After two weeks of hauling ass around Panamá, we are finally, FINALLY done with tech and culture week, and I am really happy about that. We only really have about three weeks left of training, including our site visit, during which we get to visit the place in which we'll be working, and then we swear in. I just want to drop all my bags down somewhere and not have to carry them anywhere else for the next two years, after these last two weeks.

Culture week, however, was way, way cooler than tech week, at least in my opinion. I headed out to the Darién with Joanna, Jake, Deborah, and for a brief time, Justin (who ended up being the third ET in our sector) and chilled with the Emberás and Wounnan for six days. It wasn't exactly pertinent to my site or what I'll be doing over the next two years, as my site is Latino and Kuna, but it was good insight.

For example, we met a medicine man, who gave us a brief "charla" on various medicinal propeties of various medicinal plants around the site. The first was a plant that, if the authorities are looking for you for anything, especially the trafficking of drugs (because this is the Darién), you put it on your hand, then shake their hand, and they immediately forget about the pursuit, and care so little about finding you that you could "sit down and have coffee with them." The other plant he told us about was this striped one that, when you used it, turned you into a tiger. That way you could hunt, and when your rational Tiger Mind deemed it necessary to return to human status, you just took your paw, rubbed the counter-medicine on yourself, and you'd change back. When asked if he'd ever attempted this transformation, however, the medicine man said no, because it's "too dangerous."

We also got painted with Jagua, which is this black substance that comes out of some fruit, and doesn't go way for two weeks. That was pretty sweet. It'll be especially sweet walking around my latino community with this indigenous painting, even though my host mother told me all the "indios are alcoholics." It'll warrant acceptance.

The kids also lovvvved us. Jake, being 6'8", was constantly being stared at, and when we were asked why we as Americans are so tall, we took the opportunity to tell them that it was because, in the United States, we don't ever eat any candy or drink coffee, and only eat fruits, vegetables, lean meats and dairy products. This was mainly in response to the fact that the families in this community, and others, start off feeding their kids coffee as soon as they're weaned (Franco, who is sitting next to me, just laughed at the word "weaned" because he is a twelve year old). They also were really intrigued with my coral necklaces (the teal and red ones), and my "ojitos bien azules", which I guess means my really small, really blue eyes. I also bathed via a bucket, standing in the middle of a community, in all my clothes, trying harder than hell to be discreet as eight million kids watched me. The whole week was a lot of fun, even though my host family consisted of more screaming children, meaning I didn't sleep.

After Culture Week, we all chilled in Panamá the City for a while, and went to some bar calledUnplugged which was apparently supposed to be reminiscent of the show on MTV, and the next morning got crepes and waffles at a place called Crepes and Waffles, and paid six dollars for our hotel room per person, because five of us were crammed into a three person room and basked in the glory of frigid air conditioning and showers with HOT WATER AND PRESSURE. Good times.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for all of you, I got a cell phone and its number is 6777-4636. Eight numbers. Get yourselves all int'l calling cards and get on calling me (add 011 infront of the number), because incoming calls to me are free for me, and you're all making more than the ten dollars a day that I will be.

I'm updating this from Santiago, Veraguez, while my clothes are at the lavamático being scoured of their mildew smell that they accumulated over what was the busiest week ever. And it's not over yet.

This last week was tech week, which meant the nineteen remaining EH volunteers headed out to the Ngäbe site Cerro Iglesias, where we proceeded to construct five composting latrines throughout the community. The basic concept of composting latrines is that you create a two-chambered block construction and put two toilet seats (one per chamber) on the top. You use the first chamber for six months, and use two different parts of the seat--one for when you piss and one for when you shit. After you're done, you put sawdust over whatever solid waste you've just produced, and continue to use that chamber until it fills, and then let it sit for six months, after which you should have straight up compost for a garden of some sort. It's an important concept here in Panamá, especially where water tables are high, as it eliminates risk for fecal-oral disease transmission, etc. etc. This may sound strange, but if you're planning on coming to visit me, you'd better get used to the idea, as I'm building one for my eventual house.

We also got to stay with a Ngäbe host family, which was interesting, but I am glad I'm being sent to a Latino site. The Ngäbe women have a lot of pena, which basically means they're shy and look down at the ground, and since I'm shy and look down at the ground when I first meet people, I probably wouldn't get shit done. HOWEVER, we almost didn't get there at all because our Chiva never showed up, and when one did, we broke down somewhere on the mountain and had to evacuate out because of this cloud of opaque white smoke. Then, as we were leaving the site, the other Chiva didn't show up, meaning we hiked for a while, which would have been fine except my Teva broke and I had to hike barefooted.

Now we're all in transit to culture week, where I, along with four other people, will spend the next five days at an Emberá site in the Darién learning the language and getting painted and awesome shit like that. I also get to stay in Panamá for a night and pick up a cell phone and go to Riba Smith, which is Panamá's answer to Whole Foods.

Finally, for anyone in Chicago, especially if you go to Columbia, read "The Time Traveler's Wife", which was written by some professor there, and which mentions places like Berlin and the Western stop on the Brown Line and the Newberry Library and Smartbar and Belmont throughout the entire thing. I read it this last week and it made me homesick as hell.

I miss you all and apologize for this insanely boring entry. You'll probably get one tomorrow with my cell phone number on it though, so everyone go out and buy an international phone card, because incoming calls are free for me!

Oh man. Lots of stuff.

So Wednesday was the big day for all of us, when we went to Chorrera to find out site placements. The powers that be thought it would be fun to put that as the last event of the day, so the majority of us spent the hours of 9-3 in a semi-state of panic, or wanting to vomit, or both. FINALLY, three oclock rolled around, and they pulled out this giant map with all these blue and yellow stars on it (blue for EH, yellow for CED) . My name was the second called, and while I can't list the actual name of it on this blog for a number of different reasons, I can tell you that it's in Panama Este, right across the street from a Kuna community and right off the Interamerican Highway. I'm the second farthest east, and I have water, I'm 3.5 hours away from the city, there's a possibility that I can get electricity and it's Latino. I'm so ye-ye. If you want to know the name of the site, ask my mom and she'll let you know.

I am, however, a half a country to a country away from a lot of my good friends, but that's what the public transportation system is for. So anyway, a huge weight has been removed from our shoulders and due in part to that, plus the fact that it was Lisa's birthday, we celebrated with Panamá beer and lots of cheap wine. Good times.

In other news, a bunch of other trainees and I played a bunch of Panamanians in a game of softball. It was close, but in the last inning, we came back with five runs and oh hey, I hit two into left field and made a pretty decent catch in right field. Dad, you would have been proud of my ability to retain those middle school skills. That game was to warm up for our cross-sectoral, cross-cultural softball tournament in October, which we had better win.

Culture and Training weeks are coming up in two days. All the EH volunteers are heading out to David or Chiriqui or somewhere in the west to build latrines for four days, and then we have a sector conference in Veraguas I think, and then I head back the hell out east to the Darién for Culture Week, which is going to be really cool because I get to get painted black by the Emberá. Look up a picture for now, but my mom is being awesome and sending me means by which I can post pictures on this thing, so it won't be too long before you actually get to SEE what is up.

I have ridiculous chiggers all over my legs. You should probably look up what a Bot fly is and the process of removal of a larvae from your skin and then you will have an inkling of the fears I am dealing with on a daily basis regarding the infestation of bugs into my subcutaneous layer. However, in good news, chiggers can be killed by liberally slathering clear nailpolish onto your body, because this apparently suffocates the little shits. I don't know what happens to their carcasses.

Sally Muterspaugh has claimed the month of March as when she is going to visit me, so if you want to visit, you need to do it in a month other than March, or coordinate with her so you're not here at the same time or something, because I am not hosting two people at once, and my mom goes first.

Did I mention I am currently updating this thing from a supermarket? True story. And now I have to be on my way, because I am freezing and because we are never going to get back to Santa Clara at this rate. I love you all!

First, hey family!

We lost ANOTHER person. Stephanie left for good to be with her grandma in Chicago, which leaves six EH girls to balance shit out. It sucks that all the good people are ETing.

This weekend was pretty busy, as it was the first time we as individuals ventured out into Panamá outside of the protective wing of the Peace Corps administration. Whitney and I embarked on our 11 hour journey to the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle, which entailed a four and a half hour boat trip in this ridiculous canoe that was about forty feet long by four feet wide, equipped with ten bench seats, none of which were built to accommodate 5'7" me and 5'11" Whitney. We visited two volunteers, Andrea and Julie, and watched as they put on a simultaneous volleyball tournament/health ed charla on HIV/AIDS and the use of condoms. It was pretty crazy, the amount of information these women didn't know, but I guess that's why we're here. We also baked brownies on a stove, ate raw sugar cane, and took a bath in a river, until the current stole the soap from Whitney.

We ventured off to Las Lajas the next day, where you'll all be proud (especially you, grandma) to know I learned how to play both "asshole" and Flip Cup, for the first time ever, college included. We drank this sickass drink, seco, which is derived from sugar cane and taste like rubbing alcohol, and I came back with bites up and down my legs from whatever insects live in the sand.

Not much else has been going on, especially in the training community. Next Wednesday we find out where in Panamá we're going, and I'm 99.9% sure I'm heading to the Darién, much to my mother's chagrin, but there's also a decent chance I will have either water or electricity, or both. It's nervewracking, but it will be nice to know whether or not I'm going to be dying of sweltering humidity over the next two and a half years.

This upcoming Sunday is Family Night. I doubt Í'll be doing more than meeting with the latrine committee, as my host mother has some crazy, swollen back foot with an enlarged toenail that is oozing something, and for some reason this prevents her from ever moving. Thus, Sunday will probably involve watching the Spanish dubbed version of My Boss's Daughter, starring cinematic masters Tara Reid and Ashton Kutcher.

If you're planning on sending me books, as previously requested, and I hope you are, you should know not to send me A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) or Man Without a Country (Vonnegut), as I've finished them both. Also, you should all know that before I left, I saw the preview for the movie adaptation of Kite Runner and it made me kind of cry, so you should all see it and report back to me about whether or not it sucked.