Murphey´s Law

Bhoj slack-lining outside his mudd house... pre-fallKalli walking across a rickety bridge on the way to the charla that wasn´t...

Chiriqui provence grasslands

Mis amigas reading Beauty and the Beast.

Chacra y Nagwa Some chi watching us at the new volunteers´culture week

My photo-happy neighbors and their great background, strange hanging bottle and all.

Passing through town today... not supposed to be here but the plans two volunteers and I had to do an HIV/AIDS charla in a far away Comarca town fell through. The director of the school forgot to mention that the students would be taking their exams and would not be free until 4pm, a tall order for those who have to walk 2hrs to arrive home every night. We then turned to the nunery where we were to stay that night but they told us that every bed was full. So we hopped in a car and drove down the mountain. It was a beautiful day, a day that reminded me of camping in southern Utah (yes, that dry and that deforested). And we had a great lunch and 12 hrs after my alarm went off this morning I find myself again ready to go back up to site.

The HIV/AIDS charla that I had planned in my community with two different volunteers (see photos) also fell through due to hard rains and harrowing thunderheads. But in this case we were able to give the charla to the sixth graders. That went really well.

My buddies Kayla and Kate

I head to the city in the middle of the month for my yearly meds. This year has gone fast. Some days I only hope that the next goes just as fast (which I am sure it will), and other days I wish it would slow down. I have wrinkly hands. Seriously the skin is thick and dry and the skin on the tip of each finger is peeling off, giving the sensation that no matter what I touch there is something balling up in it (ex: my hair) when it is actually just loose skin. Gross. I will get it checked out in the city.

I´m really tired and am having a hard time finding ways to recharge. I probably need a couple of days of sleeping and reading in site and I´ll be back on track.

To motivate myself to pasear from house to house more I decided I would start asking community members their fabels and stories. I´d like to write them in Spanish and Ngabere and have the sixth graders illustrate them. So for the first time in a long while I went and made a full day of house to house visits. Jose told me he had a plethra of stories ( he didn´t use the word plethra). One went like this:

A woman is carrying her new born child up the road to the Health Center in the middle of the night. She´s tired and can no longer hold off sleep so she lays down on the side of the road and doozes off. Along comes a giant. He´s hungry and she, a new mother, could provide him with a snack. He tip toes up, and starts to drink her breast milk (wait, wait, this is a ngabe story). The women, thinking her child is hungry pulls the giants head towards her to acomodate her.... oh lord! That´s not her baby! In fear (and I imagine with much distaste) she pushes the giant away who runs to hide in the woods and see if she will dare sleep again. She does and the previous scene repeats itself except that this time she doesn´t fall asleep again. (end story)

I asked Jose how long ago this happened. He answers, ¨Hace varios días. (Translation: several days ago.) ¨Like on Saturday?¨I ask. ¨Could be,¨he says. ¨Or like 40 years ago?¨ ¨Yes,¨he says. ¨Around then.¨ Perhaps I won´t have the kids illustrate this story.

My cat won´t eat plain white rice. It´s embarassing. When he stays with my family they have to give it fish or chicken. He´s much fatter than other kitties due to Whiskas. It´s all very troublesome. But he is so nice to cudddle with. Note to my special friend who saw me flipp out on a camping trip many years ago because there was a tick on my tiger shirt: I picked 200 tiny ticks off of my cat a couple days ago.

Missing you all and hope that everyone is surviving the economic problems back home.