Two Months Down, as Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama

Two months in site and it is going well! Still visiting just about every house in my community to have a more personal interaction with them and get to their family. I visited one community member's house and they were making these beautiful wooden chairs with a machete and a piece of cardboard! It has taken them a few weeks to make them, carving them from a big tree and slowly peeling the bark off with their machete and a small part of cardboard to protect their hand.

 Just me riding around in the community on my house and my best buddy Loki wants to follow me around :D


Me and a few volunteers walking part of the way to the Black Christ festival in my region. Many people during the week of October 21 make a pilgramage to Portobelo, Colon! We met some people who had walked from Panama City to Portobelo ( through the rain or hot sun for about 90 miles!) in purple robes and some without any shoes. I saw a few even carrying small platforms with a black Jesus on top of it over their heads, like the pictures below but much smaller.


They had red cross stops along the way in case anyone had an emergency and people even gave us free bottled waters and snacks!

And we finally made it to the beautiful Portobelo!


So when the people that walk here make it within about a half of a mile or so from the church, they crawl the rest of the way. But if they stop, a person that is following them (like this lady in the picture walking beside the man) will pour hot wax on their back I am guessing to encourage them to keep crawling! Yikes that has to be painful lol





 Outside this petite Kuna Yala woman was selling her beautiful artesian work near the church! Their community is not too far from Portobelo and is really pretty.

So I received this huge sugar cane from one of my community members as a welcome gift! It is so big, I shared it with my host family and neighbor. With a machete, you skin the outside, cut chunks off at about each notch, and then bite a piece off to suck the sugary juice from the cane!





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