Real volunteers now

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now. We had our swearing in ceremony this past Thursday at the ambassador's house with all the Peace Corps Panama staff, the world Peace Corps Director, Panama governmental representatives, many returning panama volunteers and our large group of 46 new volunteers. It was a wonderful ceremony followed by a great evening of food and dancing. And now, after a wonderful weekend spending time with my entire group, trying to hold on to those last moments that we can share, we each head out on our own to our sites. I am excited and very nervous. This is a big step forward in this process. A big step into the unknown, alone. But not really alone, because we all are in this together and are supporting each other as well as I know I have so much support from all my loved ones back home and around the world. So over these next few months, I would love to hear from all of you, through snail mail or even phone, since I have cell phone service at my site. So here I go, headed off into the experience of a lifetime!

A visit into my future life.

I just got back from my week long site visit which was a really good time. My site is incredible and I am excited about all the projects that I am going to be working on. Of course, there were some awkward times and some exhausting times, but overall, really good. I arrived at the bottom of the very steep hill that I walk up to reach my community, with a lot of very heavy bags and began trekking upwards to my new home. Half way up I was greeted by a party of young men chopping the weeds on the side of the gravel road, all swinging their machetes in the sweltering sun. They offered to put my bags in the wheel barrow and push it up the rest of the ways. I stayed with an incredibly kind family. The second day in, I got to work with a few community member filling bags with dirt to start a vivero (tree nursery) with trees to eventually plant in the cacao farms to develop the agroforestry system. They all chatted away in ngobere and told lots of jokes in spanish. Pretty funny. And then I spent a day sewing with the women on the traditional dresses they wear (good thing my mom taught me how to quilt when I was young!) And I am going to work with them on managing their cacao, selling chocolate, putting in some fish tanks and estufas lorenas ( earthen stoves) and teach some english classes and help out with the school garden. I am incredibly excited!

Here are just a few pictures of some of my adventures over the last little while. I will write more of the real stories soon!

The first tropical ailment

Living in the tropics presents many possible health problems, everything across the board from dengue fever, to malaria, intestinal parasites, worms that grow beneath your skin or in your stomach, to bug bites that turn into flesh eating growths that necessitate 20 days of IV injection in a hospital. In short, life in the tropics is tough.

My first ailment, which I am sure is only the first of many, began the middle of last week, starting with a few bumps and within a few days, turning into a thriving rash threatening to take hold of my entire body and turn it into an itching, red, swollen mess. I tried everything from pills to creams, soaps, eucalyptus oil, oatmeal pastes, to three medicinal plants, one of which I followed a very old man on a crazy plant hunt for this perfect cure. Nothing worked. Sleeping was tough. I had to wear long socks on my hands to keep from itching, and if I managed to fall asleep, I would awake scratching and scratching.

Then my legs began to swell. So I decided it was time to abort the attempt just to ride it out. To the clinic I went and received 3 injections and 4 pills and a cream. And it is improving greatly. And now I just look like a burn victim with the aftermath of the rash. Man, I can’t wait to see what awaits me next. I think that it will be the flesh eating bug bites.