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 other volunteer with UMMF and so relatively incomparable, however I think its truly possible to love Boquete within a couple of weeks. For now though, I live in Boquete Panama and I love it! Contemplating leaving is devestating but thinking about staying forever doesn’t sit too well either. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

As much as life is busy here it is also relaxed. For me there is a relaxed frenzy you could say. I have been fighting the inbuild need most people from westernised countries have to be busy all of the time. In Australia, I am that person. I like to fill my life with work, university, more work if possible and social activites. I don’t like to leave a day unplanned. Panama however, is changing me. As much as some days I am very busy (for example my 13 hour day last Tuesday) I have learnt that taking more time to do things is not necessarily a bad thing and that work doesn’t always need to be done in the office or at a project. A nice balance is developing where if something needs to be done immediately it is but if there is some time taken to clean the kitchen instead of sending out that e-mail I don’t feel guilty. Thats what is it – guilt. Either consciously or subconsciously if we aren’t busy enough we aren’t contributing successfully enough to society or our own personal development in western culture. I knew it before now but having the realisation again is interesting. The judgement you recieve if you are unemployed dissapears here. Its a fact of life – you won’t necessarily always be working and this is reinforced by the thousands of tourists that tramp their way through Boquete, most having quit their job in order to travel.

Working in David every Tuesday at the GEM Project is possibly my favourite thing here. The facilty run by a Church in David and one in Texas was originally intened (from my understanding) to be a safe haven for young girls who were pregnant. Either through abuse, molestaion or by their own life choices. What has developed however is a home where yes young mothers find refuge but also where unwanted children are left, where children taken into state care are housed, and where it seems one girl in particular has chosen to live for opportunities sake. At least thats what I have gathered over the last 2 months. It is however almost impossible to get more information. It would be insensitive of me to ask one of the young women h0w they came to be living in the home. If they are there due to a traumatic experience, who wants to re-live that??? I can however love the children and help with anything and everthing. The love I recieve from them is inspiring and terrible at the same time. They are so desperate for attention, hugs and to be understood a little. I’m glad I can visit them for a longer period of time to hopefully make the same impact on their lives that they are making on mine. Some of them seem quite sick at times. Particularly one boy last week, it was heartbreaking and I actually have no idea what is wrong with him but I know they do go to the hospital which is relieving. I met the pastor of the church that runs the home for the first time last week also. I am told that is the first time he has ever come while the project has been running – 3 years – but he was very nice and we were able to ask some questions about what is happening with the home in the future and where some of the children come from.

We have been running the Charity Quiz night for 8 weeks now and so far we have raised over $700 for local charities. The community here is very generous and despite it seeming like too much effort on some weeks, the good weeks make up for it all. We have also had a lot of help from local residents and travellers with questions which is encouraging. I am looking forward to the next group of volunteers coming so that the responsibility of quiz night can be passed onto them. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as quiz master along with Kaytee and Mairin however the time has definitely come for new management!

Dia de la Tierra or Earth Day is this Thursday and we are rapidly preparing for what was originally going to be a smaller event but is now much larger. As in the mayor is closing down streets for a parade and schools are closed for the morning. This has really come together in the last few weeks and we are going to be playing games with the kids while they learn about the imporance of looking after the Earth. I found out today we are even having a birthday cake for the Earth which will be a lot of fun. Now just to finish organising everything…

I went white water rafting this weekend just past which was great fun and come Friday I will be leaving Boquete for a few days to renew my visa in Costa Rica. I’m excited at the prospect of not only testing out my newly aquired Spanish skills but also discovering a new place – on the carribean no less.

See you soon – hopefully sooner than my last blog – but like I said Panama makes you realise updating a blog isn’t all that important in the grand scheme of things, even if your family harsasses you to do it!