Overdue Update

I've been really busy lately, which is good. Progress continues. Here's what I've been up to during my free-time.

Former Master's International Student, Brian, came down for a visit

The cabanas at Las Lajas Beach.

Horses at sunset.

Hiking up to Jessica's and Adam's site to examine the road for next day's work day.

Fixing the road in trouble spots. During the rainy season, the road washes out and becomes impassable. Locals exacerbate the problem buy removing rocks which only exposes more mud. Here I'm showing how to use the rocks, in layers, to provide stability and traction on the road while allowing the water to drain to the ditches.

August 11th was the kick-off to the water committee training seminar series. Nine different communities are attending this series which runs until October. Here Julie explains this week's homework assignment.

Workers from MINSA (Ministry of Health) also gave up their Saturday to come and give lectures on how to make potable water in the house. We specifically talked about rainwater harvesting, chlorination, and SODIS (solar disinfection).

Another MIer, Seth, came down for visit. We took a boating tour around the Bocas Islands...

...which included dolphin watching and

hanging out with kids at Red Frog Beach. Today I'm on my way to the city to train the new group of volunteers (21 Environmental Health, 21 Community Business Development) on how to design gravity-fed aqueduct systems.

Oh yeah, one more thing! August 16th I celebrated my one-year anniversary in Panama by hauling sand from our town up to our future water tank. Maybe my next entry I can write about everything in my life that's changed during this last year. Have any ideas?