Trabajando como un Local en Panama!

Buenas noches everyone! Your little glimpsers writing to y’all from Las Tablas. Today we had a spoiler day to what is to come in the following days of our program. Tomorrow we will start the Community Action Project (CAP), the moment that we’ve been working towards. Our journey will be difficult, but the results will surely be fruitful (in a literal way).

We started off with an early and fulfilling breakfast, giving us an opportunity to experience the tantalizing flavors of a traditional Panamanian dish called “Arepa de Maiz“, a thick corn tortilla in the form of a mini hockey disk. After breakfast, we took the traditional “fiesta” to the road, taking a 20-minute ride to a local goat farm named “Finca el Espinal”, and being greeted by an energetic group of little kindergarteners and farm laborers. To start off, we played simple traditional games, one being “Grande y Enano”, which some of us unfortunately lost to the children (jajaja). Unpredictably, we were poured on by the clouds on the way and during our tour of the farm. Despite that, we got a glimpse into the backdoors of farm production, helping the owner, Hugo, pour yogurt and bottle it for sale. Most people do not see the hard work that farmers put into keeping us all satisfied and do not realize that you need a farmer three times a day, while you may need a lawyer, policeman, or preacher only once in your life.

Upon our return to the hotel, we commenced our shopping spree, we bought the equipment we will need for planting trees during our volunteering project. Las Tablas provides a great diversity of shops, allowing us to buy everything we will need. During this mini excursion, the group faced a minor indiscretion while looking for boots suitable for hiking. We couldn’t find any that fit the smaller sizes and budgets. Howeverrrr, after many discouraging visits to a plethora of different fashion stores, we finally found some alternative pairs that were fitting to every glimpser in need. Once everyone got their little necessities and trinkets for tomorrow’s labor, we headed back to our humble abode, Hotel Piamonte. For dinner, we were served a very filling and enjoyable dinner, a creamy and flavorful chicken alfredo, as always we made the dietary accommodations needed. Leading us to our nightly meeting and conclusion of the day, we ended on a positive and appropriate note. Well…. of course, dreading the perils of tomorrow’s work. With that being said, we will end tonight’s blog by gracefully passing the torch to the amazing leaders of tomorrow: Janelle and Emmanuel. We wish them the best of luck and a productive day.