One Month Anniversary in Site!

So my camera is not working anymore, which means I can’t take anymore pictures for a while.  I am going to try to use someone’s camera here, but those tend to be hard to find.  In the meantime, I will continue to upload my photos from the past month.

In other news, the rainy season is trying to start.  It normally doesn’t start until May-ish, but it rained all through Holy Week and it was absolutely amazing.  I was visiting with a family that lives about a 10 minute walk from my house, and as we were talking the rain came like a wave.  For a few seconds it was a slow tapping on the zinc roofs, giving us enough time to realize that it was raining for the first time in months, and then the downpour rushed toward us.  The zinc roofs make the rainfall a deafening roar, and the wind splashed water on us so we had to move to the other side of the house.  Of course I had left my umbrella at home, so I sat waiting for the rain to stop.  I was there long enough for them to feed me dinner, when finally it slowed to a drizzle and I felt comfortable risking the walk home.  I am discovering that even though they call the rainy season here winter, it can be a lot hotter than in the dry season, or summer, because it’s so humid and there isn’t a lot of breeze.  The only reprieve comes with the downpours, or aguaceros, when the rain and the wind cool everything down.  I love sitting in my hammock, reading and listening to the rain and watching everything turn green.  It’s so peaceful.  Of course, the Monday after Easter Sunday, summer returned and it’s been relentlessly sunny, hot and sometimes breezy since then.  But the rainy season will come again, so I have been carrying my umbrella with me ever since.  Of course, umbrellas are also handy in the summer, so you can carry your shade around with you.

I also went to my first fiesta.  It was basically a rodeo – they rode bulls and used lassos – but the music was different.  Cantaderas consists of guitar players and singers, whereas tamboritos is a call and response style singing with rhythmic drumming.  Tamborito also includes dancing, where one woman dances solo while a man dances around her (without touching her) trying to impress her.  After a while, other men will step in front of the first man, thereby replacing him, and take their turn until the next woman replaces the first woman – since only one woman and one man dance at a time.  There was also a baile, or dance that started at 10pm and went until 2am.  My favorite kind of dance is the faster-paced suelto, where you have a partner, but you don’t touch, you just do your own thing and everybody moves in a circle.  They also served good old-fashioned Panamanian food, including empanadas, hojaldres (fried bread), chow mein, potato salad, and other goodies.  And since it was a fiesta, the vast majority of men were completely wasted, some by 5pm.  It was a pretty enjoyable event, all in all, and I wish I could have taken pictures to show you all.

In other news, I am slowly working my way into the hearts of the youth.  I’ve been improving my soccer skills slowly but surely, and I think I am starting to impress them a little.  There has also been an increase in the number of bugs since the rainy season started, and the mosquitoes are starting to come out now, which has been a pleasure.  One of the bugs they call cocorocho, which is basically a June bug (but in April!), and it buzzes around all day and night, bumping into the wall and occasionally finding its way into my bed.  Mangos, marañón (the fruit of cashew), and avacadoes are in season, and there are passionfruit, coconut, and papaya, which are always in season.  And I have been keeping myself really busy.  I actually have to remind myself to slow down, because every day I am either going to the school, working with the local ANAM office (National Authority for the Environment), visiting people in my community, playing soccer, running, or reading Peace Corps literature.  I like it this way.  It’s crazy to think I have been here a month – I can’t tell if it’s a long time, or no time at all, but I am enjoying the pace of my life.