!Pura Vida¡

Well the last couple weeks have been great! Dain took off for Costa Rica for a couple weeks, so for the first week I spent the time in my community and my neighboring community where my friend Casey lives. We are currently working on writing a grant for a fish tank project in our two communities. The idea being supplying the people with tubing and seminars on implementation and maintenance of the tanks we can help people supply themselves with a constant source of protein, something they completely lack in their diet. We are both very excited about the project, which I will know more about in about a month. I will keep you posted.

So last week our group had a conference in the province of Cocle where each person brought a person from their communites and everyone learned how to design and implement projects within their communities. This conference was in hopes that each person at the conference could take these ideas back to their communities so the people could learn how to become more independant on themselves for soliciting projects. So besides being very educational (and long) the conference also gave people a chance to meet people from all parts of Panama, and it gave our group a chance to catch up on what everyone is doing. The beach was real close by so we spent alot of free time there. Some of the people had never been to the ocean before, pretty amazing.

So after the conference I came up to Costa Rica to meet up with Dain and a couple friends of ours; Leland (who has a dope house in San Jose and works for Tico Times), Alex C., Josiah and Mikah. All people from the same high school, what a random crew of people to all be meeting up in Costa Rica, thousands of miles from our native home in Eugene. So we only stayed one night in San Jose with Leland before taking off to the Carribean coast to hit the beach before my vacation runs out on the 3rd. The first place we stopped was called Cahuita, and now we are currently in Puerto Viejo right in between Cahuita and the border with Panama. Both places are just little beach towns with high tourist populations. In Cahuita we went for a hike in the park, the trail went along the beach for awhile before jutting into the peninsula jungle. We saw a ton of monkeys and one of them was very used to people, it just walked right up to us and took a banana out of Josiahs hand. Got tons of pictures (will post later) so beautiful. We saw lots of other wildlife too, a bright yellow viper, butterflies, monkeys (3 kinds), and 3 raccoons that ran right up to me and stole the bag I had in my hand that had my camera case with my money and stuff in it. We got it back before the thief before he got too far into the woods. I also got eaten alive by mosquitos and currently look like a mutant. I think I have cured my romanticism of the jungle for a little while. Then it has been raining for the last 24 hours or so...wish it would stop. Well I gotta run but just know I am having a great time and I love you all!~

Love hate relationship with my life

So I just wanted to lay out in a very organized way what I love and hate about my life here in Panama...lets start with hate: 1)Bugs...any and all of them. Cockroaches crawling up my pants in in my food box, scorpions on my clothes and in the walls, spiders in the roof and in my boots, ants (see last blog), chiggers, ticks, mosquitos...I could go on forever. 2) Kids...always asking me for something, peeking through my walls, always talking in Ngobe so I don´t understand, never giving me privacy, making me feel guilty for all I have even though I have very little. 3) Lack of education and understanding of anything...they think water is bad for you, they prefer spending money on coffee even though they are poor, they don´t pay the water fee of 50 cents, they call women sick when they are pregnant and still make them work until they have the baby, they never participate in anything community oriented, they have become totally dependent on outside resources so they think I am only here to give them things, their main pastime is drinking chicha fuerte and beating the shit out of eachother and their wives and children. 4) Their sense of time...meeting at 8am....starts at noon 5) The food...chicken feet should not be eaten and plain white rice and yucca with salt does not constitute a stable diet. Well enough with hate...even though I could go on forever...love 1) I lived in a thatched hut in a little village in the beautiful mountains of Panama...what´s not to love? 2) I actually feel (even though sometimes I have to hold a knife to their neck to get anything done) that I am making a difference, that I am actually teaching them something that will help them. 3) I get to work outside...I love sharing daily work with the people -sembraring y cosecharing: yucca, rice, beans, otoe...learning to pilar, tostar and all the other things you gotta do to prepare the harvest. -tumbaring monte: I love to cut shit with my machete 4) I am learning to speak Ngobe and I have made a chakara...the looks that the old women get in their eyes when they see this...awesome! 5) Hiking (can be on hate list also...depends on how much I am carrying) it is such an amazing feeling to have to hike everywhere...and it is all beautiful. The majority of my work is about 1 hour hike away. I especially love hiking out because I know a cold beer and a piece of chicken are at the end of it. The simple pleasures of life in the campo! 5) I love teaching them about the world, showing them my national geographics, explaining maps and things that happen outside their world. Even if that means explaining for the upteenth time that yes man did land on the moon. 6) Last but not least...partying with all my PCP buddies. Some of the coolest people I have ever met or will ever meet. Well that is it folks...my life put into some lists!


Ants
OK...so I have a couple frustrations and I felt that I needed to get them out. First off...I have developed a rampant fear of ants. I know that sounds silly because they are so small and I have scorpions and other fun insects, but when I see an ant on me my heart rate automatically goes up...alot. I woke up the other night to the feel of something biting my legs. I look down with a flashlight and my bed and legs are covered with thousands of little red fuckers. I freak out, and rightfully so if you ask me...the ants have taken over my floor, stove, bed and much more. I finally kill the majority of them and go back to bed. Unfortunately my adventure does not end there...I had the worst dream about those damn things. So the dream was that ants were eating my entire house...my clothes, my dishes, my camera...everything. I could do nothing to stop them. My brother Nicasio tells me that the only way to get rid of them is to blow up the house. So I escape the slow death of being eaten by ants, and light my house on fire with lots of gasoline. Then I wake up...and think once again I am covered by ants. Anyway...I might sound like a wuss but I am deathly afraid of ants now. So if anyone is looking for a way to scare the shit out of me...there it is. Thanks for listening.

Happy New Year

Just a quick update before I am banished once again to the uncivilized world of the comarca...ok that was a bad joke but I do have to take advantage of communication before I am out in the jungle again. So New Years was absolutely amazing...I could not have had a better time. We spent several days down at the beach near my site, which is really beautiful. Several of my Peace Corps friends joined us in a little cabin on the beach. There were plenty of fun fireworks, live shows, beach parties and other fun stuff to keep us entertained for the duration. We spent the days surfing and swimming, and the nights partying and having a grand old time. There were lots of Panmanians staying at the cabañas where we stayed, so 24 hour reggatone and lots of fireworks that are illegal in the states. We spent New Year´s Eve down the beach at a beach party that consisted of almost 100% foreigners, backpackers and what not. Almost everyone spoke English, so that was definately a change. Needless to say I feel like I sent 2005 out with a bang and am now ready to accept whatever challenges 2006 has to offer. Feliz Año Nuevo!