James´ visit

My brother James is a really good sport. He arrived in Las Tablas after a long day of travel and was immediately immersed into the 24-7 chaos that is Panama´s Carnaval. It is quite like Mardis Gras, but involves a lot more hoses spraying people, beauty queen parade floats, and pop-up clubs in which one is free to dance the night away. He jumped right in to the fiesta without a complaint. He met a bunch of my Peace Corps friends, all enjoying a couple of vacation days, and soaking in the sun, pushing through crowds, and subsisting on what we all lovingly call street meat.

From there, we spent a four full days in my site. He got to know the local kids really well and get a real taste of what a normal day for a PCV is like. There aren´t many people I feel like I could bring into my community and not feel worried about how they would do or view things. But James is one of those people I knew who could handle it and thrive, just like he did at Carnaval! The kids fell in love, and many of the adults told me they thought he would make a really good volunteer and asked about his availability come October, when I leave. I said our mother wouldn´t have it.

We finished our time on Bocas Island, eating bacon, burgers, and really good Indian food. I told James the only condition for his visit was that he had to write me an entry for the blog. That will be coming soon. In the mean time, here are all the pictures from his visit.