Junior Achievement


I recently finished a 6-week JA program in the local elementary school. I taught 3 3rd grade classes, 3 4th grade classes, and 2 5th grade classes, for a total of 180+ students. It was really challenging (see past posts about education in Panama), but very rewarding. For those of you unfamiliar with JA, it is a program that business people can sign up for (and I encourage you all to do so!), through your employer. You take a morning off each week and go teach elementary school students about basic business and economic concepts. It's really great because the students get exposed to material they probably would not study otherwise. And JA provides all of the materials and a facilitator's guide that has lesson plans. JA is present all over the world, but started in the States and has the most participants there. (Random, I actually found out my grandpa taught JA back in the day.) It's been a great experience and the kids had a lot of fun. Here's some pics from my classes:


Kids playing a business management board game.

Showing off artwork.

Reading in Panamá




Everyday in the campo, I am reminded of things that I take for granted back home. Life isn't so east here. For example, this morning I walked out my door into the overcast, rainy, and cold outdoors to take my freezing cold, mountain water shower. In the states, that is only something I consider doing when camping (and even then, I may object). But you get used to that stuff (kinda) here. One thing I cannot get used to though. It keeps bothering me and driving me crazy. It's the reading level of the people in my community.

I work a lot in the primary school here, so I have a good understanding of the education system in Panama. In Kintergarden, they teach kids the vowels. In first grade, the alphabet. Then in second grade they are expected to be reading. But the things is, many of the kids don't. (Dare I say most?) In my third and fourth grade classes, it is very frustrating to hear the kids struggle through common words, such as "where" and "city." Do I read the worksheet for them or hope they can do it themselves? Ugh.

But the problem isn't just a result of the school system. It's also a part of their culture. The only book that most Panamanians own, if they own any, is the bible. And they're not the religious type that actually read the bible, either. They don't even sell newspapers where I live. So most people are not reading at home and kids never get read to when they are growing up. That was a huge part of my childhood, reading with my parents. Going to story hour at the library. Reading the next chapter of the Boxcar series in class. But there's none of that here.



One project I started here is a reading circle. We would read books, color, and play games for a few hours a couple times a week. Although I told people it was for kids age 5-10, toddlers came, teens, and even adults to read the story books I brought with me each time. One 17 year old kids kept reading a book about counting kisses (meant to read to your baby) over and over. I nearly lost it to him. It was amazing to see how excited everyone got over the books and reading together.



So one of the many, valuable lessons I will take home to the States with me is this: Having books and learning to read is a privilege. Having books around the house is an even greater gift. We're lucky that reading is a part of our culture and that we have so much access to good books in the house, at the library, online, at the book store... And reading does so much more than let kids read a storybook. It increases their confidence and makes their imaginations more vivid, which leads to creativity and the ability to see beyond what's right in front of you. And that leads to critical thinking. Reading is an invaluable and very necessary skill.

And with that, I think I'll get in my hammock and read for a bit. :)

just a quick post to let you know i'm alive.


lots going on in panama. we just had our all volunteer conference, that i had a big part in coordinating as the volunteer coulncil presidenta. it went well and i'm happy that it's over and can work on other projects now.

yesterday i started teaching JA again (see post from late last year to read about JA). instead of doing 3 classes like last year, i'm doing 8. hopefully, i'm not getting myself into too much. i also have a handful of students who don't read, a blind student, and a deaf student. so it will be a challenge, but one that i am excited about.

miss you all back home. hope you're happy and healthy and enjoying life.

coco

LOS CARNAVALES


carnaval...what can i say? the 2 carnavals i have been lucky enough to celebrate here in panama have blown me away. i had never participated in or seen such a huge celebration before coming to panama. and now that i have, i can't imagine going back to a life that doesn't include carnaval. so here's a look into carnaval for all y'all back home.

the crew heading out to culecos

carnaval happens every year the saturday-tuesday before ash wednesday, or, the beginning of lent. it is, literally, a festival of flesh (carne=meat in spanish). the idea is you get all of your sin out before lent starts, and you have to be a good christian. that means you go all out. and my favorite part is that everyone participates. the youth, the grandmas, the little kids. they ALL go big. here's a breakdown of all the main components of carnaval in panama:

las reinas (the queens)

each town has 2 reinas of carnaval, one represents calle arriba and the other represents calle abajo. calle arriba is generally made up of the more well-to-do people, some may call them snobs. calle abajo is for the hood. both queens prepare all year for carnaval. they need to raise money for their costumes, floats, fireworks, and promo materials (mainly big posters of glamour shots that everyone in the town puts in front of their homes). each day the reinas come out, in a new elaborate costume and float, and parade around the plaza where the culecos are (see below). a float with a murga also follows them (see below). people cheer or yell at them (depending on if they are calle arriba or calle abajo). sometimes it gets ugly and the opposing calle sings songs about the girls, detailing who they've slept with and mistakes they've made (all in good fun, of course). when both have paraded around they shoot off fire works and the two teams "dance battle." at night, they come out again and parade around in yet another crazy costume and float. they also light off more fireworks.

on the last night of carnaval, the queens have a showdown. starting right before dawn (right before it's lent and you have to be good again) the two queens begin to light off fireworks. whoever can light off more, wins. this year i sat (very tired) at the plaza from 4am to 5:30am waiting for the reinas to come out. they were both shooting off their fireworks, but, clearly, calle abajo was winning. that girl had wayyyyyyy more. she shot them off til 8am. no joke.

la murga


the murga is a band that follows the reina around on its own separate float. it is made up of some percussionists (cowbell!) and a lot of horns (trumpet, trombone, etc). they play music to which the reina and people in the crowds dance. there's usually a bunch of entourage peeps that are on this float to. this year i saw: kids is condom tees, transvestites, hooches, you know...

















¡agua!

the water is probably the best part of carnaval. kids and adults run around squirting people with water guns and pouring buckets of water on people. and you can't get mad. it's the law down here. from sunrise til 5 each day, be prepared to get wet. sitting in your car in the traffic with your window open? walking down the street in your new dress? it doesn't matter. you're going to get sprayed/splashed.the culecos are a ton of fun. basically, they're when huge water tankers line the sides of the plaza and spray people down. everyone comes to have fun, so the plazas are packed, especially in the big cities. the plaza is also lined with vendors selling beer and street meat. so basically, you get drunk, go get sprayed with water, yell at the reina as she comes around, and then stuff your face with fried and grilled items. what a day.

carnavaleando tip: when the reina comes around, follow her murga around the plaza, dancing and jumping around. it takes awhile, but you get to see everything that is going on and all the hyphy kids do it.

atop the water tankers are people from companies and political parties. they throw out free tee shirts and water bottles and other labeled goods. some also have dance contests. the hooches come out in full force for the contests and the winner usually gets a free phone or something. they even had contests for the boys and girls this year. i saw some 7 year olds shaking it like video twerkers...weird. even weirder? the boys' contest. 4 to 13 year olds were made to dance one by one, but not alone. the grown women promo hoes with their boobs out grinded on them as they danced and their parents cheered them on. oh panama...

nighttime

after getting wet all day, you go home to rest and eat dinner. then, you go out again. in the plazas, the reinas come out in a new outfit and on a new float. other reinas and princesas come out to, in polleras (the traditional dress). there are outdoor discotecas all over the place.

the most well-known discoteca is PH. it get poppin about midnight and lasts til 4am every night. around 2am, some headliner comes out and performs. the best part is that a bottle of seco (the national liquor) is like $10. i am so over the $80+ bottles at the club back home.

do it!

so basically, carnaval is amazing. water, skimpy clothes, booze, street meat, reinas...AMAZING. i will definitely miss carnaval when i return to the united states of (boring and unfestive) america. and i encourage each and every one of you to go to a carnaval in latin america at some point in your lives. it's pretty tiring, as us americans haven't been prepared for such a long festival of debauchery, but you won't regret it.

a big thank you!!!


thanks to everyone who helped out and collected soda tops for my girl scouts. so far we've used about half of the tops i brought back, and we've raised over $20 (a small fortune for my girls). my girls have a lot of activities they'd like to do (classes to learn to make traditional/folklorico hair accessories, attend the mid-year national camp, etc.) so if you're still collecting tops, please send them down (my address is to the left).

also, we just went to girl scout camp. let me just say, WHEW!!! 6 days of 250 screaming/playing/signing/fighting at times/camping girls on 4-5 hours of sleep a night was TIRING. but my girls had so much fun and it was a once in a lifetime experience for them (the cost of camp is what some families make in a month). luckily i wrote a grant and obtained the funding for my group and some other volunteers' group to go to camp. woo hooo!

here's pictures of the headbands and belts my girls made, as well as a few pictures from camp:

chupala (suck it)


it's orange season again. that means pasearing (visiting neighbors) has become heavy. not as in the mood is heavy, but as in the plastic bags filled with oranges are heavy. i definitely am getting enough vitamin c.

when i first moved to my community it was orange season. i learned that you don't just peel the orange and eat the slices. panamanians think ii'm crazy when i do that. no one actually eats the white stuff. gross! so to just get the juicy part, they peel and suck the orange.

here's how to eat an orange like a true panamanian:



start with an orange and a (sharp) knife.










peel the orange with the knife, working from top to bottom in a spiral pattern. once you are a pro (like me) you can do it in one piece.









once the orange is peeled, cut off the very top to expose the inside.








chupala!!!
















once you've sucked out all the juice and pulp, you're left with the white stuff that only crazy gringos eat. done!

A lot of por fin's (finally's)


The year is coming to an end and there are a lot of things that I finally did. Knowing that I'll be here for 2 years has made me put things off. I always say to myself, "I still have time to do that," and put things off (walking to El Valle, visiting the Darien, etc.). Finally, I have accomplished some of the things I said I would do a long, long time ago.

Teach Junior Achievement

Back in training, we were told about teaching JA. A lot of business volunteers decide to do it, since you're teaching kids to think about business principles and about the economy. I put it off when I got to my community because it was the school year's end. Then, since I already did a lot of youth work and was putting in my fair share of hours at the school I kept putting it off. Finally, in September, I decided to do it. So this October and November I taught 3 5th grade classes a JA course about human/natural/capital resources and the decisions a company must take to make and sell its products.

Like everything I've done here, teaching JA had its good parts and its bad parts. Good: It's always fun working with kids, and in Panama you're doing something new and exciting whenever you initiate a youth project. They learned about concepts that would never have been introduced to them (what is the economy, where do the things we buy come from), learning in a new and exciting way. The students were not used to the types of activities we did (critical thinking, creative activities, working in teams) and they had a lot of fun going along with what the crazy gringa was doing. It was a really rewarding experience and I definitely plan to continue teaching JA next year. Bad: Well, it was kind of depressing. I was teaching 5th grade (which means 10-12 year olds) and some of the things we did were beyond challenging for them. One day we were playing a game with paper money and when it came time for everyone to count how much they had, kids started yelling, "CoCo! CoCo!" I went over to help the various students and they all had the same question: "What comes after 900?" (they were counting in 100's). Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I knew that 1000 was after 900 by the time I was finishing 5th grade. Yet anything to do with math here was really hard. The students couldn't even solve 120 - 120 without writing it down and going through "0 minus 0 is zero, 2 minus 2..." So needless to say, I got really frustrated at times. And many of these kids will not continue with their educations after next year (6th grade). It makes you feel like what can you really do to help these kids out. Back to the good: Well, I can try. Next year the principal wants me to teach JA classes to 3rd-5th grades. So more kids will experience a more interactive classroom and be introduced to critical thinking. And even one of the teachers commented to me about how he liked the style of teaching. So maybe it will rub off and some teachers will start making their students think a bit more.

Visit Franco's Site

I have been a very bad volunteer girlfriend. It took me a full year (actually, a bit longer) to go and visit my boyfriend's community. I admit that at first I was a bit scared. He kept telling me about this 2 hour death hike and crossing rivers over wobbly logs and eating horrible food and feeling like you're living in hell. When I finally got over all that, our schedules just didn't work out. Things kept coming off and the visit was put off over and over again. Finally, it got to the point where Franco was going to leave me (only half-kidding) and so I got my butt out there and...I LOVED IT!

The hike in wasn't bad at all. I kept being amazed by how easy it was. 45 minutes downhill and no mud (I got lucky). Plus, it was beautiful. Once we were there, everyone was really nice and it was really relaxing. The no electricity thing wasn't bad since I'm used to going to bed no too long after sunset these days. I brought some beads and elastic string and made bracelets with the girls who live nearby, and they dressed up in their nicest hooch tops and short shorts that they own. One even baby powdered her chest for me. Another neighbor kept dropping by to stare at me. She seemed really excited to finally meet the gringo's novia. She even brought me fresh milk from her cows and homemade tortilla asada for breakfast one day. I suspect she questioned Franco's cooking abilities and felt sorry for me. All in all, it was great...until the hike out.

Leaving almost killed me. We hiked out to another town and it was all uphill. When it came time to cross little rivers, I had to suck it up and walk through because my stone jumping skills are not very good. Plus, there was barely a trail. Sometimes I felt like we were just wandering through pastures. It did make me appreciate what Franco does though. Anytime I need food or internet I can hop on a bus and be in my capital in a half hour. He has to hike out and then get on a pickup truck for an hour, then get on a bus for another hour. I've got it made.

Learn to Weave A Hat

I've been telling myself since day one that I would learn to make a hat. Finally, I've started. Sorry though, no picture of the actual hat. My first try resulted in the now famous "sombrero feo" (ugly hat). When the family that was teaching me saw my work, the burst out in laughter. They even showed it to the neighbor, who in turn exploded with laughter as well. Oh well, it was my first attempt and they sure had a lot of fun making fun of it.