Orientation!

Greetings from Panama! My first week as a Peace Corps Panama "aspirante" (aspiring) has been hectic. I'm currently in Orientation at a facility about 45 minutes away from Panama City called Ciudad del Saber (translation: City of Knowledge- how appropriate!) I'm really enjoying Orientation, getting to know the PC Panama staff and talking with the other aspirantes. The other TEA (Tourism and English Advising) aspirantes are especially interesting; we’re a mix of people with business, teaching and even law backgrounds. Each person's background is so unique, and I'm really curious to learn more about the TEA program, a new program for Panama, and the communities where we'll all be placed.

Pablo, our TEA Program director, is fantastic: he’s knowledgeable, professional and so inspiring. He explains that the TEA program will strive to enable Panama’s poorest, indigenous communities to participate in the new and booming tourism industry to improve their own economic situation. TEA has 3 principal goals: developing strategic business plans for tourism, teaching English, and community and leader empowerment. In our first interview, Pablo told me that he definitely wants me to work on the business development and planning side of TEA. I’m thrilled; the more he talks about the communities we’ll be working in, and the opportunities that could be afforded to them, I am so certain that this is the right program for me.

However, a small disclaimer here. This is not to say that I don’t have my concerns, and BIG ones, at that:

-Rural sites (apparently almost all of the TEA sites will have cell phone coverage, but how far to another volunteer/internet/etc?)
-No running water or electricity (what DOES one do when the sun goes down? And bathing? Sheesh)
-It’s a wild, rugged Panama out there (bugs, snakes, scorpions…and this chica’s never even camping!)

Sunday we arrive at our Training Community, where we will live with a host family for 10 weeks, and undergo a “crash course” in the Spanish language and our various sectors. I hope my host family likes me. I brought them a picture book about Chicago and some little toys, should there be any munchkins. :)

Below are some pictures from the TEA group's first trip within Panama! We went to visit one of Panama's indigenous groups, the Embera, at a community along the Chagres River.