Patacones and Pets

Patacones and Brett

Beautiful Las Lajas

WOW! Cool!

Shit!

Almost more than a month has passed since my dad and bro left Panama. Their trip flew by and before I knew it I was back up in site and it was if it hadn´t happened. I think we all had a really good time. I was suprised how quickly I slipped back into Normal again. My flawless directional ability got us lost in the city several times and as if it had a magnetic pull the dangerous ghetto Chorillo pulled us in to its narrow dingy streets. Dad was so calm. So was I (shut up Brett.) I pretended to be excited about the canal. To be fair, the boats are really big, and it´s a lot of water. But... I just can´t get myself to really care! Ever night we battled it out for scrabble champion. They were no match form my trilangual talents (quad if you count the words I make up.) I won. (shut up brett.) We ate great food and as my flaquito brother often pointed out, ¨Are you kidding? We just ate!¨ Exactly. I still dream about it. I made a point to drink Papaya milk shakes at every opportunity.

We visited lush mountain sides and flat beaches and the steep slopes of my community. Host father and real father exchanged heart warming words and we laughed and joked a lot. My community was so appreciative of their visit, even though it was breif. We made some compost like a big happy international family. The compost pile was a mixture of success (everyone came) and dissapointment (no one brought as much material as they had commited). And there is no water. so the compost is still sitting there, not composting. Small, unasuming, not enough. But that´s taking me somewhere esle....

Brett and Dad were christened Ngabe names Brett: Chachi Dad: Chidá. They still talk about them in my site. Sometimes we´re just chilling and they say their names out of the blue. ¨Chidᨠthey say and nod their heads, thinking. ¨Chidá... and your brother´s name, how was it again? Ah yes, Chachi. Chidá y Chachi. Huh.¨

Dad, Hermano mio, thank you for your patience when i had a map in my hands... next time i wont scoff at the GPS idea. Thanks for hiking through heat and haze to see where I live and for being so suppotive!

I wasn´t up in site for a week when stomach problems sent me back down and it´s been a rough month of not a whole lot to do. I´ve been helping carry sand and rock for the community bean storage structure (a little bit) . Each trip takes over an hour (30min steep uphill to the road, then back with the load of 50-60lbs. ) The group members have been carrying materials for a month now and they rest in my host families kitchen. When I am not helping they yell good naturedly up to my house, ¨Betdi, you sleeping?¨ ¨Making lunch already?¨ It makes me a bit nervous about my activity habits. I try and find a balance between being a part of the community and helping and not driving myself into the ground doing heavy lifting everyday. I´ve also been doing some soil conservation on slopes so sloped that it probably wont work. But I´m learning. I´m learning to be more honest and to say. No! Lets not do it here where the land has already slid and the slope is 1! (as in 45 degree angle). Mejor en otro parte, por favor!

Nine months after arriving to my community I became a mother. Of a sweet little kitten who becomes a little less sweet as he becomes more comfortable in my home. I hope I still have an inflatable matteress when I get home. I really like having someone welcome me home. Somebody to talk to (sort of). He makes me chill out a little bit, I like to make tea and pet him in the morning instead of stressing about what I am doing that day.

Last week we had out All Volunteer Conference. It was possitive. But I was negitive. I couldn´t seem to engage and felt threatened by all of the sharing of successes. It was silly on my part but I was really glad when it was over. Kudos to the group 62 with their abundance of musical and dance talent!

Tomorrow I head to a nearby community to talk about safe sex, aids and hiv. I think I am going to be deversifying form agriculture a bit. I need something to keep me a little more busy, something with more tangible results. I´ve been so frusturated! So I am in the process of asking for a latrine project in a community that is so far away from the road that they can´t get any support from anyone. And I am going to try and get more involved with gender roles, women and kids. And maybe agricultre will be like my platacones, important, just as filling as anything else on the plate, but not the main focus...

I tried to upload more photos but the comp is too slow. until next time!