Megan Unbounded

I want to share with everyone a few things that I have learned and my overall experience while being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama!  I give you all the truth and try not to hide anything about how my time here! If you have any questions or similar experiences, please share!!

My time is winding down in the community so on the weekends, I'm visiting community members and cooking with them. Each weekend I'm trying to spend as much time with my Pana-mom especially. I also asked her to share any advice and words in a video just to look back at and be reminded of the great times we had together!

My community! (click on the pic to see the video) The months are counting down and I made a video of my community to remember it. Also, I am really going to miss my English class and all the fun we have had since the past year and half or so! They were entertaining, especially when we shared American holidays together like Halloween, Valentine's Day, and the Fourth of July. In fact, I am really proud of them because a year before, they could not read or write in English but not they can! We only have a little more time to practice conversation, critical thinking, and more listening practice!  They dressed in costumes, if they wanted, and one was a ghost in a sheet and scared other classmates when they showed up to class for a Halloween celebration!

I really wanted to give you guys a tour of my PC house and garden! (video for my house but my garden in pics!) Just to share for those who are wondering about Peace Corps life, volunteer work, and etc... I have made this quick video ! (click on pic!)  I want to take a moment to talk about how much a vegetable garden or just gardening in general is a great hobby to have in ones life! I had never grown vegetables or fruits before and the only experience I have ever had in the field was helping my mom with planting flowers around the house. Now that I have started, it is something I enjoy very much. Plus, when I want to eat it, everything is all organic!  (Corn, tomatoes, ginger, and peppers)               I did receive training on how to grow certain produce through Peace Corps and from my community coming to help me in my garden! (Below one is helping me put up a netting structure for my tomatoes so they grow upward). And throu...

Each month with the newly formed tourism group, the business uses a part of their earnings to support environmental conservation, from clean-up groups to, hopefully, education in the schools. We are working on continuing the awareness of the importance of recycling! The volunteers before started the construction of recycling bins in the school so I have talked to the tourism group to start this project back up again and I am here to help with that! Before they did not have a sustainable way to transport trash and recycled products out of the community but with management and financial training (with me!), I am sure they can get it to work out, even after Peace Corps leaves this site. I found a dead fish from contaminants in the river :( And we came across a gold digger and his family while cleaning up the river!  Some are not pictured but this is the group that worked to keep our community clean!

For my birthday, I had planned to go to the movies but decided that I would rather stay in the community and play some traditional American games with some of my community members like an egg race on a spoon, water balloon toss, and three legged race! It was fun and they enjoyed their time. At first some of my neighbors were scared to play and after we got going, more and more people wanted to come toss around the balloons or try to balance their egg on a spoon! After my birthday celebrations, I went to the local clinic near my community to help out a group of American doctors that came to give medical attention and treatments for free. Some other Peace Corps Volunteers that came helped to translate as well and we got to check out the eye surgeries. After the week, we helped the doctors complete over 50 eye surgeries, take of interesting growths on people, and handout medical supplies to the local Panamanians that cannot afford to visit a doctor. I g...

This week I went to the mountains with the Cruz family to harvest guandu, or pigeon peas, on their farm. It was a good hike on the outskirts of the community and about 2 hours from my house. While my legs are still a bit sore, the views were awesome and it was a good day to get to know the Cruz family better. The kids are cute and every time we passed by water rapids, they would use the slopes as a waterslide! How creative :D We even walked by these trees with huge roots that were bigger than people and could even make a house under them, kind of like Avatar, the movie with the blue people lol The stories that were told on this trip, because my community likes to share stories with me, were about witches that live here and how once, a person became a frog and ate a tamale. Kids sharpening their machetes for the today's adventure! And our before picture!  We found guanabana, or soursop, too!  The walk back was so beautiful! So m...