Never alone

Human beings, the most horrible and cruel species alive, some would argue. I remember my senior year of college I took courses such as "Political Violence" and "Terrorism" among others. That semester was a rough one for me. I am usually a very happy person, ambitious, always wanting to go out there and get to know new people around the world because I believe in the good of people. That semester however I began to lose hope when it came to humanity. No other species kills as many of its own kind without true reason like 

Fortunately, I joined the Peace Corps. Have I "changed lives" yet? I'm not sure. Probably not in any very significant yet. However, I can already say that my perspective of the world is definitely being influenced. As for these horrible human beings,  fortunately that is only one side of them. In addition to the selfish and cruel, there are also the altruistic, caring people with incredibly good hearts. Many of which I have met here in my community. I have now been living in my own house for a week. This is first time living all on my own. But honestly, I am far from being all on my own and alone. Like always I have received an unimaginable amount of support from incredible individuals.

Last week Wednesday was the day I decided to clean out the whole house since I wanted to move in on Thursday. Of course shortly after arriving to my house my next door neighbor, Juan and his wonderful wife, Chela, and daughter, Astrid were by my side helping me along with Chela's two sisters. Before I knew it my fridge and oven, and shelving units were all outside getting scrubbed. Then we received another wonderful addition to the wonderful team, Omar, 11 year old. Son of Maribel, oldest daughter of my first host mom. Carrying out the shelving units with only one hand he couldn't help but to get that little smile on his face that he always gets when he is proud of himself.

 He truly is one of the sweetest and most helpful young boys that I have ever met. Never once have I heard him complain. With his dad working in Panama city, and only home once a month (theoretically, I have never seen him) and him being the oldest son, I think he feels like he needs to be the man of the house. And he does a fantastic job at it. Once the furniture was out, the kids found to brooms and started sweeping away, I in the meantime wiping everything clean of different insect eggs and insect and gecko poop. We were done in under 2 hours. I then continued to go through some old things and of course before long Maribel showed up with her other son. They went through and dusted every single book one by one. There were about 100. Unfortunately the only thing I had to offer to all my wonderful helpers was some horchata. Refreshing, but no where near what they deserved. Maribel then headed out with her kids because I was about to leave the house to go to the nearest city, Penonome, to by myself a bed and mattress, but before I had a chance to walk out my door, Astrid was climbing the hill to my house with a bowl of soup in her hands. Her parents knew that I didn't have anything to eat in my my house yet, so they sent her with lunch for me. Amazing.

Children helping me wash the leaves of my plant that was covered in dust!

A few hours later I owned a bed frame and a mattress. Now for the hard part getting it back to my community. Of course, another wonderful man from my community was more than willing to help me get it back to site. He strapped the mattress on top of his pick up truck and stuck the bed frame inside and we were on our way. When we arrived to my house as soon as Juan heard the car pull up, he was there with his family to help me get everything inside. I didn't need to ask or anything.

The next day they helped me put the bed together, which was very easy at first, and then the last tiniest part just wouldn't work. And that's because we figured out that 3 little parts were missing. Of course. But no worries I went back to the store and was able to get the parts without having to exchange the whole bed. Now I am very very happily sleeping on my comfy mattress and pillow. Good sleep = happy me. 

To ensure that I am never lonely (and to draw to their hearts content) Astrid and Omar are always over at my place. I was in Panama for the weekend, but my first day back, of course they came over. I had a long day at the school because it was one of our big recycling days and unfortunately I didn't have too many helpers. I was so excited to finally get home and take a nice long nap. Of course as I walked into my house the two little munchkins appeared. "Can we draw?" Of course you can draw! They found all the crayons, color pencils, and markers on their own. Then, I'm not sure how this even happened but they had the got the brilliant idea that they wanted me to make a cake for them... yup, there went my nap. But it was well worth it. We had a wonderful time baking brownies together. And while they were in the oven we explored my very large yard, and got some mangoes from the mango trees, and even cleaned my vegetable garden of all the weeds that grew while I wasn't living there.

Also discovered that my black beans were almost ready to pick! Super excited! After all that hard work the kids were more than ready for some brownie! They enjoyed it. Only problem was that apparently  next time I should make even more. With their stomachs content they finally got to drawing.  I now have some wonderful drawings of Panamanian landscapes that I will have to post on my wall! 

I must admit that with such wonderful neighbors close by, my house is already feeling like home sweet home. Yes, I want to put a fresh coat of paint on some walls and buy a table for my house. But honestly those things are far from what will truly make me feel happy and at home. It is the people that stop by to say hello, the children that love to make sure hat I have no time to myself, hehe, and the young couple that always always make sure that I am alright, that make me feel at home. Of course spending the evening at their place watching my favorite telenovela (soap opera) and chatting about all sorts of things helps too. Last time I was their, Juan told me how they really are happy that I am living next door and that they will definitely take care of me, because they are very fond of me. Any drunks bothering me me, and light bulb that I need to change, they are just a yell away. And so far they really have been. From the time that I didn't know how to connect my gas tank to my oven, the the time I managed to luck myself out of my bedroom already, they have always come the rescue. I think I need to back them a delicious huge cake some time very very soon!