Happy Thanksgiving from the land of humidity and palm trees!

Hello All!

As always, I hope everyone is healthy and well in the States. I thought that I'd give my list of things I'm thankful for down here. I'll keep it short and sweet, since I have limited time in the office to use the internet!

1. My health: Minus a broken toe and some mild digestive issues, I've been healthy down here. No malaria, no dengue, no yellow fever. Definitely thankful and grateful for that.

2. My wonderful community: My family in the community is wonderful and they're very protective and possessive of me--in a good way, though! I really like my community a lot and feel very fortunate.

3. My new and old friends: By "old" I don't old. I just mean previous. But, I'm thankful for the support and love from home and from within the country. That makes this whole experience easier, and more enjoyable. I love you all!

4. Every moment: I don't mean that in a sappy way, but it's going to come out that way. It's hard to explain, probably because this experience is so intense and unique, but I am so grateful for every single minute that I get to enjoy with people I care about, and every up and down that I have in my experience. I'm increasingly convinced that life is just supposed to be a big mess, and you have to just own the mess. I'm owning and loving my messy, beautiful life every day.

5. My family: I love all of you more every day. I know that you think I stand alone and I'm totally independent and don't need anyone, but I wouldn't be who I am, and I wouldn't feel free to do what I'm doing without you behind me. I miss you each day, and look forward to the day that we can sit down together and eat some turkey and cranberry sauce together.

That was nice and corny, wasn't it? Well, regardless, I mean all of it. I love everyone at home, and wish you the very best for Thanksgiving.

Love,

Molly

As promised, here are a bunch of photos of my community. A couple notes on them.

1. The pigs head was dinner one night. Dalys is my home stay sister and the one modeling the head.

2. Last week was a holiday week celebrating Panama's independence from Columbia (in 1906, if you're interested). That's what all the schoolchildren marching in red, white and blue is about.

3. The pictures of the women cooking are also from the Independence Day festivities. The skirts that they're wearing are called parumas, and they're the traditional clothing of the Wounaan and the Embera tribes. The women are cooking arroz con pollo. Yum.

I think that's it. If you have any questions, post them! I'll answer, if I can!

Much love!

At long last...I'm in the Peace Corps

Okay, the long awaited post about my first couple weeks in my site. I know you've all been on pins and needles, so I won't delay any longer.

I got into town almost 2 weeks ago, and I'm staying with my first homestay family. I'm living in a little thatched roof hut with six other people (yes, six). It's cozy, actually, and I mean that in the best possible way. The family is very sweet. Emel and Jenny are the parents. Dalys (who's actually sitting next to me right now reading over my shoulder) is their 15 year old daughter, Yaneth is the 19 year old girlfriend of Claver, Jenny and Emel's 17 year old son. Then there's Miladys, their 3 year old. I actually really like all of them, and they've been very generous and helpful. They're teaching me how to make shakira (beaded necklaces and bracelets), and another woman in the town is teaching me how to weave canasta (baskets). The canastas are the main type of artisan work in the Wounaan communities, and they're beautiful. I don't have any pictures of them right now, actually, because as soon as they finish one they sell it. It's pretty quick turnaround, and they need the money so they set up buyers ahead of time. When a professional one gets finished, I'll take a photo of it and post it.

The town has about 120 people living in it (that's a really rough estimate from a super quick census that I did--don't trust it). They're mainly agriculturalists. I've been out and harvested rice with them a couple times. I have yet to harvest yuca, mostly because I hear that it's really hard work and I'm just not that ambitious right now. But, I'm here for two years so I'm sure I won't be able to avoid it. I have started working on my own garden with a couple women in the town. I'm converting an old chicken coop into a garden. It was an abandoned project of someone in the community, and it already has a chicken wire fence and posts, so that's a nice deal. I'm just really looking forward to eating food that has color and nutritional value. I sustained some pretty intense blisters from cleaning out the garden yesterday (of which I posted some photos...of the garden, not the blisters).

Other than that, I've been trying to make the rounds through all the houses in the community, which wouldn't be hard, except that whenever I stop by people want me to stay and talk for hours. So I can only hit a couple a day. I have noticed some interesting dynamics though. There are two big families living here--the Gonzales' and the Carpios. The Gonzales family is Catholic, and lives on one side of the street. The Carpios are Evangelical and live on the other side. There is some definite animosity between the families, which I find crazy! It's a town of 120 people-how can you afford to have a gripe with someone, let alone half the town?! I haven't yet figured out what the disagreement arises from, but I'll probably figure it out in two years. Vamos a ver.

Other than that, I've just been settling in mentally and emotionally. As you can imagine, some days are good, lots of good conversations and interactions. Other days are not so good. But I think that'll all even out after a while. I'm just getting into the swing of things, and I know that it takes some time.

I'm going to post pictures next time I have the opportunity! I spoke prematurely. The internet access is REALLY slow. I'm working on it, but this country is always finding new ways to make it impossible for me. Sorry! I'll get on it next time!