Tech Week

From February 23-28 the English volunteers and the environmental volunteers each went their separate ways for some technical training.  The English group stayed in the training community and worked with English teachers in the schools of nearby La Chorrera.  The environmental group went to the province of Veraguas to the small town of El Pilon, not far from the Pacific coast.

Steve

 In El Pilon, we were greeted to a warm welcome by our host families.  My family actually took us out to a restaurant down where the river meets the ocean.  We had a delicious seafood meal!

Marlena and her son Cesar Alberto at the restaurant

We then set out to practice some of the activities which we will be doing once we arrive at our individual sites.  We did an abbreviated environmental analysis of the town and presented it to the townspeople. We also held a environmental camp where we did activities with children in the town.

The older group of campers - "kids of the environment"

The younger group

We saw the sights of the town, including a nearby mangrove swamp.

We saw some of the mangroves from a boat

Our guide Alfonso took us on the footpath through the swamp. 

We had the obligatory swim in the river with many of the townspeople.

There was also a party in the town square where we taught them the Electric Slide and the Cupid Shuffle.  They taught us the traditional Panamanian dances.


One of the highlights of the week was the Saturday night "pilgrimage" from the city of Santiago to the town of Atalaya.  This is a traditional activity for the days starting on Ash Wednesday and ending on the following Sunday.  Here is our starting point in Santiago:

It was a beautiful evening for a walk.

 The trip was about seven miles, and there were lots of people walking, as it was the last night of the pilgrimage.

On the trail

In two and a half hours we had arrived at the town, but the streets were so crowded that it took another half hour to get close enough to see the saint in the local church.  There was a line of people waiting to get close enough to touch it, but we would have had to wait another two hours for that, so we decided not to try.

The "Santo"

The legend has it that this wooden statue of a saint was placed in the church a long time ago, and then when people tried to move it, it was impossible.  The statue was fixed in place as if by magic and no force could move it.  (We didn't try that night!)

Monday was the first day of school for the year.  We went to the elementary school and met with the teachers on Monday, and then we each taught a class on Tuesday, either alone or in pairs.  It was our host son's first day of school ever.

Cesar Alberto's first day of school - age 4

One final highlight:  There was a "matanza", where they literally killed a cow, hung it up in the back yard, slaughtered and cooked it.

Heather

My tech week in La Chorrera began with a visit to a large public school in the city. This was a good opportunity for the TE (Teaching English) trainees to see first hand the workings of a Panamanian public school. It was the final two days of planning for the teachers prior to the beginning of the new school year.  This school was divided into a morning and afternoon session.  Each session has 1,500 students.  I worked with the English teacher's coordinator, Blanca Carrera.  Blanca  spoke English quite well and was excited to have a native speaker to work with. We planned a lesson which we would co-teach the following week.

Heather and Blanca

Students in their school uniforms

Stray dogs are ever-present at the school