Last week all of the trainees in my group travelled to different parts of Panama to visit current EH volunteers. I traveled to the Comarca Ngobe Bugle (indigenous reservation) in western Panama to visit a 2nd year volunteer. I took a 5.5 hour bus ride west from Panama City, and got off in a smal town in Chiriqui and met my volunteer there. Then we took a 30 min pick-up ride into the reservation. At this point the road stopped, so we got off and hiked about an hour into the valley to find her community.
The Ngobes speak Ngobe as their first language and Spanish as their second language, but you can get by just fine with just Spanish and a few Ngobe greetings. In the picture, I am wearing a traditional Nobe dress with traditional Nobe rubber boots (hah). All of the women and the girls wear these colorful dresses with the sawtooth pattern all of the time! Behind me is a world map the volunteer painted on the side of her house for the education of the community. She said a lot of adults were suprised how much water there is in the world, how tiny Panama is.
Visiting the volunteer Meredith for 4 nights was great, because I got to see what life is like. I realized that it takes a lot longer to do everything out in rural areas - cook, bathe with one bucket, and do laundry by hand. Everyone in her community is really friendly, and the kids like to hang out on her front porch all of the time to look at the map and play games. I fell in love with a puppy Lucky that we were dog-sitting for the weekend, and she definitely wanted to go home with me too!
It is a good thing I enjoyed my visit to the Comarca Nobe Bugle, because half of the trainees in my group will be placed there, and most of the rest will be in other indigenous sites where Spanish is the second language. Starting next week, my training group will spend 10 days in a Darien (province nearest to Colombia) community doing technical projects such as building pit and composting latrines. The week after that, we will find out our community placement! 
Such a cute puppy. Glad to hear everything is going well. Let me know when you have a permanent address!!!
ReplyDeleteYo i'm totally diggin that dress. Good luck with your community placement!!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea Panama had a large indigenous population. Good luck with the placement! Are you guys getting sitemates or will you be on your own?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Will have a permanent address in a few weeks :)
ReplyDeleteI will be wearing many more of those dresses, haha.
I had no idea the indigenous pop was so large either. We don't get sitemates but there are 7 other EH volunteers in the Comarca so we will be collaborating on some projects. The nearest one is 1 hr hike away.
That dress suits you.
ReplyDeleteBring me back a puppy in return for the peanut butter and nutella I am going to send. :p
I also think you should draw something crazy on the side of your house when you get one. Like cell bio something. I'd love to see Panamanian kids running around screaming "I AM LOSING ATP!!!"