Day 3: January 5, 2013

Day 3 started with breakfast (the food made for us was ridiculously good all around) and then the 30 min drive back to the village. It was also the first day we conducted financial literacy workshops for the villagers. Here I was surprised because many of them appeared disinterested or bored. Being somewhat familiar with expressive Latin culture, I was disappointed to see how detached the villagers seemed. It wasn't until later that one of the girls explained to me that the Piriati culture is different than the rest of Panamanian culture- they are raised not to show any emotion, except for anger.

Specifically, the girl told us not to misunderstand   if they didn't ask questions or appear visibly excited- that was just how their culture operated.


The two shots of the left are more pictures of their village. Below, traditional Parumas, which are the skirts that all the women in the village wear, dry on a bush.

The format of our days start with financial literacy workshops for the community, after which there's lunch. After lunch, our groups break up into teams of 4-5 to meet with the small business owners we were helping. During lunch break this day, I noticed a small trail leading off into the woods near the outhouse we used. Naturally, I had to follow it. The photo on the right does it absolutely no justice, the forest was breathtaking. For someone who's wanted to be in a rain forest her entire life, this was the closest I've gotten, and it was enough to keep me smiling from ear to ear the entire mini-hike.

The trail eventually led to this beautiful view of a creek and the mountains beyond. I was seriously tempted to jump in and go for a swim, but I figured my trip leaders were probably already having a mini-heart attack over my disappearance. (By the end of the week, it was a running joke that nobody ever knew where I was..but hey, adventure was calling).

When I returned from my jaunt through the forest, we were still on lunch break and my friends were busy being mauled by the kids. Side note- these kids were stellar at soccer. Really. They start kicking a ball around at birth and have a ton of spare time to practice.

The business I worked with was a small kiosk owned by a man named Luis. Since it was our first day meeting them, we just asked a bunch of questions about their business to get a sense of what we were working with. We headed back to the compound after our respective meetings (the other businesses included another kiosk, a woman selling parumas, and a pig farm)

We always made a pit stop on the drive back from the village to the compound, either at a supermarket or a bakery. Today we stopped at the supermarket, and these two shots were taken by the road in front of it. Panama always had the most beautiful skies.

Twice on this trip I was mistaken for a Latina girl, and once was here when a woman pulled over to ask me something in spanish. Unfortunately, I couldn't help her.

Not very relevant, but there were also chickens and roosters running around everywhere you looked. A good number of these birds ended up in my stomach throughout the week. I guess that's payback for waking me up around 6 every morning.

One we got back to the compound, we entertained ourselves with everything from Uno to Zimmy Zimmy. I think this was also the day I accidentally fell into a ditch when I was trying to look at stars, so that'll explain the bandage on my leg in future photos. A week later, my leg is currently nice and green from bruises. 

And finally to finish off, here's a photo of some leaf cutter ants I found in the forest. Not that you can really see the ants..