Officially a volunteer!

 

The last few weeks of training were jammed packed. We hosted a community analysis, which is something we are all going to have to do ourselves in our communities. We presented to Santa Clara 4 common projects that CEC volunteers work on: reforestation, home/school gardens, trash management, and eco stoves. About 20 people showed up (average turn out) and they voted to work on trash management (thank goodness, this place always reeks of burning trash!). A current volunteer who extended for a third year has been helping out with our training and when we leave for our communities she will stay to support Santa Clara with this project.

Our host families also threw us a despedia, or goodbye party. We learned and presented Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance, which was AMAZING! There was food, dancing, pinantas, and a traditional stunt which includes a group of people climbing up this greasy pole. We were told that the trick is to get drunk and attempt to climb 500 times until the grease has rubbed off. Since none of us were drunk, we tried the latter strategy. The group started with 6 guys and after an hour, me and 2 other girls decided to jump in and ruin our clothes to give it a try. We eventually built a human pyramid and one of our bosses, of all people, climbed up the rest of the pole and received the bag on top.

 

Things have not been all fun and games though. There has been tension with families and trainees, stress on certain trainees who need to reach a certain level of Spanish on their Language Proficiency Interview before they can go to site, and tension on the community for water. The rainy season has begun and while I still do not know the exact reason, the community’s water gets shut off after it rains. Hypothesis is that the aqueduct gets clogged with leaves and debris. Regardless, our community went 4 days without water. All families have a back up tank with water, but normally the water will only be out for half a day. People are very poor about conserving water. After one day, my family ended up using almost all of our 200 gallon tank.  Yes we do need water for washing, drinking, bathing and cooking, however in this time of no running water, I saw people mopping the floor, make tea and coffee every other hour, washing dogs, and filling their inflatable pools.  I didn’t realize how much my schedule depended on water until I had to start buying water bottles at the store just to splash off after sweating all day, or saving a few extra hours in the day to do laundry in the river.

However the tension subsided when it was time to leave our training communities. We said our heartfelt goodbyes to our host families of Santa Clara. We spent 4 days at headquarters for some last minute paperwork and seminars. I will give a warning to prosperous volunteers (another challenge with water); pester and pester and pester for your water filter. Peace Corps Panama policy is that only volunteers who absolutely need water filters are going to receive them. Seems like a fair policy but ever since we found out where our sites are, there has been an ongoing struggle with water filters. The medical office only received 2 people who needed filters in their site, me included. However after we visited our sites several other volunteers were sick because of water issues. They had to approach the medical staff several times only for the staff to tell them that they need to get approval from our bosses that the sites were actually lacking in clean water. During this miscommunication fiasco, we were swamped with other things we had to do and the medical office never approached us with answers or filters. I am now writing this blog on a bus to my site with no filter. I called the medical office to see if I can have a filter sent to my site, only to be told that the secretary didn’t know what I was talking about and that I need to email the main medical officer. There are other ways to get around the issue such as chlorine and boiling, but I have felt inadequate support from the PC health office.

On a happier note, we went to the US Embassy for our swear-in ceremony. I am no longer a trainee and officially a volunteer! The house was beautiful and full of delicious hoeurd’ouvres  The ambassador was an awkward yet friendly man, and we met other representatives of national agencies here in Panama. The country director, language teaches, and other staff were all there to congratulate and celebrate with us. After that we hit the city for a night of celebration and dancing. My bosses stayed out later than I did! We had a few days before we had to be in site so we spent some time at Nueva Gorgona beach.

 

I didn’t think splitting from my training group would be this hard and it is going to be empty not seeing them everyday. I have really started to make stronger ties with my fellow volunteers in the last few weeks. My service and volunteer life is about to become real. While I have had challenges during training, I have lived in a fantasy of comfort, schedules, cold beverages and friends these past 9 weeks. My life is about to change dramatically when I walk into my jungle-hidden community with no electricity or gringos. But probably one of the most important things I have learned in training is that I am not alone. While I was applying for the PC, many asked what motivated me to be “dropped off in a third world community all alone”.  But I have felt an incredible amount of support from my fellow volunteers (new and experienced), my bosses, the security coordinator, my Spanish teachers, and other PC staff. Additionally, I look forward to building a bond with my community so I am not “alone” there and know I will be able to go to them for anything  I may need. I see my PC family developing and am so grateful to start embark on this opportunity.