RL Visit

 September 28, 2019

After about a month of a new cohort's arrival in site, the Regional Leader (RL) schedules a day to visit each individual volunteer within their region. This is a means to check-in and offer support. The RL is a former volunteer that has extended service for an additional year. In Bocas del Toro and for the Ño Kribo region of the CNB, that person was Anna "Chona" of G81 SAS. Anyways, Chona was scheduled to visit me the 28th and would come up from Río del Sur which she was to be visiting the day prior. I volunteered to walk down early in the morning to help guide her to Lado Oeste.

I beat my alarm that morning to visit the latrine for a very comfortable pre-dawn session. Soon after, I made may way out for a pleasant morning-hike to Río del Sur. The hike consists of four (4) river crossings, and things get decidedly more feral somewhere after the second river crossing. Of course there are alternative paths that cut out some river crossings, or even all crossings. However, these paths are rougher and require more time to traverse.

Given that I had only been once before, I had to ask for directions to Andres' home upon arrival to the community. Andres was the host father and guide of volunteer Sean "Nidi", and his home was also where Anna had spent the night.

I went up to a random house to ask for directions in this town of over 500 people. They sent one of their kids to show me the way.

I was greeted by Andres and his wife. Soon after Sean and Chona came down to join us. For breakfast we had hojaldres and tuna. Though it should be mentioned that the hojaldres made in this household were the best I've had in all of Panamá. Though Sean is a comedic individual, he unfortunately had to be left behind. On this day, I had a meeting planned in Lado Oeste with members of both communities.

As we departed, Chona handed me an apple and a Snickers bar (a relatively expensive item in Panamá).

We returned a few minutes late for the meeting, but given that everyone shows up at least an hour late for meetings in rural Panamá, this was of no concern. We stopped by my host family's home for second breakfast of tejadas (basically, banana fries) and salchichas. This just so happened to be Anna's favorite meal. Her ability to understand and speak Ngäbere impressed my host family, and myself admittedly. It goes to show how much one can learn in the course of two years.

As people from Ladera started to trickle in, Cutilio blew a concha to signal the start of the meeting and we made our way down. The meeting went well, from what I could recall. In reality, it was just a meeting to plan meetings. The purpose of said future meetings would be to analyze the communities to understand available resources as well as to schedule future work projects. In addition, a member of the Peace Corps, Martín, would be visiting to review this analysis as well as to inspect and approve my future home-for-rent.

I ended the meeting by asking all those who I had yet to visit at their homes to set up a time for me to see them (if they so wished). Afterwards, Chona asked to see the house that was to be rented out to me. Felipe and Cutilio obliged.

At this point, Anna was ready to leave, but then Rosita pulled her aside and told her she wasn't leaving without her bocadillo (in Panamá, this just means an offering of food).

After all, it was Felipe's birthday so there was cake and arroz con pollo to be had. Anna figured that while she was staying, she might as well give me some paperwork to fill out.

With that, a Laderan guided her out so she could make her way to elsewhere. I then hiked up to my signal spot to see if I could remember what a Snickers tasted like.