Hello family and friends! I hope with the start of March everyone has been enjoying the hopefully warmer weather and gearing up for a beautiful spring season. Things down near the equator have remained pretty consistently hot and sunny, although unfortunately I know the rainy season (which lasts 8 months) is quickly approaching. The last month has continued to expand my mind and my heart. With training coming to a close, I’ve started to really focus on my personal priorities for my service and am simply trying to process all that I have learned in the past two months. I recently received my site placement and had the opportunity to visit it for 5 days to get to know the people and my new host family. My permanent site is in Panama East and is a pueblo of about 300 people that has both electricity and running water (oooooo la la). Although where my community is placed is quite flat and dry (probably my biggest disappointment since I’ve arrived), I’m about a twenty minute walk from the start of a mountainous hydrological reserve, where the rivers are pure enough to drink straight. (I have yet to try this because I already feel like spend enough time in the bathroom and want to avoid making it my permanent residence). Although the projects I work on will change over time, to start I will be working with ANAM (Panama’s main environmental organization) to reforest about 71 acres. I’m not exactly sure how this project is supposed to proceed, but I’m excited that my community already has projects in mind to work on. Along with the reforestation project, members within the community are attempting to create an environmental education center and trail system that can be used for locals and tourists alike. I will expand later on this project because I suspect it will be one I will be spending a great deal of time working on. Beyond these projects my mind is swirling with ideas, but my main goal is to keep all of my projects sustainable so I will have to  see what the community is actually interested in doing. I’ve done a bit of pasearing to get to know the community and just as in my training community, I am blown away by how welcoming and generous the people are. Each day during my visit someone new invited me to eat at their house or insisted that I come to them if I ever need anything. Although most of the people in my community have what we Americans would consider very little, they still find it important to offer me food or soda each time I visit. (That being said, I’m a little bit terrified about how many fried hotdogs, fried bread, and glasses of soda I will consume before I move into my own house). Overall, I’m very excited to really integrate into my community and start putting into use all that I’ve learned during training. When signing up for the Peace Corps I never really realized all of the intricacies that are involved in service. Beyond just moving to another country I’ve learned that the key to success is creating an image of yourself that is professional, friendly, comical, open, and hardworking all at the same time. I’m not sure how I’m going to pull that off, but I’m letting my quirky personality fly free and just hoping the community likes it. I swear in on Wednesday and then am headed to the beach for two days for a much needed vacation weekend. Once I officially start my service I will have a lot more time to write and will hopefully update this blog more often. I will also have a new mailing address which I will update as soon as I have it. I also realized that I never actually posted my phone number so I will also throw that up next to my address. I have full cell service so please call anytime!!!!!!!!!

I miss everyone so much and will have much more internet access so please email and keep me updated! Lots of love and sunshine!