Megan Unbounded

My last week living in the host community, I visited Panama Viejo which is the ruins of the former capital of Panama. My last day with my host family! Even though I was only with them for two and a half months, I am going to miss them so much. The family and the community has been supportive, welcoming, and helpful. I was a little surprised how emotionally I was about leaving since I felt I was their daughter, sister, and friend to my family. Today is swear-in!!!! I was so excited and in shock, as well, at how quickly training passed! What made it more special was most of the volunteers from tech week came to support and the location was pretty awesome (the ambassador's house was so beautiful!).  Officially a Peace Corps Volunteer!!! (Finally!) My last weekend before I got to my site in Colon! A bike ride on the boardwalk and Avenida Balboa was very pretty and relaxing. Here I went to Portobelo and it has one church in town center where there is t...

Already it has been two and a half months and I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. The days pass slow but the weeks and months go quickly, if you get what I mean! I have made it through training which was exhausting but informative and fun at times. And now, I am moving on to my site in Colon where I will no longer be living with other Peace Corps volunteers from my group in the same community. So this is when it gets real! For the next two years.. (O.O) It is a  little intimidating to leave the group (as well as the host family, Panamanian "suburban" life, and weekend travels) and I am feeling excited, nervous, and overwhelmed because I will be one my own and I think of all the ideas my community wants to do to improve their community. I do like that I have many project options to keep me busy, however, I feel I have high expectations I have to meet! They want a road, cell signal, and a few other services that they feel will make their lives better even thou...

This was our last week with our host families before we go to our sites for the next two years! This week I just spent some time with them and drank coconut water from coconuts sliced open from our machetes. Also we went to El Choro , which is the waterfall in the community to relax. Before leaving, we had a water feria to learn about different ways you can store and clean water for drinking when we all go to our sites. This is a ferrocement,  which is a method to store and filter water made of cement. In the bottom half, their is clay, sand, and rocks to filter the water before drinking and lasts a lot longer than the big plastic tanks that many use as well.    Also, you can filter water by the use of the sun and a water bottle if you do not have the tools to make the ferrocement . However, it will depend on the day so if it is really sunny out, you would let the water sit in the sun for about 6-12 hours but if it is cloudy, then about 24-48 hours. Of c...

This week all of the volunteers in training and I went to visit our future sites where we will be living for the next two years! At this moment, we are in training for about the first three months we are in Panama and are living with host families that stay very close to the Peace Corps office near the city. After, we will live for three months with another host family in our sites that we will be living and working in for the next two years! The moment when we found out our site placements was very exciting and I am more than happy with my site in Colon, where I will be working with coffee farmers! It seems simple to take a bus about an hour and then wait for taxi, which can be about another hour for a 30 minute drive to my community! This was one of my host families houses and the kitchen across the way I stayed in for the week up on a hill. Lots of hiking but good exercise ;) My beautiful bath for the week and it was very relaxing to enjoy the natural area around. ...