If You Were to Visit My Village

If you were to visit my village, I’d tell you to bring a camera, your clothes, and a good pair of boots, but to please, please not get carried away with all of the newest gadgets and accessories a good outdoors store will make you feel like you need.  Life here is simple, and no, you won’t get malaria, yellow fever, or rabies from visiting me in the jungle.  Bocas is quite rainy and muddy though, so I’ll make no promises about mild cases of bug bites or jungle rash.

If you were to visit my village, I’d spend the week before you arrived planning out the meals we would eat so that we could buy groceries in the neighboring town where I would come to pick you up.  We would pay $1 to ride the local chiva for about 20 minutes, and then the choice would be yours- $12 for a private truck to take us all the way to my town, or a 40 minute hike down a gravel road, stopping to enjoy the beautiful mountain views a long the way.  The amount of stuff you’ve brought will probably make the decision for us. 

If you were to visit my village, you’d probably be struck by how sparse the town center is (6 houses, 1 2-room school, and a tiny store managed out of one of the homes) and wonder where all the people are.  Within a few hours though, my neighbors would hear that you’re here and would start arriving at my house to introduce themselves and offer to be our guide for a trip around the area.  Would we like to see the waterfalls?  Do you feel like working on the chocolate farm for a day?  Could we possibly come eat dinner with them the next evening? 

If you were to visit my village, you would likely love to spend the day reading in a hammock, but at some point (if it’s not raining), I’ll force you to go visit my neighbors with me.  Having lived here for a while, I know that if we don’t visit them, they’ll feel insulted.  So you and your boots and me and my bare feet will walk down the path to visit.  Because you’re a visitor, they’ll probably make us hot chocolate and a plate of food, and even if you speak Spanish, they’ll talk through me as if you don’t.  Don’t take it personally; they did it to me too.  After a few minutes, the conversation will come to a lull, and you’ll probably feel like it’s time to leave.  That’s just because you’re new though, and I’ll insist that we must stay for at least another half hour and sit through the silence by making faces at children and doing our best not to feel awkward (because this is how my villagers do it.) If we leave too soon, that would also be an insult. 

The time you spend in my village, whether 2 days or a week, will be normal for those of us who live here, but full of wonder and excitement if this is your first visit (especially applicable to non-Peace Corps Volunteers).  Yes, I always have fresh chocolate and bananas at my house, yes we do have to bathe in the creek if the water goes out, and no, the stars aren’t always that bright- sometimes it gets a little cloudy. 

Volunteer Visit

Since you can only learn so much about Peace Corps in a classroom, trainees are sent to visit volunteers in the campo pretty early on so that they can get a taste of what life is really like.  For many, this may be their first time living in such basic conditions in such close proximity to extreme poverty, so it can be a little overwhelming.  Thankfully, that's what us volunteers are there for- to provide a nice little gateway!  

Last year I spent my trainee visit with Carly in what would eventually become my province of Bocas del Toro, and this year I was excited to host my very own trainees- Whitney and Megan!  

Like me, both Whitney and Megan have much deeper backgrounds in business than in agricultural production, so they too will be serving in a site more focused on agribusiness.  Though we packed the week full of activities, I made sure to warn them that life as a volunteer isn't usually that busy :)

During our first day, we spent the morning visiting my neighbors Juan and Lucia, who let us help take the fibers out of pita, a plant grown for just that.  Once she dries the long fibers, Lucia will then color them and wind them into thick strings which will be used to make the traditional chacara bags.  

After that, we hiked up to my host family's house, where I showed them the reality of life here- no water, electricity, or bathrooms.  Since that's always a little tougher to see (especially when you know that you're getting ready to be living in just such a place), we kept things light and then went to bake a cake with the grandma of one of my favorite families.  

To continue on with the baking trend, we used our sugar high to lead one of my baking and business classes, where we made coconut cake.  The huge slices afterwards almost made up for skipping lunch... almost.  

On Day 2 we focused on preparing and giving Part 1 of my Agribusiness Charla Series: Personal Finances.  Even though the rain gave us a small turnout, it was great to have help from not only Megan and Whitney, but also my neighboring volunteer Travis and his trainee, Nick.  I don't think my people have ever seen so many foreigners all together at once!  

The next morning we heated up our newly toasted cacao and made some delicious chocolates with some of the random stuff on hand.  If you can think of a delicious combination of chocolate, PB, coconut, carmel, coffee, sea salt, honey, and/or maple syrup, chances are we made it.  Best morning ever.  

We spent that afternoon hiking through cacao farms to get to our larger neighboring town where the girls purchased artisan goods from the group I've been working with the last few months.  

To send them off, we spent a rainy Saturday morning baking birthday cakes for a birthday party which, sadly, they had to miss in order to catch their bus back to Panama City. 

All in all, it was a great week filled with awesome food and good company.  I'll be looking forward to visiting Megan and Whitney in their future sites, wherever they may be, though of course I'll be crossing my fingers for Bocas :)

Biking on Isla Colon, Bocas del Toro

Looking for a fun, cheap, activity on Isla Colon? Rent some bikes and explore for the day! A plethora of rentals are scattered around Bocas Town and you'll have the choice of renting per hour or per day. Prices range greatly, but the best deal we found was $5/day or $7/24 hours (located at a small unnamed booth in the fork in the road around the corner from the fire station.) 

Though the island is a decent size, the limited number of roads makes it easy to navigate.  You have three basic options for biking on Isla Colon. Ranging from easiest to most difficult they are:

Cruise the roads of Bocas town. You can spend as short or as long as you want circling the busiest part of the island, but watch out for all of the vendors and pedestrians in the street. 

Heading north from town you'll pass some neat little eateries (and Bocas Brewery!) on the beach road. You'll eventually come to a marked fork in the road where you'll have two options. 

Head to Playa Bluff. This mostly flat road will end shortly before playa bluff, but thanks to 4-wheel drive traffic, the sand on the beach is packed tight enough to still be a decent ride. Stop at Paki Point for lunch and lounging- it's one of my favorite chill out spots on the island. 

Take the longer trip to the beaches of Boca del Drago. This 15km route definitely requires some leg muscles to get over the fairly constant hills, so if you're in the hunt for a bigger challenge, give it a go!

No matter what route you choose, I'm sure you'll have a great time biking on Isla Colon!

Dad's in Panama!

Before I even left the States my dad started talking about a Christmas visit to Panama, and spending hours discussing our trip over the phone was  one of the main boosts that got me through those first few months. Finally, exactly six months since I left home, my dad arrived in Panama!

We had heard that flying in through Costa Rica and then taking the 6 hour bus to Bocas del Toro would be a better and cheaper option than flying into Panama City and taking the 10 hour overnight bus.  While the flight itself was cheaper, I think it's safe to say he'll be spending the extra $150-$200 to fly directly into Bocas in the future.  When you consider a multiple nights in a hotel due to late flights, early busses, and over seven hours waiting in line to pay a $7 tourist tax, the Costa Rican entry added several hundred dollars to his trip and took away 3 nights and 4 days he could have been here.  

Regardless, he finally arrived, safe and sound, and after picking him up in town we headed straight to my village.  Even though I didn't need anyone to convince me what a cool place I live in, seeing Panama, and especially my day-to-day life, through my dad's eyes has given me a whole new appreciation for all of the things and people that make up my new village and home country.  

In the first few days we mainly relaxed and enjoyed each other's company, but we also visited a few of my neighbors, one of whom sold my dad this intricate hand-made hammock for only $20.  He was pretty excited.  

After spending a few days adjusting to village life (and realizing that when I say not to use to much shower water, I mean it), my dad and I left my little house and empty water tank and headed to the mountains of Boquete for Christmas.  To be honest, I'm not sure who was more excited about a few days of hot showers and internet, but my money's on myself.  What can I say? Sometimes you just need to feel clean and check Facebook in bed.