Settling in again

¡Hola Hola y Buenos Días!

I’ve been much busier in my new site than I feel I ever was in Chiriquí. Well, I’ve been pasearing less and spending that time on my little laptop typing away. On a typical day, I wake up at 5am to the chickens (hens are noisy too, it’s not just the roosters!). I try to go back to sleep or at least stay hidden in my room until 6am. Then I get up, take over the bathroom for a good half hour with a shower, brushing teeth, doing my hair, and using the john depending on what delicacies have been sitting in my stomach all night long. I then emerge and eat whatever has been sitting on the kitchen table since I entered the bathroom. It’s typically a cup of coffee (now warm or cool) and a piece of bread spread with butter and usually a Kraft single or the Panamanian equivalent. I gobble it all down as graciously as I can and then return to my room to pack up what I need.

With my computer tucked away in a drybag and my cell phone charged, I head off to the school. I gingerly step down the leafy stairway and try to hop across all the rocks to the other side of Quebrada Puerto Frio. I’m usually not that successful, so I luckily have gotten in the habit of rolling up my pant legs before attempting it. The problem is that only this family uses this creek crossing due to the location of their house. None of the rocks are stable. In fact, after the last heavy rain, a couple of them in the middle got carried away. I have better luck crossing Quebrada El Congal as everyone who lives in the 20 houses of this sector has to cross it here. (When there’s been a lot of rain, all bets are off. I waited over an hour once for the water to drop about two feet. Even then it was up to my mid-thigh, so you can imagine I got wet.)

I then walk down the trail alongside the baseball field bordered by a few neighbors and a tienda. I meet the main road with a right turn and pass by the Catholic Church and another store before reaching the school. All in all, it’s only about a five minute walk. Pretty nice commute, huh? At school, I change my shoes or all my clothes depending on how high the creeks were and how wet I am.

I head into the computer lab where I’ve been spending most of my time. It’s the only air conditioned room in… well, the whole town. So in an equatorial country at 300m above sea level, AC is welcome. Plus, there’s a dehumidifier, so I feel assured that any humidity my computer or other electronics have gathered over the night will be dried out a bit. Other teachers come in throughout the day to take a break from the heat, so I’m hardly ever alone in there.

I have two classes a day of Informática, aka Computers. I make it up as I go along. What doesn’t work with one class, I try to adjust my explanation and try again with the next one. I started out with Preschool through sixth grade, but that wasn’t working. I dropped the little monsters that couldn’t keep their fingers off the power buttons and now have first through sixth grade. I think telling one of the four main parts of the computer was called a “mouse” scared some of them away, as they will barely touch it and just tap the sides with their finger to get it to move. I tell them it doesn’t bite, but I’m not sure they believe me. (Laura and any other lefties, you still use your right hand for the mouse, don’t you?)

So we’ve been working using the mouse with a couple programs I bought here in Panamá. One program calls out directions like “Put the red square to the right of the yellow circle.” It sounds easy, but when third graders have trouble with their rights and lefts, and some are still working out the differences between a square and a triangle, it gets pretty tricky. Other programs from that same company focus on science, math, and reading. I haven’t used the reading one much as fourteen computers talking at the same time with no headphones for any of the students would drive me crazy during the 40 minute period.

I’ve now started them on a typing program from Typing Tux. It’s a free program from the internet and still has some bugs. Just getting the kids to use two hands is my goal. Like the mouse, they hit what they need to and then put their hands back under the table. I feel like bringing in a roll of duct tape to ensure they keep their hands in position. Muhuhaha.

In my off time before and between classes, the principal has been keeping me busy with digitizing forms. I don’t mind recreating the tables in Excel that much. There is a lot of information that I’ve wanted to find out, like the correct spelling of teachers’ names, the number of boys and girls in each class, etc. However, when he asked me today to type the names, birthdays, parents’ names, and social security numbers of all 244 students, I told him he could use the same form I made for the preschool student census. He wasn’t too happy with my response and after half an hour had two names inputted. We’ll see if I cave in. I don’t know the kids’ names and want that info eventually. I’m just busy with some other stuff right now.

I’m typing up a lot on environmental education, especially from Project WILD and friends. Since my four main guides are in English, I’ve been translating to Spanish which takes longer than just typing word for word. My goal is to have a guide on how to complete our Peace Corps goals, from teaching lessons in the schools to implementing environmental action plans. All the info is already there in my guides, I’ve just got to compile it all, adapt it to Panamá, and of course get it into Spanish so community members can use it after I’m gone. That’s the plan at least!

I spend my Tuesday and Friday afternoons with the tourism group. I’ll usually catch the tourist on their way out of the school and then pasear with the group at their marcadito (little market of handicrafts) while the American AARP members waddle through town with their walkers to eat lunch with families. They come back to peruse the local wares, and then we have a meeting. I’ve got a friend down at the granja (organic farm) where I go about once a week. Depending on the week, I might have a meeting with the leadership of the town, the PTA of the elementary school or middle school, the woman’s baking group, or the aqueduct committee. As you can imagine, the woman’s group is one of my favorites. This weekend I hiked to the toma de agua which is gorgeous despite our intermittent water supply. So that’s what I’m up to!

I’ll be home over the Forth of July whether my bosses like it or not: technically I’m not allowed to go, but I already bought my ticket! All my other friends here are getting together the same week for an adventure on Coiba Island and to celebrate our one year anniversary of being sworn in as volunteers. One way or another I’d be out of site. Can’t wait to see ya’ll!

La Vaina

So I'm still in the office waiting for an article to pop into our magazine, La Vaina, and be done with it. :) It's a comfy office though with internet, couches, and everything I could need. I think we have to spend another night in the city since the country director needs to sign off on the final product. I was going to meet with some other volunteers in Penenome about environmental education tonight and was planning on teaching four classes tomorrow in the school tomorrow. So those plans are off. But heck, a free hotel room with cabel tv and a hot shower are hard to pass up! :) Plus, I'm happy with the changes I've been able to impliment thus far. Lee, who was the editor before, has been a little resistant to our ideas. He really is into the status quo, even though there are things he doesn't like about La Vaina. (He hates the pink boxes on the top of the pages which were left over from the previous editors over a year ago. He hadn't taken the time to change them and didn't feel the need to do it this time either.) I really wanted the pictures that are put in each article to make a little more sense and match the content of the article. And I won! But we hardly got any picture submissions, so a lot of the pics are from the three of us which I feel is kinda weird. (Lee picked one of mine for the front cover. Jay picked another for the inside cover. And I put one on the next page. In all I have at least ten photos in there. But, you gotta admit, I am good! jk)

The next round in September, Jay and I are going to be changing EVERYTHING. We'll use Adobe InDesign instead of a ghetto old version of Adobe Pagemaker. That will make the layout a lot faster and much cleaner. (Lee likes eyeballing things.) We'll be picking a theme to carry through the mag to make it more cohesive. And we also want a group of writers and photographers that we can call on for some quality work, like I had on Semester at Sea. Basically we want to shift the whole focus to the volunteers more instead of having the staff scramble to write something at the last minute and fill up half the La Vaina with things they've already emailed us. It's going to be good though!!! And I hope it will be something to be proud of.

If nothing else, it has been and will continue to be a great experience to draw on once I get back to the States and am looking for a job. I'm working closely with the senior staff to get their articles and plan for future editions. I'm doing lots of editing which is good experience for any job. (Plus all the best people to write me letters of recommendation or netword to find me jobs are seeing all my work first hand.) Putting together the newsletter is something I could see myself doing in an environmental education center or national park depending on what I end up doing down the road.

La Vaina

So I'm still in the office waiting for an article to pop into our magazine, La Vaina, and be done with it. :) It's a comfy office though with internet, couches, and everything I could need. I think we have to spend another night in the city since the country director needs to sign off on the final product. I was going to meet with some other volunteers in Penenome about environmental education tonight and was planning on teaching four classes tomorrow in the school tomorrow. So those plans are off. But heck, a free hotel room with cabel tv and a hot shower are hard to pass up! :) Plus, I'm happy with the changes I've been able to impliment thus far. Lee, who was the editor before, has been a little resistant to our ideas. He really is into the status quo, even though there are things he doesn't like about La Vaina. (He hates the pink boxes on the top of the pages which were left over from the previous editors over a year ago. He hadn't taken the time to change them and didn't feel the need to do it this time either.) I really wanted the pictures that are put in each article to make a little more sense and match the content of the article. And I won! But we hardly got any picture submissions, so a lot of the pics are from the three of us which I feel is kinda weird. (Lee picked one of mine for the front cover. Jay picked another for the inside cover. And I put one on the next page. In all I have at least ten photos in there. But, you gotta admit, I am good! jk)

The next round in September, Jay and I are going to be changing EVERYTHING. We'll use Adobe InDesign instead of a ghetto old version of Adobe Pagemaker. That will make the layout a lot faster and much cleaner. (Lee likes eyeballing things.) We'll be picking a theme to carry through the mag to make it more cohesive. And we also want a group of writers and photographers that we can call on for some quality work, like I had on Semester at Sea. Basically we want to shift the whole focus to the volunteers more instead of having the staff scramble to write something at the last minute and fill up half the La Vaina with things they've already emailed us. It's going to be good though!!! And I hope it will be something to be proud of.

If nothing else, it has been and will continue to be a great experience to draw on once I get back to the States and am looking for a job. I'm working closely with the senior staff to get their articles and plan for future editions. I'm doing lots of editing which is good experience for any job. (Plus all the best people to write me letters of recommendation or netword to find me jobs are seeing all my work first hand.) Putting together the newsletter is something I could see myself doing in an environmental education center or national park depending on what I end up doing down the road.

New village, new digs

Boy has it been a crazy month! As much as it was nice to get out and about in Panama, I really did miss having some stability. Heck, one of my reasons for joining Peace Corps was to settle down in a place for two years after all the craziness of seasonal jobs from northern Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. So much for that!

So much was left up in the air. I didn’t have answers to where, when, or how until it happened. When we first came to Panama, we knew ahead of time when we would be moving from one place to another during training. By the fifth week, we received a packet of information about our new communities. By the ninth week, we were met by a member of our new community at a Community Entry Conference and then preceded to our sites for a week long visit where we figured out where we would be living for the next few months and beyond. Then after the eleventh week and conclusion of training, we moved to our new homes.

I was told the names of three potential sites almost two weeks after I decided to change sites. Then I visited one of them (which had become the only option) two weeks later for about two hours. And two weeks after that I finally moved to my new site in Coclé. However, not until I arrived last night did I know where I would be staying and parking my stuff. I must say I’ve got a really nice place to live. It is the first house I’ve stepped into, much less stayed in that has painted walls, tiled floors, and screened windows. It’s just like home! (Okay, maybe Edenton is a little nicer… hehe But this is as good as it gets here!) I’m staying with an older couple who are related to the one of my community guides. She does a lot of crocheting and he fixes tv’s as a hobby. And they even have a lady come cook and clean for them! I’m livin’ the high life now!

My room is just being finished, as they moved here three years ago and complete the house poco a poco. So I have a curtain for a door and lack a place to hang or stack my clothes. But hey, I sewed my door-curtains in Chiriqui and have got my own room. I’ve certainly had worse! Ohhh, plus I have not one, not two, but three electrical outlets! Oh the luxury!!! I certainly have enough electronics to fill all of them, but I’ll try not to suck all of their electricity.

I visited a potential house to rent. Ummmm, hmmmm. How do I describe it? It is certainly nicer than some of my friend’s mud huts. It has wooden slab walls and a thatched roof. It does have electricity, though just enough to run a light bulb. I doubt my energy-star refrigerator would work on the homemade electrical job. It does have running water, though it’s about twenty feet outside of the house from a spigot. And I’d need to put in a new latrine, not to mention other repairs to the house which has been abandoned for the past three years. There is a rancho with a zinc roof in front of the house, which they want enclose and make into the living quarters and leave the original house as a kitchen. It is has a leak in the roof and dirt floor, so there’s some work to do before it’s livable to Caribean slope raininess. So it’s not exactly at the top of my list, as it needs work and I don’t get the same amount of money to fix it up had I moved here right after training. We’ll see. If it turns out to be the only option (I still haven’t seen inside of it as it was locked), you can bet I’ll trick it out and make it into a home. I might dig into my stateside bank accounts to do it, or perhaps save up by eating just rice and beans for a while. Hehe I’ll sure miss my refrigerator though! Crazy how you get attached to things…

I visited the school again today, and as I expected, the community doesn’t quite get the difference between my sector and that of the previous volunteer. I just don’t know a whole lot about agriculture, as my specialty is conservation and animals, not plants. I corrected the director of the school when he told all the parents at the PTA meeting that I would be doing the same thing as the previous volunteer. We’ll see, it might just turn out that way! I want to teach computers though and environmental ed instead of just working in the garden. And I’ll even teach the colegio kids English as she did, if for no other reason than one of the teachers for those kids is really nice and I wouldn’t mind working with her.

I’ve got a mountain of names to learn and a maze of a community to decipher. With houses tucked into the trees and down footpaths that cross innumerable streams, it is the picturesque tropical community. But it doesn’t help trying to figure out where I am and where others live. The typical response of “over there” is no less helpful here than “up the hill” was in my last town.

Speaking of which, I had a marathon of a day yesterday. Heck, it already seems like ages ago! I woke up at 5:30am to pack up the last of my things. Then I waited until Franklin came and tried to back his car up to my front door. Mind you, I live up an embankment. I cringed as I watched him first practically flip the car as only half the wheels made it onto the highroad and then hit into a small tree before he gave up. Thank goodness! We loaded up the car and headed up to catch the ladies at church. We made it there just as the service started. I attended Catholic mass while Franklin took a stick to beat the dent out of the bumper.

We then had a little meeting explaining that I was leaving the community and relocating to Coclé. They didn’t get the full story, but it’s just as well. I started crying before finishing my first sentence, thanking all of the women in the community who stepped in as my mothers. I proceeded to give out all the reports, certificates, and money I was holding for the groups as more people in the church teared up. Then came the hugs which as you can imagine weren’t any easier. My little host sisters and Girl Scouts were there and gave me big hugs as well as all the kindergarteners. (They are awaiting their first and second communions and thus got out of school to attend.) Ladies who I never even worked with thanked me for what I had done in the community, and neighbors who never invited me into their homes cried at my departure. It was a tough departure.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete two years in Cabecera, but could I really do it all over again in a new place? I was having major second thoughts on things which were only made worse by my boss calling and telling me that he would keep to the rule that I can’t leave my new community for three months. I had specifically asked him about that on several occasions as things came up and he reassured me that he wanted me to come out to help train the new group and again to work on the Peace Corps newsletter. So much for that! I was thinking about quitting altogether because of it, and I still don’t know if they will be okay with me going home in July. (Don’t worry, I’ll come home one way or another!)

After dropping off my fridge, kitchen stuff, and bedding in Penenome, Brandon, Franklin, and I headed on up to Vaquilla. Brandon asked me a couple of times how I was doing, and I think I didn’t respond on at least one occasion because I didn’t want to burst into tears again. The lack of sleep was definitely catching up with me. And that’s about when I settled into my lovely abode here. J

Here’s a description of the next town over called Chiguirí Arriba, about a 4 mile walk away…

“Directly to the north of El Valle is Chiguiri Arriba, a five hour hike away. It is an area rich in history because the nearby Cerro La Vieja was the hiding place of the romantic guerrilla-hero of the campesinos, Victoriano Lorenzo. He fought for the poor at the turn of the century, long before it became fashionable, in the tumultuous days of pre-independent Panama. It is a lush, tranquil area where frogs sing you to sleep and songbirds awaken you. Every hill has its own stream with cool, refreshing pools and idyllic waterfalls. This is truly an area to commune with nature in a tropical rainforest wonderland.”

I think I can get used to it!

Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!

Flux

Being in flux is kinda like being on an unending vacation. I have decided to change sites and it seems as though everyone (Security Coordinator, Country Director, and APCD, Francisco) are all behind it. Just nothing has happened yet. So when I met with my boss and Security Coordinator last week, he suggested that I go visit my best friend in Peace Corps and spend a week with her. I reminded him that I didn’t have any clothes with me, so I couldn’t leave immediately as he suggested.

So on Wednesday night, I went up to my site, packed up my bag, furiously cleaned up my house and got a good night’s sleep before heading out to Cocle the following morning. By late afternoon I was skipping across the rocks of the river and up the path to Kayla’s house. I met her parents and so began my adventure for the next couple of days.

We left the following morning for Pedasi on the Azuero Peninsula and stayed there for two nights at a fun hotel called Dim’s Hostel with a great outdoor area. We took a boat out to Isla Iguana which is a wildlife refuge due to a huge breeding colony of Magnificent Frigate birds.

There were about 5,000 pairs with clouds of the birds hovering over schools of fish and squid in the ocean and more on the island. Their enormous black wings and pointed tails are recognizable from afar, but the inflatable red pouches of the males were a treat to see up close. To attract the females, the boys blow up the pouch in their throat to the size of a balloon while others around them held their beaks up high and made clicking sounds to regulate their temperature. It sounded like Jurassic Park with so much noise and otherworldly creatures.

Snorkeling and reading filled the rest of our day on the island which I wouldn’t mind being stranded on for the rest of my service. We then moved on to Las Lajas, my favorite beach in Chiriqui. The cabins on the sand were a perfect complement to bodysurfing waves, magnificent sunset, and innumerable starts.

I’m hanging out in David tonight before I head into the city tomorrow for two nights and then a training of trainers seminar. I’ll be back in my site in a while, but it sure has been nice to get out for a while and decompress! And heck, I’ll be back out again with my family whom I can’t wait to see!

Carnival

Carnival. Wow. As you might imagine, a holiday packed with tradition was celebrated most jovially on the Azuero Peninsula. They have lots of practice with festivals, and this was no different. Parades, fire crackers, and hordes of people could be seen and heard at all hours of the day and night. Days were highlighted by “culecas” which are any type of tanker truck filled with water and an attached hose is used to spray down crowds. It doesn’t matter if the truck sports “Flammable” warnings from its use just hours earlier carting gasoline. It doesn’t even matter that so much water is used most of the city and certainly surrounding towns go without water for the week in toilets, sinks, etc. Who needs a glass of water to drink when there is alcohol? I suppose that is the thinking anyhow.

So I don’t like crowds. I don’t mind lots of people, but when I am shoulder to shoulder, back to front with countless people, I just don’t like it. Needless to say, Carnival was a little much for me. I was okay the first day. I led my friends through the crowd as we made a loop through the main square. We got wet; we caught t-shirts and bandanas; and ya. That was good enough for me. Pat confronted a pickpocket, though luckily didn’t get anything stolen. None of us were carrying much of value anyhow.

That night we went to a discoteca which was absolutely packed with people as well. The night began (at a little past 11pm) with plenty of room to dance, which we all did. As the night progressed, we were again shoulder to shoulder with people getting progressively drunker in an appropriately dimly lit atmosphere. I checked out early, as I’m just not comfortable in those situations anymore. I did have fun though, but again, that was good enough for me.

The following day my eyes ached from leaving my nice sunglasses at home and not buying a cheap replacement to take out on the streets. I went to the culeca again, but only for about 5 minutes as I just wasn’t feeling it. I also stayed in that night as with as much fun I would have had with everyone and all our other friends who just showed up in town, I wasn’t ready to put myself back in that kind of scene.

But heck, I was running on fumes anyhow with little to no sleep the previous two nights. Having the hostel to myself to get some shut eye was great and needed. Plus the others came back with stories of drama that I am glad I wasn’t a part of. I headed out early the following morning and didn’t have any problems with transportation despite the increase in people traveling.

I had my Muchachas Guías meeting on Tuesday as planned and taught the girls how to knit. Man, not knowing knitting vocabulary made things so much more complicated than anticipated! I ended up spending an hour and a half working with each one in turn. Only about half of them got a couple stitches cast on their needle. In fact, the best one is also my youngest, at 7 years old. (Well, that’s if you don’t count her 4 year old sister who I didn’t even attempt to teach. So much for an age range of 10-14 for the troop!) I then headed up for a birthday party of one of my good friends in town. She just turned 17 and has a boyfriend who has already graduated from the university. I don’t know how I feel about that. But at least their families are both behind the relationship, so she won’t end up like many of the other girls in town: knocked up and single.

I headed up into the mountain the following day. I figured I’d try to GPS the trail we’ll be working on this year with a Biological Corredor grant (fingers crossed!). I had some problems earlier with clouds and canopy blocking reception of satellites, but I figured on a clear day all would be good. I got up there and of course the clouds rolled in. Shucks. I couldn’t get signal at the first waterfall: huge rock face, lots of tree cover, and clouds means no chance at getting a point. Before I reached the second waterfall I got freaked out by Ngobes. A pair asked me for money just as I entered the trail. I said I didn’t have any, which was true, but obviously had the GPS with me as well as a camera and phone in my pack. After passing them and doddering on the trail trying to get signal, I ran into one of them further along. As they know the trails far better than me, it’s no wonder that they passed me. But the fact that the one waited until I passed again, thus sandwiching me in between her and the other who could have been anywhere got my gut rolling. So I turned back, as I figured it was a much smarter thing to do especially since I wouldn’t have been able to map the trail anyhow with the weather.

As I came back out to the road again, I passed a group of men from town, who were on a mission to find the problem in the irrigation aqueduct. They invited me to join them, which I accepted in lieu of my failed hike. We followed the line from the source which was overflowing with water through the monte. A note on Spanish vocabulary, monte is referred to any unmaintained forest or hillside. In this sense, we were bushwhacking through dozens of treefalls, trying to maintain footing on eroded, precipitous embankments, and doing our best not to get stung by spiny trees or wasps. I think I failed on all attempts.

In my most heart racing failure, I slid feet first with my chest facing the mountain about 12 feet, sending memories of Kels’s and my adventure up in Sequoia National Park as I slid down the snowfield uncontrollably. Luckily in this case, another downed tree stopped my descent. And of course the guys were far ahead of me and didn’t even notice: what gentlemen. They didn’t even say anything after I caught up with them and was blanketed with dirt all across my front. Lol

About four hours later, we reached the point where the tubes meet the road without finding a single daño. While there were about three new treefalls ontop of the tubing, none of them cracked the tubes. On our way back into town we found a couple spots where the tubing was filled with air, preventing the flow of water. They guys opened up a couple of new holes in the tubes to let the air out and then plugged them back up with sticks once the water started flowing again. All that for some air! It was a good hike though, and the guys did talk about who would take the blame if something did happen to me, which means that they at least appreciate my being in the community with them.

Next week I’m off to an organic pesticides seminar, followed by mud house building, and a girl Scout training then week after that. Oye! Lots of traveling and being out of site. I’m still chugging along with translating Flying WILD activities. I’ve got about five of them done now, but it sure is time consuming! I can’t wait for Kels, Jeff, Mom, and Dad to visit at the end of the month too!