Welcome me to Panama

Saturday, May 28, 2011
10:15pm CST

So I'm actually a little embarrassed that it's been two years since I wrote for this blog. I guess it's because, as always, I don't believe that I actually have interesting things to say. But everyone keeps telling me that they want to hear what I'm up to this summer, so I will update this as often as I can. Because our Senior Project Supervisor, or Coordinadora, Lauren is an excellent photographer and admittedly better storyteller , I will relegate myself to uninteresting writing responsibilities. Visit her amazing blog to see for yourself: silentmusingsofamind.blogspot.com

It's been a little over a week since I arrived here in Panama. Already I miss my friends and family back in Houston. It is stiflingly hot here, but I try to pretend like I'm not dying as often as possible so that my beautiful coworkers, Rebecca "BGrubs" Grubman and Lauren "Loha" Havens, can remain jealous of my cool nonchalance while they wilt under this unforgiving sun.

Panama, however, is a breathtaking place. Its lush green paisaje and beautifully brown inhabitants make a wonderful combination that fits the fairy tale descriptions that my dear friend, Mallory Pierpoint, has given me since the day she arrived in Texas. I already know that at the end of this whirlwindy three months, I will be unwilling and unready to leave.

I am working this summer as an Associate Project Director. The description of my position can be found at this site: http://www.amigoslink.org/projectstaff/. Basically, I'm just a Scrooge who happens to live in Panama for the summer. I work with my amazing Project Director (BGrubs), SPS (Loha), and 6 super supervisors (Rebecca, Becky, Carmen, Ben, Aaron, and Madison) to make sure 65 high school age (usually) volunteers have an amazing summer. Because the volunteers are why I come back to this organization year after year.

Anyway, before I get sentimental, let me catch you up on events so far. First was the arrival to Panama after a sleepy 11 hour day spent in airports and airplanes (thanks International Office). BGrubs and I immediately got to work with a maelstrom of meetings and chores, including trying to convince The Miami Mike to let us rent his hostel. He is quite the character, and it took six hours and lots of promises to get him to let us take over his place for the summer. He eventually cracked after discussing it at length with his demon statue, so now I have a place to sleep. We've been meeting with our amazingly helpful partner agency contacts for the summer, some of whom have been popping up in the Azuero 2011 facebook album (which this blog does not officially endorse, but there are pictures) and visiting communities - trying to get the word out about the imminent arrival of our volunteers for the summer.

We also got a chance to go back to Panama City to go pick up Loha on her 21st birthday this past Thursday (yay). There I met some really cool people, including a certain Luis Landero who is proving incredibly hard to find on social media networks, and got to run around the an antiquely beautiful section of the city, Casco Viejo. The panama canal museum (not the one at the canal ironically) was extremely fascinating - I know Adam Cryer and the rest of my former coworkers at Pinnacle could have gotten lost in there for a while. I can't wait to find a book that goes through the history of the canal and the political relationship between the us and panama because of its construction. I was also fascinated by the varied construction projects that are going on around the city. They did a good job of reminding me why I chose Structural Engineering as a career in the first place, and that at some point when I have to go back to school that it will all be worth it. Speaking of which, applying to grad school will not be fun. Who is going to want to help me start, work on, and complete my applications?

Anyway, that's it for now. There's a lot of random tidbits and not a lot of information in this post. Maybe someday I'll get better and these entries will actually be worth reading.