The 2nd of July

What did you do the last 2nd of July? G85 WASH, we celebrated the Fourth of July. The staff had a cultural activity space set aside for us to have a brief celebration of the United States' Independence day and an opportunity to share American culture with the members of the training community. Why on the Second of July? Well the G83 cohort arrived in country on the Fourth of July, and that same day was set for us to go out and visit pre-assigned volunteers.

We organized the activities the day before. The history team (which would include me) would present on, as the name suggests, the history of the holiday. Specifically, the revolution, the formation of the United States with the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the failure of the Articles of Confederation, the adoption of the current constitution, the legal recognition of the holiday, and the celebration today. A poster was drawn (by a different group) beforehand which presented facts about the holiday today. They made sure to include some dark facts as well, such as how it's the deadliest holiday.

For activities, we could do everything but cook a traditional meal (i.e. grill hotdogs). The activities crew included the dance "Cotton-Eyed Joe" to demonstrate and teach. Afterwards, we had an egg toss and a three-legged race (staff vs. volunteers). Althroughout, United Statesian music was played.

We intended to have a variety of stations for people to visit, but it seems we misunderstood since only the staff showed up, though most of them are Panamanian. As a result, we did each activity one after another until it was time for lunch. During our gaming and music-ing, a few community members did stop by to observe (but too shy to participate), so maybe the culture sharing wasn't a total loss.

Note: This blog post intended to have a few videos of the event, but they have since been lost.