Panama – Peace Corps Worldwide

“Hi, I’m RPCV Bob Vila” (Panama)

May 02 2024

I’ve spent my career helping people upgrade their homes and improve their lives. You probably know me from TV, where for nearly 30 years I hosted a variety of shows—This Old House, Bob Vila’s Home Again, Bob Vila, and Restore America with Bob Vila. Oh, and let’s not forget my cameo appearances on Tim Allen’s sitcom, Home Improvement, where I got to star as myself. That was something else! Before my life in broadcasting, I launched my own residential remodeling and design business. Earlier still, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer, building houses and communities in Panama 1969-70. I learned firsthand about home building from my father, who built our family home by hand. I’ve written more than a dozen books about remodeling, buying your dream home, and visiting historic homes across America. It’s fair to say that buildings, especially homes, are my life’s work. Over the years I’ve supported many . . .

Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (Panama) disqualifies Trump

Dec 29 2023

In the news — On Thursday, December 28, Maine Secretary of State RPCV Shenna Bellows disqualified former President Trump from the 2024 ballot. Bellows cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, which prevents a person who has engaged in any rebellious activity against the country from holding office. “The U.S. Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government, and Section 336 requires me to act in response,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows wrote. Bellows’ decision to block Trump from the 2024 ballot comes a week after the Colorado Supreme Court barred the former president from the state’s Republican primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment, seemingly referencing Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, attack on Congress. Bellows’ move against Trump has sparked disbelief online. Social media users accused the Maine Secretary of State of hindering the democratic process and began circulating her picture with . . .

Review: PEACE CORPS EPIPHANIES by Anson K. Lihosit (Panama)

Nov 15 2017

Peace Corps Epiphanies: Panama by Anson K. Lihosit (Panama 2015–17) Peace Corps Writers July 2017 132 pages $13.95 (paperback) Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson (El Salvador 1974–76; Costa Rica 1976–77) • Anson Lihosit was a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Panama from 2015 to 2017. He taught English in the small rural town of Torti. Lihosit is second generation Peace Corps. His RPCV (Returned PCV) father who served in Honduras in the ’70s strongly encouraged him to write about his experiences. This well-written, interesting and often humorous book is the result. If you are thinking about joining the Peace Corps, you should read this book. Also, if you served in the Peace Corps 30, 40 or 50 years ago and want to know what is different and what is the same for those in the Peace Corps today, this is the book for you. Even if you have no connection to the . . .

Anson Lihosit (Panama) publishes PEACE CORPS EPIPHANIES

Sep 12 2017

New Peace Corps Experience Memoir/Panama Anson K. Lihosit recently trudged home after two years’ service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. An urban planner by trade, he was recruited to teach English. Before packing again to begin a masters degree program in urban planning at the University of Arizona in Tucson, he wrote and published a book about his Peace Corps experience titled Peace Corps Epiphanies: Panama. Assigned to a remote village near the famous Darien Gap and 95 miles from the Colombian border, he assisted middle and high school teachers, offered community night classes, and assisted other Volunteers with conferences for indigenous people that offered him the opportunity to visit other parts of the country. In his book, Lihosit describes Peace Corps Training, and life in the rural Panama. Like all Volunteers, he had difficulty adjusting to a new culture and language as well as dealing with . . .

RPCV Ned Butler (Panama) gave a talk about the Guna (Kuna) tribe of the San Blas Islands

Apr 12 2017

Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Dan Campbell (El Salvador 1974-77) • Former volunteer talks about changes in Panamanian tribe Mount Desert Islander (Bar Harbor, Maine) March 31, 2017 BAR HARBOR, MAINE — Ned Butler presented a talk and slide show about the Guna (Kuna) tribe of the San Blas Islands in Panama when he visited the Jesup Memorial Library on Friday, April 7. When Butler was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1960s, he spent time working on tribal development projects with members of the tribe. His talk explored the history and development of the Guna tribe over the past 50 years. Butler covered the history of the tribe as well as why the tribe decided to invite the Peace Corps to the region to help with tribal community development. He also highlighted three of the projects that the Peace Corps has worked on and the role that . . .

Regional Meeting by Anson K. Lihosit (Panama)

Mar 27 2017

Regional Meeting by Anson K. Lihosit (Panama, 2015-17) • At breakfast, the family I stayed with told me that the goat was already tied up outside. They gave me an extra plate of rice and a bucket. “Now that it is here, you’ll have to feed it and give it water twice a day,” they said as they glanced at each other, grinning. I walked up the hill in between my host family’s home and their son’s home. As I approached, the goat ran as far as the short leash permitted trying to avoid me. I got as close as possible, dumped the rice and left the bucket of water. The goat, tied to a tree in a strange place with strangers, kept jerking that rope. The next morning, three American friends awaited me at my host family’s restaurant. After breakfast, we lugged wooden tables, chairs and cooking utensils . . .

“Jungle Softball” by Anson Lihosit (Panama)

Dec 08 2016

Jungle Softball by Anson Lihosit (Panama 2015-17) GETTING A BASEBALL MITT proved difficult. A Peace Corps Volunteer’s salary was not enough to buy a new one. Back in the United States, my father rummaged around the garage and blew dust off an old utility mitt I hadn’t used in years. He mailed it with a hometown baseball cap to the father of a Peace Corps pal since my pal was briefly going home to attend a wedding. He brought it back to Panama on the return flight. I had a four-hour long bus ride to the capital to pick it up, then four hours back to my tiny jungle truck stop, Torti, located halfway between Panama City to the west and the Darian Gap to the east —that stretch of roadless jungle between Panama and Colombia known for smugglers and armed rebels. Cleats were much easier. I bought some cheap . . .

Peace Corps Volunteers Out in the Cold in Tropical Panamà

Apr 09 2015

The President arrived in Panamà City this Thursday evening for the Seventh Summit of the Americas. It is being held in Panamà City this 10th and 11th. Tonight, Thursday, the 9th, a Reception was held at the Westin Playa Bonita for the Embassy personnel and their families, but not the Embassy local hires or ‘low level’ US employees. The affair was also closed to the Press and all Peace Corps Volunteers. Currently there are approximately 209 PCVs working in Panamà, and since 1963 over 2,370 had served there as English teachers, environmental health, environmental conservation and in agriculture. My guess is that the Secret Service wanted to control the number of guests, therefore, no PCVs, but given the Secret Service agents behavior of late, I would have thought they might invite the Peace Corps just to ‘hit’ on some of the women. The Summits of the Americas are institutionalized gatherings . . .

Raymond Bud Keith (Panama 1965–67)

Feb 28 2010

Raymond Bud Keith (Panama 1965–67) Monday, November 21 4:54 pm LEARNING TO APPRECIATE the United States has become an ongoing residual benefit of the Peace Corps experience. After becoming totally blind at age eleven, I grew up in an urban environment with good sidewalks, good public transportation, and a society that respected the need for me to use a white cane. In Panama safety was always an issue. There were open manholes, drivers who would yell at me because they thought I was trying to hit them with my cane, pedestrians who thought I was an aggressive American because I wouldn’t walk around them on the sidewalk, and a society that didn’t believe that blind people could make it. I taught in a school for blind children where the only real benefit was the salaries paid to the poorly trained teachers and the money squandered by administrators. To live for . . .