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  • Panama 2025 trip

    After experiencing an incredible adventure through Amigos de las Americas, I wanted to let you all know what I was up to in Panama over the summer. I went to Panama for two weeks in June 2025 to work with school children in rural areas. We stayed with host families and experienced day-to-day life as a Panamanian. I was able to speak Spanish with my host family and other locals which improved my Spanish immensely. I met so many incredible people from around the world that I know I’ll stay in touch with. I am so thankful for the opportunity to participate in the Amigos program and grew through this incredible experience.

    This was our beautiful view during our morning activities. Every morning we would wake up and meet as a group to discuss our plans for the day.
    No phones means no news! The only news we received was from our daily meetings. We could request news that we were interested in such as the NBA finals that were going on at the time.
    We visited local markets where we bought food and souvenirs. Something that really stood out to me was how much better the ingredients in the food was compared to the US.
    Before hiking up Cerro Gaital. Cerro Giatal is about a 3-mile round-trip hike which takes you through a breathtaking rain forest.
    At the top of the mountain! You can actually see both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans from the top. It was used as an observation base by the US in World War II.
    We visited a recycling center which focused on making soil for plants and helping the local communities learn about global warming.
    One of our main tasks was to paint the classrooms of the school we were working at. The walls haden’t been painted for a very long time and the school didin’t have the resources to paint it themselves.
    Every day after working at the school, we got free time to go to the store and then the local soccer field. The locals were very good players and welcoming and it was really fun getting to play against them.
    We went to an orange farm and learned about how much work it takes to grow oranges and the process of cleaning them and shipping them to other countries.
    The children at the school didin’t know English at all. We taught them some basic words and they were very interested.
    Another one of our jobs at the school was to help make them a garden. We took out all the weeds so that they could plant vegetables and learn about them in class.
    For our last day, we had an art project with the kids so they could have something to remember us with.

    Some photos with our host family. Our host family was so kind and welcoming and made settling in much easier. Our host mom’s cooking was phenomenal and I loved getting to know them.