embera) ranchito, selling arroz con marisco y coco (rice with seafood and coconut), pesa de nance (a fruit pudding), and chicha de naranja (sweetened orange juice).  The day ended with a small baile (dance) and I was pleased to hear that many people said that I was learning to dance tipico (the traditional panamanian music/dance) very quickly.  Or maybe they were just being nice.  Either way, it was a lot of fun, and a day full of music, culture and food.

One of the ranchitos for the "Semana del Campesino" (Week of the country person) - representing the Colon Province.

The English teacher, Elia, in front of our Darien ranchito

the sign I painted for our ranchito

another ranchito - representing the Los Santos province

Two of the 5th graders in the traditional Panamanian sombreros, shirts and pants (and one with cutarras - the traditional panamanian leather sandals) for the festival

Dancing at the Dia del Campesino - students wearing the traditional Pollera (dress) and traditional sombrero and shirt

more dancing

The reina and her caballero (basically, the queen and king of the festival)

Doris, 8th grade, the queen of the day

me in my traditional "Embera - Darien" garb - throughout the day everyone told me I was the tallest and whitest "indigenous" person they had ever seen

In breif:

The past month has been a blur of moving between my last 3 (of 6!) host families, all of whom have been so incredibly generous and caring I couldn’t have gotten luckier.  However that doesn’t mean that I am not SO excited to move into my own house….tomorrow!

Things in the school garden have been picking up and actually during the past few weeks we planted pineapple, more cucumbers, tomatoes, 2 types of beans (I think? Guandu and Habichuela), and harvested about 300 mazorcas (cobs) of corn.  We had quite the feast of bollo and vinuelas (hard to describe quickly but both are tastey traditional Pananmanian foods made of corn, boiled, ground up by hand, mixed up and either boiled again in a leaf or fried in oil.)  In the upcoming weeks we should be planting more tomatoes and hopefully plantains as well.

Things in the school generally have been VERY busy for me as I am now acting as the stand in middle school (7th, 8th and 9th grade) Natural Science, Art and Physical Education teacher.  This role has thus far (in the past 2 weeks) been rewarding, but also a HUGE draw on time.  And in the upcoming weeks I will be preparing for my community analysis presentation so we will see how that all mixes together.  Also I found out that with the 8th graders, the school director wants me to teach them a unit on sex ed – eek.  Though I am nervous about that, I do think it is an important topic, so we will see how I manage that with a room full of giggly 13 and 14 year olds, teaching a unit on sex ed….in spanish.

In other news: My mom is coming less than 1 weeks from now!  She’s only coming for a short visit of 5 days, but it will be GREAT to see her and to finally get to introduce someone from my family to the community I have been living in for 3 months now.  She has even been taking Spanish classes (okay just a few but still, impressive) to prepare for the visit – I am very impressed.

Also – I want to give a shout out to some amazing friends and family – miss Kara DeMichele, my Aunt Sarah-Ann, Uncle Kevin and cousins Mariah, Garrett and Dylan, and my Mom and Dad – I received 5 enormous packages during a regional meeting we had 2 weeks ago, and actually received so many packages at the same time that I could not physically carry them and had to send some of the goods back to the PC main office in Panama, to pick up when I go get my mom at the airport next week.  Thank you all so much for the amazing assortment of candies, cookies, pop tarts, teas, nutella (yum!) books, lotions, cards, paints, and more than anything all of the love that went into those packages.  You all made my day (although all of that love also almost broke my back).

Last news for the moment – I got a kitten!  His name is Milo and he is very cute – orange stripped.  I would put a picture up but like I said, I am really stripped for time.  I have to get a test for the 8th grades printed out on our unit about Blood and the Circulatory system, as well as some recipes for our women’s baking group (forgot to mention that we have been having great success with a number of Nani’s recipes for breads and cookies, even though we don’t have an oven (we are cooking dutch oven style) – thank you Nani!) and invitations for my community analysis on October 31st.  Whew.  But thank you all for your continued support and I apologize for my lack of communicitiveness (I know that’s not a word or if it is I spelled it horribly wrong) this month – hoping that things will slow down a bit during the upcoming months but to be honest it looks like its going to be hectic until about February.  I hope everyone at home, abroad and wherever you are are doing well.  Love to all.

With some students after our ANAM charla on caring for the environment. ANAM brought us some ornamental plants and fruit trees to plant at the school.

Hi all.  I’m now 2 months in site and so far…so good.  That is of course not to say that everything has been perfect – I did have a small run-in with a very frustrating person from a local agency this past week who I encountered unearthing the schools newly planted cucumber seeds that I had planted with the 9th graders, so that he could plant tomato plants in exactly the same location, when there was a free garden bed only feet away!  Needless to say I was infuriated….however that aside things have been going very well.  Like last month, it has been busy, and I often find myself at the end of the day shocked that the day has already passed. And the same goes for the weeks.

I’ve been in the school a lot, working with the agriculture classes in the school garden and on our organic compost.  The frustrating part with that is that during this past month we have been without an agriculture teacher, as well as without a natural science teacher, and as much as I enjoy and am happy to assist with the classes, being in charge of the agriculture classes is a bit much, and the kids are often, I hate to say it, but…lazy.  After 10 minutes working out in the sun they are all tired and complaining that they don’t want to weed anymore, which is shocking to me when so many of their parents work in agriculture and are working outside in the hot sun with machetes for the entire day, everyday. However, last week a new math teacher arrived at the school and he will also being doing the agriculture classes.  I introduced myself to him and talked about my thoughts regarding reorganizing the agriculture classes so that the students work in smaller groups and rotate jobs every week to fight the boredom/laziness that seems to be inherent in them, and he seemed very enthusiastic and interested in collaborating.  So we will see how that goes.

The above, and below pictures are from a day 2 weeks ago when ANAM – the national environmental conservation/protection agency here in Panama, came to the school to give a talk about environmental conservation, and also brought us a bunch of ornamental plants and small fruit trees to plant in the school grounds.  Although the students were very shy at first, I think that the charla (the talk) went really well, and I know that I at least was very motivated to keep working in environmental conservation after it was over.  And one cool thing I have noticed during this past week is that a number of students have been collecting seeds from all of the oranges they eat (we are probably eating about 3 oranges per person per day here now that oranges are beginning to come into season) because the people from ANAM talked about how great it would be to plant seeds today so that 20 years from now the students can see the beautiful trees that they themselves planted, and show their children.

Ernesto and Jonas planting a small plant

Also in the schools this month I have begun doing the pen-pal project with our 2 pen pal schools in the US, in Massachusetts (with Laura) and in Texas (with Taylor).  The students in grades 1-6 LOVED the activity, and wrote some really adorable letters.  The activity was so popular that actually a number of the middle schoolers were jealous and want to do the activity as well.  However as I have been so busy I think I am going to have to hold off for at least the next month or so before I can begin looking into coordinating that with a middle school teacher in the states.  However if anyone is interested or has thoughts related to that (the students are in 7th, 8th and 9th grade) let me know.

Tomorrow I will officially be beginning my English/Environmental Club with the students in the Middle school, and the day after, Saturday, with the students in the Elementary school.  I am excited about these clubs as I think they will be a great opportunity for the students to learn in a less formal, more fun and engaging way.  I will be sure to keep you all updated as the clubs progress.

On Saturday I have the third meeting with a women’s group that I have been talking with during the past 2 months, and we will be holding an election to elect a new Junta Directiva (I.e. president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary etc.)  This group has had a lot of social problems in the past, so what we have discussed is basically starting over.  In the last meeting we talked about new project ideas, and something that came up of interest is learning how to make bread and cookies.  This is something that I think could be a really great project for them, and something that, if I do say so myself, I think I could help with a lot. During the past 2 months I have made no-bake cookies about 7 times with different people in the community, and they have been a huge hit.  Yesterday, I attempted bread for the first time (since the host family I am now living with has an oven) and it turned out alright, but I think we need to leave it to rest for more time the next time, because it was a little bit dense.  I have been collecting recipes from the internet, from Hilary and Nani (thank you!!!) and am always on the look out for more recipes (think simple!) if anyone has any. The only problem we have with this is that there are only 2 people (possibly 3) in the community who have an oven – so we are probably going to have to try to find a way to pay them for gas and borrow their ovens if possible.  One thing I was thinking was about building a mud-oven, and from what I have been reading it isn’t TOO complicated, although they do say to prepare yourself for failure during your first few attempts.  If anyone has any experience in this area, I would also greatly appreciate any advice/thoughts/suggestions.

Working on our penpal project with some of the elementary school students. They were so excited to write letters and draw pictures for their pen pals in the US.

Hard at work on their penpal letters!

Excited to show their penpal letters that are on their way to students in the US!

I think that’s about it for now.  As far as host families go, I am currently living in my 3rd host family and will be moving in with families 4, 5 and 6 this month – which I think is going to make time fly.  I should be moving into my new house in early October, and while I have loved living with host families, I am admittedly very excited to be able to finally have some personal space in the near future.

I hope that you are all well, and I would love to get any updates from anyone to know more about what all I am missing out on back in the states.  Until next time.

Our Huerto Team of 11 members of Padres de la Familia - after completing two small projects - a table for growing apio (small peppers) and culantro (like a brother to cilantro), as well as a box with a nice looking tin roof for our abono organico (organic compost). A good day's work.

The scare crow we made with some of the 7th graders, to scare away the birds that have been eating our corn seeds in the garden

Attempting to make pancakes - but lacking the appropriate skillet, thus we had to use a pot. It proved a bit difficult, as did the lack of butter, but we perseverd and the pancakes, though odd looking, were delicious

breakfast!

on a hike with some of the teachers and Luis (my 10 year old neighbor)

First host family constructing the kitchen for the grill - putting the finishing touches i.e. the roof.

after the family requested a photo shoot with my host brother on the horse, I asked if I could hop on for a quick photo of the 2 of us.

Making Tamales yesterday with one of the women's groups in Nuevo Paraíso

One month in – and so far so good. The first month here has been incredibly busy which really, has been a big relief. I think the thing I was most worried about before arriving here was that I wouldn’t know what to do with myself once I was here, or worse, that there would be no where for me to go.

But to my great relief the days have actually seemed, dare I say, too short. I often find myself at the end of the day wondering how it is that the day could possibly already be over. Likely a part of that is a result of the fact that indeed the days are shorter, what with the sun setting at 7pm and the lack of electricity, I am often snug in bed and ready to sleep by 8:15 or 8:30pm. Yes, I am becoming an old lady.

As far as a “typical day” is concerned, my days vary – a lot. From spending most of the day in the school observing, helping out, talking with teachers and students and/or learning how to kill, boil, defeather and dismember a chicken to cook for lunch with the mom’s, to spending most of the hours of the day hiking in the mud-laden paths between houses to visit people who live farther away in the community, to learning how to make Tamales, arroz con leche, arroz con pollo (again with the whole killing, boiling, defeathering and dismembering process as well), and a sort of boiled pineapple and “nance” (another tropical fruit) pudding, to meeting local agency counterparts, to hiking 3 hours to help apply fertilizer to someone’s coffee plants, to simply sitting and talking with different families and drinking coffee and eating a LOT of plates of rice.

Speaking of rice… really, I would rather not speak of it. However it would be unfair to say that I hate it completely – really it’s more of a love-hate relationship. The amount of rice I eat here on an average day is an amount that scares me to think about. Every meal, and I mean EVERY meal, (breakfasts and snacks as well, includes rice. During my first week here I had a record rice day, and that is saying something. I wrote the following in my journal:

“I thought I was eating a lot of rice before, during training. I really did. But today beats any amount of rice I have ever consumed in any 24 hour period, let alone week long period, before. For breakfast I had a heaping plate of rice with fried plantains – very typical, about what I have every day. For lunch I was given a second heaping plate of rice with small piece of chicken and some lentils – again, very typical. Later in the afternoon, I was given a medium sized plate of rice and beans when I was visiting a neighbors house in the afternoon, and then about 2 hours later, a large bowl of arroz con leche (rice with milk) when I went to visit another neighbors house later in the afternoon and she asked me if I wanted to learn how to make it (I couldn’t say no).  When I returned home it was dinner time and though really I wasn’t anything close to hungry, I didn’t want to be rude as my host-mother scooped me a heaping plate of rice with lentiles for dinner. (note: she told me that a half pound is about the right amount for one person to eat per meal).  Then for a special treat after dinner she served me chiceme ( a traditional drink) that she had made out of rice (it was basically rice and hot water).  What. A. Day.

the view from a hike I went on with some community members to help apply abono (compost/fertilizer) to a neighbors coffee plants

As I’m writing this I am running desperately short on time, so I will have to cut out a number of other stories I had wanted to share this time and wait to write them for the next time.  One last story I will share is about the Terremoto drill (Earthquake drill) we had a few weeks ago at the school. Following that I will include a variety of pictures from the month.

You all remember fire drills at school – well, I expected the earthquake drill to be somewhat similiar.  However more than a drill, the Terremoto was more of a play – full with costumes and makeup.

Early in the week it was announced that at 9am Friday we would be having the Terremoto.  At 8am Friday the students in the school started getting “ready” for the drill.  Now as far as drills go, the whole getting ready part confuses me as I thought the whole idea was the reenact what would happen if you are caught off guard by a disaster.  However, at 9am, when one of the teachers started hitting a pot with a spoon to “sound the alarm” the students emerged from the school in an arguably organized chaos.  4 students emerged from one of the teachers rooms fully painted with a mixture of beet juice, flour and water – fake blood – smeared across their arms, faces, and clothes.  One of the kindergarteners even had holes burned into the back of his shirt (I’m sure his mother was happy.)  Each of these “hurt” students wandered into a different section of the school, as the older students took charge, rushing them to the designated medical area.  The English teacher rushed out of her room with a fully decorated fake cardboard “Med Kit” and rushed to address the wounds of the hurt students. Meanwhile while I was standing watching, very confused, the history teacher took me by the arm and told me to shut my eyes – that I had been “blinded” by debris in the earthquake and needed to be brought to the medical area.

After all of the “hurt students” were “treated” one of the primary school teachers called everyone’s attention.  She congratulated the students on their time for the activity, just over 12 minutes, and for the limited number of students who were “hurt”.  This, to me, was particularly confusing (and comical) as they had specifically pre-selected who the hurt students were.  And they had coordinated everything and arranged everything, so what did the 12 minutes really mean?

At the end of the drill they even went so far as to have a fake “Mental Health” sign posted on one of the classrooms for students who were “traumatized by the earthquake.”   It was by far one of the oddest natural disaster drills I have ever seen, and I was thoroughly dissapointed I had not thought to bring my camera.  I know now that next time I will be bringing my camera to catch the events of the next drill.

Now for some pictures from the month.

my 1 1/2 year old host brother Gabriel with his machete, playing in the yard next to the house

sorry for the graphics - this was how I spent one sunday - learning how to kill, boil, dismember and cook chicken. And I thought I had reason to be a vegetarian before. The worst part is that I do eat chicken now.

watching the Nuevo Paraíso soccer team play in a small tournament a 1 1/2 hour hike away. The fans were intense.

family and friends - this is how you will be travelling to my site when you come and visit. Think about 15 people crowded into the back of this on 2 benches for a nice 2 hour bumpy ride.

Gabriel and I grinding corn to make tortillas

Gabriel and his "chainsaw" - an old bleach bottle and a piece of wood. He LOVES playing with this and pretending to chop down trees (or body parts)

Women's group making Tamales in action

Lastely – The shirt. – I have to admit I was very excited when I realized that Magin was wearing this shirt when we were making Tamales yesterday. She is now the 3^rd person in my community (of less than 400 people mind you) who I have seen wearing this shirt. And all of these women have been very traditional, very sincere women, all at least 60 years old and older. I don’t know if there was some sort of market where this shirt was being sold in mass quantities, but every time I see it, which now seems to be with more and more frequency, I have to do my best to clamp my jaw shut before a laugh can burst forth.

That’s all I’ve got time for for now, but I will keep you updated as the next month unfolds.  Lots of love to you all!

Our Santa Rita Family