at last...a placement

I have a family! And a school! I'VE BEEN PLACED!!!

I will be in a small town called Nata. It's in the province of Cocle in south central Panama. I have a host madre y padre (in their 60's I believe), a parakeet and a dog, and apparently plenty of grandchildren around during the school year and vacations/holidays (of all ages, I know one of the boys is my age). The family's last name is Perez, so just call me Delia Perez! Just kidding. I think my dad is tomato farmer and my mom is retired, and the best news? (well not the best, but good) The Perez's are willing to host someone who doesn't eat meat, so that means I won't have to TOTALLY give up my lifetime of vegetarian-ness! (although I promised myself I will try all the food I'm offered) I was getting really stressed out over the fact that I need to start working chicken into my diet, etc, but I'm letting that go, even if it's a good idea...

About my town, Nata! Nata is the oldest town in Panama, founded in 1522 (that's more than 300 years older than Wisconsin!). It also has the oldest church in the North America! The church is used on a daily basis- my family attends services there every Sunday. I believe the town itself has about 6,000 people in it, but my family said the community is about 12,000 people. Nata is also really close to the beach, which is GOOD NEWS! Panama City is about 100 miles away, and the closest big city is Penonomé. That's about all I know about Nata and my family, now for how things are going here...


^This is the province Nata is in, Cocle

15 DAYS TIL DEPARTURE. AHHHHHH!!!! I'm getting really really excited. Before I heard about my placement I was super nervous, but a lot of that has gone away, for now at least. Pre-departure orientation was a week ago, so I met 3 other students from Wisconsin (mainly Madison) going to Chile, Paraguay, and China and got a lot of questions answered, which was really good. I got all my shots taken care of several weeks ago and all my paperwork in order to get my visa ONCE I GET TO PANAMA is almost done. I'm going to try to start packing today, I've already set aside most of my summer clothes. Last week I made my way out to Massachusetts and Vermont to look at some colleges since I won't be here for most of the summer when my friends are doing their visits. It was good to get out of Madison one last time before the BIG TRIP.

I can't believe I only have two weekends left. There's so much I still want and need to do before I leave. School is really a joke right now...I have late start and early release and it doesn't really matter if I do homework or not since my classes are being dropped in two weeks no matter what, so it's pretty much a bore. It's good to be able to see my friends every day though, I need to make the most of that! Hanna, our german exchange student, has been with us for a couple weeks now and it's going well. She's sleeping on my floor currently and will take over my room when I head out.

Can you find Cocle in a map of Panama?

That's all I can think of for now...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND FOLLOWING ALONG!! It really means a lot. Please follow, and posts comments or email me with questions/comments/whatever. Also share with others who may be interested. Oh yeah, one more thing, I don't know if the Perez family has internet in their home. I did find my school on facebook though so I know I will be able to find internet SOMEWHERE in the town. So hopefully I will be able to update my blog on occasion. Okay, that's all for now!

Delia