But it's also liberating. I can feel at home almost anywhere. With almost anyone. My long hours of waiting for buses to show up or arrive at their given destination, waiting for people to show up for a meeting, or simply for the rain to stop have given me super powers that allow me to be perfectly content even if I'm alone and not doing what I thought I wanted to because outside forces got in the way.
I went out for a run earlier this week and the neighbor girls already knew my name and hollered "Hello!" That may seem insignificant, but volunteers who have lived in the shadow of the gringa that came before understand my excitement when they knew my actual, uncommon in Panama, not that of the female volunteer who lived in this house right before me, name.
I'm all moved in to the new digs and excited about the work. My new job as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer will be as a Water Systems Circuit Rider for water systems built by past Peace Corps Volunteers with the support of the NGO Waterlines. I'll be visiting and evaluating these systems and then working with the communities to improve them over the next 5 months.
Speaking of homes... I took a trip back to my old community last weekend to visit. Just like I left it!
The cool kids are still cool.
Beach balls are still better than gold!
Well... I must admit, somethings have changed.
Some kids lost teeth! She didn't know the "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" song so she'll probably have to wait until next year.
National elections are in May and one of the political parties came in to cut a road to connect to a neighboring town.
A new baby was born!
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