So it’s been a little more than a week since the last post. It was much of the same in the Rita (my new nickname for Santa Rita). Many more bucket showers, sweating, Spanish classes, making a fool of myself with my host family, and lots of pasearing and laughing. The only different was that this weekend was site visits! So Sydney went on a great adventure across Panama to the province of Herrera. If you look at a map of Panama, Herrera is on the part that juts out on the Pacific side. Better yet, look up a map with the provinces. So Friday morning, the great trek began. We said our fairwells, kissed our host mothers good bye, and got the Chivas (small buses) to our sites. I went to El Rincón de Santa María. I was going to visit another volunteer to see what her experience has been in Panama. My volunteer, Dana, has been in Panama for about 2 years (she leaves in June) and is doing tourism and teaching English, although due to some NGO issues in her community, she is mostly teaching English.
So let me tell you a little bit about El Rincón. Let’s start by me describing how to get there. These are the directions Dana gave me. “take the Chiva that goes to Chitré. On the way, you will see a red Parada (bus stop) that says Digicel on the side. There will also be a row of trees with whitish trucks lining a long straight road. Ask the driver to stop there. Then walk down the road about 2 miles and you will get to a town. That’s El Rincón.” So ya. I think that’s a pretty good description. Small and obscure. But wonderful people! In the few days I was there we did a lot both in El Rincón and Chitré.
Friday: Travel and walking down a road for about 2 miles thinking, “ya I might die here. Am I crazy? I don’t think a town is coming up…Why am I doing this? Dang it’s hot!” Finally I got to El Rincón, asked where Dana lived (to which I received the response, “oh la gringa?” or the white girl?) and found her house. Then we rode down to the cienega in her town. This is actually a really cool wetlands area full of wildlife. The guide who took us out there said that Panama has 10,000 species of birds, which is more than the U.S. and Canada combined! He was very proud that Panama beat the U.S. in this statistic by the way. Anyway, much of the birds who migrate south come to this cienega and it was teeming with lots of animals. It was absolutely beautiful, but also scary as the guide said there are alligators that are “bien grande.” Shoot.
Saturday: We went to the Rio out in the same direction as the cienega. You have to go early as that it gets REALLY hot in El Rincón. The surprising thing I notice here is that the climate and landscape is a lot more desert-like than lush and tropical. Dana said that this is due to deforestation and now it’s a desert landscape and not so Panama-y. While walking out to the river, it looked like we were on more of a safari in Africa walking to the watering hole watching out for lions than walking to swim in a river in Panama. But we walked out to the river and passed lots of people from her community sebrando sandia (planting watermelon seeds) on their fincas. Apparently El Rincón is known for having lots of watermelon and almost everyone has a finca to grow watermelon on. So we went out to the river and visited some of her friends who live out at the river when it gets too hot (I guess this is the thing that a lot of people do here). I got to meet the adorable family including the abuelas and abuelos who still work out in the finca (their pretty tough and bad ass here). We wanted to swim but they said today there were lots of alligators and since I feel like I still have a lot of living to do, I decided to sit this one out.
Then we walked back to her house and hung out, literally hung out by hanging in her hammock and reading. We went to lunch at the restaurant in town. Ya THE restaurant, singular. That night, we went to the birthday party of the madrina of Dana’s host mother. This was such a fun party and I’ve decided all my birthday parties from now are going to be themed “Panama.” There was TONS of food and liquor, old men singing and dancing, little kids and dogs running around and women sitting around bochincheando (gossiping). After a while, aka when everyone was bien borrancho (drunk) the music was cranked up and the dancing began. An adorable old man, Tomás, decided he was going to teach me baile tipico, the traditional Panamanean dance. And boy did the Panamaniacs love it! Everyone kept laughing and taking pictures saying oh the gringas dancing! We had a blast! Dana is so engrained in her community and they love her so much that she is included in everything. I have decided that I want to be that involved in my community all up in their lives and living not just around Panamaneans but among and with them.
Sunday: We went into Chitré “the big city” according to the people in El Rincón, who kept saying “ohh you’re going to Chitré! The big city!” We got there and hung out with another volunteer and a girl in my group who was staying with her. We ran errands, had lunch and then ventured to the greatest event of my life thus far. Maybe an exaggeration, but then again maybe not. It was called Culecos and apparently is like a mini version of Carnaval in Panama. They basically bring in big trucks with tanks of water and people stand on top with hoses and spray the crowd. But to add to this, there are djs playing music and everyone is dancing in the streets while getting soaked. So my favorite things, dancing in the rain, dancing in the street, dancing, and large crowds of people having fun came together for an amazing event! I’ve decided at my Panama themed birthdays every year I will hire a truck to do this as well. We had a blast and laughed our way through the entire day.
Overall, I really admire Dana and her service in El Rincón. We clicked really well and had a lot of fun just talking and telling about our lives and experiences. She came to El Rincón expecting to work with the NGO doing tourism, but even after that fell apart, she didn’t request a site transfer (which many volunteers would do) but instead she dove head first into teaching English full time in the school. In the summer she even developed, ran, and taught an English camp for the kids of El Rincón. The community loves her and she loves them. Everywhere we went, people would yell from their porches or houses “Dana! Dana! Como estas?” they all just want to talk to her. Her perseverance and genuine love for the people of her community make me so excited to get to my site and jump in to the crazy Panamanian culture and get all up in people’s lives. This weekend was the perfect balance of relaxing, laughing, dancing, and seeing genuine happiness…such is the Panama life so far. But I’m also glad to get back to the Rita and my bucket shower life here. Sorry for the long post…again! Hope everyone is doing well. Much love from Panama!
Also, just a suggestion, start Culecos in the U.S.? Then by the time I get back it will be well established and I can join in J Besos!
