Hey you guys! (Goonies saludo)

I had a blue, pinkish, and white piece of chalk (and way too much free-time) the day before the gringos came to town.

Wow, so I just logged in and moderated my comments and didn't realize how many people drop by Panamerican Proceeding from time to time. Hey P, how do I put up a clicker? An old aquiantance from MTU happened to be in Panama, googled peace corps panama and called my cell phone ...that's scary, but he's cool so I didn't mind. Too bad we couldn't meet up.

Shout out to Tim in Somoa. I didn't ever tell you but PC told me there was a good chance of me going to Somoa as well. I was all pumped, but am super happy here. You gotta blog?

The coolest is RCPVs telling me they've been to my site, or area! That's cool.

And Scott, I got more pics of the leg infection...private viewing only. I was gonna send you an email...does this count?

Ok, guerilla blogging to follow (I have to dictionary.com that word everytime I use it): ant attack, the day all the gringos came to town, my shower, da Bears.

Ant Attack - I'm sitting on my porch and Sabina points out the flood of ants coming up my post. The broom doesn't deter them, only sweeps them around. They are pouring in by the thousands, Sabina runs away. I hide under my mosquito net and decide to wait it out as they paint my floor, walls, and ceiling black. They are about 3/4" long with stingers in back and pinchers in front. A battle with 2 cockroachers and 3 good sized Scorpians ensuses which was amazing. The ants just overwhelmed them. Two hours passed and I finally emerged to check the damage. Pot of rice, check. (the pot was too hot for the ants to stand) Water filter, check. Underwear pile, check. The ants were still chomping on the scorp that got caught on my mosquito net, and I just left them alone to clean it up (see below).However it got to be 7ish, time for bed and they were still there. Worse than that, they were eating the scorp from the inside as well - they had eaten through the net! "Ok," I said, "I've had enought of this. It's 7:15 and I need to go to bed." In one fluid motion (Richard Simmons would've been jealous) I screamed and shook out the mosquito net and endured multiple wounds. Apparently you are supposed to just leave the ants be, take a walk, come back in an hour, and enjoy a scorpian and cochroach free house. Trying to deter them just makes them swarm in a frenzy.

The day the gringos came to town - The biggest day in my site happened Thursday when reps from Peace Corps, Waterlines, and Rotary came to my site and ultimately announced I would be receiving the funding to build the aqueduct. Their reaction? "Koin." Body language is such a cultural, funny thing. Here we (I mean "I"), have been preparing for weeks for this visit, there is chance they will announce the funding, your kids and grandkids will finally be able to drink potable water in their lives, and they looked like me during Advanced Topics in Systems Transportation Planning. They mutter "Good" and then proceed to tell my boss how I'm not doing much for them. Thank you, thank you, un aplauso, un aplauso fuersa.


My shower- So tilt your head to the left like this and check out my completed rainwater collection system. 4" PVC collects the rain from my tin roof, and drops it into the bucket. When it fills up, the tubo de escapa lets it out. I have two spigots, one for the shower and one for washing dishes. It has a concrete floor, 3 walls, and I only lack a curtain (so I get to wash a pair of shorts at the same time). I've been using this for the past month. So this proves I've actually been up to something Scott! ha ha.

Da Bears- I hope to make it out to the island to watch the superbowl. I don't know anything about NFL this year. (I mistakenly heard that it was the Pats vs. Bears yesterday). I'm rooting for da Bears, and you should too.