Upon my first night of arriving to San Miguel, I met my fellow interns and couldn’t help but feel a bit uneasy. Although I did come to Panama with my good friend Kelsey, I knew that if I didn’t get along with the other interns I would have an extremely rough summer ahead of me. We had gone through the typical meet and greet questions and discovered that we were from all across the U.S. and had completely differing personalities. The one thing, however, that we did have in common was Kalu Yala.
Each and every one of us possess the drive to show the world that it is possible to live sustainably. Whether it be the community outreach interns getting the locals involved in river cleanup days, or those of us in the valley planting food crops and raising our own free range chickens. We want to make a change in the world for the better. The people I was so unsure about in the beginning are now my friends, and have pretty much become family while we’ve been living together. We help each other out and have even began to talk to one another like we’re family. These guys have helped me grow and stay strong in ways that I never imagined I could.
Just the other night I held a tarantula because Aaron (the guy who knows EVERYTHING about insects) told me it was perfectly safe. Bottom line, I trust my fellow valley interns with my life.
