So, when we got back from the beach that day, we finished one workshop and then taught another full workshop the next day then traveled to a town called Chitré.

Visiting David and the interior made me realize how much I love living by the mountains and being in the country.  Panama has been my first experience of a large city, and it has its fun parts, but I’m finding that in the end, I love open spaces and beautiful views.  The interior of Panama didn’t disappoint.  Up in the mountains it was much cooler than along the coast in the city.  It still rains just about as much as in the city (which at this time is usually every other day, for a little bit at least, if not every day), but it’s not quite as humid (I didn’t feel like I was breathing water, like I do in the city sometimes) and it seems like it cleared up faster after raining.  There is also just a completely different feel to the small towns and cities in the interior of the country than the city.  The people are much friendlier and open, willing to help and talk with you for a while.  The pace is also much more relaxed and the areas are safer, especially in the night time, as I found out during out trip to Chitré.

Public transport in Panama is quite impressive to me. During the day, you can always find a frequent bus to take you from one city to the next for reasonable prices.  The buses are usually small 15 passenger vans which somehow manage to seat about 20-22, and they usually have typical Latino music playing softly.  The buses have their main stops, but they also will stop pretty much wherever you ask them to and they will pick someone up from pretty much wherever.  Even the large travel buses like we have in the U.S. that travel longer distances will pick up whoever flags them down and only charge a fee for the distance traveled. Over all, I love traveling by bus through the country here.  It’s relaxing and the country is beautiful.  I wish I had at least one more pair of eyes to be able to see everything on both sides of me.

Anyways, during the day, the transport is great.  However, during the night is a different story all together, mostly just because everything between small cities shuts down after about 8 or 10.  Unfortunately for us, we found this out the hard way.

We boarded a late bus from David to make it to Chitré.  We found out that the bus wouldn’t go directly to Chitré but we would need to catch a bus from a city between called Santiago.  What they neglected to mention at the bus stop of David was that we wouldn’t be able to get a bus from Santiago to Chitré until six in the morning.  Because the bus was late from David, we both fell asleep and were unceremoniously woken up by the assistant (each bus has a main driver and then a man to pack luggage and collect tickets/fares) telling us we needed to get off. We obeyed blindly, still wiping sleep from our eyes at one in the morning, but he actually knew what he was talking about and we got off at the right place.  We then wandered about for a bit aimlessly until we asked and found out that while we had been dropped off at the right stop for the next bus we needed, it wouldn’t come until 6 in the morning.  So, lucky for us, the interior cities of Panama are much safer in the night and we spent the night at the bus station without losing anything, being robbed, or being injured (so don’t worry, Mom, it was a good adventure).  We finally made it to Chitré only to find that 1) the phone number we had been given for the district president of the area was actually wrong because our manager had accidently given us the number for a different “President Duran” that she had on her cell phone and 2) our hotel reservation was not until 2:00 pm that day (a Sunday) so we went to the hotel down the street and booked a room for a few hours to catch up on sleep, shower, and find the correct number.  After figuring everything out, we got the correct number and, well rested and showered, were able to start teaching the workshop in that area.  The rest of the week (this last week) was then spent in teaching one workshop per day in different branches of the district.  In total, we taught five workshops in seven days! It should have been six, but there was some miscommunication in one branch and they were all there, ready and waiting for us one week early... so no one showed up when we actually were there because they didn’t know.  Our schedule this past week has basically been wake up, check out of the hotel, travel by bus to the next town or city arriving around noon or one, check into a hotel, explore the city for about two hours, then go to the church building to teach a workshop until 10:00 pm, try to find someplace that is open to buy dinner, then go to bed.  My only complaint of this schedule was that Latinos enjoy closing their hotel pools at ridiculously early times, so I was never able to enjoy one.  This week was super busy, and I would have loved to be able to spend more time in this region.  I think I’ve found my favorite part of this country.  The members were wonderful! In little time I met some people that I could become good friends with if I had more time to spend with them.  And the country is beautiful.  It strangely reminds me of Scotland in some parts because there are so many green rolling hills.  I hope to be able to visit it more before it is time for me to leave Panama.

After a great time in Costa Rica, we traveled to David, a city back in Panama near the border (crossing the border between these two countries is a story in itself, and re-entering Panama caused me a bit of anxiety, to say the least) to teach the workshop to the members in that region.  We stayed with my partner, McKay’s, sister and her husband and son.  They were super welcoming and fun people to spend time with, and they gave us some great suggestions of how to spend our free time in the city. Our first two days in David we only taught in the evenings, so we first went to a quaint mountain town called Boquete.  It was a lot of fun, and beautiful.  The next day, we went to an island called Boca Brava.  We first traveled for about two hours to get to the coast then took a small boat taxi out to the island.  There is a string of islands near the coast in that region, and they seem to do pretty well with ecotourism.  We met a nice guy from California who owned a few lodges on one of the islands, and he offered to take us to the island in his boat since it was on the way to the island where his business was based.  The island is so close to the coast that when we started I actually thought we were traveling down a river to where it enters the ocean, but the other “bank” of the “river” was actually Boca Brava. We docked at the hotel and then started our hike to just explore the island.  We first went to a rock beach and had a great view of the ocean, then decided to walk around the shore to find the next beach rather than hike back up the trail.  We were in our swimsuits, but also had our backpacks on, so it was a bit of an adventure trying to keep our stuff dry when the waves came in higher than we expected, but luckily nothing was ruined.  It was a ton of fun, and we actually ended up walking underneath the trees where a troop of monkeys lives.  We could hear the barking from a ways away (they actually sound like they’re barking rather than the typical monkey “ooh-ooh- ahh-ahh”) and could catch glimpses of them when we were underneath, but they were too high in the trees to get a good picture. There are also TONS of millipede looking creatures. I could tell if they were insects or crustaceans, but the sit on the rocky walls along the shore and scatter when you get close.  When they all move, there are so many of them that it looks like the whole rock surface is moving.  It’s a bit eerie, but really cool to watch. There are also tons of bugs that were biting me, but I didn’t even notice until after we’d gotten home and just had a bunch of red bumps that itched up and down my arms.  We finally made it to the other beach.  It was small and the tide was up, so much of the sand was underwater, but it was ringed by palm trees and there were coconuts all over the ground.  We totally put Tom Hanks to shame and each opened our own coconut and enjoyed the fruits of out labor, literally.  I can now officially say that I’ve drunk fresh coconut milk on a Pacific Island, and in my vast coconut-milk experience, it’s the best way to do it!  We then decided to keep hiking, because I thought there’d be another beach with more sand and open space between the ocean and trees (the other two beaches had trees right up to the water), and met two crazy German ladies, one who had joined some island religion from Jamaica and the other who was her friend.  We asked where we could go to get to the beach, and the older friend said, “Well, don’t go that way,” and pointed to the path they had just come from, “that was is just lost. Lost lost lost. But if you go...” and then she gave us directions to a beach. I was a little apprehensive, because I’m pretty sure her ‘pilot light was out. She was playin’ hockey with a warped puck.’ (if anyone outside of my family can tell me what I’m quoting, I’ll give you a Balboa, which really is just a dollar, because they use the same money here, but that is what they call it), but we followed her directions and.... soon found ourselves back at the same beach we had just come from. I guess there are just two beaches on the island, and we’d already visited them both.  When we returned to that beach, I saw a jellyfish on the beach drying up and attempted to rescue it, but those suckers are hard to pick up from the top! And I didn’t really want to try touching the tentacles. I eventually got it to the water, but I think I may have accidentally punctured it... I wasn’t able to see it anymore after it was in the water, so I’ll never know.  Overall, it was a wonderful day, AND I remembered sunscreen this time, so I’m not burnt in the least.

So these past three weeks have been a whirlwind!  We were so busy traveling around, enjoying Panama, and teaching, that I took little time to keep up on writing... what a shocker, I know.  So, I’ve taken this Sunday afternoon to write about most of what went down, and to not bore you with the 3+ paged I ended up with, I’ll try posting a bit each day! Lucky you! It’s like the Twelve Days of Christmas... but hopefully not nearly as irritating or repetitive.  So to begin, we first left on Saturday the 15th of June at midnight after teaching a workshop that day to go to San Jose, Costa Rica.  Two other interns who were part of our training group are based there and we were able to go and spend some time with them, visit a beautiful waterfall garden park in the mountains of Costa Rica, and then watch a football (Soccer) game between Costa Rica and Panama.  Regrettably, Panama lost, but the game was awesome!!  Latinos LOVE their futbol, and this game was no exception!  We arrived at the stadium an hour early and it had just finished raining, so I was thinking we'd maybe get a little bit wet but that we'd already seen the worst of the weather... WRONG!!  Anyways, we went through security (and I unfortunately found out that Latinos care so much about their football, that even umbrellas and waterbottles can become weapons, so into the trash they went) then got our seats.  

The stadium was already filling up quickly, and within a couple minutes, the rain started coming down in torrents.  I luckily had my Costa Rica flag (...ok, I didn’t think to get one in Panama when we were here, and everyone else was doing it, so I bought one. Don’t worry, even though I was draped in Costa Rica’s colors, I was rooting for Panama the whole time... but, people were staring at me like I was an idiot and didn’t know what was going on when I cheered for Panama when they did something good, but I actually understood most of the game. I think my life may have been at risk at one point, but nothing happened, besides, there were some true Panamanian fans nearby that I was ready to defect to if things became hostile.)

 Anyways, I had my Costa Rica flag to protect me from the rain... it worked for about five minutes, and the rest of the game was a drenched, energy packed mess.  I think this was the greatest testament to me of the ardor Latinos have for futbal because they all stayed out in the rain the whole time! Usually they are so worried about getting wet that they would set foot outside if it looks like it might rain.  Despite the rain, I LOVED the energy of the crowd, hearing them respond in perfect unison to each play, for good and bad.  It’s a good thing I couldn’t understand what they were saying in such a huge group, otherwise I think I might have increased my vocabulary with some less than desirable phrases.  It also worked out perfectly because we were at the end of the field where both goals during the game were scored, so we had a great view of all the action.  The only bad part was that I felt bad for being taller than most of the people here, so I felt like I was in the way all the time, but nobody complained.  Overall, it was an awesome experience!

(Shout out to Emily for getting my rear in gear and writing things down for you all.)

San Miguelito Stake Employment Workshop

So each week we have set up times to teach the employment workshop in one of the Stakes here in Panama.  The Sunday before we try to visit some of the wards in the stake to promote the workshop, and usually we've sent flyers and information through e-mail to the leaders.  We then usually have one workshop taught over two evenings for three hours each during the week and one workshop on a Saturday where we teach the whole thing for about five and a half hours.  During the week, we spend some time in the center organizing our teaching materials and manuals for the day's lesson and working to get other times set up for other stakes.  The rest of the time in the center is spent doing homework, or we head out and see the city and things around town.  We actually only spend about 20 hours a week on the internship and most of that is taken up in teaching.

The workshop is broken up into four sections, one focused on helping people identify their career goals (work, education, etc.) as well as the talents and abilities they have to help them reach those goals.  I love this section because so many people don't allow themselves to see all of the many abilities that they have. One of my favorite activities of this section is when we split the students into small groups and one person from each group share one of their achievements with the rest of their group.  The other members of the group then identify abilities and skills that they imagine would be needed to accomplish this achievement.  It's awesome to see how people start to realize all of the abilities they actually have but hadn't thought about before.  I also really like how they can't try to minimize themselves and say "Well, I don't really have that ability," because other people see that ability in them.  We then tie it in with the scripture from D&C 46 which talks about how gifts are given from God and explain how they can have confidence in these abilities they've learned they have.  It's wonderful to see how empowering it is for them.

The second part talks about the resources people have to help them achieve their goals.  We mainly focus on helping them learn the importance of networking and the effectiveness networking has on helping them find work or learn what to do to achieve their goal.

The third section prepares people to interact with others in their network and have effective job interviews.  We have a lot of interaction and activities in this section, and it's fun.

Finally, we discuss what people can do to maintain their job when they're hired and how to progress in the field.  Because we have to teach the whole workshop in such little time (usually it should be taught in twelve hours, but we have to try and squeeze it into five or six) we usually just introduce this section and have a small discussion about it then invite them to review it at home.

So far, we've had really good experiences teaching, but all the people who have come actually already have work and are leaders in the church, so they just want to know about the workshop.  Here are some pictures of the last two groups we taught in San Miguelito Stake.

Casco Viejo and Panama la Vieja

So Panama has some pretty old places!  This week we were able to visit the original site of the city that was destroyed by Captain Morgan, the pirate!  He ransacked the place and then burned it.  Here are some of the first buildings we saw in the area.

This first one used to be part of an old church (I think that's what the plaque said.)

 And there's a great view of the ocean and part of the Corredor Sur which is one of the main roads circling the city.

It was interesting to me to see how the people treated this area just like any other area.  There's a football net and pile of trash just in the middle of the center.  It was just an example for me of how Panama is still developing in many areas, even those with strong cultural/tourist interest.

Unfortunately, our trip was cut a little short because my fellow intern was robbed, so we decided to leave the area.  We were both physically safe, we just left one camera short with what we came with....  I don't really know how to positively chalk that one up as one's cultural experiences in another country, but there you go.

Despite these set-backs we've still had a good rest of the week visiting a place called Casco Viejo a couple times.  This site is where the town moved to after Captian Morgan destroyed it.  I loved the buildings here.  There's a big mix of styles as well as well kept buildings and completed emaciated ones.  Sometimes there is just a well kept outside with ornate columns and carvings and then nothing behind the empty windows.

There are also a lot of buildings in the process of being restored or that were kept up well, and the detail is amazing.

I am also impressed by how they make the plants decorations.

And there are TONS of churches! Most are closed, but this one was open and impressive.  I loved seeing the symbolism in the church, but I didn't really like how sad all of the saints looked.  I can understand why people say it feels so somber in a Catholic church.

There's supposed to be a church with a golden alter that was saved from the ransacking by Morgan because it was painted black, but I haven't been able to see it yet. It was closed when I went last time.... I didn't approve.

And I LOVED the street art!

I think this might be one of my favorites...

And such great words of advice from the street.

In general, I really like Casco Viejo.  I'll make sure to include more pictures... sometime, but for tonight, I'm finished.

Here are some pictures our manager just sent to us from our workshop with the youth!

P.S. Excuse formatting on this blog. This disclaimer will apply to everything from here on out...