Sunday, December 16, 2012

Apparently I missed the real rain

Upon arrival

When I hopped off the chiva back in El Harino the short, steep, muddy entrance from the street to my path home was too scary to attempt while carrying all my stuff.  I had to take the long way around.

The first thing I saw when I opened the door to my house after being gone for almost an entire month was a frog hopping across my floor.  Could be worse.

Otherwise, my house was exactly as I’d left it.  In a way in felt like a weird time warp and memories came rushing back of packing things up while Ashley was still visiting.

A scary amount of ants moved into my latrine.  Raid took care of them quite nicely.

My T-shirt-turned-pillowcase completely molded over.  Luckily I brought a couple real pillowcases back here with me.

The disconnected feeling that comes with remembering that I can’t just shoot a quick email or text whenever I want took a few days to get used to…

I realized the physical adjusting my body had accomplished to Panama’s hot, humid climate was significantly set back.  I made sure to continuously chug water to combat the dehydration.

The New Things

My 25-year-old host-brother got a whole set of new fake teeth!  No more gap-toothed smile.

There are some pretty flowers around my house.

The school garden beds are growing wonderfully.

School Garden!
There’s a new baby in town (so far a baby has been born every month that I’ve been here).

A neighbor who had said she didn’t want to have any more kids is pregnant.

One family is constructing a new house pretty close to mine.  Hmm less privacy.

The teenagers at my up-the-hill neighbor’s house found a new reggaetón song to play on repeat all day long.  Luckily I like it too.

One of my host-families got an adorable new puppy.  Sad to see how much the kids torment it.

Rain & Holidays

December has been a very calm month, and it seems as though I missed pretty much nothing in November.  Everyone tells me that after I left the real rains came.  When I arrived at the tail end of November it rained day and night for three straight days.  Apparently this was the norm for all of November.  How depressing!  Evidently not much work got done and all projects are in exactly the same stage as where I left them.

Now the weather has significantly improved, but December is yet another month of holidays.  Panama celebrates Mothers’ Day on December 8th, which really means several days before and after.  My up-the-hill neighbors threw their sons a big birthday party dangerously close to my house on December 15th.  Schools having been wrapping up with graduation activities before their two month summer vacation (January and February are summer here).  And of course Christmas and New Years are coming up fast.  So basically, no work is continuing to get done this month either.

So I’m taking a little breather, and it’s been nice.  After a week of being back in site I felt I was slowly getting back into the swing of things.  I looked at a calendar and planned the next training sessions I want to put on for January.  Just putting things down on paper helps me feel better oriented and more productive.  I reminded myself that part of my work here is to be an active member of the community.  I did a round of pasear-ing just to say “Hi” to everyone and exchange stories from the past month.  In the process I was invited to several other community activities and my social calendar booked up rapidly.

So I may have gone to a Catholic rosary on the first night of Hanukah ... Oy.

"Posada" acting out of the Christmas story

Mothers' Day "Queen Mother" competition at the school

 Graduating 6th graders are still hopeful that we may get a 7th grade teacher hear next year.  Otherwise they will have to hike to schools in other communities or simply quit going to school at all :(

Last Day of School!

Making appearances at events that seem to have no relevance to my agricultural work is an important part of gaining trust here.  Would you rather work on projects with someone in your town who’s super awkward and antisocial or with someone who you can talk to about anything?  One woman in particular opened up to me quite a bit recently.  Viviana invited me to her family’s Mothers’ Day celebration.  Her house is nearly an hour’s hike from mine, but I went with pleasure.  There was a lot of food and playing with the kids.  And then Viviana told me her story.  She had her first child at age 16.  She acknowledges she wasn’t ready to start a family, but that’s what happened.  Four more kids and several years later she separated from their father.  She didn’t tell me why and I didn’t press it.  Viviana spent about eight years working in the city, sending money back home to support her kids whom she’d had to leave behind with her mother. In the city she met her current husband.  After much convincing she moved in with his parents here in El Harino along with her three youngest children (the two oldest are away attending high school).  Her husband comes home to see them once a week.  Viviana told me how hard it was for her to get used to El Harino and how two and a half years later she still struggles to feel accepted.  It felt very good to have such an open conversation and reminded me that despite our differences, I am forming strong friendships here.  Viviana and I also talked about her home garden (started with the last volunteer), which took quite a beating during the recent rains.  I assured her that I will be here in the coming months to help get it going again.

Mothers' Day lunch with Viviana and her family.  I ended up going to four Mothers' Day meals all exactly the same: spaghetti, chicken, rice.
In the meantime, I’ve started planting my own semillero!  Now that I’m done traveling for a while I’m hoping to really get stuff growing as an example for others and of course so I can eat fresh veggies more often :)

Growing!
I’m slowly starting to reconnect with local agencies.  And I still kind of dislike them.  Trying to figure out when promised food for two of our fish tank projects would finally be delivered here took a ridiculous amount of phone calls.  I left my number hoping they would call me when they had information.  When news finally came that the food was en route, the person I talked to said she tried to call me three times but that my phone was off.  Of course my phone was off!  Anyone who works with communities in the campo should know that there is no cell phone reception or electricity here.  Leave a message, silly.  

We had a town hall meeting with special guest county government officials and ministry of health representatives.  They were shocked by the low attendance.  “When you are all notified that there is a town meeting, why isn’t everyone here?”  Their lack of understanding of the daily lives of people out here frustrates me.  People here work hard to feed themselves and their families and are constantly asked to attend “required” meetings related to the school, the church, health, etc.  These meetings often take forever and cover very little substance.  This particular town hall meeting, which was called for 10am, started around 11am and lasted until nearly 4pm.  I’m still not sure what the point of the meeting was – so many tangents and so much rambling.  Seeing reunions like these makes me all the more determined to make sure the few meetings I hold are actually useful and efficient.

Now that school’s out, the kids are visiting me frequently.  Sometimes cute, sometimes annoying.  We play basketball, look at the maps on my porch, and play with my camera.  Next month I plan to start a reading club and invite kids over to read once a week.  The general literacy level around here is pretty low, and I’ve recently acquired some adorable kids’ books in Spanish ranging from “Eres mi mamá?” to “Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate.” (Thanks mom!)

Cuties

Bball champ
Whew, this was a long blog entry!  If you’re still reading, I’m impressed.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Whirlwind

I was out of site for almost the entire month of November.  Much of the month passed with a sort of dream-like quality, but here are the parts I remember...

Wedding!

My one and only sister (Panamanians still can’t believe I have just one) got married in LA on November 10th.  I got into town Monday night November 5th in time to fulfill my American duty by voting on Tuesday.  The following days were spent with family, trips to REI, one night of Israeli dancing, and getting caught up on wedding logistics as a first-time bridesmaid.  It was very strange to jump so abruptly from one world to another, but it felt good to be home.  The wedding itself was lovely, and I've never seen my already pretty sister look so gorgeous.  I on the other hand felt pretty uncomfortable dressing up and, after 6 months of no make-up, sort of freaked out when fake eyelashes were stuck on me and immediately took most of them off.

Professional hair-do!
Sadie & Brennan!  Stunning.
Family
Overall it was a nice trip home and saying goodbye was hard.  Last time I said goodbye I knew I’d be home again in six months.  This time it might very well be 20.  But I wasn't able to dwell on this for very long.  I hopped on a red-eye flight and landed back in Panama Monday morning November 12th.

IST = “In-Service Training” & Turning 26

After being in site for four months, the Peace Corps brings training groups back together for “In-Service Training.”  The idea is that by now we've identified key topics that our work will focus on and so should receive more specified training in these areas.

Coming in from the states, I was a little late for IST.  Arriving jet-lagged and culture-shocked made being greeted by our training group of 40 people I haven’t seen in a few months all the more intense.  It was good to see everyone, but hard to switch gears back into training-mode.  The first few days involved sitting and sitting and more sitting while listening to presentations.  After four very active months, this was hard to handle.  And then my birthday happened!  The perpetually drunk Canadian owner of a nearby bar got me a birthday cake, so after a nice night-swim at the beach, our group headed to the bar to celebrate.  I am now 26 years-old, and I actually do feel like it.  I am a grown-up, and I’m doing some pretty big things.

Cake gifted to me by drunk bar owner
Peace Corps training group enjoying birthday cake!
My Peace Corps program director also got me a cake, and she was the one that spelled my name wrong (the drunk bartender got it right)

26!
My group changed locations to continue more hands-on technical training (sadly, no longer near a beach).  I was impressed to notice that some of my fellow volunteers, who’d been more timid during Pre-Service Training, now seem more outspoken.  I no longer felt like I was the only obnoxious student with my hand raised in class, but rather that we all participated and contributed to the training sessions pretty equally.  I could also tell that the group’s Spanish skills have significantly improved.  Nice!  Unfortunately much of the training substance was not actually applicable to our work.  We heard from experts on corn, rice, plantain, etc. who presented highly detailed, scientific methods of diagnosing and treating plant diseases.  I was disappointed that very little of this will be useful out in the campo where our resources are more limited.

Pretty outdoor classroom

SAS 71 group after using machetes to cut off sick plantain leaves

Gringo Thanksgiving

About 150 of the 250 Peace Corps Volunteers in Panama got together to celebrate Thanksgiving.  We took over a hotel in the western highlands of Panama, not far from the Costa Rican border.  There we enjoyed beautiful scenery and a shockingly cool climate.  Being around so many Americans in one place was overwhelming.  The weekend involved an overload of both partying and gossip.  I suppose that is bound to happen whenever and wherever a large group of 20-30 year-olds gets together with no other obligations.  I found this all to be pretty intense, and although I miss my friends when I’m in site, I was pretty relieved when the party was over.

Deliciousness

Change of scenery

Intro to Agribusiness

When I touched down in Panama and turned on my cell phone after a week of being in the US, the first message I got was one asking me to co-facilitate (along with two other volunteers) an agribusiness seminar in the province of Veraguas November 26 through 28.  My first thought was that this would be an awesome opportunity to get more involved in agribusiness work – a topic that I’m highly interested in.  My second thought was the realization that this would extend my already long period of separation from my community.  I feel that so much time away is seriously disruptive to my integration and service work, but I decided that in the long term a few extra days wouldn't make too much of a difference and that it would be worthwhile to gain the new experience.

We gave the seminar to a group of participants in a rural development project, as well as to some of the employees running the project (with the idea being that they can now give the seminar to even more participants).  The mixed audience presented some challenges.  We covered three central topics in three days: farm management & planning (including how to keep track of inventory), product marketing & market analysis, and general money management (prioritizing costs and setting personal budgets).  The main challenge here was keeping topics simple enough to be clear and understood, but still realistic and useful.  Additionally while the employees running the project have graduated from universities, the campesinos have only on average received up to a sixth grade education.  We covered some basic arithmetic principles and spent about a half hour practicing how to use a calculator.  It really struck me how many things that we may think of as common sense were actually acquired through years of formal education.  To expect campesinos to catch on quickly is unfair and unrealistic.  Slow and steady.  Overall, I was impressed with how well the audience paid attention, and it seemed as though they got something out of it.  The unfortunate thing about working seminars like this, which are outside of our communities, is that we can’t do any follow up to see if people are actually using the tools or ideas we gave them.  

Practice with calculators

Me explaining the basics of personal finances and why it's important to save money.

I’m FINALLY heading back to site tomorrow.  I've heard it’s been raining a lot so hopefully my house hasn't been too damaged.  I’m really looking forward to spending some time tranquilo, reconnecting with my community and settling back into the campo life :)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Ashley's Guest Entry!

During the first week of November, my easy-going, driven, talented friend from college Ashley Thompson came down to visit.  A graduate of Rice University's School of Architecture and a frequent world-traveler, Ashley managed to squeeze in some time for me before she ships off to spend two years in Japan as an architect in the US Air Force.  Below is Ashley's guest blog entry:



Let me start by saying that everything you ever knew about Lila Holzman is absolutely true, she may very well save the world and may indeed be EVEN MORE incredible than we all ever suspected. 
I´ve been in Panama for less than a week and am blown away at what Lila is doing in this part of the world.  Not only is she a ´trooper´ (as Mallory put it best) but she is the happiest, hardest working, most organized girl-with-a-plan to have ever trooped into the Panamanian countryside.  

It´s clear that she loves being here, loves what she is doing, and most importantly, is making a very real positive impact in her community.  Peace Corps is lucky to have her. 

Our adventure started on a Diablo Rojo: these fantastically painted and decorated decommissioned school buses from the US.  For 90 cents, we were slammed into a packed bus and bounced all the way out to Chorrera, the major city in her region.  

Diablo Rojo
chiva, which is a steel-cage outfitted pick-up truck, took us the rest of the bumpy way (also jam-packed full).
Outside the back of a chiva
Further and further from the city, on a roller coaster of a road, the country opens up into beautiful rolling hills covered in tropical forest.  Where the pavement stops, down a steep path most typically made quite precarious by slippery mud and bounding barbed wire, and a little yonder, is Lila´s house.  The entire time in the country, I really couldn´t help but think how beautiful this place is.  To elaborate, while it is certainly beautiful, it is also very humid, very wet, relatively buggy (although mostly it's mosquitoes and ants that are causing the problem), it can be extremely muddy, there isn´t indoor plumbing or electricity, and the shower is cold.  Which depending on how you feel about some or all of those things, may affect your perception of beauty.  But I think definitely for Lila, and for my short visit, it was incredibly peaceful and perfectly disconnected from the hectic world we all live in.  

Home sweet home
That said, It definitely is easy to grin and bear whatever the discomfort when you know you´re only visiting and will be out in X number of days, so all the more credit to Lila for her immersed experience (and the people for whom this is their daily reality).  She tried to give me a little taste of what her typical life out here is like.  We pasear-ed - which apparently translates into a visit-driven stroll, however is much more like rigorous hiking - to both her host families´ homes.  One was much more accessible than the other.  Her first host family is about a 30 min hike from the road up and back down a very high hill for the area, it was the first real "whoa, you and everyone who lives back here does this at least twice a day, including the kids going to and from school!".  The head of the household gave me a tour of his coffee farm, fish tanks, home garden, and mill for grinding sugar cane.  It is so impressive to see someone with so many natural resources under their domain- they survive off of what the earth yields them, literally.  Less romantic, his young wife got her hand caught in that same mill and lost 4 fingers.  Terrifying in general, I also am mortified at how hard it must have been to get her out and to the hospital.  

Between the rain and the holiday, Panama´s Independence Day, there wasn´t too much time for working.  But we also spent a morning building Lila a seed tray, and another afternoon helping a community member set up their home compost.  Lila´s most recent action item has been to galvanize compost in the village in order to be used for their upcoming home gardens (The ultimate goal to grow a wider variety of food and diversify the group´s diet beyond rice and yucca).

The other primary event of the week were the holidays. Friday there was an event at the local cemetery, Saturday celebrated Panama's independence from Colombia, Sunday was Flag Day, and Monday was Colón Day.  For this occasion there was an excellent presentation and parade put on by the school´s children (preschool through 6th grade) and also a baile at the local cantina.  The kids were very cute and did a great job as coached by their senior teacher despite having forgotten to sing the national anthem (and announcing this in order to reconvene).  Also their electronic set up (powered by the school's solar panels) was quite amusing, apparently the mic connection to the speakers only works at justttt the right angle, which the teacher was constantly fiddling with the cord to find, and when he did, would freeze in whatever odd position his arm happened to land in. 

For the baile, Lila graciously hosted other nearby peace corps volunteers at her house (the furthest came from 2 hours by hike).  We celebrated with white-cheddar cheese popcorn, macaroni and cheese, and boxed wine.  Around 9pm - very late when you usually go to sleep with the sun- we attempted our hike to the cantina faced by an ungodly amount of mud.  I've never imagined in my life so much mud, everywhere, every inch, and a few inches deep.  The cantina was the same, an entire inclined yard of mud, making it a challenge for sober people to stay upright, and impossible for the drunk-off-their-butt Panamanians.  People who were too drunk to carry on often just crashed to the ground and decided they may as well stay there.  People actually passed out !and remained! in the mud - hopefully not face down. 

All in all my week with Lila went by much too fast.  I´m so happy that we were able to make my trip out here possible.  I know everyone who is able to visit Lila will be amazed and impressed with the work she is doing and how quickly she adapted to this new and challenging environment.  I know I couldn´t do what she is doing, really, it´s hard to capture her life in pictures and through her blog, it´s certainly even hard for a short-term visitor to understand the full impact of what she will accomplish and the barriers/difficulties/discomforts she faces.  But take my word for it and be oh so impressed with our wonderful Lila. 


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Panama Protests, Parties, and (organic) Pesticides

Panama in Protest

For about a week, listening to the news scared me a bit.  Panama passed a law making it legal for the government to sell off land in the free trade zone to other countries.  The general public was very much against this and took to the streets to show it.  Peaceful protests turned violent and both civilians and the police seemed to cross unnecessary lines leading to some messy situations.  The Peace Corps limited our ability to travel during this time and both Panama City and the entire province of Colón were off limits.  Just when I was worried things were getting particularly ugly out there and that the comparisons of my Peace Corps experience to “The Hunger Games” would continue (Panama seems eerily similar to Panem, with a capital rather distant from the discontented exterior regions), the government repealed the law in question and everything calmed down to normal.

Time to Celebrate!

The entire country quickly switched gears in time to begin celebrating the many holidays that come during this time of year.  My incredibly wonderful college friend Ashley Thompson arrived to Panama City on October 31.  In the city, Halloween was indeed recognized and we met up with another Rice alum / local tour guide Mallory Pierpoint to check out the Halloween scene in Casco Viejo.

Rice University chicas
Back in site, we observed a very low key Day of the Dead ceremony in our small town cemetery.


On November 3rd Panama turned 109 years old.  My town kicked off the day with some cultural acts at the school followed by a parade down the main road.

Raising Panama's flag and saying their Pledge of Allegiance

Dancing in typical dress

Parade down the main road.  Very small girl + very big flag = very cute.
In the evening I played host to some neighboring volunteers and Panamanian teachers who came to pre-party before a relatively large dance held in my town.  As always, I loved the part where I got to dance to some típico music.  Watching Panamanian men (some that I knew, but most from out of town) get completely plastered was somewhat disturbing yet entertaining.  Combined with the intense mud that was ever-present, it was hard not to compare the stumbling drunks to zombies, especially the ones that slowly tried to stand up after having spent some time passed out, lying in the mud (creepy!).  Despite a few slippery falls, my team of gringos made it home safe and sound.

Volunteers and Panamanian teachers
Gringo gathering

Tipico dancing!

So. Much. Mud. 
Garden Work Continues

Protests and parties aside, agricultural work has continued!  Since my compost talk, families have slowly but surely been inviting me over to help them get their piles going.  I’ve now been involved in a total of 6 compost projects throughout the community.  Not bad!

Kids helping out with a compost pile
I’ve also been collaborating more with the First Lady’s organization that helps with our school garden.  Recently we trained on the making of organic insect repellents and also oversaw the construction of a semillero, or seed-starting table.

Brewing an insect repellent

Very tall seed table -- they said they made it with me in mind ... Ayayay
Ashley helped me get my own semillero seed table started so that when I return from this month’s travels, I can get going on my own veggie planting!

Semillero-making

I left my site on November 5th and won’t be back until after Thanksgiving.  Until then I will be home briefly for my sister’s wedding, will spend two weeks at a Peace Corps training event, and will spend Thanksgiving with a large group of Peace Corps volunteers (there are about 250 of us total in Panama).  Exciting times!

Friday, October 12, 2012

Nutrition, Trash, Festivals, and Luxury

Nutrients for People and Plants

After last month’s community analysis meeting resulted in the long term goal of eating a more nutritious diet, I teamed up with a neighboring volunteer Jim to host a training focused on two semi-related topics: Nutrition and Compost.  I started off talking about three principle food groups and how people should eat from all of them instead of just one (carbs).  I also explained how important it is to stay hydrated especially when out working in the fields.  Jim transitioned to compost-talk, explaining that plants, like us, need nutrients to survive and that we can provide these nutrients without having to buy chemical fertilizers.  Woo!  We then split the group up and had them practice making a compost pile.  I was pumped that we had such a large crowd – 19 attendees total.


Proteins - help form our muscles, bones, organs, and blood; Fats/Sugars/Carbohydrates - help give us mental and physical strength and energy (this is what most Panamanians subsist on since it includes rice and yucca); Vitamins/Minerals - help protect us from getting sick; & Water - necessary to live and boy do we sweat it out here all day long

Jim taking over to explain that plants need nutrients just like people, and that we should give them organic fertilizers, aka compost!

Wrapping up the talk explaining possible applications of finished compost.

Practical application time!  Making the compost mix at my new house.  What Panamanian reunion would be complete without a baby sleeping in a chinchorro?
                                                       
For the obligatory free snack, I wanted to provide something showing different nutrients than what they usually eat, using foods they can find or produce around here.  Cucumber and tomato salad!  Plus toasted bread and oranges.

They ate all the salad but I still can't get them to eat a whole orange.  They cut the tops off and suck the juice out leaving behind the rest of the fruit.  Silly.

Help from Outside Agencies on Trash and the School Garden

I had some better experiences recently with outside agencies.  The Ministry of Health decided that since construction of the fancy paved road through our community, trash has become a serious health issue.  They organized a trash clean-up day, which went well in terms of enthusiastic involvement from community members.

Taking a break after gathering bags of trash
Making signs telling people not to litter

Yep, all the trash collected that day was burned.  Glass bottles were buried.

After being told to write a sign for the main intersection / hang-out point that says “Please, throw trash where it belongs” it confused me to realized that the Ministry of Health did not provide us with a trash can or even a bag to keep at that location permanently.  If we don’t provide a place to throw trash, how can people put it where it belongs?  I tried asking around, and people said they thought someone will be bringing something soon, but no one knew who or when.  Hmmm.

Main intersection where people love to throw trash on the ground with a new sign but no trash can...

The technical expert from the First Lady’s project that funds our school garden came out last week and will be continuing to visit throughout October to help get the garden going.  Fortunately, our trainings seem to complement each other well.  She emphasized the importance of compost and went over low-resource seed-starting techniques including the use of newspaper to make little seed bags.  The project requires contribution of all parents of school children, and hopefully will start getting the kids more involved as well.

Making seed bags out of newspapers and filling them with a mix of cow manure, rice husks, and sand

Garden project technician explaining how she wants the corn planted

Time-out from garden work to catch a snake.  eek!

Festivals

I’ve been warned that not much work happens between October and December due to a series of holidays and they are starting!  El Harino kicked things off this week celebrating “Spain Colonization Day.”  The teachers organized an annual march where the kids held colorful handmade torches and paraded down the main road one evening.  It was very cute and pretty.

Kids with torches

I asked if the symbols on the torches had any significance.  Nope.  Just pretty.

When we got back to the school, the kids helped dress me in a pollera (typical Panamanian skirt) and we did some folk dancing.  Fun!

Lila baila!

Other upcoming events will include some intercommunity school soccer tournaments, Panamanian Independence from Colombia Day on November 3rd, Panamanian Independence Day from Spain on November 28th, Mothers’ Day in December, etc.

Luxury

I made the big 3-month move and am now living on my own in a charming wooden home.  Moving was mentally and physically challenging, but well worth the effort.  Me, myself, and I lugged all my earthly belongings from my host-family’s house to my new one (no helping horses this time).  It took about 3 trips plus a few loads from shopping out of site.  I didn’t ask for any help carrying stuff and no one exactly offered.  A few people asked me if I was sure I could manage everything, and I said yes, because I could and I did.  Whew.

My host-family told me they wanted to cook me lunch on my last day.  I thought this sounded sweet but a little silly considering I’d been eating all my meals with them.  But then they surprised me with a non-traditional lunch of SALAD with LETTUCE and rice and chicken.  In this one meal all 3 food groups from my nutrition lesson were deliciously present.  So happy and proud.

yum!
After a few rainy afternoons trapped inside my new place, I have arranged it how I want it.  Compared to some of the hardships of the last few months, this home truly feels like luxury.  Water from an aqueduct comes to two spigots just outside.  I bought a 6-inch foam mattress and am sleeping comfortably for the first time in a long while.  This house feels big!  I have space to spread out my things and to walk around.  So lovely.  The house is an undivided L-shape, but it almost feels like I have different rooms.  Here are the photos.

Outside

Spigot and board for doing laundry, etc.

Nicest latrine in town

Faucet above my head! No more bucket baths.  Yes, the water is still cold.

Trying to make my front porch as interesting as possible for visitors: basketball; community map; info sheets on nutrition & compost; poster on coffee pests; posters from past talks on community goals, nutrition, compost; copy of community analysis document; Peace Corps magazine.  Also hoping this keeps visitors from entering my house.  I don’t go into other peoples’ houses when I pasear, so I’d like to try to maintain some privacy.  I should probably put a hammock out there at some point.

Kitchen! Gas tank & stove; cookware; dishwashing bowl; food storage containers including large ziploc bag, bucket, cooler; rechargeable solar lamp on a 2-year loan to me from Women’s Group project.

Living room! Comfy chair; Peace Corps calendar (want one for 2013? $18); family photos; clothes shelf; work-stuff shelf; Panama map; bench

Bedroom! Clothes rack stick; luggage storage corner; bed

Bedroom! Bed; shoes/boots; water filter; machete & other tools; door out!

This will be the longest I have ever lived in any one physical place other than my parents’ house.  One year and nine months.  Crazy!  Also, this is my first time living by myself with no housemates or roommates.  Nights are a little quiet, but compared to crying babies, this is a nice change.  My radio is on frequently, and yes, “Gangnam Style” has made its way onto Panamanian radio stations.  So far the only main negative of my little casita is that the strong rains bring in quite a bit of water under the walls.  May need to work on some outside drainage improvements at some point.

Sooo when are you coming to visit?

This toucan agrees that you should come visit Panama.