Soft Corps

Hello, finally, from Panama. I should say from the get-go that this isn't going to be a journalesque blog; I'm not going to mention every day or everything I'm doing. I'm a slow writer, and I don't think I'm going to have that kind of time unfortunately. The idea is to give the gist and maybe an anecdote, but more importantly to convince my parents that everything is okay.

Today was the first assurance I've had that Peace Corps is going to be exciting and challenging. We visited a volunteer at his site, which is a small indigenous community only reachable by boat. He's helping the women market and sell bracelets and necklaces and is going to help them set up a website later. He has his own thatch-roofed house and teaches English on his front porch. What a life. I'll try to put up some pictures later.

Before today though, apropos the title, our training has been fairly ridiculous. We've had long meetings on the inner workings of the Peace Corps bureaucracy and catered meals, icebreakers and air conditioning. And it was feeling like camp. No, more like day camp, for the kids not brave enough for overnights yet. I expected to feel young and inexperienced but instead feel the opposite; at least three people brought personal DVD players. Not that that is a bad thing but certainly different from my previous conception of the Peace Corps. So the excessive hand-holding was a little trying, but I suppose it was to make sure that we all descend at the same rate into the life of a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer).

Tomorrow we descend a little further, as we head to Santa Clara for eight weeks of training. Apparently, Panama has the gall to have two Santa Claras. Unfortunately, it is not the Santa Clara that Lonely Planet describes as a 'lazy surf town' but rather one that has been described to us only as 'up in the hills.' We'll be living with a host family, having language classes for four hours a day, and eventually traveling alone to visit other volunteers. We've been told that the closest internet is in the next town, so to the one person who actually reads this, future updates might be a tad infrequent.