Pre-departure expectations (First blog!)

Greetings! As this is my first blog post ever I thought it would be wise to keep my own thoughts and feelings to a minimum until I understand how this whole process works.  I thought that, instead, I would like to share some information about my position in the Peace Corps and quote some of the literature I have received from them as they try to prepare me for the next twenty-seven months.  Or at least the next few weeks.

The Basics: My official title is Environmental Health Extensionist.  I will be working to bring potable water and sanitary systems to the community I am placed in.  I will be leaving Anchorage the sixteenth of August for Washington D.C.  The following day in Arlington all new PCV's for Panama will participate in a  pre-departure orientation before our departure for Panama City on the eighteenth.  There, we will begin ten weeks of training to prepare us for our service as volunteers (the last seven of which will be spent living with a host family). 

Overview of Training Schedule:  "Emphasis will be placed on language acquisition... and on building technical skills all the while integrating cross-cultural issues in preparation for your service.  During training, your average workweek will be packed into 48 hours that are divided between language and technical training, work orientation, and another segment called 'core training.'  Core areas incorporate Panamanian culture and history, Volunteer life, personal safety, community analysis, diversity and gender issues, and other specific topics related to your service."

For those wondering what the main objectives of my position are:
"-Project participants will train community promoters in methods to increase community participation, organization and capacity for sustainiable community development.
-Project participants will educate community members in methods to decrease water borne disease transmission at the household, community, and watershed levels.
-Project participants will train water committee members in methods to increase community capacity to operate, maintain, and manage potable water and sanitation systems.
-Project participants will construct, improve, or rehabilitate household and community potable water and sanitation."

Opportunities for secondary projects: "Having identified particular needs, some Volunteers engage in small scale and agricultural projects, some work with community artisans to market their goods, others train youth groups on life skills, and many work in secondary schools teaching English and Geography."

Location of Job:  "Most Environmental Health Volunteers are assigned to one or two of the different indigenous groups: Kuna, Ngabe, Bugle, Wounaan, or Embera.  Your site will be within 2-16 hours from Panama City.  Transportation to and from your rural community will include the public bus system, bicycle, walking, and possibly horses or canoes.  Some remote sites are 2-3 hours away through muddy, mountainous terrain with walking as the only option..."

Living Conditions:  "The Majority of Environmental Health Volunteers are placed in the indigenous communities where living conditions are rustic.  Most likely you will live in a wood or adobe huts with wood or dirt floors, many of the wooden houses are on stilts with palm-thatched roofs.  As would be expected, services such as electricity, running and/or potable water, and sanitation systems may be rudimentary or non-existent.  However, Peace Corps/Panama examines each site before selection to ensure that housing and living conditions are adequate as not to interfere with your work... Peace Corps/Panama requires that you live with a family during your first three months of service at your site, after which time you are free to live by yourself..."

Thank you very much for your interest in my upcoming service as a volunteer.  I hope to hear from everyone as much as possible, so please write!  Letters are preferrable, but any communication will be very welcome.  If you have any questions about my service I will be in the country for a little more than a week, so please feel free to ask.  I will try to keep this blog updated on a fairly regular basis, but I am expecting the unexpected so it would be foolish to promise anything. 

Gosh this really got long.