Not a whole lot new to report...

So I´ve hit a slow point in my service here. The coffee group I´m working with has been arranging their inaguration of the coffee peeling machine they finally are figuring out how to work and the other group of farmers in town are in the middle of a huge land battle over thier farms. Neither of these are things that I can really help with, so I´ve been keeping myself busy with garden work and other small projects. Next month I´m heading over the the Comarca Ngobe Bugle to help with an Agribusiness seminar and then go visit a couple of freinds in their sites in the area and I have a new trainee visiting me right before that, so May will be a much busier month.

The following are some pictures I took of the animals around my house.

This is the dog that recently adopted me. I gave it food a couple of times and now it just hangs around the house all day. It even started to follow me out into the monte when I go out to do work. The kids in town tell me its name is La Niña.

A little hard to see, but in the second hole down on this dead palm trunk is an owl. The tree is slowly falling over, hopefully not right into my house. Some kids were out trying to knock down the tree the other day and it took off into the jungle.

Monkeys! I´ve been trying to get a good picture of some of them for a while but they´re never around when I have my camera and always are when I don´t. These ones were hanging out in the trees above the bus stop this morning.

Carnavales! Friends! Carne de Monte!

Alright, so its been a while since I last updated my blog, I know. But this one is longer than normal, so it all evens out in the end.

In mid-February, my frind Ben from the U of Oregon came down from his job as a teacher in New York to spend a week in Panama with me. We started out by heading to Chitre, the capital of the Hererra province. Why did we go there you ask? One word answer: Carnaval. Now the Carnaval celebration in Panama isnt the biggest or most famous in the world, but you can trust me in full confidence that it is still one heckuva party. Below are a few pictures of the celebrations (Not my pictures by the way, I was afraid to take out my camera since it was pretty much guaranteed to get stolen if I did.)

This is a picture of the cathedral in the central square of Chitre, around which the main celebration was held. Our hostel was just down the street from the main entrance to the party and people passed by our balcony (we were on the second floor of the building) all day and night long. Plus the music was basically 24 hours and right on the street below us. It was a good spot to be at.


This is a pisture of the celebration in Las Tablas, down the road in Los Santos, but it gives you an idea of how packed the streets were during the day.

Here are the famous Culecos, water tankers with giant hoses, from which people on top of the truck soak the people on the street. It was a great way to cool down from the heat, and since we were an easily identifiable group of gringos walking around, we were drenched constantly.

A sample of the costumes that the queens wore. I tried to find one of the queens in Chitre, but alas, I cant seem to locate any. These are from the capital city I believe. Anyway, the queen`s parade would wind its way through the plaza every couple of hours or so and her band would follow her down the road. Following behind these floats was basically the only way to get further into the crowded streets.

The queen`s band. Good stuff, it was all brass and drums and they played really catchy tunes.

After 3 days of nonstop Carnavaleing, we headed up to my community in Colon and took a hike into the San Lorenzo national park. Here we are at the top of the gigantic hill that you need to head down to get there. That valley behind us is where we were headed.

Some of my good friends in PC Panama at the beach one night. We have fun together, clearly.

And finally, a few pictures of carne de monte, or bush meat. The first is an iguana, slowly smoking over some coals. February is iguana season, when they start to produce eggs. The people eat the meat, usually cooked with shredded coconut, and the eggs, which are boiled and have a soft shell.

This is a quarter of a ñece, which kind of looks like a cross between a rabbit, a rat, and a pig. The meat is good when its fried, but then again what meat isn`t good fried?

So Carnaval was an absolute blast and I can`t wait to do it again next year. If anyone is interested in experiencing it for themselves, let me know and we can try to work something out as far as accomidations and other logistics go. Other than that, I have been working with a couple of groups of farmers in my town and the surrounding communities and preparing to start up more home gardens and the garden at the school. I`m going to be working on the training garden for the next group of volunteers that arrives in April and will be training them as well later on down the road.

I hope everyone is in good health back home and the cold isn`t getting to you too much!

Siga la vida, arriba la luna...

While I have nothing new and exciting to report right now, I figured I´d just drop this post on everyone to let you know that ANYONE CAN NOW COMMENT ON MY BLOG!! Yes it´s true. This news is bigger than Obama´s visit to the Dali Lama, bigger than the Toyota recall, bigger even than the upcoming Super Bowl. Just thought I´d inform anyone out there who may actually read this thing.

Also, I´m going to a Project Management Leadership seminar this upcoming week, followed by a short jaunt over to Panama City to pick up Ben and then we are off to Chitre to experience the Panamanian Carnaval! That should make for a number of good posts in the future. Stay tuned.

In the mean time, enjoy this picture of the Panama City Skyline at night.

Back in Panama...

Off to La Union once again later today with my 3 giant bags filled with clothes, books, and food (Thanks Mom and Dad!). I had a lot of fun this past week seeing everyone again and hope you all can come visit me at some point in time when I`m down here. Sorry to those of you who I didn`t see more often, but I was very busy while up north. Following are some of the pictures I took to show everyone back home, so if I showed them to you already, you won`t be missing anything if you stop at this point.

A small tipico concert, La Union de Piña style.

The Panama City skyline from the window of the Costa Azul hotel in the Bella Vista neighborhood.

A cow horn and some kids from town. One way to pass time during the evening.

WHy yes, I am an Accordian Hero. This was my second lesson.

A Titi monkey that one of the families keeps as a pet. They can sell them for about $20 in the city apparently. This one screamed the entire time I was within 10 feet of it.

My buddy Daniel and his kid Jonathan. And my machete.

ABdiel and Miguel at thier family`s swimming hole made by putting a dam into a creek. I just found it and figure I`ll be swimming there many times during the summer.

Some of the colegio aged kids in town hanging out in front of the Catholic church.

The iguana Avelino and I killed near the river. It was delicious.

So there are alligators in my river...

So the other day I was out wandering around the town (which I do a lot fo these days) and ran into my neighbor, Capira. I work with him in the local coffee association, so we have talked a lot and gone out to work and drink guarapo a few times. He had returned from the river with another guy from town. They were out hunting for baby alligators. He says he can sell them for $20 each in Colon city as pets. Now I was under the impression that we didn`t have anything of the sort in our river, but it turns out we do. In abundance. And they reportedly grow 7 feet (!) long. I`ll let you know when I acutally see one that big.

And in honor of the 113th Civil War tonight, I will post this link for you all to enjoy. Banned by the UO Athletic Department for its use of the duck mascot but loved by Duck fans everywhere, I now present you with I love my Ducks (I Smell Roses):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hrjpe1VCNg

First blood! (Plus my new nevera)

So I was out at a mini-junta the other day (a junta is when a bunch of people get together to work on something) cleaning out some monte for an area to plant frijoles. Josengo (whose property we were working on) and I went off to the next ridge over to try and find where his dog went to. He kept calling ti and calling it but it only got further away. To make a long story short (and I'll be sure to give you all the longer version when I come home next month), we ended up killing the conejo pintado (litterly painted rabbit, though it looks more like a pig to me) that the dog had cornered in its hole/home. Below are the post-hunt pictures. (WARNING: beheaded carcass pictures follow)


The hunting party and the kill. They tell me that this one is pretty small at about 7 lbs or so, but it felt heavy enough trying to carry it back from the farm.

A close up of the kill. Gruesome? Yes. Awesome? Absolutely.

Cleaning the meat off in preperation for dinner. I meant to get a picture of the finished meal but I was so hungry by the time it was finally cooked I scarfed it down without thinking about getting a photo of it.

And today's extra about my house: my refrigerator! Now I know all you TEA volunteers out there are like "Pff. You didn't have a refrigerator until now? Please. I'm the one who has it rough. My wireless internet hasn't worked for weeks and the water keeps shutting off." And I really have nothing in retaliation to say to you. You've got it rough indeed. Anyway, this is a big deal for me, mostly since I can have cold water to come back to after a long days work in the monte. So what does a volunteer such as myself keep in the refrigerator? Let's find out.

Looks like we've got day old rice in the blue bowl, some Japanese oranges in a bag, Various sauces (including my imported Srirachi sauce, thank you Mom and Dad) plus some jelly in the door. Plenty of water, and some seed packets where there should be eggs. Well played if I do say so myself.

And finally, the kitchen is complete. Or as complete as it is going to get. I really think the fridge adds to the fung shuei of the room, don't you?

Panamanian Independence Day(s)

Hey hey hey Rudy. (10 points if you get the reference) The 3rd of November was the first of many Panamanian independence days. Depending on who I ask in my community, the country (or parts of the country) have anywhere between 2 and 5 days of independence. The 3rd is independence from Colombia, later on the 28th of this month (I think) is independence from Spain, the 5th was a day of celebration for Colon's independence, whew. The list goes on. Below are some pics I took of the presentation that the school put on for the community. It was about 4 and a half hours long, so you know they put some time into preparing it.

The students lined up in front of the school in the morning to sing the national anthem.

My buddy Brian in traditional Panamanian dress. He's a pretty funny kid.


The parade that's preparing to file through town. The flag being carried in front is the national flag of Panama and the second is the banner of the town, Union.

The percussion section of the parade. I hope this marks the end of hours long practices at the school on these things. It gets old real fast and the kids don't know the meaning of "bang the drum lightly". Maybe its because they don't understand English.

The gente of Union anxiously awaiting the program to start in the school.

Singing a song about Panama, which went something like "Viva Panama, llora Panama" if memory serves correctly. One of the other kids in town, Miguel, is tocaring that tanque with all his might.

A short melodrama about the different provinces of Panama. While slightly unorganized and though a lack of attention was blatantly apparent from the actors, it was interesting to hear about the different parts of the country.

A traditional Panamanian dance done by 8 of the students. Good stuff if you ask me.

So there you have it, the 3rd in a nutshell. The next day was Flag Day, and Union was supposed to have a discoteca on the basketball court, but the people from out of town who came in all left early and by the time I showed up around 9pm after returning from catching a World Series game, the music had ended and no one was dancing. On Colon Day, the 5th, I experienced one of the stranger things I have seen while here.

The men had strung a live duck by its feet upside down on a rope over the main road. They then rode under it as fast as they could on their horses and tried to yank its head off with their bare hands as they passed under. It took about 15 tries between 4 of them before it finally popped off. Needless to say, much beer was consumed in the process. The vent drew quite a crowd too with much ooh-ing and ahh-ing to be heard.

I have my communtiy presentation to give on Friday and I'm getting my refrigerator today so things just keep moving along! Hope everyone is doing well!