Hogar Lejos de Hogar

So much has happened in the past few days that I can hardly believe it! On Wednesday we went on our first hike to the top (or face) of La India Dormida (because the mountain range looks like the face and body of a woman laying down). I definitely broke in my hiking boots – there were many times where I looked in front of me, saw that the guide had already passed into the jungle ahead and wondered how the heck someone could even carve a path up (and down) such a rocky slope! This is me at the top (there are better pictures of me at the top but other people took them so I’ll have to get them later). The view from the top was incredible!

On Thursday we had a “drop off” where we were paired up and given the task of traveling to a different town near El Valle by bus and to answer questions about that town (when it was founded, what the citizens like about it, what is it’s patron saint, etc). Adriana and I were assigned the furthest town away, San Carlos. We all got on the bus together and slowly got off in pairs as we stopped at each town. The funniest thing was when a group was dropped off in a “town” that consisted of a single solitary farm, or even just abandoned buildings and jungle, and watching the puzzled looks on their faces as the bus drove away. San Carlos is even bigger than El Valle and we had no trouble at all finding the center of town, but everyone immediately started directing us to the mayor when we asked them questions about the town. We were personally escorted to the mayor’s office, where we met the mayor within minutes and had a wonderful conversation with him about San Carlos, his family, his love of baseball, and our hometowns. It was so nice to be welcomed so fully and spontaneously and it was also striking to see that “Panamanian time” is very different than in the United States. Here, everyone seems to feel comforted by the fact that things that need to happen will happen eventually and no one is in too much of a hurry that they can’t spare some time to be helpful or have an interesting conversation. In fact, there was a little old woman at the bus stop who waited there with us just to make sure we got on the right bus back to El Valle.

Then we played an epic game of soccer on a field surrounded by the breathtaking view of the mountains, and surrounded by dense jungle from which chickens appeared around halftime. It was a pretty competitive game, and although my team (Las Tortugas) lost, we all had a great time – and got really dirty (and semi-injured) from the rugged field, complete with horse poop and thorny plants. This is what my ankles looked like afterwards:

On Friday we took our Spanish placement test (which reminded me of how much grammar I’d forgotten) and then left for the rural community of Rio Indio in the beds of open trucks. Traveling at heart-stopping speeds around the treacherous unpaved mountain roads made for a particularly eventful ride!

Rio Indio was a quaint “hotel” in the mountains and after we arrived we hiked two hours through slippery and narrow paths to reach a beautiful waterfall where we all jumped in and swam and played Frisbee for hours. It was an unbelievable moment and a beautiful day. Then we hiked back and ate “carne rosada” (meat roasted on an open grille along with rice and potato salad and it was delicious (says the vegetarian). I’d forgotten how good chicken can taste. We slept there without electricity, but we didn’t really need lights or internet since we had plenty of company.

 

This morning we woke up early to get on the trucks back to El Valle to shower and eat breakfast, only the trucks never came. There was some mistake so after managing to catch a few other trucks that were passing by , we eventually made it back to El Valle (Panama time at its best). There we ate and had a quick orientation session where we got our homework assignment and class schedules (ahhhh) and then promptly left to go meet our homestay families in Panama City.

Currently, Kendell (my new roommate) and I are chilling on a beautiful patio, enjoying the cool breeze and watching TV/using our laptops with our homestay mom, Tina. Our new homestay parents are so welcoming and sweet that I feel right at home, and their house is beautiful and filled with memories that it’s easy to make conversation about pretty much anything. They have two “loros” (birds) and a stray cat named Danny that took a liking to them and hangs out on their porch.  Tina is originally from Italy, so she assured us that we’d leave knowing some Italian as well as more Spanish.

Tomorrow we’ll meet their children and grandchildren and will explore a bit to get to know the city before we start classes on Monday. This still feels like a permanent dream, but I am beyond excited to keep speaking Spanish with them (and to try all the foods she promised to make for us, ranging from Panamanian and Italian to Chinese and Mexican). Esto es increíble.  ¡Buenas noches!