°Bonus points if you know what movie/book I stole the title of this post from ;)°
The sky just looks different here. Every time I start to feel like I´ve been here for forever and everything is familiar, I look up and know this is another place entirely. The clouds are just beautiful, so much so that they apparently render me inarticulate. I really don´t have adequate words to describe it, I promise to put up some pictures later. So yes, I do feel comfortable here. Sometime after the first couple weeks I stopped feeling like a tourist. I am prepared to be suprised by my own culture when I return home. I have made friends, and gotten close to many people in my village, but I feel like it´s all been tainted by the fact that they know I´m only here for the summer. Volunteers and tourists from the states come to Panama often, but they never stay very long. People here are very kind and hospitable, though I just can´t shake the feeling that we would be able to be better friends if they didn´t think of me as being impermanent. At the same time I hate the thought of leaving, but am excited to go home. I can´t believe I´ll be leaving Panama next week (to go to Mexcio)! This has been an amazing summer so far. I´ve loved learning about Panamanien food, culture, economics, politics, and education. It has made me examine the culture I am accustomed to in a new light. Annie (the other volunteer in my village) and I are throwing a party for our students tomorow, just to hang out and say goodbye. We are teaching our students a song from The Lion King with a dance that we made up (and also using it to review vocab. about animals and the zoo). During the party we are going to have a dance-off to the song from the movie, and use it as an excuse to get rid of the rest of the prizes we brought with us. Early Friday morning Annie and I will catch a bus back to Panama City. I feels like I´ve been here a long time, but each day has seemed short.. if that makes any sense. I promise to write more posts when I have time, I´m too preoccupied with thoughts of leaving to be able to write much more now.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Postscript
Here are some things I meant to add to the last post, haha sorry.
My school (continued)- There are no substitute teachers. When a teacher has to be somewhere else between the hours of 7-1 they just don´t show up for class, and the students go home.
Classes don´t start or end on time. This is partly because the bell system is not automatic. This means that whenever someone thinks it is time for classes to start they will flip the switch and the bell will ring. Quite often, due to fast or slow watches combined with human error, this means that everyone and everything is in a mild state of chaos. Sometimes class will end five minutes early, and others five to ten minutes late. This is especially annoying at the end of the day which is supposed to be 1PM, but often ends closer to 12:40PM. The teacher´s don´t seem to mind this too much as they are eager (in general) to get home to eat lunch and watch telenovelas (soap operas).
The students are unfamiliar with the concept of raising their hand before they want to speak. It´s not that they are bad kids, they´re pretty good for the most part, they just don´t understand that screaming across the room at each other the entire class is considered impolite. Speaking of politeness, it is rare to hear kids say please or thank you here (in Spanish or in English). Again I don´t think it´s a reflection of disresepect, it´s just that no one expects this of them.
Media- There are 5 (I think) TV stations here, the most popular being TVN. Roughly, 3/4 of their programming is soap operas. They are very dramatic, often with bad acting, and sometimes contain material that I would be shocked to find in the U.S. during prime-time. For example, there is a show that comes on about 3 nights a weeks (at 8PM) called Sin Sensos No Hay Paraiso which means Without Breasts There Is No Paradise. It tells the story of four highschool girls in Colombia who go to great lengths to get breast implants. Then, somehow, they end up as trafficked strippers in Mexico. It´s pretty adult content for 8PM at night, in my opinion.
Radio stations here play a mix of reggaeton, pop, and musica tipica (typical music). However, the DJ´s have a habbit not allowing a song to play through all the way. They interrupt it with their commentary, singing, and sound effects (like fog horns, laugh tracks, and the sound of glass shattering). It´s interesting...
Spanish- My Spanish has definately improved since I´ve been here! At first I felt like I could hardly understand anyone, due to the accent and my general confusion with my new surroundings. However, now I wouldn´t consider myself completely fluent but I feel much more confortable conversing with everyone from teacher´s to taxi drivers. I still make a lot of mistakes in daily conversations, but I am learning from them.
My school (continued)- There are no substitute teachers. When a teacher has to be somewhere else between the hours of 7-1 they just don´t show up for class, and the students go home.
Classes don´t start or end on time. This is partly because the bell system is not automatic. This means that whenever someone thinks it is time for classes to start they will flip the switch and the bell will ring. Quite often, due to fast or slow watches combined with human error, this means that everyone and everything is in a mild state of chaos. Sometimes class will end five minutes early, and others five to ten minutes late. This is especially annoying at the end of the day which is supposed to be 1PM, but often ends closer to 12:40PM. The teacher´s don´t seem to mind this too much as they are eager (in general) to get home to eat lunch and watch telenovelas (soap operas).
The students are unfamiliar with the concept of raising their hand before they want to speak. It´s not that they are bad kids, they´re pretty good for the most part, they just don´t understand that screaming across the room at each other the entire class is considered impolite. Speaking of politeness, it is rare to hear kids say please or thank you here (in Spanish or in English). Again I don´t think it´s a reflection of disresepect, it´s just that no one expects this of them.
Media- There are 5 (I think) TV stations here, the most popular being TVN. Roughly, 3/4 of their programming is soap operas. They are very dramatic, often with bad acting, and sometimes contain material that I would be shocked to find in the U.S. during prime-time. For example, there is a show that comes on about 3 nights a weeks (at 8PM) called Sin Sensos No Hay Paraiso which means Without Breasts There Is No Paradise. It tells the story of four highschool girls in Colombia who go to great lengths to get breast implants. Then, somehow, they end up as trafficked strippers in Mexico. It´s pretty adult content for 8PM at night, in my opinion.
Radio stations here play a mix of reggaeton, pop, and musica tipica (typical music). However, the DJ´s have a habbit not allowing a song to play through all the way. They interrupt it with their commentary, singing, and sound effects (like fog horns, laugh tracks, and the sound of glass shattering). It´s interesting...
Spanish- My Spanish has definately improved since I´ve been here! At first I felt like I could hardly understand anyone, due to the accent and my general confusion with my new surroundings. However, now I wouldn´t consider myself completely fluent but I feel much more confortable conversing with everyone from teacher´s to taxi drivers. I still make a lot of mistakes in daily conversations, but I am learning from them.
Below is a list of things I have yet to see in my village, just to give you an idea of what it´s like:
1. a computer with internet access
2. a vegetable peeler
3. a trash can in a kitchen (we have one in the bathroom, but no where else)
4. hand soap
5. a person washing their hands
6. a person wearing a seatbelt
7. a bookstore
8. library
9. bakery
10. any type of lettuce other than iceberg
11. a person smoking
12. a child reading a book
13. a person begging
14. a car wreck
15. an ATM
16. a dog on a leash
17. road kill
18. pharmacy
19. a person jogging
20. whole wheat bread
°I made that list a few days ago in my journal. It´s just interesting to reflect how small these things are on their own, but I feel like you could find all of the pretty easily in any city in the U.S..
All in all I really am still enjoying my time here. I feel that this experience has changed my outlook on many things. I have proven to myself that I can be independent, and learn how to interact with another culture. I have also developed a strong interest in U.S. educational policy.
More next week!
Besitas,
Jenn
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Odds & Ends
Below is a hodgepodge of things I´ve been mulling over lately. Fragments of thoughts realy..........
Panama- This country is 2nd only to Brazil in terms of unequal wealth distribution. They use the US dollar here, and have been weathering the recession better than the USA from what I can tell.
There are two seasons here, summer (humid and rainy) and winter (humid and even more rainy).
It´s now winter and rains almost every day. I always look forward to the rain though as it cools things off a bit.
My Village- There is a jardin (basically a beer garden) in every village. This is where the men get drunk (for the most part) immediately after work and stay until about 9 or 10.
People are friendly here. When someone gets on the bus everyone else greats them. Those of you from DC can imagine how different this is from DC public transportation where people are in the their own little bubbles protected from each other by their iPods and newspapers.
My neighborhood is safe. It´s not uncommon to see four year olds playing in the dirt road alone behind my house. I expected to feel more out of place in a small town than in a city, but that´s not how it is at all. In my town people know me, and greet me politely. However, when I go to larger cities (by which I mean Chitre which is 40 minutes away by bus and just barely big enough to warrent its own stoplight) I´m gawked at as if I´m the first woman men have ever encountered. Even more annoying is the hissing (yes men actually think this is endearing),honking of cars, and slowing of traffic that seems to follow me down every street in most towns other than my own. Suffice it to say that I much prefer the tranquility of my small town.
My School- I have lost what little patience I had with the Panamanian school system. School is canceled at least once a week. Any reason will do. So far it´s been because of the school´s birthday, the inaguration of the new president, two teachers conferences, and a holiday this week called El Dia de El Niño (The Day of the Child). Another volunteer told me she had school canceled one day because of the rain, which is crazy (because as I said before it is the rainy season and) it rains almost every day. Adding to my frustration is the fact that during most of my classes other teachers have no problem coming in and taking a few of my students to help with some special project. It´s so hard to keep the kids attention that it drives me crazy to have my class disrupted. Also, the teachers tend to yell at the students a lot and talk about their poor grades in front of the whole class.
There seem to be a rather large number of special needs children at my school for how small it is. We even have a special teacher to work with them. There are several children with reading problems, one with autism, one with downs, and one with cerebral palsy. In addition, there are at least two children in every class that the teacher´s discribe as ´special´. Annie and I have a couple theories about this. Either not every child who is described to us as special has problems and is instead just acting out because he or she is bored and-or not being challenged, or this seeming plethera of students with disabilities is linked to the fact that everyone in my village is related. I would guess that there are maybe three families here and all the cousins are inter-marrying. It would make for an interesting case study anyway.
Mid-point break- This weekend I went to El Valle for a break with the rest of my group. It was awesome! We hung out around the town Friday afternoon, and hiked a bit. Then on Saturday we climbed La India Dormida (which really does look like a women lying on her back sleeping). The view from the top was amazing! Jungle vegetation gave way to alpine surroundings and breathtaking views. On the way back down we went swimming in a pool at the base of a waterfall which was ice cold. Then, after a quick lunch, we set off for the beach. It was a fantastic weekend! I can´t wait to put up pics next month so you can all see it too.
My time at the internet cafe is almost up. I´ll write again when I can.
Un abrazo,
Jenn
Panama- This country is 2nd only to Brazil in terms of unequal wealth distribution. They use the US dollar here, and have been weathering the recession better than the USA from what I can tell.
There are two seasons here, summer (humid and rainy) and winter (humid and even more rainy).
It´s now winter and rains almost every day. I always look forward to the rain though as it cools things off a bit.
My Village- There is a jardin (basically a beer garden) in every village. This is where the men get drunk (for the most part) immediately after work and stay until about 9 or 10.
People are friendly here. When someone gets on the bus everyone else greats them. Those of you from DC can imagine how different this is from DC public transportation where people are in the their own little bubbles protected from each other by their iPods and newspapers.
My neighborhood is safe. It´s not uncommon to see four year olds playing in the dirt road alone behind my house. I expected to feel more out of place in a small town than in a city, but that´s not how it is at all. In my town people know me, and greet me politely. However, when I go to larger cities (by which I mean Chitre which is 40 minutes away by bus and just barely big enough to warrent its own stoplight) I´m gawked at as if I´m the first woman men have ever encountered. Even more annoying is the hissing (yes men actually think this is endearing),honking of cars, and slowing of traffic that seems to follow me down every street in most towns other than my own. Suffice it to say that I much prefer the tranquility of my small town.
My School- I have lost what little patience I had with the Panamanian school system. School is canceled at least once a week. Any reason will do. So far it´s been because of the school´s birthday, the inaguration of the new president, two teachers conferences, and a holiday this week called El Dia de El Niño (The Day of the Child). Another volunteer told me she had school canceled one day because of the rain, which is crazy (because as I said before it is the rainy season and) it rains almost every day. Adding to my frustration is the fact that during most of my classes other teachers have no problem coming in and taking a few of my students to help with some special project. It´s so hard to keep the kids attention that it drives me crazy to have my class disrupted. Also, the teachers tend to yell at the students a lot and talk about their poor grades in front of the whole class.
There seem to be a rather large number of special needs children at my school for how small it is. We even have a special teacher to work with them. There are several children with reading problems, one with autism, one with downs, and one with cerebral palsy. In addition, there are at least two children in every class that the teacher´s discribe as ´special´. Annie and I have a couple theories about this. Either not every child who is described to us as special has problems and is instead just acting out because he or she is bored and-or not being challenged, or this seeming plethera of students with disabilities is linked to the fact that everyone in my village is related. I would guess that there are maybe three families here and all the cousins are inter-marrying. It would make for an interesting case study anyway.
Mid-point break- This weekend I went to El Valle for a break with the rest of my group. It was awesome! We hung out around the town Friday afternoon, and hiked a bit. Then on Saturday we climbed La India Dormida (which really does look like a women lying on her back sleeping). The view from the top was amazing! Jungle vegetation gave way to alpine surroundings and breathtaking views. On the way back down we went swimming in a pool at the base of a waterfall which was ice cold. Then, after a quick lunch, we set off for the beach. It was a fantastic weekend! I can´t wait to put up pics next month so you can all see it too.
My time at the internet cafe is almost up. I´ll write again when I can.
Un abrazo,
Jenn
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Week 3 of Teaching
I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! This was my first time celebrating it outside of the U.S.A (which my students tend to pronounce as one word-usa). A bunch of the volunteers got together in a nearby town for rootbeer floats. The only problem was that we couldn´t find any rootbeer, so we used Coke, and the only icecream available was neopolitan. It was still yummy! There were about 8 of us total, including two highscool girls from the organization Amigos de America. We sat around talking for over 3 hours. It was great to be able to relax and talk about our experiences so far (in English). Overall a very good 4th of July though I did miss seeing fireworks and eating watermelon.
Things are still going pretty well at the school. Discipline has gotten a little harder though. I think the magic/newness of us (Annie and I) has worn off and the students are starting to test their boundaries. I had my first parent teacher conference on Friday, and I think I held my own pretty well (despite the language barrier). A few things I forgot to mention about the school; there´s no AC, no soap, no paper towels, and no toilet paper. However, the government does provide free milk and cookies to the students in the middle of the day. The other teachers have all been nice so far. In my English classes students are learning everything from the abc´s and numbers, to useful questions to know when traveling to an Anglo-phone country. They all took quizes on Friday, and most did very well.
The biggest things in the news here are the new President of Panama, the coup d´etat in Honduras, and the discovery of Monica Serrano (a girl who was kidnapped 8 years ago). But I have no clue what´s going on in the US. I did hear that Michael Jackson died (big news here too), and that Sarah Palin is no longer governor of Alaska. I do miss knowing whats going on at home, but not quite as much as I thought I would. I´ve never been in a foriegn country for much longer than 2 weeks, and I almost feel like being wrapped up in news from home would spoil it a bit. I haven´t seen a single ´crackberry´here, and I kind of like it. There isn´t an obsession with being constantly in touch, or connected to the outside world. The pace of life here is slower (´We are going to the farm at 3´ really means anytime in between lunch and dinner give or take a few hours). But, it also means that it may take you quite a while to recieve your food in a restaurant. Overall I´m enjoying it though. It reminds me of the Southern U.S. a little... Lots of people drive trucks, own horses, fry any and all kinds of meat, and love KFC.
This weekend our group will be going to El Valle, a 2-3 hr bus ride north of here. I´m excited to see more of the interior of Panama as well as go hiking to the base of a volcano. I´ll update as soon as I can. Miss you all!
Besitas,
Jennifer
Things are still going pretty well at the school. Discipline has gotten a little harder though. I think the magic/newness of us (Annie and I) has worn off and the students are starting to test their boundaries. I had my first parent teacher conference on Friday, and I think I held my own pretty well (despite the language barrier). A few things I forgot to mention about the school; there´s no AC, no soap, no paper towels, and no toilet paper. However, the government does provide free milk and cookies to the students in the middle of the day. The other teachers have all been nice so far. In my English classes students are learning everything from the abc´s and numbers, to useful questions to know when traveling to an Anglo-phone country. They all took quizes on Friday, and most did very well.
The biggest things in the news here are the new President of Panama, the coup d´etat in Honduras, and the discovery of Monica Serrano (a girl who was kidnapped 8 years ago). But I have no clue what´s going on in the US. I did hear that Michael Jackson died (big news here too), and that Sarah Palin is no longer governor of Alaska. I do miss knowing whats going on at home, but not quite as much as I thought I would. I´ve never been in a foriegn country for much longer than 2 weeks, and I almost feel like being wrapped up in news from home would spoil it a bit. I haven´t seen a single ´crackberry´here, and I kind of like it. There isn´t an obsession with being constantly in touch, or connected to the outside world. The pace of life here is slower (´We are going to the farm at 3´ really means anytime in between lunch and dinner give or take a few hours). But, it also means that it may take you quite a while to recieve your food in a restaurant. Overall I´m enjoying it though. It reminds me of the Southern U.S. a little... Lots of people drive trucks, own horses, fry any and all kinds of meat, and love KFC.
This weekend our group will be going to El Valle, a 2-3 hr bus ride north of here. I´m excited to see more of the interior of Panama as well as go hiking to the base of a volcano. I´ll update as soon as I can. Miss you all!
Besitas,
Jennifer
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