Week at a glance

Playing lots of rummy

We usually have a daily match before dinner is served

These girls always get a kick out of Brennan's silly faces. This past Friday at school there was a fiesta for the kids.  Pizza was served, movies were playing, and we had a mini soccer tournament that Brennan and I took part in.  We may have lost the game, but we learned never to underestimate Panamanian children on the soccer field.

Saturday fiesta at La Yeguada with the town

Listened to great music, ate yummy Panamanian food, and entertained the kids

Sunday date night in Santiago, more on that to come in the next blog!

La Yeguada

This Saturday the church wanted to thank all the volunteers who helped participate in the Feria de la Sandia by taking all of us to La Yeguada for food, music and dancing.  If we haven't told you already La Yeguada is a gorgeous National Forest Reserve that is home to the water reservoir La Laguna, towering pine trees, and beautiful rolling mountains.  La Yeguada is one of the only places in Panama that truly brings us back to the Northwest.  We started off the day packing an unthinkable amount of people into a bus, while I squeezed like a sardine between a man standing next to me with his butt in my face on one side and a women nursing a baby who looked too old to nurse on my other side. While Brennan was at the front of the bus nearly hanging out the sliding door. Thankfully we made it out alive without getting too car sick from the winding roads and extreme body heat created by the crammed bus.  The fiesta was definitely worth the ride.  One plate of arroz con vegetales and two banana bread slices later we were sitting pretty.  The beautiful atmosphere, lively tipico music, and curious kids asking us to say anything in English made for a memorable day.

Eric showing off his throwing power

Mitsy our new little friend we met at the fiesta

Here Brennan and I are stilling in the back of a pickup truck sitting in plastic chairs with watermelon swarming our feet.  At least Dayana's chair was roped down to the truck's canopy before we took off.  Sorry mom and dad we know this isn't safe, but now we do as the Panamanians do.  We made it out alive and only got a little car sick.

You know you're in Panama when......

Brennan and I are blessed with a truly funny group of Peace Corp Volunteers.  Thanks to facebook the Panama group was able to start a post titled: You know you're in Panama when........  I just had to share some of their responses with you so you can get a little taste of what it's like in Panama.


YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN PANAMA WHEN.........


You only pay attention to conversations when some mentions 'gringo' or says "Oiste?" (did you hear me?)


You forget what a hot shower feels like


You go to the nearest mall or store for airconditioning


You get excited that you can flush toilet paper


People laugh at you because you think it's weird that they eat steak and fried hot dogs for breakfast


You wake up in the middle of the night to bats in your room eating your banana stash, shrug your shoulders, and roll over


You welcome the smell of barnyard feces, thinking, Hey, at least it´s not burning garbage


You actually enjoy eating spam...


You catch yourself casually describing people as "el gordito" or the like


Arroz con Pollo is essentially your only source of vegetables


You come home to find that one of the hens has laid an egg in your bed again


You have forgotten your name...all you are is Teacher


You forget how to write and speak in English


It's about 75 degrees F and you're freezing.


You're in your house and you have to wear earplugs when it rains


You find bugs nesting in your hair


You eat pancakes with American cheese on top instead of syrup


Your stretched out clothes almost make you think you've lost weight...until you remember what you've been eating


You think that $3.00 is expensive for a box of cereal


You've learned to like cold showers


You alternate between constipation and diarrhea


You ask for more rice at mealtime


You buy bedazzled jeans


You think that 22 people in a pickup truck is no big deal

You never though I'd be saying cheesecake in Panama did you?

This Monday Brennan and I were called into Santiago because I had a meeting with one of the environmental agencies I'm working with.  This gave us a great excuse to spend the rest of the day in Santiago running errands and eating at my new favorite cafe and bakery Cheesecake +.  Eating at this cute little spot reminded me so much of Seattle.  It offered not only amazing cheesecake (I had dulce de leche this time.....AMAZING), but also tons of different yummy baked goods, great lunch specials, and homemade canned foods.  I think I'm in love.

Brennan got the Monday lunch special: a bowl of Chili soup, and pulled pork tacos 

I fixed my craving for some pesto with an order of tortellini pesto pasta and a delicious just out of the oven cheese stick

Of course I had to try the dulce de leche cheesecake.  In case you were wondering it might even be better than Cheesecake Factory

Great selection of canned food

Santa Fe

This Sunday we were invited to Santa Fe with a family we met a couple weeks back.  They live in Panama City, but have family in Calobre so they visit our town every now and then.  We really enjoyed the trip especially checking out the craft market and eating at this great burger joint run by a Texan.  Let's just say it was real American food that has been truly missed in the land of rice and beans.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share with you all due to the fact I was nauseous about 85% of the trip. Yes it's true  I had to have the car pulled over three times to make a dash for the side of the road .  Can you say embarrassing!  This family I just recently met was now watching me in not my most attractive moment.  By the end of the day I actually threw up 5 times.  At first I thought it was the dads driving (he just bought a new car and was testing out the breaks a lot!), which I only place partial fault, but I think I also had a bug seeing that I was still feeling crappy the next morning.  Car sickness definitely doesn't last that long.  All in all our first trip to Santa Fe was interesting, but I'm greatly looking forward to a second experience, where I can actually hold down the amazing food that I eat.

Waste Patrol

On Friday we had the chance to help the 5th grade class and the 3rd grade class with a trash clean up around the school perimeters.  I'm not going to lie the task was a bit daunting just because the trash build up was so great that our hour and a half effort to clean the field only made a small dent in the trash dilemma.  I am proud that the school took responsibility to clean, but I truly believe that there needs to be a cultural change in how people think about trash here.  Trash burning is a very common practice in Panama because towns either don't have garbage services or the services are too expensive.  So the most convenient alternative is to burn the trash to get rid of it.  I really don't blame the people especially since they don't have garbage trucks coming to dispose (or displace) their loads of trash.  What else are they suppose to do?  But in turn burning the trash is very bad for the health of the people, plants, and animals surrounded by the fumes.  This issue is something I would love to invest more time in.  I strongly believe change can start with the younger generation.  Teach your kids and they will be your future.  This Friday was a baby step and I'm hoping there will be more steps in the future to eliminate this problem.


Side rant: Though this issue is more in your face here (literally the fumes choke you up), this issue is by no means exclusive to Panama. In fact in the States, with the convenience of weekly garbage services, trash has become an out of sight out of mind issue. We stuff our trash in cans, which get hauled away every Thursday and when our waste is gone there remains a large empty can for us to fill again. But once the garbage man hauls our waste away has it truly disappeared? Perhaps this system causes us to create more waste than we otherwise would. It's easy for us to arrive in Panama and smugly scoff at the piles of burning trash, but really are things much better in the States? This issue has caused us to reflect on how waste is handled globally as well as how we handle our trash personally and we encourage you to do the same.

Johanis (3rd grade), David (3rd grade), Eric (5th grade, our host brother)

Our week at a glance

Exploring the town

Learning about our surroundings

Learning how to make artisan projects in school with the kids

Taking in the first days of rainfall

Finally breaking out the DSLR camera

Documenting our host families house

Reminiscing about Seattle's rainy days

Appreciating all the colors that Panama embraces

Los Extranjeros

This week at school was a little out of the norm for Brennan and I. A group of students on their Spring break mission trip ended up in our little town of Calobre. All of the students are Juniors at a Christian school in Pennsylvania and were connected by the Wesleyan church here in Calobre. What a coincidence! They spent Monday through Thursday with us in the primary school teaching English lessons and the afternoons running a VBS program for the kids in town. Brennan and I were pretty much the go between people if there was any breakdown in communication during class. I was asked by multiple students if I was related to any of the extranjeros (outsiders) and which one was my sister. Then I proceeded to explain that just because we are both white it doesn't mean we are related. I don't know if they actually believed me. Overall it was a fun week of school being able to see the kids enjoy the activities the group planned and getting to interact with other North Americans/family members.

 

                                                                          Enjoying the park for English class

La Feria de la Sandia

This weekend our town held the 5th annual Watermelon Fair (La Feria de la Sandia).  The funny thing was that watermelon season has come to an end so there really wasn't that much watermelon to be seen.  I don't think the people planning the fair really thought that one through.  Nonetheless the fair still served typical Panamanian food, popcorn, ice cream, and cotton candy.  We also experienced some tipico music and dancing as well as a few carnival type games (try to knock over the bricks with a baseball, free throw contest, and smash the beer bottles).  People from all over came to join in the 3 day celebration.  Our little town was hopping this weekend.  Here are a few pictures of our weekend.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Fear of bichos

Some examples of what you can find in Panama

Many of you know that Panama is a very diverse country from it's plant species, to it's birds, all the way to it's insects. As most of you already know I'm not a bug kind of gal. My initial reaction when spotting a spider or any insect as a matter of fact is to leap in the air, let out a girly yelp, and run to the highest furniture available. Man oh man how Panama is testing me. Not only do the little spiders like to come out and play at night, but also the cockroaches seem to gravitate towards me. I must say we've had it pretty plush here at our host family's house with glass windows and a door that shuts the bugs out....well most of them. We don't even need to use our mosquito net to repel the mosquitoes, spiders, and scorpions. I'm not sure if we'll have it this good in our house when we move in 2 months, however I've come to realize I need to as the saying goes "toughen up buttercup." I must admit I have improved a bit since being here in Panama for the first 3 months. I didn't run out from my shower naked when a cockroach appeared out of thin air, I didn't leap from bed to bed while evading the floor when the huge a spider ran across the cement, and I passed by only slightly jogging as the tarantula sat in my pathway. Hey I'm working on it. My goal in the next couple months is to be able to kill a cockroach on my own. Yes Brennan has been my knight in shinning armor and proceeds to kill the bugs for me, but for some reason I have this deep fear of actually killing the little buggers myself. I think it's mostly I don't want to hear the loud crunch it makes or see the legs squirming when it's half dead. Or maybe it's that I feel bad for the little guys..............um no that's not it. I may be ruthless, but at least I leave the dirty work for someone else. I can't complain about coming out clean handed (or clean shoed) every time. Okay okay I will learn to be a cold blooded killer of insects by the time I return to the States I promise you that.

                                      I do appreciate some insects more than others

Snail Mail

So during our training we had all our letters and packages sent to the Peace Corps office in Panama City.  Now that we are finally in our site for good and we successfully received our first test package from the Young's we want you to know our new mailing address.  If any of you love writing old school letters or maybe have a wedding invitation to send (that's for you Beth) we would gladly accept them.  Here is our new mailing address:
   
     Lacey and Brennan Young
     Cuerpo de Paz
     Calobre, Veraguas
     Panama, Republica de Panama




Thanks again Young's for being our trial run!

Baking School

This morning Brennan and I had the pleasure of waking up bright and early (4 am) to take our own personal bread making class from Zoila and Francisco. They own a bread shop (Panaderia), which is connected to their restaurant La Mano Amiga. Usually waking up this early is just routine for the retired teachers, but for us it was EARLY! However, so worth the lesson that we were taught. And we have pictures to prove it! So let me take you through the steps to make your own bread if you ever are up to the challenge. Warning they've been doing this for over 20 years now so all their measurements are eyeballed. I wasn't able to get the exact amount of all the ingredients. The amount also serves a whole towns worth of people so if your wanting to make smaller batches the amount of ingredients would change drastically.


STEP 1: Wake up....ha that's not really apart of the steps, but it's probably the hardest part.
                Step 1: dump out the flour and mix all the ingredients in the middle of the flour pile.
                Dough ingredients include:
                                -Flour
                                -Salt/Sal (they eyeball the amount like professionals)
                                -Sugar/Azucar (another eyeball measurement)
                                -Butter/Mantequilla (10 sticks, come on we already knew it wouldn't be 
                                  healthy right)
                                -Eggs/Huevos (10 eggs)
                                -Yeast/Levadura
                                -Coloring/Colorante (just a tiny amount to give the bread the yellow color)

                                                                 Brennan waking up

STEP 2: Mix the ingredients with water
                2 medium gallons for 20 lbs of flour

STEP 3: Kneed the dough thoroughly so that everything is mixed well

STEP 4: Separate the dough into sections in order to roll the dough into thinner strips.
                  Then roll dough into long thin strips (just like you use to do with playdough as a
                   kid).

STEP 5: Pinch off little pieces of the long thin strips of dough.
                 Roll each of these pieces into thin strips making sure the middle is larger than the
                 ends.
                 Put 10 rolled pieces of dough in each row of the baking pan.

STEP 6: Let the dough sit for 1 hour minimum, let them grow, and observe the size.

                                               We showed them how to make pretzels

STEP 7: Put the dough in the oven for 10-15 minutes.

STEP 8: Consume and enjoy!

This was such a fun process to do with our host family. We had 2 great hours of chatting, learning more about their culture, and of course learning how to making bread. If any of you want a personal lesson like ours you are going to have to visit.

One more little surprise. From the left over dough I was able to make the most delicious Hojaldre (fried dough) by rolling balls of dough into flat thin oval shapes. Of course in pure Panamanian style after rolling the dough flat all you need to do is fry it. Makes for the best and most unhealthy breakfast, but we just can't seem to get enough of this stuff.

                                                               Our typical breakfast