With Our Host Family

On Sunday we finished our training at the Peace Corps office in Ciudad del Saber near Panama City and moved in with our host family in a town of around 2000 people about an hour west of there.  The English teaching trainees are in one town, and the environmental people are in another a few miles away.  Heather and I live with the English group.

Our host parents are Rita and Rogelio.  They have three daughters who live in the town, ten grandchildren, and a lot of great-grandchildren.  We met most of their family on the first day as they stopped by the house to meet us and introduce Peace Corps trainees who were staying with them.  Everyone we have met here has been very friendly.  Complete strangers will smile and greet us in the street of our town.

Rogelio and Rita

Here is their house.  They have a covered patio in the back, where we spend most of our time.  They have a rooster, seventeen chickens, two ducks and a parrot who doesn't fly or talk.  We learned early on that theirs is not the only rooster in town.  The roosters crow periodically all night, but they really crow in earnest from about 4:30 am.  We have earplugs, which help to reduce but not eliminate the noise.

We have a very nice room, and the house has a flush toilet and indoor shower.  Sometimes the water is diverted to another part of town and we take bucket showers and use an outhouse, but most of the time there is water.

The weather here has been great.  We were prepared for hot humid weather with lots of mosquitoes, but we are in the dry season and the humidity is typically around 60% or so.  The mornings and evenings are cool and pleasant in the 70's.  Even though it gets up to 90 in the middle of the day, there is usually a breeze.  We have been warned that this is the best weather of the year.  In late April the wet season will start and the humidity and bug level will increase.

Our schedule is very full.  We have Spanish class from 8am to noon from Monday to Thursday, with technical classes from 1 to 5 pm. We are lucky to have the Spanish class at the house where we live, on the nice breezy patio.  Since we are in the top level class, we only have to have two hours a day starting next week.  

Our patio/classroom/dining area

The food has been very tasty so far, and several of our group's Spanish teachers often meet at our house to have Señora Rita's midday meal with us.  We have been getting lots of practice with our Spanish!

A typical lunch or dinner might be a big plate of rice, with a piece of chicken, fish or beef and a bowl of lentil soup or broth with potato or yucca, always with some interesting flavoring.  Even though a lot of fruit is produced in Panama, most families don't eat fruit very often.  The stores in our town don't even sell pineapples, even though they are in season and plentiful in the nearby city.

 On Fridays we go to the Peace Corps office in Panama City for training sessions.   Saturday Steve will be working in a farm and Heather will be doing an English workshop.  On Sunday we have to take public transport to Panama City for a scavenger hunt and some free time in the city.

We are still having a great time and enjoying the company of our fellow trainees!