Here's a brief narrative to help color the photos and explain what I've been up to the past couple of weeks...
So it turns out along with snakes and spiders and wild cats (oh my) we have crocodiles in the river. Don't freak out mom, they are nowhere near my site and, due to the efficacy of hunters in the region, darn close to extinction (read - extremely rare). Jon and I of course learned this after we got gifted some croc meat. When in Rome. And for the hippies that are up in arms, I hate to say it, but we're responsible for a heck of a lot more stuff going extinct down here than the scattered tribal communities living off the land here in Panama. (Author´s Note: I´ll explore environmentalism a bit more in future posts.)
I helped with a boat hauling junta. The founder of the community started carving a huge canoe (though not as big as the ones we take getting in and out of site) probably about six months ago. Last week it was finally listo for its maiden voyage from the forest to the founder´s home near the river. It was basically a half day of grunts, simple levers of fallen trees, and rollers. I couldn't help but think about ancient Egypt or other construction projects we read about in history books. Very cool stuff.
A bat decided to spend the night. I woke the poor guy up during the day and tossed the drowsy, confused thing out the window. Freeloader.
I tried guanabana for the first time. It has a soft white flesh, somewhat like mango. The flavor is totally different though, something more akin to green apple jolly ranchers.
I'm settling in nicely. I've got my sources for buying both cacao and coffee. When I'm not working, I'm enjoying local brews and baking brownies from scratch. I've also been able to bake bread and cook up some other tasty meals in the campo.
Life is good out here, better now that I'm cooking and living on my own. My health is on the mend. I've put on a few more pounds (see above paragraph for context).
Work is going well. I think I may find myself putting in latrines in my community, but it's still in the early phases of vetting out both feasibility and who in the community actually wants a latrine and who just likes the sound of a gringo building something in their patio. There's also a lot of interest in new fogones (cooking stoves). I'm excited about the stove project because it's free, would reduce smoke in the home, and would mean fewer trees getting chopped down for firewood. I'm also helping Jon with his aqueduct in his community, but he's definitely doing the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively). I've been able to put in another tap stand in my community's aqueduct, which means that one more family has water. I have a few more to complete before I install a tap stand for myself. For now, I haul buckets of water from my neighbor's a few minutes away. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi (yo no se que) to the whole Peace Corps experience.
Yup. Things are coming together, falling into place. I think I'll be able to look back on my time here when all is said and done and feel pretty good about my contributions, not to mention who I will have become living in this crazy adventure.
