Panamerican Proceeding

it's been awhile

2008-10-11T12:01:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since my last post, so I'll try to catch up a little here. My wonderful girlfriend got me a new camera for my birthday, so you can thank her for the photos.

My 27th birthday dinner! It was the best meal I've had in Panama in the last two years.

I stayed at Adam G.'s house while working in the Comarca where we went for Tech Week. Nice eh? Ha ha ha, sorry Adam. He also was suffering from "pink eye" that week. So Adam is ending his service there and for the last two months has been sharing his site with a new PCV. Do you think our boss asked either of them if we could/should come there to build the latrines? Sadly, that's how things operate around here.

I facilitated a working group of 8 new trainees building a composting latrine for Tech Week. They were a really great group, good attitude. If you notice there aren't any Panamanians in the photo - that's because we didn't receive one ounce of help from any locals. This goes against my attitude of trying to work with people, training people. Granted this week was meant as training for the new trainees, but we did the "we came, we built, we left" model for Tech Week for the last two years now and practically none of the past latrines are being used. To me, this goes against everything the Peace Corps stands for, or should stand for, not to mention fostering the "hand-out culture" already in place in indigenous areas here.

But if you ask me, our latrine came out really great. The walls will be the responsibility of the homeowner to supposedly signify the "shared labor", but we provided the tin sheets for the roof.

My group: Jesse, Kaitlin, me, Meredith, Garav, Duncan, Eli, Dave, the director of the EH Program Tim, and David.

And then in the afternoon everyday I gave a 4 hr lecture on aqueduct design. This lecture covered basic surveying, calculating demand, headloss theory, the calculations how to size tubes, how to size a storage tank, and designing multiple networks. Basically this is a semester long class of Fluid Dynamics squeezed into 4 hours, but I argue that every volunteer should be aware of the concepts at least since very few rural Panamanian engineers actually know how to design aqueducts here. In fact, most rural engineers here don't even now how to survey. (And it's not like they're begging us to teach them either if you know what I mean. Most are friends of whatever political party just won local elections.) After this 4 hr class, I would argue that any one of the PCVs I trained is better educated than the rural engineers in charge here.

So last Sunday, Oct. 5 I moved out of my site for good. It took my neighbors exactly 1 min before they rummaged through all the stuff I left behind. The only friendly family in town invited me to a dinner the night before where they thanked me for my service, my friendship, and everything I offered them. The other 100 some people did nothing, no goodbyes, no thank you's, they only rushed to my house afterward to see what I left. At dinner this family told me they hate living in San Francisco de Piriatí as well, can't stand how rude people are, and will be moving in two months as well (they moved there shortly before I did). They told me it was killing them to see me move here and try so hard only to have people treat me so poorly. So Sunday morning Loyda came to help move me out. We drove into town with all my stuff, bought a newspaper, found an apartment, moved her out of her old place, and moved into our new place all that same day. It's the nicest place I've lived in the last 8 years of my life (college, grad school, and Peace Corps). For more pictures of our place check out here.

So now I'm in the city doing all my Close of Service (COS) medical checkups, exit interviews, paperwork, etc. Highlights include a dinner with an NGO called IPADEHM, a luncheon at the Ambassador's residence, and a rented party bus for one last night out on the town.

I'll post again after I'm officially done with Peace Corps here in Panama to close my service and to officially close Panamerican Proceeding. Five more days!!!!

Next few weeks

2008-09-13T11:42:00.003-05:00

I promise to get some pictures up one of these days. Last week I was a facilitator at a 4-day conference called "Strengthening Water Committees." If it sounds vague, that's because it was. The way I see it, we missed a huge opportunity to actually tackle existing problems between rural water committees, Peace Corps, and the Ministry of Health (MINSA). Instead, it turned out to be a mixed soup of MINSA reps repeating the exisiting rules, rural water reps bashfully lying, and Peace Corps jumping in and being cut off with "Yes, but..." Not the easiest place to be a facilitator, nor a conference planner. Glad I didn't allow conference planning to be dumped on me the last minute by the office, like I knew would happen. After two years one starts to learn.

The new Environmental Health group of 16 boys and 2 girls are currently down here training (God help them). Next week I'm going out to the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle with them for a week to help run Tech Week (Field Based Training). During the mornings we'll be building a composting latrine and in the afternoons they'll have lessons on aqueduct theory, construction and maintenance. Against my advice, we are going back to the exact same site as last year. (More on this after I'm down with Peace Corps since I'm not allowed to say anything bad about Peace Corps on this blog.)

After that week, I'll have a couple of days in my site before our last regional meeting, closing medical evaluations, and the final week of paper signing. Highlights that week include a luncheon with the U.S. Ambassador Barbara Stevenson and a final group party. I´m officially done October 16th and on the 17th I'm flying to Peru with Loyda for a month. Leaving on the next day makes me nervous because I know the Peace Corps office will screw up the money they owe me. Like I ended my last post, counting the days, counting the days.....

Oct 16th

2008-08-19T13:07:00.002-05:00

So my last post was kind of a downer. The conference was informative, not great, mostly review, but I did learn that my final day is October 16. My main remaining agenda items at the moment include building a composting latrine in my site for the school, organizing "tech week" for the new trainees, consulting on two remaining aqueduct projects for other volunteers, moving out, and completing the heap of paperwork Peace Corps requires to close one's service. I won't have much to report between now and October and won't be posting many pictures either since I don't have a camera. Just winding things down.....waiting......waiting.......

Welcome Back

2008-08-02T11:27:00.005-05:00

So I was out of my community for nearly a month visiting my family in the states and finally returned last week. I walked in as the sun was fading, dreading cleaning my house (I've killed a snake, several scorpions, six bats, and many, many cockroaches to date). Saludos to the neighbors as I opened the door and let all the creepy-crawlys get out. "How was the United States?" they asked.

Most follow-up questions revolved around my Panamanian girlfriend, if she was afraid of the airplane, did she like the food, etc, but after about 10 minutes we ran out of things to say. This seems to always happen and it's really frustrating.

Of course I thought all the incessant badgering in the past was frustrating too. (Think "How much does this cost?" dozens of times a day). The problem is we just can't connect, and neither I nor my community is really trying anymore at this point. After the 10 minutes it was life back to normal, me in my house, them in their house, no one talking to anyone - and rain, lots and lots of rain.

Most people in my community didn't even know I was gone, nor that I have been here for the last 8 months looking for ways to help them help themselves. Most aren't interested - they'd rather complain. I'm just the white guy that lives here who seems friendly but I don't really know him. Why is he here? Why am I here?

After some other Panamanian visitors came to my house the other day they asked, "How could you live here, people are so rude!" Another said I should join the TV show "Survivor" because she thought I could surely win. They brought me food and as we were making some breakfast it wasn't long before there was a line of kids and adults outside my door looking for handouts. And now Peace Corps is thinking about putting another volunteer in the area. I told them I thought that was a horrible idea (a lot of safety concerns in that village too), but they think their two hours visiting the community is worth more than my year here. Same thing happened to the community I'm currently in. Who else will tell them how it really is? What is it they want to hear?

In a few days I leave for our Close of Service Conference with the thirty-some PCVs I came to Panama with. There will be many stories, reflection, probably some complaining, maybe some crying, but lots and lots of memories. It's good our minds only remember the finer moments.

My experience wasn't one of greatness. I don't know if I'd recommend Peace Corps to others, I don't know if it was worth it for me or my communities. I could argue either side. We all tried so hard, but everything depends on the communities, everything depends on the people. I wasn't a bad volunteer.

But it's winding down and there are more in my group who loved it than those who didn't, and several are staying for 3rd year extensions. It's sad I won't have much to contribute at this conference but not every Peace Corps experience is one of success. I know some of this was my fault, maybe I was too patient, or not enough, or was too hard, or too soft. Doesn't matter. To add insult to injury, I've lost all my photos and videos from the last two years. (Don't trust online storage sites.)

Or maybe I'm just a little down right now after saying goodbye to one of my best friends down here who is heading back for Law School. Reading his blog and others (links can be found on the left) reminds me how all our experiences are so different.

Trip to Wisconsin

2008-07-19T14:35:00.010-05:00

The Monona Terrace in Madison.

The whole family over the 4th of the July.

Sunset over the lake.

Enjoying my nephew's baseball game.

Tour of Aspirus Hospital in Wausau.

Tour of the 3,000 head Van Der Geest Dairy in Merrill.

Deer are everywhere!

The Colby Cheese House.

Loyda learning to waterski.

Family baseball game.

Canoeing around the lake.

Playing with my new niece, Grace.

Art Fair in the Square in Madison.

Mmmm.......nachos........ Madison Mallards baseball game.

Tour of Meriter Hospital in Madison.

Hanging out with Dad and Grandma.

It was great seeing everyone, thanks for all the hospitality, see you all again soon!

New Cell Phone Number

2008-06-29T10:50:00.003-05:00

Yup, that's right, I think I'm on my 4th or 5th cell phone number now. But the good news is that I finally have reception in my site (if I go outside, face north, and pat my head and rub my belly at the same time).

507-6466-5162

Hiking Cerro Hoya

2008-06-21T17:35:00.007-05:00

So we decided to spend a few days hiking in Cerro Hoya National Park. Not one person I've run into knows this park even exists, in fact, neither did I until Freddie ask me to kill a few days and a few calories bumming around. Sure, what the hell...

Gearing up in the hotel before we left on the 4 hour bus ride.

We got to the last town on the road and left around 6pm with our guide Juan to hike to his parent's house about 2 hours away.

We got there around 8ish and were treated to a tour where they showed us their wild boars. They smell horrible but apparently the meat is pretty decent. We slept for a few hours and woke up around 1am and were treated to a nice big breakfast of rice, the said wild boar (tastes like bacon), and river shrimp. We put their 6 dogs in the house and were on the trail by 2:30am. We were told it was mostly uphill and we could take a nice long rest at the summit and watch the sun rise.

Well it was mostly uphill, in fact, it was ALL uphill. About 5 hours of straight uphill! I was pooped and obviously the weakest link. I had to stop and re-catch my breath every couple of minutes. The incline was probably the steepest one could hike without using arms to pull one's self. But we finally got to "Corn Flake Point" as the locals call it (seriously) and took some time to contemplate why we thought this was a good idea.

I have no clue how this picture showed up on my camera. At some point I must've given my camera to somebody and they took a picture of me from behind. My pack was about 20-25lbs I guess which isn't bad, but not necessarily light either. I had one change of clothes, a two man tent, food for 3 days, a bed sheet, water filter, sleeping mat, rain fly for my pack, rain jacket, and 2 liters of water.

Our guide Juan plucking the Pava that he shot with his 16 gauge. Later his brother shot another one. Pava (this was the first time I've ever heard of them) are like a big pheasant or a small turkey. Around this same time 3 of Juan's dogs showed up. His parents let them out of the house a few hours after we left and they tracked us only taking a few hours compared to our 5 or 6. We didn't realize that the dogs showing up was going to be a problem, but Juan was pissed. The next day was found out why.

I have no idea how I mustered the strength to smile...ha ha.

Around 9am we reached the summit but couldn't see anything because we were in a cloud and it was pouring. We didn't stay. We hiked a few more hours mostly downhill to their pre-arranged campsite. They sometimes stay here when they go out hunting. They had tarps and pots and pans, and there was a little creek nearby for water. We later learned that what was thought was the summit wasn't even it, somehow we had gotten a little lost or something.

Mmmmm......pava......

Adam and Freddie chowing down.

The view from our campsite. The goal was to wake up early and follow the creek until it formed into a river until it formed into an ocean. We really didn't know how far it was going to be nor did the guides. We figured about 6 or 7 hours, we were wrong. At the beach that was supposed to be there, we were going to meet the boat that was supposed to be there, supposedly at 6am.

Adam and Adam. There were four of us in total with 2 guides and now 3 dogs. I was the least in shape of the 9. At some point during the second day, maybe it was after we saw our 3rd poisonous snake, or fell for the billionth time, or kicked up rocks at the guys steeply descending in front of us that we realized we'd really be screwed if something happened. We were at least a day and a half hike to the nearest public phone (which wasn't working when we passed it) and even from there probably another 4 hours in a car to the nearest hospital.

We diverted from the river a few times to avoid cliffs and found this tree. It was about 20' in diameter and there was a hole underneath one of it's roots. We figured maybe a jaguar or ocelot lived there or something. Shockingly to us, the other guide starts crawling into it! "Ah...hmmm...ah....maybe that isn't such a great idea man...." About a minute later without a sound he finally yells, "Hey guys, you gotta come in here and check this out!"

Sure enough, he was inside the tree! So the four of us crawled in and easily stood inside the tree. It was completely hollow, maybe 18' in diameter on the inside. Crazy! We joked that this tree would be a better house than where we are all currently living.

We got back on the river route, then we'd backtrack because we get to a waterfall and we'd have to find a way to get down. As the day wore on, we even jumped a few times to save time. Hence the problem with the dogs. We must have crossed that river 50 times that day, many times with a dog on our shoulder.

So the rock jumping continued for the next several hours. We kept thinking we'd see the ocean around any one of the bends. Several times we thought we saw the ocean. Since the first sighting to the last real one, was probably about 5 hours of hiking.

We finally got to the sea around 9pm (we left camp at 7am) in the pitch black darkness. I think that was the tiredest I've ever been in my life. I bathed in a nearby creek (the tide was up and the sea was much to dangerous in the dark). We ate the last of our food and tossed and turned ourselves to sleep.

Well we had plenty of time to take group pictures waiting for the boat. Here is Adam, Freddie, Adam and I. We got up at 4am to start a fire as a signal and to filter water for the day. By 6am we had our water, we had our bags packed, and we had sunlight. The only thing we didn't have was our boat. The guides hoped the driver would let the dogs on...if he came. And somehow we forgot to mention there'd be guides with us when we paid the boat guy $200 to make the 4 hour drive he'd never done before. Then to top that off, Freddie found a crumbled up $20 in his pocket that the boat man never got. Does he think we are trying to short change him? We decided that at 9am we would start talking about Plan B. Not many choices though - go back the way we came or try to find a new route out heading east rather than north. We were out of food and had 3 dogs, all of our gear was wet adding probably another 5-10 pounds, and I had at least 5 blisters on each foot.

Well the boat guy showed up around 8:30 and we all giggled like school girls. We were a little nervous getting past the breakers (remember Tom Hanks in Castaway?) but after a few tries we finally got it. We settled in for the 4 hour cruise back to the road. Well the guides realized before we did that they couldn't take the dogs on the buses, so they had to get off at some random beach and hike back to their house. Freddie figured it was maybe another half-day of hiking but there were plenty of houses on the way.

We didn't smell very good as we all piled into a minivan (aka Bus) with all our stinky gear. We asked ourselves if we'd every do the hike again. Nobody wanted to say no, so I finally did, and the general agreement was that we wouldn't recommend it to others. But we all admitted that we were happy we did it.

Isla Grande and Portobelo

2008-06-21T16:46:00.004-05:00

An old fort in Portobelo. A lot of the gold and silver that came from South America came thru this port on it's way to Spain. Every so often you heard stories of some local finding some artifact or treasure.

The Catholic Church in Portobelo where the famous Black Christ Festival is held every year invoking pilgrimages from all parts.

Max and Krista, former PCVs from Honduras (friends from Madison), and Loyda and I headed out to Isla Grande.

The view of the backside of the island from the lighthouse. This also shows the rock point we had to hike around as we kinda took a wrong turn back from the lighthouse. About a 2 hour detour, no water, high noon, fond memories.

Model of the Black Christ at low tide.

Loyda and I from the lighthouse.

This is a random pic of an AIDS vigil I participated in a few days earlier. Has nothing to do with this particular trip. I accidentally downloaded it and Blogger wouldn't let me delete it for some reason. There were about a dozen PCVs there.

Mmmmm.....fried fish, coleslaw, and fried plantains. Washed down with a few Balboas.

Max and Krista on the beach. I went to school with Max and we were both involved in Engineers Without Borders.

Hiking around the rock point. Good thing the tide wasn't up!

Mom's Visit

2008-05-23T11:05:00.006-05:00

Visiting the original host family. Gerardo Jr., Neris, Nicole, Gerardo, and Sarita.

Enjoying the Boquete flowers.

Flat Stanly at the Panama Canal.

Hanging out with the neighbors.

Fried fish and patacones at Las Lajas beach.

Las Lajas beach.

Verenero flowers.

The school in San Francisco de Piriati where I live (Grades 1-6). Mom helped me teach an English classes where they learned "Hello" and "Nice to meet you." After the initial shyness, each student practiced their new phrases with the visitor.

Mom playing "Uno" with Bella.

I think in this picture I'm explaining Einstein's Theory of Relativity. I'm also apparently sweating a lot. It's a hard concept to explain.

Uno!

A souvenir for Wisconsin, ´cept don't think palms grow there.

Trip to "The Valley"

2008-03-31T11:14:00.007-05:00

Last month Loyda and I took a trip to El Valle de Antón (The Valley of Anton) which was formed when a volcano blew its top over 1,000 years ago. This area is known for its cool climate, flowers, hot springs, and wildlife. Here I am walking around the grounds of the zoo. The landscape reminded me a lot of Ireland.

The weather here is in the mid 70s-low 80s year round, sort of an eternal spring.

Beautiful grounds at the zoo, plus we were the only ones there.

Overlooking the valley at sunset and watching the evening clouds roll in.

The zoo posts some really weird and ugly species. This one must have gotten out of his cage. At least I think it's a "he."

My beautiful tour guide.

The flower market downtown.

These flowers are called vereneros which mean "summer flowers." They come in a full range of colors and bloom for a couple of months. Parrot cages are in the background.

Loyda and I had a great time on this little trip and we are looking forward to being tour guides to a very special visitor that is coming in April.

Most zoos in Latin America are very depressing places. This one was a little better, but still kind of depressing, but it crossed as a spectacular garden as well.

The catholic chuch in El Valle.

Piedra Pintada or "Painted Rocks." These are pre-Columbian maps that might actually be rechalked by local kids to help the tourists from getting lost....he he.

At the Painted Rocks. If you are wondering why I have the same shirt on in all the pictures, it's because I'm a pig like that. Why dirty more than one shirt?

Mud bath at a spa.

This species is a type of "bird of paradise" I'm told. Reminds me of my old house in Bocas has I had these all over my front yard. Oh yeah, on a sad note, my camera injured itself and is currently undergoing surgery in the US. Hopefully he will recover quickly and make it back down here soon.

Last couple of weeks

2008-03-02T15:09:00.003-06:00

Doing Yoga with the kids. Here is Carolina (11), Araselis (14), and Flor or "Nini" (10).
Loyda came for a visit the other day and slept....
and slept....
and slept. I think she had a good time.
An old picture I dug up taken in the highlands of Cerro Punta.

This is my neighbor Bella (6) and one of my best friends. Here she's showing off her "babies."
At the Wuonaan Congreso. The Wuonaan are an indigenous group and meet every 5 years with their heads of state to make the laws for the next five years. I came to watch but somehow we got on stage to explain how Peace Corps can work with the Wuonaan. The girl in the middle, Joanna, lives in this village and they love to paint her.
It was funny. Their last point of business was to decide where to have the next congreso. First they voted on how they were going to vote. After 4 different communities were decided, they lined up under each one to count heads.
The congreso featured competitive dances and songs at night. Three judges (think American Idol) gave their 1-10 ratings. Many local magazine photographers came out for this special experience.
We ran into this Aussie trying to drive from Alaska to Argentina and thru the Darien Gap. Personally I think he's crazy for not just boating it to Columbia. Don't know where he is going to find Aussie bike parts (or a road for that matter). He was in town to hire a Wounaan guide.

Still kicking & photos to prove it

2008-02-13T10:57:00.007-06:00

These are the "culecos" during Carnival (think Mardi Gras without beads). There are parades, street dances, water spraying...overall locura (craziness).

The tradition is that the two sides of town (High Street and Low Street, or rich vs. poor) compete with their represented queens, bands and floats.

Playa del Toro near Pedesí where Mick Jagger, Brad and Angelina, Mel Gibson, and many other famous people are buying land.

The juvenil world series (ages 16-18) between Chiriqui and Panamá Oeste. International scouts come in groves. It occurred to me the other day how much people pay to visit the beaches that I can enjoy for free. Aren't I mean? This beach is called Punta Barco (Boat Point).

Fisherman returning for the day.

I went to translate for a medical mission performing eye surgeries in the Darien.

This particular surgery was to remove cataracts. This elderly women suffered from blindness due to cataracts for the past seven years. I helped her walk out of the operation room 30 mins later where she saw her grandkids for the first time.

Two other volunteers and I served as translators in this particular room. Here are my new neighboors Melissa (10 mins) and Jennifer (45 mins).

My new room. My bed is made of wood with a 2" foam pad to sleep on. I have a gas burner to cook but there is no electricity so I eat pretty basic.

This is my water tap and shower and I use my neighbor's latrine. The water here isn't potable for me but I filter it to drink. Each person with a tap is supposed to pay $1/month.

My neighbor preparing Iguana for dinner. The iguana is semi-endangered in this area (Editor's Update: iguanas are actually, come to find out, very endangered and illegal to hunt. They taste good though). They come down to the sand by the rivers to lay their eggs in Jan and Feb and thus are hunted by dogs for their rich meat. Some places people farm iguanas to sell.

The view from my new house.

This is my new house which I'm sharing with the school teacher and the landlord's daughter. We each have private rooms and split the rent of $20/month. Oh by the way...this pictures are to prove I am actually working. It's just that it's hard to pull out a $300 camera to take pictures of a child who is hungry if you know what I mean. Hence most of my pictures are from my vacations.

Peace Corps Volunteer Quality

2008-01-21T11:40:00.000-06:00

THE NEW YORK TIMES
January 9, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Too Many Innocents Abroad
By ROBERT L. STRAUSS
Antananarivo, Madagascar

The Peace Corps recently began a laudable initiative to increase the number of volunteers who are 50 and older. As the Peace Corps' country director in Cameroon from 2002 until last February, I observed how many older volunteers brought something to their service that most young volunteers could not: extensive professional and life experience and the ability to mentor younger volunteers.

However, even if the Peace Corps reaches its goal of having 15 percentof its volunteers over 50, the overwhelming majority will remain recently minted college graduates. And too often these young volunteers lack the maturity and professional experience to be effective development workers in the 21st century.

This wasn't the case in 1961 when the Peace Corps sent its first volunteers overseas. Back then, enthusiastic young Americans offered something that many newly independent nations counted in double and even single digits: college graduates. But today, those same nations have millions of well-educated citizens of their own desperately in need of work. So it's much less clear what inexperienced Americans have to offer.

The Peace Corps has long shipped out well-meaning young people possessing little more than good intentions and a college diploma. What the agency should begin doing is recruiting only the best of recent graduates - as the top professional schools do - and only those older people whose skills and personal characteristics are a solid fit for the needs of the host country.

The Peace Corps has resisted doing this for fear that it would cause thenumber of volunteers to plummet. The name of the game has been getting volunteers into the field, qualified or not.

In Cameroon, we had many volunteers sent to serve in the agriculture program whose only experience was puttering around in their mom and dad's backyard during high school. I wrote to our headquarters in Washington to ask if anyone had considered how an American farmer would feel if a fresh-out-of-college Cameroonian with a liberal arts degree who had occasionally visited Grandma's cassava plot were sent to Iowa to consult on pig-raising techniques learned in a three-month crash course. I'm pretty sure the American farmer would see it as a publicity stunt and a bunch of hooey, but I never heard back from headquarters.

For the Peace Corps, the number of volunteers has always trumped the quality of their work, perhaps because the agency fears that an objective assessment of its impact would reveal that while volunteers generate good will for the United States, they do little or nothing to actually aid development in poor countries. The agency has no comprehensive system for self-evaluation, but rather relies heavily on personal anecdote to demonstrate its worth.

Every few years, the agency polls its volunteers, but in my experience it does not systematically ask the people it is supposedly helping what they think the volunteers have achieved. This is a clear indication of how the Peace Corps neglects its customers; as long as the volunteers are enjoying themselves, it doesn't matter whether they improve the quality of life in the host countries. Any well-run organization must know what its customers want and then deliver the goods, but this is something the Peace Corps has never learned.

This lack of organizational introspection allows the agency to continue sending, for example, unqualified volunteers to teach English when nearly every developing country could easily find high-caliber English teachers among its own population. Even after Cameroonian teachers and education officials ranked English instruction as their lowest priority (after help with computer literacy, math and science, for example), headquarters in Washington continued to send trainees with little or no classroom experience to teach English in Cameroonian schools. One volunteer told me that the only possible reason he could think of for having been selected was that he was a native English speaker.

The Peace Corps was born during the glory days of the early Kennedy administration. Since then, its leaders and many of the more than190,000 volunteers who have served have mythologized the agency into something that can never be questioned or improved. The result is an organization that finds itself less and less able to provide what the people of developing countries need - at a time when the United States has never had a greater need for their good will.

Robert L. Strauss has been a Peace Corps volunteer, recruiter and country director. He now heads a management consulting company.

Ok, did you get all that? Whew... This op-ed appeared in the NY Times and has since been swirling around the PC gossip circles. I particulary invite the curious reader to view the plethora of online responses (I didn't want to post them all). So the million dollar question...what do I think of all this? Ok, anybody that knows me well knows I'm usually the last person to drink the Kool-Aid. In fact, I agree with a lot of Mr. Strauss's points on the condition that Peace Corps is a development agency. But it's not.

It's taking me a long time to realize this but Peace Corps is actually a "culture agency." Sure we like to get projects done, but any true goal-driven volunteer will quickly realize his or her failure if they only concentrate on projects. The Peace Corps Mission has 3 goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Note that only Goal 1 actually deals with projects - and only partially. Goals 2 and 3 deal with culture. How does one measure "culture?" That is Mr. Strauss's fundamental flaw in his arguement; he only focuses on meeting Goal 1.

But that doesn't make our lives as volunteers any easier. Our communities, our counterparts, our governmental agencies, and the American tax-payer all base our "success" on our tangible results. I did too. After all, quantifiable end results are part of our culture.

(After thought) - Maybe I should go back to tourist photos with cheezy captions. Anybody make it thru all that? What do you think? Feel free to express your culture with never-ending commentaries.

(Second after thought) - If you now think of Peace Corps as something different than you originally did, I suggest Mr. Pequeño´s latest post "So you want to be a Peace Corps Volunteer?" from Panama. rlittle.blogspot.com

New Mailing Address

2008-01-17T11:12:00.000-06:00

Yeah Everybody, seems like every update is either a new cell phone number or new mailing address. In that respect, this update is very similiar. The complex where our office is got renumbered so our building number changed. Therefore, my new mailing address is:

Cuerpo de Paz, Atencíon: (my name)
Edif. 104, 1 Piso Ave.
Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panamá, Republica de Panamá

This address works for either packages or letters. Thanks!

5 cell phones in 17 months

2008-01-02T13:46:00.000-06:00

It's not that they break, it's because I lose them in buses. My new number is:

6791-1735

Moving in

2008-01-01T16:42:00.001-06:00

I spent the last week moving in to my new site, San Francisco de Piriati. It went alright, but I was bothered all week by allergies which I suspect come from mold, dust from the road, and the spring-time weather. I'm going to try to move houses when I get back, away from the road and with a concrete floor.

Christmas day I attended a mass given by the local priest, Padre Pablo in the neighboring community of Quebrada Cali. He is actually American, and actually from Ripon, Wisconsin. This is the church below.

The following pictures are of my room with my new host family.

Canal Trip

2008-01-01T16:03:00.001-06:00

December 30th I had a chance to go on a private canal tour through a friend of Ryu's. We boarded this yacht around 8am with all the food and drinks provided. What an amazing day!

Bridge of the Americas spanning the south side of the canal.

Cruising to catch our appointed time at the locks.

Miraflores locks at the second step. Each step raises 80' and the compartments are 110' x 1000'. The large Panamax ships only have 2' clearance on each side. They pay based on how many containers they have, the largest are charged between $400,000-$600,000 just to cross Panama. The process takes them a whole day.

Centennial Bridge which crosses north of Panama City between the Miraflores and the Pedro Miguel locks.

They have begun work doing some of the dry excavation for the canal expansion. Later this year they will begin a new set of locks for the Post-Panamax ships which can hold around 11,000 containers compared to the 4,000 being shipped now. The expansion project is budgeted for more than $6 billion.

Here passes a Panamax ship from Israel. The canal provides their own captains which board the ship and drive it all the way thru. These captains make around $160,000 yearly, work only every other day, and have around 3 months of vacation time a year. A Panamax ship like this actually have two captains - one for each side.

Of course pleasure ships pass thru the canal as well. It was pretty amazing passing directly next to his huge cruiser.

And ironically we passed another cargo boat carrying a load of yachts. I'm guessing the cheapest yacht on this ship is worth several million.

Leishmaniasis

2007-12-02T12:55:00.000-06:00

I have leishmaniasis, and am currently on day 6 (of 20) of treatment.

You can read about the disease here and my medication here.

It´s nothing to fret over too much, the medication is a little toxic, but I should just be left with a scar, not much else. It started on my right elbow in the beginning of October, I noticed it after a week or two, and I started treatment near the end of November. I only have it on my right elbow and the wound has already started healing. It´s drying up and closing on itself, but unfortunately this step brings the most pain as the skin is really getting pulled tight and constantly stretched due to its location.

The medication, a slow drip IV, takes an hour everyday. I´m staying in Panama City at a hotel and walk to the hospital everyday to get the injection. The medicine has a few side affects that I´ve noticed - mostly symptoms of dehydration - and they are monitoring my kidney, liver, and pancreas to make sure they are handling the medicine well. I have been sleeping a lot but so far so good.

The treatment will take me approximately until Christmas when I should be able to move permanently to my new site.

The DR in 15 pics

2007-11-20T09:10:00.000-06:00

My buddy Glenn´s house in the north close to the city of Altamira. Showing off his nice motorcycle helmet. Gotta love PC rules - perfectly fine to ride a motorcycle as long as you have a 20 year-old dilapidated helmet they provide.

Glenn with two members of his community.

The view from Glenn´s site. If you look really close you can see the stadium that 2005 Cy Young Winner Bartolo Colón built for the area. He grew up here and played on Glenn´s community field where he learned the game. The Caribbean is just beyond the last mountain range, you can see it from higher up.

The beach at Puerto Plata.

I left the beach and headed to Ryan´s site in the south near El Cercado and the Haitian border. This is Ryan´s house made from palm wood.

Hiking in to Ryan´s site the rivers were still high from Tropical Storm Noel. After crossing I noticed my toenail was ripped loose so I had to remove it which kind of limited my mobility for a few days.

The view from Ryan´s house.

Ryan with community members.

A community meeting (of sorts). This public school was started by the government several years ago and has never been finished.

Val flew in and we enjoyed a day of sightseeing in Santo Domingo, especially the La Colonia district which was the first settlement in this hemisphere.

A statue of Christopher Columbus outside the oldest church.

And his brother Diego´s estate, now a museum.
Baseball is so huge in the DR, a lot of the Majors best players are from there. We enjoyed a game between rivals Santiago and Santo Domingo with fellow PCVs.

Val and I killed a few days at the beach at Juan Dolio.

And the whole party finally reunited for the last day. Here is the MTU crew, Glenn, Val, Ryan and I.

New Contact Info

2007-11-01T13:33:00.001-05:00

Hey everybody, since I moved I have a new cell phone and mailing address. I also updated the "My Contact Info" link on the left for future reference as well. Thanks.

Cell phone: (507) 6505-9608

Mailing Address:
Cuerpo de Paz – Panamá
Atención: (my name)
Edificio 95, 1 Piso
Avenida Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panamá, Republica de Panamá

Random pics from a random life

2007-10-31T13:53:00.000-05:00

Our group, #58, celebrated our one-year anniversary this past week at an all-inclusive resort. It was pretty hard to take, but we deserve it.

Kevin, Kelly, Adam, Ryu and I in the swim-up bar.

The pool/bar overlooking the Pacific.

Playing a little ball.

Last week I was in Chepo working with the Ministry of Health in their regional office. Here I explain some finer points of concrete mixing to a group of contractors invited to participate to a seminar that was put on. We were trying to show the difference between a wet and dry mix.

After the conference, I raced to Panama City of participate in Group 60´s swear-in ceremony. The U.S. Ambassador to Panama swears in 36 new volunteers.

Adam, Melissa, Kevin and Joe hanging out after the ceremony.

Of course, there was a crazy party afterward. Don't ask.

Chilling out on Victoria's patio for our private one-year celebration. Shazia lives in Colon and Casey lives in the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle.

On October 5th, we concluded our water committee training seminar. The two participates from my town, Pres Francisco Abrego and VP Fabio Thomas show off their completion certificates.

On October 10th I moved into my new community, San Francisco de Piriatí, in the province of Panama Este. This is my host family´s home, Felix and Isabel and their son, Sergio.

The school of San Francisco. There are two classrooms and a small kindergarten with three teachers. In total, about 400 people live in the vicinity.

Two weekends ago I traveled up to Colon province with Victoria to visit Michelle (fellow WIer) to help with a water collection system. We snuck away this morning to the beach. It was my first time visiting this particular province in Panamá.

Ken, a Crisis Corps volunteer and former PC vol in Bolivia, and I hiked up to San Francisco to verify a few points and to see the future water source. We were lead by my host dad (in white) and a few others. In all, the aqueduct line will be about 8km and is budgeted for $130,000. Compare this to my 2km, $4,000 project I built in Bocas. What a day, we left at 5am, hiked the 8km up and back and got back home around 7pm. I was so exhausted and dehydrated, probably the most exhausted I've felt down here.

Joe took this picture of me and some neighbor kids during my last week in my old site. That week we started the water tank and Joe lived with me all week while we were working.

Here José and I started tying the rebar for the tank. It is 9' x 9' and will hold 3,500 gallons.

I really miss the kids.

Pour day. When I left the floor was done, but it is apparently taking forever to finish the walls and roof. Poor Joe. He is hiking over everyday but people just aren't showing up to work. He says he knows now why I left my site, and is very frustrated with my old community.

This sloth was just 'hanging out' right next to the tank construction.

I'm still here

2007-10-23T16:38:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I'm still here (but no longer there). Here is Panama; there is my old site. I moved to my new site on the other side of the country, it went great, and now I'm keeping myself busy working until my vacation is coming up. I don't have any fancy pictures or major rants at this time, but I always have stories. And you know how I love to tell stories. Give me a week or so to collect pictures, and I'll try to post during my one-year medical examinations next week. Maybe I'll even have a story or two for you then.

Seth's Pictures

2007-09-28T17:44:00.001-05:00

Some of my favorite photos taken by Seth when he came down last month.

I'm Moving!

2007-09-23T17:23:00.001-05:00

Yeah that's right, it's final. I'll be leaving the Bocas del Toro province (lush, green, mountains, trees, indigenous) to the province of Panama Este (dry, brown, flat, deforested, Latino). I was near Costa Rica, now I'm near Columbia. I won't actually move permanently until another month or so, but will be leaving my site Oct. 5th.

This past week I was in the Comarca Ngäbe-Bugle teaching the new volunteers how to build composting latrines.

Thanks to everybody that sent their birthday wishes to me this past week, but the best news I got was that I'm an uncle again! Grace Ella was born Sept. 18th.

Tattoos

2007-09-12T10:25:00.000-05:00

No Mom, I didn't get another tattoo. Some kids in my site wanted tattoos "just like mine" so I got out my sharpie and we had a little fun on a rainy day. The first two are mine and provided the template.

Primer Año

2007-09-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

Since I arrived in Panama last year, there has been many changes. I've lost 45 pounds...my brother and his wife moved to Iowa and are expecting their first child in October...my father moved to southern WI...my mother met her current fiancé and is planning their wedding for October...my grandfather passed away in late May...I went back for the funeral...my ex-girlfriend got engaged...many friends finished college, got engaged, or married...my sister-in-law finished a CNA course...my sister returned to teaching...my nieces and nephews finished another year of school including all their extracurricular activities...been a few really sick days and a few really amazing days...qué mas? Seems like more has changed.

It's really interesting meeting the new volunteers and seeing myself in them last year. I didn't know where anything was, how anything worked, how to speak, how to listen, how to stay healthy, or how to stop sweating. Funny hearing them compliment my Spanish but not as funny suddenly feeling older. Birthday 26 is coming up in a couple of weeks.

I'm on my way home returning from a leadership conference with my counterpart. It was really well done and he got a lot out of it. I could see his confidence growing right in front of me. Well, I'm gonna sign off, hopefully my package came in today. Happy Labor Day!

Overdue Update

2007-08-19T12:13:00.000-05:00

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?

Aqueduct Theory 101 (Abridged)

2007-07-31T18:50:00.001-05:00

I say the world "aqueduct" so much, someone finally had the courage to ask me what one is. So basically it works like this: There is a naturally flowing spring that collects water. First, a capitation box must be built around it to protect the spring from contamination, erosion, and choosing a different path. The water is then piped to a lower elevation to a storage tank. The tank is designed to fill up during the night (when all the taps are closed) and be used during the day (when the taps are in use). The tank is designed for 30 gallons per person per day to include drinking, bathing, and washing clothes and dishes and also assumes population growth. From the tank, which is located at higher elevation than the town, the water is piped through a network of tubing to each house via gravity.

The following pictures are of us burying the tubes.

In my case, I'm using a spring that produces roughly 5 gal/min. We completed the capitation box and are now burying the network of tubing to the tank and to every house. We must bury nearly 3 miles of tubing by hand roughly 2´deep (pick-axes and shovels). Once the tubing is in place, we'll go back and build the 4000 gal concrete tank. For tubing I'm using PVC sized from 1.5" to 1/2" depending on flow, friction losses, and elevation differences. The tank will be concrete block with a poured top with several finish coats. My design assumes potable water from the spring source, but future chlorination at the tank may become necessary.

Since my community has never had potable water before, we must also make our rules and regulations as we go. They have decided to charge $1/month for the water. If the payment is not received for 3 months, they will physically cut-off the service. A new house that didn't donate time to the construction has to pay $80 for a new hook-up as well as tubing required. Every house is allowed only one tap.

Starting Aug. 11 my community will participate in a seminar series devoted to training communities how to manage aqueducts. Nine communities will participate in this series this fall, and eight more next spring. The series - organized and taught by Peace Corps Volunteers ( and funded by donations) - will include topics such as: 1) What is potable water? 2) How to make basic repairs 3) Basic accounting practices 4) How to protect your watershed 5) Leadership building exercises and group-based challenges 6) Community participation and goal planning

I've decided to monitor this seminar series and the following series as well to contribute to my Masters of Science in Civil Engineering. I will specifically study if, how, and why or why not this seminar series correlated to better functioning aqueduct systems. Most local projects fail not because of the design, but because locals lack skills, understanding, or money necessary to maintain their systems. If this link is not made, all projects - no matter how simple - are doomed to fail. This seminar series hopes to improve this link between designers and managers.

What to do if you're not working? ANYTHING!

2007-07-21T12:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know that last entry was kinda a rant. Yeah? Anyways, here's what's been going on meanwhile...

Beach on the San San Pond Sak Nature Reserve.

The whole Bocas crew at our last regional meeting.

Fishing on a raft with a hand line.

Colin says he could draw this a million different ways. I agree, but I just took a pic instead. This might be a wall mount.

Four of us helped look for sea turtles and patrol the beaches the other night in San San Pond Sak Nature Reserve. We came upon her around 1am, watched her lay her eggs, then helped her back to sea. Went to bed at 4am. Very unique experience.

She probably laid close to 30 eggs, then dug a fake hole to confuse predators.

Climbing the tower at Ryu's site. It was supposedly built by Americans during World War II. Notice the shear joy on my face.

Up close and personal with this 3-clawed sloth which fell out of a tree as I was walking.

Cliff jumping at Adam's site. I made him count to 3, then I sort of slipped as I jumped, and completely belly-flopped and slapped my face. Good form, good form. Once was enough.

Adam used to be my closest neighbor, and he helped me out a lot during my first year. I already miss the guy.

Took a spill at Ryu's site (not from the tower thank God). In an unrelated story, I managed to start my composting latrine on fire yesterday. I was burning a box full of ants, thought the fire was out so I went to bed. Woke up at 5am and fought the blaze all morning by running to the creek with my 5 gal bucket. Apparently they were fire ants...

What makes this so hard

2007-07-15T11:35:00.000-05:00

They don't see their potential. Their culture has been stripped to void. I'm perpetually sick. I'm not earning any money. I'll be spending three birthdays down here (25, 26, 27), prime years of my life for girlfriends and dating, but I have no one to date. I'm forced to eat unhealthy: mostly all fried foods or packaged and very, very little fruits and vegetables. I'm sleeping on a 2" pad. I'm constantly stared at, I'm constantly dirty, I'm constantly being bit. They aren't working, let along talking to each other. When I try to have a meeting to address the problem, no one comes. I'm overcharged for everything. When I'm happy I'm happy for 5 minutes. When I'm sad I'm sad for 5 days. They aren't any sports in my community, no where to exercise. My closest neighbor and two great friends just left. To get away from this area and over the mountain range to an actual city costs several day's pay. I eat too much because cooking is something to do. My house has been broken into 3 times already. Our water project, which should have been done by now, won't be finished until next year - that's if we start now and work continuously, which we won't. I've lost my ambition to travel. All the half-way educated people have moved out, the smart ones that remain are smart enough not to get involved with the rest of the community. I'm becoming dumber because my brain isn't challenged. My Spanish is crawling along at snail's pace, but I'm already better than half my community (since they hardly ever speak Spanish). I'm lethargic and numb. I've lost all ambition to take on new projects. People give me advice, expect me to use it, but have have no idea of my situation. I'm incredibly, incredibly bored and I have over a year to go.

My weekend a couple of weekends ago...

2007-07-13T11:31:00.001-05:00

Friday morning I got up and the teacher asked me to take a picture of every kid for the Ministry of Education.

This is the Latina teacher Lourdes that hikes in everyday. Now I know what you're thinking...I've thought about it too...but the truth is I can't understand her Spanish at all. It's way too grammatically correct and way too fast.

After the pictures, I came back to my house where I promised my neighbors I'd teach them how to make banana pancakes. They LOVED it! (They had given me the bananas).

After the banana pancake charla, I hiked out to the road, met a girl with a machete gash on her arm, then started the hike up to Nico's site where he was hosting the two new Bocas volunteers for training. They are currently building a road into Nico's site, so I caught a lift on top of the backhoe. I commented that this size backhoe (Cat 320L) is really small to cut a road with, and the driver said, "Tell me about it!"

I got up to Nico's house and met Jim and Rebecca, the two new vols. They were dressing a duck for dinner that night.

Mark came up with some friends, brought some cooking supplies, and we all hiked down to the swim hole to beat the afternoon heat. The hike was about 45 mins, filled with poison dart frogs, toucans, butterflies, and flowers.

We took a dip with some local kids - our guides.

We marinated the duck, wrapped it with peppers and onions in bacon, then grilled it. It turned out amazing.

Some of Nico's friends came over and brought us some cocoa, so we ground it up and made organic hot chocolate and talked over candles well into the night.

I crashed on Nico's floor. For breakfast we fried up the heart and liver with bacon, eggs and onions. Mmm....

After breakfast I hiked down with Nico's baseball team to a 3-team tournament being held adjacent to my site. It was funny: one team brought all the gear, another team had brand new donated jerseys but no shoes, and the third team had neither jerseys nor shoes. They shared gloves, bats, gear, and umpires.

Mo's team, Isla de Colón (the team with shoes and gear) won by a landslide.

I hiked back to my house and crashed for the night. I then got up early and cruised out to the islands to meet the family of another volunteer.

I spent all day Sunday swimming and relaxing and playing with starfish.

This was my weekend a couple of weekends ago...

Internet is slow.

2007-07-10T15:44:00.000-05:00

So I was gonna do a little "day-in-the-life" (Read: Rob), but blogger is being really slow and I have a ton of pictures and not a ton of patience. I'm in Davíd right now visiting the doctor again. I've had another stomach bug the last couple of weeks again, not fun. Well like I said, I wanted to post a bunch of pictures for ya'll but will have to try again some other time. Take care.

Random pics

2007-06-19T17:38:00.000-05:00

My bud Orlando (9) waiting with me for Casey on the boat.

Another pic of Orlando. I think this is the best picture I've ever taken.

Anabela (9) and her little sis (5).

My bud Casey in my site. It took me too long to take this pic and the kid finally figured how how scary the dude was next to him.

Iris (10) checking out my photo album.

This pic was taken today. Martha and I were at Nico's site helping with Cultural Week for the two new vols coming to Bocas. Martha is learning how to make a chakura.

The baby wanted to learn too.

Settling back in...

2007-06-12T17:23:00.000-05:00

Sixteen-day-old baby at my neighbor´s house. It´s a girl if you couldn´t tell.

The neighbor kids happy to find out I need to take more pictures of the people in my site. They´re laughing so hard because I had mud all over my chest after one of them climbed all over me.

Mowing the grass outside of my house. Cost me $0.25 and a stick of gum.

Funny how they always line up, pretend to be serious, then laugh hysterically after they see the picture.

The tarantula I killed in my house the other day.

Singing to the radio

2007-06-06T11:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, so now I´m back. I wasn´t really prepared to come back, but was even less prepared to leave in the first place. I was Andrew Largeman in The Garden State for the first several days, smiling unimpressively meeting an old acquaintance, looking over their head for the quickest place to run and hide, pretending to have the slightest clue who or what they were talking about. In some respects, it was exactly like coming to Panama so long ago. I even noticed that my faked "I completely know what you´re saying" skills had improved greatly. After a few days I got Americanized all over again, even feeling the urge to drive everywhere, drink bad coffee and gallons of soda, stay up late, eat too much fast-food, and then complain about how unhealthy I felt. For the first time in a year, I actually gained weight.

I noticed it´s so much physically easier to be in the US. One already knows where to find drinking water, the bathroom, a cold beer, air-conditioning, a bed. Water comes from the tap, the bathroom is down the hall to the right. Here´s your room. Want a beer?

My family is doing well...so many changes. Friends are friends, some are growing, some are fading - I´m growing, I´m fading, I´m changing too. Maybe that´s why it was weird, I didn´t know if I should be the old me or the new me. Who was the old me? Who the hell is the new me?

Now I´m in Panama City waiting for my luggage to catch up. Riding in from the airport at midnight last night on an old big yellow school bus, I noticed I was jamming to the music just like everyone else. I got to thinking, "Maybe home is where one recognizes the songs on the radio."

My Grandpa

2007-05-24T21:14:00.000-05:00

Written for the funeral services today:

My Grandparent's Wedding Day Oct 29, 1938.

I never once saw Grandpa mad. His presence was refreshing. One didn't need to talk, no need for banter, the silence never awkward. Just sit, enjoy the company.

My Mom and Grandpa.

"How's your car been running?" he would ask. "Good, she's been doing fine lately." "Good," he would reply. We would sit. We didn't try for conversation - it wasn't necessary.

His family, taken at their 25th wedding anniversary.

Grandpa was a stoic man. His posture, his gait, his charm, his dignity...your respect.

My sister.

My oldest brother.

He was big, strong, and fit, but he had the softest eyes. Eyes made of smile. We know this smile, the gentle face, the ever-so-slightly creased lips, the twinkling eyes, and the look of shared acknowledgement. His innocent smile never aged.

I'm on the left with my other brother.

Dancing, celebrating 50th wedding anniversary.

And didn't he love to laugh? His laugh was quick but not fake, loud but not obnoxious, strong but gentle. You would see his teeth, his head would tip back, sometimes his hand would come up to his chest. He enjoyed the laugh...the time...you...and you suddenly felt better. That's Grandpa - he made everything better, including us.

My Grandparents, married 68 years. Grandpa would have been 89 this June.

I made it...

2007-05-23T08:37:00.000-05:00

I made the decision to come home around noon on Monday. In the next 26 hours before my plane left at 2pm Tuesday, I was on a bus for 17 of those. The "free" hours were spent buying my ticket online, hiking in and out of my site, packing, waiting for buses, spending a day's wage for a sandwich, and trying to grab an hour of sleep here and there. Then I got on the plane and started the trip home, arriving in Chicago at midnight and luckily finding a ride from strangers to Madison, finally arriving at 3am.

It's now 8:30am, and I have to find some clothes and get organized before the visitation begins at 3pm. Of coarse, to add to the passing of my grandfather, the ensuing chaos, the culture shock, and my lack of sleep, my amoebas and/or giardia decided to act up again (I'm on medication for both) - the only reason I can't go back to sleep now. But the exhaustion is numbing the culture shock, and the fact that I'm incapable of making a decision gives me a certain go-with-the-flow ease. And the stomach parasites might make a decent excuse to have some alone time, albeit the time will be spent in the bathroom. I'm not sure if my time right now in the states feels like reality, but oddly the last 9 months in Panama seems like a dream. It must have happened though, because I keep addressing everyone in Spanish, I'm still itching my bug bites, my clothes smell like mold, and oh yeah, there are still the stomach parasites...

Coming home today...

2007-05-22T09:54:00.001-05:00

I really don't have any time right now, but I'll be flying to the states today to attend the funeral of my grandfather. I want to write more, especially about him, but another day.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

2007-05-13T18:05:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Joe, Lane and I rummaged around a closing Army base asking "Can we have this? How 'bout this? Can we have some of that food?" We managed to fill up a donated 20' flatbed with over 450 cement blocks, sacks of cement, corrugated iron sheeting, lumber, PVC tubes, you name it. I was the lucky recipient of the block, should be just enough to build my 4000 gal tank. Calling the Army wasteful doesn't even do it justice. They fly their helicopters around to deliver power saw blades while the dirty, smelly three Peace Corps folks are asking them if we can have a carton of milk for the school kids, or if we can have that plywood they'd just burn to make into a chalkboard to give health lessons. As we drank their imported bottled water and ate their $17 apiece MREs, we commented that their old sewer pipe hopefully will be able to supply a few families with fresh drinking water. This imported, SCH 40 PCV pipe that would've just been left behind is a godsend to these villages. It's pretty ridiculous comparing one US governmental agency vs. the other. But they thanked us for "picking up their trash for them."

I believe the UN World Health Organization's Water, Sanitation and Health sector (see Right to Water) estimates the current cost of supplying the whole world with access to clean water and sanitation at around $20 billion. Can someone remind me how much we are spending in Iraq every week? Is it closer to $1 billion or $2 billion? How much is Halliburton charging for laundry these days? Where is your tax money going? Where do you want it to go?

Now my folks are hauling in the blocks (25lbs each) and I snuck off to "buy some more tools" but really I'm buying back some sanity, a brisk gin and tonic, and resting my poor body for a day.

This past week we worked really hard in our little rock garden. We started laying out pipe from our spring to our eventual tank, hacking, grunting, sweating, bleeding, cursing in Ngäbe, just to give the tube a good foot or so of cover. I've become the rock removal specialist. When their arms are too tired from swinging the homemade pick-ax, their backs are too sore from hacking the line, their legs are too tired from the hour+ hike, and their hands are too blistered, they call up yours truly to pick up the 2' dia rock in the way. Did they fail to notice I've been working this whole time right next to them? What makes them think I have any energy left to move that rock? Surprisingly they respect the burying rule, and I am the only one allowed to actually glue the pipe, only after I've confirmed we've dug the trench deep enough. It's going slow but well. Ah...I'm to tired to write more....

I'm in, what are we doing?

2007-05-04T19:47:00.000-05:00

So I wouldn't advise August, and November I'll be coming home, but other than that when are people coming?

This will get you started: www.visitpanama.com

C'mon, what do you really know about Panama besides the canal, Noriega, and malaria?

"The Witness"

2007-05-02T10:37:00.000-05:00

Stolen from my friend Luke's blog from Madagascar. I recommend his amazing videos as well:

"Three forms of transport now- bike, boat and foot. Three elements- the road, the river, the forest. These I have pushed through, I have sliced through. These I have crawled over. And along the way there are faces and there are sounds and the hum of the rural landscape and I am witness to it all, I am also humming. We ride, we row, we follow the contours or push up and over the mountain slopes and there is always the opposing flow; the women with their children pass, the moonshine sellers with their burdens, fresh from the forest and the high plateau, they pass too with tired legs and the elders lean on canes with almost a century in their eyes. The waters too, high from cyclonic surges pass by; the flooded fields of rice, the matted canopy above our heads. Rugged green gives way to the well trodden path and I am witness to it all. And we are witness to it all."

I think I broke my ankle

2007-04-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

Adam and I were surveying my future aqueduct line yesterday and we were crossing a ravine. I went first and was scaling the other side up as he was working his way down. I turned as I heard a crash and saw him tumble a little, not bad just awkward. "You alright man?" "Yeah I'm fine, but I think I broke my ankle," he stated plainly. "What? You think you broke your ankle?" "Yeah but it doesn't hurt," he kept saying.

I went back to fetch our bags and we left for the hospital, 4 hours away. It's not broke, come to find out. Gives me an excuse to use a computer though.

Stole Joe's picture

2007-04-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Thirty-five of us were piled into this dug-out, massive canoe a few weeks ago for our regional meeting. Joe (Boston hat) took the picture and I stole it from his blog when I saw myself. Click on his name to see a more detailed account of the trip.

¿Vale la pena?

2007-04-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

Peace Corps Panama quarterly puts out a newsletter. My buddy Adam recently had me rolling with one of his columns, click here, then April - June 2007 under the pic, page 42. You can view older editions here.

The conference really went well. My guy got a lot out of it, even though he was completely overwhelmed at times. My patience got a work-out, as did many's, but it was worth it. An inspiring, amazing new friend of mine says, "Vale la pena," or "it's worth the embarrassment," and I'm glad my guy was willing to take the chance to attend.

I'm now on the way home hoping a package comes in tomorrow, and hoping I can finally design this aqueduct of mine. This part is always the hardest; going back home after a week with friends...

I can't begin to explain this emotional roller coaster - the burning behind the sternum, meeting eyes with a fellow volunteer and feeling their pain, joy, goals, loneliness, and their smile begging to break. The hardest become the softest, the weak become the strong. We are walking on top of a wall, and the slightest insult, compliment, song, dream, expression, or reaction sends us plunging to either side - for better or for worse. What do they see when they look into my eyes? ¿Vale la pena?

Remote controls and bathrooms

2007-04-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

I'm on the way to another Peace Corps conference. I'm bringing Eduardo, a strapping 20 year-old workaholic so we can plan a composting latrine project for next year. He's so excited (and nervous) it's hilarious. In our hotel room I taught him how to use the remote control, and he asked me what the bathroom was. He said he stayed in a hotel once in Costa Rica but didn't watch tv because he didn't know how to turn it on (apparently it didn't have a bathroom?). We then went to a serve-yourself restaurant and he forgot to pay he was so nervous.

This past week I stole the mason from another volunteer's site to begin working again. I bought a dump truck load of sand straight from the river (don't ask about permits) and the whole community spent 4 straight days carrying it from the road to our site (half-way to the tank). It's about a 30min hike without 50lbs strapped to your forehead. On Tuesday I made 3 trips, broke for lunch, and made 3 more in the afternoon. Eduardo didn't eat lunch and made 12 trips in total. I had socks and boots, he didn't. He carries about twice as much as me and I weigh prolly twice as much as him. But that's his world, and now we are in mine...full of remote controls, restaurants, and conferences.

I saved my picture card!

2007-04-03T13:16:00.000-05:00

Sorry to warn you pictures would be down for awhile. Gracias a Dios, I apparently bought the waterproof SD card...he he. Martha with her dog on the banks of the Rio Teribe.
Rio Teribe, the one that swallowed my camera.
Our finished toma, or springbox. (Springwater cavitation box)

Burning grass, outsite my back window.
Sunset shot from a resort on Isla Colon.
Setting up for a scene for Survior Panama (Columbian crew). The extremely white guy posing next to the "talent" is my buddy Aaron. There has been 12 or 13 Survivor series shot in Panama from a variety of countries.
Fishing off the dock.
Yours truly at Playa Bocas del Drago.
Julia's teaching Mary (follow the link for her version of the trip) how to make a chakara (or krä, in Ngäbere.) Basically it's a man-purse, and yes, I have one...two, in fact.
Of course, you can also make bigger chakaras, strap it around your forehead, and use it to carry goods. This is how we carried 13 sacks of cement and 6 yards of sand and gravel to the spring.

Just when you think things are going good....

2007-03-26T14:35:00.000-05:00

I have written this blog entry 100 times in my head already. Sometimes I've written it terribly sad, or funny, or cynical (me?), or downright mean. I've written it friendly and grossly rude. I don't want to write it anymore and I certainly don't want to write it now. They say if you are truly upset about something the average person tells 17 people. I'm shooting for hundreds, I'm that pathetic.

My mason arrived Monday morn and we were immediately friends, and he was immediately given my bed, food, and my respect. We held a community meeting but no one showed up so the few of us were forced to make the work schedule - who was working when. (Obviously not the way you want to do it.) Any questions before we begin? No one was there to ask them. Work commenced on Tuesday and wrapped up on Saturday. He's been called the "best mason in Panama by some."

I worked Tues, Wed and Thurs. Friday I tried lining up another dump truck load of sand after one vendor proved his incompetence. Saturday morning I bought all the materials for the next springbox we would start on Monday, hiked back up to view the final, amazing finished product, and helped haul tools to the next work site. Little did I know there wasn't to be another work site. I was informed that afternoon there will be a community meeting to discuss our mason's work. Ok, we'll have a meeting, you guys wanna plan out this next week and change who's working when, cool with me.

The meeting got off to amazingly blunt start with our teacher going on and on about how it's the worst construction he's ever seen. (Of coarse he'd never helped, or attend any of the meetings). Many others continued. I fought for my man, complimented him numerous times, explained to them that he does things a little differently than you've seen, but that's because it's better, cheaper, and less work. They didn't buy it. Surprisingly, instead of throwing up his hands and storming off, he was amazingly patient. When he was finally granted an opportunity to speak after sitting there for two hours listening to people tear into him, he calmly said, "I'm sorry, can I please see a show of hands of who was here at the meeting on Monday?" He made his case, they didn't buy it. They didn't hire him, but they certainly fired him.

I am not that patient however. The whole project is on hold until I figure out what I want to do. Will they accept another mason or will they only insist on doing it themselves? Do I have enough money to fund their proposed overkill? Are they competent to actually build what they say they can? Do you fund a project that may be incorrectly built? How does that relate to your funder's expectations? What will they say next year when they come to inspect it, "Can we have our money back?" Is potable drinking water a right or a privilege? Who's job is it to supply it? What is my role as a volunteer in this situation? Do I stay? Do they even want me here? Was I invited? Will they ever learn? Will I?

Fight or flight: I did both. I escaped to catch my breath, and let them cool down. I doubt they realize their Rubicon, they are probably just wondering why I'm being so inconsiderate. Why wouldn't I want them to have water?

PS-I won't be posting pictures for awhile because my camera fell into a river yesterday.

Playing Catch-up

2007-03-22T21:23:00.000-05:00

Things that happened in the last month (in order that I remember them).

I got sick this morning. I had 5 visitors in my site last week who I met down here. I added a few friends I tracked down and the link "What I've Read" under my Links list on the sidebar. We started on my aquaduct this Tuesday. I hauled 3 loads of gravel and 5 loads of sand between our drop-off point and our springbox - on my back. In all, my community hauled 3 yards of gravel, 3 yards of sand and 13-110lbs sacks of cement, 4 tubes, 3 bars, and multiple tools the 30 minute hike uphill to my spring. My mason got hurt so we had to postpone work for 3 weeks. I met up with Mary and some friends. Ryu got leisch, but now is cured. I might have an idea for my thesis, something like "A Springbox Construction Manual." I read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer in less than 6 hours, finishing late last night. School started again. I sent 6 kids to a Panama Verde camp put on by other volunteers. My brother and sis-in-law are expecting their first baby. I got a really long email from my buddy Ryan in the Dominican Republic. My regional leader moved houses. Pivetta and I surveyed my aquaduct. I bought a chakura for $1.50. I ran into a Columbian "Survivor" filming crew. My handheld GPS, my USB drive, and my camera (my 3 most expensive items in Panama) all stopped working within a week. My camera is now working again. My long awaited personal ATM card finally arrived in the mail. I bought a non-stick frying pan but it only lasted a week until the fake teflon all scraped or burnt off. I killed 5 more scorpians. I went snorkeling and saw dolphins. I walked into my site late once without a flashlight, used my cell phone to light the path, but got lost 2 seperate times even after I asked a family to borrow their flashlight. It took me over 2 hours to walk the 30min path. I cut my foot, it's not that bad...not related to being lost. I sat in an a political speech in my site...some guys running for something talked a lot. I stuck around for the food they brought, probably like everyone else. They asked these dudes for materials to build a latrine for the school, nothing like buying votes...my name was mentioned a lot during their speeches...I have no clue what they were saying. I finally bought a curtain for my shower, but prefer to shower in shorts so I can wash them at the same time. I completed Grand Tourismo on the hardest setting...just kidding...a Streets reference. I helped a kid translate some words into Spanish but was stuck on "bruy" and "truc." I beat Jacinto, Francisco, and Basilio (twice) in "Damas," a local version of checkers. It was the first time I beat an opponent that was sober. I got the headstand down, but still have a lot of trouble with the forearm stand and handstand. I let a 40 something Panamanian sleep in my bed and I made him 2 meals (my mason). Yeah, that's definitely it for know. I'll try to keep more up-to-date.

Completed Reading List

2007-02-24T14:37:00.000-06:00

Ok, soI got an idea last night while washing sardin cans. I'm going to keep a running list of all the books I've read and post this list under my "Links" heading. This way, when I comment on the philosophical ramblings of Pirshig, you'll know what I've just read. I'll save you (I mean me) the hyperlinks, but I'll try my best to provide the author. Now just give me a while to compile the list to date...

My bud Jon is off to Uganda for Peace Corps. He's a computer wiz, so I'm sure his blog is cooler than mine. You can track him here. Also, someday I'll update more links so you can see my PC friends all over the world. Oh thanks P, now I have a web counter just under my links.

Pics, and the stories that go wit'em

2007-02-14T21:12:00.000-06:00

Yours truly on the beach, drinking my country.

Ryu is showing off is monstrous infections. He has five or six quarter-sized infections on his leg. A few nights earlier we shared a single bed (a little off-topic I know, but it shows my bravery). We are all mad at him for not going to the doctor sooner.

This butterfly wears number 88. Anybody wanna look up the name and get back to me? Update from Travis: Regarding your recent butterfly entry in your blog, the butterfly's name is actually called the Meridian butterfly, but carries the nickname "the 88 butterfly" as one could imagine (Diaethria species, family: nymphalidae). It is most commonly found as far north as Mexico and as far south as Paraguay. Update from P: This butterfly is Nazi (see comment below.)

This is the beach near our training. Didn't actually get here till the last night. It sports two all-inclusives. So if the infections on my shoulder don't entice you, maybe the resorts will. (Did I mention my Peace Corps discount?) This beach also sports an old Manuel Noriega mansion which is now crumbling into ruins. If those walls could talk. Kevin and I snooped around and gave ourselves a tour, too bad I didn't have my camera on me. The rooftop bar/dance floor was pretty amazing...reminds me of the movie "Blow."

¡Langosta Grande Mami!

This is Jose (13) and Maribel (17) as we were leaving for camp. Man I felt like a parent sending their kids off to their first day of school. If I told you I got teary eyed I'd have to kill you. They were super nervous since this was their first time out of their area and first time meeting other kids, and first time spending a night away from family. Just think of all the emotions you had when you were a kid off at summer camp...

This is Maribel's family sending her off on the bus. I am so glad they trusted me to take her daughter away for a week. Many other parents wouldn't let me.

Dave, Roanel and Kevin on Playa Farrallon, the last night of IST.

My Three Amigos

Ok, second time to the hospital to get antibiotics. This one blew up as well, but is under control. My backpack strap conveniently itches them for me.

New Cell Phone Number

2007-02-10T11:17:00.000-06:00

Yup that's right, I gotta ´nother one. The new old one slipped outta my pocket on the bus this morning and was snatched. Here it is:

(507) 6449-2536

Hopefully I'll get back here to update soon.

Hey you guys! (Goonies saludo)

2007-01-29T11:40:00.000-06:00

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.

Book List

2007-01-18T15:19:00.005-06:00

in no particular order: (not including magazines, newspapers, or text messages)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Financial Planning in your 20s and 30s Sarah Young Fisher, Susan Shelly
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert Pirshig
Digital Fortress Dan Brown
What is the What Dave Eggers
Villa Igconito Tom Robbins
Guns, Germs and Steel Jared Diamond
Blink Malcom Gladwell
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas Tom Robbins
Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other short stories Ernest Hemingway
Love is Strange: Stories of Postmodern Romance Rose and Texier
Getting Stoned With Savages J. Maarton Troost
The Sex Lives of Cannibals J. Maarton Troost
Following the Sun: A Bicycle Pilgrimage From Andalusia to the Hebrides John Hanson Mitchell
Deception Point Dan Brown
Fahrenheit 411 Ray Bradbury
Running with Scissors Augusten Burroughs
My First Book of Yoga Miranda Morgan
Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective Philip McMichael
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga Joan Budilovsky & Eve Adamson
Into the Wild Jon Krakauer
A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present Howard Zinn
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Harmonica William Melton & Randy Weinstein
OM Yoga: A Guide to Daily Practice Cyndi Lee
Rich Dad's Guide to Investing Robert Kiyosaki
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Living on a Budget Peter J. Sander & Jennifer Bayse Sander
Entangling Alliances: How the Third World Shapes our Lives John Maxwell Hamilton
The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
Financial Peace Dave Ramsey
The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure Joseph Jenkins
Escape Martin Young
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber & Collection of Other Short Stories Ernest Hemingway
Exploring the Unexplained: The World's Greatest Marvels, Mysteries, and Myths TIME
Gandhi: His Life & Message for the World Louis Fishcher
Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secrete World of America's Illegal Aliens Ted Conover
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster Jon Krakauer
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou
How to Stay Cool, Calm, and Collected John E. Newman
1984 George Orwell
The Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini
Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson
Life of Pi Yann Martel
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World Jack Weatherford
An Outline of American Government Richard Schroeder
Think and Grow Rich Napolean Hill
Core Concepts of Accounting 8th Ed. Robert N. Anthony, Leslie K. Breitner
The World's Religions Houston Smith
Globalization and It's Discontents Joseph Stiglitz
A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hossein
The Brooklyn Follies Paul Auster

Card readers rock, but not as much as computer literate Ngabes who speak English

2007-01-18T12:05:00.000-06:00

This is Tess, my former trainer and my favorite person to pick on and make fun of in Panama. Ask her to say "creek." Anyway, I caught her off guard by putting my arm around her and she was so shy and nervous her tongue actually fell out of her mouth and she started drooling everywhere. Now, I'm usually used to girls drooling over me, but not to this extent. You really need to control yourself Tess...

Have you ever seen a Ngabe cooking pizza? Jessica sports her nagua and our delicious campo pizza made in Adam's co-op's kitchen. Below: Surveying her aqueduct line.

My hiking partner Laura and I at the summit.

One day Bejerano brings over this little cat (it's dead by the way). I'm not sure what type it is but I'm sure it's not too common. Their dog attacked it and I'm surprised the dog won - unless the mother wasn't around. It was cute for sure, but it was also bleeding...a fact which Bejerano didn't seem to mind.

A typical house in Jessica's site. Most of the roofs are penca (thatched palm leaves) with dirt floors. The women also wear naguas everyday.

So I'm sitting on Jessica's porch and this very old woman walks by me. I say hello several times but it was apparent she couldn't hear well. First she sat down by me, then she just kinda laid down and decided to take a little nap. Then Jessica said "¡BUENAS TARDES ABUELA!" and the women said, "Hon."

The cloud line from around 3500m.

My future Christmas card.

Of course one cannot have a giant mountain without a plethera of anntennas (anntenni?).

Another shot of yours truly.

So then Bejerano wanted a picture of the cat with his girls. They put on their best dresses and Erica and Geodessa posed with the bleeding cat. Ok, to tell you the truth, I saw this coming from a mile away....hmmm...Geodessa's pretty white dress....bleeding cat.....maybe a bad combination. But Bejerano and his wife were stunned that Geodessa's dress was covered with blood as they picked up the cat.

Then Bejerano prepared a rope to skin the cat. I sat there in silence with his mom watching him hang the cat by the neck. Out of nowhere, his mom makes a Saddam Hussein reference which caught me by surprised and I laughed outloud for probably 5 minutes with all of them. BJ subsequently skinned it and stuffed the hide with newspaper to make a rudimentary taxidermy mount. He also said something about there being many ways to skin a cat......ha ha ha... (I had to end this story with a joke)

Mi Jardin es Su Jardin (My garden is your garden....but you knew that) in Boquete. Ranked as one of the best public gardens in the world. Notice the rainbow, would you please freakin notice the rainbow?

The entrance to Volcan Baru National Park. You know, this is one of those cheesy pictures with a big sign to show everyone that you were actually there.

Sarah from Cali, and other unrecognizables (and Adam) hiking up. Colin, being the expert former backpacking guide, suggested garbage bags for our backpacks for the rain.

Jessica, Sarah, Adam and Colin (an expert former backpacking guide).

Laura and Jessica trying to stay warm. When isn't Jessica cold? Ok so there was 100% humidity as we were literally in the clouds. This made fire starting a little tricky and it wasn't long before we were all really wet. Luckily Colin, being the expert former backpacking guide, had a tarp along which we used to make a tent. I'm not ripping on Colin by the way, his tarp saved my life.
"Celebrating cero siete with six shivering sober spooners."

Crazy Drivers

2007-01-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

I was in Davíd walking towards the buses to Changuinola and was looking for some M&Ms. You know, the yellow packet peanut ones. Anyway, a bus is just pulling out and the ayudante is yelling at me, ¨¿Chaguinola? ¡Venga acá, Pronto! ¡Ven, ven!¨ I didn't really want to get on that bus cuz it was full and I had my mind on M&Ms. But I found myself picking up my step and I jumped on the moving bus as it was pulling out.

The only seat was the foldout one directly behind the hump for the engine and immediately I regretted my decision. I should've bought some M&Ms and hopped on the next one. Now I'm cramped, there is no room for my feet, and I have a fear of sitting in the front of a no seat-belted bus. The driver was flirting with the girl sitting shotgun and he would randomly play air guitar to the music always looking over at her to see if she noticed his excellent skills. He was changing the CDs with one had, seemingly after every song, and tooting the air horn at every passerby with the other. I didn't like him and had a bad feeling about this upcoming 4 hour trip.

Two hours later it's pouring rain, the radio is blasting, and we are passing the mountain range. Swerving, weaving, ignoring the median, windshield wipers shreeching, going way to fast. I see a car that crashed into a rail on the opposite side, it's back to tires suspended in the air. We crossed over a mudslide and a broken aqueduct spraying the road.

We stop at the 3/4 mark at Chiriqui Grande. I buy M&Ms (you know, the yellow packet peanut ones) and I'm promoted to the shotgun seat. The driver motioned that I should open the window, I please him one inch. Then the guy behind me opens it 4¨ more and I close it and swear it's my decision whether I should open my window or not.

We drive 10 more mins or so, and as we are climbing a hill to the left, a Jeep Prado comes barrelling down his lane, fish-tailing on the wet pavement. A split-second passes before he crashes into our back/left quarter, flipping us on our two right wheels, then our left, then our right, swerving in the road. We finally come to a stop, babies crying, bus driver cussing - I'm pushing my heart back down into my chest. We were all fine, no injures, and the driver of the other was fine as well. It would have been really bad if we flipped.

I started walking for Silico Creek knowing it was only 5kms further and eventually hitch-hiked the last 4km. I spent the night with a fellow volunteer, calming my nerves. Crazy Panamanian Drivers! I should´ve bought that pack of M&Ms and waited for the next bus. (On a side note, I refused to pay. But I´m not sure the protocol on this matter. If you hop on a bus and it gets into an accident, do you still have to pay?)

Ya?

2007-01-11T18:16:00.000-06:00

Ok, quick post to let everyone know I'm still alive. I have some amazing photos from Volcan Baru (the highest point in Panama at 3474m) over New Years. But my camera cable started smoking in the computer and fried itself - hence no photos here. And my phone decided to stop working as well. Don't you love it when things work properly?

I'm helping Jess survey this weekend and excited to be going to another site to see how they do things.

Guess that's it, not much new here. Have my first quarterly meeting next week and our 3 month reunion and in-service training Feb 5-9. Oh yeah, a rep from Rotary International and Waterlines are visiting my site on Jan 25th. Hopefully my community climbs outta their hammocks and has something to show them.

Hi Wakun

2007-01-05T13:10:00.000-06:00

That's weird you stumbled across my blog. I actually met you at Mark H's house when you were down here visiting. I was doing my site visit during training with Julie M. and we came to party with you guys.

I know exactly what house you are talking about, they were actually my host family. Juan Bonilla, Meliana Tera, Jose, Milciado, Yanilka, and the upteen others. Their son, Bejerano is actually my counterpart and was Bolo's as well. I hear about you guys all the time.

Sorry to rag on QC recently. Things have been off to a slow start but are starting to pick up now after the holidays. In a couple of weeks I'll hit the 3 mo mark.

After New Years afuera in Boquete and Volcan Baru, I was dreading coming back to QC. But walking back I stopped to pasear with a family (Adam P's host family). One of their daughters, Yanilka (4), whom I have titled the cutest little girl in Panama, ran up to me giving my leg a huge hug. That made my year. Things are going better now, and the next time you visit QC may actually have water.

Good to hear from you and feel free to pop by and say hi from time to time.

The Comida Conundrum

2006-12-26T10:44:00.000-06:00

So I ran out of my Peace Corps salary last Tuesday the 19th. No problem, I'd take out some personal cash with my other ATM card. "Sorry we cannot process your transaction at this time. Please contact your banking institution." I had $6.50 in my pocket, 3 packs of Ramen noodles, 2 spagettis, and 3 sauce packs in my house. I'd be paid on the 28th. Returned to my site, spending $1.50 on bus fare.

Wednesday, 20th - One Ramen consumed
Thursday, 21st - Another Ramen
Friday, 22nd - Ate a pack of spagetti and one sauce pack
Saturday, 23rd - I go to town to try another ATM spending $.50 on a bus. Now have $4.50. Bought a Pepsi thinking the ATM would work. It didn't. To make a long story and many phone calls with my banking institution short, my magnetic strip was broken. I bought $1 worth of juice packets and remembered a fellow PCV owed me $20. I called him urgently. Returned to site, spending another $.50. Forgot I made a deal with a local teen that if she washed my clothes every week I'd pay her bus fare to school next year. One bucket of clothes = $3.00. Made another spagetti packet and one sauce. The only money I have is the $0.47 that I found at the bottom of my suitcase so I bought another spagetti packet in the local store for $.45.
Sunday, 24th - I have $0.02 and only one pack of Ramen left and don't get paid for another 4 days. I make the hour hike to meet the volunteer and collect my $20.
Monday, 25th - Bum food from houses I visited.
Tuesday, 26th - Today. I'm rich! I have $20! I'm going to pay a little bit for this computer, buy lunch at a restaurant, and enough groceries for 3 more days saving $7 for my bus ride to David on Friday where I can hopefully collect my Peace Corps salary from another ATM - if it works.

Pics from my porch during Christmas

2006-12-26T10:08:00.000-06:00

The path up to the school taken from my bedroom window.

Prolly better if this pic was vertical. From my porch. The tree on the right is a bird watcher's best friend.

An old house and future store I hear. I hope they take their time remodeling it because I really like my privacy.

Christmas afternoon during a heavy rain. I was cool (it was 79 degrees) so I broke out the sweetshirt and pajama pants. Don't mind my underwear overhead.

I laid in my hammock and recorded myself singing Christmas tunes. If I can figure out how to post those, that'd be hilarious since I had forgotten most of the words. My Christmas meal: first house I visited I had coffee and a Johnny cake. Next, rice and a hunk of pork. Lastly, dachine with salt.

Photos

2006-12-18T09:53:00.000-06:00

Graduation day last Friday. Mmmm....we ate well.

My house the first night I moved in. As I keep losing weight, my house gets bigger and bigger everyday. Now it's more organized I swear.

My Panama Verde kids making tomales. This was supposed to be our big money maker but they sold them all on credit so now we are broke again. Good luck actually getting the money.

Another shot of the mountains and agricultural region near Cerra Punta.

Making shelves for my new house. At one point I snapped my fiber glass hammer but unlike tossing it and buying another one (something I've done dozens of times in the states) I spent the next 3 hours whittling the handle and reattaching the head.

Emilsa (11), Sabina (11), and Diamentina (9) hanging out on my porch after school.

Daniel, Vidal, and David show me an animal they caught. I can't remember the name but it was really cute. It's kinda like a small possum or something. (Actually, it was a baby ant eater. Specifically an endangered oso hormigera. Check it out here.)

I guy wanted me to take a picture of his daughter. The hat nor the flashlight seemed to cheer her up. She was afraid of me.

Valle de Risco (Joe's site) at dawn.

Fellow volunteers on our Thanksgiving hike around Cerra Punta.

This aquaduct, suspended in the air by a small cable, serves the house below.

My host sisters Bedu and Juanita playing. Juanita on the left must have taken her brother's shoes.

The critters on my legs - infected bug bites and cuts.

Some boys playing and swimming.

I'm so glad I wrote that disclaimer in July

2006-12-16T17:26:00.000-06:00

My disclaimer written when I first set up this magical piece of rant says "...many may have been written on particularly poor days." So am I just a complainer or are there always particualary poor days? I'm probably just a complainer.

Today Brandon hit the melting point, but let me choose my words carefully. I have received a rumor that my bosses read this blog too, Hi Peter!, Hi Greg!. I guess it's not really a rumor, one once said, "Hey Brandon, I finally checked out your blog. Some really funny stuff on there."

No, I don't want them to think I'm crazy, nor not cut out for the The Toughest Job. I'm just impatient. If there is one thing that I cannot stand it's laziness. Yup, the pure ol' "Ya know, I don't really feel like working....ever."

Personally, I love working. I am not a workaholic by any means, but I love to be engaged in something. I always take on more than I can handle, I always get it done, it always turns out well.

Comparisons are useless here but I would just like to state that my goals for the next two years, I mean the physical labor goals, could easily be done here in no time. In fact, give me 5 of my old laborers at Terra and my two brothers, and I could have it done in a week. In fact, give me any 10 able-bodied Americans and I could have it done in 2 weeks.

I've worked with Habitat in Romania and Engineers Without Borders in Bolivia. While this doesn't make me an expert, I do know hard workers when I see them. And I know lazy people too. I knew my construction experience would be a blessing and a curse here. So far it's only been a curse - but at least I know what I would do. All three times I've been invited and all three times I gave it my all. The only difference is that local volunteers worked much harder in both previous instances. And by "much harder," I mean they worked much harder than both me and here.

My other problem besides my lack of patience, is that I'm horribly spiteful. So much of me just feels like packing up and leaving and teaching my community a hard lesson. Except they wouldn't get it: all they would do is comment on how I didn't do anything for them when I was here. They want handouts, I want motivation. I do seek a little comfort knowing I'm not the one who is not trying - what more can I do?

My Grandma once gave me the best advice of my life. She said, "Brandon, always try your hardest. But if your hardest just isn't good enough, there's nothing you can do, and you shouldn't feel bad about that." I just wish other people would try as hard as I'm trying - or just try a little more than you are right now, which is not at all.

Mmmm.....cherries.

2006-12-06T17:06:00.000-06:00

Ok, so this is some guerrilla blogging if I´ve ever seen one. Let me cover the following topics: collegey, the critters on my leg, Mother's Day, podcasts, moving, springs, others.

1. Collegey. First of all, it's not a word. In fact, don't ever read it again. Someone lately called my blog collegey. As or of pertaining to college? I've attended 5 colleges in the past 7 years and I have no idea what that means. I think the word he/she/it was searching for was ¨Jejune.¨

2. The critters on my legs have met their match - and that´s two admittedly awkward shots in the a**, 24 pills to be taken every 8 hours, 36 pills I need to ask about tomorrow, four packets of some mixture, and creme baby! This creme is awesome, it smells like cherries, no lie. I like putting it on my upper lip, it covers my rank.

3. Friday is Mother's Day! Have you bought your Panamanian Mom a present yet? I suggest buying a chicken like I'm going to do. You'll make your mom's day and eat well that night - and Saturday morning.

4. Darn you Adam. (Who says ¨darn you?¨ I'm trying to clean this up for my sobrinos.) Adam introduced me to podcasts with the disclaimer ¨You won´t read as much in your site. But they are awesome!¨Podcasts are awesome, and awesome doesn´t even do it justice. Glorious? Imagine a frustrating day hiking through the jungle 2 hours one way with critters on your legs falling multiple times and finding out your spring is not a spring (see no 6). Not so bad when you can return home, plop into your hammock and listen to some ¨Wait, Wait Don´t Tell Me¨and other NPR masterpieces. I hated PTI in the states, here it´s such a breath to listen to Wilburn and Kornheiser go at it. Podcasts rule Adam.

5. So not knowing how long the critters were going to stay, I packed up all my stuff and moved out. I was half way there anyway. Consider it another present to my house mom. Yup, that's right, the week 6 move out. But I got PC permission, na na na na poo poo. Now I just gotta figure out how to eat, where to go to the bathroom, and where to take a shower. But I got the sleeping part down, I've always been good at that, right P?

6. My spring, perched a convenient 250 meters above the town and supposed to supply my community with continuous, potable water, is not a spring. It´s an underground creek. It's not consistent and probably contaminated. If you wanna come over here and tell my community that, you're more than welcome. I tried. It didn't go so hot. Of course they wanna use it anyway because it doesn't look as brown as the rest of the water.

7. Others. No hay mas puntos asuntos.

My little critters

2006-12-03T15:46:00.000-06:00

So I´m in the city today to get the little critters on my legs checked out. A fellow PCV, who has been here 1.5 years so he knows everything, took one look at my legs and said ¨Ah! Dude! That´s leishmaniasis. You got it bad!¨

Blogger won´t let me copy and paste, but go here for the definition.

I´m not saying I have it. Mom, please don´t worry. If I do have it, I´ve had it for several weeks. I probably shouldn´t even post this...sorry.

(I´m such a bad son.)

I´ll find out ASAP.

Another quick story (I have more too)

2006-12-03T15:27:00.000-06:00

The other day I was sleeping soundly, gently swaying in my hammock. It was pitch black, no roosters, dogs, pigs, children, rain or insects to ruin the silence. I was in a high school basketball game, leagues above my competition, stealing and scoring at will. The crowd was cheering, I was on fire. Then my coach, who suddenly turned Panamanian, said ¨Buenas Dias Unima¨and started singing crazy Panamanian cowboy tunes. He was belting it, guitar in hand. Next time I looked over at the bench, he had a Panama hat on and his shirt was half unbuttoned. He was just singing away, as loud as he could. This continued until halftime until I finally came to my senses.

I open my eyes, it´s pitch black but the singing continues. Where is it coming from? Ah, I was sleeping! What time is it? 4am Hmm.... Why is the radio blasting? I can´t fall back asleep. Who the hell is listening to the radio...I need to investigate. I get up, walk out to the kitchen, stepping over sleeping family on the way. The radio is on the table top, volume on 10. I turn it off. Ah...my ears... But that won´t cut it. I need to remove the batteries too. Ok, just one. I´ll hide it in my room.

Around 6 am when I woke up peacefully, I took great enjoyment listening to my family putzing with the radio trying to turn it on. I went back to sleep until 7.

Quick funny story

2006-12-03T14:40:00.000-06:00

I was playing cards (I taught them Go Fish) with my two host brothers the other night and the youngest who I have nicknamed Milk (Milciado) was having problems dealing. He would always forget the count and have to ask his brother Jose how many cards he had. I suggested counting them as he dealt. So, taking my advice, Milk proceeds to count every single card he put down. ¨One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, how many cards to you have Jose?¨ I laughed so hard I blew out the candle.

Updated mailing address

2006-12-03T13:58:00.001-06:00

I´m trying to stay true to Peace Corps form so I´m changing my mailing address again. It actually doesn´t really change much, just makes it a little easier for them to sort. Please see ¨My Contact Info¨ under ¨My Links¨ along the left tab. ¡Graci!

Insect Repellent Users Manual

2006-11-21T14:43:00.000-06:00

If the cat poops on your wooden floor again and you don't have anything to clean it up with, I recommend spraying bug spray all over the area and then lighting it on fire. This technique is always recommended. Be careful the fire doesn't spread to the duck poop though.

If pesty fruit flies are hovering your green bananas and don't seem deterred by the sweep of an outstreched hand and some vulgarness, spraying your food with bug spray is not recommended. At least not Deep Woods Off since that doesn't deter fruit flies either. It may, however, increase the savorness of said green bananas.

If your pits gots da stinks, bug spray can mask the smell for exactly one hour. By this time though, you should be doubting whether it pays to ever clean up or wash your clothes again.

Bug spray should not be used as a substitute for clothes. It may however, be used as a substitute for shoes.

Bigoté contest

2006-11-14T16:08:00.000-06:00

I can´t remember if I posted this in the past or not but it´s worth it again if I did. Did that make sense? So on our first two weeks in the campo back a few months ago, a few of us really cool guys decided growing moustaches would make us even cooler. Tom Selleck is cool right? Anyways, the rules were this: you have two weeks, go nuts and be ugly. From left, me, Ryu, Jack, Colin, Joe and Kevin. Ryu is just a sleezy rat ´stacher, Jack looked like a french inspector, Colin looked like Mike Ditka, Joe looked like a old sleeze ball, perhaps from Italy, and Kevin was either a 1970´s gym teacher or someone from Chips. I was just plain ugly and scary.

more pictures

2006-11-14T15:18:00.000-06:00

Sunset on the Santa Clara beach. Pacific side.

Celebrating Independence Day with presentations in the school. The kids were so shy, it was really cute. I made sure to sit in the front row and make faces at them as they were trying to remember their lines.

Pinata crazyness with candy and flour. We teased they all looked like Grandmas.

The view from my hammock at Santa Clara. I could have stayed there for two years.

A typical meal. The beverage is grinded up cacao, sometimes mixed with sugar, and water. Best when served hot. On the right is boiled green bananas and a hunk of mystery later confirmed to be a part of a fish head.

The new board of directors for my Panama Verde group. Panama Verde is an environmental conservation group for youngsters 12-20ish. From left to right, Rolando (pres), José (vice), Maribel (sect), Milciado (tres), Oscár (vocal), Fabío (vocal), & their goofy instuctor Unima. Notice the hardass butterfly tattoo on my arm. No mom, it´s not permanent - in fact, the bugs already ate it.

Swear-in Ceremony. Oct 26, 2006

2006-11-13T16:02:00.000-06:00

The Enviromental Health Gang and our fearless leader Greg, and instructor Tess.

This is the Community Economic Development Gang. The other head of the of the monster.

Group 58 - All 33 of us I think.

The Bocas Del Toro group and the Pennisula folks. Ryu, Colin, Joe, Brandon, Melissa, Jack, Mo and Kevin.

Group 58. We actually thought we were funny.

The EHers. We survived each other for the past 10 weeks. Aren´t these captions corny? None of these pics show off the cool tie I borrowed from Joe though.

Halloween Party

2006-11-13T15:46:00.000-06:00

Whatta get when you mix 28 new PC Volunteers, a party called Halloween, zero money for customs but a lot of money for booze?

Hey

2006-11-13T15:06:00.000-06:00

So I´ve been driving myself crazy. These last couple of days I´ve been super cranky. Not for any one good reason, but for a million little ones. It´s just hard work. (Sound familiar?) I´ve been daydreaming blog entries lately, and let me tell ya, the titles were a lot cooler than ¨Hey.¨ The problem is, I took me about 3 days worth of work to get to the city, another 3 days to get through all my inboxes, and I haven´t even begun posting pictures which usually takes another 2-3 days.

A typical day:
I wake up too early by my standards and ridiculously late by theirs (7am). I run down the hill to the latrine, usually praying that I will make it there in time. I clean the latrine everytime before I use it. I walk back up the hill, hoping they won´t ask me to work. I stall and search for the BBC on my shortwave. Sometimes I convince myself to do pushups and situps. I take a bucket shower, never really feeling clean. I eat breakfast, usually consisting of boiled green banana soup with a possible hunk of hard chicken (from the day before) or fish. I have no idea where the fish comes from. I dress, regarding the rashes on my shins. I participate in activities, stay in my room and read, study Spanish somewhere, putz around the house, visit other houses, go crazy. Most days I eat lunch. Most days I take another shower. Most days I´m ready to escape to my room and not come out by 6pm. Some nights I teach a little English by candle light. I sleep in a hammock, I love my hammock.

I´ve survived The Day for the Dead, Independence from Columbia, The Los Santos Uprising, an American Missionary in my village showing a propaganda movie, 2 Panama Verde meetings, 2 Aquaduct meetings, and several stupid questions. My community has survived me and my even stupidier questions and my horrible answers. I´ve given an impromtu speech in Spanish at a cemetary, lead a prayer for the evangelicals, sang in English, lead activities for children, and explained the plight of the Native American. I´ve visited every house and wrote down every single person that lives here. This week I´m visiting agencies, making a map of my town from GPS points, collecting garbage and batteries with my Panama Verde group, making tomales as a fundraiser, visisting the island for the Foundation of Bocas Del Toro, and the laundry. I´m currently reading a book about globalization but it was written in 1990 by the World Bank so it´s more comical than anything else.

I was a little surprised to hear that Daniel Ortega won, not at all surprised about the dems retaking the house, and it´s about time Bush got rid of Rummy. For the first time in 6 years, the U.S. seemed to unite at the polls. (Insert lame duck joke here.) Ok, let me work on those pictures now...

Move-in Day

2006-10-29T17:01:00.000-06:00

Hey anybody bored enough to be reading this. So it's Sunday and I'm back in David, en route to moving into my site tomorrow. I think I have 17 bags with me, totaling 1,000 pounds. Mood? (Is that a question?) Um... my mood is pretty alright. Right now I'm not too excited about moving back, but that's mostly due to the fact that I'm tired, a touch hungover, and pampered. It's like when you go camping and you really look forward to roughing it and living simply, but after a little while it wears on you and you think, "Damn it would feel good to take a shower right now." Or, "Damn, I could go for a glass of ice water." Or, "Damn, what's growing on my legs?"

I guess I've been pampered this past week. I returned to Santa Clara, to my luxurious mansion, and enjoyed every second of the fan on my face at night. Then, we packed out to Ciudad del Saber, and I enjoyed every second of the AC. We celebrated our official swear-in at Santa Clara Beach, and I enjoyed every second of the ocean breeze. I also enjoyed a lot of Abuelo. But now I have my last night to decompress and catch up on my correspondence.

Well, I gotta run off to a dinner date with Ryu and Joe right now, but hopefully I can chat with you Blogger a little tomorrow. Oh, one last thought... I feel really bad I didn't get to say my good-byes to the group. There was confusion with the taxis, I thought people had already left, and before I knew it I was on a bus to David. So if you are reading this and are pissed you missed a hug, some beautiful parting words, and perhaps a few tears - I'm pissed too.

My Contact Info

2006-10-29T16:51:00.001-06:00

Hey Ya'll here's what to do if you wanna yell at me or send me cookies.

Cell phone: (507)-6466-5162

Mailing Address:
Cuerpo de Paz – Panama
Atención: (my name)
Edificio 104, 1 Piso
Avenida Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panamá, Republica de Panamá

My new name

2006-10-17T18:55:00.000-05:00

So when I got to Qba Cacao, they voted on what my new name should be. This was a very democratic process with multiple people walking to the front of the room and explaining why my name should or shouldn´t be this. One finalist was Tili which I kinda liked. Ultimately my name was voted to be:

Unima Kwaribo

And Bolo, if you are reading this, that makes us brothers. But the debate didn´t stop there. Next, they needed to give me a name for when I´m drinking beer. This was a little unnerving because a lot of people are evangelical and don´t drink. So I´m expecting a name that translates into: ´you´re going straight to hell,´ or ¨you rich gringo...buying beer when we are starving.¨ My name while I¨m drinking beer is Chimi Mitigan. I´m not sure what it means and honestly, I don´t plan on drinking beer in my site. Partially because by the time I would get it there, it would be extremely warm...ha ha.

-Unima

Pictures from my site visit

2006-10-17T17:41:00.000-05:00

Ok, so Blogger was throwing a fit and I gotta eat so these are the only pictures for now. Starting out with my future house. This was Bolo´s old house that the Padres de Families built for him. It´s small, but it´ll work great.
I apologize now if this formatting gets all messed up...it seems to always do that. Here is the 2 room school. The floor is a concreteish type dirt and each classroom has a chalkboard and desks. One room is for grades 1-3 and the other is for 4-6.
Apparently a geography lesson, the kids used grass and mud to map a replica map of the world. I don´t know where Australia is either.
This is the comedor which translates to something like a community kitchen. Only 1 year old, it doesn´t actually serve much. The ´kitchen´has a fire pit and a little closet that has some salt and a few soup packet flavors in it. All the firewood in the foreground was hauled by yours truly. And I have the ant bites on my arm to prove it.
Ok, so I´m hiking through the jungle with these two guys and I look over and see this carved out boat. I figure the original diameter must have been 6-8´or more. So it was built by this 60 something man but first rough cutting it with a chainsaw, then carving it out wtih an ax. Now he has to take a hand planer and smooth it down. The process has already taken many months. Naturally I wonder, ¨How the hell is he gonna get this outta here?¨(It´s about an hour hike uphill to the road, then about 10 miles to the sea) He figured 60 men, 30 on each side, could help carry this thing. I think I´m included in that estimate.
These are my two host brothers Jose (13), Milciado (12), and my sis Yanilke (9). They are standing on the table they used to dry their cacao beans before selling them for 52 cents/pound. They carry huge sacks, probably 60 pounds or more of these beans the hour uphill hike to the road and take them to the next city to sell to the co-op. The co-op claims organic status, but the truth is no one can afford fertilizer or pesticides.
All of Quebrada Cacao sits in a basin of mountains that rise above 100-200 meters. They have a very eerie whisper to them at night.
This is my shower. A small pipe brings water in from a nearby stream and fills up the bucket when not in use. Then a big gringo comes in and uses a smaller bucket and splashes water all over. Notice there is no door. Most people in town just bathe in the river since this is the only running water in town.
This will be my house for the next 3 months. It´s rather big and I have my own room with a curtain for a door. The family has something like 12 kids with grandchildern older than the youngest ones. Actually, I´m not sure how many kids they have...but it´s a lot.

My host brother Jose chopping wood before he has to head off to school. I walked over that splinter pile barefoot like him once and got mauled by fire ants.

Site Description II

2006-10-15T15:23:00.000-05:00

(Please compare this info with what I initially received and posted Sept 13)

Quebrada Cacao is a Ngabe community set in about 30mins off the road. The community lies in a basin with houses scattered about the outer rim. In the center of the basin is a rather large hill. Atop it, there is a public house, a 'kitchen', and a two room school. My house is right next to the school. To get anywhere, one must climb over the rim first. The community is mostly family, from what I can tell, there is one main set of parents, and probably 3/4 of the town are siblings and extended family. There is no electricity or running water.

My counterpart is great, I like him a lot. I'm living with his parents and their umpteen children, but my house is sitting empty, waiting for me, my ideas, and my projects. Freetime may be limited however as the community is super excited to start construction on the aquaduct. I'm worried the funds won't be enough, especially if it gets built right. My family has a bucket shower and a latrine and a good sized room for me with a curtain for a door. The diet this past week was boiled green bananas, plus a few meals of rice, one or two included chicken. I hiked up to the spring which will serve or aquaduct, we felled a tree for lumber and split it, I visisted nearly every house to introduce myself, went pifa collecting, dropped into the school, and had two meetings with the water committe. But I also had plenty of time to read 3 Newsweeks and a National Geographic, and to return the blank stairs of my host siblings. Nico, my closest volunteer to me, came over for a visit and we made plans to build a composting latrine in exchange for a agriculture lesson.

It felt amazing to take a shower and lick my wounds after only 5 days in the campo. The feeling of being clean cannot be faked - either you are or aren't, and I probably won't be often. There is this eerie feeling that the mountains radiate, especially since they know this will be your home for the next two years. The mountains are whispering about you, just like everyone else in town.
I don't have my camera cable on me right now to download pics, and I might not for the next two weeks if I accidently left it at my site. But pictures will eventually come. Tomorrow I make the rest of the trip home.

Pictures from Sept

2006-10-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

So anybody that was thinking that I´m a great volunteer and all I´ve been doing is working, check out nice pics from Las Lajas Beach. After two weeks of working we all chipped in (I was out of money at this point) and rented a cabin on the beach on our way home. I felt like a true volunteer as I had to save $12 to get home and the rest I could drink on. I had my fair share of brews, and even bummed a few from the rich business volunteers and woke up to find exactly $12 in my pocket. Thanks Liz for the $5 to eat lunch with, I forgot that I would have to eat at some point in the day.
Sea turtle eggs.

Mo taking a picture of the sunset.

Ryu went surfing. But the true question is: Is he walking towards me or away from me?

Ryu and I thought the group was staying at a different resort a mile down the beach. Need less to say, we ended up walking that mile and back with our packs. In Valle de Junquito we learned some sweet Ngabe dances and all the Gringos offered themselves as clowns to entertain the community. But we taught them the chicken dance and hokey pokey so I guess it works both ways...wait a sec...they were laughing at us during those too.

The 3 sideways kids were my bro and sises in Junquito. From left to right: Elvin (11), Leidi (9), and Beilke (10). Elvin loved math problems, Leidi was my dancing partner, and Beilke had a laugh that I had to laugh to. They are sweet kids. In the background was my uncle? but I never really figured out his name. The other little girl was sporting a ¨Bling Bling¨shirt. How ironically sad.

Colin (aka ¨Big Easy¨) was asked to help prepare the pig for his new community. Worth noting, Colin is a vegetarian. But being the graciously awkard bad ass that he is, Colin grabbed the machéte and just started wacking. Man, there was pig guts flying everywhere! Colin soon had blood of pig all over his hands, but I think he earned some respect. The women then preceeded to half-smoke, half-cook it over the fire in banana leaves. It was funny, when I came up with my camera, they all ran to put the towels on their heads. I think it helps complete the picture too...

Vision and Mission Statement

2006-10-05T19:55:00.000-05:00

Going off the Who am I? rant, here is my updated vision and mission statements.

Vision: I will volunteer myself because I have the opportunity to. I hope to help provide others the ability to make their own life-based decisions as well.

Mission: I will attack problematic patterns to provide the ability to dream, so people can recognize their capacity to improve their education, health, and dignity.

Who am I?

2006-10-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we had a former PCV in today to mess with our minds. Actually it was very enlightening but a hard day. He posed 3 questions for us to answer...

Who am I? What do I do? What is my work?

After pondering for not long enough, I answer:
1) I am a confused dreamer who hasn´t woken up yet.
2) I participate in patterns either voluntarily or involuntarily.
3) I seek personal satisfaction through compliments from the less fortunate.

Number 1 was the hardest. I mean, when is the last time you´ve asked yourself, who the hell am I? First, I thought of all the things I like about me, then I thought of all the things I don´t like. After that, I couldn´t really think cuz I kept tossing around my bad attributes. Then he had us list values we think are important. I didn´t really write values, but instead wrote what I feel is important to share with somebody. I wrote:

friendship, silence, eye contact, adreneline, pain, happiness

I think to make a good friend, the two of you either have to experience an extreme high or low together. Then he had us write our skills. Man, this was hard. I honestly don´t think I´m good at anything, just one of those guys that bounce off of people, knock others down, and eventually I´m still standing. So my skills include:

not reading people correctly, quitting things, gaining weight, making excuses, complaining, and wishing for things without doing anything

This session was a hard look in the mirror. I realized that I´m scared. I am downright scared and there is nothing I can do about it except smile and try to maintain my patience and composure. But I´ll tell you one thing, once you admit your scared, things start looking a whole lot better.

Photos from Sept. (ok, at least the first two days)

2006-10-05T17:42:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I´ve been sitting at this computer for 1:26:8 now and blogger keeps dropping my pictures. So this is as far as I got. On the left are some local rugrats from Valle de Junquito where I spent last week building composting latrines. The boy in the middle is called Chi Chi cuz the word for small in Ngabera is Chi and the word for baby is also Chi. Hence the boy is called ChiChi. The boy on the far right is Roger, he likes to read Newsweeks (or at least look at the pictures.) And on the right in the blue is Leidi who is an excellent sister and dance partner. She´s 9 years old and shares my birthday (or so her sister said because she couldn´t remember.) Leidi is also really interested in brushing teeth, and hopes she can buy a toothbrush some day. The girl on the left is wicked with a machete. Below, the Michigan Tech crew (and Kevin) are building a composting latrine for Ryu´s and my host family. Matt and Josephine were great instructors. A composting like this costs about $150, takes a few days to build, and requires weekly and monthly maintenence. You also have to use something to cleanse yourself and a dry material for the compost. All of these are perfectly good reasons to keep pooping in the river.

Jessica was a local favorite among the kids, perhaps because she knew the actual rules for the name song. Jessica, Jessica, bobessica, banana fana fofessica, fe fi fonana, Jessica!

The chi chis in Nutivi practiced for two days for this amazing version of Old McDonald. Only it was in Spanish, wasn´t exactly Old McDonald, but a lot cooler. If I was tech savvy like Luke and not pissed off at computers right now, I could post a video of this as well. It´s really cute.

Ok, so this is it for now. In a couple of weeks I´m going to the city where I know of some fast computers to handle more pictures.

Quotable Quotes - Two weeks with the same people

2006-10-04T18:07:00.000-05:00

I´m not really into water-based comic book characters. (Colin)

Joe, you are never gonna get married if you dive like that. (Clarita)

Your eyeballs! Your eyeballs? Your eyeballs! Your eyeballs? (Colin)
Quit saying EYEBALLS! (Melissa)

Call me Mr. Harrison. (Kevin)

I think ringworms live in wrestling mats for 2000 years. (Joe)

Oh I thought you were 15. (Clarita to Kevin) I´m gonna go over there and let you grow up. (Later)

There´s something about this room that makes me really wanna take a shit. (Joe)

How does he not run the train on them? Is that what he said? (Kevin)

I heard that if everyone jumped off a table in China at the same time it would cause a huge earth quake...oh yeah, it has to be all at the same spot. Or something like that. (I forgot)

I heard if everyone in China lined up and jumped off a cliff, people would have babies before they got to the end of the line. (Jack) Wouldn´t the cliff fill up? (Ryu)

Do you think they think we are talking about rain water catchment systems right now? (Ryu)

Uh Brandon? I lost the bet. (Ryu) What bet? (Brandon) Who would shit their pants the first. (Ryu)

Kevin, do you like Indian women? (Joe) I could get into them. (Kevin)

I used to not knows enough about des tings, but I learned em all tonight. (Kevin, ripping on the French)

We need chili for 9 people. (Jack) And we need crackers for 9 people too! (Ryu)

If I die tonight, drink to my health. (Jack)

If anybody wants to go in on a loaf of bread with me, that´d be cool. (Joe) I would, but I can eat a loaf by myself. (Colin)

Sandflys are an old wife´s tale. (Kevin)

It was pretty cool being cold. (Adam)

Let´s take a shot for the road. (Ryu) But we aren´t going anywhere. (Kevin)

Aw man, who farted? That really stinks. (Brandon) I think I farted, but I don´t think that was me. (Kevin)

Remember those balls? They always smelled like urine. (Melissa, referring to the play area in KFC)

We shared a mosquito net if you know what I mean. Rob, you were a great sleeping partner. (Joe)

If you were alive in the 70´s, would you be a disco guy or a rock and roller? (Joe)

That smells like burning. (Adam, referring to a mixture of abuelo and seco)

God, I need more beer. (Ryu) What are you gonna do, breakdance? (Colin)

I got me a lock´n key. Gotta lock´p my nikes. (John)

Happy Birthday, you got acid. Happy Birthday, you got LSD. (Kevin)

You aren´t gonna rape me Joe, are you? (Brandon)

Joe, you are so cool. (Ryu) I am really cool. (Joe)

¡Mas Photos!

2006-09-29T17:54:00.000-05:00

I just got this pic from the school in Bolivia known as Buen Samaritano. On the left is the finished bathroom we constructed and on the right are kids during school. I know I shouldn´t pick favorites, but it´s totally the girl on the left with the white t-shirt and the two pink ponytails. See more pictures here or here. Thanks a ton Bailey and Kurt!

Joe is one scary mo-fo.
Swimming in the river and jumping off the tree.
Actually, we jumped off the tree and then swam in the river.
Colin thought is was very pretty there (it was totally National Geographic).

Blogger, ayudame por favor!

2006-09-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I created this blogger thingy with the great intentions that I would get to a computer, rant and rave for a while, and it would speed up the internet cafe process. Actually what happens, I get to a computer, answer all my emails and by the time I get to blogger I have nothing to say. I feel like I´m repeating. I´m in the city of Bocas del Toro right now which is super touristy. It´s our day off, and man, I needed it. We went to the village of Nutivi for the past week by first riding 7 hours in a bus, spending a night, waking up at 6am to catch another bus for 3 hours. Then we rented a dugout canoe and traveled up a river for 4 hours. Wooden canoe + 12 people + the luggage for 12 people + 2 guides + other passengers = a completely safe, common, easy, and relaxing mode of transportation. I shouldn´t say common...it actually is very common.

So if you are sick heading to a place like Nutivi, the chances are that you won´t feel better until you leave. My birthday was spent sleeping on a wooden floor from 1pm til the next day in probably 100 degree tempurature trying to shake my fever. But it broke and the wooden floor didn´t, and everything worked out in the end. The ride back was better cuz we used the current, til we got to the ocean and met the storm. Being soaking wet dodging lighting strikes - also a very safe method of transportation. Calmaté mamá, estoy bien.

So I´ve decided to carry a blogger list for the next week. Eleven of us will be out building composting latrines between Almirante and Changuinola. Everytime I think, ¨Dude man, that´s going on the blog!¨ I´m gonna actually do it. ¡Espera y ve!

As a side note, the Bocas clan of hombres has officially started the first moustache contest. This is bringing back some horrible memories. Pictures will inevitably follow.

Our Training Group

2006-09-16T16:04:00.000-05:00

Group 58

My mailing address

2006-09-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

This is a direct copy and paste from Joe's site.
It can take from ten days to well over a month for mail coming from Panama to the US, it is also probability similar reverse. Some advice if you’re interested in mailing me.

-Put post cards in envelopes or they may end up on the wall of a local post office.
-Number your letters you send me that way I'll know if one was misplaced.
-If you want to send me a package, please do not send anything of high value because there is no guarantee it will arrive.
-Packages should be sent in padded envelope because they are opened and taxed less.
For the next three months when I'm at training I can be reached at:

(by regular mail)
Your name
Cuerpo de Paz/Panamá
Apartado postal 0834-02788
Panamá, República de Panamá

(only for packages using a courier like FedEx, DHL, etc)
Peace Corps/Panamá American Embassy
Edif. 95, Ave. Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Corregimiento de Ancón
Ciudad de Panamá
República de Panamá
Tel: 507.317.0038 Fax: 507.317.0809
Atentamente: Your Name

After I move into my site, I will provide a new address.

Site Announcement

2006-09-13T17:26:00.000-05:00

Community: Quebrada Cacao

Project: Environmental Health

Province: Bocas del Toro

Nearest City: Changuinola

Description of site: Brandon, lace up your boots to hit the ground running! Quebrada Cacao is about a half hour walk from the highway through lush tropical forests and crossing a few small streams. On a small hill there are approximately 20 scattered traditional Ngobe homes. There is no public phone, however there is cell phone reception. There is a small two classroom school with 2 teachers spanning 1-6 grades with a total of 40 students. A nice house was built by the previous volunteer that will be available for rent for less than $20.00 a month.

Primary Work: I am going to put your construction management experience to work! The previous Volunteer designed and raised funds for a community aqueduct. The community does not know that the funding has arrived. You should begin by getting to know the design, looking for any expected problems, then forming work groups and finally breaking ground. You need to work with Joe in Valle Risco to find Jose Molina who is your area master mason. Reduce the size of the water tank as I noticed it is a little excessive and use those funds to hire Jose to build the toma and the tank. PCV Julie has all the project funds in her account and she will work with you to get the project done. PCV Marco Escobedo hopes you will keep in touch and will be happy to answer questions about the water system. Quebrada Cacao is also part of an area wide composting latrine request through FIS. Quebrada Cacao is set to receive 16 latrines. Seek out nearby PCV Adam Pivetta in Rio Oeste Arriba and he will bring you up to speed on when that might happen.

Secondary Work: There is a baseball team in Valle las Perlas that the previous volunteer participated in. The previous volunteer worked with the school teaching English and Environmental Education. The volunteer was also the P.E. coach and they are looking forward to you helping out with P.E. classes there. IPADEHM reports that they wish to renovate the school sometime during your service. There is a Panama Verde youth group formed that you could also work with.

My thoughts: Sweet! I had a sneaking suspicion that I would end up near this area since this is the area I went and visited. I told my APCD that I wanted to do construction instead of solicit funds, write grants, etc. I think that suits me and my personality better. I realize this strength is also my biggest weakness (besides Spanish and Ngabera) as I will be forced to sit on my hands a lot and take more a role of a consultant. I will actually be traveling out to this area next week to build latrines in a nearby community where Big Easy (the first nickname I ever gave somebody that actually stuck..ie. Colin) is going. Ryu is nearby too, within an hour or two. Changuinola is the nearest city with internet cafes and Bocas del Toro the city is only about 2.5 hours away. It's a surfer/backpacky type hangout for tourists. I'm really excited to have Ryu, Big Easy, Joe, and Mo really nearby. Mo is on an island with dolphins, if that makes any sense.

It's really sad to see some of my great friends heading to the Darien where I will only be able to see them once, possibly more, times a year. In particular, Brian and Amanda are super sweet and will miss their senses of humor. I will miss seeing Victoria's smile everyday and her high fives and Roanel's side comments that crack me up everyday in class. Yamiymah sounds like she'll have a ton of work to keep her busy. She will be a great volunteer.

Ok, I'll be gone working in Bocas for the next two weeks. Congrats on your move Barry & Vicky, sounds like it was a lot of fun. Good luck in the new job. I'll be 25 when I talk to ya'll next.

-Chobrau (my Ngobe name someone gave me last week)

Pictures!

2006-09-10T15:36:00.000-05:00

Santa Clara´s finest keeping us safe. Don´t worry mom, they even have a jail in there. The library on the left just received a copy machine and my job was to traslate the instructions to Spanish. It was pretty funny; how do you say ¨P.C. Load Letter What the f%$@¨ in Spanish?
Victoria and I. She had to take the picture after Kevin screwed up ¨the rule of thirds.¨
Ye ol´ Ryu. Stacey, Kelly, and Kevin celebrating after another exciting day in La Chorrera.
A bucket latrine, actually quite nice. Just add a little sawdust when done. When the bucket fills up, empty it outside in the large compost pile. It´s better than the river.
My house. I live here with the family grandmother and great grandmother. It´s sad ´cuz I´ve never stayed up later then they have.

The ¨queen¨ escorted by Gabriel. We tried asking what the voting depends on (i.e. personality, essay, hotdog eating contest) but everyone just said she won because she´s ¨the best.¨
A little girl getting ready to dance at the coranation.
My mother Dora, Sara, and my other sister Daniela (6 yrs).
My 10 year-old sister Nicole.
My 2 year-old sister Sara. (Sorry, I forgot to rotate these, just tilt your head like this.)
My daily training classroom.
Skyline of the city the first night from the bus.
Panama Jack. The two stars represent the two oceans and I´m pretty sure the blocks and colors symbolize something else too.

Ummm.....hola?

2006-08-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

So here I am at this 1980s computer with wires hanging everywhere and for the first time in my life I have nothing to say.... We lost our first trainee today. I want to respect his privacy, but let me say that I really liked this cat. I didn´t get a chance to talk to him before he left, I really hope everything is alright back home. I mean, he wasn´t that sick or anything, especially not sicker than the rest of us sickos. I spent a lot of time with him too, he was really funny.

I remember thinking about 5 days ago that if I get to a computer this month, I should really say ____ . It´s driving me crazy. The ticker says I have 10 more minutes left too! Here´s a fun game, Brandon: What´s been the most surprising thing for you this far? Umm....I don´t know Alex, perhaps the utter horendousness of my Spanish skills (or typing skills for that matter...or any of my skills for that matter). But I guess my biggest surprise is in my head. For some unknown reason, I cannot comprehend that I´m here. I´ve traveled a lot too. This isn´t my first rodeo, but this one just isn´t real. I´m numb and emotionless. I don´t understand and I don´t care. I´m going through the motions and I´m a spectator in my life. I really need to snap outta this.

Peace Corps Development Philosophy

2006-08-25T18:29:00.000-05:00

So one day a Panamanian was walking through the jungles of Darien and fell into a hole. Unable to climb out of the large hole, he began to yell for help. A missionary happened to be within earshot and approached the hole. ¨What seems to be the problem?¨ ¨Well, I´m stuck down here in this large hole and I can´t get out,¨ the Panamanian expressed. ¨I know what will help! The gracious love of God! Here is a bible, confess your sins and adopt the Good Lord Jesus as your Savior.¨ So the Panamanian takes the bible.

After a few days, he´s read the bible, but he´s still stuck in the hole so again he yells for help. This time, an international NGO hears his pleas. ¨What´s seems to be the problem?¨ ¨Well I´m stuck in this large hole and I can´t get out.¨ ¨I know what will help! Here´s $100, you need to buy a ladder!¨ So the Panamanian takes the $100, but since he´s in the hole, he can´t buy a ladder.

Soon the Panamanian cries for help again and this time a Peace Corps Volunteer hears his cries. ¨What seems to be the problem?¨ ¨Well, I´m stuck in this large hole and I can´t get out.¨

¨What are you doing?¨ he then asks. ¨I´m a Peace Corps Volunteer, I´m climbing down the hole so I can live with you!¨

Beating myself up hurts.

2006-08-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

Overall things are going pretty good. Of the 17 Enviornmental Health Workers, only 2 of us may have electricity at our posts. I can tell you right now that I won't be on the water. Apparently my swimming skills are horrible, or nonexistent.

Tomorrow we visit somebody, somewhere to see something he's working on. What day is it?

I don't hate you either, Brandon.

2006-08-15T22:42:00.000-05:00

So this dork's inspiring words to the group as training was completing was..."I don't hate you yet." Wow, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Honestly, the training group is excellent. It is so nice to be surrounded by inspired and inspiring people that think exactly the same way as you. We are all 20-something wannabe-somethings; for once my friends don't think I'm crazy (or even a little bit dreamy). As my future extremely poor friends and I sit drinking mochas on the patio overlooking limos and the Washington Monument, we ponder, "Who will be the first to quit?" "Who don't you want to be stationed with?" Then I wonder if I'm the answer to these questions in other social circles.

It's good to have my buddies Ryu and Jess here to remind me that good friends will always be there. Wow, listen to me rant! No wonder I've been invited to study in the City of Knowledge.

Ok, one last word of wisdom to all future travellers to Panama. Apparently the American Armed Forces aren't too well liked in Panama. I dunno...something to do with injustice, greed, and politics. Anyway, one easy way of eliminating soldiers is to eliminate camouflage. (I just deleted the joke I had inserted here.) Now insert dumb hick Brandon and give him a camouflage backpack - not a good combination. Long story short - don't bring a camouflage backpack to Panama.

(Not so) Great Expectations

2006-08-11T23:28:00.000-05:00

So I'm really sick of PC asking me what my expectations are. Uhh... I dunno.... Get sick? Truth is, the first thing that happens after ones makes an expectation is he finds out it was wrong. So following my dad's advice, here are 10 expectations for the next 2 years.

1. I expect that all road construction around Wausau will be done upon my return. Forever.
2. I expect I will get sick. There you have it.
3. I expect my amazing girlfriend will find it easier to have me gone than she expects.
4. John McCain will be president in 2008 to find a house of dems.
5. Terrorists will continue to save Bush's ass.
6. It will be released that we killed Bin Laden as the presidential race is heating up. Truth be told, he died of kidney failure several years back.
7. My friends will get richer without me.
8. I expect to tire of rice and beans.
9. I will discover the meaning of life; but will be too malnurished on rice and beans to remember it.
10. I will meet my future best friends while having the greatest time of my life. Is that too much to ask?

(11.) I expect all my bloggy friends will comment on their expectations for the next 2 years as well. See you in Panama!

Glimpse of Peace Corps Life

2006-07-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

As Moritz Thomsen pointed out: people here aren't lazy, they're exhausted. Similarly, I'd rather not consider myself lazy. But I tell you what, that hammock looks pretty darn inviting right now. If idle hands are the devil's workshop, what is an idle mind? An idle spirit?

I knew this trip would be great preparation for the P.C. but I also didn't know that it would be so different either; at least in my head. I will probably find out that it will be exactly the same. I need to make lists.
1) Wake up
2) Go to school
3) Don't go to the bar
4) Don't be so lazy....I mean....exhausted

In Granada

2006-07-14T17:49:00.000-05:00

I'm in Granada, grinding on my Spanish. I've done a lot of day trips in the afternoons; just enjoying a stress'less' life thus far. Oh yeah, I'm still alive too. I'd write more but I'm a novice still and the commands are all in Spanish and I don't even know what they mean in English.

I don't know how to set up this blog!

2006-06-20T10:53:00.001-05:00

Mr. Blogger says I need to first post something in order to view my blog site. So here is my first post.

Strangely, my blog is looking a lot (too much) like Monsier Barrett's which, at this point, is mere coincidence. But Luke's blog is in a class by itself (much like all the Monsier's artistic works) and I am confident mine will be far less extravagent.