Lo que sea

Walking to Bajo Mosquito and crossing the bridge of Río Tabasará



Students with their egg babies after the teen pregnancy lesson





Me, Loli, and Lito hanging out on my porch (after getting my hair done by Loli and now she is being her exhibitionist self)





Loli and I playing "beauty queen"





So, hey everyone! I just came from a good meeting, so I am in a good mood right now. Actually all in all it has been a decent week. So, I still need to report on last weekend. I met up with Mile in David where he introduced me to his family and I scrubbed off all the comarca dirt. Then we met up with some friends of his, which included a friend from Germany and two of her friends (also German), and his friend Jose. They were all pretty fun people and except for the one german girl spoke a lot of spanish. However, I was pretty much exhausted that night due to the fact that I had not slept much the night before and had done a lot of walking, and also was getting ready to start the cursed menstruation for the month. Therefore, I was kind of out of it, and due to the fact that we kept going to different bars (even though only two of the group were actually drinking) and I could hardly hear the conversation (which happened to be all spanish so even harder to understand unter those conditions) SO I was trying hard to even stay awake.

I liked it better when we went over to the Pio Pio (kind of like a panamanian McDonalds) and were sitting outside eating stale fried food because I could at least hear what was going on. The conversation inevitably turned to joking about how the Germans killed a bunch of people in WWII, the US and their many scandalous intrigues, and how Panama is the whore of the world, and how none of us have anything at all to do with any of it. I jokingly remarked that I was actually a spy, a double agent for the US and Russia. However, about 5 minutes later as we were sitting there on the corner the Panamanian Immigration people pulled up in their big white van and demanded to see our identification. So everyone pulled out their cedulas and passports-- everyone but me, because I had forgotten to bring mine! I usually carry my id everywhere, but this time I didn´t for whatever airhead reason I have. So anyway, they got all pissed off and ordered me into the van, which happened to be filled with about 7 Russians, of all people! How did they know I was a double agent?! However they knew, they came to round me up with my comrades. When I got on the van the Russians all said, oooohhhhh! And then the guard told me to go back and sit on the back seat, which was right in the middle of all the Russians. I was about to refuse, but the driver told the guard to let me sit up front. So then I tried to plead my case but the guard wouldn´t even let me talk or call anyone until we got to the fairgrounds, where I guess they interrogate people they pick up. Mile tried to talk to them but they wouldn´t listen to him either, so he went right over to his house to get my ID.

Meanwhile, I let them herd me into the fairgrounds and tried to be polite, and at first they were pretty rude but they started acting like normal people after a bit. I was just sitting there listening to the Russians and the guards on their power trips, and just trying not to laugh because the situation was so ridiculous! I told them I was a PC volunteer and asked what I needed to do to get out of there, and one lady snapped that I needed to have ID presented within fifteen minutes or else. So I asked if I could finally make a phone call to have someone bring it to me, and they let me call. Everyone had actually almost arrived at the fairgrounds by the time I called, so it was a matter then of making them let him in to show my ID. By this point the guards were being nice to me and once they saw my passport and made Mile sign for me for some reason, they let me go. The whole ordeal took only about 20 minutes from start to finish, and cost me an $8 cab ride, but the guards waived the normal $10 fee for not carrying id because I was with Peace Corps. I wonder what all those Russians were doing anyway. . . Anyway, after that I was wide awake again, and it was one of the most enjoyable parts of the evening.

During the week I didn´t do a whole lot that was very constructive for the most part. On monday I gave a lesson on teen pregnancy, and gave out eggs for the kids to take care of for the week. They just need to present them safe and sound next week to get a prize, we´ll see if any of them actually will still have them! They can still eat them afterwards. . . I was talking to one of the kids in the class and he told me that he really likes how the classes are, because although the teachers supposedly teach this stuff they just present the information and not very detailed at that. I am glad that we can have an atmosphere that is open to questions and that is fun and engaging for them, because this is not normal in panamanian education. Some of their questions are extremely naive too, so it is good to set things straight for them because they obviously have little clue about what is really going on.

On Tuesday I was invited to march with the high school in their parade of values. This consisted of the whole school walking through town with the drums playing, and each homeroom represented a different value like Honesty, Optimism, and all that. I was with Solidarity. It was very dull. I would have liked to jazz things up a bit, maybe with some noisemaking contests or prizes for the most creative classroom or coming up with unique manners of marching to make it more interesting, but walking slowly through town holding a flag is so boring! Maybe if I get invited again, I will have to do something about it. Afterwards Mile came down to my house and brought his computer to show me photos and stuff. We were sitting on the floor in front of the open door, but Loli came by later and accused us of being "acostaditos en la cama" (laying together in the bed) but I told her that that was a lie, she saw us sitting on the floor. So she said, "pegaditos pues" (meaning that we were sitting really close, which was actually true!) I am amazed that she wasn´t there at the house with us, because normally when I have people of the male persuasion there she is there as well, hugging me and playing with my hair.

Anyway, I just came from a decent meeting with the tourism group, and I am seeing a faint glimmer of maybe something coming of this one so I am excited for that. It was beginning to look like I would have to spend my remaining 9 months sitting around with nothing to do but march in parades and attend beauty queen contests. Shudder!

If this is my last post, it means that I was unable to make it all the way up the volcano this weekend. I hope I will be able to report on this later, and it had better not be cloudy and especially not rainy or I will have to kill somebody. More later.

Sincerely yours,
Jenny