Been living in Panama for 2 weeks now....

Whats up everyone from Penenome, Pamama!! I am on a short trip right now with a fellow trainee until Monday when we return to our training site. This is my first e-mail to all of you, my family and friends back in the states. I want to open with a small disclosure that this is my 1st real international travel experience beyond Mexico and Canada(which is pretty much like being in the states) and so far its definately been an eye opening experience to say the least. First off all, its is sooooooooooo hot here!! As soon as I walk out my front door in the morning I am already sweating but thats one of the few things I will be having to deal with during the next few years. It seems like everyday is a new adventure, sometimes challenging but other times amazing. I have been in Panama for a little over 2 weeks and have not seen any of you in almost 3 weeks. Let me tell you that I miss you all and it does bother me sometimes that I won´t see many of you for a very long time. But come visit Panama!!! Its amazing over here!! I´ve only seen a very small part of Panama so far and haven´t even been to the "must see" spots and I´m already so impressed. The people are great, the food is great, and I am mean seriously the entire country is a tropical paradise.



A waterfall about a 10 minute walk from our taining site that we went swimming in a few times.


But real quick about the Peace Corps and my amazing PC Panama group. We are a group of 41 trainees and are the largest trainee group in the history of the PC in Panama(not to mention there are about 150 current volunteers living in the country which I am on my way right now to go visit a new one for the 1st time). We are an awesome group from all around the country and from different backgroups. Most people are around my same age, more or less. Half of the group is in the program that I am in CED(community economic development) and the other half is Environmental Health. We initially arrived in Panama City on the 15th of August and stayed in a small suburb of Panama City close to the Canal called Cuidad del Saber(City of Knowledge). Following our short stay there we then were bussed to our training site where we will stay for the next three months. I am staying in a small countryside community of 2,500 people. Some homes are made of block, some of wood, and some of palmed tree thatched roofs, some have no running water, flushing toilets or electricity. I am one of the lucky ones who have electricity, running water, flushing toilet, etccc. I was actually watching the Simpsons last night in Spanish with my host family. Speaking of wich my host family is great I live with 5 other people - a couple and their two daughters and the mother´s mother(the grandma). They feed me good and let me do whatever I want which is good. The people in my training community are great and very friendly and the food isnt the bad either(its growing on me). A majority of the Panamian diet consists of rice, beans, bananas, and some kind of meat - chicken, beef, fish. So far I have been trying a lot of new foods, it seems like everyday I try something new, I actually tried rabbit for the 1st time and didnt know it was rabbit until i was about half way through eating but it actually turned out to be pretty good. Another thing, I had a crazy experience last week. As part of our training class we had a cooking class to show us how to make this really good chicken soup called Sancocho. The interesting and crazy thing about this experience was that not only did they teach us how to cook the chicken we also learned how to catch, kill, pluck, and cook the chicken all in one day. Three of the trainees in my group actually slit the chickens throats and then we proceeded to cook the chickens for lunch. I ate the dish and its was pretty good too!























The guy is teaching us how to slit a chicken´s throat


This is just one of the things that has made my days interesting and a constant adventure. But thats it for now, I could write for hours but can´t get everything. Its a little difficult putting this together especially since I only have internet access about once a week. Enjoy and please respond every now and again. It will make my day, thanks......