About Sarah Henderson

Hi! I'm a 20 year old student from Australia. I'm in Panama for 4 months to complete the practical part of my university degree with GVN! Looking forward to sharing my adventures with you all!

Sarah's Posts:

Ciao

July 3rd, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

So, 4 months on and its time to move on.
I wouldn’t say I am at all happy about this because I love the life the I had established in Boquete but, I am looking forward to a bit more travelling. I couldn’t imagine going directly home.
In earlier posts I wondered if I would be ready to leave Boquete when the time came, and I think that the truthful answer is, Yes. I was ready to leave but I’m pretty sure thats because I’m already preparing to come back!!!
The last month in Boquete was really great. I was helping Kaytee with [...]

Posted in Panama

Costa Rica & Bocas del Toro

May 1st, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

The day after Dia de la Tierra I got up and was ready for a fun and exciting trip to Costa Rica to renew my visa and a little side trip to Bocas del Toro. What I got sure was fun and exciting as well as eventful and challenging sometimes. And so the saga begins.
After a 2 buses and a taxi to get me to the Sixola border crossing at Costa Rica I thought I was doing really well. I had made it that far in approximately 6 hours and was looking forward to only having about another 2hours to be [...]

Posted in Panama

Dia de la Tierra

April 29th, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

Wow what a day Dia de la Tierra turned out to be!
For what was going to be a small celebration in the park, I think the day was very successful! We worked really hard on this event to try to make it educational and fun and I truly think it was. The support we recieved from the loval community was inspiring as volunteers came from Club de Leones, The Handicap Foundation, ReAL Boquete, Rotary, the Alcaldera and friends.
We started with mass centered around the earth in which the priest was actually quite funny (although I’m not 100% sure this was his [...]

Posted in Panama

In Sickness and in Health

April 19th, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

Boquete has been my home now for 8 lovely weeks and whilst those weeks have certainly had ups and downs they have, in total,  amounted to an a fantastic time.
Many a volunteer has left Boquete and sometimes I have found myself wondering what it must be like to return to normality. Will I be happy when the time comes for me to leave my second home? Or will I, like many others who have come and gone be sad at leaving my life here? I always remind myself that the experience of living here for 4 months is unlike any [...]

Posted in Panama

A Blur

March 25th, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

Where has nearly a month gone??? These first couple of weeks have been a blur of work and fun, so much so that I only just realised that I have been in Panama for almost a month and away from Australia for 6 weeks!
It has been exciting and hard. Full of fun and hard work. A well-rounded and rewarding experience to date!
As a very brief overview of work activities: I helped to introduce the ReAL Boquete recycling program to a local bilingual school which was interesting considering my Spanish skills, I lead a group in a community clean up (we [...]

Posted in Panama

Week one/Weekend one

March 10th, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

I have been pretty lazy with keeping up my journals. I know some volunteers do daily updates but I’m more of a weekly person!
So last week ended up being pretty hetic. The boys orphanage was outstanding! They are so education focused with farming programs, sugar cane juice production, cooking classes, sewing classes, wood working and metal work classes, the produce their own honey and they have an actual school. Its good to see they are empowering these boys with skills for the rest of their lives. Some of the boys go onto university and have really successful careers. Its great! So [...]

Posted in Panama

And it all begins!

March 2nd, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

So wow! Where to begin?
I have been in Panama 5 days now but it honestly feels like I have been here for months! Boquete is such a lovely, friendly town. People I have met say hi to me in the street and it makes me feel like a part of the community! This is the type of place I see myself moving too in the future. Other than the amazing locals the other volunteers on the projects are full of life and energy. They really put a part of themselves into learning more about Panama and truly aspiring to make even the [...]

Posted in Panama

Boquete

February 28th, 2010 by Sarah Henderson

I arrived yesterday in beautiful Boquete after a very long trip! Panama City is not at all my type of city, so it was a relief to finally get here. After the best chicken I have ever had for lunch at one of the local cafes I headed back to the volunteer lodge. It is great accomodation in the centre of Boquete, not that the town is a big place, but it is really convenient. The town is really noisy which seems to be the only downside so far. The strangest of noises seem to continue all day and all [...]

Posted in Panama

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