Welcome Home!

It is Tuesday Night. I have now spent 3 full days in Santa Rita, and finally I am starting to feel at home. Had an absolutely wonderful day. Start to finish. Although I must admit that the start was a bit awkward - as things can sometimes be when trying to integrate into a new culture and family. But let me start in the beginning.

Sunday morning after a slightly exhausting week in “El Ciudad the Saber”  or the “CIty of Knowledge” we were meeting one last time before heading out to move to our new families. Although there was very little to complain about while living there, it was nice to finally head out of the little bubble in which we were all living. We were all getting a bit of cabin fever. We all received information about our to-be host families that morning. My host family consisted of my dad who was 22 years old, my mom - 23, and my two little sisters - one 4 and the other one 1 year old. Interesting I thought to myself. I have NEVER dealt with kids that young, and the dynamics might also be interesting with the parents I thought to myself. But after some initial concern I got very excited. Young parents will hopefully mean that we have a lot in common and I will have the chance to become a lot more comfortable with the little one. With that attitude I packed my bags on the van and hopped on. 

As we arrived to Santa Rita in our van of about 10 people I must admit that I was slightly confused. I was expecting a town in which poverty was very prominent. But that did not appear to be the case. At least not to the extent that I had imagined it. As the first volunteer was dropped off we were all shocked by the gorgeous yellow house with a beautiful garden. Second house got a very similar reaction from us. Now, the third house was magnificent and gated in. And here I was thinking that I would be “pooping in a hole” (I use this phrase to in short capture “harsh” living conditions as perceived by the first world). We then arrived to my house. Pool? Not to bad! I thought to myself. Please do not get confused, it is not some huge in-ground pool. It is an out of the ground pool primarily used by the children. However it is relatively big. At least 10 by 10 feet. Anyways, I was greeted by my mom with the baby in her arms. She seemed very sweet. She was very welcoming, cute and helpful, but also gave me my space and time to unpack and all. The two little girls were simply adorable! Apparently, Milagros, the 4 year old, was waiting all week for her new "hermanita" (little sister) to move in. :) TUESDAY 


Today was not a typical day for me, but hopefully it will become the “typical” day because I will certainly be going to bed tonight with a smile on my face. I woke up this morning knowing that I would finally meet my “dad” today since he has his day off. However I did not think that I would meet him in the manner in which I did. After getting up at 7:15 and getting ready, I ate the delicious omelet that my mom prepared for me and went back to my room. As I left my room and walked over to Brittany who was standing in the kitchen ready to walk over to Spanish class with me, we ran into my dad. The 22 year old half asleep without a shirt on. All I can say is that it was definitely an awkward encounter. He did not seem very excited to see me. He did not say much. All probably because he was still half asleep and there were 2 gringas standing there in his house, whom he has never seen before. Brittany and I started giggling as soon as we got out of the house (Brittany is another trainee, her host parents are the parents of my host parents, and so we share a yard and many meals). I still don't know what the best thing would have been for me to do at the moment. It would have been weird for me to pass right by him with out acknowledging his presence, but at the same time it just wasn't a good time for me to shake his hand and introduce myself. I walked to class a little concerned this morning. The previous night I was so excited that I would finally get to spend some time with my “dad” tonight and get to know him, but now it wasn't looking too promising. 

Spanish Class was wonderful, learned about the past tense, enjoyed the breeze and the landscape. I will soon post a picture of where my Spanish class takes place. Best classroom setting ever! No joke! I didn't even want a break which is surprising considering the fact that we were sitting there for 4 hours. Technical class which also lasts 4 hours went very well. I was actually wide awake for the full 4 hours. Finally I think my system is recovering! I was in a good mood all day and wanted to socialize. Which I didn't necessarily feel the need to do the past few days. When We returned from class we were excited to ask our families all about their families in order to draw the family tree for Spanish Class. When we arrived we found 2 empty houses. I lost all hope. I was looking forward to the night and speaking Spanish, and OF COURSE nobody was home I thought to myself. Then as I turned around a saw a Taxi pulling up. I knew it was my grandfather. I got soooo excited. As did Brittany. But as the car got closer we realized that it wasn't just my grandpa and her dad. It was EVERYONE. Like 8 people. Almost like a clown car :P It was my grandpa, my mom, my dad, one sister, the other sister, my moms friend, her husband, and their kid. As you can imagine, a huge smile appeared on my face. Before we knew it we were all in the kitchen/outside, chatting laughing, working on the family tree that I had to draw for homework. Then out of no where one of the men was holding an iguana and so then the iguana photo shoot began which turned into a family photo shoot. It was all a blast! I would say that that iguana made my day, but really my family made my day. It was so much fun that I almost didn't want to leave, but I promised some other volunteers that I would head down the hill to the other side of town with them after dinner. And before I even got to finish the dinner which came a lot later than expected because of all the family fun, Michael appeared in Brittany's house. 

Before we knew it, we were off on our way and so began our next adventure. One thing I am learning here in Panama is that the activity planned isn't so much the main event of the night, as the gathering of the people for the activity is. It's funny because in training they keep telling us that the product of our work as Peace Corps Volunteers isn't as important as the process is (products might only be visible years after we are done with our service). Although that always made sense, now its really taking on a tangible definition I guess. The three of us went to get another volunteer. He however was eating dinner and so he couldn't come. But instead another volunteer joined us from our part of town. And so down the hill we ventured. As we were about to turn to walk down the street entering right into the other little neighborhood we saw a group of “gringos” and without a doubt it was our volunteers. So we went to find Mels house because we needed a guitar player to play along with the violin. But before we found Mels house we encountered another volunteer and then asked 2 more to join us from the street. As we entered the yard of one, they automatically started giving up their chairs to us. Very typical here. "Paseando" Is the most common past time here I think. It is simply the activity of passing by, or going from house to house and just sitting down and chatting. And so when you stop by someones house you will without a doubt be provided with a place to sit and maybe even a snack. Be ready to chat!

After a night of wonderful music and singing and just relaxing and laughing with a group of people of a similar mindset to my own I walked back to my place in a wonderful mood. It was a very eventful day. From a productive day in Spanish class to actually participating int he second class, to iguanas and full integration with the fam, and finally the relaxing to their soothing sound and a gorgeous moon slowly rising above us. "This is the life!" I thought to myself. 

As Brittany and I got closer to our houses I realized that the music I heard, was still coming from our house. My guess was that the party was going on. Which wasn't too far off. Apparently it was just waiting for us to get to return. The five adults were still sitting on the porch just chit chatting as the bachata was blasting in the background. People here in town love to turn up their music as high as it goes so that basically the whole neighborhood can hear it. Unfortunately that also means that the people in the house cannot hear each other and so there is a lot of yelling over each other.  One theory explaining this interesting phenomenon is that the families are proud of the electronics that they own and so they want to show them off to a degree. Another is that they simply love themselves some good music. Whatever the case may be, my family loves to blast bachata, salsa, and musica tipica (Panamanian typical music with accordions and all) all of which I enjoy, so I usually have no problem with this.

Back to my story - So as I returned home, I found them all there. Before I knew it we were dancing salsa and bachata on the porch. They wanted to see if I in fact can dance salsa like I said I could. Although the style of dancing here is a bit different here, they were all very impressed and said that I do not need any lessons. :) Quite the compliment. We even danced to the musica tipica, and they said that apparently I’ve got some Panamanian blood in me. Yay! I am officially part of the family! Good stuff!