#10 - Viva la Volcan

12/02/2011

The bus journey was pretty horrific.

When I got on, I was already sticky and smelly. I was right in the back corner, and for some reason there was a small slow drip of water on my left shoulder which occasionally relocated to my face, usually as I was nodding off. The air con was also so effective that I almost contracted pneumonia, so I resorted to putting my pjyama top on. It was effective.

We then got to the terminal at 7am, which wasn´t a great experience. I can´t put my finger on why but it was the first time in Panama that I felt intimidated and vulnerable - people speaking loudly in Spanish, people offering taxi and bus journeys, people walking so close you half wonder whether they´re trying to pickpocket you, that sort of thing.
I suppose I had better get used to it, especially for my travelling in South America. There isn´t going to be anyone prompting me to do stuff, holding my hand, keeping an eye on me. I´m going to be all on my own which is going to be extremely fun but also potentially dangerous. But it´ll be a great experience either way.

We then eventually got to the house in Volcan, our base for the next week and a bit while we train. Some slept and some of us played some more card games, one called Jungle Rush which is absolutely mental and one called Dutch Blitz. We then had an absolutely epic fruit salad which was most welcome - the one let-down was the presence of banana. I haven´t had banana for about 16 years and I wasn´t about to start, so I carefully picked out the little yellow bits and ensured they didn´t enter the vicinity of my plate.

In the afternoon we went to a random place in the mountains and met the guys that are going to be training us, an American couple with names that I can´t remember. We had a cappuccino which was lukewarm at best as the woman brought them out to us in the garden 2 at a time and there were 12 of us. We each had a couple of minutes to fully explain who we were, where we came from, how and why we came to be here etc.
During this outing, we started to see the indigenous people for the first time. Panama City is such a diverse and multicultural place full of Chinese, Arabs, Westerners and such so there´s no real identity to the people but they´re all a similar look out here in the sticks. They´re also all pretty short.

In the evening we had an Argentinian tea called ´mate´ (pronounced ma-tay). It´s really cool, they serve it in a small wooden thing almost like a pipe and pour hot water on. You then drink your bit through a silver spout and when you run out, you pass to the next person and they add their water. It´s very social, and made us all very hyper.

I have acquired the nickname ´joven´ which means ´young boy´. This is because I was referred to in such a way about 3 times yesterday - in the temple the guy said ´and you are a student´ after asking everyone else what they did for a job, and I was referred to in passing as ´joven´ by a coffee seller. I guess I give out enough mockery to the Americans so it´s only fair that I receive a fair bit, and it´s all good natured.
We have also all taken to greatly exaggerating each other´s accents - for instance, Jessica and Christina´s accents are morphed into Italian-American gangster ´cwarfee and bay-gels´ sort of thing. Also Jarret pronounces out ´oot´ which I tend to exploit, and Andrew essentially speaks the Queen´s English so it can be easily picked on.
Shows that our team is bonding quickly and strongly which is a good sign.

Very much looking forward to getting out to the local churches and spreading the Gospel - it´ll be a real challenge but exciting and rewarding whatever happens. If we can show how God inspires all of us through helping out the various communities and what have you, we could potentially do some significant work out here. Some prayer for that would be great, simply for them to at least receive us warmly and be open to what we have to say. It´s in God´s hands anyway, we can only do our best.

Until then, buenos noches.

JG