Site Visit

After a community entry conference to meet our community guides and prepare for site entry, I finally visited the town I’m going to be living in for the next two years. It’s a really nice town. High enough in the mountains to not be hot and humid, but not so high as to be rainy and cold. Almost the whole time I was there it was sunny, clear, and a good temperature. Apparently, it usually rains a lot, but I didn’t see that. Overall, it seemed a little bit more like the American Midwest than a tropical paradise. Its pretty flat, not too many palm trees, plus its Big Ag country. As opposed to small subsistence farming, there’s two big companies (see logos in picture) that employ a lot of people, bring in money, and use up the land. There’s about 400-500 people in the community, plus I should also be working in a nearby community of about 250. That was the most intimidating part for me: walking by all the houses and knowing I needed to go meet and talk (in Spanish) with all those people. I’m not totally sure about work, but there should be potential. There’s already an environmental group in the community, and a women’s group, so I’ll probably work with both of those groups. Also, I should teach environmental education in the schools. I met both the school director and the representante (local leader). Both were really enthusiastic about raising environmental consciousness. I even got invited as a guest of honor to the Father’s Day celebration at the school. The director talking about how I was “solita” and “jovencita” so they should welcome me with food and open arms.
One surprising thing was that, being Chiriqui and near Boquete (or Gringolandia), I ran into some older retired American gentlemen. Married to Panamanian women. Living much cheaper than they could in the U.S. Panama (and Boquete in particular) is supposedly one of the hotspots for retirement. So, I did have some conversations in English, though it was sort of like listening to your grandpa talk about the good old days.
In other news, I finally got my cell phone from the U.S. to work. Yep, rather than buy a new phone, I managed to get a SIM card and unlock the thing. Having a Cell phone: Peace Corps isn’t what it used to be. So, I’m going to need people’s phone numbers (sadly erased). Also, please send me some kind of message and I’ll give you my phone number. And you should get a plan that lets you make cheap international phone calls (hehe).