Hello!
I apologize for the long delay in blog posts. I´ve added some photos and captions to Picasa, which can be accessed here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/FirstMonthOnSite?feat=directlink
I´ve really enjoyed my time on site thus far. My community is situated within biking distance of the beach and is up in the hills a bit, so I can call back to my wonderful fiance and have a wonderful view at the same time! My house is without electricity, but has a water tap, pit latrine, and a bucket shower. The people here speak Spanish and the indiginous language Ngabere, so I´m working on two languages during my time here. They´ve even given me a Ngabere name: Idoli Gudubu (Idoli from Gudubu, the community name in Ngabere).
A normal day for me is waking up around 6:30am, showering, praying, reading the bible, having breakfast, and studying Ngabere. I´ve been attending the church and they gave me a spanish bible and daily reading material, which has been helpful to keep studying the bible and to expand my spanish vocabulary!
The days are spent between three communities, where I have been walking around visiting the families and talking to them about latrines, acueducts, and teaching them some english words. I´ve met with the communities to draw some community maps, which helps me understand how they see their own community and helps me find my way around as well. I am currently in the process of writing down their census data, history, stories past down from the older generations, daily activity schedules, and yearly schedules. I´m also giving some presentations on latrine use, how to address acueduct problems, and will be giving my first english class this upcoming weekend--should be exciting!
The evenings are usually spent having dinner with my host family and then playing dominoes, talking, calling my beautiful fiance, or reading a book. I´m in bed most nights by around 10pm or so--that´s late!
I really appreciate the kind messages of support, so keep them coming! Thanks for keeping in touch!
Kevin
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Week 10: Swear-In today!
Hello!
I am in the last week of training here in Panama City. Everyone in our group of 36 volunteers has stuck it out through training and is set to swear-in this afternoon. We will be presented to various ministries here in Panama during a ceremony with the US Ambassador. There are some rumors about some special guests from the Panamanian government as well.
I thought it would be a good idea to give you a glimpse at what the next few months will have in store for me. The first few months are geared towards integrating and understanding the community, thus you won't see too much in the way of building physical things. The work done now in knowing and understanding the community will be very beneficial later as we start more construction-related things.
1. Peace Corps Volunteer Swear-In: October 22
2. Settle in to site: October 25
---Basic needs
---Observation, journaling, listening, appreciative inquiry
3. Community Introduction--Proyecto Amistad (Project Friendship)
---Environmental Health Project Presentation
---Initial Needs Assessment
4. Community Mapping with guides and counterparts
5. House visits and informal presentations
6. Group-based informal presentations
7. Regional Governmental Organization (GO) and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) introductions with Peace Corps Regional Leader
8. Community Analysis with guide and community partners
9. Finish Peace Corps Volunteer housing arrangements
10. Regional Leader Visit: November-December 2009
11. Associate Peace Corps Director Visit
---Work plan visioning
---Project Management and Leadership
---Technical follow-up
12. Regional Meeting: End of January
It is hard to believe all the information I've learned and the places I've seen in the past two months. I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures to be had in the next couple years. I'm excited to get settled and slow the pace down a little bit. I'm still working on getting enough calories in my diet.
From here on out, my posts will be about the experiences with my community, so I anticipate talking less about extensive lists of events and more about growth and experiences in my community, but we'll see.
In my comments section, feel free to write suggestions for what you would like to know more about of my Peace Corps experience. It is sometimes hard to recall what things you would most enjoy reading.
Until next time,
Kevin
P.S. I've added captions to all the photos in my two photo albums. The links are below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October12?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October122?feat=directlink
I am in the last week of training here in Panama City. Everyone in our group of 36 volunteers has stuck it out through training and is set to swear-in this afternoon. We will be presented to various ministries here in Panama during a ceremony with the US Ambassador. There are some rumors about some special guests from the Panamanian government as well.
I thought it would be a good idea to give you a glimpse at what the next few months will have in store for me. The first few months are geared towards integrating and understanding the community, thus you won't see too much in the way of building physical things. The work done now in knowing and understanding the community will be very beneficial later as we start more construction-related things.
1. Peace Corps Volunteer Swear-In: October 22
2. Settle in to site: October 25
---Basic needs
---Observation, journaling, listening, appreciative inquiry
3. Community Introduction--Proyecto Amistad (Project Friendship)
---Environmental Health Project Presentation
---Initial Needs Assessment
4. Community Mapping with guides and counterparts
5. House visits and informal presentations
6. Group-based informal presentations
7. Regional Governmental Organization (GO) and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) introductions with Peace Corps Regional Leader
8. Community Analysis with guide and community partners
9. Finish Peace Corps Volunteer housing arrangements
10. Regional Leader Visit: November-December 2009
11. Associate Peace Corps Director Visit
---Work plan visioning
---Project Management and Leadership
---Technical follow-up
12. Regional Meeting: End of January
It is hard to believe all the information I've learned and the places I've seen in the past two months. I'm sure there will be plenty more adventures to be had in the next couple years. I'm excited to get settled and slow the pace down a little bit. I'm still working on getting enough calories in my diet.
From here on out, my posts will be about the experiences with my community, so I anticipate talking less about extensive lists of events and more about growth and experiences in my community, but we'll see.
In my comments section, feel free to write suggestions for what you would like to know more about of my Peace Corps experience. It is sometimes hard to recall what things you would most enjoy reading.
Until next time,
Kevin
P.S. I've added captions to all the photos in my two photo albums. The links are below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October12?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October122?feat=directlink
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Weeks 6-8 of Training
Hello!
I apologize for my lack of posting the last few weeks. Training is quite busy and the time to post seems to get less and less.
Firstly, I´ve posted some photos on Picasa. The links are below. I´ll be adding captions in the future. I´m still trying to figure out how to rotate the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October12?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October122?feat=directlink
Secondly, I´ve received my new post office address.
Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General
San Felix, Chiriqui
Republica de Panama
During week 6, our group of Environmental Health volunteers went to a city in the far west of Panama near David for our technical week. We got to build two pit latrines and two composting latrines that will be used by the students in the school. We also got the chance to build some rainwater catchment systems.
Week 7 was probably my favorite week so far. We had a married couple come in to teach us about acueducts using a teaching tool called the ¨macueduct¨. Using household items like a 5 gallon bucket and clear tube they were able to display the theory behind how the acueducts work and what the air and water does in different situations. I´m considering expanding this teaching tool during my service here.
Week 8 we got to visit our sites where we´ll be for the next two years. Lugging all my stuff to the site was a challenge as I acquired quite a few books and educational material during my training. I met my guide Roman at the site preparation conference and talked about our expectations for each other and the community and how the next 5 days of the site visit would progress.
Arriving around 1030 last Tuesday night, we found all taxis up to my site done for the evening and everyone in bed and not answering their phones. Walking behind the closed store, we knocked on the door of the owner´s house and she allowed us to sleep on her porch for the night. We had some companions that night--two roosters who serenaded us beginning at 3am in the morning. The next day I found out that inside the house where we slept was a previous Peace Corps Master´s International volunteer who returned to Panama after her service. I had even watched her defend her thesis--what a surprise!
The next few days I was able to visit the three communities that I will be working with the next two years. There will be a variety of capacity building in the area of latrines, acueducts, and committee development. There will be plenty of work in building, improving, and maintaing acueducts as well as building composting latrines. They also mentioned that their bridge of cables and rotting bamboo could use some improvments as well.
Other highlights included attending the church service over the weekend (all 3 hours of it!), meeting kids at the school, and checking out the house where I´ll live the next two years. Pictures of my house are included in the Picasa link above.
The plan is to Swear-In next Thursday as an official Peace Corps volunteer. The presentation will be at the US Ambassador´s house.
Hopefully I´ll be able to update the blog a little more regularly and add some captions to the pictures as well. If any of you have any questions about my experience here or are possibly interested in coming to visit, please let me know! I would be glad to help share my stories and experiences.
Love you all!
Kevin
I apologize for my lack of posting the last few weeks. Training is quite busy and the time to post seems to get less and less.
Firstly, I´ve posted some photos on Picasa. The links are below. I´ll be adding captions in the future. I´m still trying to figure out how to rotate the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October12?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/PanamaPhotosAugust12October122?feat=directlink
Secondly, I´ve received my new post office address.
Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General
San Felix, Chiriqui
Republica de Panama
During week 6, our group of Environmental Health volunteers went to a city in the far west of Panama near David for our technical week. We got to build two pit latrines and two composting latrines that will be used by the students in the school. We also got the chance to build some rainwater catchment systems.
Week 7 was probably my favorite week so far. We had a married couple come in to teach us about acueducts using a teaching tool called the ¨macueduct¨. Using household items like a 5 gallon bucket and clear tube they were able to display the theory behind how the acueducts work and what the air and water does in different situations. I´m considering expanding this teaching tool during my service here.
Week 8 we got to visit our sites where we´ll be for the next two years. Lugging all my stuff to the site was a challenge as I acquired quite a few books and educational material during my training. I met my guide Roman at the site preparation conference and talked about our expectations for each other and the community and how the next 5 days of the site visit would progress.
Arriving around 1030 last Tuesday night, we found all taxis up to my site done for the evening and everyone in bed and not answering their phones. Walking behind the closed store, we knocked on the door of the owner´s house and she allowed us to sleep on her porch for the night. We had some companions that night--two roosters who serenaded us beginning at 3am in the morning. The next day I found out that inside the house where we slept was a previous Peace Corps Master´s International volunteer who returned to Panama after her service. I had even watched her defend her thesis--what a surprise!
The next few days I was able to visit the three communities that I will be working with the next two years. There will be a variety of capacity building in the area of latrines, acueducts, and committee development. There will be plenty of work in building, improving, and maintaing acueducts as well as building composting latrines. They also mentioned that their bridge of cables and rotting bamboo could use some improvments as well.
Other highlights included attending the church service over the weekend (all 3 hours of it!), meeting kids at the school, and checking out the house where I´ll live the next two years. Pictures of my house are included in the Picasa link above.
The plan is to Swear-In next Thursday as an official Peace Corps volunteer. The presentation will be at the US Ambassador´s house.
Hopefully I´ll be able to update the blog a little more regularly and add some captions to the pictures as well. If any of you have any questions about my experience here or are possibly interested in coming to visit, please let me know! I would be glad to help share my stories and experiences.
Love you all!
Kevin
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Fifth Week of Training: Culture Week
Hello!
I hope you are well. It has been a challenging, encouraging week. Three of us who will be stationed in the Comarca Ngobe Buble, a large plot of land set aside for two indiginous groups, spent a week living in the community of a current Peace Corps volunteer, Andrea. She stationed us with our own host families and then organized some language and culture classes throughout the week.
God has shown me His beauty in the beautiful views, sunsets, and the beautiful people He has created. He´s forced me to rely solely on Him, being sick on Wednesday on the top of a mountain in the rain with a host family from an indiginous culture who I´ve only been with for less than a week.
I´m encouraged even as I write this because my host brother Efehemio, a host brother who´s in 5th grade, saw me reading my bible and pulled out his own bible and read a chapter together in our own languages. How cool is that!
It´s been a joy to be with my family this week. Efehemio is 13 years old and so eager to learn. He teaches me the indiginous language Ngabere every night and then I teach him some english. The family has also taught me some of their traditional dances. The family has two parents and 13 kids, ten of whom live with them. They have a palm roof with wood walls and dirt floors. They don´t have electricity, but use a kerosene lamp to light up the house for a bit after the sun goes down. They listen to lots of Christian music, often at 2 or 3 in the morning when they can´t sleep. The father is fairly quiet, the mother a bit more outgoing. They talk to me in a mix of Spanish and Ngabere.
As Efe continued his dances, his brothers and sisters joined in as I took some pictures. Eventually, I started to dance too and then they all started laughing as I tried to learn the steps.
Showering has been quite an adventure. There is a path down the hill to the creek where they have a small bucket. It´s kind of fun showering in the jungle, but the water is actually quite cold.
Sleeping is a bit of a challenge. There is plenty of time to sleep as the sun goes down around 7pm, but my bed is just bamboo rods with my sleeping pad on top. It gets quite cold up here in the mountains, so it gets fairly cold at night. I´ve worn pants, sweatshirt, and socks to bed every night.
Every morning we walk over from our host family´s house to Andrea´s house, where we have some lemon grass tea from her yard and then catch up on our host family experiences. We usually spend a few hours learning Ngabere each day and then have some type of field trip in the afternoon.
On Friday, we came back to my host family´s house, where we learned how to shuck some fibers from the plant to make rope to make a chakra, a type of handbag that can be dyed a variety of colors. My host dad also was working on a sombrero which he will sell later. He works on it for 3.5 days and sells it for around $25 down in San Felix. We also toured the vegetable garden of one of the men in the group.
Other fun activities this week included hiking to the top of the town, where we could see down to the river valley, out to the Pacific, and up to the tallest mountain peaks. We´ve learned about the history of the Comarca, typical family foods, typical family responsibilities around the house, and other helpful bits of information.
I hope you have a bit of an idea of what life is like and I will try to post again after my upcoming technical week.
Kevin
I hope you are well. It has been a challenging, encouraging week. Three of us who will be stationed in the Comarca Ngobe Buble, a large plot of land set aside for two indiginous groups, spent a week living in the community of a current Peace Corps volunteer, Andrea. She stationed us with our own host families and then organized some language and culture classes throughout the week.
God has shown me His beauty in the beautiful views, sunsets, and the beautiful people He has created. He´s forced me to rely solely on Him, being sick on Wednesday on the top of a mountain in the rain with a host family from an indiginous culture who I´ve only been with for less than a week.
I´m encouraged even as I write this because my host brother Efehemio, a host brother who´s in 5th grade, saw me reading my bible and pulled out his own bible and read a chapter together in our own languages. How cool is that!
It´s been a joy to be with my family this week. Efehemio is 13 years old and so eager to learn. He teaches me the indiginous language Ngabere every night and then I teach him some english. The family has also taught me some of their traditional dances. The family has two parents and 13 kids, ten of whom live with them. They have a palm roof with wood walls and dirt floors. They don´t have electricity, but use a kerosene lamp to light up the house for a bit after the sun goes down. They listen to lots of Christian music, often at 2 or 3 in the morning when they can´t sleep. The father is fairly quiet, the mother a bit more outgoing. They talk to me in a mix of Spanish and Ngabere.
As Efe continued his dances, his brothers and sisters joined in as I took some pictures. Eventually, I started to dance too and then they all started laughing as I tried to learn the steps.
Showering has been quite an adventure. There is a path down the hill to the creek where they have a small bucket. It´s kind of fun showering in the jungle, but the water is actually quite cold.
Sleeping is a bit of a challenge. There is plenty of time to sleep as the sun goes down around 7pm, but my bed is just bamboo rods with my sleeping pad on top. It gets quite cold up here in the mountains, so it gets fairly cold at night. I´ve worn pants, sweatshirt, and socks to bed every night.
Every morning we walk over from our host family´s house to Andrea´s house, where we have some lemon grass tea from her yard and then catch up on our host family experiences. We usually spend a few hours learning Ngabere each day and then have some type of field trip in the afternoon.
On Friday, we came back to my host family´s house, where we learned how to shuck some fibers from the plant to make rope to make a chakra, a type of handbag that can be dyed a variety of colors. My host dad also was working on a sombrero which he will sell later. He works on it for 3.5 days and sells it for around $25 down in San Felix. We also toured the vegetable garden of one of the men in the group.
Other fun activities this week included hiking to the top of the town, where we could see down to the river valley, out to the Pacific, and up to the tallest mountain peaks. We´ve learned about the history of the Comarca, typical family foods, typical family responsibilities around the house, and other helpful bits of information.
I hope you have a bit of an idea of what life is like and I will try to post again after my upcoming technical week.
Kevin
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Fourth Week of Training and Site Announcement
Hey everybody,
Today is a very exciting day--our group got to learn our sites for the next two years! I will be in between the cities of David and Santiago on the Pacific side of western Panama. It seems like a great fit. I will be following up a previous Master´s International volunteer who did a great job of setting the stage for a future volunteer. Word on the street is that they already have a house built for me!
Here´s a bit more information on my site given to me by the Peace Corps:
Tucked into the rugged foothills, you will discover the multi-faceted culture of the indiginous group Ngabe. You will find traditionally-styled homes of penca (dried palm leaves) and bamboo, steep ridges covered in corn and yucca, green and blue loros (birds) flying in the trees, women wearing the iconic clothing of their predecessors, travelers hauling goods in multicolored chakras, and friendly neighbors ready to share a totuma de cafe with you. You will be welcomed everywhere in the valley. It is a community of 300 people concentrated near the banks of the river. The central playing field, school, and church form the hub of the valley.
The community has carved their life out of the surrounding hills and valleys. The community relies principally on traditional agriculture for subsistence. Modernization has accelerated changes in this region since a main road was paved. The nearest town is about 45 minutes away and has a post office, supermarkets, and beach access. Improved access to town has allowed the neighbors to pasear (talk with other families) with ease, connected more students to resources, expanded businesses, and brought in more tasty goods for the small, local stores to sell. They are excited to work with Peace Corps Volunteers and invite you to join the community.
Here are my primary tasks:
1) Build trust, friendship, and work partnerships by listening, observing, and participating in meetings, work days, trainings, or any behind-the-scenes planning going on in the community.
2) Facilitate a participatory community analysis with your work partners or counterparts.
3) Facilitate strategic and action planning with individuals, groups, or organizations while utilizing participatory tools.
4) Design and carry out planned Environmental Health activities with partners.
This will include operation and maintenance of one acueduct system, an improvement of a second acueduct system, and possible design and implementation of a third acueduct system. Other projects could include building latrines and conducting Environmental Health charlas (interactive presentations).
5) Evaluate the success of activities based on previously set objectives and measures, as well as lessons learned for the future.
6) Report out to stakeholders and celebrate progress!
7) Follow up with partners through individual training, mentoring, and troubleshooting.
I eagerly await my time with my future community. It seems to be such a great fit--great people to work with, great projects to work on, close to the pan-american highway, close to the beach, and close to the mountains for some great hiking.
If you are at all interested in visiting my site or Panama in general, I would love to help you in whatever way I can. I would love to show you around my site and give you an idea of the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer and the lives of people in my community. I can start having visitors in February, so let me know!
On Sunday we will head to our culture week near the city of Santiago, but up in the mountains a bit. We will learn about the food they cook, the indiginous language they speak (in addition to Spanish), as well as how they make a living.
That´s all from Panama!
Dios te bendiga,
Kevin
Today is a very exciting day--our group got to learn our sites for the next two years! I will be in between the cities of David and Santiago on the Pacific side of western Panama. It seems like a great fit. I will be following up a previous Master´s International volunteer who did a great job of setting the stage for a future volunteer. Word on the street is that they already have a house built for me!
Here´s a bit more information on my site given to me by the Peace Corps:
Tucked into the rugged foothills, you will discover the multi-faceted culture of the indiginous group Ngabe. You will find traditionally-styled homes of penca (dried palm leaves) and bamboo, steep ridges covered in corn and yucca, green and blue loros (birds) flying in the trees, women wearing the iconic clothing of their predecessors, travelers hauling goods in multicolored chakras, and friendly neighbors ready to share a totuma de cafe with you. You will be welcomed everywhere in the valley. It is a community of 300 people concentrated near the banks of the river. The central playing field, school, and church form the hub of the valley.
The community has carved their life out of the surrounding hills and valleys. The community relies principally on traditional agriculture for subsistence. Modernization has accelerated changes in this region since a main road was paved. The nearest town is about 45 minutes away and has a post office, supermarkets, and beach access. Improved access to town has allowed the neighbors to pasear (talk with other families) with ease, connected more students to resources, expanded businesses, and brought in more tasty goods for the small, local stores to sell. They are excited to work with Peace Corps Volunteers and invite you to join the community.
Here are my primary tasks:
1) Build trust, friendship, and work partnerships by listening, observing, and participating in meetings, work days, trainings, or any behind-the-scenes planning going on in the community.
2) Facilitate a participatory community analysis with your work partners or counterparts.
3) Facilitate strategic and action planning with individuals, groups, or organizations while utilizing participatory tools.
4) Design and carry out planned Environmental Health activities with partners.
This will include operation and maintenance of one acueduct system, an improvement of a second acueduct system, and possible design and implementation of a third acueduct system. Other projects could include building latrines and conducting Environmental Health charlas (interactive presentations).
5) Evaluate the success of activities based on previously set objectives and measures, as well as lessons learned for the future.
6) Report out to stakeholders and celebrate progress!
7) Follow up with partners through individual training, mentoring, and troubleshooting.
I eagerly await my time with my future community. It seems to be such a great fit--great people to work with, great projects to work on, close to the pan-american highway, close to the beach, and close to the mountains for some great hiking.
If you are at all interested in visiting my site or Panama in general, I would love to help you in whatever way I can. I would love to show you around my site and give you an idea of the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer and the lives of people in my community. I can start having visitors in February, so let me know!
On Sunday we will head to our culture week near the city of Santiago, but up in the mountains a bit. We will learn about the food they cook, the indiginous language they speak (in addition to Spanish), as well as how they make a living.
That´s all from Panama!
Dios te bendiga,
Kevin
Friday, September 4, 2009
Third Week of Training
Hey everybody,
Blessings to you all! I just finished up classes today and got a bit of time to post. This week we returned from our volunteer visits with plenty of energy and confidence that we will in fact be able to integrate into the culture in a couple months. We´re starting to be comfortable presenting in spanish class now, which will be quite necessary very soon.
Next week on Wednesday we should find out where our sites will be, so after next week I´ll have a greater vision for what the next two years will hold. I continue to enjoy hanging out with my host family, learning how to cook new foods, and watching intense thunderstorms in the afternoons. In the coming weeks we´ll have culture week and technical week, where we get to spend a week in two different locations to get a greater focus on the cultural and technical skills we´ll need on site.
I hope all is well back in the States.
Kevin
Blessings to you all! I just finished up classes today and got a bit of time to post. This week we returned from our volunteer visits with plenty of energy and confidence that we will in fact be able to integrate into the culture in a couple months. We´re starting to be comfortable presenting in spanish class now, which will be quite necessary very soon.
Next week on Wednesday we should find out where our sites will be, so after next week I´ll have a greater vision for what the next two years will hold. I continue to enjoy hanging out with my host family, learning how to cook new foods, and watching intense thunderstorms in the afternoons. In the coming weeks we´ll have culture week and technical week, where we get to spend a week in two different locations to get a greater focus on the cultural and technical skills we´ll need on site.
I hope all is well back in the States.
Kevin
Monday, August 31, 2009
Second Week of Training
Hello!
This Monday through Wednesday was the same routine of Environmental Health class in the morning and Spanish class in the afternoon for four hours each. Before class I usually run, shower, eat, read, and then head to class, which starts at 8. This week in class we talked about various activities that might help you analyze a community, including a community map, daily schedules, yearly schedules, and a community history.
On Thursday, each of the volunteers had a chance to go visit a current volunteer at his or her site. I got to head east from Panama City to visit my volunteer. He met me at the bus stop and proceeded to walk about 2.5 hours with my stuff on his horse to his site. He is currently working on installing a turbine and generator by a waterfall in his community to produce electricity, since the community doesn´t have that yet. Our task was to hike out to different waterfalls around the area to see how high they were in order to get an accurate estimate of power production. This meant that we got to put our swimsuits on and swim and hike to about six different waterfalls, climbing up them if necessary. I also got to learn how to cook garlic bread, sugar bread, stir fry, lintels, etc. I already find out where my official site will be next week, so that will be exciting.
This upcoming week will be more spanish class, project management training, and a community analysis for our training community.
Blessings to you!
Kevin
This Monday through Wednesday was the same routine of Environmental Health class in the morning and Spanish class in the afternoon for four hours each. Before class I usually run, shower, eat, read, and then head to class, which starts at 8. This week in class we talked about various activities that might help you analyze a community, including a community map, daily schedules, yearly schedules, and a community history.
On Thursday, each of the volunteers had a chance to go visit a current volunteer at his or her site. I got to head east from Panama City to visit my volunteer. He met me at the bus stop and proceeded to walk about 2.5 hours with my stuff on his horse to his site. He is currently working on installing a turbine and generator by a waterfall in his community to produce electricity, since the community doesn´t have that yet. Our task was to hike out to different waterfalls around the area to see how high they were in order to get an accurate estimate of power production. This meant that we got to put our swimsuits on and swim and hike to about six different waterfalls, climbing up them if necessary. I also got to learn how to cook garlic bread, sugar bread, stir fry, lintels, etc. I already find out where my official site will be next week, so that will be exciting.
This upcoming week will be more spanish class, project management training, and a community analysis for our training community.
Blessings to you!
Kevin
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