Humidity and teaching and an extra bedroom.... oh my!

My patience has paid off - I just got the email with all of the information about the next year!! I'm pasting it here in its entirety in case you are THAT curious, but I'll summarize what's most exciting here:

-I will be teaching 10th-12th grade English at Instituto Urraca in Santiago de Veraguas (pop. ~60,000)

-I will be living in a duplex, with the front half of it to myself (that means two bedrooms, kitchen, living area etc). Uuuh, you can't NOT visit now!!! :)

-My homestay mom is 48 and active and likes to do fun things

-Santiago is a hub to get to all of the cool places in Panama, which means fun weekend trips and also, in case I forgot to mention, YOU SHOULD VISIT

-Judging by the forecast, it's about 99 degrees and humid all day every day. All year. If you know me you know the heat and I do not get along. And my skin hates the fact that I love the sun. This should be interesting.

I AM SO EXCITED!!

The interior garden of the school at which I will be teaching

Thanks for all your good thoughts, folks. Keep them coming. This just got real! : )

Amor, luz y abrazos!

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[Here's the full email, in case you're curious.]

Teaching Assignment:  

Instituto Urracá 

Principal 

Profesor Lucinio De Leon 

Instituto Urraca is probably the best public high school in Santiago.  It is right behind the Universidad Nacional on Calle Decima and educates close to 3,300 students in grades 10-12.  The students are divided into morning and afternoon groups, and have majors.  Urraca is well known for its English program, which is successful despite there being no native speakers on staff. They also pride themselves on having for the 30 extra-curricular programs.  Once you arrive, you will be given your teaching schedule – you will work either in the morning (7-12) or the afternoon (12:30-5:30). 

Class Description: 

Average class size: 35 

Age of students: 15-17

Multi-level classes (but generally, the English levels are intermediate) 

Students are from all over the province of Veraguas, but mostly from Santiago 

Classrooms are large with approx.. 35 student desks, a white board, and  teachers desk 

Santiago, your new town:

You are in for a treat.  Santiago is as “interior” as it gets.  As the capital of the Veraguas province, Santiago is the jumping off point for many travelers as they head south for serious surfing in Santa Catalina, north to the mountains of Santa Fe, or continue west  on the Interamericana to Boquete. Veraguas is the only province that spans from the Pacific to Caribbean coast and you’ll find that the people are warm, welcoming, and excited to learn English with a native speaker!   

I have read that Santiago’s population is around 65,000. A local was telling me that it’s difficult to keep track though because of how quickly the town is growing.  What once was a sleepy town in the interior of Panama, is now a transport hub for the influx of tourists, retirees, and growing businesses.  Though the twon is split in half by the Interamericana highway (which continues through Mexico all the way to Alaska!), Santiago proper is located to the south.   If you follow Avenida Central, it will remain true to its name and lead you right to the central plaza and cathedral in town.  Along the way you’ll encounter plenty of clothing and grocery stores.  You’ll also pass about 15 banks within about 8 blocks!  Escuela Normal and Anexa el Canda are a 10 minute walk west from Avenida Central.  Around the school you’ll find amenities such as copy stores “copiadoras,” laundry mats “lavanderias,” paper stores “papelerias,” and the post office “correo.”   

Something you should know about the climate in Santiago is that it does get hot and humid- especially in the afternoons.  It's important to bring appropriate clothing and shoes since you will be outside in the elements.  In addition, you are arriving to Panama during the start of the rainy season.  You can expect sunshine and blue skies in the morning and early afternoon.  However, around 3-4pm the dark clouds start rolling in and it begins to rain pretty hard.  From what I have experienced, the rain subsides within 30 minutes to an hour and then the sky clears up again.   

Your host family: 

Family Name: Pino

Family Members: Lili (Mom, born 1964) 

You will be living in a duplex and have the front half to yourself.  She works at the National University, (which is just down the street from the house) where she is a professor.  Lili speaks some English, but prefers chatting in Spanish.  She is very lively and is a hard worker.  She returns home every day to cook her meals and sometimes gets help from a maid who she calls in occasionally.  You will have your privacy, but also a good friend in Lili, who loves to have her friends over for meals, go to the movies, the beach, and jog.  Lili is divorced and has two girls ages 15 and 16.  They live nearby with their father and step-mother.  Lili gets along with everyone well and has her daughters over on the weekends.  Lili’s mother lives next door and they spend a lot of time together.  She also has a brother, Fernando, who has kids and likes to go on excursions around Panama. Lili travels to Panama on the weekends as well, sometimes for work and sometimes for fun, so you may have to provide your own food every now and then. Buses pass right in front of the house and cost 40 cents to ride.  They will take you in to Santiago.  Walking would probably take about 45 minutes.  Lili does not have internet connection in her home, but said she is happy to show you the libraries at her university that you will be able to use whenever you like.  Your part of the duplex has two bedrooms, private bathroom, a twin size bed, a couch, and kitchenette. 

Somewhere between packing and losing all of my teeth...

I leave one week from today, and still haven't received my placement information (this is an exercise in patience if I've ever had one), but I did learn a little more about the first weeks of training.

I fly out on Sunday night at 11pm and arrive into Miami at 7am. Our group flight leaves Miami around 12pm and we land in Panama city at 3pm. It's going to be a long day. Once we're all landed, we take a bus from the Panama City airport to a town about three hours away called Santiago de Veraguas, the capital of the Veraguas Province where we begin training. Some placements will be in this town, and some will be in Panama City, but the whole group of us teachers (11 in total, I believe) will spend the majority of February together in Santiago undergoing intensive pedagogy and Spanish language training. Apparently this year's Carnaval happens smack in the middle of training, and our in-country Field Director emailed to let us know Carnaval is essentially a giant four-day party throughout the country. Our training will be suspended for it. So, instead of having some downtime before the training starts to get to know each other, we will hop right into it, likely even spending the first night in country at homestays, rather than in a hostel all together.

After training is done, we move to our final homestays, and the school year starts. We're pretty much on our own at that time. I'll have my classroom, go to staff meetings, have one-on-ones with the principle and just be a teacher. I'm guessing there'll be a fair amount of faking it 'til I make it. I'm nervous, but excited.

I had a dream two nights ago where my teeth all fell out. I've only ever had one of these dreams once before, and in the most recent dream, as my teeth were falling out I remembered the older dream and thought, oh my gosh, now it's really happening!! Luckily, I was indeed just dreaming. But if you've never had a dream wherein your teeth fall out, let me tell you: it is graphic, it is painful, and it is frightening.

A friend of mine told me that dreams about teeth falling out represent anxiety about beginning something new. It is incredible to me that human beings are wired in such a connected away. Of course, that is exactly what I am feeling, but who told my brain to dream about losing teeth to symbolize that?? It's trippy to me that there are universal indicators for feelings that exist in all of our subconscious. But it's a little bit reassuring at the same time.

Anyway, I dont know where I'm going, but go I will.

Love and light.

Two weeks away

In two week's I'll be in Panama. That's crazy.


To bring you up to speed, I am moving to Panama for the remainder of the year to teach high school English. I don't yet know what city I'll be in, and thus what school I'll be at, so I'm trying to practice a healthy level of patience and cautious excitement. I don't want to get too excited about any one location, only to learn that I will be working at another.

I'm hoping this blog will be an effective way to keep everyone updated on what and how I'm doing. I also hope that it has the possibility to help prospective teachers looking into this program get a glimpse into daily life as a foreign teacher, as a similar blog I found really helped me make the decision to bite the bullet and move abroad for a year.

I've thought about doing something like this for years, and can't believe I finally committed to it. I'm excited about the challenge that faces me, and look forward to proving to myself I can move abroad alone, and successfully create a community around me, and effectively become a classroom teacher.

I recently spent a weekend in Chicago, for the first time in six months, seeing all of my friends before I move. I felt so surrounded by love and support and FUN those few days, and am so grateful to have such a solid home-base. A friend later commented about what a great circle of friends I have, and it's true. I really do. Growing up on Lopez, community has always been the most important part of creating my life, and that weekend in Chicago showed to me that my five years there really lived up to the standards that Lopez set in terms of that. I'm really interested to see how I mesh into my school, home and city community in Panama. It will be a struggle for sure, but I am energized by the idea of being around a whole new group of people and beginning to forge those relationships in a new environment.

In some of the information the program I am working through sent me, there was a section called "The Myth of the Personal Journey." I was really impressed by this; it was essentially a section saying, "Don't approach this experience as this time for you to go through a personal metamorphosis. You are going to be the same person you leave as. The purpose of this move is to effectively complete a job." I love that they named that because it is so important to keep in mind. I mean, I'm sure the experiences I have while I'm working in Panama will shift things about me, but my core will remain. All of the things I have problems with will still be there, as change takes a real concerted and lasting effort. That's not what this is about; this time is about being the best teacher I can be. I know the quote at the top of the page might seem contradictory to this whole outlook, but I am constantly discovering myself, and I'm sure this chapter of my life will be no different. The thing is, "finding me" isn't the focus. I'm simply open to being introduced to me anywhere I go. Another thing I really appreciate about the organization I am going through is the process in which the partnership with Panamanian schools begun.

I am very wary of "international volunteerism" because often times it can do more harm than good, and can be very selfish and unsustainable in nature. What I appreciate about WorldTeach is that they were approached by the Ministry of Education in Panama, because the government saw a gap in their English curriculum. They saw that a lot of conversational skills were being missed in the high school level because there was a dearth of native-English speaking instructors. They reached out to several international organizations asking for native speakers to come and partner with Panamanian English teachers to supplement the curriculum. It was really important to me that I wasn't going to be going to a school and taking someone's job because my status as an American made me somehow "more desirable." I will be partnering with skilled Panamanian English instructors, and co-teaching and developing curriculum.

Anyway, I'll update when I know more about my specific placement - town, school, homestay, etc. My official take-off date is February 6th! If you have a google account (ie: gmail) I think there's a way to "follow" the blog. If not, I'm going to email out the link to everyone eventually. Thanks for caring to stay posted on what this next year has in store for me.

Love and light.