Queen of Carnaval

On Sunday we went to the nearby town where the environmental trainees are staying to see the Carnaval celebration.  It is a town of only 300 people or so, but they all turned out for the crowning of the Queen and Princess of Carnaval.

First, however, was the traditional spraying of water over the crowd.  This is a part of Carnaval celebrations in every town.   It was a really hot day, so everyone enjoyed cooling off. They had to fill the truck up twice with water.  The picture below was taken as we arrived, when most people had gone home.

The water truck hoses down anyone inside the fence

There was a break of a few hours, and then night fell and the girls showed up for the competition.  There were four contestants for each spot, and Peace Corps trainees were chosen to be the judges because they were thought to be more impartial than the townspeople, who are all related to each other in some way.

The girl on the left won the Princess competition.  She will compete again on Tuesday

These two were the youngest contestants

This girl won the Queen competition

Proud parents with the Princess

The crowning of the queen was followed by dancing.  They played traditional Panamanian music, to which many couples danced around the floor.  The PC trainees gamely tried the dances, but were clearly no match for the natives.  Then one of the trainees asked them to put on some reggaeton music, which was definitely more in line with our dancing skills.  Out strutted Nico, a trainee who is an amazing dancer, and he put on a solo exhibition which had the crowd screaming in approval.  He was shortly thereafter joined by Lindsey, and the two of them continued to wow the natives.  Soon the dance floor was filled with Peace Corps people gyrating to the music.  They invited their host family brothers and sisters to dance, and Panamanians and Americans all danced together until our bus came to take us home.

Carnaval Weekend

We have the four days of Carnaval weekend free - Saturday through Tuesday!  On Saturday we decided to visit the island of Taboga, about 20km off the shores of Panama City.   The embarkation point for our boat was the Amador Causeway, which extends a couple of miles into the pacific to connect three small islands to the mainland.  We arrived at the dock only to find out that the boat was full, and that the next one was too late for us to have enough time on the island.  So, we decided to spend the day on the causeway, being tourists for the day.  We even rented a four-seater bicycle with a roof for an hour. 

As you can see, the island has some great views of the skyline of Panama City.  We had a delicious lunch, and then we headed back to our town.

Panama City skyline from the Causeway

Here is what we would have found had we been in time to catch the boat.  We are planning to go there sometime, but probably not during this weekend, as the boats are very small, and there are lots of people trying to get on them.

Taboga Island

We took a "Diablo Rojo" (red devil) to get home.  These are old US school buses which are finding their lives extended here in Panama.  The one we took actually said "Oceola School District" on the side.  Most of them have been repainted by their owner-drivers.  Some of them are actually purchased new from the US.  The city officials are trying to phase them out, as they tend to not be as safe or comfortable (no A/C!) as the newer big buses, but for our route home they are the only option.  Here are a few photos of them:

This guy put in new pipes

This driver doesn't have a whole lot of space to see through the windshield!

Our New Site!

Today we finally found out where we will be for the next two years.  We are in a small town (1400 people) in the province of Herrera in the Azuero peninsula in west central Panama.  We are up in the hills so that the weather will not be so hot. Like most of the people in our group, we have electricity, running water and cell service.   Typically the only people without those services are in the indigenous areas.  Panama's infrastructure has been improved quite a bit in the past decades, so that Peace Corps volunteers aren't "roughing it" as much as they used to. We still have lots to do, though.  Heather will be working with English teachers in the elementary school (grades K-6)  and the secondary school (grades 7-9).  Steve will be teaching environmental awareness in the schools, working with youth groups, and also working with the community on environmental projects. 

The town has an asphalt road leading to it, and regular bus service to neighboring towns.  A number of the environmental volunteers in other places have to hike into their sites, so we are thankful for this, especially when it starts raining heavily.  Speaking of which, it tends to rain a lot less in the Azuero peninsula than it does in the rest of the country.  A major reason for this is that the peninsula has been completely deforested for quite some time.

We are not too far from a forest preserve, so there are some woods for hiking nearby.  There are mountains of 3000 ft in the preserve. We are about 4 hours from Panama City by bus.  Our regional capital is Chitre, which is about an hour and a half away from us.  There are beaches in Chitre, as it is on the east coast of the peninsula.  We were glad to find out that there are other PC volunteers at various places nearby.

We are very excited to finally know where we will be!  It has been a long wait.

Night of the Iguana

Yesterday evening one of Mama Rita's relatives showed up with a very large iguana which had been found and captured somewhere up in the surrounding hills.  Unfortunately the people in the area have a tradition going back many generations of eating iguanas, despite the fact that the species is endangered and it is no longer legal to do so.  

Panamanian Culture Day

Today was a special day.  Not only was it the last class of our 5-week session, but we had a new assignment - kill a chicken and cook it up for lunch.  Our Spanish class combined with another and learned the vocabulary of cooking, as well as how to cook a Panamanian midday meal.  The menu included chicken cooked in a pot over an open fire, chips and "pico de gallo" (a salsa made with tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and onions), pasta, and a drink made with the juice of the maracuyá fruit.

Our Spanish class with our teacher Rolando and Mama Rita.

The first job was to decide who would kill the chicken.  There were only two volunteers out of the group, Austin and me.  Austin had already killed a chicken two weeks ago, so the job fell to Steve.

Austin and Steve prepare for the grisly task.

The deed is done!

 The next step was to plunge the chicken into boiling water for a few minutes, and then pluck it.

Heather plucks the chicken with some help.

We chopped up the chicken, and cooked in in a big pot on the fire with lots of seasonings. 

 The lunch was delicious, and it was a great way to end our five weeks of class.

Lago Gatún

This past Sunday Heather and I went to Lago Gatún with a number of other Peace Corps trainees and  several members of our host families.  The group numbered around 30 in total.  Lago Gatún was formed when the Panama Canal was built by damming the Chagres River.  It was the largest man-made lake in the world when it was made in 1913, but has been surpassed by many lakes since then.  It is the only lake in the world which drains into two oceans.  It stores water during the wet season for use in the dry season.  Each time a ship transits the canal 53 million gallons flow out of the lake and into the two oceans.

The weather was great and we had a wonderful relaxing time after the fast pace of our training classes.

Lago Gatún

There seemed to be a problem with the swimming dock.  We think one of the flotation tanks broke.

Peace Corps trainees enjoying the sun and water

Dugout canoe near the submerging dock

Sunday with the family

On Sunday we finally had a day off to spend with our host families.  We started off by cooking pancakes for Mama Rita and family.

Mama Rita's granddaughter-in-law Carmen had a birthday, so we all headed off to Carmen's mother's house in the country for a celebration.  The first item on the agenda was to get some coconuts down so that we could drink the liquid, which was more like water than milk - it's called "agua de pipa".  Pipa is the term they use for immature coconuts.  When they are mature the liquid thickens so that it is the milk that most people are familiar with.  Carmen's husband Aramis shows us how to get the pipas out of the tree.

How to get the pipas out of the tree

Aramis shows how to cut the pipa to get the water out.

There is a thin layer of "meat" on the inside of a pipa

Aramis gets some more pipas

The next item on the agenda was to cook up a big meal for everyone.  They started with a big pot of rice, to which was added pork and seasonings.  It was very good!

Heather helps to cook the big meal

It's almost done!

 When the meal was cooked, they laid a few palm leaves on top to keep it warm while we all headed to the river for a swim.  The cool water was very refreshing on a hot day!

Then, back to the house for a meal followed by the birthday cake:

Carmen and her birthday cake

 All in all, it was a fun day where we got to meet more of the family (and practice our Spanish!)

Catching the Rooster

Our morning Spanish classes have the advantage of being in the patio of the house where we live.  There is shade, and it is usually delightfully cool there.  There is one disadvantage, however, of this spot.  There are 17 chickens and one rooster about 15 feet away from us.  On Friday the rooster suddenly started crowing in the middle of our class.  Our teacher, Rolando, raised his voice and attempted to continue. However, the rooster outdid him in both volume and persistence.  Finally Rolando couldn't take it any more.  "Let's grab the rooster!", he called as we all headed for the chicken coop.  Evidently if you separate the gallo from his gallinas he will stop his noise.  I entered the coop with Rolando, Señora Rita, our host mother, and one other PC trainee.  I soon had the rooster cornered.  He was trapped in the corner with a tree trunk on the third side.  All I had to do was grab him, but I had no clue as to how to do that.  I thought of grabbing the neck, but I didn't want to hurt him or get pecked on the hand.  He made a break for it and I let him go with a half-hearted attempt at a grab.  Austin, the other PC trainee, failed equally.  It was obvious that Rolando was going to have to do it.  I herded the rooster over to him and, sure enough, he grabbed it by the wing.  He handed it to Señora Rita, who flung it over the fence into a side pen and that was that - back to class!

Rolando gets the rooster as Austin looks on

Mama Rita takes care of "el gallo"

Saturday Night Fever!

What is there to do in a town of 2000 people on a Saturday night?  Evidently there is quite a lot, if last Saturday was anything to judge by.   Our first stop was the rodeo on the edge of town.  The event of the night was calf roping.  The object was just to get the noose tight around the neck of the calf - it wasn't necessary to tie it up.  The first three we saw missed completely, and we thought we were in for amateur hour.  Soon the best of the lineup came, and we saw people finish in three or four seconds. The top time was a stunning 1.97 seconds.

To accompany this was some typical Panamanian music.  These guys were right from the campo, and their music was lively.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the rodeo and headed for the center of town, where the athletic facility is an indoor soccer area with a cement floor and chain-link fence for walls.  That night it was taken over by a gigantic bingo game attended by most of the town.  One of the men in the town needed an operation, and didn't have the money.  Everyone pitched in and bought food and bingo cards to raise money.  They didn't announce how much they raised, but it was a significant amount.

Heather at the bingo table with Miranda, Nate and Austin

Heading back home, we found that next door four Peace Corps trainees with much more energy than we had were doing a P90X workout in the back yard.  No thanks!

One last activity that we didn't partake of was a huge birthday party about a block away.  They were blasting the music until 3 a.m., but no one called the authorities to complain. Needless to say we didn't sleep a whole lot that night.

Trainees First Day of Teaching English

All of the PC trainees had been having four hours of Spanish classes every day.  The top two levels, however, have now been reduced to two hours a day of classes.  During the other two hours they are teaching classes of English, for free, to people in the town.  Today was the first day of classes.  There were about 90 students divided into five groups by age, including a few adults.  There were many activities, and the students are eager to return again tomorrow.  There will be 9 days of two-hour classes, followed by a Saturday where English activities will take place all day with all 31 of the PC English teaching trainees taking part.

 

Heather and Jess teach the 10-11 year old children

Heather tosses the ball to a student in the "name game"

Heather and the class playing "Loose Caboose"