panamachristy (panamachristy) wrote,
2007-02-09 12:49:00

beach festival fun!

This past weekend we had our annual beach tourist festival which is 3 days and is put on by the community to raise funds for the committees that exist within it. It was great and I believe it went really well as far as funds too! I was in charge of some of the sports which I love but I was not excited about because they aren´t things that people do in my town...running and swimming competitions. So, basically the town set me up for failure...and I achieved it. I talked to tons of people trying to lure them into running the ¨marathon¨with me, as they called it, from my town to the beach(about 2.5miles) which by the way, was to be run at 8am after the discoteca dance the first night! right. Then 2 hours later supposedly was the swimming event at the beach. Both were no shows. Turns out no one wanted to run the marathon because panamanians are very competitive and don´t like to get beat...so since I was the organizer and i run ´a lot¨ no one entered because i would win. And swimming well, many panamanians don´t know how to swim, nor do they do it as a sport. Thanks committee for pushing this on me. But let it roll off.
The discoteca was so much fun! Dari and I danced with some people we meet till about 4am! They played reggaeton, rock, and (mom get ready)elvis presley and some 50´s stuff! how about that! the dance floor though is pure youth bc the older people, quote think we are just jumping up and down, not dancing.
the next day I had my sports events flop but in the afternoon dari and i had both volunteered to take a shift at the cantina! it was a blast but definitely work. I am now officially a beer slingin´bartender. My arms were fully frozen from the ice cold bins of ice where the beers stay cold, and of course, everyone wants one, ´bien frio´(very cold) so you have to reach you arms down into the depths of the artic to get them one each time! But it served me well as about half way through my shirt I got bit on my calf by a scorpion inside the cantina as I was reaching down for a empty bottle! Wow! those things sting hard, luckily there was plenty of ice to go around but no time to do anything about it! Since I was so busy though, my mind was not on the sting. But the next morning i felt it. my whole lower leg was swollen and numb. my skin felt tough and i had no feeling there for 2 days or so. it was quite odd. But the next day, i had my regional leaders who came in to go on a site development trip (where we check out a potential community for a future volunteer). So I was off in a boat with them to an island near by for the day. It was gorgeous with bold blue waters as we zipped along my coastline seeing all the nooks and crannies of isolated beaches and land. It has potential as a site so we´ll see. Oh, i almost forgot about the university of panama film crew that i had to do an interview for! haha. the university is doing a documentary on some work their students have done in our community. they did an analysis of needs and are doing follow-up. so they wanted to know about the community and my role there. it was fun! Man,my life sounds so much more exciting when i write about it. i think i´ve gotten too used to the odd spontaneity of where i live.
things to look forward to...anna and robbie´s visit in april! My college roommate and best gal and her husband are coming to visit me then. I am thrilled about that. I suppose that´s all for now. An early happy valentine´s day to all! Thank you for your love and support and know how much i miss the realness of who you all are.
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