Today we learned where we will be calling home for the next two years. For me, it will be in an indigenous Ngobe community with about 450 people. What does that mean? It means I'll have a house with a thatch roof on stilts. I'll have running water, but will need to treat it before drinking. I'll be building a latrine for my own use. I will not have electricity. I will need to take a boat that leaves once a day in and out of town. It will be a forty minute walk to get cell phone reception. I'll be in the sticks and having the experience of a lifetime.
My site has an aqueduct that was designed about built by current volunteers, but I will be the first PCV living in my community. The community is still working out the kinks with the aqueduct. In addition, no one uses latrines and opts to use the creeks instead. I'll be doing a lot of eductional activities on both fronts. Other projects that I may be able to take on could include gardening for domestic use (they have agriculture as a means of income), something solar related, or anything else that seems appropriate when I'm out there. I have visions of a garden and chickens, maybe a cow. We'll see what happens.
The next two weeks I'll most likely be MIA. I have my culture week in the Bocos del Toro region, "relatively" near my site. Next week I'll be learning about the culture of the region along with other volunteers. The following week, I have technical training where we'll construct composting latrines and learn about building aqueducts. Cool stuff.
That's it for now. The next post should be pretty cool since I'll be able to talk about culture and tech week. All in all, I'm having a great time.
