28.

day 28 already!

so the town is getting ready for ´santa librada.´ santa librada is the second biggest celebration, right after the annual carnival. im not exactly sure about the meaning of santa librada, clearly librada is some saint that is important... and she comes back at this time yearly i believe. but the students are all getting ready, as are entire families. there are santa librada flags everywhere, which are different from the panamanian flag. and the kids are getting a bunch of time off of school for the pre-fiesta events (but nothings new with getting off school- any excuse here!) anyways, im excited. the actual festival is four or 5 days long. it starts this sunday. there are bull runs, beauty shows, panama hat contests, dances, concerts, religious stuff, and tons of other stuff. people come from all over the country to celebrate, so im excpecting some big things. i even saw that they are putting up a merry-go-round and ferris wheel in town! everyones talking about the celebration, and its some of the best days here, and so im really excited for it.

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Librada --this spanish version has better info, but for those of you who need the english, just translate it.

other than that, im just teaching and hanging with the host fam. i love it though. panama is growing on me each day. more updates later!!