COFFEE... mmm

Ok, so here's the latest... I will be working in a COFFEE site!!!! I am very, very excited because you probably didn't know this, but Panama has some of the most expensive coffee in the world and it's very rico! And they supply coffee to some V.I.P.'s that I am probably not supposed to mention, so I won't. Anyway, I am currently in a place called Boquete and, if you can believe it, it's actually kind of chilly here!!! I know, not what you think of when you think of Panama or if you have talked to me on the phone or read other stuff, you know it's like SWODY all of the time. But here it is very cool and it stays pretty cloudy most of the time but those are like prime growing conditions for coffee which is why this place has sold coffee for over $100 a pound, and no, I'm not exaggerating.

Anywho, the place where I will be working- I find out exactly where next week- is not going to be like this so much. I will be working on a much smaller scale of farming but the community will be selling to buyers here in Panama. More to come when I figure out everything!

In other news, there was a GIANT tarantula in my house last week. It tried to sneak in through the roof because it was raining and apparently they don't enjoy getting wet. They are also very docile creatures I have heard but let's face, I'm not trying to hang out with one and let it crawl on me for fun. NO THANKS! Here is a picture of my furry little friend. Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping that night and I most definitely put up my mosquito net the next!


But, here is also a picture of when I fell and scraped my leg walking to the waterfall, also pictured. I want to put these on FB but it is giving me trouble at the moment. Anywho, enjoy these ones.




I will be returning to my host family on Sunday, my b-day, and they are having a party for me. How sweet! Also, I am at the Spanish level that I need to be at to stay so that is great! Only a month of learning and I am good enough but certainly nowhere near where I want to be!

I leave you with a picture of the river near where I am at... I don't know the name but there was a hot springs next to it that was AMAZING!



Until next time...

What a trip it has been

So, this past weekend I went to a current Volunteer site to see what life was like for a volunteer. I can say two things about the trip: I had a good time seeing everything and how it went and it was very sad. I was supposed to go alone but one of the volunteers got sick so the girl that was supposed to go see her came with me instead. We took a big coach bus from the terminal in Panama (Panama City to you folks) and everyone was saying how those are so nice because they have air and comfortable seats unlike the city buses that are old yellow school buses. I have to disagree that it was infinitely better. The air was a hole above my head and the sun was so hot through the window that what little air that came out did nothing for me. However, my ass was nicely comforted.
Anywho, we rode the bus for about 4 hours or so, occasionally stopping on the side of the road for the folks who decided they didn´t want to backtrack by going to the city first. Then, we got to our meeting point in a very little town off the side of the Interamericana (the big road that goes through Central America). We ended up meeting out volunteer there because she was in town but then we had to take what they call a "chiva" to actually get to her site. Imagine a pick-up truck, about medium sized, with a type of covered seating area in the bed of the truck. There were bars overhead to hang on-hang on for dear life! We basically went straight up the mountain side, with a couple of dips, on a "road" that had been extremely eroded after the rain. It was quite the experience and not so kind on my ass :) Once we got to her site, it was only a 10 minute walk to her house.
We did not have electricity and the water was from a "pluma" in front of her house that was not super reliable. It was kind of like glorified camping. I really enjoyed it. She had a mud house that everyone came together to build, they call it a ´junta´ where people from the community and other volunteers come together to have a big mud making party to build your house. It was really cool. We helped give a "charla" (or talk/seminar) on Lombricultura, or worms. It was fun and the people seemed a little bit interested. We helped begin the painting of a world map on the school wall, we helped with a 5 hour finance meeting for the women´s group- that was definitely a cultural experience for sure!! We saw some rice and fish tanks but since water is scarce right now and the rainy season hasn´t really started, they weren´t full or planted. We also saw some other plants as well. We did a lot of what they call "pasearing" which is basically walking around to people´s houses to sit and visit and drink coffee- lots of it :). We also tried baking in a mud oven which did not really work out well, even the little kids who are hungry did not want to eat our baked goods but they did anyway and it took them a long time to do so. Kind of funny!
We came back yesterday afternoon and hung out at the mall for a little bit. It was nice to be in air conditioning and have some delicious ice cream. This week is another busy week of training and language classes, which I am getting better at, slowly but surely. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email! I'd love to get an update on everyone! My email is hkellermeier@gmail.com! The internet is hit or miss sometimes but if you go to the right place, it's pretty reliable. Anyway, that's all for now.
Until next time...

Here, in Panama

So I have been here almost two weeks, on Tuesday it will be 2 weeks. I really like it here and the people are very nice. They like the gringos! It is very hot and humid here and since the hills here are so large, I sweat a lot. Also, there isn't central A/C or a fan in my room and the toilet is a latrine (hole in the ground type thing but with a nice toilet seat on top :)). I know it's gross but this is my blog :) The food here tastes really good and it's not all rice and beans. My host mom really enjoys other things, pasta for example is a favorite, and so she doesn't like eating rice everyday. Next weekend I will be traveling to the site of a current volunteer to kind of get an idea of what is going on and what she does there. I am very excited but the trip there will take me probably 6 or so hours. I am excited because I will be going most of the trip by myself so I will be able to at least navigate where I'm going even if my Spanish isn't up to par. Anyway, I will try to update again after my trip so you can know what it's like in the Panamanian interior!
Until next time...
Heather


This post is purely my opinion and does not in any way represent the views of the Peace Corps or the U.S. Government.