CDA aint got nothin on Escuela de Verano!

Ok, so thats a lie, and Im trying so hard to get my host sister to come to Clara Dunn for the summer. But I'd imagine Escuela de Verano is a lot like Tiny Seed at Brighton Creek. The campus even looks just like it! I mean a bit different, we are in the middle of the jungle, but you can imagine. Large main hall, attached to kitchen, and dorms across the field. And tents spread across the field to house the overflow of attendees.
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The program ran from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. Pretty standard. I arrived at Villa Virginia (the name of the campus, similar to Brighton Creek or Bosch) on Friday morning, bags in hand, and jumped right into the mornings first "Charla" (Spanish for "Talk"). The weekends arrangement of speakers varied from ABM's, Councilors, and LSA members.

Councilor

The theme for the weekend was arising to search and teach the faith. There was also a really heavy focus on the recent letter from the UHJ. I should mention, the letters are different to Panama than they are in the U.S. Here I was thinking its the same thing but then I was like, "Helloooo, duh! Ofcourse its different." It addresses goals that Panama needs to meet for their station in the 5 yr plan.
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So, the schedule for the day looked alot like this.
6:00AM Wake up
7:00AM Devotions
8:00AM Breakfast
8:30AM 1st Presentation
10:30AM Recess
10:45AM 2nd Presentation
12:15PM Lunch
1:00PM 3rd Presentation
2:30PM Recess
2:45PM 4th Presentation
4:15PM Free Time/Activities
6:00/7:00PM Dinner
7:00/8:00PM Mystery Night
8:00/9:00PM Cultural Night
10:00PM Lights out!
Sounds alot like Clara Dunn doesnt it!?! Except instead of excess doses of coffee and hot chocolate during breaks, we enjoyed fresh fruit, bananas, papaya, coffee, and tea. No complaints there!
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What really set apart Escuela de Verano for me though was the crowd. I should explain, the first day I arrived, I was the oldest attendee aside from the few adults who were putting it on. As the weekend progressed more adults showed up, but by the end of the weekend I was 1 of about 5 youth over the age of 21.

I guess that means we arent really youth anymore, more like adults. Weird I know. I still feel like a kid. But...speaking of kids...I was so impressed with them. They sat through all the talks, quietly, some not so quietly, but it wasnt even a question. We had kids as young as 8 sitting through the talks right along side us "old fogies"! And yes they were paying attention. Most of the time they were more attentive than some of us were. It was amazing, and that just proved to me that we make to many excuses for kids back in the U.S. They TOTALLY have the capacity to retain all of this rich information, and here we are making seperate classes for them, and telling them its ok for the them to run around the Bahai Center during devotions. Dont get me wrong, childrens classes are great, but these kids are capable of sitting and listening to not just one but all the talks through out the day!
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My favorite "Charla" was on Sunday. The speaker? This little lady who was one of the original NSA members for Panama, Mexico and most of Central America during Shoghi Effendi's time. She spoke of her experiences, her memories of Shoghi Effendi, and what it was like being one of the FIRST! I give you...

Senora Raquel

Dont worry, we all got a chance to goof off throughout the weekend too. The free time and the nights activities definitely served as a way for ALL of us, young and "old" to get out some of our excess energy and restlessness. Aside from fun and games, we had a night where we just turned on the music and danced the night away. I'll have you all know I officially can dance an authentic Salsa, and I was also taught a Pananamian dance, whose name escapes me now. But I will be sure to perform it for you all when I get back. Hahaha I know Im going to regret saying in a few months but for now, in the spirit of service, Im thinking I might just show you guys how its done!

Forced into a very public dance off!

Winners of the dance off!

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Now a lot of you might be wondering if I even understood anything from the weekend. Yes, the entire program was in Spanish, (side note: A lot of people refer to Espanol as Castillano because Espanol the Spanish spoken in Spain and Castillano is South American Spanish). But I was actually able to understand most of what the weekend offered. I actually had a harder time understanding random side conversation than the talks. It also helped that a lot of the speakers had visual aids, it serves as a guide in case your ears deceive you, your eyes are there to back you up. Sure, it got a bit frustrating being reminded so often to stop speaking English to a few youth who spoke it. But can you blame me!?! It gets exhausting! My brain strains to understand the language, but I've also gotten tired of the chastisement. Which brings me to explain why I've been slacking off on blogging. I've decided to use my free time to really start to nail my Spanish. My vocabulary isnt half bad but my grammar is VERY VERY poor. And there are a lot of verbs that I dont remember. So I figured, if something is bothering me, Im going to do something about. Im going to stop letting the comments bother me and do everything I can to learn the language as SOON as possible. 
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And just when I thought I could breathe easy, I was asked along with another youth on service from Zambia to speak out our service. Oh ya...IN SPANISH. Despite my insecurities, I pulled through! Without any help! Thats when I realized I could do it. I just have to be patient, and not let peoples comments bother me. Im sure most mean to be helpful, and its my own insecurities that amplify every little chastisement. But ya know its been about a week, and I'm already seeing a difference!

Tradition