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