Next, the end of May happened. In Changuinola. For Regional Meeting.

Got meds for the swine flu even thought that was so five minutes ago.

We met the new assistant country director. A former MI volunteer like me. Another red flag only good people come to Panama.

Discussed PC related issues.

That night, went out dancing.

I won a dance competition.

Prize= $19.

Next…Culture Week.

We got 7 new volunteers communing to Bocas in July. 1 married couple, 2 dudes, and 3 biddies. Audrey, new lil chica whose gonna live in the town across the bay from me, also enjoys surf, sand, sun and adventure. Aka, we’re bound to get along just swimmingly.

Among the many, get to know your local Ngobe activities in Culture Week in Kusapin, I taught the new kids an hour charla (lesson) about my group, Environmental Health. Since they’re in the other groups consisting of tourism, agriculture and conservation, the idea was to give them a kinda “what you need to know to protect yourself” heads up, related to our wet province of Bocas del Toro. I’m very happy with how it went being the first somewhat professional charla I’ve given down here, that's not in Spanish. Yeah!

What else?!?!

Oh yeah, apparently, there was a boat strike in Kusapin so we all had to leave a day early.

Seeing the new kids reminded me of what my own culture week was like, (remember Valle Risco blog where I peed my bed, lived with a very LOVING couple, and learned the ways of NgobeLand?) and how I’ve grown since then. They, as we were, were all so bright eyed and bushy tailed. I hate to think that the first 3 months of isolation is ahead of them. Its miserable; the best and the worst time all at once. Looking back, at November, December and January, its amazing how strong we turned out in the end.

Now, I have a lot more self value in my skills and capabilities, as well as a lesser degree of concern for people who don’t and shouldn’t affect my life.

I’ve thought about this before and to friends. I went out a lot in college, absolutely every weekend and a lot of week days too. A big reason for that was that staying in, either by myself or with a few friends would make me feel like I was missing out on something or that something fun and exciting was going on without me. Regardless of what my closest friends were doing, if I wasn’t in the public eye, I felt out of the loop and that that eye might forget me if I wasn’t seen.

3 months in isolation will change that. You can't stress over communication or commings and goings out here. You're gonna miss stuff. The truth is, your real friends don’t forget about you, and include you always, the other people, the scene, they crazy on goings, they don’t matter and they’re always there. It’s a weird concept that I’m sure not a lot of people fall into that self conscious trap, but I think its an indirect action of an insecurity I had and now can see looking back with a little more confidence.

On the other hand, to hell with it, home girl just liked loud music and a gin and tonic after a long full of mundane engineering classes.

Ok tangent, my point is, I have way too much time to analyze and think….but I like it that way.