Panama's national Girl Scout camp

Panama's Girl Scouts

The Muchachas Guias national campout
photos by Eric Jackson

One of the highlights of Panama's Girl Scout (Muchachas Guias) calendar is the annual campout, and this year, thanks in part to some Peace Corps volunteers who have pitched in to boost the movement in the communities where they work, attendance was up at the organization's national campground on the Zarati River north of Penonome.

Are you reading this in a place where there's ice and snow on the ground outside? Do you know anyone in the local Girl Scouts or Girl Guides organization? Panama's Muchachas Guias have this campground to rent to sister organizations, who might want to take groups down to a warmer clime for an encounter with another culture and some tropical sun during winter break. If this idea seems, in your current frozen state, to be an attractive possibility, call the Asociacion Muchachas Guias de Panama at (507) 225-5653 or send them an email at guiaspanama@cwpanama.net. (If you don't speak Spanish, depending on who's there at the time, they may have to end up consulting the guys across the hall in The Panama News office for some translation.)

It's a big attraction, but also a lot of work, for the Girl Scout leaders

They have the older girls --- those who would be "Girl Scouts" in the USA --- and the younger ones --- known as "Brownies" elsewhere --- at the camp at the same time, but with simultaneous different age-appropriate activities that the spacious campground allows

Rustic dishwashing

Where the older girls pitch their tents

Mostly, they had a good time in the large main dining hall

The day this reporter went to the camp, there had been
rain in the mountains upriver so they didn't let the girls
swim in the adjacent Zarati River. But the boys next door
ran the risk of a suddenly faster current at the swimming
hole downstream from the Girl Scouts' campground

Listening to instructions

Giving the salute

She came with some Peace Corps volunteers

Also in this section:
Major League assistance for Panama's Little Leaguers
Citrus season
Panama's national Girl Scout camp
Theatre Guild general assembly
Replica of Columbus ship to call at Amador
American Embassy people pitch in for Habitat for Humanity
Sebastian Lord, retired firefighter and community leader
Don Bosco Procession
Be Prepared --- to prevent AIDS
Court rejects challenge, Carnival will be on the Transistmica
Burning season
Panamanian university students learn English in Vermont
Diablos and Congos Festival coming to Portobelo
Traffic nightmares
Veracruz cayuco race results
National junior baseball tournament

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