Monday, December 18, 2006

Adventures in Babysitting,
Habitat for Melissa,
y
Mom´s Day

The past few weeks have flown by... in a sort of inch by inch kind of a way. But this is the adjustmet to be expected as a 23 year old American settling into the Indigenous/Latin American manera de vida.

I still struggle with the dual usage of Spanish and Indigenous languages in my community. I find myself hanging out a lot with kids. Our vocab is pretty comprable. Oh, and they´re fun.

The two boys below are two of my favorite people in the world now. They like to run and practice their slides for baseball and I rate them on a scale of uno to diez. They are also coming along very nicely in learning the lyrics to ¨Feliz Navidad, I Wanna Wish You a Merry ChristmasWe sing it every night before bed. (They sleep on the floor in my room.) The two girls are sisters and a couple more of the kids that live in my host family´s house.






Here´s some more.... kids that live in mi casa.
















We started building my house!!!!! My counterpart and my host father are my two biggest helpers. Actually, they´re the biggest builders, and I would say I´m the helper. I am really good at handing them the saw, the tape measure, and the correct size of nail. If you ever build a house on an Indian Reservation in Panama, you have to first hire someone to chop down trees in the jungle and cut all your lumber with a chain saw. Then you convince a bunch of large, male friends to carry it all out for a free meal. Its called a Junta. Never underestimate the weight of a solid 2X4. I am convinced I have permanent dents in my shoulers. Here are the beginnings of the project- diggin some holes for posts and right after starting to lay the frame work.




Here is the view from my front porch.... jealous?

My english class is in full swing. Here is one of my most dedicated students below. Outisde of the classroom, she still loves going over what we learned in class. Picture me, acros from her in a hammock saying over and over again, ¨I... AM... GOOD. HOW... ARE... YOU

One of the teachers in the community surprised me with the regalo I am sporting below. These are the indigenous dresses women wear called ngabes. I call them cultural Moo-Moos, which are surprisingly very comfortable. In the background you will also notice my stylish interior decor: armoir (clothes line), canopy bed (mosquito net) and wall paper (map of panama).






The woman below is the wife of my counterpart. She has become one of my closest friends in the community. Women often take naps during the day. I caught her just finishing one.

The night before Mother´s Day, celebrated on the 8th of December in Panama, we stayed up til the wee hours of the night making Johnny Cakes. They are, as shown below, delicious bisquits of coconut and flour cooked over an open flame fire in a self-made oven. (aka a covered pot with an upside down tuna can inside)


This is what I gave my host mother for Mom´s Day. It was a perfect fit.







On Mothers Day, all the men are supposed to cook a huge meal for all the mothers. At the right is one of the gatherings in my town that day with all the mothers sitting and waiting for their food.




Below is an example of a man cooking- I tried to explain that culinary skills are actually admired among men in the US, but I dont think anyone heard me through the laughter at the site of their husbands in aprons.























This is Lupita. She and her husband own the town store. I see them once each day when I venture over to buy bubble gum or a coca cola classic. Because I have become such good friends with them, they asked me to start helping out in the store, so occasionally Ill get behind the counter. Its a good way to learn vocab and figure out which kids belong to who when moms send kids to buy a few things for dinner on store credit. Im also working with them on record keeping and business plans for expanding the store in the next year. See below for one of the many views I get while working.





Here´s the host mom and dad... The Grandparents of all those kids I showed up top. He is the local Doctor in town and lets me help out a lot in the Health Puesto, which has been a great way to meet people while introducing my work with health education. She is a machine and can get the muddiest pants cleaner from a murky creek than any US washing machine I´ve ever seen.









Bottom left is Kool and the gang... they said I wasn´t allowed to cross that bridge until I Sacar-ed their Foto. I was tired and I caved. Bottom right is some family time before cooking dinner. We like to sit by those windows and watch the sun set at night.









Here is one of my favorite old men working out the knots in a fishing net. It takes guys entire days to get these nets all unwound and repaired after a day out on a rough sea.


Below is my house at the end of Day one.



I am slowly becoming better friends with all the animals as well. They don´t name their cows, but I refer to them all by american farm names. Meet Bessie.

This is my counterpart and his wife on the way to the finca (farm).



Dats a big bowl o rice. These moms were cooking for the big party on the last day of school. Summer just officially started here and classes won´t resume again until March.


Its funny cause kids beeeeeeg you to take their picture, but no one ever really smiles when you actually do, unless you catch them buy surprise. Especially if you say ¨Smilethey just dead pan.




























I snapped this last shot yesterday morning right before I got on my boat to leave site. It was about 6am and there was a man leaving in a dug out canoe to begin fishing for the day. With the sun rising over the hills across the bay, it was what I call a ¨Peace Corps Post Card Moment
































2 Comments:

Blogger Huck said...

Hi, Melissa - Great blog! Great work with the Corps! Edie Wolfe pointed me to your blog. It's wonderful. Just wanted to write to say hello and wish you a joyful holiday season.

-- Jimmy Huck

7:44 AM  
Blogger Unima Kwaribo said...

Mel, those pictures are so amazing, especially the last one. Please send it to LaVaina for all to see. Let me know if you need any help with your house, aquaduct or whatever. Even if you don't, I'm still gonna visit you! See you at IST.
-b

12:26 PM  

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