Feria de Azuero

On a quiet weekend, sitting at home catching up on American TV through Hulu, as I tend to do, I was persuaded to partake in a day trip to the Feria Internacional de Azuero – aka a giant state fair in Los Santos. Amy, most often my partner in crime because she lives so close to me, wanted to get out of her house for the day and I was not opposed to an outing to investigate the fair that I kept seeing on the news every night. We packed our purses and took off on a mystery bus ride on a cloudy Saturday morning. After a little more than an hour, we arrived at the bus terminal in Chitre and then had to do some investigating to find out what local bus we needed to take to get to the fair. I left the investigating to Amy because she speaks Spanish  quite well, especially in comparison to my minimal survival Spanish; this is probably also why she is so often my partner in crime….ahem…adventures, I mean!!

Besides getting out of the house for the day, our main mission objective was shopping!!! Living in Santiago, often described as a glorified truck stop, is not the place to find things to take home as souvenirs or gifts and the fair offered up the perfect opportunity to shop among local artisans. Once inside the gates, wandering around the not yet crowded area, we first found ourselves by the livestock and taking pictures of all the cows lined up, napping or eating hay. There were a few very cute calves. Next we managed to find our way to the food sector, a good thing considering it was past lunch time!! Despite the fact that I find Panamanian food quite good most of the time, I was in no mood for eating rice or anything fried, so I went for the next best thing….a Batido!! A batido is similar to a milkshake, just with a whole lot more sugar. I watched as the woman put one peach half in the blender, followed by a not so small amount of condensed milk and some sugary syrup, and about 3 large spoonfuls of sugar. Once that was all mixed, the ice was added, blended, and I was handed my sugar high for the day.

We then began to make our laps around the artisans area because you have to scope out the prices everywhere to find the best deal since so many of the artisans sell similar items. Amy and I often made a 2 for $5 deal to, a) save money and b) you have to buy duplicate otherwise nobody at home will get gifts!! We made two laps and then sat down and took a break to watch some of the horse show that was happening in the arena. Not quite the kind of horse show I was imagining, but I like to watch the horses anyway, and when they brought out the two year olds, who don’t exactly behave, it became more entertaining. Clouds were beginning to get darker and I knew I wanted to make at least one more lap to get a few specific items, so we took off to make sure all shopping was completed before the rain came. We had discovered that the fair was pretty much sectioned off and had made a mental map of the entire area. At the entrance, there is a row of permanent two story air conditioned buildings set up as booths for businesses. Then you take one fork to head into the food section. To one side of the food section, the livestock area is set up with a small arena and a large arena, where the horse show was. On the other side of the food section, the rows and rows of artisans have set up shop. Behind the artisans appeared the carnival rides, which we dared not to ride just as a precaution. Also, somewhere in the back, many mini-bar/clubs were set up for nighttime fun. The fair indeed did not become too crowed until about the time we were leaving, around 5pm. At night, the fair comes alive, but alas, this was a day trip and we needed to get back to the local bus terminal in order to catch the last bus back home for the night. Overall, it was a fun and successful day of shopping!!

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Eyes to the Sky and the Earth Shook

Last weekend I made one final trek to Panama City with my host family because the next and final two weekends to follow were already occupied with birthday activities and end of service activities. Despite the occasional rise of a case of only child syndrome due to the fact that I was surrounded by anywhere from 3-7 children, all under the age of 8, who were quite hyperactive in the Panamanian heat, I had a good weekend. The most memorable moment came Saturday night, when the my host and her sister-in-law loaded all of us kids up in the car and drove into the city for a walk along the avenue that lines the bay. It was a nice night for a walk and being along the bay, you could easily see the lightening flashing in the sky among the skyscrapers. Most nights there is no big storm, just lightening, as we head into the rainy season. On the drive, though, I was mesmerized by the sky. I have never seen such a beautiful electrical storm in the sky. The bolts often slithered across the sky like a snake on the ground, while others just splintered across the sky, among the clouds, in wonderful designs. There was one major cluster of electricity off to one side and a small, less active cluster hidden behind clouds on the other. Sometimes it felt like I was watching a conversation happen in the sky with the large cluster making a bright entrance and the smaller cluster responding feverishly with many quick bursts of energy. If anyone had set up a professional camera on top of a building that night, I bet they would have had National Geographic worthy photos as a result. The storm was that beautiful and I have never seen anything like it before.

On Sunday, we returned to Santiago in the afternoon rain. After settling in for the night and the family dispersing around the house, we were soon brought back together around 7:24pm. At that moment we experienced the rare occurrence of an earthquake. This was no major thing; just enough to allow you to feel the shock-waves move through you and the house and enough to shake the furniture. This appeared to be no big deal to me, less than 10 seconds on a tremor, but my little sister came running out of her room yelling “Temblor!!” It took a little while for her to calm down, but she was fine. Later that night, as I lie in my room watching Hulu TV on my computer, I felt the faint wave of an aftershock roll through the house. Again, nothing major, just enough to know that the earth was grinding its plates again. I looked the quake up on the USGS website to find out that the earthquake had occurred about 24 miles south of where I live, but it was deep underground, so nothing major.

Time for a Change

I decided to change the appearance of the blog today after reading my friend Kimmie’s new blog post.She is teaching in South Korea…..funny how I seem to have friends who are doing pretty much the same thing, just in different countries. Kimmie was right in her post, sometimes a little change can help bring a little more calm into your life and brighten your day! Blue is my favorite color and I think the blog looks more “tranquilo” than it did before.  Before it was very tropical looking and fitting for Panama, but now it fits my mood, or at least the mood I hope to maintain till the end of the month. I am down to just 27 days here in Panama and thankfully the time does seem to be going fast, despite the unwavering heat! To get me through the home stretch of these last few weeks, where I will be hurriedly trying to finish up my requirements for TEFL certification, attempting to find a job back home to start in June when I return, and being antsy waiting to hear of acceptance from my last chance hope for affordable grad school, I thought it was the perfect time for a little change to signify the beginning of the end of my time as an English teacher in Panama. It has been a roller coaster ride and for now it looks as though it will end on a high as far teaching in the classroom goes. The countdown has begun!!

 

Books A Million

Reading is very much a cultural thing, so I have discovered. In the United States, we are brought up with the mindset that reading is important and it helps broaden your mind. I may not have always liked reading when I was growing up, but I never hated it. I have noticed over the past few years that I read a lot more and a lot faster when I am abroad. This is highly due to the lack of the many distractions that I have when I am home and the fact that reading is a comfort, a little piece of home, when I am abroad. In Panama, it is the complete opposite. Every Panamanian I have talked to says they hate reading. One of the first things I noticed in my host family’s house during the first week is that there are no bookshelves, no books. From my experience, thus far, as a teacher in Panama, there is also very little reading done in the school too. How is it that such an important part of education is lacking in an entire country?There are no bookstores in Santiago and on my few weekend trips to other parts of the country, I have never seen a book store. Reading is just not a part of the culture here, the television is though. My host family would rather watch T.V. or play video games than read. I am baffled! I have spent a few nights at home reading a good book in the living room while the rest of the family watches yet another baseball game or an episode of Deal or No Deal. Books are an escape, a chance to travel to any place in the world or the imagination, without leaving the comforts of home, and I am at a loss as to why a country who wants to be more like the U.S. or least more developed, would not want to read about all those other places to see how they became so powerful or learn about their histories so as to perhaps avoid some of their mistakes. I spend nearly all of my spare time at school reading  and the few times I have sat a the professors table between my classrooms to read, my students have made funny faces and signs of dislike. Even my co-teacher has stated several times that she hates reading! She said she might be able to handle a children’s book that is very short.

I have read six books so far and just started reading my seventh book yesterday. It seems the theme for my book selection in Panama has been books that have been turned into major films because nearly all my books have been turned into films in the last few years. I started my journey by reading The Hunger Games, a really good book and great movie as well because I went to see it here in Panama last week with two other volunteers. I then moved on to Water for Elephants, a book that I loved reading. Then on to something different, a Nicholas Sparks book which has not been turned into a film yet, Safe Harbor. I discovered after these three that I was rapidly making my way through the books I brought with me, so I searched for books in the World Teach office to read and I found a 655 page book that should occupy some time. I took Inkspell, the sequel to Ink Heart which is also a movie, and it kept me occupied until Easter. I moved on with Something Borrowed next, a book which I am sure made for a good chick flick! At this point I was ready for one of the books I was saving for the end of my trip, The Help! I read this book in a week, all 500 plus pages of it – I did not want to put it down! When I finished it on Friday, I loved it so much, I was tempted to read again! I have safely tucked that book away and moved on with yet another book I found in the World Teach office, The Great Gatsby, I have never read it and almost feel like it is one of those books that if it is not read in school, you should be required to read it at some point in your life because I have always heard that it was just one of those books. It is short, only 189 pages, so I am sure I will finish it by the end of this week, leaving me with just three more weeks to fill with other reading material!

When I get home, I plan on having a movie marathon and renting the movies that have all been based on the books I have been reading!

Semana Santa

Easter is not just a day in Panama, it is an entire holy week, thus the name Semana Santa. Since I work at a school which enrolls students from across the country, my holy week vacation was a little bit longer than the other volunteers’. I worked the Monday before Easter and that was it because Tuesday was a half day, with the other meant to be spent meeting with student’s parents. Of course I found out that my vacation was more than a 4-day weekend at the last minute, so I was not able to extend my stay in Boquete, but I think the week turned out just fine.

I spent Tuesday relaxing at home while my host family was at school and work, then packed up to head to Boquete Wednesday morning. Boquete is a beautiful little town up in the mountains and is about 45 minutes away from the Costa Rican border. This 3.5 day vacation was my first solo vacation and I managed to do it in another country too! It takes two buses and about 4 hours to get from Santiago to Boquete. My hostel was situated right on the town square where there was a fountain and a gazebo. After checking into my shared dorm room, I found a nice place to read for a little while until it was time for dinner. I didn’t get very far before I began striking up conversations with other people staying at the hostel. I befriended a girl from Washington state who was taking a semester off from college and we had dinner that night to continue our conversation and so she could help get me oriented around this little town.

Can never have enough air fresheners!

fountain in town square

gazebo in town square

The next morning, I woke up and took a luke warm shower, the first I have had since my weekend in Santa Catalina a month before, and then made my way to the kitchen to make pancakes. The hostel provides the batter and coffee, you just have to make your own pancakes. The first day of pancake making was not a pretty sight, but by the next day, I had mastered the making of a giant fluffy pancake in the hostel kitchen.

My main reason for going to the mountains was to escape the heat for a few days and relax, just do what I want when I want for a few days. Across the bridge, the fair grounds were open for the annual orchid festival and if there is one thing missing in Santiago, it’s an abundance of flowers. I went over early in the day to avoid crowds and to also scope out potential things to buy as well. The fair grounds were a giant garden with a few stands and make shift shops set up on the sides and few permanent little shops spread throughout the middle. Being overwhelmed with freshly bloomed flowers was quite the refreshing experience compared to my normal life in Santiago of sun and dust; I had time to actually stop and smell the roses! The flowers were beautiful and souvenir shopping was productive.

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The next thing on my agenda, relaxing in a coffee shop. Boquete is one of the prime areas for growing good quality coffee and as a result, there are a number of little coffee shops in town. I slipped into one just a block down from my hostel, ordered my drink, and snuggled into one of the big chairs in the corner in front of the cooling fan. I spent a couple of hours in the most comfortable chair I have found in Panama so far, sipping on my coffee and reading…..and of course people watching out the window that looked out to one of the main streets. I enjoyed this place so much, I went back the next day for more reading in a cozy chair!

Good Friday, the next day, would turn out to be a little tricky because it is a holiday in Panama, yet this town was packed full of tourists from all around the world. An interesting dilemma, considering I had a few things that I wanted to do before leaving Saturday morning. My host family had shown me pictures and told me about this one garden that I had to go to, so Friday morning I flipped through the tourist book at the front desk of the hostel and figured out how to walk there and set out on my way. A 25 minute walk through town and then gradually winding up part of a large hill, I finally reached the garden only to be told that the garden was closed for the weekend. There would be no exploring the garden with wooden statues of cows painted in crazy designs. I walked back down to the hostel and busied myself until it was time to leave for my coffee tour.

That afternoon I walked down a block to another coffee shop that was bigger than the one I had been going to because this was the one place that was doing coffee tours on Good Friday. I walk in, and just who do I see standing in line for coffee, my other teaching half, Maddie, and her boyfriend who came to visit for the week. We talked while we each waited for our tour buses to leave – my coffee tour and their canopy zip-line tour. The Kotowa group had a hostel up in the mountains that was also home to a canopy line and a coffee plantation. Just as it began to rain, we hopped on our separate buses and headed up into the mountains. The drive through the mountains was beautiful with flowers and low cloud coverage hanging around the other mountains in the distance. Upon arrival at the Kotowa plantation, I was whisked away to the coffee room, where our group was split into two, those who wanted Spanish and those who wanted English. First, we heard the history of how coffee was discovered on the Eastern Coast of Africa and then how it slowly began to be exported and grown in other parts of the world. The best place for growing coffee is between the tropics in the highlands. Panama may not be able to produce quantity, but they pride themselves on producing quality coffee. At this point, the rain had slowed and we took off down the side of the small river and across the swinging bridge to walk down into the coffee plant field.

Our tour guide began to tell us about the different coffee bean plants grown here and then began to tell how long it takes before a plant becomes a production plant. The bean plant must be grown for a year in a small bag before it can planted in the soil on the plantation and then it is another 4-5 years before you can begin to harvest the beans off the plant. The coffee beans are actually two very small beans inside a red berry. Each of us picked a berry off of a plant and popped it open with our teeth; coffee beans initially taste very fruity because of the berry they grow in. When it comes harvest time in Panama, it is the indigenous who are brought in to harvest the coffee on the slopes of the highlands. They are paid $3 per five gallon bucket picked and $5 per five gallon bucket of the geisha plant that is picked. After harvest season is over, the indigenous go back to their villages. After picking, it is a lengthy process before the beans are ready for the market. It can take a year or longer for coffee beans to be ready for sale. From the plantation, the beans are then shucked out of their berry skins and then left to dry for about a month. Once they have dried most of the way through, the beans are placed into bags for about 6 months to age, continuing to enhance the flavor of the bean. The next step is sorting the beans for roasting. Did you know that the difference between light, medium, and dark roast is only one minute? Light roast beans are roasted for 14 minutes, Medium for 15 minutes, and Dark for 16 minutes. Also, if you drink coffee for caffeine, then you should drink light roast because it contains the most caffeine.

The final step of our tour – taste test! Six varieties of coffee grown on this plantation were placed on the table before us in whole bean form – light roast, medium roast, dark roast, organic, pacamara, and geisha. Our guide took us through the steps to show us how the smell and flavor of the coffee changed with each step. I tasted a coffee bean from almost each one before they were ground. After grinding the beans, we passed them around to get an idea of the different fragrances of each. The last step was to add hot water to the ground beans and let it steep for a few minutes before tasting. Did you know that coffee in a whole bean form can keep its flavor for about 2 years, but once it is ground it begins to lose flavor after about 2-3 months? The trick to tasting coffee like the critics – slurping! Each person has their own spoon, once you have a spoonful of the coffee, you quickly slurp the coffee off the spoon so that you can get the full effect of all three components of tasting coffee: flavor, acidity, and after taste. The acidity and caffeine you feel on your tongue and the after taste is felt in the back of your mouth and throat. After trying all six different types, my favorites were the organic and pacamara. At the end of the tasting round, there was a test! We were sent to the corner while our guide moved around the cups and chose four different kinds of coffee for us to try to see if we could correctly identify each of the coffees based on the things we had just learned. Out of the four, I got two or three right. I felt quite proud of this because I am not a big coffee drinker, but I do like to try different coffee when I am abroad, especially if I am in a country that grows coffee!

On my last night in Boquete, I went to dinner with Maddie and her boyfriend so we could spend some proper time catching up on the past few weeks and complain about working at school. To try something different, we went to a Peruvian seafood place that was a block off of the main street. It turned out to be a great choice. I even tried a little bit of octopus that came with my fish, along with the largest shrimp I think I have ever seen in my life! I think the nice surprise was that the side for my dinner, as well as Maddie’s boyfriend’s, was creamy mashed potatoes! We had good food and good conversation for the evening, a great way to end my first solo vacation!

My other teaching half and I