So much has happened in the last month

Since I have last updated my blog I have built 9 latrines, hiked across the continental divide and ended up on a river that leads to the carribean, held meetings with communities who have requested volunteers, had our Close of Service conference cumulating in a discoteca inside a renovated school bus and vacationed with Rachel. whew. Its alot to sum up. so maybe pictures will do a better job. God, and internet, willing.

School is back in session. So every day around 1 a steady flood of kids pass by my pouch. Rachel showed them how to trace leaves with the flat side of a crayon. I handed them some scrap paper ( a latrine manual actually). I figured they would use the blank side to draw. But instead they colored the tiny illustrations of the construction and, yes, the correct use of a latrine.

My latrine project has been a challange from the begining. But to my suprise the closer we get to completing it the more seamless the work becomes. (it may have been dangerous to put that in print.) All 9 families now have the latrine floors, and they have all been moved over the 3 meter hole. Not one broke! The men involved, none of whom had ever worked cement before are now expertos and are really proud of what they have accomplished. The women, like Maritza above, are particularly grateful.

Many people wrote my Ngabe name (Bedi) on their latrine, perhaps bringing to fruition my joke that in the future, long after I have gone home, people will think of me....when they are pooping.

After moving the last of the latrines over its prospective hole I sat with a weathered old man named Fransisco and his toothless wife who had just given me a ripe banana and a cup of sweet coffee. " You know," he said. "Once they came and took a list of names of people who needed latrines." He's talking about some other agency. "They never came back. The second time they took names again. They didn't come back either. It was the same the third time. and the forth time. And the fifth time. (I though he was going to keep counting.) Then the sixth time you came. And now we are finally seeing it happen." So no regrets there.

Melissa scaling a steep cement staircase on a riverside cliff on our hike across the continental divide.

At the top of the mountains the river is hardly a spring, but throughout the 2 days it grew to a raging river, changing color and temperment with every curve.

Chochino Kati!

One of the little villages along the way that we spent the night in.

We crossed any number of sketchy bridges made of everything from logs tied with vines to old metal pipes.

Another river crossing: zip line style! We saw one women put her baby in a bag, tie the bag to the seat and send the baby over the river solo!

Finally after a total of 26 hours of hiking, all of us feeling a little feverish and ill in the stomach, climbed on a dugout canoe with a motor and headed down the Cricamola river towards to ocean. What a trip.