ps- I was finally able to post a few pictures on Flickr if anyone is interested. Enjoy!

One week of training in the Peace Corps is equivalent to 1 month of regular life. At least in the beginning. Last Sunday we moved in with host families in a small, rural town outside of Panama City. We spent every day this week having 4 hours of technical training in the morning and about 4 hours of language training in the afternoon. After ´school´we are encouraged to hang out with our families to practice language skills and start soaking up the culture.

I do not have enough time to explain all the details of my new life, so I will just run through a few highlights:

-My host family is awesome (stories and photos coming soon)!
-We live in the land of milk and honey! The following can be found within site of my house: mango, banana, plantain, orange, mandarin, coconut, avocado, cashews, yucca and more that do not have English names.
-Panamanian love chorizo (AKA deep fried HotDogs). The gringos are having a harder time adjusting to the fried spam and triple carbs diet (ironic if you consider the milk and honey comment)
-The technical training is going great so far! I find out where my site will be in 3 weeks, Ill keep you all posted as I find out more!
-Oh yeah, we have a beautiful waterfall and swimming hole that is about a 15 minute walk from town!

Life is good. Ciao for now!

I've been in Panama for 3 and 1/2 days now... I guess it's only fair to update my friends and family on what is going on here. I suppose it all started on Monday afternoon in Miami with 1.5 days of "staging." This mostly entailed getting to know the fellow volunteers and logistics information. Within 1 day, I made 47 new friends! Our group has volunteers from 3 sectors including: Sustainable Agricultural Systems (mine), Community Environmental Conservation and the new program, Tourism and English Advising. I am very impressed with the diversity in our group. They come from a variety of different backgrounds: a few years work experience, fresh from college, a professor, 2 lawyers and of all ages: (23-50s).  There are even 5 married couples!

We arrived in Panama City on Wednesday afternoon after the 3 hour flight from Miami (so close!). The Peace Corps headquarters are in the Cuidad del Saber in Clayton, not far from the airport. It used to be an old military base and was also once the location of the infamous School of the Americas. Fortunately, the location in now in use for international agencies with a more humane mission: Peace Corps, UN, Red Cross, etc. 

The first 2.5 days were spent getting to know the staff and a few current volunteers (they are all incredible), vaccinations, safety precautions, paperwork, language training, culture training, learning to make a life jacket out of a pair of blue jeans (it actually works!) and finding out more about our programs (of course!)!

As I mentioned, I will be a sustainable agricultural systems (SAS) volunteer. Within this sector I will be working in agri-business. More specifically, I will attempt to work with farmers to improve their livelihood through the implementation of sustainable agricultural techniques that maximize production with minimal environmental impact. I indicated that I would like to work in a site that includes: coffee and/or cocao production, an interest in microfinance groups, women artesania (crafts) groups, and beekeeping. Aimee, my boss, thinks she has the perfect site for me! AWESOME! Vamos a ver (We'll see)...

Today we took a field trip to another SAS volunteer's site to see her what a "typical" site might look like. I'll post a few pics on Flickr for anyone interested. The volunteer showed us a ton of things that we will be learning about in great detail over the next 2 years: local fruits and vegetables, eco-friendly wood burning stoves (estufa lorena), the use of live/dead barriers to combat soil erosion on hills, beekeeping, worm boxes for composting, raising goats, natural bug repellents, rice 'tanks' or small scale rice production. 

After a great day on the farm our trainers took us to the local hardware store to purchase our first machetes! Even though I got a smallish one and many people tell me that it will be laughed at, it still feels pretty macho to own such a massive knife. I have the urge to name it. Any ideas? I was also able to finally purchase a panamanian hat which I promise to wear everyday from here on out. 

Tomorrow we move in with our host families and Monday starts our intense technical and language training. I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be sure to give a full report by the end of next week. Ciao for now!

Backtracking a little:

Hello everyone! I'll be honest, I have no idea how to keep a successful and entertaining blog. Bear with me! I had high hopes to blog about the bike trip down HWY 1, but alas, I didn't even look at a computer for a solid 2 weeks! My brother, Doug, and I rode from Eureka to Santa Cruz or about 400 miles a few weeks ago. It was an incredible experience and I know there will be many more bike touring trips in my future. I will try to post a photo here on the blog, but if you want to see the full set, check it out on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53265254@N00/ .  For now, my directors at Peace Corps tell me that bikes aren't too common in this country and a horse will be a more practical form of transportation. So perhaps I will be buying a horse in the next few months! Nice!