New English Course and Regional Meeting

Ridiculously tiny swings at the park at Boca Chica








Here is the best shot I have of the elusive rare "chicanus nudus". There is this chicken running around that is completely naked, and it makes me laugh every time I see it. The poor thing doesn´t have a scrap of feather on its body, I wonder if it gets sunburned or cold. It is also extremely shy, it doesn´t like it when I try to take photos of it, so it has done the classic fig leaf block.

Anyway, here I am again updating on my recent activities. First of all, I have started the next attempt at English classes this last week. So far the attendance has been smaller than hoped for in the beginning class (the only ones attending are a handful of school kids, but that´s ok I guess) and nobody has shown up for the intermediate class. So I guess I will have to see if anybody actually wants to do it or not. The advanced class is ok so far, I hope everyone continues to show up. There are three new additions to the advanced class, two new English teachers at the elementary school and the new science teacher at the high school. At least for the beginner students, I am handing out tickets for drawings when they show up to class on time and participate, so hopefully I can get them to be there more consistently.

The past few days I have been collecting artisanry from some people I know to sell at a fair in Panama City at the US Embassy. I hope they can sell a lot of it, it is a good opportunity to sell their stuff outside of the community without having to pay for any transport or anything. I liked some of it, I actually am thinking about buying a few things if they don´t sell.

Yesterday was also the regional meeting, so all the Comarca volunteers met in San Felix. The country director was there as well. There are several volunteers that are leaving next week, and a few that will be leaving in a couple months.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to an island called Boca Brava to hang out for the night. It was ok, but there wasn´t a whole lot of time to do anything. We went to the beach and swam for about an hour, which was nice. The water was warm and the beach was pretty, it was just a small sandy forested beach. I floated on my back for about 15 min looking at the sky because there weren´t any big waves. Then we went back and ate dinner and just hung out. I slept in a hammock, which isn´t too bad except the blood always runs out of your feet. Other than that it was a lot more comfortable than my normal bed, which is a cot. Maybe I could come up with some kind of suspension bed at my house that allows one to maintain flatness as well. . . Oh the possibilities. There were a bunch of monkeys on the island, and they were kind of noisy sometimes and I think that one of them broke a branch or something near where I was sleeping.

Anyway, we ate breakfast this morning, and I ordered fruit crepes because I like crepes and was excited to see them on the menu. But when it came out, it was one not-as-tasty-as-I-had-hoped-for crepe that had pineapple, watermelon, and cantelope with maple syrup. It was a little disappointing, especially for how expensive it was. Then I had to get back to Chichica, but on the way back my backpack fell of the top of the bus. Fortunately nothing was damaged except for my unopened bag of Tostitos that I had bought in San Felix, but they probably cushioned the blow for my camera and iPod. Could have been worse. Now I am here for a minute and will be going back up a little later.

A few days ago it rained all day long. I would guess that it is possible that it dropped anywhere from 18 to 24 inches of water that day. As my neighbors would say, "Esta haciendo octubre" (October is the rainiest month of the year, and when it is raining then sometimes they say that it is doing October). Anyway, it is officially the rainy season again. Everything is all green and pretty again, it was getting pretty yellow and bare before I left to go to Utah. I need to go up to the monte to check my garden to see if it is growing. Maybe that will be one of tomorrow´s activities, along with the scout activity. And I also need to attend a meeting in Santiago on the 25th because I am interested in being the Gender and Development Comarca Regional Representative. That is just one more thing to make me even busier and make me leave my site more often, but I figure it would be something to put on the resumé. I also have to get my flu shot in David before the 29th, and I am trying to figure out how to do all of this and still teach my classes this week. Man. This sucks. I really don´t want to kill these classes by leaving again, that´s what happened last time.

Well, that is about all for now. I will probably be able to post again soon, but we´ll see if there is time. Later!