2014

When writing a recap of 2013, I remember thinking that my 2014 was going to be much less eventful. After all, how much can happen when you're living in a rural village of less than 300 people? Though I have loved living a more laid-back life, I'm happy to report that 2014 has been filled with productive work, fun travel, great friends, new experiences, and things that are certainly much funnier now that they're over and done with.  So what happened this year?

In January my dad wrapped up his Panama visit with a NYE party in my site and a trip to Bocas Island.  Then I celebrated another milestone: turning 23 while facilitating a youth leadership camp! For some reason I've always loved working on my birthday and I have to say, camp was a pretty fun assignment for that week.  

With February came In-Service Training (IST) which was a great opportunity to reconnect with other volunteers and see a new part of Panama.  To top it off, the other Bocas volunteers and I received a whole week's worth of chocolate training.  Tough job, right? 

I spent most of March in my site, working with my gente and recovering from the double serving of parasites I dealt with the month before.  Only in Peace Corps would you respond to "I have parasites," with, "Oh, good!"

April was a busy month- I improved my Ngäbere skills at indigenous language week in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé, my town started our baking and business group, Travis, Christina, and I celebrated Easter with quite the feast, and Massy and I adopted a cat.

I especially looked forward to May because that meant I got to go on vacation to the United States! Eleven months is a long time to be away from home, and I admit that I may have slightly teared up when the border control agent welcomed me home to the United States of America.

June marked a full year in Panama for Group 73.  Though I spent most of the month in-site, I also got to head to Panama City to meet group 75 and help out with their first week of training.  Especially given the timing, it was really neat to see the new group going through exactly the same things that I did one year before! 

July was a month of visits and visitors!  I finally got to visit Zoe's site on the coast and was able to start a baking and business group while I was there.  It was neat to see my projects spread to other areas, and as always, it was wonderful to spend time with my friends in their sites.  Shortly after returning to my own site, I welcomed Whitney and Megan, two trainees from the new group. I got to show them the ropes of life as a volunteer and am happy to report that they're both alive and well- Whitney ended up in Bocas like me, and Megan is in a coffee site in Colón.  To top off an already great month, my bien metida Darien friend, Alex, also made the long journey up to Bocas.  We spent the week visiting cool places in my site and eating so. much. chocolate.  

In August I celebrated one year of being in sites by spending most of the month with my sweet gente. They make coming home that much better!  

Massy always makes leaving difficult, and in September I finally relented and decided to take him along when I gave a basic finance seminar at Colleen's site on the coast.  He loved it and it turned out to be good travel practice for our upcoming move.  Another neat thing that happened this month was being invited to bring one of my local artisan's to Panama City to exhibit our goods during the Central/South America Country Director's Conference.  Many "higher ups" of Peace Corps were present, and I even got to meet the incredibly sweet Director herself, Carrie Hessler-Radlet!

October... October was good at first. Elena and I were invited to give a week-long agribusiness seminar to micro-finance grant recipients from the Department of Agriculture in Santiago, Veraguas. We had a great week with great participants, and by the end some of them were even asking how they could get their own Peace Corps volunteer!  Unfortunately, I got sick towards the end of the week and got slammed by a Pneumonia, a skin infection, parasites (round 3), AND a double ear infection all within a month.  That's a new record for me.  

After finally recovering from all the issues from late October/early November, I was able to attend two great Thanksgiving celebrations.  I love spending time with volunteers because the further we get in our service, the more connected we are- professionally and emotionally.  Volunteers have become some of my closest friends and confidants, and I am so thankful to have such a great group of them in my life!  

In December I packed my bags (or rather, left them packed) and headed over to explore the Darien. I had been wanting to see that side of the country for quite a while, so I was really excited to have the opportunity to spend the week both working on projects and hanging out with the awesome volunteers that live there.  And who knew the people there feed you so much?!  In 2015 I'll be heading out to Darien again, this time for a little bit longer, and I'm looking forward to getting to know more people and places (and also to eat some more delicious food...)

Thank you to all of my family, friends, and sweet blog supporters!  You guys make the tough days bearable and the great days even greater.  I couldn't have done it without you and am looking forward to 2015 and all the new people, places, and experiences that the new year will bring!

Stakeholders & Ice Cream

I think it's pretty obvious that I love my job as a National Agribusiness Coordinator for Peace Corps Panama.  So far I've spent most of my time doing community visits, training new volunteers, and developing materials.  A few weeks ago I had another great work opportunity- I was invited to be a part of the semi-annual Stakeholder's meeting for Peace Corps Panama's Sustainable Agricultural Systems program! 

About 20 stakeholders gathered for 3 days in Santiago, Veraguas to talk about how we can work together and plan projects for the upcoming year.  There was a great group of people present that I was really excited to work with- my boss, Aimee, the other coordinators (Zoe for Cacao, Jed for Fish and Rice Tanks, and Elena for Agribusiness,) a few other volunteers to represent all regions of Panama, several community members, and representatives from many of the Panamanian agencies that we work with.  

Zoe and I with our Bocas del Toro MIDA Representative

After Elena and I presented a short informational session on Peace Corps' agribusiness program, we were excited to talk to various representatives from the Department of Agriculture, MIDA, about the many ways in which we can work together.  We even solidified a great work plan in Bocas in which I'll get to co-facilitate 11 agribusiness seminars in communities that MIDA is financially supporting.

  

And it wouldn't have been a Peace Corps gathering if certificates weren't handed out and copious amounts of ice cream wasn't eaten- so we made sure to take care of both of those things.  Can 6 volunteers put away 2 half gallons of ice cream and 6 frozen snickers bars in one setting?  Why yes, yes we can.

The Day I Almost Died (But Escaped Perfectly Fine)

A Very Zoomed In Photo of my new Enemy- He's in black with the huge horns

Though statistically Peace Corps is incredibly safe, that certainly doesn’t stop parents, friends, and even volunteers from worrying about the worst-case scenario.  For my parents, it was that I would become the victim of a violent crime.  For my friends, it was that I would catch some terrible jungle malady.  As for me, I still cringe at the thought of the poisonous snakes that slither around the monte surrounding my site *shiver.*

All of those things considered, it seems a bit ironic that the one thing that almost got me was not only incredibly common, but was even raised my some neighbors back home.  What was this menacing thing?  The torro (bull)…

In an effort to get to know my community, I spent a large part of the first three months hiking to various homes and visiting with the families that lived there.  Since I have a rural community, it’s not uncommon for me to walk through fields or forests unaccompanied.  It was during just one such visit that Señor Torro set his sights on me. 

It all started when I approached the barbed wire fence that surrounded a house I had yet to visit.  In my usual visiting voice, I loudly called out to greet the family, and was informed that I would need to walk about 50 feet to my right to get through the “gate,” which was really just more barbed wire that was tied to the post instead of being nailed to it.  Having made less than two steps toward the gate, a bull from a small group about 20 feet away suddenly started to charge.  What was my genius response?  To scream and run.  Thankfully, the family quickly admonished my reaction and loudly instructed me to freeze.  Freeze I did, but for about 2 seconds too long.  This time, I had a moment of warning as my newfound enemy began pawing the ground and snorting his disapproval.

At this point, it was instantly evident that staying frozen would only get me mauled by my gigantic foe, so I chose Plan B: Run like the wind and pray to Heaven that my little legs could leap the barbed wire fence.  (At this point, who had time for the 50 foot trek + untying a fence post?)

I expected to find myself face-first and bloody on the other side, but surprisingly I cleared that fence Summer Olympian style with only a teeny-tiny nick on my ankle.  After assuring that I was okay, the family took a moment to stare in complete silence before questioning the utterly obvious- “You just jumped that fence?  You just jumped that fence….”

It’s safe to say that I now take Bull Safety quite seriously, as my awkward yet terrified behavior shows.  Before entering any field in which the torros reside, I search for the largest sticks (bordering small trees) that I can find, and enter slowly while attempting to demonstrate that I have much, much larger “horns” than they do. 

So far, so good.