Site announcement

What a big emotional day. Today we received our assignments for our site and project. I went into this day not knowing what the next two years of my life will consist of. And now I somewhat have an answer.
I am headed to a site in the province of Bocas del Toro to work with a group of indigenous Ngobe-Bugle farmers with the production of cacao (otherwise known as Cocoa and used to make chocolate all around the world). I will also get to working on home gardens, mud stoves, an aquaduct project, and with a women's artisan group. Incredibly enough, I will have a view of the Bocas del Toro islands and Caribbean ocean. And I will get to learn a new language too! The people in my community speak both Spanish and Ngobere, so it will be quite an experience. I am so incredibly excited and feel that somehow I have received the most wonderful project and site assignment possible for me!

Training has been a riot!

So it has been quite some time since I have had a moment to sit down and use the world wide web. And so much has happened in this first month and a half of living in Panama. To sum it up, it has been amazing, wild, adventurous, awkward, wonderful, and a riot.
I have been living in a small town about an hour and a half outside of Panama City. I live in a tiny pink cement house on top of a big hill with a wonderful host family in a great community. I look out and see mango trees and cashew trees and parakeets and parrots. I have seen bats and poison dart frogs and tarantulas. We have been taking language classes and technical agriculture classes six days a week for eight hours a day. I have been learning so much that some times I feel that my mind can't take it all in. But it is amazing. We have been traveling around the country, visiting volunteers and just attempting to learn what lies ahead for us. Some of my experiences follow. Playing dominoes late at night with the entire extended family which all live within yelling distance of my little pink house. Waking up to bumping reggaeton music every morning at 6am. Riding on public transportation called Diablos Rojos, otherwise known as Red Devils which are actually american school buses painted with outrageous murals and decked out with sequins and jems. Eating breakfast consisting of fried corn hockey pucks and fried hot dogs (not my favorite, but we are having a volunteer contest to see who consumes the most fried hot dogs over the next two years, winner might get a ride in the oscar meyer weiner truck back in the states). Winning ten dollars in bingo and twelve dollars in the local lottery. Busing over the grand canal and still feeling amazed every time. Swimming in the waterfall near by. Eating fresh mangoes as they fall to the ground like rain in the northwest. There are so many more stories and experiences, so more to come soon!