Challenge: Panama

Coming into this trip, I saw the possibility for adventure. I dreamed of venturing into the rain forest, witnessing the beauty of nature, and being in the presence of a rich Latin American culture, all the while having a blast with the other 24 individuals on this adventure with me. While I was not thinking about it at the time, this trip was to be full of challenges, both big and small, that would help to shape my first out of country experience. For my submission to this class project, I have tried to compile a list of some of the challenges I faced on this trip with a comment on my level of success for each one.

Challenge: Showering
Try not to freeze: Fail
-I had my share of complaints and whimpering when it came to dealing with the cold water. On days when the sun was out for awhile, especially if I had just come back from a long hike, the water actually felt pretty nice. The worst times to shower, when I tended to do it most often, were in the morning or the afternoon/evening of a rainy day. I could not sense any amount of warmth in this cold water as, stepping under the faucet, the bitter cold stole all the air from my lungs.
Try to wash the soap off before the water goes out: Success
- Never had the water go out on me while in the shower! (Sorry to Kelly, Denyse, and all the other people who got to experience this one)
Try not to launch the shower head 50 feet down the hill: Success (it only went about 23 feet by my count)
Try to avoid flashing others: Success (as far as I know)
Try to tie down the shower curtain: Success
-Though I probably added my fair share of wear and tear to that thing trying to get it to stay in place, I was always sure to tie the curtain as best I could to the shower door frame. (Seriously, how annoying was that wind?! It is very frustrating, not to mention difficult, to shower while the curtain keeps trying to stick to your body)
Try to keep clothes dry: Fail
-While I succeeded in this endeavor a majority of the time, it has been labeled a ‘fail’ due to the fact that my clothes were blown onto the ground at least 5 times (resulting in partial dampness and filth coverage).
Try not to be attacked by bugs attracted to toiletries: Fail
-For some reason those little non-stinging bees just loved to shower with me, no matter how many times I swatted them to the ground. Must be my animal magnetism…
Try to make idle chit-chat with shower buddy: Success
-Some of my most entertaining conversations happened while I was in the shower. I mean, I was forced to answer the question: “If I told you to shower with a complete stranger, or I’d kill you, would you be more comfortable with a male or female?” Why this person asked me this, I’ll never know, but it was an interesting conversation to say the least.
Try to stay clean for at least 10 minutes after shower: Fail
-I rarely went too long after showering without getting some type of dirt, sweat, etc on me (probably didn’t help that I was in the habit of walking to the shower barefoot or the fact that I liked to shower even when I knew I’d be hiking soon after)
Try to stay relatively clean and odor-free overall: Success

Challenge: Staying Clean
Try to keep sweating to a minimum: Success
-While I may have had my moments (even on the final day walking out of La Mica, face dripping in sweat), I feel like this task can be marked as a success. Going into this trip I was very aware of how high the humidity and temperature would be, and I thought that perspiration would be more of an issue of discomfort. In reality, the high temperature and humidity outside did not usually register in my mind unless it could be directly compared to a controlled, air conditioned environment.
Try to distinguish between a tan line and a dirt stain: Success
-One of the most interesting problems on this trip was trying to figure out whether or not skin discoloration was an effect of sun exposure or mud layering. I cannot count the number of times that I took off my hiking boots or rubber boots and socks to expose a clear line; my pale white foot was on one side of this line while my ‘tan’ leg was on the other. The question of tan v. mud stain is best answered by vigorous scrubbing.
Try not to let dirty clothes collection become overwhelming: Success
-Following any extended trips we made during this Panama adventure, the biggest issue upon returning was often the amount of dirty clothing that had been accumulated. Whether coated in sand, soaked and smelling of salt, or smelling as if they had been shoved into the bottom of suitcase dirty (and probably wet) and allowed to ‘ferment’ for a few days, the clothing items pulled out of my travel bags were always quite disgusting. In addition to these trip accumulations, the daily build up of dirty clothing (dirty either meaning coated in mud/sweat or having been worn to the point of exhaustion) contributed to a sizeable amount of items that were usually in need of a good wash. It was thanks to my questionable laundry skills, the help of some awesome local women, and my over-packing of clothing that I was able to make it through this trip without running out of things to wear.
Try not to run out of underwear: Success
-Always had a clean pair and never had to buy more! (Though it was good to know that Joey would probably have my back if an underwear need ever did arise. Now that I think about it, he could’ve given a pair of underwear to everybody on the trip and still had a pair for himself).
Try to not have dirt everywhere: Fail
-Whether on my body, in my bed, on my clothes, or in my suitcase, it seemed as if everything I owned was coated in at least a light dusting of dirt. The fact that dirt seemed to coat my luggage was entertaining when I was in public, especially at the airport, when I was able to identify my suitcase by its distinctive foot prints, hand prints, and dirt patches.

Challenge: Spending Time in ‘The Studio’
Try to ignore the smell: Fail
-There is no way that a person could ignore the smell emanating from our pit toilet, as you could even sense it hiking into camp. Apparently 25 people and 2 months is not enough time or input to start an effective compost (I don’t think the gasoline poured in helped at all).
Try to appreciate the prime reading material available: Success
-The baby advertisements, ads for prostitution, etc posted on its walls made visiting the studio much more entertaining.
Try to avoid making the trip downhill: Success
-Whenever it was possible to avoid making a trip down to use the toilet (never a completely fulfilling experience without the sound of a flush or immediate access to running water), I would. This of course meant finding a few good trees to hide behind (a method employed most frequently at night when lighting was at a premium and laziness was at its height).
Try not to enter an occupied stall: Success
-Everyone seemed to have their own style of asking whether or not the stalls were occupied. I personally relied on “Is anyone down here?”, but one of my personal favorites was Will who had a habit of saying something to the effect of “Ding-Dong”, as if ringing an imaginary doorbell.
Try to become less awkward about discussing bodily functions: Success
-Sharing too much was just a trend of this trip. I doubt my friends back home would be nearly as comfortable with the sheer volume of bowel movement discussions, etc as my Panama people were.

Challenge: Avoiding Being Eaten Alive
Try to keep mosquitoes at bay: Fail
-So... Believe it or not, there are A LOT of mosquitoes in Panama. I feel comfortable making this statement based solely on the passive observation of the arms/legs of myself and my fellow travelers. As the final remnants of my bites are finally beginning to fade, I’m reminded of how bad it was just a couple of weeks ago. When you can count over 40 bites on just one calf or accumulate another 40 bites from just 30 minutes of sitting outside, you know that mosquitoes are a problem.
Try to be unappealing as a host of ticks, fleas, etc: Success
-Happy to report that I found no ticks, etc on my body! This is a great feat in my book as I have always had a bit of a lurking fear that I will have a tick hiding somewhere on my body, and not realize it.
Try to wake up with the same number of bites you went to sleep with: FAIL
-As the trip went on, this problem seemed to worsen. I would frequently wake up covered in many more bites than I had when I went to sleep. This issue was most prevalent when visiting the Shaman and his family near Coclecito. Chiggers seemed to be the biggest culprit at this location as it would not surprise me to find 20 new bites on my torso in the morning. I guess you could say that sleeping was always an adventure, especially when you’re unintentionally sharing your bed with some sneaky creatures.
Try not to give in to the temptation to scratch: Fail
-This task was nearly impossible to succeed at, considering the sheer volume of bites that we had covering our bodies. A slight tap or scratch would set off an obsessive impulse to keep scratching, hoping that this would relieve the annoyance. Of course, scratching a bite only makes matters worse. Either the urge to scratch is intensified tenfold or the bites are torn open and subject to pain and possible infection. While I seemed to be able to avoid the latter problem, I could not help but fall victim to the former.

Challenge: Hiking
Try not to fall off a mountain: Success
-This only seemed to be a legitimate concern when making the Chiva ride to Santa Marta, but still.
Try to climb a mountain: Success
-Climbing a mountain was one of my biggest accomplishments on this trip. This happened while in Santa Marta, hiking up a trail to find where Omar Torrijos’ plane crashed. Most of us were completely unprepared for the task ahead of us on that hot, sunny day. Even though the concerned questions and expressions on the faces of our Santa Marta families should have clued me in to the difficult task ahead, I did not take the warning signs to heart. I only brought a Gatorade bottle full of water for what turned into a nearly 10 hour roundtrip hike. By the end of the hike (which was comparable to climbing stairs the entire time), my level of dehydration nearly caused a mental breakdown. The final 30 minutes were particularly treacherous as my level of dehydration was at a high, and the sun beating overhead did not help at all. On the brink of tears and defeat, I finally reached the end of our journey, full of relief. It was interesting to feel the effects that physical exhaustion can have on my mental state. While it was overwhelming and scary at the time, I came to appreciate the challenge my body had overcome in completing the hike.
Try not to fall into a river: Fail
-This gets its own special category as, on one occasion, I plummeted into a river carrying my laptop. While my brand new net book came out of the ordeal fine (after being given ample time to dry), it was still a frustrating experience.
Try to avoid injury: Success
-Disregarding some minor aches and pains sustained from random trail falls.
Try to keep falling to a minimum: Success
Try not to be bothered by needing to hike to get anywhere: Success
-While I’ll admit to my fair share of complaining about the need to hike 15 minutes or so to simply leave La Mica, followed by another 15-20 minute hike to reach El Copé, I eventually learned to take it all in stride. The physical activity made the arrival at your desired destination seem more deserved than if you had simply been able to drive there.

Challenge: Living in an Overcrowded Room
Try to keep noise level to a minimum: Success
-Even though I was not always the quietest person when it came time for lights out in the dorm (I always seem to lose some grace and skill when I have more pressure to try to not make noise), I believe that I kept the noise down to an acceptable level. My biggest challenges on this front were trying to find a non-obnoxious way of sliding my suitcase from under my bed, trying to avoid stepping on the squeaky boards on my way to/from bed, trying not to curse loudly when I slammed my toe into the rock used to hold the door open during the day, and trying to lay as still as possible during the night (as my bed creaked obnoxiously with every move I seemed to make).
Try not to take up too much space: Inconclusive
-This question is difficult for me to answer myself. While I do not feel like I took up an obscene amount of space with my items, I do have a terrible habit of being unorganized. This lack of organization tended to express itself in the form of my suitcase constantly being open and overflowing, possibly encroaching upon the space of others.
Try to get some sleep: Success
-I was not bothered at all by noise in the dorm. I often slept through the snoring, dream yelling, etc of others and rarely did I ever wake up when people would come back from the park in the middle of the night. I would like to thank the past years of falling asleep with the T.V. and lights on for my noise tolerance and ability to sleep anywhere I wanted if I was tired enough.

Challenge: Adapting To a Simpler Lifestyle
Try to live with limited electricity: Success
-This was not at all difficult to adapt to. The only time electricity was needed or missed was at night, or when needing to charge something. Rarely was lack of access to this utility an issue. Interestingly enough, it was, at times, annoying to have electricity at La Mica, as the deck where we spent all of our time was placed directly above the noisy generator.
Try not to be disheartened by the lack of internet access: Fail
-While I naturally missed internet access, as I was forced to face my Facebook addiction, I did not miss the World Wide Web simply for the ease of access to trivial pursuits. I yearned for access to all the information that it had to offer. Conducting our research project would have been much more simplistic if we could have tapped into this great resource more often. As it stood, we would need to hike for at least 30 minutes and board a cramped bus for an additional hour before arriving at a location where the internet could be accessed. By this time, we would all be so behind in answering emails, etc that research was often pushed to a back burner (the cost of internet and bus schedule always on our minds).
Try to drink the water regardless of what may be floating in it: Success
-I never thought I’d ever see the day where I’d be able to look into my glass of water, see it as foggy, discolored, and littered with dirt particles, and not be thrown off by that at all. I can proudly say that I drank my fair share of this ‘mineral enhanced’ water.
Try to adapt to a life of public transportation: Success
-I personally love going for rides on buses, and the Chivas always were an adventure in and of themselves.

Challenge: Working While Abroad
Try to keep up with assignments: Fail
-While I was able to keep up with most of the readings, I could not make myself focus enough to write any of the papers or excursion reports while in Panama. There’s just something about being in the middle of the rain forest, being unable to ever be alone, being unable to find silence, and being stressed about completing a time sensitive research project that fed my procrastination habit when it came to History and JINS.
Try to stay on top of Biology project: Success
-Regardless of the innumerable issues we faced while carrying out our survey of local flora, with a focus on medicinal plants, I could not label this task as anything but a success. We had to fight the elements to keep our press dry, carry plants through treacherous hikes (sometimes in our mouths), struggle with balancing the slow paced nature of collecting with the quick movements of our fellow travelers/guides, struggle with a limited knowledge of proper collection and pressing techniques, deal with an inadequate drying oven, and face the harsh reality that a third of our specimens needed to be thrown away due to issues with molding. Even when everything seemed to be going wrong, we were still able to collect and adequately preserve 150 specimens, receive aid in identification down to family (sometimes even species), learn more than we ever thought we could about plants in a 2 month span, and embark upon countless journeys into the wild on a quest to find as many beautiful flowers and exotic plants as possible. In short, the problems we faced completing this project only served to make the successes taste that much sweeter.
Try not to be overwhelmed: Fail
-It’s hard to avoid feeling overwhelmed when you have so many tasks/projects to complete and so little time.

Challenge: Finding the Adventure I Desired
Try to travel: Success
-From visiting the indigenous community of Kuna Yala, to camping on the beach of a dreamy island in the Atlantic Ocean, to spending a week of home stays in Santa Marta, to frequenting Omar Torrijos National Park, to seeing glorious waterfalls, to visiting Panama City, to spending time in the home of a Shaman, to stepping into the Pacific Ocean right off of an all inclusive resort, and more, we were never left wanting when it came to being able to travel the country and see the beautiful scenery and rich culture it has to offer.
Try to attempt Spanish: Success
-One of the aspects of this trip that excited me most was being able to finally practice Spanish, which I have spent the past seven years learning, in real life situations. I looked forward to seeing if I was at a level where I could interact with native speakers. Even though I sometimes shied away from using Spanish, as I feared appearing slow or foolish due to lack of understanding, I did step out of my comfort zone. I tried my hardest to employ the vocabulary that I did have, and often found my attempts at communication to be successful.
Try to take time to enjoy surroundings: Success
Try to meet interesting people: Success
-Shout out to Julie Ray, Pablo, Niño Mac, Tio Mac, Joel, Ander, the wonderful people of the Santa Marta community, the people of Kuna Yala, everyone who helped to coordinate any of our trips, the Shaman’s family in Coclecito, anyone who helped run La Mica, and anyone else who helped to make our time in Panama as enjoyable as possible. I would also like to give a shout out to all of my fellow Truman travelers. Here’s to spending nearly 2 months together 24/7 without killing each other. I made some great friends on this trip, and was so happy for the opportunity to get to know each and every one of you!

I could probably go on forever about all of the challenges I faced in Panama. From adjusting to living my day to day life Panamanian style, to facing emotional, physical, and mental hurdles, this trip turned out to be the adventure I expected and so much more. This experience offered me a unique opportunity to grow and find myself, all the while doing something that I loved. Below is an excerpt from one of my first blog posts made upon arriving in Panama. It was written following a visit to Omar Torrijos National Park. While everything was not always as dream-like and perfect as it seemed on that first day, my time spent in Panama really was an awe inspiring experience that was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

“I really wish I could think of the words to describe what this experience meant to me, but the only words coming to mind right now are words such as awesome, majestic, and beautiful. I’m not particularly eloquent right now, but this journey into the rain forest was all those words and much more. Just witnessing all the beauty of nature while hiking through it, feeling a bit rugged and BA at the same time. As we were walking back up the slippery/mossy trail, it started to rain, and, in all honesty, that only made the walk back even better. I got rained on in the rain forest... How perfect”“From our journeys into town, to the excursions into nature, I'm finding that I'm falling in love with this place. While I do worry a bit that I might still be in the 'Honeymoon' stage, I do not see myself really having any reason to leave this bliss. I have always loved nature, and it’s so fulfilling to finally spend this much time getting more in tune with it. From showering under the open sky, to falling asleep to the sound of crickets, to doing homework with the rain forest as my backdrop, I am just so content with life right now.”

Catching Up

Guess trying to crank out a blog every week was just not meant to be. Its amazing how quickly time has been flying by and before I knew it we have only 13 more days left in Panama. 13 days to finish off our project, 13 days to soak in as much 90 degree sunny days as possible, 13 days before I return to my life in the United States.

While I love my life in Panama, I am so ready to go home. I miss everyone dearly and am very much looking forward to all the reunions I get to have. I want to be able to cuddle with Rupert, hang out with my housemates for one of our movie marathons, paint the town red on Thursday nights with some of my favorite people, cook for myself, have access to a flushing toilet and a hot shower, sleep in my queen sized bed in a room I'm not sharing with 22 other people, buy whatever I want whenever I want, see my family, hang out with my 'kinky' family, reconnect with good friends, have unlimited internet and electricity access, drive myself, sleep... On the flip side I'm going to miss unlimited access to all of this tropical beauty, bright sunny days, time spent hunting for a hint of flower color in a forest of green, always being on the go, day trips to beautiful historic locations, being immersed in another culture, having a chance to practice my Spanish, hiking... Though I'm sure I'll start to miss these things more once I am parted from them, I cannot fight the urge inside of me to return to my life at home.

I have decided that, since I have fallen so very much behind on updating everyone to how my life is going in Panama, I am going to follow up this post with posts containing everything that I have done/seen/thought for the past month, so look forward to that!

Now to hope that someone lets me borrow their computer to fulfill this ambitious undertaking... Wish me luck

4 Minutes 24 Seconds

As the title of this blog states I have barely any time to get this post up... Paying for internet by the hour sucks BTW. Anywho just wanted to say that I loved our time on Kuna Yala, full story in the next blog and Im looking forward to going back "home" to La Mica. Crazy how quickly something can become your home isnt it. We are all actually missing sharing one giant room and dining room table and basically being all up in each others space (i do not think Panamanian keyboards have an apostrophe key.... Ah well, I suppose it makes sense as contractions and possession marks are not necessary for Spanish). 20 seconds!! Got to go.... till next time

Pre-Kuna Yala

So, its only been about 3 days since I last had internet and, surprise surprise, I can already feel the withdrawl symptoms setting in... Its not necessarily that I cannot live without the internet, but I like to have the option. Its been very surreal not being able to just google something for an answer, or check facebook to talk to someone. This must be what it felt like growing up long ago in the seventies or something :p

Anyway, some updates since the last time that I was able to check in. I found my camera!!! This morning actually as I was packing for a four-five day trip to Kuna Yala, I happened to look into the front pocket of a bag and found it! Finally!! I have been dying to find it, so that I can capture my Panamanian adventure forever.

Anywho, as I alluded to above, we are heading off to Kuna Yala. This place is on the northern coast of Panama, and is home to an indigenous community which is a matriachical society (as it should be). This community exists largely on islands, as houses and businesses are jammed together covering every inch of land available. I hear that trees and plants are a rarity on these small chunks of land. The buildings go completely to the shore, and the only way on or off the island is by boat. Of course Ill be able to go more into detail after making this trip, but I`m really excited about the opportunity to interact with an indigenous people and witness their way of life. While visiting this community, we will be staying on our own private island. Thats right, white sandy beaches and palm trees... Ocean adjacent.... That will be us. We will be the only inhabitants of the small island we are staying on as we camp on the beach for 4 nights. While i fear what this means in terms of showering/using the facilities Im sure itll be a fun, character building experience.

Just in a more general sense, I have been having a blast at the research station. I feel like everyone is getting closer, and noone is really having any problems with anyone else. Im loving the weather, and Im even starting to get some color (thats right... its totally possible). Exciting/funny bit of news is that my laptop is working!! Now, you may be wondering why this is big news.... Well, funny story. I was returning from El Cope, the town near the La Mica research station, and we came to a river. There was no easy way across the river really, so I took my shoes off and crossed. After successfully making it to the other side, I proceeded to walk along the bank back toward camp. As I approached our swimming hole (yes, we have a swimming hole and it is glorious. Not only can we swim whenever we want, but it is also a prime showering location) my foot suddenly shot out from underneath me (unexpected hole) and I fell into the river carrying my laptop bag. As I fell underwater, I tried my hardest to keep my computer dry, but the entire bag submerged in the water. Fearing the worst, I headed back to camp and let my computer dry out a bit before giving it a shot. When I finally tried it out, it worked! Though it had a water mark for a few days, it finally dried out completely and now its fine! :)

Other quick blurbs before my limited internet access expires:
-I have been having intense TacoBell cravings lately
-I miss everyone
-I already worry about how much Ill miss Panama when I get home
-Everyone here has really grown on me, and I dont know what Ill do when I go home and have an entire room to myself (instead of sharing one with 22 other people)
-Im happy we have so much fun at the river, and succeeded in our ´team building´exercise of damming the stream
-Plant collecting has started and, while it is going to be SUPER difficult to identify them, I am excited to give it a try
-I really feel like Im lacking, as far as plant knowledge goes, but Im confident that Ill learn quickly

As we must now reboard the bus, bound for Panama City and then our private island, I bit you adieu. Until next time

First Few Days

So we are finally in Panama! And its been quite the adventure already. Monday seems like such a distant memory, though at the time, I was having a little bit of a freak out. Of course I left everything that I needed to do until the day before I left the country. I collected all pairs of shoes, most clothing, and many other items that day then needed to head home, pack, and answer all of my mother's demands for information about where we were going to be.... Intermingling with all of this preparing was the need to write my JINS ppr for Wade. I ended up being finished packing at midnight and writing my ppr from 1-3.

After that, I was just in time to shower and meet my brother to go to the airport. I'll stop narrating this part now, as it is nothing too exciting. The only things that I discovered from my first time being on a plane were that it sucks to sit by the window when you need to go to the bathroom, and that my ears hate altitude change. The descent in both Miami and Panama were excruciating. Chewing gum did not really help at all. I moaned quietly for the twenty minutes before landing from each flight, trying to soothe my painful ears. For some reason, they refused to pop and rendered me nearly deaf for the next few hours. This odd trend with my ears has continued for the following days as any altitude changes or turns of my head will make my ears painfully pop.... It probably didn't help that I was trying to make them do it for awhile after getting off the plane.

So our camp at La Mica is pretty amazing. We are literally right in the middle of the jungle. To get to our camp, we have to hike for about 20 minutes down quite a difficult trail. Ill post pictures next time (hopefully if I can find my camera). Our dorms are one giant room divided by a tarp for males/females. It is quite interesting sharing space with 16 other girls, especially when trying to be quiet during the night. I sadly failed at being quite the first night here, as I brought a cold with me from the US. REALLY hoping it goes away soon.

Now, I really want to mention our trip to Omar Torrijos National Park. This place was so unbelievable. We arrived to this location by travelling up the side of a mountain by Chiva (illegal truck that carries people in its bed) for 40 minutes. I actually really enjoyed the Chiva we were riding in. It was pretty fun rocking with every bump in the road while feeling the wind in your hair (all the while trying not to fall out of the bed of the truck).

This National Park is the home to so many beautiful plants and animals. While waiting for the second group of people to arrive at the station we were able to look at some colorful flowers and we even spotted a sloth and its baby hanging in a nearby tree. Once the second group arrived, we began our journey in the rain forest.

Our hikes through this beautiful scenery was the best part of my trip so far. We walked down some perilous trails, and ended up finding a river that some people are going to be doing their projects at. I really wish I could think of the words to describe what this experience meant to me, but the only words coming to mind right now are words such as awesome, majestic, and beautiful. I'm not particularly eloquent right now, but this journey into the rain forest was all those words and much more. It was just witnessing all the beauty of nature while hiking through it, feeling a bit rugged and BA at the same time. As we were walking back up the slippery/mossy trail, it started to rain, and, in all honesty, that only made the walk back even better. I got rained on in the rain forest... How perfect right? I brought a poncho, but I'm enjoying the rain so much thus far, lets see how much I actually use it.

From our journeys into town, to the excursions into nature, I'm finding that I'm falling in love with this place. While I do worry a bit that I might still be in the 'Honeymoon' stage (initially in love with the place that you visit), I do not see myself really having any reason to leave this bliss. I have always loved nature, and its so fulfilling to finally spend this much time getting more in tuned with it. From showering under the open sky to falling asleep to the sound of crickets to doing homework with the rain forest as my backdrop, I am just so content with life right now.

Less Than An Hour

Oh, how I wish I had more time to elaborate on what's been going through my mind lately.... This will be quite a short post, as I must leave for Lambert within the hour (!!), but I had to take a moment to just just some of my anxiety out. I am sooo unbelievably excited about leaving on this trip, I am so tired as I have pulled an all nighter, I am nervous about leaving the country, I am nervous about missing my flight, I worry that I have packed too much/yet not enough.... Basically my mind is swirling and, as I sit here shivering in my cold room under a thick blanket, I cannot yet fathom the adventure that is about to begin for all of us. I hope Panama is ready for us, because here we come!

Just Keep Swimming

I'm trying my hardest to follow Dory's advice, and 'just keep swimming'. I'll survive this next week and a half of homework overload, and I won't let it get me down!

So, as a nice break from various papers I'm currently juggling, I've decided to update everyone on what I've been up to these past few days.

On Tuesday we had a relatively normal history class, full of neocolonialsim and imperialism. The only notable change of sorts was probably that this lecture tested both the speed of my pencil and my ability to actively listen, as we proceeded without a supplementary ppt for the first part of class and were hit with a lot of information. Other than that, Marc also impressed us by pulling out a '5' answer to the term 'neocolonialism'. The way he tied together the effect of foreign species introduction and neocolonialism in Latin America was quite interesting, and made complete sense. Maybe glimpsing a 5 point answer that I can relate my major will inspire me to finally get a 5 of my own... I'll try to fight off the lingering sense of doubt of whether or not this will actually happen, and be positive!

Following the rearrangement of our homework schedule for the next 2 weeks (YES!!) JINS proceeded as expected, with the discussion of Galeano's book. I liked that we got a chance to look at each other while discussing the book, as it's easier to discuss a topic when you can look at the people who are involved. An interesting tid bit about this class period was that the photographer who took pictures of our class was my suitemate from freshmen year. Gotta love her!

A sad note from Tuesday was finding out that the Shaman, who we plan on working with in Panama, had a stroke a few weeks back. He cured himself, but we are not yet sure what parts of his mind or ability to communicate were affected by this sad turn of events. We hope, not only for the viability of our project to preserve his wisdom, but also for his sake, that he is alright.

Wednesday's class involved the usual group updates and work. The most exciting part of my day today was the trip to Outreach in search of clothing that I can destroy in Panama without a second thought. I ended up leaving with lots of goodies, from clothing to English materials (books), for only 7 dollars! A pretty good deal I'd say. The best clothing option at this location had to be the shiny leopard print button up pictured on the left. While it was tempting to purchase this shirt, as it would clearly help me blend in to the natural environment of El Cope, I decided against it lest people confuse me for a shiny leopard and run in fear. Ah well, maybe someday...

As I alluded to above, I spent part of the day today collecting various items that we can take with us to aid in the teaching of English. Thus far I have obtained some books, a cereal box, a birthday card, and some stuff that I kidnapped from the Botanical Gardens.

On a more random note, I have decided to share a bit of a problem of mine with I.D. cards... I am currently the proud owner of I.D. badge number 5. I almost feel like I'm cursed a little bit when it comes to these cards. I'll lose one of them and be forced to purchase a new one due to some need (food, MOBIUS, etc). After spending the money (its $25 now!) and getting the new expensive piece of plastic, I always find the old one!!! I've found them in text books, in check books, in scarcely used pockets... They always allude me until after I buy a new one. It never fails that, within a week, the old one resurfaces. My most recent purchase was Tuesday afternoon, and today I found the old one... It probably goes without saying that I am quite frustrated. (Irony here being that I clearly haven't lost any of them since, as I have my beautiful collection displayed above).

Whew, I feel relieved to have vented that a little. Now back to my essays I suppose... *sigh*

Gardens and Car Trips and Potlucks, Oh My

Giddy moment as I'm sitting here thinking about all things Panama... ONLY 2 WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!! Its so hard to believe that we have already completed 3 weeks of classes, with just 2 to go before leaving the country. As this trip countdown continues, the surrealism of the situation continues to blow me away. When I try to picture how my life will be in Panama, the more uncertain I become. My mind cannot seem to reconcile normal things such as homework, reading, papers, etc with everything Panama will have to offer. I keep trying to imagine reading a book and glancing out the window at the rainforest, or contemplating a history paper I have to write while watching the Shaman perform a healing ritual.... What will it be like to be a student, a researcher, a teacher, a traveler, an adventurer, an apprentice, and a tourist all in one? Soon enough, we'll all find out...

This past week has been filled to the brim with reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic [not so much] (The 3R's of education anyone?). Sorry about that, I had a moment when I started to list reading and writing as large time commitments from the past week. As I was saying, last week caused me to experience how life must be for majors which require different types of homework than what I am used to. Being a Biology major, who is much more adapted to spending 10 hours in lab before writing a lab report than having a 10 hour reading marathon before drafting multiple analytical essays, I can definitely say I am gaining an appreciation for everyone who has spent their entire college careers doing these kinds of things. It is interesting to look back on it and see how different people have felt about the homework load. On one hand, most of the Bio majors seemed to share similiar sentiments as myself; a bit shell shocked by alot of work that reminds us more of our distant high school past than of our current college career (note to Joey and Ashlee: I used a semicolon and thought of you guys. Thanks for helping me define this mysterious, yet awesome, punctuation mark). On the other hand, the more reading intensive majors likely found last week to be normative and even quite easy (note: I did not verify this by actually asking). Either way I have really come to enjoy the mixture of majors in my classes, not only for the different perspectives that they bring to class conversations and activities, but also for the awesome individuals that compose them.

On Wednesday night, our Panama group had a potluck dinner. Overall, it was a pretty good night. I ended up making a fruit salad, and added my dish to the many other tasty foods lining Chad's kitchen counter. I think I must have tried a little bit of almost every dish, and I can confidentally say that I am proud of our group's cooking skills; It wasn't too bad for a bunch of stressed college students who had a paper due the next afternoon. The night involved lots of talking and story telling in addition to the good food. A few of Chad's particularily graphic tales of snake bites will forever have me looking at the Magruder snakes with a bit of a weary eye.

The highlight of my week was most definitely my group's trip (minus Traci, recent survivor of the MCAT) to the Botanical Gardens in Saint Louis. Joey, Ashlee, and I awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4:30 am Friday morning and loaded into a car to make the 3 hour trip to Saint Louis. After spending these three hours rocking out to whatever Joey's ipod had to offer, some Glee (!!), we arrived at the Monsanto Building to meet with Mary Mcnamara, the woman I have been corresponding with over the past week. She greeted us with a friendly smile (a theme of the day) and handed us our research visitor passes. These passes were pretty awesome as they got us into basically any building we wanted for free. After treking across the Garden grounds, which were pretty beautiful considering the time of year, we made it to the Lehmann Building. Upon entering this building we were greeted by even more friendly people who seemed to be waiting for our arrival. Since Tom Croat, the Panamanian flora curator whom we were there to speak with, was busy interviewing applicants we spent some time with Mary Merello. Mary was a very nice and interesting woman who had recently spent some time in Panama collecting specimens. She started off by showing us how they store their pressed samples. The photo on the right gives an idea for the sheer magnitude of the number of specimens contained in this building. These shelves are organized by family, country, etc etc, with Panama samples having its own organizational marker, due to how much focus there has been in the country since the construction of the canal. These numerous red shelves were motorized to compress together, eliminating the aisle, for the easy/compact storage. The storage/organizational system employed here was very impressive, and the room full of dried plants gave off a nice aroma. Mary tried her best to give us some guidance for our project, since we are still trying to find out how to narrow our focus. She was able to give us some recommendations on useful books and let us borrow her copies for a few hours.

A bit later Tom was finally free to speak with us. As was made apparent by his calloused fingers and excited aura, Tom was a man who had spent his life following his passion for plants. He has spent over 5 collective years in Panama, and is the world's foremost Panamanian plant collector. It was amazing speaking with a man who clearly loved his work. From pulling multiple books off of the shelves to speaking animatedly about anything we could think of, Tom was more than willing to help us in any way possible. After speaking to Tom and Mary I definitely feel much better about our project having more of a direction.

After leaving the Lehmann Building, following a tasty lunch at a 'green' restaurant, we headed back over to the Monsanto Building to visit the Garden's library. This library was amazing! As nerdy as it sounds, I was quite enamored with this place. It was not particularily large, but it contained a massive amount of books stored in a similar 'aisle compression' fashion as the plant samples. The best part of this library was the Rare Book room. We lucked out in being in the library when we were. As soon as we settled down to start our search, a couple of staff members requested to see the Rare Book room, and the librarian offered to let us go in with them. We accepted without a second thought and entered the room. She took us around the two tables set up in the center of the room, opening each book on display to show us the ever changing print and illustrations. The first book we saw was in Latin from the 1400s and was about farming practices. As we went around the tables, we got to learn about how old fashioned printing and illustrating worked. Did you know that each illustration in a book was at one point hand painted and text was once the result of needing to carve a wooden text block for each page of the text!? We also found out that books were often ordered via subscription, a few pages at a time sent to the person who could choose to bind them all together if they wanted. I could probably ramble on and on about all the stuff that we found out... This room held me in awe the entire time we were in there. Basically, our Botanical Gardens experience was pretty wonderful all around. It probably goes without saying that I'm even more excited for our project, and ready to work on it ASAP.

Ah, I have definitely rambled on for much longer than I originally intended and I must get back to reading.... Until next time

Reading, Reading, and, Oh Hey, Even More Reading

We have just completed Week 2 of our semester, and the major theme of this week has been a massive amount of reading material. From a nightly chapter in Born In Blood and Fire, to the entire book: Open Veins of Latin America, to the 5 JINS articles (each of which is at least 10 pages long), I do not find myself in short supply of reading material (as I'm still in the midst of reading most of these). The biggest issue I have faced this week would probably be my ever present mental battle with procrastination. While I love reading and learning about history politics, etc., I always find it difficult to sit down and read when I know that I have so much to go through. Its always ironic that I choose to put off things that take a lot of effort, in the end leaving only a day or two to get them done. Looks like I'll have to work on this and, for now, break out my ever faithful cramming skills... I don't know where I'd be without them!

One major obstacle that gets in the way of doing assigned readings, is the readings that I've been accumulating for my project (a topic which I find terribly fascinating). On Monday night, I spent a couple of hours browsing Mobius to see what I could find. The result of this literature adventure was me requesting over 10 books on topics which range from how to collect and preserve plants, to how to locate medicinal roots, to the medical use of hallucinogenic plants, etc. Its been an issue that I'm more likely to sit down and read these books for hours on end, while Born In Blood and Fire sits cold on the table next to me...

Overall, I feel like our research project is coming along nicely. We are quickly accumulating a lot of information on our topic, and have gotten a sense for exactly what our game-plan is going to be when we arrive in Panama, and get a chance to talk to the Shaman. Our major plan this upcoming week is to visit the Missouri Botanical Gardens, home of one of the greatest Panamanian plant collections in the world. We hope to get to search the Garden's facilities, from the library to the research lab, meeting every expert we can find, and taking in all the information we encounter. I am currently in the midst of trying to speak with someone at this location before we travel down Thursday night to stay at my house (a plan that I have yet to let my mom in on... But, hey, I'm allowed to have 3 unannounced house guests right!?). So far the Botanical Gardens has only met me with operators and answering machines, but I have not given up hope that I will eventually contact someone that would be willing to help us when we arrive Friday morning.

Other than all that I'm just continuing to collect everything that I'll need for the trip. A major thing that still need to be acquired are various shots/pills. I keep putting this off for some reason, most likely a result of concerns about their necessity/cost.

Ah well... 3 weeks til Panama!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Random Tidbits Of The Week:
~According to Chad, the most important holiday to those who practice Satanism is one's own birthday. As a side note, this revelation led me to peruse the wiki page about Satanism, only to close it soon after due to some odd looks I was getting from the person next to me in the library.

~I ended up signing up for a free trial of a 'prime' Amazon membership to get a book cheaply delivered to me in one day. I'm realizing that a happy result of this membership is that I can order a ton of Panama stuff from Amazon and get it delivered to my house in 2 days for free. Hopefully I do not forget to cancel this membership before my three month trial ends, and I get automatically charged $79 for 'wanting to continue my valued membership for the next year'.

~I spent about 20 minutes one night trying to figure out if it was worth more to save $7 or to have a quick dry towel that's long enough to easily wrap around myself. I ended up measuring a towel I currently own for size comparison purposes and trying it out. The decision still has not been made...

~I was oddly excited about my correct use of the word 'penchant' during my discipline presentation, mostly due to the fact that I've never used this word before in any form and was not really aware that I had encountered it before. Yay for passive learning!

Arriving in Kirksville

Upon arriving in Kirksville last Friday, I was well aware of the adventure that was soon to begin. It still seems so surreal that in less than one month's time I will be leaving the country for the first time. That day will be a day full of firsts, as it will also be the first time that I will have ever been on a plane. It figures that my initial plane experience would be one that takes me out of the country to begin my two month adventure in Panama.

I am going to Panama this semester for an eight week study abroad trip. We are leaving February 16th, for those of us flying outside of STL, on a flight that is departing at the passenger 'friendly' time of 5am. For the month that we are in Kirksville, we do have classes that we attend weekly. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have HIST 140, Latin America During the National Period, and JINS 338, Race and Ethnicity back to back from 1:30-4:20. On Wednesdays BIOL 444, Tropical Ecology, and ENVS 380, Special Topics: Panama Experience, meet back to back from 9:30-11:20 (yes you saw that correctly, no classes on Mondays or Fridays!!!! Feel free to let your envy wash over you).

So far my classes are going smoothly, and have turned out to be quite fascinating. Not only do I feel like I'm learning alot about how modern Latin America came to be, but I have also been forced to take a hard look at myself and, in a way, how I 'came to be'. As part of an assignment for our JINS class, we were told to do a self assessment pie chart and essay. This assignment required that we break our identity down into pie portions that can be completely seperated and quantified. While I disagree with the premise that a person can break down and separate portions of their personality/being, I did find this task to be interesting. I was forced to look into who I was, and find possible reasons to 'explain' why I am who I am.

My classes Wednesday mostly serve as a a way to allow us to gather together and discuss the projects that we will be carrying out while abroad. This trip focuses largely on two projects. The first project is about service learning. While we're in country we're going to be interacting with the local people, and it is our goal to leave the community in an improved state upon our departure. The projects that we hope to do range from creating a recycling program to improving roads and paths to translating signs/brochures. While I will gladly help with all of these, I am personally going to try to focus on translating signs and brochures from Spanish to English to make Omar Torrijos National Park more tourist friendly. I chose this project specifically so that I can practice my Spanish skills in a rigorous and meaningful setting.

The second project that I will be working on involves interaction with a local shaman, a medicine man and spiritual leader of the community. Our group is going to try to record the plants, etc that he uses to treat various illnesses and get a general idea for the ceremonies involved. Ideally we will be able to identify and find a sample of each plant, root, etc that he uses and record this information. In a perfect world we would hope to present all the information (in the way of which plants cure which ailments, etc) in a concise document for the community. That way, the ways of the shaman will forever be kept alive for this community. After only a week of having taken a hard look at this project, I am already in love with it. From the experience of meeting the shaman, to being able to get out in the field to collect and identify plants, to looking into the various compounds existant in these plants that could possess healing quantities, to being a part of a world which combines elements of medicine and the mystic.... AHHH even just listing it now in a babbling fashion, which I have a tendancy of doing if I'm not careful, makes me wish I could fast forward the next month!! (Is it a bit dorky that I thought of a 'time turner' from Harry Potter when I thought about wanting to control time? ....)

This week has only fueled my growing desire to head to Panama to begin what will prove to be an amazing experience! I can already sense the adventure and knowledge that awaits us all, and I cannot wait to pack up with this great group of people, and start our journey!!

P.S.
As its late, and I'm feeling a bit slap happy, I'm going to list a few of the random thoughts, 'fears', etc I've been having about this trip lately
1. I have been telling myself that I cannot freak out about every mosquito bite I get in Panama... it is most likely NOT malaria
2. People are not going to be staring at my underwear as it hangs out to dry so I should stop worrying about it
3. If I forget to pack something, it will not be the end of the world. I'm sure this item would either prove to be unimportant or I will be able to acquire it some other way
4. I should not fear young children wielding machetes. They mean me no harm, and if they do, I won't really have time to worry about it.