this is... something: panama!

This past week has definitely kept me busy. We arrived in Loma Bonita Friday evening. Since then, we've spent nearly every day visiting a few families, walking around, eating and talking.

First things first. I wake up so early and go to sleep so early. With no electricity, there is nothing to do at night so I'm usually out by 8 or 9. Ketchup, Dave's cat, is an amazing alarm clock. It's like total clock work. Every morning, there she is meowing at 6 am without fail. The one night Dave decided to lock her out of the main house... we slept in just a bit. And by slept in... I mean until 7!

Another crazy thing which was actually expected is that the bathroom and shower are outside. In the end, it's not an issue. The only interesting part is that, since the shower walls are just a bit too low, I have to shower in my bathing suit. Also, until two days ago, I had to tiptoe to reach the knob to turn the shower on. All is better now... I'll get to the reason in a bit.

During my first full day in LB, I met Dave's first host family. His host mom, Maria, was so welcoming. She has quite a few kids, all grown up, who either live in the same house or in another house on the property. She also has a few grandkids. Besides Maria, I got to know Samuel, her grandson. He is 10 years old and is one of Dave's students. If you call Dave's cell and get his voicemail, you will hear Samuel's voice at the end of the message. Samuel also has a little brother, Eliezar, who is 17 months. He is so adorable. Mabe, Maria's youngest daughter, just had a baby girl. Though she's about 2 weeks old, she still doesn't have a name. Besides the food - homemade tamal for lunch and arroz con pollo de patio for dinner - the highlight of that visit was climbing up the hill that they are on. It was a long hike and I am nowhere near used to putting out that much energy but being up there, able to see all of Loma Bonita as well as the Pacific Ocean, made the journey well worth it. We also found some maricuya (passion fruit) trees and picked the fruit which Maria later made chicha (juice) out of. Delicious!

On our way back to Dave's from Maria's, we stopped at his second host family's house. They have a tienda (store) where we bought some duro (frozen chicha in a plastic bag). Duro has quickly become my favorite thing to eat, besides hojladras (fried batter) which remind me of funnel cakes without all the sugar. Victor, the father of that household, is incredibly nice. He's built furniture for Dave's new house. He also has three daughters - one is a relatively known singer in Panamá who lives in Panamá City, another who is working on becoming a singer, and the third who sings very well (I heard her at church) but prefers to stay home and run the tienda. Her name is Soyla but everyone calls her Choy. She even made us dinner one night - arroz con pollo de patio. Victor also cares for his niece, Ana Iris, who is 10. She is also one of Dave's students and is very friendly. We watched Game 5 of Yankees vs. Angels there since they have a generator. It was pretty sweet because, since the town doesn't have electricity, tons of people were gathered on his porch to watch.

I hope this doesn't get around LB, but my favorite family so far is Anna's. She lives next door to Victor, so we see her all the time. She, like most others in LB, has a lot of kids. I've gotten to know one of her daughters, Christy, who is 22 and her youngest, Anna, who is 5. Her husband, Fernando, is also incredibly nice. I've met her sons, but there are honestly so many that its difficult for me to remember their names. I know one is Alexander, but I don't know which one he is. Terrible, I know. They are all just so sweet. I always feel at home when I'm around them. Not to say the others aren't welcoming since they definitely are, its just different. The other day, Anna crocheted a top for me. It's absolutely gorgeous. Last night, they gave us fish and showed us how to clean it before cooking it. I honestly can't wait until next August when I come again and can hopefully communicate with them better. They are definitely helping me with my Spanish and I want to show them their work was well worth it.

I also met Dave's third host family. They live right next door and are always so helpful. The mom, Yolanda, is super sweet. She's always giving us fruit. My favorite is the chino banana. Its HUGE! It's a little tougher than our banana, way thicker, and a bit sweeter. I've met two of her sons but have gotten to know one very well - Milciades. He's 14 and is also one of Dave's students. He comes up to the house all the time bringing us stuff from Yolanda and talks with us. I like to practice my Spanish with him and he practices his English with us. I absolutely adore him because he's such a hard worker. Last night, he showed us this English study book he has and asked Dave to check it over. It's just very interesting to me. From what I've heard and seen, people who live in LB tend to stay in LB for their whole lives. Milciades is definitely trying to better his life. He has a wonderful family who supports his efforts. His brother works in a beach community and I think he wants to do something similar. I think that's why I like him so much - because he is trying. He's also great about helping in general. The other day, Dave was trying to fix his shower (the sides were coming down and, like I mentioned, the knob to turn the water on was too high for me). Milciades stopped by just to drop off some fruit and stayed to help Dave with all the work.

That's another thing about the kids here. They're all so well behaved. They listen to authority and don't talk back. Dave was saying the other day there was a meeting and all the teachers left the students to be on their own and they all behaved. They weren't running around being crazy loud.

We went to school yesterday. Dave was teaching English and I got to sit in and watch. He was teaching them about members of the family (immediate and extended) as well as descriptions (tall, short, etc). It was obviously harder with the little kids who didn't really care but it was cool to see the older kids trying to learn and recalling what they had learned previously.

When it came time to leave school, we realized we couldn't. We had left the umbrella at home and it was raining like crazy! The day before, we had gone to the waterfall and the water was falling at a nice, steady pace. With the rain storm, the water leading to the waterfall was so high and moving at such a quick pace. We stayed at the school for a bit until the rain slowed - it didn't stop though. All the kids started gearing up to leave so we decided it was best to make a run for it too. It was the first day of total rain I've seen while here though Choy was saying that's typical for this time of year and it's actually been kinda dry because of El Niño.

I also met two volunteers who live near Dave. They all had a meeting to attend in El Copé for the environmental agency and I tagged along. After the meeting, we went to one of the girls, Kayla, house where Dave and I cooked chicken and rice. They taught me how to play cribbage! Kinda fun actually.

Today, we geared up for the trip that we're currently on. We woke up at 6, finished packing and then headed out for the chiva to El Copé. At Copé, we got breakfast and then caught a busito from Copé to the interamericana to Aguadulce to Santiago. In Santiago, we met up with a few volunteers and ate pancakes. They were delicious! Then we headed out to David and finally Boquete. I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop here. We're staying at this sweet hostel called Hostal Boquete which is right along the river. Our room has a private bathroom, television and wireless internet all for $25 a night. The hotel also has an Italian restaurant connected to it that is pretty good.

Tomorrow morning, we're gonna get a tour of a local coffee plantation, Ruiz, and then head out to Bocas del Toro for Halloween. Lots of excitement coming up!