Panamania

September 24nd The wife of the first director of the Peace Corps was founder of the Special Olympics.  Due to this these two organizations have historically had a close connection.  For the Special Olympics events last Saturday Peace Corps Volunteers were asked if they would be willing to help out.  I was assigned to help out with the Ping-Pong tournaments, but due to a small turnout for Ping-Pong the director asked me if I would be willing to photograph all of the events.  Unfortunately a lot of the photos were accidentally deleted, but I still have a couple good ones. It made me feel really good to be part of such an amazing event, that is until after the tournament was over and the Special Olympians asked me to play Ping-pong with them.  They won every single match I played against them…at least I’ll get a rematch with them in November!

October 14th I know that it’s been a very long time since my last updates.  I’m hoping to be more on top of my blog posts going forward.  Just know that if it takes me a while to update my blog it’s not because I don’t want share what’s going on in my life or that I’ve forgotten that there are people who are interested in knowing what’s going on here.  Some weeks/months I’m very busy and during other periods I have a lot more down time.  If I haven’t updated the blogs in a little while hopefully it’s because I’m busy working with my community members and fellow Peace Corps volunteers on projects that are intended to improve the lives of Panamanians…it just might take a little while for you to hear about it.

September 10th For the last week and a half my parents and sister came to Panamá to visit me.  It made me really happy to share a little piece of my life in Panamá with them!  We spent the first few days in Panamá City.  During our time there we had the opportunity to visit the Miraflores locks on the Panamá Canal, walked around Panamá City’s historic district Casco Viejo , and went to some fun bars and restaurants.  They enjoyed their time in the city and were impressed by how modern Panamá City is.  If you just spent your time in the city you would probably wonder why the Peace Corps are in Panamá. Next we headed to the Province of Coclé to visit my community, Piedras Gordas.  When we arrived it was pouring outside but that didn’t deter my 2nd host dad from proudly giving us a tour of his home, my home, and the Cooperativa Nazareno’s (the name of the environmental co-op) vivero (tree n...