yuca yuca

These chips be gettin it.

Gringolandia

So...these weeks are passing by quicker than I would like. Monday comes easy then Tuesday a little longer of a day. Wednesday marks half way done and when its Thursday the weeks basically over. Crazy. I feel like this semester is going to pass us by; I hope it don´t forget us.

Its weird. I found myself dreading my Friday classes @ Latina; my two courses that are actually in Spanish. And its even more strange because at the end of every Friday, I´ve had the best day. I think I be nervous about critch crutchin around en español.

Anyways, in me and Kelsey sociologia class there are dates that the teacher can´t come. SO she has made some classes double in length to make up for the hours. THIS MEANS some Fridays we have class from 8am until 12:45. OC right. Today was one of those days. I however, have a class after sociologia and cannot make these EXTRA hours so I am going to have to do something else with the other students who also have a 10:30 class.

Im still loving my history class. Today we had a diagnostic test on what we knew about Panama. It was intesnse lol luckily diagnostic test don´t count for real grades! When I get the test I laughed when I was lookin at it because I realized how little I know. Then I was thinking about if it were about the US would I know all the answers. Luckily our teacher is the ish and he was laughin with me when I was tryna cheat. Everyone was having trouble; lol and half the class from other countries so they was feelin me.

After we all what should have been failed, we used the sheet to learn from. We moved our desks in a circle.

Look what I learned:
- The isthmus of Panama was formed approx. 3 million years ago.
- Isthmus means a narrow strip of land connecting 2 larger areas. Panama connects North and South America.
- The Republic of Panama is divided into:

9 Provincias which are like states
75 Distritos which I am told are like big cities
623 Corregimientos which I am told are like counties but I get confused by this because there are more counties than Distritos?
and 5 comarcas which are like indigenous reservations.

- The Provincias are:

Bocas del Toro
Colón
Chiriquí
Coclé
Herrera
Los Santos
Darién
Panamá
& Veraguas

- The Comarcas are:

Kuna Yala founded legally (even though they were all here first) in 1938
Emberá-Wounán 1985
Kuna de Madungandí 1996
Ngöbe-Buglé 1997
Kuna Wargandí 2000

And Profe told me where the term "Gringo" comes from.
When the Mexican-American War began, hundreds of Irish-Americans fought on the side of Mexico. Sent by the U.S. government initially to fight against Mexico, they came to doubt why they were fighting a Catholic country. Resentful over mistreatment from their generally Anglo-Protestant officers, these Irish (and other immigrants) deserted the U.S. Army and joined forces with Mexico. Led by Captain John Riley of County Galway, they called themselves St. Patrick´s Battalion (in Spanish, San Patricios). Green was the color of the Irish, and the soldiers sang "Green Grow the Rushes 0!" (based on a Robert Burns poem) or their version of an earlier Scottish tune "Green Grows the Laurel", which they called "Green Grow the Lilacs". This latter tells the story of an Irish soldier who'd fallen in love with a Mexican lass. When the songs became popular with American cowboys, those listening across the border in Mexico couldn't hear the words clearly, only the repeated "Green Grow". Over time this changed into the term "Gringo" (green go), later used to refer to people from the United States.

Danez and the Calypso Class

Soooooo, we studied Calypso in Afro-Panamanian Studies today as part of a new unit today… and we was getting it. Adam was on his two-step, Jair was doin the Jair, Dom was swagged out, Alida was getting the shoulders, and our guest professor Mr. Leslie was singing his butt off, which leads to this part of the story.

Rewind to this morning. I woke up thinking about starfish, weird, and then I got homesick for the first time since we’ve been here. And I was still homesick when I got on facebook and saw a pic of my mom my cousin posted… sad. Then I saw a picture of my Grandfather, who was a father to me, who pasted away Sep. 23 2008, so it’s about to be a year since he passed. I held back tears today. So I wrote a poem and posted it on my tumblr blog, danezsmif.tumblr.com, and then it was class time.

So we in class, learning, dancing, all up in that Afro-Caribbean culture, singing Calypso and Lamento, when we start singing “Daylight com and me wan go home” which in our English is “Daylight come and I wanna go home”… it was cool at first, but the longer we sang, the more I really wanted to go home, just to hug my mom and grandma and aunties and to visit my Grandfather’s grave and talk to him. I love Panama too much for words, but home is home. I started thinking about how I haven’t spent more than 2 weeks at home at one time since I’ve graduated from high school. I started crying and had to walk out of the room. Needless to say I had a interesting day, and I think that I’ll be getting it in the Calypso unit. In other news, my one man is in the editing stage and will show some time in the near-year future. And I shall continue to be gettingith it in Panama 24/siete. Peace and Blessings!

tiny little pieces

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

- Douglas Adams

Likewise, there are things that are so real

they explode when shared and are never seen again.

This is what happened when Cecilia wrote something for the blog about her first weeks of school.

That is all.

Grandchildrens

Erika Venturi-Whaley had a birthday AUGUST 30th

and we never got to show her our love.

Erika is my grandbaby and I have had the pleasure to see her from the day she was but an egg to her first time meeting her father. I love her with toda mi corazon and I hope you know that sweet pumpkin cheescake gumball salad pookie!

Please join me in celebrating her life with this life celebratoring foto album I have been putting together since she was conceived.

This is her mama, my daughter (self Luara self) Luara Venturi and Erika's father.

This is the princess herself when she was but an egg.

Beautiful isn't she; stunning.

E on her first day of school.

She didn't have any arms yet, or legs for that matter.

When she was but a cartoon.

Black, Mexican and Brasilian.

Don't nobody got ish on my grandbabies.

Her first kiss.

She was muchs lighter back then.
Luara always insisted E enter Lil Miss Latina and when she did...

SHE WON!!!

She always was a princess.

This is a drawing I did of her when she was in fifth grade.

Honor roll boo boo!!

Her first day of middleschool looking at her schedule.

AND when she did her first poem (About me, her abuela!!!) she wore this scarf I got her.

Her first job in highschool was a ladder-er.

This is my baby when her papa came back into her life.

As you can see she is a daddys girl.

And as you can see he missed her to death.

E gradeatin from highschool.

These her two hermanas from different mommas.

And this my baby when she got into this poertry programing at the Universerty.

I am so proud of her.

Write me sometime sweetie lemon kool-aid snickers.

Hope your bday was beautiful jus like you baby, jus like you!

- ur gma and her FW Panama crew

She got like 20 years (45 with that leap yr. tho)

So today was Dom's birthday! Yep. MMM HMMM. And it was good. Like vegetarian food. haHA! Get it! Naw me either. ANYWAYS, we had a good day. Dom said she done had better lol but I THINK she lookededed pretty happy today. People went to this scary movie called something about draggin and hell and I didn't go cause I had a physical therapy appointment BUT Sofia and I me up wit everyone else and we ate at CREPES & WAFFLES (Dom choice) which is where me & Sofia was going to get Dom a gift card but naw she ruined it. Anyways have a look.

Dom eatin some crepe with mushroom and spinach.

I think it looked good.
And then I made her eat some of mines.
This maracuya crepe with some BOMB ice cream that was better than the freakin crepe itself.
Coca-Cola OC!
Erbody.
p.s. thats my finger on the left! wat WAT!

AND THEN she went in for dessert!

Like she really WENT IN!!!

AIR-E-UHL view for yuh.

See that look on Dom face. Thats how she feel bout me everyday.

HAHA!

So Dom went to the bathroom and when she got back the checks was there for each of us and lol she was like thats a nice lil present (or something like this).

Oh, how nice it is to have friends as broke as you.

and on ur bday huh.

LOL

SMOOCH SMOOCH!!!
just for the bday girl

XOXOXOXO