At the end of January, I was lucky enough to hop on a parent funded Caribbean vacation! It was just Mom, Dad and myself, cruising the Caribbean seas for a week straight. It was really quite the shock; within just a few days I swiftly transported myself from my humble jungle abode to a vacation experience that embodied excess in every sense of the word. Shock aside, the food, booze and family time provided a much needed escape, and some time away helped me gain a bit of perspective and recharge my batteries before heading back to Panama.
Below are some picture of the trip: Mom and Dad sumo-ing in life preservers, visiting the islands of St. Maarten and Grenada, ATVing in Aruba.
Right after my vacation, I attended a Peace Corps led leadership seminar with a community counterpart in the province of Cocle. Andrea, my counterpart, is our village’s second chief, head of our women’s association and also a very close friend. Andrea had never traveled west of Pamana City, and I think the seminar really helped to open her eyes and strengthen her confidence as a leader. She’s very young (23!), but is inherently such a leader and so well respected in our village. She’s incredibly charismatic- at the seminar she made friends from across the country and even had half the ladies there up singing and dancing in Embera during the cultural exchange night! I was so proud of her, and so glad to share her and a bit of Embera Drua with other PCVs and their counterparts.
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