“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”
-Bernice Johnson Reagan
Today I observed in the elementary school for the first day. I will spend the next 2 months observing classes and learning from the teachers here. So far I have noticed full classrooms, little resources but a lot of love from the teachers to the students. However, one recommendation: Stop giving the kids boat loads of sugar, sugar juice and candy during recess for snack. I swear, these people don´t drink water!
Since I have returned from the dental nightmare I have convinced the kids in my flossing lesson that my loose filling popping out wasn´t the work of the floss but instead of a faulty dentist. However, the conclusion has come about that it was the work of a bruja or witch which pulled out my filling. Apparently Panama is filled with Witches both men and women and if anything at all strange happens it is the work of witchcraft. People believe in this so much that the bochinche (gossip) fllies so fast around this town as to who is the witch and who you have to be nice to in order to stay away from bad luck.
On Thursday we had a huge rainstorm, I mean buckets were being poured on this town (probably by a witch), but of course it occurred in 85-90 degree weather. After the storm the whole town was talking about the hail storm (impossible of course, and of which I did not witness although I was sitting on a porch throughout it all). And of course this hail was caused by a witch. Panama has never seen snow, and I am pretty sure not hail either. Entonces, I will need to take precautions here to not cause anyone bad luck or harm in fear of forever becoming the witch of San Andres.
Here is a picture of a portion of my host family here:
And of the best fish I have eaten:
And some favorite kids:
And some favorite kids:
Top 3 things not to do when introducing yourself to a new community:
1) Do not introduce yourself in front of the school and tell everyone how excited you are to ¨"comer" (eat) them, rather than "concer" (know) them.
2) Be careful when using the words "ebarassoso" and "embarazada" which can easily confuse people from embarrassed to pregnant and may result in a made rush to get you a chair, lots of food and water, oops!
3) Show them technology, i.e. camera, ipod, etc... as they will be flooding your door way day and night to try and show their friends and family. Should have waited on that one.
All in all, life is good here. It´s an interesting experience, as my friends are old ladies and young children, but at least I have them. Most women my age have husbands or at least children, and are busy caring for them and fearing I am here to steal the few eligible bachelors in town. Which I am not! Hopefully my social life will pick up, I am working on trying to join some sort of sports team, but there is a lot more talk than practice.
Missing you all out there in the US, but integrating well, speaking only Spanish, and enjoying this very sobering, amazing, cultural experience. 3 months down! 24 to go!
And again, start planning your trips, because you all know how I love to play tour guide!
xoxo
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