The Despadida, Part II

Coming off the high of Independence Day here in Panama yesterday, I would like you direct your attention to the fabulous write-up that panablog (RIP) had last year regarding this festive day. You can read it right here.

In my world, this past weekend I attended another going away party (despadida) for another friend (Rob) that lived in my region. Now you might be wondering why all these despadidas all of a sudden. Well, Peace Corps Panama operates on a cycle that features two different groups that come down each year. The odd number groups arrive in April and go to site in July. While the even number groups arrive in August and go to site at the end of October. That means while one new group is coming into site, another group is closing service and heading home. So this past month featured Group 60 finishing up and going home, while Group 64 made their arrivals at site. Meanwhile, I’m Group 62 and stuck right in the middle. Next October, our group will be finishing up and Group 66 will be arriving. Doors closing, doors opening, etc. If the previous paragraph didn’t make sense to you, don’t worry. In the grand scheme of this thing called life, it shouldn’t even make a blimp on your radar screen.

However, here is something that makes sense to a lot of you – a fun time! So let’s talk about that. Saturday, I ventured over (up?) to my friend’s Rob site. Rob and I are both Community and Economic Development Volunteers, so we share that bond. But it goes a step further. We are connected by a river. The river runs through his town and bears that name. Meanwhile, I live at the mouth of the river and have the name of the river in my community’s name as well. In that case, we are like kindred spirits.

Rob lives in a much different site than my friend Franco who was profiled earlier on this very blog. That meant, it was going to be a different type of party, but there was one common theme – awesome Azuero people. Rob’s primary work was with a small savings and loan cooperative. They were the people that put together the party. And quite the party they put together. The master of ceremonies had an agenda and an array of speeches and special guests lined up. It started off with a touching speech from the president of the co-op. He thanked Rob for his work in the development of the community. It was quite a speech. From there, two different groups of dancers stopped by and gave a great show for the party attendees:



More speeches and some wonderful gifts to Rob followed. It was all very touching. It was quite obvious the community had a deep affection for not only the work Rob did, but Rob himself. The cake they made for him really showed it:


On the left is a photo of Rob in his traditional dance outfit of the community. On the right is the depiction of the time Rob rode the bull in his community. Isn’t it awesome? The cake was very good, by the way, too.

I’ll miss Rob, but he’s got a bright future ahead of him. Good luck, slugger.