That was fast

I'm hot.  I drank real coffee twice today.  I'm happy to be here.

Well, I landed at 11pm last night, got to my hotel at about midnight, and we started our day at 7am this morning, so I'm tired.  But so so glad to be here.  Today was mostly an intro to the way PC Panama works (very organized and professional, with high but realistic expectations of its volunteers).  I got my site assignment already!  It's in an area that's south of the mountains, so it's "Pacific" and thus drier (not really dry) and still hot like the rest of Panama.  Yup, it's hot here.  Seems like everything indoors in Panama City is air conditioned though, yuck; I'd rather feel the heat a bit more--a fan would suffice for me.  I did get to prance in the warm tropical rain today!  That probably made some people stare.  Tomorrow we move in with host families, which is always awkward, but I'm convinced I can do it more easily this time, without the extreme language barrier I had before.  Never fear, I'm sure there will be plenty of culture shock to write about--and it's soon festival season!!!  So far it seems that Panamanians love to dance and there are some really sweet costumes and headdresses, hopefully I can stick around long enough to participate this time around.

So more about my site.  It's in the Veraguas province, pretty darn close to the Pan-American highway.  Did you know you actually can't go the whole way from Alaska to Argentina on that?  There is a 150km gap in eastern Panama where there is no road, just dense jungle.  I will be working with some highly motivated farmers, one of whom has goats and would maybe want to make yogurt and cheese.  SCORE!  And there is significant interest in fish and rice tanks.  DOUBLE SCORE (though I need to be trained first in that)!  The area supposedly is a huge deforestation site, due to cattle raising, so I may be working in re-proliferation of good grasses and plants/re-forestation, though it will continue to be cattle grazing land forever more.  People also have chickens and farm other things (beans, some veggies though I think there is room for expansion on that end).  I don't go to site for 2 more weeks, at which point I'll obviously to give some more insight on what it's like.  

My boss (director of the agriculture program) is really energetic and seems to be really in touch with volunteers.  She asked me how much I wanted to be in touch, we decided to talk every 2 weeks, which I know will keep me motivated and be helpful--I like feeling like I have a consistent support system.  Panama City has all the comforts of say...Miami, due to all the U.S. and military influence in recent history, but honestly I'm ok with that--I'm totally charmed by the friendly people.  Maybe it's just the brewed coffee and chocolate.  I'll try to post some pictures soon.

And una cosa mas...

GOBAMA!!!!!