Most of you probably know that I spent a summer during high school in Okinawa, Japan as an exchange student. My host sister Yuka and I have seen each other four times since, and she came to visit me in Panama from Tokyo a few weeks ago. She thus qualifies for the Spent the Most Time on an Airplane to Get to Panama Award. Any contestants out there?
Protests were brewing again, so to ensure that I would be able to meet Yuka and then the rest of my family in Panama City and not be trapped on the other side of the country, I had to leave my site 4 days before her arrival. I spent the limbo days visiting other volunteers in communities closer to Panama City. The timing was right though because in site we had just wrapped up the latrine project and nothing much was going on except the start of school.
Checking out the city with Uncle Richard and Yuka
I’m still not terribly familiar with Panama City myself, but luckily several of my volunteer friends were in the city as well so we could show Yuka the perks of metropolitan Panama City. On a Thursday night, these included Thai food and a techno club.
The next day, we head to another volunteer’s Embera (another indigenous group) community. Travel consisted of 1 ½ hours on a converted school bus with blasting bachata music, a 30 minute pick-up truck ride and an hour long dug-out canoe ride. Goodbye, metropolitan Panama. The river was so dry that we had to get out a few times so that the strong men could push the canoe along the river bed.
In the Embera village with another PCV Sarah, and Yuka
The following day we hiked through the jungle in order to GPS survey the border of the community, and then headed back to Panama City to meet my family arriving: my great uncle Richard from Alaska and my mom, dad, and brother Myles.
The six of us spent the following 2 nights on the tiny tropical Isla Diablo on the Caribbean side in the Comarca Kuna Yala, about 4 hours northeast of Panama City. You know that Windows desktop background of a tiny island with one palm tree? We went there. The area attracts an eclectic group of tourists because each tiny island is owned by a Kuna family and provides simple sand floored huts (similar to my house!) with air mattresses for visitors. The island on which we stayed was about the site of a football field.
Isla Diablo
Next we headed to my community for 3 nights. By this point I had slept in 3 other volunteers’ houses as well as in a hotel and on the tiny island, and I was very ready to go back. Whenever I visit friends in other parts of Panama, I oftentimes find their houses nicer and their communities with more amenities, but never have I found anyone with as many awesome neighbors as I have.
The kids from all around loved my visitors- Richard teaching the harmonica, Yuka reading kids books and learning Spanish, and Myles practicing knots with the boys. I enjoyed not being the center of attention for once. 
Cooking Japanese curry rice in my abode!
Most adults on the other hand were a bit shy about there being so man non-Spanish speaking gringos (and one China Japonesa – I’m still struggling to teach people that there is a difference) in one spot. Surprisingly, many adults asked me if Yuka was my sister. I said no. Next, in all seriousness, they asked if she was my cuñada (sister in law). I said, that would be nice.
Yuka learned how to make the chakara bag from my neighbor Cristina.
Before we all knew it, it was time to head back to Panama City. I was happy to have hosted my parents and Myles again, and honored that Richard came all the way from Alaska and Yuka from Japan. Kuna Yala was stunningly beautiful, and my site was, well, like it always is in the summer. Hot, dry, lots of kids, and lots of beans.
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