Day 2: The most epic bus ride everrrrrr

Hola family, friends, teachers, and fellow glimpsers! This is Cindy and Sam, dynamic duo leaders here to recap the day. We started out waking up at 6am at Ojos Del Rio in Panama City. Everyone transitioned to breakast around 6:30am and as we were lining up to get food, Mateo looked to Mauricio (our two in country leaders) and said ” Mira” and pointed to the coffe maker in the back which was plugged into the wall and a stong flame was crawling from the outlet toward the ceiling as spoke filled the room. Sam ran and pulled the cord everyone survived with only a foul burned rubber smell lingering as we ate our eggs.

We loaded up onto our bubblegum pink panther bus and set off for the drive to Chitre. But first we had to make a stop at the infamous, world famous PANAMA CANAL! It was busier than usual, and even under the shade it standing still we began to sweat. Patrons of the canal were surprisingly wearing all types of clothing for all weather. We just barely snuck ni the last morning passage of a ship through the canal before heading into the theater to watch a film. It greatly contrasted to the outside temperature and resembled a freezer… icey with A/C. The film was informative and went into great detail about the history success, challenges, and failurs of the construction and operation of the canal since it’s completion in 1914. Coincidentally the first ship to pass through was on the same day WW1 kicked off. Cindy was throughly displeased with the enormous, dinosaur sized mosquitos flying in 3d into her face.

After taking some group photos and roaming the gift shop we loaded back onto the bus and continued on our way to Chitre. The kilometers spent between leaving the canal and arriving at our lunch location were spent with our beloved students sleeping, and catching up on their rest. Sam couldn’t keep still and ended up doing dips between the seats the whole time.

We capped of lunch by celebrating birth of one of our glimpsers… Yahaira!!! Congratulations on turning 17. We hope your years ahead are filled with adventure, joy, and the ones you love. We are honored to celebrate with you.

Our final leg of the journay to Chitre was spent getting to know ourselves and eachother. Glimpsers were tasked with writing reflections on their own identity and perspectives before coming up with two questions each (one easy and one more serious) that we mixed in a hat and redistributed to groups. It was really quite special to witness all of these young people, nervous on their first trip, opening up and sharing their vulnerabilities and insecurities. What was even more wonderful was seeing how each student listened intently to their group mates and offered affirmations, relations, and support. Especially since many of them had only met in person the day prior. We are both excited to be present as these potentially life long bonds are formed and solidified. It is truly special.

Today be exceptionalluy busy we got the hotel in Chitre, were welcomed by the staff, got into our rooms, and soon after partook in a our Welcome Seminar where we went over Global Glimpse Rules and Expectations, as well as crafted our own group’s norms for each other. It was very similar to what we do in our classrooms.

Dinner was in house at our hotel and tasted delicious. The menu was lo mein, roast chicken, rice, and tajadas. Complimented by a watermelon and pineapple juice that blew everyone’s mind.

We divided to conquer the end of the day. Sam took tomorrow’s leader’s to make our nightly plan for the following day while Cindy took the rest of the group to the balcony where the students of their own interest began to bombared, especially Reyli, our fantastic interpreters, Kelly, Andrea, and Lou with questions about American Sign Language. These inquiries soon turned into an impromptu game of ASL telephone. It was one of those organic bonding moments that flowed so naturally and is indicative of the inherent comrardery and kindess across the group. Sam arrived with the boys eventually and all of the sudden Jhoselyn, Brianna, and Destiny were all practicing their push ups with him and Jhoselyn committed to a goal of being able to do 5 consectuive push ups by the end of the trip. During this time our in country leaders were running health check meetings with each student.

Anderlyn and Hector breavely signed up to be tomorrow’s (Day 3) Lideres Del Dia and ran our first offcial full-day nightly meeting. Hector wowed us all with his code making abilites and taught us how to decipher a couple of messages he had written.

Our meeting and day finale was a second and more formal celebration of Yahaira’s birthday. We hung decoration and got cake and sang again. It was warm and joyous. All the kids were psyched about the cake (some adults too).

And with that, we conclude our recap of the first official full day in Panama. We love and miss you all.

With gratitude and joy, your trusty GG Leaders! Peace!

Cindy & Sam 🙂

Please check out our photos from the trip below and in the Google Photo Drive: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sVPa9iCm9UDMvSqm8