It’s finally back to reality after almost three weeks away from site. First was training, then the evacuation for flooding and then the visit from my parents. I’m on my way back to the islands now. I was able to return to the community for one day before the arrival of my mom and dad and during that day it was non-stop moving from my last host family to my new house. It’s hard to believe the day finally arrived after waiting five months.
I tried to organize things the best I could and the next morning I headed to the main island to meet my parents at the airport. It was SO good to see them and our time together went by way too fast. We spent three days in my site- the first working on my house (it’s still not quite done), the second at a beach nearby, and the third participating in Mother’s Day activities. I knew it was their biggest holiday of the year but I had no clue just how exclusively “mother’s only” all of the activities and meals were. Fortunately for me, my mom was there and because she doesn’t speak Spanish we were both included. We left that evening to avoid the night craziness and headed to the main island where the real vacation began with good food, hot showers, and electricity.
After telling them what a pleasant bus ride it is to David we had the most uncomfortable five hour bus ride the next day, but made it safe and sound. Once in Boquete, our next destination, we realized that the trail we were hoping to hike was closed because of the flooding, so we took a coffee tour- very educational even for a non coffee drinker like me- and we did a zip line tour through the trees. That was a blast. It was fun to have a chance to do some things I wouldn’t normally do on my PC salary. And finally we made our way to Panama City. We saw the sites, went to the canal, but my highlight was the mall J It’s hard to believe that leaving eight months ago I was always looking forward to their visit in December and now it has already passed. But my time here is truly flying with already a quarter of it complete. I am looking forward to getting back into my routine and I’ve still got the school’s graduation, Christmas (although I’ll miss all the good cookies), and New Year’s to look forward to. Merry Christmas! God Bless!
