Welcome to Peace Corps Panama!

Welcome to my updated blog on my travels and experiences as a future Peace Corps volunteer! I hope to inspire and help those who want to know what to expect and the realities of living abroad, or specifically Panama!

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I'm an American! Peace Corps Panama Challenges

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This past week, while walking around in the community, I meet some people from the Embera indigenous community, which is about 2 hours hike or an hour boat ride from where I live. They too had a Peace Corps volunteer a few years ago and knew of the volunteers before me that worked in my site as well. However, I am the first biracial volunteer they have met. At first they said that I cannot be from the United States because my skin color is not like the previous volunteers and my hair is not blonde or my eyes are not blue. They were convinced that I am actually from Panama, a Colon native since many of the Panamanians near Colon are an Afro-Caribbean decent mixed with the various races here in Panama. I understood that due to their experiences with the previous volunteers, who were mainly Caucasian, I felt excited to explain to them that the USA is not a homogeneous country, but a mix of people from countries all around the world. Also, I explained that it is basically the same here...
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Peace Corps 4th of July in Site & Killer Pig Story

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Over this past month, I got to see the beautiful mountains that separate my community from an Embera site that is about 1.5 to 2 hour hike away while going with one of my counterparts to plant plantains in his finca .  In one of the pictures, there is a bee on the side of the horse. But it is not just a normal kind of bee but one that sucks the blood from animals and I had one on my knee! Coincidentally, the day after the U.S. Supreme court made gay marriage legal in our country, Panama had their Gay Pride Parade the following day. Peace Corps volunteers and the U.S. Embassy teamed up to provide support in the parade. Also, I had a little barbecue with my community members to share a little bit about the U.S. independence day while eating delicious food. While they did have some BBQ pork and some other traditional foods for the 4th of July, I did have some vegan garbanzo bean and sweet potato burgers for people to try if they wanted! It was simple and fun ...
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Peace Corps Flooding: The Pigs that Got Washed Away

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To finish off the rainy season, we had a flood in the community where no one could enter or leave the community. Talking with a neighbor, someone's pigs were washed away by the flood and walking through the community, it was sad to see that some of people's produce and farms were destroyed. It is their livelihood and not sure how some will recuperate after the incident but the majority of the community was good. The crazy thing is I almost moved into a house that was flooded but luckily I did not from suggestions from my supervisor!
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