Wait - We left? Welcome to South Miami

I have noticed two policies that are either implicitly or explicitly strict in the Peace Corps:

1.)Suck it up. Be flexible. And stay that way. Be ready to hurry up and wait.
2.) ALWAYS follow the rules - except when its more convenient and justifiable to break them.

I'm exhausted but honestly, Panama City may as well be some parts of Miami. You should see the sky scrapers and absolutely massive hotels downtown. For the first few days we stayed on the land of an old army base that now houses the Peace Corps HQ in country as well as a lot of the Bureaucracy for UNDP. Oh, and did I mention FSU (yes the Seminoles) campus was in the compound as well? Its amazing what imperialism does.

Im currently staying with a family outside the main part of the city. This is where I will be staying for the next ten weeks as we have 4 hours of language training every morning and 4 hours of technical training in the afternoon. There are 16 other Aspirantes (trainees) in the same Barrio all from the CEC project. We spent a majority of yesterday in the interior with a CEC Volunteer who, through grants from USAID - who predictably also is looking to work in the Canal Zone, has designed and is implementing at least two community based projects, one for solid waste management and one for ecotourism management.

Though he smelled like the back of a restaurant, he seems to really be making great strides and has trained a number of local board members to take over the projects once they are off the ground. He also had organized the community to take on community gardening to supplement the nutrition deficient gruel the children receive at school. So Kudos to him and the active members of that community.

It seems that I will have regular access to the internet if not a long distance phone for the next few weeks before we receive our posts at which point I will probably fall off the earth. So I shall definitely keep this posted until then and include pics ASAP.

Ver es Vivir!

Okay,

It's not Panama yet, but I just thought I'd include it. Snowboarded Arapahoe Basin today with Elisa and her "friend," a pretty cool guy named Alex. He's Belgian. Regardless of the stereotypes that he may or may not be reinforcing, he keeps two waffles and a beer in his glove box as rations... just in case. The only thing missing there was the piles of chocolate that he left on his desk in his room.

Anyway, we really shredded today, both the back bowl and the basin in the front. I couldn't imagine a better way to spend the last few days in the States. Having come extremely ill prepared for the occasion, I ended up adequately bundled. Basically, I didn't freeze my ass off. Woohoo!

Once at the top of the lift, we hiked an additional couple thousand feet to the summit, where we had lunch. The views today were absolutely phenomenal. Here are a couple of them:

Just a Taste

I'm currently in CO visiting Elisa. Everyone is incredibly accomidating and chill in Fort Collins. It makes me miss college. Everything happens so quickly these days.

Anyway, so that nobody feels neglected, I thought I'd add a few pics as an aperitif for what is to come. Consider it the run up to the Carter 3... and yes, just like those tracks, these pics are all taken from somewhere else.

The Run Up.

I've been waiting for sixteen months. And my departure date has almost arrived! When I didn't take a solid job, like the ones that the UM Med school was offering straight out of school because I didn't want to have to break a serious commitment, I knew I was taking a risk. When I took my savings and traveled for six months, I hoped that I wouldn't regret it. To sit here, a week from departure, after not having lived more than two months in any one place for the last year, knowing that I will be living in one community in Panama for the next two years is a bit intimidating.

As they say: Ships are safest in port... but that's not what ships are for.