Cultural Week

So we just finished our Cultural Week in the town of San Pedro in Coclé. There were ten of us there, us aspirantes who have been placed in Coclé or Panamá Oeste, plus the volunteer who lives in San Pedro and the regional leader. It was actually a really good week. If all the weeks of training were like this one, it´d be pretty awesome. Everyday I had about three hours of language classes (there were only four of us who needed the classes, the rest of the group was already at Intermediate-medium or higher so they did other work for the three hours) and then we did various activities. One day we ran around on a scavenger hunt, just going to people´s houses and asking for objects from teh kitchen or plants or the name of the first President of Panama, you all know how scavenger hunts work. Oh, by the way, before I get too far I should describe San Pedro a little bit. It is accessible by bus and there is running water, but there is no electricity. So I spent my first week ever with no electricity. The towns people are very nice and generous and very tranquilo, it´s just a relaxed town where everyone knows each other and was very welcoming to us 10 strangers coming in. Anyway, other activites we did. We did a garbage clean up. We worked in the monte a little bit, making compost piles and planting corn and piña. And of course getting stuck in a torrential downpour, but that´s normal by this point. The highlight of the week I think was walking to San Miguel Centro and watching the dance of the Diablicos Cucuas. I don´t think I have enough space to write all about this group because I could write forever, but it was awesome. First of all, San Miguel Centro is a little town that was a little more than an hours hike away, on the other side of the mountain. It was quite an intense walk to get there, very steep hills and one river crossing. But the purpose of going was to see this group perform this dance. It is a very rare dance now, it used to be done throughout Panamá (we´re talking before the conquistadors arrived) and then just throughout Coclé and now this town is the only place in the world where you can see it. National Geographic has actually written about it, so maybe if you Google ¨Diablicos Cucuas¨or ¨San Miguel Centro, Panamá¨you can find some more info. about it. But the costumes they wear are completely 100% natural, which is one of the reasons it´s so unique. The clothes are made of bark from the Cucua tree, the dyes are all natural from plants and flowers, the masks are made from bone and bark and they wear deer antlers. The dance itself signifies a war victory and there´s some chanting and yea, all in all it´s kind of hard to explain but quite amazing. Then, at the end, the dancers came out with corn bread with some birthday candles in it and sang happy birthday to me and another aspirante who´s birthday was yesterday! Talk about the most unique birthday experience ever! It was pretty freaking awesome. I did take a lot of pictures but you´ll have to wait another week to see them, or possibly longer but hopefully not. So yea, that day was awesome. We also got to go swimming twice in two different rivers, both of which looked like jungle rivers. It was quite beautiful. I´ll post pictures of one of those rivers as well when I can. But yea, that was cultural week. Tonight I get to stay in a hotel here in Penanome (I think I spelled that wrong) then it´s off to Barrigon, still in Coclé, for technical week. Then I´ll be back in Santa Clara after that. I love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes! :)