Back from Bocas...life in a yeye site

Well I have just returned from a week long trip to the amazingly beautiful region of Bocas del Toro, which is the picturesque Panama that I look down upon from my mountain top village. We had four long days of Ngobe classes, to apollar our development in the language of the Ngobe. I learned so much this week, I am excited to return to my community and show off how much Ngobe I now speak! So I thought I would share a few important frases with you all to spread the wealth of knowledge...and just in case you happen to run into a Ngobe you will know what to say:
Ñantoro dega: good morning Ñantoro dere: good afternoon
Ja twaita mare: see you later Ja twaita jetebe: see you tomorrow
Ti ta baran kwete: I am eating bananas Ti ta ja totike ngobere: I am learning ngobe
Ti ka bailey bogaibo: my name is bailey from Lajero
Ti nune Oregonte: I am from Oregon

Well there are a couple frases that will probably keep you all puzzled for awhile, as they do with me when I am trying to understand what people are saying to me. They never had a written language until after the Spanish came to Panama, so they are written to be read with a Spanish pronunciation. All of you that are planning on visiting me you better be prepared to bust some of these out for the gente, it would make their day!

OK so back to my trip...I want to explain something about life here in PeaceCorps Panama and how different life can be between on volunteer and another. So there are sites that us volunteers refer to as yeye, which doesn´t really have a translation but it is most commonly used in reference to rich people, in reference to sites, ¨plush¨is probably the best translation. For example, our class was held in the community of a girl from my group named Sarah. Her site is right on the main road (no hiking involved: yeye), all the houses are made of wood and have beautiful wood or cement floors (no dirt floors and ant infestations: yeye), she has water right at her house and has a private shower (no bathing in rivers or public plumas: yeye), she has delivery trucks that bring propane and fresh vegetables right to her front door (no open fires and hiking with heavy chakaras of fresh veggies: yeye), and she has access to electricity so she can charge her cell phone and even watch tv at night if she wanted....definately yeye. So I am guessing that you all get the point...and probably have also guessed that I do not live in a yeye site, but I love it none the less. Sometimes life is better appreciated without all the things that make it easier. So within Panama there are many people that have very yeye communities, electricity, cement houses, cars, beaches, tourism...and the list goes on. And then there are those of us that live so far away from civilization, there is no such thing as a day trip out of site. We hike just to go home, our communities are much poorer than the others in Panama, we definately have no electricity and often times no running water, but the good thing is there are several of us so we stick together so we don´t get too jealous of our yeye counterparts.

Well they have their benefits and sometimes I am a little jealous, especially when she tells me that she can hop on a bus and visit another volunteer in 15 minutes! She can also hop on a bus and be on an island in 30 minutes! Wow, what a different world I live in! Anywho...just wanted to let you know all volunteers do not live the hard life like me! But I am hard core!

So I am heading back into my site for just a couple days before hiking back out for our grand Thanksgiving celebration in Cerro Punta, where the weather is like Oregon and the food is even better! We are doing a big group dinner with like 100 volunteers, which should be a total blast. I gotta run but I will try to post some new pics next time! Lots of love from Panama! Ja twaita!