Updates on my life.

Hey all-

Its been a busy couple of past weeks but I´ll try to remember all of the highlights to keep you updated on how I´ve been doing.

• Yesterday I went down the lower coast to Rio Indio, one of the larger towns in teh area. The Casa del Campesino was having an event which the First Lady of Panama and the Ambassador of Spain in Panama attended along with many people from the local governments and MIDA, the agricultural governmental agency in Panama. I met a few people from Rio Indio and am trying to find spots for new volunteers in the area since all but 6 volunteers in Colon will be leaving next June. It was not as cool as I thought it would be to atternd an event that a First Lady would be at. Plus it was hot and I had nowhere to sit. Boo.
• I saw my first sloth, or mono perezoso (lazy monkey) at the bus stop in Piña the other day. Cool to see for the first time in real life and the guys I was waiting with tell me that people eat them in this area. It didn´t look edible to me.The sloth is in this picture somewhere, I swear.
• I ate my first shark the other weekend. I traveled up to Marin´s community in teh upper coast, a town named Nombre de Dios (Name of God), and we watched some guys cutting up two decent sized sharks on teh beach. After cleaning up the beach for about an hour with some ANAM workers we went to buy some of the shark and cooked it to eat with spaghetti. The verdict: Meh. It was rubbery and I prefer other types of fish more. Next up on the list to eat in NdeD: octopus. Possibly with something other than spaghetti.Proof positive that I ate shark: its severed tail.
• I still have yet to witness my first animal slaughter, be it chicken cow, or carne de monte, but I have seen a couple of butcherings. Here are some pictures from the aftermath of one of them that went down recently in town. (Note: dissected cow pictures ahead. Those of weak stomach, skip over them.)
• And finally: MY HOUSE! Its no mud hut or bamboo shed on stilts, but I´ve definately seen and heard about houses that are bigger and nicer than this. I´d say its about high-to-middle of the PC houses in Panama. It has 2 bedrooms, an inside bath with flushing toilet, a kitchen and a reading area. The sink is outside off to the side under a roofed area and the porch out front now has a hammock! I will throw in pictures on my next post since this computer is giving me guff for trying to upload more pictures now. 

 I hope everyone in Panama is doing well, staying dry, and finding people to stay sane with and that everyone back home is doing well!