¡Hasta luego Panamá!

After 9 amazing months here in the small, yet beautiful provence of Chiriqui, Panama, it is time for me to say goodbye at last. No matter where you are in Panama, you will hear that the people from Chiriqui are the nicest (and proudest) in the country. You can supposedly tell if a person is from this area based on their warmth and friendly nature.  Yes, I might be somewhat biased, but my experience here in David has only confirmed every word of this widespread belief.  From my first days in David to my last, everyone here has been nothing but extremely welcoming, helpful and generous.  I would like to say thank you to all who have made this experience unforgettable for me.  I was extremely fortunate to work with some of the most incredible people at UNACHI as well as at Casa Esperanza.  Both colleagues and students from these places are people that I will never forget and will keep in my heart for the rest of my life.
I would say without hesitation that my experience here in David has been a great success. I have gained invaluable experience in the classroom as I have taught classes at a public University geared towards improving reading and oral communication skills and I have volunteered in a great organization that fights against child labor in which I got to tutor and mentor local students. But to me, the real success comes from the small things. For example, I had great conversations and laughed with many people, I learned about and immersed myself in the Panamanian and Chiricano culture, I shared parts of my own culture with friends and colleagues.  I believe the Fulbright Scholarship English Teaching Assistantship is about much more than just the teaching, but rather its true significance lies in the mutual understanding that is generated between people from different cultures all around the world.  For many people with whom I have met and conversed here in David, I have been their only personal experience with someone from the United States.  In that way, it has been a privilege to represent my country and give a more realistic portrayal of U.S. culture and its people in comparison to the TV shows or songs on the radio which was all they had beforehand. The smiles, laughs, and exchange of views and experiences are what really make me feel proud of the work I have done here as well as honored to have been given such a unique opportunity. Thank you all and ¡Viva Chiriqui!

What's up, Doc?

Unfortunately, I was struck with food poisoning (or una infección de los intestinos) this past Sunday and was up the entire night, feeling worse by the minute.  Fortunately, I have formed relationships here with people that I can count on no matter the time or circumstance.  At 5:30 a.m., a time when I couldn’t bear it any more and still saw no end to the pain, I called the head of the English Department, Gisela, to come take me to the hospital.  After I said the word hospital, I tried to tell her that if she wasn’t able to or if it was too early she didn’t have to, however, she had hung up and was on her way by that point.  Once we got to the ER, I was thankfully hooked up to some IV fluids and managed to rest for a couple of hours while they ran some blood tests. The doctor told me that I had una infección de los intestinos and that he would prescribe several medicines for me to take in the next 5 days.  I am feeling better and able to function now, but still waiting for the terrible pain to go away in the stomach area. By the way, for treatment in the ER and 4 prescribed drugs, the total came out to $80....unbelievable. I was so close to making it out of here without getting sick...but, I guess every trip needs a hospital experience to really be considered a success, right?

Anyways, before I was confined to house and hospital arrest, I attended a couple of parades and festivals in a month filled with holidays here.  The first festival was in the parking lot at the mall and was filled with cars that had gigantic (and colorful) speakers blasting out of their trunks.  You would get to the end of one aisle and wonder if your eardrums would ever be the same again.  There was then a band competition on the stage later in the night in which 3 bands (consisting mostly of drums and horns) performed some fun, lively songs for the packed crowd to enjoy.  

It was also parade time in David (check last entry for more information on the different holidays from this month):

No turkey with the fam this year, but we have a special Thanksgiving event/feast at UNACHI on Thursday which should be great.  Hopefully, I'll be feeling well enough by then as I've been looking forward to it for a long time.  

10 days left until I return home to the U.S. for good! This month has honestly flown by, I can't believe there is so little time left.  CRAZY. Alright, take care everyone, hope all is well!

The Final Month

Today marks the first day of my final month here in Panama on my Fulbright Scholarship while my friend and colleague in Panama City, Libby, finished up her grant and flew home yesterday.  Sad to think that this experience is coming to an end so rapidly.  But, as is the case with a job, vacation, or sometimes life, when there is a known end date, it gives you a unique opportunity to really seize each day and appreciate every experience.  That is why I am more excited than sad...excited to have a great month in which I will take advantage of every opportunity and enjoy the time left with the great friends I have made here.
November is also the favorite month of most Panamanians as it is a month marked with many holidays throughout.  Today, tomorrow and Friday are vacation days for almost everyone as Panama celebrates its separation from Columbia tomorrow and its Flag Day on Friday.  Parades and festivities will fill the air and streets of Panama tomorrow from early morning until evening time.  I will hopefully get some good pictures of it all and capture some of the holiday spirit that has already filtered into the people and city here in David.  Next week, November 10th is a holiday celebrating the "Anniversary of the First Call for Independence from Spain" which is awesome, because why only celebrate a country's Independence Day when you can also celebrate the "first call" for that Independence Day?  The actual Independence Day is on November 28th.  My theory is that November is loaded with holidays in order to try to offset the drag of the constant rain during probably the wettest month of the rainy season.
Last Tuesday, UNACHI hosted students from the English Department at La Universidad de Panama from the Coclé region (who were gracious hosts to us a few weeks before).  We began with tours of our campus as well as presentations by students from universities.  While it was difficult at times to hear the students performing (the stage in the gym is kind of a black hole for sound), it was still clear from the dramas, speeches, and the reciting of various English poems by Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe that these students put in a lot of hard work and are extremely impressive English speakers.

After the presentations, we all piled into a couple of buses and headed to the beautiful highlands of Boquete.  Unfortunately for some professors, however, they decided to pile into one of their own cars and showed up about an hour and a half late after getting pulled over and terribly lost (ouch).  Anyway, the rain thankfully held off for us and we were able to walk through some nice gardens there and sightsee in the downtown area.

And, of course, a trip to the highlands is never complete without a fresh strawberry pit stop.

This is really encouraging for the two schools to be forming such a close relationship and is hopefully just the beginning as it provides both groups of students with an opportunity to get together, share their experiences as well as practice speaking English with one another in an informal setting.
On another note, while children generally don't go door to door trick-or-treating in Panama, I did spot one superhero going grocery shopping.  I think this young man's mission was to spread the Halloween fever as he was very concerned that nobody seemed to understand it was Halloween since he was the only one doing his shopping in a full body Spider-Man costume.  Overheard him saying: "Mama! Nadie sabe que es Halloween!" (Nobody knows it's Halloween!)

That's it from me for now, but hopefully in the next blog I can provide you all with some pictures from the celebrations, parades and festivities from here in the heart of Panama! Tomalo con calma everyone, love you all.

English Week! (pics and videos)

First of all, I just want to say our hearts and prayers go out to Gisela, Carmen and Olda Cano and the rest of their family for the loss of their mother.  I went to the mass today and, despite never meeting this woman, it was clear she was a special woman who meant very much to a lot of people.
Well, excluding the sad events of today, this past week has definitely been one of the most fun and exciting weeks for me since coming to Panama. This week was "English Week" at UNACHI, a great tradition that has been going on at the school since 1984.  Each day of the week was dedicated to different events that promote the use of the language and showcase the skills and hard work of teachers and students alike in the Humanities Department.  The theme for this years English Week was "Go Green" so basically every event/sketch had to somehow promote the idea of reduce, reuse, recycle.  Great to see how much this concept is being advocated as of late.  Since I came here in March, recycling bins for different materials have been installed on campus as well as numerous signs/posters around the community.

Monday was seminar day.  I was selected as one of three speakers to make an hour long presentation to the students of the English Department and whatever faculty were interested in attending. A couple of classes from the Math Department also showed up and I was actually really impressed with the level of English those students displayed.  But keep in mind that this seminar took place in Panama.  When I say that all of these people attended, I do not mean that they showed up on time per say; the saying here should be "Why start on time when you could start an hour later?" Here is a picture of the auditorium at 9:00, the scheduled start time of the seminar:

Once the lectures did start, however, I thought they were well delivered and provided for an entertaining morning.  The first speaker discussed taking care of our environment and the implications that go along with that, while the other one talked about making plans and setting goals for our personal lives. My presentation dealt with culture, more specifically, "The Significance of Culture in Our World."  This was a fun and relatively easy topic for me to talk about having experienced a number of diverse cultures around the world.  While I lectured about what makes up a culture, cultural universals, differences between cultures and why there are such differences, I didn't think my words alone could do this topic justice.  How can you explain something like culture shock or what it feels like?  Uhh, it's difficult and uncomfortable because people do things differently than you? If I were in the audience, those words just wouldn't mean much of anything to me. Therefore, I created an activity that would get the students involved and potentially better able to understand what it would be like to be a foreigner in a culture with very different customs and traditions. I searched for a wide variety of customs unique to different cultures around the world (including a couple they are familiar with in Panama) and wrote one of these customs on slips of paper.  Then, in groups I asked the audience to discuss their assigned custom, how it would make them feel if they had to move there tomorrow, and why they think they would feel that way.  This sparked some interesting conversation and thoughts from which I extracted common words such as, "crazy," "ridiculous," "normal," etc.  We all have perceptions of the world and how it's supposed to be, and these views are shaped and nurtured by the culture in which we grow up (whether we realize it all the time or not).

On Tuesday, several high schools from all over the provence came to UNACHI in order to participate in competitions throughout the day.  The contests included jeopardy trivia (on recycling facts), poetry (reciting memorized poems about keeping the earth green), oratory (memorized speeches about the importance of being green), singing, and dramas.  I had a great time judging all of the contests except for oratory and came away extremely impressed with these high schoolers' courage and English skills.

Here are some clips from the singing contest that I uploaded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ629reMpMM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx5aJjPuUYQ

Wednesday was a free day for UNACHI students to polish up their sketches and dances for the much anticipated “Get Together” on Thursday. 

The big day was Thursday.  Students have been working for months preparing and practicing sketches that they have created.  So, at 10 a.m. (the Get Together starts at 1 pm) I get an e-mail from the head of the department that there is a lunch at 11.  A quick change of plans there.  It also stated that we will be in the fashion show and to bring a description of my outfit.  ...Come again?  Fashion show? I need an outfit?  This was news to me and of course was so glad to get it an hour before I now had to leave. (Threw together a ridiculous outfit of some seersucker pants, a white silk button down, some sperrys and a backwards yankees cap.) That wasn’t all in this e-mail though.  OK, so there was some talk brewing a few weeks earlier that we might, as a staff, put together a dance for the event for fun, but since no teachers ever showed up to the scheduled practices and there was no further word about it, I gratefully stopped worrying late at night about this happening....until these words showed up in my e-mail, “I didn't call for rehearsal yesterday, but we will improvise and you will lead the steps because I guess you are the one who has seen more often.  Be ready.”  Uh-uh, aint happening.  Life lesson: there are times when a man should accept the challenges and surprises that come along and deal with them. Then, there are times when that man needs to put his foot down.  This was, without a doubt, a time to bring that foot down.   

Anyways, I was one of 3 judges for this event in a packed auditorium.  Some of the criteria included creativity, using recycled goods for costumes and scenery, language fluency and pronunciation, choreography, etc. Every group put together a sketch (i.e. Freshman morning, Freshman afternoon, Sophomore morning, etc.)  I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the final products put together by all of the English students.  So much excitement, so much creativity, it really was a special night that I won’t forget.  I’ll share some pictures with you all (I have a video of one of the sketches, but unfortunately, it would take a couple hours to upload onto here).  

Also I had some fun with that fashion show in the middle of the event, but still thanking the big guy above I didn’t have to do any planned choreography.

Finally, on Friday, several faculty members and about 30-35 students who were able to go went on a field trip to Penonomé.  This is a city about 5 hours away from David and a couple hours outside of Panama City.  Because it is so far, the bus was scheduled to leave at 4 a.m. (although, of course, keeping in mind we’re in Panama, it left at 5:15).  I found the city to be a really nice, quaint place with a strong Spanish influence evidenced in the numerous parks with big Cathedrals adjacnt to these plazas (typical in Spain).  We also stopped at and were welcomed by another University in the area as they toured us around not only their university, but also the surrounding area.  At the end of the day, they put on a few performances for us including a “typical” dance (Panama’s traditional dance), some singing and a couple short drama pieces.  I had so much fun on the trip and got to know the students who went on it a whole lot better.  It was a perfect way to cap off a fantastic and memorable week here in David, Panama.

Also, 2 months to the day until I return to the U.S.! Starting to fly by at this point.. 

Ciao amigos

Say what?

Panamanian Observation #2: It seems like the majority of the people here work at least two jobs.  I find this to be especially true in the academic world for teachers and professors for example.  The school system is broken up into morning and afternoon sessions in Panama.  The morning session lasts from 7-noon while the other half of students go to school from 12-5 in the afternoon.  Colleagues at UNACHI usually work at the university either in the a.m. or p.m. and are constantly on the run, either coming from or going to another school or occupation where they work for the other half of the day.  Although, from what I have heard from asking around, this is not the only reason for multiple jobs.  Apparently, many companies and institutions look to hire employees part-time in order to avoid having to pay full-time salaries that carry with them extensive insurance, health care benefits, etc. Therefore, the idea is that two part-time employees is better business than hiring one full-time employee.  Regardless of exactly why there are so few full-time workers, the moral of the story is that I have found Panama's citizens to be some of the hardest working people I've ever met.

So, my newest adventure is learning to play the piano.  It took about a month to just find a place with a piano (not the most popular instrument here), but I have finally found a great place at a local children's school for the arts called Escuela de Bellas Artes.  I am taking classes 2 times a week from a teacher who definitely knows his stuff.  Never would have thought I would be taking piano lessons in Spanish in this lifetime.  Add it to the list I guess.


This past weekend was really great; Libby, the other Fulbright ETA in Panama City, came here, giving me a chance to show her some of the stuff that makes Chiriqui the best provence in Panama.  Friday was our David exploration day (although all you really need is a David exploration hour).  We met up at 6 am at the bus station, giving us PLENTY of time for this small city.  It was a beautiful day though as we walked all around downtown, giving her a feel for the layout of the place, the humidity as well as the people. We took a pitstop in Momentos, a hip, relaxing coffee shop, which I plan to take advantage of more here in these last months.  Early in the afternoon, I took her over to see Casa Esperanza.  I got lucky when I took Lauren, Ellis and Allison as well as my parents to Casa Esperanza because all of the kids were there and they got to get a good feel for what goes on.  Unfortunately, (well, fortunate for the kids) the students finished their exams last week and so were on vacation starting that afternoon.  As a result, they were all headed to the soccer field as we approached.  Introductions were brief, but she was still able to meet some of the students and teachers as well as see inside the area.  We then went to UNACHI, since I now lead my drama club on Friday afternoons from 4:30-6 this semester.  WOW.  Hats off to my afternoon students and the work they have done on their skit for the "Get Together."  Libby and I were both blown away by the imagination of the act in addition to their English skills throughout.
Saturday, we made our way to Boquete, a mandatory spot when visiting Chiriqui. We ended up feasting at a French restaurant for lunch as we both got escargot for appetizers and duck and rabbit for our entrees. (Yeah, Boquete has a slight advantage when it comes to food compared to David.)  Another nice day, but this time with a much more fresh and mild climate in the highlands of Boquete.
Sunday was raining so we were forced to watch the first Sunday of this years NFL season...can't say I was too upset about the weather.  Well, I just want to thank Libby for making the trek out to this neck of the woods and hope to possibly meet up for the baseball world championships in the City.

I mentioned the "Get Together" and I figured I should give you all a brief idea of what that is all about.  (This attachment gives an in depth description and history of the event if you can read it..if not, I can email it to whoever is interested in learning more about it.)  The week of September 26th-30th is "English Week" at UNACHI.  Students from high schools all over Chiriqui come to campus to participate in English contests such as trivia, drama productions, singing, etc. throughout the week  (I've been asked to be a judge for all that which I'm really excited to do. Speaking of judging, I went to a local high school a couple of weeks ago and was one of 3 judges for a musical contest.  Great experience with wonderful performances!  Anyways, getting off track.) So then, on Thursday the 29th, all of the students in the English Department at UNACHI put on skits and dramas.  The students work for months in preparation for this event and it is probably the biggest day of the year at UNACHI.  I might be involved somehow, but can't let in on any secrets just yet.  I'll try to potentially upload some firsthand video of the festivities in my next post.
OK, tomalo con calma. Miss you all!

The 2nd Half

So, now that I'm out of vacations and on my own here for the next 3-4 months, I figured I'd start doing a "Panamanian Observation"for each blog.  There are things I notice from time to time here in Panama that are naturally going to be different from what one would find in the U.S. (or maybe after 6 months, I'm just so out of the loop of what's happening or what's cool in the U.S. that I think they're different..just tell me if things have changed) and I'll use these blogs to record them.
Panama Observation #1: Guys + pink = cool. The first time I saw a male student at Casa Esperanza carrying a pink backpack, I thought he was joking around or carrying it for his girlfriend.  Then I saw 2, 3, 4 more boys with them too.  I realized that these young teenage boys were either extremely whipped in their new relationships or there was a trend here that blue is out and pink is in. Pink shirts, pink backpacks, pink hats--Watch out America, new trend alert.

I have gone on a couple more trips since the last time I wrote, so I'll update you all on those. In mid-July, it was great to see and host my family for a week and a half.  We kicked things off with a trip to an island near David called Boca Brava. This was a really serene and pretty resort on an isolated island--and isolated, it was!  1 restaurant, no snacks in between meals (the worst), 2 - 4 other guests besides us, etc. Funny thing about isolated islands is that when it rains.....what the hell do you do?  Fortunately, it only rained for the first day and a half there (we were there for 4 days), but we were definitely getting a little nervous/antsy (as well as intrigued by how many books we could all read) if it continued to rain.  I think we spent just the right amount of time there, as we did pretty much every activity they had to offer...we went kayaking (an adventure we weren't sure we would make it out of alive), snorkeling in the coral off a picture perfect white sand beach, swam in the infinity pool and enjoyed some great meals.

We then spent a few days at an amazing Inn in Boquete.  Everything there in the resort as well as the surrounding town was beautiful.  Plus, a much livelier feel to it which we welcomed after our stay in Boca Brava. We finished up in Panama City, staying at another great place in Casco Viejo.  Gracias a mi familia!!
After my recent travels all over Panama, I really feel as though I've seen most of the country and what it has to offer.  It really is a beautiful country with such a diverse landscape which offers a bounty of different sights and experiences that anyone would appreciate.
I also took a week at the beginning of August to go back to the U.S. and visit Lauren in Virginia.  We hopped around down there from Dulles to Virginia Beach and Arlington to name some.  We went to a Kenny Chesney concert in VA Beach for her birthday which was surprisingly halfway decent and fun (never thought I'd go to a country concert, let alone say that).  Anyways, we met up with a few friends down there too (shout outs to Brett, Brittany and Alex!) for a night.  It was all just sort of surreal to be back especially for such a short time. Still, it was great to go back and I look forward to seeing everyone in December!
Anyways, these trips were great to help me relax, get ready and get excited for the final part of my grant. The 2nd semester at UNACHI began this past week and it's been exciting to come back, already settled in and see the now-familiar faces.
Tomorrow I really get to put my elementary education background to use as I give a lesson to 4th year students about teaching elementary science.  The English program here at UNACHI is also a teacher preparation program.  While some go on to become translators, work abroad, etc., the majority are studying to become English teachers in some capacity.  Therefore, not only are these students learning English themselves, they're also learning how to teach the language at the same time.
OK, that's all from me for today, hope you are all doing well!
P.S. as some of you saw on my facebook...I was welcomed back home here by a dead tarantula by my bed!! OH COME ON

Panamanian and Uruguayan Adventures

I have been so lucky these past few weeks to be blessed with visitors in Panama, a Fulbright seminar in Uruguay, seeing amazing things on both trips, and meeting some great people. 

As I mentioned in my last entry, I was thankfully able to convince Lauren, Ellis and Allison to come and explore this unique country with me.  In David to start, I showed them around UNACHI and Casa Esperanza introducing them to most everyone I work with.  I get a lot of "Hey, there's a gringo" looks walking by myself around UNACHI, so imagine the stares we got as I toured our group of 4 gringos around (including 1 blonde).  To give you a better visual, it felt kind of like a mixture between walking down the red carpet and the arrival of the martians' scene in "Mars Attacks."  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMdC45S79uQ

Casa Esperanza was great as the kids there had been looking forward to my guests coming for weeks by this point.  We had a blast there and they were able to see how much fun and energetic the children are.  The kids just bombarded them with questions from the moment we stepped in and Lauren, Ellis and Allison, who can speak a combined 15 words or so of Spanish, would do their best at playing charades in order to understand as well as ask questions/convey information back to them. 

The next day we began the most beautiful part of our trip as we headed to our private villa in Bocas del Toro.  We stayed at Red Frog Beach, and anyone wanting to get an incredible combination of endless beach and rain forests, this is one place to check out.

Our next journey was to Volcan to hike a specific trail that was supposedly the most beautiful in all of Central America according to one guide book.  Well, the day could be seen as successful or unsuccessful depending on how you look at it.  I think it's fair to say that we all ended up seeing it as a memorable day rather than "successful or not."  We spent the morning taking the bus to Cerro Punta and getting off where our bus "helper" told us the entrance to the National Park was.  Weird thing about that was the fact that there was not a single sign informing us that we were in or entering a national park. Red flag.  Yet we carried on blindly.  After an hour or so of hiking we came to a fork that split into 3 directions. Just what we were hoping for...Walked the first one for 10 min..dead end.  Walked the second one that led into the mountains until we decided that was not what the trail was supposed to be like.  The third way definitely wasn't it either, but we decided to go a little ways on it anyway.  We ended up spotting a tin house in the middle of nowhere with two men hanging out on the porch.  Desperate and frustrated I approached them and asked about the trail. The one man said we were in the wrong area and had to go back to the main road and take a bus farther down....are we serious. Luckily this man offered to drive us back to the main road which I'm sure gave them something to talk about for the next few years.  After tipping him we got on the next bus.   We finally reached the bottom of the area we were looking for (as there was a sign, naturally), but still had a very long and hard uphill hike awaiting us just to get to the rangers station/beginning of the actual trail.  We hadn't yet eaten our packed lunches and it was already approaching 2:00--getting late for a 5 hour hike. That's where Hitchhiking Part II comes in.  The 4 of us got into the trailer of a truck heading up and, thinking we would get a short lift to help us out, it soon became clear these guys were taking us to the absolute top.  This path got rockier and rockier, steeper and steeper, narrower and narrower the higher we progressed--in other words, it was getting more and more obvious that this was not a path meant for cars. After 25 or so minutes of this flying and rolling around in the back, we made it to our destination.  All in all, we ended up doing a small portion of the trail which turned out to be pretty uninspiring, but as Hannah Montana puts it: It's the climb.

The last few days were spent in Panama City and we were exposed to some great restaurants and areas as well as a very unique and interesting tour to the Embera Indian Village. Amazing to see a community of people live so plainly yet seem to be so happy.  

I had to leave a day early unfortunately and head to Uruguay for a Fulbright Enhancement Seminar.  (I know, tough life huh?)  Well, the fresh air that hit me stepping out of that airport was something I haven't felt in months...and I loved it.  It's winter in Uruguay and can't exactly say I had a winter wardrobe prepared. Really didn't matter though as I was basking in the coolness knowing that soon, it would be back to the stifling humidity.  

Anyways, the trip was wonderfully planned and led by the Uruguayan commission.  It was a perfect balance between work and presenting, learning from a Senior English Language Fellow, sightseeing as a group all around Montevideo, as well as free time to explore on our own.  As great as it all was, the last day at Estancio Siglo XX was a paradise on Earth.  Green land until the eye can see, horseback riding, llamas, bottomless glass of wine, an amazing lunch, soccer field, hammocks, 70 degrees with a slight breeze.  I think every one of us at some point in the day plotted a way for us to never leave.  It was a fitting end to an unforgettable few weeks here in Latin America.

Happy 4th of July everyone!  

Tomalo con calma.