I had the strangest dream... filled with rambunctious reunions, laughter, valleys, and English seminars

So at the end of August, with the 2nd trimester winding down, I escaped from Tortí a little early to travel before our in-service training (IST) started in the Coclé region. The time was perfect to do some rambling, especially with such a big reunion in sight, as I had not seen the majority of my G72 comrades in almost 4 months. I was super-excited, and there were lovely encounters with PCV friends new and old all along the way.

Before I left the east, I attended an Ultimate Disc coaches/youth group development training in Metetí. It was awesome, got lots of great materials and resources (including 8 frisbees woohoo!), and definitely plan to get my frisbee squad ready pronto. This was just the beginning to the tidal wave of info., resources, project discussion, and ideas that would come during IST and getting together with friends. And yet, all these things hang in the background of those 3 weeks that flew by in a rush of awesome nights spent with groovy company.

But first, before heading to the concrete jungle of Panamá city and crossing the canal westbound, we had to kill and eat fresh jungle duck in Darién:

Mateo, a.k.a La Leyenda. giving Jessica (G73) a pep talk before she goes for the jugular 

My pit stop in the city was cool. I was able to catch up with old pals at PC HQ before many headed back to Santa Rita for some extra language training, and had a great night at hostel Urracá  (which is often sprawling with PCVs in the city for medical conditions like worms/amoebas,etc., or in need of a beer and A/C, or all of the above) with una mezcla of volunteers from various groups and sectors.

I planned on getting out to Benjamin's site in the mountain valleys of Veraguas the following day, but after getting a 2 hour tour of Panamá City on a metro bus, I arrived to the terminal late, and would not be able to make it out there in time... So I made a trip to my good pal Phillip's site in San Juan de Dios (where I visited in March for my volunteer visit) to kick it for the night. We watched the wire, cooked, played scrabble, and drank wine. No, that does not constitute as romantic. Just a Peace Corps dude's night.

Finally made it to Ben's site, Los Valles de Veraguas. Absolutely beautiful site and community, in the forested valleys surrounded by seemingly endless lush mountains. The climate was super fresh, the children were lovely, and the lack of electricity was actually a relief. We had a blast, and we agreed that it was pretty neat seeing his community see us interact, as two goofy young Americans.

Ben and I visited Santa Rita for a night, and then all the gringos converged at CEDASAM, a government facility in Farallón for the epic reunion. And it was epic. We spent 3 days in seminars, recapping our experiences and talking about grants, rules, and whatnot, and the had 3 rambunctious nights at the beach, a short walk away from the dorm/bunker facility where we stayed.

After the brief-yet-spirited reunion with all of G72, CEC went one way, and we Teaching English volunteers headed up to the beautiful, cozy, super-fresco El Valle de Antón. Some other volunteers were/are salty about the good fortune we had, but I give our APCD Joel props for hooking us up with such a cool training location. We lived pretty well for a few days, staying in a cool hotel in the middle of an old volcano crater, now a lush valley, with a brilliant 360 degree view of incredible mountains. Most of our time was in fact spent in tech sessions, but we made the most of the nights, hit up some of the nice cafes and restaurants in town, hiked the India Dormida, visited the zoo (yes they have a zoo, with some of the nearly-extinct Rana Dorada)--you get the point. El Valle is badass, and we are all jealous of Jessie for being the lucky winner of such an beautiful site. But we are all winners here in Panamá. When You come visit, we are going back to El Valle.

La India Dormida

Dana chillin on the India, El Mar Pacifico in the distance

Philly and Logi looking down on El Valle

During IST we did have some really great seminars, got connected with a bunch of solid resources for teaching English and starting a number of potential secondary projects, met some State Department folks, danced and played with kids in El Valle during a little mini-English camp to practice new techniques, and gave a teacher's seminar in Penonomé. This experience is one of constant revisioning, adaptation, and re-adaptation. It is always special and inspiring to share it, real time (whatever that means, what a trip ; )) with such awesome people who are also on this crazy ride.

Making patacones with Alán

After a couple more nights of birthday celebrations and a trip to the beach, I stopped by Santa Rita again, this time to catch up with the wonderful Alan y Alanis (and Carlos, of course) before I made my way back to the east. However, I did not really come back to the reality of my community in Tortí until after a trip to Metetí for regional meeting, where I met all the new rockstars from G73.
And got to see this guy at our talent show:

Andrew "Yankis" Jenkins (from Alabama, go figure)...Despite the fashion and grooves, this performance had less to do with the talent show, and more to do with flash mobbin' and World Aids Day Dec. 1st, 2013. stay tuned...

And killed and smoked a goat:

Rachael cutting up some fresh goat meat

What a dream, what a roller coaster. The time intervals, the speeding up and slowing down, really makes one's perspective of what 2 years living in another country/culture especially being part of such an organic entity like Peace Corps, extremely strange and beautiful; and super difficult to explain at times. Anyway, it's nice to have a home to return to, to bring some sort of stability and reality to the adventure.

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once."
Albert Einstein

So much to look forward to.