Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Graduate

Training is finally over and this afternoon we swear in as official volunteers. It's a relief to finally be done with training and I think all 34 of us are ready to head to our communities and get started on our work. We'll have the next couple of days to celebrate, and then we head to our sites on Sunday. I'm ready but can admit to being a little nervous about living in a site that has no electricity, running water, or cell phone signal and requires a 2 hour hike to the nearest road to leave. However, I'm looking forward to it, and believe I will eventually adjust.

Monday, October 20, 2008

More Blogs to Read

If you take a look to the right, you'll see links to the blogs of some of my fellow volunteers. I recommend you check them out since they have some interesting stories, and topics that I forgot to mention. Perhaps more importantly, they have some great pictures so give them a read and feel free to discuss any of their posts or ask any questions here.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Is anyone a used horse salesman?

So one thing from the trip that became abundantly clear is that I´m going to need to buy a horse (and a saddle.) Anyone have any advice? How old is too old? I know 3 years is probably preferred, but where I´m at I´ll be lucky if the horses ribs aren´t visible. What health problems do I need to be aware of?

This is where I´m going to live

So we got to visit our future sites this week for 5 and half days, and to tell the truth I´m still processing the visit, so you´ll all have to check back here in about a week to find out what I´m thinking. Initial impressions: isolate, beautiful, and muddy.

One of my community counterparts (José) and his family who hosted my stay this week. I won´t be living with his family during my first 3 months, but I will be working with him in the future.

José standing in front of a large tree.


My sole connection to the outside world, the public phone. Thats the satelitte dish to the right.


My community is down below, before the mountain range.


My first toucan sighting! This one is a pet of the families in my community.


More of the jungle.

Friday, October 3, 2008

La Vaina

Peace Corps Panama has a quarterly newsletter called La Vaina (slang for "you know that thing, the one with the name you can´t remember right now") The latest issue can be found at the address below along with an awful picture of yours truly.

http://www.pcpfpanama.org/lavaina/index.html