Day 5- Josie Cartaya

Today we went to three places; The Smithsonion Technical Research Institute, Nutre Hogar, and Tinajas. I found the STRI very interesting. Ironically, I was suprised to find out that the STRI did a lot of experiments revolving around the waters of Panama. It makes sense, but I was expecting the research to be more land based rather then a good portion revolving around the water. Two interesting facts that I learned while at the Smithsonion were that those pillars we saw were part of a quarentine building that was torn down years ago. When we were first told that the people with Yellow fever went there and usually waited to die, I did not invision a building there, but once again it makes sense. The secind interesting thing I learned was while they were building the Panama Canal they found the remains of the jaw of a Megaladon. After the STRI, we went to Nutre Hogar. I know a lot of us were prepaing ourselves for it because of what we heard from the other group. While the situations that these kids are in is really sad, they're still just kids. We all had fun playing with them, and a few people even said that those kids wormed their way into their hearts whn they had prepared themselves not to get too attached. Watching some people interacting with the kids was so much fun, like watching Rahul getting beat up by that six year-old girl when we first got there, or when Mr. Lucien played on the swings with that one little boy. I think one of the biggest shocks at Nutre Hogar was after a few of us walked around and observed the facility. Some of these kids need a healthy enviroment in order to get better, and mold isn't going to help with that. It's also kind of sad to think that even those the workers at Nutre Hogar do a lot for these children, they can't always be there for them. That's one of the reaons why it was good for us to be there. Interaction with these kids helps them along and helps them feel loved. After reflection and a long wait for the bus driver, we all went to Tinajas to hear tradicional folk music and see tradicional folk dancing. It was amazing! I was really impressed with how fast they were moving across the stage (it looked like they were gliding!), and I know we all loved it when Mr. Lucien, Hugo and Laura were taken on stage to dance with them. Very nice guys! The dreses the women wore were really pretty, especially the last outfit they were. When I heard Mrs. Aliceas (the native Panamanian woman who came to talk to our class) told us about those dresses, I couldn't wait to see one up close. They were absolutly gorgeous! There was so much to see today and so much to learn. While we cannot have a huge impact in a week, we still help these people a little and when we leave we take our experiences with us. We may not be able to help everyone, but even the smallest of contribution can have the biggest of impacts.