Peace Corps Posts

The past two weeks, the rain has been brutal; school has been canceled and parts of the Interamericana highway have fallen off due to landslides. I was really bummed that the Días de Patrias were canceled; I was really looking forward to seeing the students march through the town to honor Panama’s Independence Day. I’ve been feeling pretty isolated which is never fun. To “stay busy,” I’ve been helping out in a pre-school. The kids are super cute yet super exhausting. The pre-school is only two hours in the morning and it just wipes me out. I don’t know what they’re saying and they don’t

The homesickness is starting to sick in. The past week, I’ve cried every time I talked to my family. I’ve been struggling with finding my place here.

Luckily, I’ve been in the school more to help out with a robotics program and building a school website on Google Sites. I’ve been talking with a physics teacher and she is very motivated to learn more about digital literacy. Many people don’t know how to type, upload or download files, and simple tasks on the computer.

I’ve been hesitant to write about this, just don’t know how it’ll come out or if it’s the right timing. I think, for a lot of things here, timing is important but also life goes on. So, I might as well document how I’m doing now.

My identity is an on-going journey. My values, for the most part, have remained steady since I was a kid. My family taught me to respect others, be open to learning new perspectives, and a big one was always “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at

Where do I pick up?

That seems to be a common theme here on my blog. I’m someone who enjoys reflecting and a big part, for me, is to write out my feelings in a cohesive way. It’s cathartic for me to look back and articulate my experiences into a story.

First off, I’m officially a Peace Corps volunteer! After 9.5 weeks of non-stop training, we had our volunteer swear-in ceremony where

Time here is different. The days are long and the weeks are fast. All the days blur into one. I think I’ve found this to be a challenge to process what I’m doing each day.

Last week, we visited current volunteers, Samira and Hailey, in Los Santos. When I think back on the trip, so much comes flooding to my head. We toured the local schools, planted trees, facilitated workshops, cleaned a beach, handmade small tembleques, and so much more.