1/1/12
There is still music playing in celebration for New Year. Last night’s festivities made for a full night of sleep without any wakings. We were treated to a special dinner that included turkey and gravy, karaoke and some drumming. I still need some practice to find some rythm.
We missed the town party sadly, but our consolation was to chill with an awesome, drooly dog. On our way back we stopped to play some soccer on a basketball court with some locals. We all learned that it is much more difficult to play on a hard surface like that during the hottest part of the day and will hills the ball rolled down every so often.
The game ended when a stray firecracker set a tree ablaze near the court. Only we seemed concerned so we guessed it would be alright. We got back to the hostel and hung around and talked until dinner. The director of ISL, Mike, came and he is such a chill guy. He has a log house off the grid in Washington. He joined us for dinner and a few drinks afterwards. I love how laid-back he is and how reasonable he is about having college kids in a foreign country. No worries, no one made a fool of themselves.
We ushered in the New Year with plenty of music and a bright display of fireworks all around us. I caught a rare glimpse of the stars for a few precious cloudless minutes. It was my first New Year away from home and it was incredible.
Today we are heading to the river to ride to another community. Breakfast is ready now so I’ll continue when we return.
It’s 10 now and I am sure I’ll sleep like a baby again tonight. Not going to lie, the constant humidity and dampness is not winning Panama my favor. Just had to get that out.
The river trip was one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. We took 3 long, motorized canoe like boats 40 min down river. We travelled through a few rainstorms (like that’s news). The cool relief was a welcome and wearing a bathing suit under my clothes was one of my few good ideas.
Everyone hiked to the first community together. There were plenty of steep hills and mud to satisfy our thirst for a challenge. Our plan today was to visit homes in these communities by the river and assess what they needed from future teams. The boys, Queena, Edwin, Jairo and I travelled to the other side of the river to assess more families. During this trip I had an orange that tasted like a lemon, a banana (it could have been a plantain), a fresh cut coconut (ended up having 2 actually) and some grapefruit.
The trip back was much slower and sunnier. Our seasoned river man got us back safely up through the rapids. I’m actually burned and am not used to this strange sensation. I don’t like it. When we got back, Blair, Sharon, Will, Ryan, Steve and I hopped into the river. It felt so nice.
After dinner we went to a New Year’s party in town (for real this time, we even had admission bracelets). I think just about every girl on the team was hit on by a very intoxicated man. I was a bit concerned when a guy grabbed my arm to talk to me, but luckily we had the guys and Plinio. We left at when 9 when it started getting crazy. Everyone was off to bed early because the hike tomorrow is supposed to be our toughtest yet.
