Catholic boarding school in Panama
23/1/12 - 25/1/12
27 °C
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School at Sea
on meimeilin's travel map.
We arrived at the monastery in the late afternoon. I expected a sort of Middle Age monastery with monks in a green grassland but instead it was a Catholic boarding school filled with boys age 15 - 18 trying to learning about agriculture.
The Catholic Boarding School - Panama
I think all the boys had near to nothing at home and most of them were also far from home. When walking around with our huge hiking bags and our PDA's I felt sort of guilty. Also when I saw the beds I thought to myself "how can you sleep on such a bed almost a whole year around!", well I can tell you how: with two or three mattresses! The first afternoon we didn't really do anything and the second day we got a tour of the boarding school. They get normal classes but also special ones focused on agriculture and they also have to take care of the cows, chicken, plants (from mango trees to bean bushes), and pigs. Also the "starter" of the boarding school came to tell us about the history and about his life story. He was Dutch, but kind of lost his Dutch since he hasn't been in Holland for 40 years. Also, he remind to thank god everyday. Which was kind of funny to us since we are almost all atheist.
After dinner on the 24th each of us got to know one of the boys out of the sixth form (last year). We taught them a bit of English and they taught us some Spanish. Also, we made a decision on where to meet the next day because I was going to spend almost the entire day with this guy.
On the 25th I spent the morning talking to the guy. Most of us School at Sea-ers were working hard; milking cows, feeding chicken, picking tomatoes, but apparently his work wasn't much so we just sat and talked the whole morning. In his almost non-existent English and my pocito bit of Spanish we still managed to have a conversation. In the afternoon we harvested some beans and peeled them and in the evening we again gave English class. After this we said goodbye since we were leaving for Bocas the next day!
Amen.
Posted by meimeilin 27/1/12 21:42 Archived in Panama
