Paso a paso : Mi casa es su casa

The month of July has been quite busy for me. First, I really hit home with Peace Corps Goal #2 and shared some 'Murican culture by celebrating 4th of July in Santa Marta. A few other volunteers came to participate in the fun. We had sack relay races, a water balloon fight, line/swing dancing, and cooked hot dogs and 'smores. Most of the participants were children, but they had a blast and weeks later I am still hearing about how great the 'smores were or how they had never jumped in a sack. I did find myself a little sad to have my first 4th without fireworks (we tried to look for them) but am very grateful to have shared this experience in my community.

Hot dogs on a Panamanian plate

Sack racing!!

Dosey-doe

Later in July, the teachers and I planned a Dia de Los Niños festival in the school. Each grade presented a show, skit, or song. There were performances from "Little Red Riding Hood" to traditional Ngabe dancing. A community member even lent me the traditional nagua to wear while I participated in the dancing.

Little Red Riding Hood

Dancing in my nagua

6th grade project- marine vs terrestrial habitats

Since my sector works in environmental education, especially in the schools, I did a little lesson on the 3 R's-reduce, reuse, and recycle. We then put the lesson into practice and made bracelets from chip bags. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, the teachers approved of my classroom skills and I think it was a good introduction to incorporate more environmental lessons in the future.

The month of July has also been dedicated in preparing my house for move in. The house needed a new roof; prior it was made of a tree called penca but penca is very far away in the farm so I bought zinc for the new roof. It has been quite the task of organizing the community to help construct, gathering materials, and working around the rainy season. I do not think all countries in Peace Corps require house building, but in Panama there seems to be various volunteers who need to construct their homes or make major repairs. To any prospective volunteers, if you can avoid it I would highly recommend not building a house. Peace Corps budget is next to nothing, and unless you are constantly haggling your community to finish the house, it won't be done in less than 3 months. I have heard other frustrating stories from volunteers and renting an unoccupied house tends to be the cheaper and easier route. Fortunately I did not have to make my house from scratch; nonetheless it was still a very frustrating and slow process. But it is more or less finished (apart from all the goodies I want to add like a garden). More pictures of the finished project to come soon