Global Brigades Panama

I've always disliked going to a country for the first time as a tourist, because despite gawking at their monuments, landmarks, and culture, you leave without really understanding any of it. Luckily for me, that wasn't a problem with my adventure in Panama because I visited as a student on a Global Brigades Business Trip. Essentially, my job was to help the indigenous people of Panama achieve financial literacy, as well as help them with their small businesses. But the trip was so much more than that. It was my first time being in Central America/a tropical country, something I've dreamt of my entire life. It's also the first time I've been in a country where I didn't speak the language fluently. Most importantly, it was the first time I discovered how easy it is to fall in love with a culture you knew nothing about just a week ago. Ever since I can remember, a very large part of me has always wanted to leave everything behind and go live in and explore places where no first-world citizen could comfortably survive. People used to tell me that I had a romanticized idea of what it would be like to "rough it" in nature or live with indigenous people groups. And now I know that they were all very wrong- being among the indigenous Piriati people of Panama was every bit as amazing as something out of the pages of a National Geographic Magazine. I'll try to write less and journal the rest of this blog through pictures and short captions, but there is nothing in this world that can capture one of the most incredible weeks of my life.