Mi Buen Viajes: Squatty-potty

Latrina aka squatty-potty

miercoles 7.9.11

Panama is beautiful! I have been here in Panama for almost 2 weeks now. I started in Washington DC where I met my training group. I’ll name them because I’m sure I will mention them in my posts. There are 3 from Texas Sarah W, Sarah H and Sean. Sean likes the Cowboys so obviously we are friends. Briana and Erica are in my Spanish class. Bri is from Wisconsin and Erica is from Washington State as well as Jacy. Susan is from Oregon. Eric and Erik are both from California. Sergio is from New York and John is from South Carolina. I can’t remember where Trisha, Rhian and Ben are from. Emma is from Kalamazoo, wherever that is I forget but yes it does exist. Evan is from an island off Rhode Island. That’s all for my group!

After we arrived in Panama City we all went to Ciudad de Saber (City of Knowledge) for the beginning of training. We were there from Thursday the 18^th until the 21^st where we stayed in houses that used to be part of the US Army base. After many long days of sitting in a freezing cold room listening to lectures by the hour, we were off to heat to sweat and not stop sweating. That Sunday we arrived in Los Mortales, which is about an hour outside of Panama City and one by one we were dropped off at the door of a house to meet our “new family”. My mom’s name is Marta and two of my sisters live with me. Martita (little Marta) and Lenith are 13 and 17, respectively. Next door, literally 3 feet is my other sister’s house. Her name is Mabel and she is 20. She is having a baby with her boyfriend Joni. Between our 2 houses we have 2 dogs and a puppy, many chickens, roosters and chicks. Our dogs are Bandi, Dogga, and Lukela. I wish that they treated dogs nicer here though. The dogs are allowed inside and sometimes not even on the porch but that is just how it is in Panama. I make sure to give all the dogs lots of attention so I’m sure people think I’m weird. Occasionally I find a toad in the latrine and I’m sure it is the same toad. Hold out your hand, that’s how big the toad is. Now look at just your palm that was the size of the tarantula in my room a couple nights ago. I have to put a Tupperware over it and slide it out of my room. My sister killed it in the morning. Back to my favorite part of the day, the latrine. Latrines are complicated, at least in my house, because it is more or less a “squatty-potty”. Needless to say my thighs are getting very strong J. Our shower is outside attached to the house. It only has cold water, which is perfectly fine with the climate here so it always feels good when it is time to shower. Back to the house. It is made out of CMU blocks and grout with a tin roof. There are 3 rooms, 2 bedrooms and one main room for the living, kitchen and eating purposes. I have my own room, which is required by the Peace Corps, and my 2 sisters and mom sleep in the other room. I have a fan at night, which is really nice, and lots of space in my room. I also sleep with a mosquito net at night over my bed so hopefully I won’t get malaria or dengay just yet! At night when I’m laying in bed I hear a kissing sound which I have come to find is the sound the geckos make. The frogs make really strange sounds here too.

The town of Los Mortales is very beautiful. Picture rolling hills and mountains with lush greenery and lots of trees. There are palm trees mixed with other trees on the hills. The cows roam the fields and there are farms everywhere that grow fruit and vegetables, mainly from trees. I went to my abuelo (grandfather) farm to help herd the cows into their pen. I stared down a bull and chased the cows so they wouldn’t run away from their coral. It rains almost every day yet somehow it hasn’t rained in 3 days. Normally it rains between 12 and 3 for a couple hours. When the sun sets at night the sky is colorful of oranges and yellows. One of these days I want to go to the top of a hill to watch the sunrise or set.

A typical day: I wake up at 7 and eat breakfast which is: corn pancakes, American pancakes, fried eggs, fried dough, or a sandwich with tea or cream of oatmeal, or cream of corn to name a few options. I have Spanish class from 8-12 and go home for lunch, which is usually some type of meat and rice. Then I have technical class from 1-5. After class I hang with my American friends at the tienda (store), play futbol (soccer) with the town kids, or go home to hang out with my family before dinner, which again is usually some type of meat with rice, or pasta. I also eat a lot of fried plantains. After dinner usually I play soccer, do my homework, help some of the town kids with their homework or walk around town and talk to people, which is my favorite because everyone, especially the kids, love to talk to us. From playing soccer with the kids I got chiggers, which are little bugs that like the feet and ankles. They bit you and go under your skin and bit you more. I think I have to suffocate them out of my feet with Vaseline or clear nail polish. Yay for weird bugs!

I’m having a great time here and really looking forward to this weekend of traveling to the Darien (close to Columbia) for my volunteer site visit where I get to stay with a current volunteer for a couple days. By the way, my friends make fun of my Philadelphian accent when I say the word “yeh”. So I guess I’ve got my own unique thing. I am missing everyone at home though which means you should all come visit me J Love you all!!