40th Anniversary Week

This past week was a special one.  Our middle school celebrated its 40th anniversary.  When the school was founded in 1973, the area was very sparsely populated.  President Omar Torrijos was in power, and he built many schools throughout rural areas.  There were only 40 students in grades 7 to 9.  Now we have 170. 

The first event of the week was the torchlight parade through the town on Monday evening.  Students from grades 1 to 9 paraded along the highway which runs through the town, each with their torch containing a burning bottle of kerosene.  It still amazes us that no one gets hurt in these events.  We certainly would hesitate to have our first grade son or daughter carrying one of those torches!

Middle schoolers with their torches

Primary school students

These girls got to carry the banner

On Tuesday a queen was chosen from 11 candidates who ranged from kindergarten to ninth grade.  The day started with a pickup truck parade through the town.  Each girl had her own color, and decorated her truck to match.

The girls then changed out of their jeans and into dresses for the final event.  There were three first graders and one kindergartener among the group.  As you can see from this photo, they don't seem overjoyed about dressing up and putting on lots of makeup.  The families of the girls had a lot more fun preparing for the contest than the girls themselves.

These girls are actually a lot happier climbing trees and playing in the mud.  Here are a few pictures to illustrate our point:

Yaritzel in her dress

Yaritzel climbing a tree

Diana and her escort, Kendedy

Diana and her brother making bricks

Alexandra

Alexandra and her sister climbing rocks

Yohannys

Yohannys on a vine

The candidates were presented one by one and danced their way to the stage, accompanied by their escorts.  Flags were waved and candy tossed to the spectators.

 The winner was chosen by drawing paper flowers out of a pot.  One flower contained the winning slip of paper.  

The candidates eagerly open their flowers to find out who won. The reigning queen watches from the far right.

Here is the newly crowned queen and her escort.  

As luck would have it, a thunderstorm struck just as the queen was being crowned.  This picture shows the torrents of water coming off the roof.  The wind started blowing very hard, and water started coming into the area, as there are no walls on the cancha where the contest took place.

Eventually the storm stopped, and everyone was able to leave.  Fortunately the area was quite big and most of the people could fit on the dry half.

Thursday of last week was the day of the Montuoso Forest Preserve.  Groups of dancers and musicians came from all over the province to perform at our school. The school put up a hut to illustrate the handicrafts of the area.

Serafina put on her pollera, the dress worn to folkloric events.

This group came from the regional capital, Chitre.

These two boys wore the traditional masks of the area as they performed their dance.  

That's it for this week!  Next week should be a lot less eventful, but you never know!

Steve and Heather

Killing the Pig

Lots has been going on here in Chepo since our last blog entry.  Here is a recap of what has been going on.

Our neighbors killed one of their pigs and cut it up.  Of course we had to witness the process.

Diego poses by the pig's head 

All parts of the pig will be used.  The head will be boiled and served with rice.

Diego's grandfather carves up the pig while Diego watches.  His dog takes advantage of the situation.  Dogs don't get fed much in Panama and they have to find food wherever they can.

English week for the whole country of Panama took place last week.  On Monday morning Heather addressed the school assembly with details of the week's events and information about the English language.

Later in the week Heather hands out a prize to a student.  The students made a variety of skits and presentations for the week.

Ninth grader Jesus receives his prize

We each had our one year meeting with our supervisors from the Peace Corps in the same week.  Each supervisor came out to Chepo to talk to school and community members about the jobs we are doing.  They liked what they heard!

Steve addresses community members about his projects, past and future.

We actually have only nine months left here in Panama.  It will be difficult to leave!

We have continued with some our our favorite activities.  Last week we discovered a new (to us) waterfall.  We went to take a look with local kids, another Peace Corps volunteer from the next town, and a park ranger. 

Heather gives a swimming lesson

Another view of the waterfall

View from the top

Of course we have still been taking kids up to the Alto del Higo for the view. 

Massiel, in sixth grade made it to the top for the first time.

Macuris, in fifth grade, poses on the tower.

The kids insisted on swinging on the vine on the way down.

Here are a few pictures of other activities here in Chepo

Eira makes use of extra mud after making bricks for a stove.

It has rained a lot here lately.  That doesn't stop the soccer game!  This is the field at the school, carved out of a hillside.

We leave you with a shot from the hill behind our house.  We never get tired of the views!

Panama Wildlife

There is a lot of wildlife in Panama, and this past month we were able to see many examples, as Heather's sister Jan and her husband Tom came for a visit.  We went with them to several locations.  Most of the pictures below were taken by Tom.

First of all, Tom and Jan took a tour of the Panama Canal with Captain Carl's Jungleland Adventure tour.  They saw lots of wild and not-so-wild creatures.  It was an entertaining tour, as Carl kept them supplied with lots of jokes and one-liners.

This capuchin monkey was pretty tame

This little guy liked getting fed by tourists

Tom gets friendly with an anaconda

Jan likes her little monkey

Tom and a little cayman

 In Panama City, there were lots of vultures around.  Some people call them the "Panamanian Air Force".

This vulture roosts on a church spire

Then it was time to visit Chepo.  Our house held a few surprises for Tom and Jan.  We let these big spiders spin their webs outside the house under the eaves of our roof and on our back porch.  They don't bother us and they eat lots of insects.  We have quite a colony of them.

We saw one of these for the first time during Tom and Jan's visit.  It's called a mountain tarantula and it is several inches across!  It was right next to the house.

In the Chepo school we found this gigantic cockroach.

After a few rainy days in Chepo, it was time to go to the beach.  We headed for the resort of Pedasi, where we hoped to find better weather.   We eventually got a clear day and took a small boat to Isla Iguana national park, where we found lots of wildlife.

A tiny hermit crab

Pelicans coming in for a landing

Another pelican

This hermit crab is outgrowing his shell

A little lizard

These vultures are drying their wings after a brief shower

There were lots of these crabs on the island

Crabs and hermit crabs attack a coconut.  There is another crab inside.

We're not sure what these hermit crabs are eating, but they look like they are enjoying it!

Eventually we found some iguanas!

The island is a nesting ground for frigate birds.  There were hundreds of them!

Frigate bird

Jan, Heather and Steve watch the birds

On the way home, we saw this guy eating a fish head by the side of the road.

Our last wild animal is a snake known as "equis" (X) in Panama.  In English it is a fer-de-lance, a very poisonous snake.  This little guy is only a foot long and maybe a half inch in diameter, but he can easily bite you.  He was just sitting in the open, which is very unusual for these snakes.  Usually they flee when humans approach.  Steve happened to be on a hike with a park ranger when they saw him.  The park ranger, who usually coexists peacefully with wildlife, wasn't taking any chances with this snake, and killed him.  Since an untreated bite from this snake can be fatal, Steve didn't argue with his decision, and waited until afterwards to take this photo.

That's it for the wildlife edition of our blog.  More news will follow later!