June

Reflection

My year in Panama was the best year of my life! It was hard at first not knowing the language, and having no one to talk to. However, that forced me to learn the language and strive on my own! One of the things that this year taught me was to be confident. I even learned to dance. I have made so many lifelong friends that I will cherish forever. I was nervous about meeting my family but not being able to communicate. My family was loving and helped me quickly learn the basics of Spanish. There would be times when my host mom was trying to explain something to me and I would just get so frustrated and want to give up because I didn’t understand, but she helped me to calm down and keep trying. That taught me to never give up, no matter the challenge. Twice in the first month, I got very sick. I’d have to try and explain how I was feeling without knowing how to describe those feelings in Spanish. I had to be very aware of the treatments they were giving me, I had to make sure I wasn’t allergic to any of the medications. In the USA it had always been my mother taking care of me and knowing what I need. However, I was forced to do that on my own in Panama, even when I didn’t know Spanish. One of the things that this year taught me was to be confident. I had to speak up for myself. After six months of living with my first host family I had to switch family’s because there wasn’t enough food. That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. I loved my host family and wouldn’t have minded staying with them. But I had to look at it from an outside perspective, they didn’t have much money and could barely afford to buy the necessities and put food on our plates every meal. I often had to go to the store and buy myself some decent food and toilet paper because I was hungry or not feeling healthy. Before I went to Panama I didn’t have any goals or ideas for the future. Now that I have returned it has motivated me to work internationally. I have volunteered at a medical clinic for migrant workers as a translator. I have started making plans to be an au Pair in Spain next summer.

Thanks everyone for supporting me!

May

In Margarita, there were a wide variety of animals and insects. They have spiders the size of baseballs! Huge! I was afraid of them but most of the Panamanians were used to them. There were a lot bugs in panama. Some that were just big and annoying others that bit and some small one. Like the mosquitoes, there were two kinds, chritas and mosquitoes. They both bit but they had a different bite, mosquitoes bit like the mosquitoes here in the USA. However, chrita’s bites were small and white. They both itch the same and you couldn’t see the chritas they were so small. Unfourtnantly, I didn’t see any monkeys, but there were a lot of colorful birds! There were big parrots and little, birds of all colors; red, blue, green, orange, all sorts! They were quite fascinating. Also, there were chickens galore! Personally we owned about 30! They were fun to watch grow up! I would always pick my favorite and name it. I named my first chicken Fernando, and in a couple months we ended up having chicken soup! It was hard eating the baby chicken I named and raised. But he was quite delicious. The second chicken I had I named Jose, he ended up getting eaten by a cat when he was a baby. The people in panama didn’t get their pet’s neutered so they would breed and their babies would run wild. There were so many dog and cats running around that didn’t look so healthy. It was sad but there was nothing I could do to help them.

April

Tourism

Conway a huge park to ride your bike, eat and a huge hotel was usually where the rich tourists would go. But I thought it would be more fun to get out and explore panama! Chiriquí had beautiful mountains and gorgeous flowers! I went there once for the fair and it was huge! It was just like a fair in the USA but a lot bigger and more things to show off (ex. Fruits, flowers, native clothing etc.). Bocas del Toro had the native Indians pretty beaches! Los Santos had the biggest carnivals every year, that’s where most of the population went. Colon on the other hand is where most of the ghetto people lived, however they were amazing at painting nails, doing hair, dressing, etc. they were also very funny and wouldn’t let people push them around. The Panama Canal was a huge attraction; you would find Americans in every corner! It was interesting to watch the boats go through the canal. But the boats only went through every 2 hours, so it wasn’t very likely that you would stay there waiting just to see a boat!

December

the music heres alot different, yet the same. they have the same meaning and alot of times thell borrow the same tune but there are thoes AMAZING songs. theres also there typical panamanion songs like tipico and the group sammy & sandras. theres alot of american influance and jamician influence..they listen to alot of music called passa passa which has a really cool dance so if you ever get the chance to look that up its pretty cool, theres lots of dances here, bachata, maranga, tipico, soko, soka, (one of thoes two is the electric slide but i never remember which), salsa, and more, i honestly love them all! ive learned to dance so much! when i first got here i didnt dance at all and i didnt sing in spanish but now im all over the place in love with the music!

March

Geography; Mountains and Climate

Panama is bordered by both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, between Colombia and Costa Rica. In order to cross the border form Colombia to Panama you had to travel through an impassable jungle. So in order for the drug trade to get by Panama they either had to go around it completely or by truck, which is thoroughly inspected. Panama had full control of the Panama Canal on 2000. The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea to the North of the Pacific Ocean. Panama is a very small country. It could fit into North Carolina. Panama has 9 provinces, Bocas Del Toro, Chiriquí, Veraguas, Herrera, Los Santos, Colon, Panama (where I lived) and Darien. Darien had a huge jungle which took up over half of the province.

On one side of my house there were mountains and on the other side was Chepo, a big city. We lived in a valley you could say. All the rivers around were dammed for hydroelectricity.

During the rainy season, which is winter for us, it rained almost every day. While it was raining it would get cold enough that you would have to wear a jacket and there was a nice breeze. But when it was done raining and the sun would shine it would get insanely hot! It would be humid due to all the rain which would make you sweat a lot and feel all sticky. I’d say that was the worst time of the year. We always knew when it was going to rain or not because of the mountains. The rain would always come over the mountains so we could literally see it coming! Im not so sure what the dry seasons were like cause when I was there, there was an unusual weather change and it rained more in the dry season then it did the rainy season. There for, the dams overfilled and flooded a lot of the cities around it.

Febuary

Apparel

In panama, looks are everything! It doesn’t matter where you buy your clothes, just that you look nice. All the clothes are so much less expensive. You can go to the mall with $20 and buy a couple outfits including shoes and still have money for the bus trip home. Which for me was only an hour and a half thankfully! In order to get to Panama City you had to take a bus if you didn’t own a car. The bus ride was fairly cheap, $1.25 to get to Metro Mall and $2 to get to Albrook mall. The boys usually had to work for their money and the parents gave the girls money to go shopping.

January

music

the music here is a diversity of the music around the world. theres italian music theres jamacian music, american music, mexican, panamas got its own varity of music(which by the way i do like alot)