Day 4 - Pre-Service Training

After arriving in Panama City on Wednesday night our group got onto a bus and was taken a short distance to Ciudad del Saber. This is actually an old US Army base that is now the center for NGO's, diplomatic offices and Peace Corps HQ. The barracks that we are staying in are complete with our own bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, TV, internet and AC. Outside are coconut and mango trees filled with parrots and other tropical birds. Our meals have been catered and days filled with overviews and interviews. We get vaccinations on the side as well as some basic personal health training. I have recieved my own mosquito net for sleeping as well as bug spray, sunscreen and malaria prophylaxis - which apparently gives you vivid dreams. I took my first one tonight, so we will see.

Today we drove north to a community located somewhere outside the city of Colon where a current Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) was a year into her service. Packed into a caravan of three land crusers moving through dirt roads in the interior, the CED program got its first chance to experience life in a typical PCV CED community setting. The road quickly went from paved, to potholes, to dirt. While the community was rural, isolated and poor, they were extremely kind, welcoming and interesting. They cooked us meals using their local ingrediants, introduced us to their town and told us about the types of things that a PCV does.

The food was excellent. Breakfast consisted of beef, yucca and coconut bread served with a lemon grass tea. For lunch, we ate papaya, tomalies rapped in banana leaves and star fruit. Dinner was some kind of chicken cooked with spices and served with rice, beans, and vegitables. The entire community had prepared for our arrival for days before by getting all the food together. Eating like this is a big deal and reserved for formal settings, holidays or special occasions. To prepare for 25 people meant a lot of prep.

The PCV is in the process of getting computers for the lower school as well as training for the teachers and maitenance of the software. She is also helping some of the community leaders with a agricultural tourism program to introduce people to the different methods of farming and cultural history. She is also working with some local coops to improve their business.

This is my last night here at the resort. Tomorrow we go to a more rural area for the remainder of PST. I will be living with a Panamanian host family who will not speak much English but will provide for food, shelter and time over the next 10 weeks. My entire group (CED and EH) will all be there at the same community, where we will spend time working on language, technical skills and cultural information.