7 Days until Christmas…. Still no snow….

Some days I wake up, thinking that my Peace Corps experience has been a dream only to be jolted back to reality by the mosquito net hanging over my bed and the crying 2 year old in the room above. Anyways, this past week I’ve attempted to work on my house and have made one very small advance, I purchased oil for the chainsaw. I attempted to buy gasoline for the chainsaw so we could begin cutting the lumber for my house, but all the gas stations in Almirante were out of gas. So little to nothing has been done to work on my house. Although, my host father still insists it can be completed by sometime in January. I’m starting to have my doubts. Anyways, I’m currently in the regional leaders house in Changuinola (see pictures below).

A third year volunteer currently lives here and acts as the Regional Leader of the Bocas Del Toro province. He is currently on vacation in the US. If a volunteer decides to extend beyond his or her initial two years of service, they are required/given a one-month vacation. Anyways, regional leaders live in a central location in their province. Their duties consist of aiding the other volunteers in the province, helping develop future locations for volunteers, and working with the many agencies that exist in Panama. Our benevolent regional leader (RL) allows the volunteers in the area full access to his house, even when he is not home. So a big thanks goes to the RL of Bocas. Also, the house is located right next to the Chiquita banana company’s banana fields. See the picture below for a view of the back yard.

The blue bags hanging are housing the bananas. Being this close to the banana fields, we periodically are sprayed with pesticides and fertilizers. Hopefully I’ll grow stronger and be bug free, time will tell..being bug free would be nice…


As I’m typing this blog, this little guy keeps jumping in my lap and trying to type on the keyboard. He belongs to one of the volunteers close to where I live. He has two black kittens. I can have one of them when I have a place to live. I’ll probably take one to help keep rodents and other small animals out of my house.


Well I was going to talk about my projects, but I’m not entirely in the mood to talk about it, plus I’m still watching potential projects unfold. So I’ll have an update on that later. Now I’m going to talk a little about soccer or the lack there of. Last Sunday, Cornelio(my neighbor) and I showed up for our soccer game in Miratre(not sure if that’s spelled right but it’s my best guess). We showed up before our game began and got suited up to play. Our game was to be on the same terrible mud hole as the previous weekends. So the game starts in 15 minutes and we are the only ones from our team at the field. Since we only had two players, we ended up forfeiting the game. 5 minutes after forfeiting the game, the rest of our team showed up. Panamanians aren’t very punctual. I’d like to make a few other comments about soccer while I’m on the topic. Ngabes don’t know how to play defense, and Panamanian officials don’t like me. I’m not sure if they dislike playing defense or they don’t know how to play defense, further investigation is needed. At one game, anytime I made minor contact with anyone on the other team, I was called for a foul. I made a comment to the ref that “I can’t help that all of the Panamanians are tiny.” He didn’t think it was very funny. I thought it was hilarious. For the rest of that game, anytime I thought I was going to make solid contact with another player, I would knock the guy down to at least warrant the foul. We did end up winning the game. Anyways, there is another game this Sunday on the Rio Oeste field. Hopefully the rain will stay to a minimum so the field isn’t a swamp; my fingers are crossed. (My jersey below.. it's a little big but neat looking.. also Benicio Robinson is a politician. Politicians here put their name on everything)


Oh well I need to finish checking my email and get some groceries. Tomorrow morning I’ll be headed back to my site to hopefully work on cutting wood for my house. On my way to Changuinola today, I checked and made sure there is gas, so we should be good to go.

Merry Christmas to All! This will be my first xmas away from my family and out of the states. It doesn’t feel like the Christmas season at all. I occasionally see xmas decorations, but without snow and cold weather; it just isn’t the same. Oh well, my next post will have thoughts and photos from my xmas. Don’t expect much, it all ready feels like it’s going to be a very anticlimactic day. Although, New Year’s should be a good time, most of the volunteers in my area are going to the island of Bastamientos to celebrate. I’m looking forward to that! To all of those in cold weather, enjoy it! I’m getting slightly tired of blazing hot days, humidity, and rain. Make a snowman for me!


En la lucha,


Koguira