Pega What?!?

If I had to choose one Panamanian dish to eat for the remainder of my stay in Panama it would be Pega Barba. Pega Barba is one of those dishes that is served as part of a feast and usually cooked in amounts meant to serve 20 or more. The best description I can come up with is solid chicken soup. It's made by shaving yucca down to its corazon (heart) and the boiling the yucca until it becomes a paste or glue (pega.) While the pega is cooking a guisao or chicken stew is made using onions, peppers, and whatever other vegetables they care to use. The stew broth is then added to the pega, and cooked until thouroghly mixed. Then served with the chicken on top, and often accompanied with rice and/or noodles. It's delicious and has that filling "stick to your ribs" property.

PS I'll try to get a picture next time it's made.

I'll just end up walkin' In the cold November rain

GNR could've been talking about Panama when they wrote November Rain. November is by far Panamas rainiest month, and this November has been no different. Substantial flooding has occurred in the western half of the country, and has left several volunteers stranded in their sites. Other volunteers in the provinces of Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, and the Comara Ngobe-Bugle have been assisting the Panamian government with relief efforts. Fortunately, all volunteers in the area are reported to be safe, and are in the process of heading to their consolidation points for an official head count. I'm sure that if you read some of the blogs that I have linked to on the right side of the screen, you'll find that they have some interesting stories to tell over the next few weeks.

At this point, you may be wondering how my site fared. Since, I'm posting here, I am obviously safe and sound. My site received much of the same rain that fell in the western part of the country, and we had 8 straight days of rain (3 of those days were heavy rain,) probably 9 days since its still raining today. However, because my community is nestled within the foothills of central Cocle (where many of the larger rivers begin,) the watersheds of all the surrounding streams and rivers are relatively small. As a result, my community doesn't need to worry about major flooding. The rivers and streams may rise 2-4 feet and prevent the usual crossings by foot or chiva, but the floodwaters quickly recede within an hour or two when the rain stops.

To those volunteers in the western half of the country, good luck and please pass along your stories. I know many of you will have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day.

A Walk in the Woods

I recently finished reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods (which has been on my to read list for a few years now,) and was struck by the parallels in the book between hiking the Appalachian Trail to Peace Corps service in Panama. Descriptions of the diet (mainly starches,) reactions to arriving in towns, the amount of physical exertion required, the stunning natural beauty, and the rapid disappearance of that same beauty all have their parallels here in Peace Corps Panama. So if you want a good appreciation of life here in Panama reading a Walk in the Woods may help you understand life here a little more. Even if it doesn't, it's excellent reading.

Tour of the town

The town church which is near the school and is the only other community building in town.

One of the many stream crossings in town. This is the one closest to my house that I cross every day.

My house where I'm living for my first month.

One of the many chorros, or waterfalls in the town. This one is about 6 feet tall. I'm told there is a waterfall that is 30 feet tall near my house, but I have yet to find it.

This is the school building, and the "center" of town. About 40 students attend the school for grades 1-6. The school is one of the only concrete structures in town and serves as the meeting spot for all community wide events. Its also the only place in town with electricity, and has a television for the community to use.

A beautiful spot in town, and an example of the landscape.

Celebration Time!

A fer-de-lance or equis snake. The most common of the poisonous snakes in Panama. My host father killed this one near our house.

The men of Group 62 at our Swear-In Ceremony in front of the Ambassador's House.
Other people have the full group which I need to get.

One of the many beautiful streams in my village.

Most of the group at the beach in Santa Clara celebrating after swear-in.

Obama Wins!

So by now all of you probably know by now that Obama won! And equally importantly Obama won Virginia. Once a Republican stronghold Virginia is now likely a blue state similar to Pennsylvania for years to come. I was able to vote thanks to a federal absentee ballot which was delivered to the Virginia Elections Board directly thanks t0 the wondrous powers of the diplomatic mail pouch which bypassed the painfully slow Panamanian mail system. It's good to have those diplomatic connections.

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.