Visit to Pedasi & Chitre

Wow, what an incredible trip to the Pacific side! My brother came out to visit for vacation, and we accompanied some Rotarians to the town of Pedasi & Chitre. We first went to the Pollera Festival (the famous cultural dresses that the women wear....very extravagant and very costly). That evening I gave a short presentation at the Chitre Rotary Club. On Thursday, we went out fishing. Our friend, James, caught a 30 pound yellow fin tuna, which we ate the next day as sushi. Nothing like freshly caught sashimi! Delicious! We left shore that day at 7am and returned around 2pm. Even after applying SPF 50 two or three times, I still managed to get sunburned. Uh! But what an incredible day! We saw a whole group of dolphins that came swimming up to our boat, playing in the water and swimming incredibly fast in and out of the water right under our nose. There must have been at least 40 dolpins total, including those in the distance. Then, as if it doesn´t get any better....a huge hunchback whale jumped out of the water in front of us, and I just so happened to get a great shot with my camera. Incredible! On Friday my brother and I hung out for just a few hours at a beach called El Toro. We wanted to go to Isla Iguana and do some snorkeling, but our group accidently left us behind when they left for the beach to depart to the island. Oh, well. Next time. Friday night we enjoyed an incredible meal at the Chitre Rotary President´s home. People here are soooo hospitable! They are truly wonderful folks - everyone I have met. On Saturday night, we attended the annual Rotary ¨Toma,¨ which is where they induct and swear in the new Rotary President for the year. I met more incredible folks and enjoyed another great meal and great live music performed by a local group (all one family with amazing talent). When we dropped my brother off at the bus stop on Sunday to get back to Panama City....well, that is a long story that involves frustration. The people are truly wonderful here, but customer service....sometimes it doesn´t exist. At least it didn´t that day at the bust station. It was crazy insane. Everyone gave us a different story. And what should have taken 10 minutes took about 2 hours. Fortunately, my brother made it on a bus after all and safely arrived to Panama City and then back home. My whole experience here in Panama has all been bittersweet....it will be hard to leave in less than 2 weeks, yet I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life! I can hardly believe I will be back in the States in less than 2 weeks. This journey to Panama has been an unforgettable experience!

More School Visits Today

I had the opportunity to deliver more school supplies today with Rotarians of Boquete and my friend, Dina. The kids are so precious and so appreciative. One school we visited was VERY remote and far, far, far...well, I guess it seemed much further than it was because we drove there and the roads were terrible. We all felt like we were riding a roller coaster in slow motion for about an hour. And to think that the children walk that far to school every day! It was interesting to note that at one school, a handful of parents even showed up to show their appreciation to Rotary for supplying their child(ren) with school supplies. Each school has students that stood up to either thank us verbally or in a song. It was great!

Today I am extremely tired, and it is only Tuesday. I am so happy I am taking yoga classes, though, because they really help calm my body and mind. Love my yoga class!

On Friday morning I am looking forward to visiting a clinic with a Nutritionist here that works for the Health Dept. She is going to expose me to the dire needs of the community and with specific populations. That should be really quite interesting. I will update you on how that goes.

The Days are Flying By!

Wow, I only have less than one month! I can hardly believe it. Today when I attended the Rotary meeting, we were already making plans for my ¨going away party.¨ Crazy how time flies. My days have been filled full of wonderful things. Last night I had a presentation at a Rotary Club meeting about 45 minutes from here; it went pretty well (thanks to my translator friend who emailed me my speech in Spanish.....hey, I am not fluent yet.....a woman can ask for help, right?). But wow, trying to prepare a simple PowerPoint is really quite frustrating without my laptop. My friend lended me hers to prepare it, but the whole program was in Spanish, and it was taking me forever and a day to make simple edits. So I went to an internet place that has 2 computers in English. They had the program, so great! Well, it froze up on me again and again....so I tried the other computer. That one, too, froze up on me again and again. Sigh! I am looking forward to buying a new laptop when I get back to the States. One of the directors at my school lended me his laptop, so I finished it quite quickly. So it all worked out....just a lot longer than I anticipated (and actually while I am typing this blog at another internet cafe, I have already had to move to another computer because it froze up on me - it gets a bit frustrating....now this mouse doesn´t work...oh, well). Anyway, I have a couple more presentations before I leave...they are pretty short and sweet...only about 10 minutes. I have just shared some of my work and volunteer experience, my involvement with Rotary, and my future goals and endeavors. It is great to network with some many folks with such varied backgrounds. One gentleman last night offered to show me ¨the real Panama¨...meaning the povery-stricken neighborhoods here. I may have time this weekend to do that.

This morning (and Tuesday morning as well) I took a yoga class that my friend teaches here. It is fabulous because we have the class at a woman´s beautiful home outside on the tiled and covered terrace overlooking the beautiful trees, flowers, etc. with all the birds singing in the background. There are only 4 of us, so it is absolutely wonderful and a great way to start my day. I have decided to take her classes every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Oh, and my friend is planning a yoga retreat to a nearby beautiful beach one of these weekends. I am really looking forward to it!

Next Tuesday, I will be travelling with a few Rotarians to distribute more school supplies to a few other schools. One of them is very remote and will take us awhile to reach. I am looking forward to it! It is so gratifying to see the smiles of children! On Saturday I will be travelling with my host family to the nearby city to go shopping for a formal dress. My host mother´s niece is having a fancy wedding on the 18th in Panama City, so we each need a ¨fancy¨ dress. On Sunday I am planning to make lasagna for my host family. It should be a good weekend with not too much activity. The following weekend, though, we need to catch the bus after my classes (after 5:30pm) and take the bus about 6 hours to Panama City. Every weekend here is different and filled with something news. When my brother comes in a couple weeks, we will see yet another part of the country. Apparently, the beaches are the best around for surfing (not that I will be surfing). There will also be a pollera (the famous cultural dress) festival there, so I am looking forward to getting another rich taste of the Panamanian culture.

Hope everyone is in good health and good spirits! More updates later.

4th of July

Rotary is simply fantastic! I attended the annual "Toma" meeting in the morning at a beautiful setting. They swore in the Rotary President of Boquete and recognized other Rotarians for their service. What a great group of dedicated folks! I am impressed. It was also great to meet other Rotarians who showed up from around the country. I was invited to speak at a couple other meetings in other cities. So I have a presentation booked for this Wednesday night and then another on the opposite side of the country in a couple weeks. I am so honored to represent Rotary and have really enjoyed meeting so many people dedicated to service above self. It makes me teary-eyed sometimes to know that there are so many caring people in the world who are striving to make this world a better place. Rotary is the best! (Picture: Boquete Rotary Club President giving his speech)

On the evening of the 4th, I celebrated with a couple of friends at the top of a nearby mountain here. There are many gringos who live here, so there were a lot of 4th of July celebrations here (believe it or not). It was very relaxing, and the few fireworks they had were spectacular, given that the volcano was in the background. Very beautiful! (Picture: fireworks with the volcano in the background)

Yesterday, I did a day hike with a group of about 20. It was organized by a local gym here. We drove about an hour and half north and then hiked a couple hours back into a small pueblo called Fortuna. It is a remote setting, and the people have no electricity. They were very kind and greeted us with smiles and had food prepared for us....a large serving of white rice, a slice of cooked plantain, and pork....all rolled up in a huge banana leaf. It was delicious, although I am not a huge fan of pork, so the hungry dogs there were well fed. The children there sang us songs and a young boy and girl wore traditional garb and did a short traditional dance for us. It was so adorable! So many special moments here in Panama. I occasionally find myself stepping back a bit, observing my environment - taking it all in, and thank God so much for the privilege of being here to enjoy the people, the culture, everything! Many teary-eyed moments. And the beauty here is simply breathtaking! I love Panama! (Pictures: Children that danced for us; view from the hiking trail on my way into the village)

Bocas del Toro last weekend

I took the bus up to Bocas last Saturday morning...caught the 5:30am to another city, then took that bus for a total of about 5 hours, then a boat to Isla Colon. So arrived at about noon. It is quite warm there, and the city is a bit dirty. But there are many beautiful beaches. My friends and I went to Red Frog beach on Saturday. The water felt great! They had a shower there to rinse off the salt water after swimming...just our luck that they turned the water off before we were finished swimming in the ocean. So we resorted to rinsing off with our bottled water. The kids at the beach entrance were so adorable! They saw that I had cookies in my bag, so they kept approaching me asking for cookies. We also fed the many stray dogs there at the beach that were hungry. They were actually quite friendly and very cute! All in all I had a great time in Bocas with my friends. It's a great place to visit, but I was ready to go home to a cooler climate after 2 days. We all kept flagging down a taxi to give us rides just to ride in an AC vehicle and get out of the heat. Anyway, it was fun! What really impresses me about this country are the people. They were all so friendly on my bus ride up...making sure I got on the right bus...making sure I got off at the right stop...flagging down a taxi driver for me....making sure I got on the right boat. Truly nice and friendly!

Yesterday morning I went for a great hike to a couple of waterfalls with some friends. It was really beautiful! Today is a holidy here, as they are inducting a new president. So I went with a group of students to the hot springs again and then to the river to swim. They swam; I slept. Wow, I was really tired today. It was nice having a break from class.

Well, I have homework to get done and will be having dinner soon with my host family. I tried to upload some new pícs on here, but this pc I am using at the internet cafe is insanely slow. So I hope to add them next time.