The Next Step!

Hello Friends!

It's kind of late and I've got a big day ahead of me, but I wanted to write this one last post as a Peace Corps Trainee and give some of my thoughts about the past eight weeks and the next step in this grand adventure I'm undertaking.

Today I swear in to become an official Peace Corps Volunteer!  It's both exciting and intimidating at the same time.  At 12:30 pm the buses pick us up from Ciudad del Saber and take us to the Panama Canal Museum in Casco Viejo, the old historic part of Panama City.  There, at 2:00 pm, all 54 volunteers (myself included) will solidify our commitment to a full two years of service with the Peace Corps.

The past eight weeks have been a whirlwind of work, fun, friends, and new experiences.  Yesterday morning we left our training community of Santa Rita for good, saying our farewells to our host families and joining here in Ciudad del Saber on the outskirts of Panama City for the last bit of training we need before we swear in.  I had a fantastic time in Santa Rita, getting to know everything that is Panama and bonding with a variety of people with common interests:  to assist the people of Panama with various Teaching English/Environmental Conservation projects; to learn about Panamanian culture; and to share our American culture with the people of Panama.  The days were long and the information at times overwhelming, but it was all preparation for these next two years of service.

It's a very bittersweet period in my Peace Corps experience.  The people I've been seeing and hanging out with for the past 8 weeks will take the vow alongside me and commit to the official two years of service.  Thursday morning we'll leave for a beach near Fallarón and spend Thursday through Saturday having one last stretch of fun in the sun together before we leave for our respective sites throughout Panama, starting our assignments the following Monday.  During the first 3 months we're not allowed to travel outside of our provinces, and we're not to spend the night outside of our sites.  I'll be able to make day trips to hang out with Volunteers in my province of Coclé, but other than that I'm pretty much on my own, living with my new host family and becoming integrated into my community and my school.

It won't be easy, I can tell you that much right now.  Leaving all of my US friends was incredibly hard as it was, and now leaving all of my new Peace Corps Panama friends will be another great challenge.  Spending two months with these new friends of mine helped me adjust to Panamanian culture and its way of life, but now I'll be on my own.  I have no doubts about my commitment to these next three months, or the next two years in general.  I've thoroughly enjoyed myself thus far, love my new site I'll be serving in (post about that coming soon), and am very excited to start teaching in my school.  I'm a pretty flexible person, able to adapt to any situation and make the best of it while constantly maintaining a positive attitude, and that will be incredibly important in the months and years to come.

Despite all of that, tomorrow will be a scary/exciting/intimidating/emotional day, and after all is said and done I know I will be at peace with myself, sure of my decision to join the Peace Corps and fully undertake the adventure of a lifetime.  Thanks to everyone for all of the support, old US friends and new Peace Corps Panama friends alike.  It means so much to me, and I couldn't have come this far without all of you sticking by my side.  By next post's time I'll (FINALLY) be an official Peace Corps Volunteer and will being the long and winding road to a fulfilling and memorable adventure.  Wish me luck!

Much Love and Many Thanks,
Nate

First Teaching Experience!

Salutations Amigos!

I thought it was about time for another post or two.  Sorry they haven’t been more frequent…I know you’re probably thinking I’ve dropped off the face of the Earth, but I’m still very much here!  The past week and a half has actually been super busy and exciting, so busy and exciting that I’m kind of doing a two-parter post.  I’ll post this guy and wait a few days for hungry eyes to devour, then in a few days I’ll post the second.  This first one is about my first teaching experience with Peace Corps!

Last Monday Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 27-29) the other volunteers and I had our technical week, where we got our first chance to teach in a real classroom setting.  It was in La Chorrera, a fairly large town about 30 minutes away from my site in Santa Rita.  Because school started at 7 and we had to catch a chiva at 6, I had to get up at 5:30 those 3 days.  Since I’m EST now, that means I got up at 4:30 for all of you CST people.  Yeah, it sucked but it is what it is!

The days we went to teach were the first 3 days of the new Panamanian school year.  The 8^th-12^th grade students had just had their summer vacation.  The Earth Science part of my brain went haywire…I assumed that it was considered winter for Panama because it is still in the northern hemisphere, but that’s not how it works.  Panamanians basically have two seasons, summer and winter, but more often than not they’re called the dry season and the rainy season.  So as it were, the students’ summer vacation or “dry season” vacation had just come to a close, and they were ready to start their first trimester.

Like most things in Peace Corps, none of the volunteers knew what to expect.  We were told to write up lesson plans, but we didn’t have a clear starting point or any direction whatsoever because 1) it was the start of a new school year and 2) we had only spent a few hours talking with our teacher-counterparts the previous week.  In my case, my teacher was sick the day the volunteers met the teachers so I was completely clueless.  On top of that, when I arrived at his class on Monday morning he said he wasn’t ready for me and that Tuesday would be better.  The nerve!   I sat in on another class instead and saw a different teacher in action, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.  Tuesday and Wednesday were much better though!  I introduced myself to the class in Spanish and helped my teacher teach introduction questions (What is your full name?, How old are you?, Where are you from?, What is your address?, etc.)  For a couple of the classes my teacher had other stuff to do so he left me to teach the class by myself.  It was intimidating at first but turned out to be a really great experience.  One student asked “Are you coming back on Thursday and Friday?” and I answered no, then they asked “How about Monday?” and I answered no, then they simply asked “Why?”  That felt really good, to know that the students liked having me there and wanted me to permanently stay and teach along with their regular teacher.

During those three days I couldn’t help thinking “I’ve become the thing I hate!”  During the morning recreo (break) I would sit in the cafeteria with other “faculty members” (volunteers), drinking coffee and asking how their classes went.  I would shuffle through my papers, uttering phrases like “I’m free next period” and “I’ve got a double period teaching 11^th graders.”  During class, when I would ask for a volunteer and Student A would point at Student B, I would walk over and stand in front of Student B before handing the dry-erase marking off to Student A instead (yep, I was that kind of teacher :P).  It was crazy to experience all of that.  If back in high school I could see myself now, I would think it was some sort of sick joke.  But believe it or not, I actually really enjoyed it and it got me really excited to see what the school and students in my permanent community will be like.  And with that bit of foreshadowing, I’ll stick a fork in this post and call it done!

Miss you all,

Nate