New Family and Friends (Little Creatures)

I have now been in Panama for three weeks. It's interesting because although many things are still very new to me, I also I feel like I have been here for months already. Last week I had a moment when I walked into my bedroom here, and I had to take a moment to remind myself that I am actually in Panama because I already had become so used to my life and home here.

My first week here in our training community has definitely treated me well. As I mentioned in the last blog post my family is wonderful. Finally I have the chance to get some more experience with kids, and lucky me, I think I have the cutest little sisters in the whole wide world.

Here is my family and I. They are very accommodating, helpful, and patient when I struggle with Spanish.

Besides family I am always surrounded by a whole variety of little creatures here. Apparently they all felt obliged to welcome me very enthusiastically my first few nights at my new home. The first two nights the mosquitos decided to say hello. I of course persisted on staying tough and not using the mosquito net. To be honest, with some natural lemon eucalyptus mosquito repellent I actually didn't get all that many bites. Then I heard the stories of two fellow volunteers already having encounters with scorpions. Knowing that I am usually very sensitive to all sorts of bites I seriously started to consider to put up my mosquito net, although I haven't seen any scorpions around my house. That night however the flying cockroaches decided to say hello and welcome me to Panama. Apparently they didn't greet me the first two days because they were all waiting until they were all free the same night so that they could all greet me simultaneously! That night my mom killed at lest 15 flying cockroaches. They are at least the size  of your thumb, though some are larger. They are honestly harmless. Well, except for when they seem to aim for your face when they fly :) That night after the cockroach fiasco my mom and I decided to put the mosquito net up. Harmless or not I just wanted to be able to sleep without them falling on my face :) Now I sleep very well in my little safe bubble!

The following evening, as I was home alone, I discovered the next lovely creature. A spider the size of a small tarantula sitting inside of a bag of mine. Luckily I spotted it before I stuck my hand in the bag. Since I have never encountered such a spider before, I did not know anything about it. However, I wasn't going to take any chances. I ran over to my host grandparents that live next door. And my Grandpa (just to clarify he is probably in his late 40’s or early 50’s) ran over and “saved the day”. He killed the not so little fella, and then informed me that the large gray spiders are not dangerous. Only the black ones are dangerous. I however have decided that with the light being as dim as it is here, I don’t plan on ever taking that close of a look. Looks like my “No Killing of Innocent Creatures” Policy is about to change. I probably haven't killed anything beside mosquitoes in years..... but that doesn't seem like the best survival strategy in Panama.
I discovered my next friend when I woke up early one morning. The sun was not up yet, and apparently the bat didn't want to be up either. I think I woke him up when I turned on my lights and before I knew it he was flying in circles basically right around my head. Getting ready that morning was quite the task. I am really good at ducking now! This bat of mine since then has flown around my room a few more times when I have woken up before dawn. The last time I have seen him was when I left for a site visit last Thursday morning. I woke up at 5:30am, and right before I left my room and the house, the little fella did a lap around my room. But just a single lap. Considerate little guy, didn't bother me at all that morning before I left on my first big adventure. Instead, he just said a little goodbye. I think I just found myself a new friend! Any name suggestions?
Besides all these wonderful creatures that are apparently sharing my room with me, I have also encountered a variety of animals just around the neighborhood. Of course there are the huge toads that somehow always seem to get stuck in the kitchen and cant find their way out. Then there was the Iguana that our neighbor brought over (I think). Big guy!


And finally, a sloth. You know, just being a sloth and laying near the sidewalk. We encountered it on the way to the school building. The encounter turned into a small photo shoot. The sloth got annoyed and tried to flee. Now if you have ever seen a sloth move you can imagine how well this worked out for the sloth. After pulling itself forward twice with its arms, it just fell asleep. Poor guy.



About an hour later when we were returning to our part of town a little boy called out to us. We weren't sure what he was yelling about at first, but we soon discovered that there was a big blob on top of the antenna or post on top of a house. This blob was the sloth. How it got up there was beyond me. How it was able to hold on I also do not comprehend, but it sure held on strong. With the help of a ladder the owner of the house was able to get the sloth down. He was very smart however because instead of trying to take the sloth down, he instead took the pole down and walked across the street with the sloth hanging from the pole and let the sloth climb onto a branch on some tree. Happy sloth, happy me.