Pre-Training Retreat

So here we are in Panama. 47 of us are currently staying within a compound outside of Panama City. On sunday we will go to live with our training host families. All of the Ag. and Conservation volunteers will be living in the same town while we complete our training.

There was a mix up regarding my project assignment. I arrived thinking I was with conservation, but turns out I was sent the wrong information and I should have been in the sustainable agriculture group. The director told me it was my decision to choose between the two different, albeit similar programs. It was a dificult decision to make. I spent about 24 hrs mulling it over and decided on the Agriculture postition because it is where I have the most experience and because the Ag sites are generally more rural, possibly indigenous.

We spend most of our days in an airconditioned building discusing safety and health, but that will all change on Monday when we offically begin to train.

I really like the training staff and other volunteers. Everyone seems possitive even though we are putting in pretty long days on a consistant basis. Yesterday we went to the pool for safety training. Our country director actually jumped in the pool with his clothes on to do a demonstration on how to make your pants into a flotation device. Most volunteers in other countries only meet their country director when they complete their service as a volunteer. It is pretty unusal to have a director who is so envolved.

The food is good. Rice and beans and meat and awesome fruit:water melon, papaya,pinapple, and some soggy veggies. I haven't felt so gluten free in months.

We have a great group of volunteers, including 5 married couples. Most of the volunteers are girls/women, probably about 60%. But everyone brings with them lots of different experiences. Lucky for me, there are many people who want to do animal husbandry, so hopefully the biggest thing that I have to kill is a chicken.

I fluctuate between being really excited and confident about the upcoming challanges and feeling a bit overwhelmed. I am going to have to take one day at a time I am sure.

This morning a group of us met outside our villa and did some Yoga, also known as feeding yourself to the mosquitos,. We figured it was time to get used to it. For those of you who know me a bugs will regognize this as a big step.

We started language today. It was all conversational, which makes sense since we will mostly be talking... but I have such a hard time saying the word correctly if I cant see it writen. We should have a better idea of the classes next week.

It's lunch time. Must go.