last few weeks events

Between now and Santa Marta, a lot has happened. My group, mark and Joy went to the Shaman's house once again. I had to ride donkey again and very thing was pretty dry and I felt I could have walked it. We hung around all the hammocks all day which was fun to get to talk and relax. The second day we had a long hike following one of the women. She basically gave us a tour of the forest and then we collected plants on the way back. One of the daughters took me and stacy around the immediate area to document the plants and gave us a typed out list f what the name of the plant is and what it is used for. The next day we left pretty early and I hiked out under my own power which I am proud of. I was extremely motivated because I felt like everyone thought I was to weak to do it but really it was the breathing part that was the problem. I am physically capable. At any rate, Joy and I finished the hike first with Pablo and Mark coming 5 minutes later and everyone else 10 minutes later.

Stayed in El Cope for a bit afterwards and then we had two day trips: one to El Valle and one to EL Conyo (i'm not sure how its spelt but that's what I hear). In EL Valle, we split up into two groups. My group went to the zoo first. It was interesting to see, especially the cages with raccoons and chickens displayed. There were a lot of birds and a tapirs which I have never see before. We also went to the frog exhibit which contains a yellow frog that probably cannot be found in the wild anymore due to the kitchryd fungus. Most of the amphibian population is dying out due to the fungus and the small number of people working at the exhibit are trying to save the frog population. Afterwards, Courtney, Leslie and I went to the pizza place and had an amazing cheese pizza. It was very good but due to the fact it was a long way to walk and took so long to get it, we had five minutes to enjoy our lunch. We then went to the internet and did some shopping. We left the town to go back to Cope and of course we arrived just as the sun was setting. I unhappily walked through the forest with no flashlight while the rest of the class ate dinner. Fun Fun.

Two days later, we went to a sugar factory and because I had not spelt well for a few nights, I was tired and cranky and just wanted to go and sleep. I didn't pay much attention to what was going on at any rate. We also went to the dig site in Conyo and again, not paying much attention. All I wanted was sleep.

THe next day after that, Stacy, Joey, Cameron and I went to Panama City. The day was fine. We went to the mall and they shopped while I watched basically. We got Subway, a footlong is only 4 dollars here which is spectacular. After we checked into a hotel, we went out to see the stores around the area. Around 7ish, Cameron had her wallet taken from her hand by this 15 or 16 year old kid. He then took off and Cameron and I ran after him. I pretty much was going to tackle this kid while I was screaming for someone to spot him. Obviously nobody did. THEre was a ledge and the kid and his useless accomplice jumped off of. It might have been 1 and half or 2 feet ledge and I, running at full speed, landed wrong on top of my right ankle and fell to the pavement while the kids ran across the conviently traffic free street. THe police won't do anything because they can't catch them and it happens so often. A panamanian guy got us a cab and by this point I'm crying histerically. I was soo pissed off. We got into the cab to go and find Mark since he has the cell phone. At the hostel, I eventually was aware that my ankle was swelling up massively and the European guys who were staring at me, crying histerically, kept saying go to the hospital which we eventually did. After the X-rays, they ground that the ligament on the lateral side was torn and on the medial, I had a bone chip in the joint. My options were to have surgery to repair everything or put a caste on see if it would repair itself correctly. After calling and discussing with my dad, we decided to go with the surgery and not have to worry as much about future problems with my ankle if it did not heal correctly. Plus the insurance would cover everything. So I had surgery the next morning and it went well. I now get to sit in Panama City until Monday when I get my ankle checked out again. For the rest of the trip, I get to hang out at Julie's house because I can't hike into LA Mica. I also miss our last shaman visit but I will be working on keying and organizing photos and data. It sucks that this happen but not much can be done. Less than two weeks left to go.

Santa Marta

I will write a shorten version of our trip and sorry for the spelling errors. I do not have time to go back and check through. Anyways Santa Marta is the this poor town up in the mountains where we had our home stays from Monday to Friday afternoon. I got lucky and stayed with Cameron and Joy. Cameron and I do not understand any Spanish so to have Joy there to speak and translate was awesome. Also to get to know Joy better was great since we haven´t had time to get to know each other. I found out she was the roommate of my friend since 6th grade. Who knew? We all stayed with the ¨doctor¨. He works a the clinic and he is actually a kind of nurse or EMT. He is able to give shots of vaccicines and birth control, deliver babies, do checkups and take out stitches. We watched him the clinic for two hours. Some problems we had was that he never asked the patients whether is was okay for us to watch and told them that we didn´t know anything because we didn´t know spanish. HE also made fun of Joy often for not being able to roll her r´s. We were not very fond of him.

The mother of the house was very friendly. We helped her cook and clean up the dishes afterwards and I feel like she really appriciated the help because unlike other women in the village, there were no other women living there to help her except vivienne who was nine. But the food was good and I have no complaints except that we were over fed. They gave us huge helpings of food that could feed three of us for one plate and it kind of made me sick to eat so much but I didn´t want to seem rude by not eating the food.

The family seemed to be better off than others. There were four bedrooms with actually beds and then a separate building for the kitchen and dining room. They had a shower that didn´t work outside, so we had to hull a bucket and wash from that. There was also a pit topilet of course in the shape of toilet which I prefer. They had a lot of animals. One of their dogs they claimed was sick but it was basically starving to death. THe dog is skin and bones and it is quite sad. A lot of the animals sit and beg while we eat and its a bit awkward.

On one of the days there was a a soccer game of the gringos against the Panamanian children. I believe the children won all three games. We would have lost by a greater margin if it wasn´t for Chad. I was surprise to see him get so into the game and actually see him run was quite a sight. We were told that he would only run if you shouted snake but apparently, give him a soccer ball and he will run for that as well.

We also had a dance which was awkward. The guys would just grab you by the hand and lead you out and we didn´t understand the steps. It was confusing and I didn´t enhjoy myself much.

The worst was the hike to see the crashed plane of one of their presidents. It took 4.5 hours to get up the mountain and I think the Panamanians can do it in 2 hours or maybe more. It was a ahard climb on the muscles but it was satisfying to reach the top. My camera batteries were dead before the hike so I didn´t get any pictures but it was very pretty to be so high up especially when the mist cleared partly and you could see the hills below. The trip took a total of nine hours and I will admit I wasn´t the happiest person ever but when all is said and done, I am glad to have completed the hike.

Another hike we took was to see two waterfalls and a hotspring which the locals believe has healing powers if you dip your hads into it. Clearly it doesn´t work since I have a head cold and tons of bug bites. When we were traveling to the second waterfall, we were taken to a path that required us to cross the same river/stream multiple times. At one point I slipped and fell, getting soak. I was most cranky at my camera getting wet but thankfully it works perfectly fine now that it has dried to which I am very happy about. I was happy to lñeave Santa MArta. I didn´t come away with any more Spanish than I went in with. I had hoped for a kid who liked to teach me words but it didn´t happen. But the expoerience was interesting to see how another group of people live.

Shaman

We went to the Shaman´s house way out in the middle of nowhere for a nightr. We woke up at 5 am in the moring to go to the his house Cochlecito. We arrived at the hill to meet with Pablo. We tried to tell him that Joy fell ont he rocks the night before and cut up her leg so there would only be five of us. We made our way over to Pablo´s house to drop some us with JKoel so we could take two cars and then we went to pick up Julie. It was bit of a squeeze with Ahlee, Joey and I in the back of se4at for 3 hours or somehting but we makçde it work. We stopped in Pananome for breakfast and headed on our way. Once we arrived at the site of a Canadian mine, they would not let us pass to get to the trail head to hike because there were to many gringos and they think we are lawyers who want to shut them down. We then had to proceed up a long 4 hour muddy path to the house. After two long climb up the muddy hills, I was having a hard time catching my breath, stupid exercise-enduced asthma, and they had to unload the donkey to let me ride on it. THis was the first time I rode on a donkey and it was kind of scary because I was afraid of falling off. ANyways I was the first to arrive at the house and it was a bit akward. I was carring a small turtle the size of my hand, for Julie, and I there was these children nd I showed them the turtle but they didn´t want to pet it. They just started at me and giggled. They may have been afraid of the turtle. One of the guys motioned me to come to the fromnt of the house. I think I took the wrong way and ended in the kitchen. I said hello in spanish and nobody really aknowldged me accept to give a drink. Little to my knowledge the Shaman was in there eating and it was akward. I was then motioned into a porch where Pablo told me to remove my boots. At least they didn´t seem to be too angry walking around the house with my shoes on. The time we where there they fed us more than they eat for each meal. More than we would have liked but its polite to eat everything or most of the food. One of the older women took us on a hike to show us some of the medicinal plants but we hung around mostly. We tried our hand at cutting ukka çI´m not sure how you spell it. It is something I have no talent for. They also gave us the best tea ever. I don´t normally like tea but there was awesome. We didn´t meet with the Shaman until the before we left. Apparrently he is shy but he is excited to meet with us the next itme we come back. THe hike back was no fun. It rained all night so it was muddy and the river was high. THe water flowed over my boot. We eventually made it back to the main road, changed in t some less wet cloths and headed back to Panoneme for dinner where me, Ashlee, Julie and Pablo sang to music on the way back. We got back after dark to Julie´s and it was raining so me and Ashlee stayed the night. We learned a lot about her and Pablo and I thoughly enjoyed myself. Next we will be going to Santa MArta for home stays which will be interesting cause most of us do not speak spanish very well and they do not speak english at all. Fun times ahead.

Kuna Yala

Here is my long account of our visit to Kuna Yala.

We left on Monday for Gamboa, a research area outsideof Panama City. When we arrived we were amazed at the simple things such as a flushing toilet and air conditioning. We were over joyed, much to the amuzement of our hosts, Joel and Ray. Stacy, Ashlee, Courtney, Hanna, and I stayed in one room. It was a bit rundown and the door needed some persuasion to close but we were happy after our scrunched hot dorm and pit toilet at La Mica. For me, I liked the smaller group to sleep in one room. Our dinner consisted of a salad with stuff I don´t normally eat such as cabbage and fruit. As always there was chicken and rice.

We had to wake up at 4:30 am to be ready to leave at 5 o´clock. Of course, Mark was smart and told us to be ready at five but the vans did not arrive until 5:30. Sneaky, Mark, Sneaky. We rushed forno reason. We were supposed to have four cars but only three showed up so some of us had to squish a little in the cars. We were on our way to Kuna Yala. This was a three hour drive if I remember correctly. Our driver was the fun driver. He drove rather fast and it felt like we were on a rollar coaster as we rode through the hills. I am amazed at the dirt and rocky road that has been built; it took a hour and ten minutes to drive to the coast. It was a bumby ride and therefore was hard to take pictures but the secenery was absolutely beautiful. We passed people in other vehicles and at one point we clipped a car and passed another person in water but it was a lot of fun.

Eventually, we arrived at the sandy dock to later get into the boat to take us to our island. The boat sat three across and looked like a large canoe. This was the first time I had ever been in such a boat that could flip over but they gave us some snazzy bright orange life vests. The trip across the ocean was very amazing. This was the first ime I have ever seen the ocean except for the view from the airplane. The ocean was so beautiful, just like in the photos but photos never do these places justice. When we arrived at our island, it wasn´t what I had been expecting. We were told that we would be on our own island so I expected a large tent and a few palm trees but what was there was toilets, showers, a food stand and other tourists. Each of us got our own tents which I was uber excited about. Finally, some privacy. I moved my tent close to the ocean to have a prime ocean front property spot shaded by some non-conut coconut trees. It was wonderful to sit on the beach and stare out over the water and contmplate philosphical thoughts. It ntook about maybe 10 minutes to cross hte island although I never timed it. Our food was cooked by a kuna chef so it was really good but redundant. We always had fruit with each meal and scrambled eggs with red and green bell peppers for breakfast. I do not like eggs so hopefulñly that will be the last time I have to eat them. THere was fish for lunch and chicken for dinner with various sides.

The first itme we arrived at Kuna Yala; it was interesting to see their thached roofs and dirt paths. Most of the women wore traditional dress while the teenages and children wore western style clothing. I should mentiion the Kuna are an indigenous group who gained their independence from Panama and do not have to paytaxes, something they are very happy about. Anyways their style of clothing as well as elsewhere in Panama reminds me of peictures from Japan where they wear bright clothing that isn´t necessarily worn in the US. As we passed though the streets, little children kept saying hola to us and one boy even ran u to me and gave mea hug. The women sell molas which are sewed art works that they have created for certain events throughout their lives. The ones they sell to tourists usually have animals depicted to entice people but normally they traditionally like to create geometric patterns. THey also sell beaded jewlery which helps in the family income.

Another day we witnessed a reinactment of their struggle for inpendence from Panama. BAsically, as I understand, three elders where captures by the Panamanians and tortures for a long time and never died even though they were shot at like 20 times (at least it seemed so during the reinactment). Eventually the Kuna rescued themnad there was some stepping on the panamanian flag and independence. After this, they get really drunk. I left for theis particular part and went back to the island to go swimming forthe first itme in the ocean. The salt water tasted terrible butit was nice to go swimming.

We were there for three days and this isn´t in order. Another point we went on atwo hour boat ride tour of the bay that lasted three and half hours. My butt hurt after and I was sunburned on my arms, the tops of my knees and the back of my neck. I didn´t get as sun burned as badly as some other people but it was still miserable. ANd at some point I got a bug bite. I was sad. I am up to four. Not as bad as every one else though. Some people have tons all overtheir legs but I have been putting on bug spray so that has been helping a lot.

THe island was really lovely, you could see the stars at night and look at the tide pools when the tide receded. But the last night we ahd a storm and it rained every two hours and the wind was howling and water leaked into the tent. We left int he morning in choppy seas, hoping the boat wouldn´t turn over. We made it without incident and got into the cars to go back to Panama City. In the city we took a bus tour kind of, saw some places, took some pictures. The next day we a group of sixteen went back to the city by a public bus. It was basically a painted school bus. We ate at the bus depot and they had many AMerican fast food such as McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts and Dairy Queen. I went to Pizza Hut and got a small pizza, four bread sticks and a medium coke all for $3.69. Good deal and I went and got a chocolate shake and got my chocolate fix. After we went back to Gamboa and left at 3 in the afternoon and headed back to El Cope. The End.

Panama

I´m finally in Panama. I arrived at the airport at 4 am and got through all the check points just fine. Said good b ye to my dad and off I want. I was surprisingly not very nervous considering I was about to leave the country for the first time in my life.

We were held for our flight to Miami but once the luggege got through and the plane de-iced we were set to leave. The flights were pretty boring. Once we arrived in Miami, I got to see the ocean for the first itme in life as well as the first itme I have ever been in Florida. I was there for about an Hour and we made for the flight to Panama. Also a boring fight.

Panama is amazing as we flew over. It was very different than Miami of course. Instead of buildings as far as the eye could see, there were trees. We got through the airport as fast as we could. It was the first time I has someone speak Spanish to me and of course I had no idea what they were saying, but they knew enough english to get along.

Panama is lovely to look at. The mountains are beautiful with the trees and the mist. Its quite hot here especially coming from a place with snow and we were sweating instantly. It was a three hour drive from the airport to El cope, the place where we are staying. Then there is a hike to our place of living through the trees. Its kind of difficult because the path slopes down quite a ways but luckly we had some locals to carry our bags seeing as there was no way we could. We will all be fit after these two months.

The dorm is quite small with 17 girls crammed together but we make it work. The food been good and I have yet to really have to try anything outlandish. Lots of chicken. I won´t have the internet a lot so I´ll be upating this maybe once a week. More details and pictures to come.

A few more days...

This week was the last week of classes (and when I say week we only had two days of classes). Still have a paper to write before I leave. Maybe tomorrow I'll get started working on it. I have to discuss race and ethnicity and I have no idea what I want to write on since nothing has popped into my head. Hopefully something will.

I had a busy day today. I finally got my yellow fever and typhoid shots plus I got my anti-malarial medication. Of course the doctor didn't give me the yellow fever shot card so now I have to back to Columbia (a 30 minute drive one-way)on Monday. I also shopped for some items I need and now its just going through my head everything I might be forgetting to do.

Its hard to believe I'll be leaving soon; leaving my comfort-zone to an unknown place that I really can't imagine being there. I'm most worried about sleep at the moment because its so hard for me to get to sleep, and with living with so many people, I don't know how I'll fall asleep. i'm sure I'll be so tired I will just fall asleep eventually.

Well I won't worry about all of it now. Olympic opening ceremony is coming on soon. I'm super excited!!!

Snow..What Snow?

So here is my practice at uploading pictures. It snowed all last night so I took a picture of it for my apartment window. I'm thrilled that it is Friday and I don't have to go anywhere today!!