Building Muscle

The month of February consisted of another regional meeting, followed by a goat roast, a visit from my boss, starting work projects, and being reminded yet again how small this world is.

 

 

 

After this regional meeting (my second as a PC volunteer) I headed out east to partake in the highly acclaimed goat roast that the volunteers in the Darien and Panama Este put forth around the time of regional meetings. It was very fascinating to see some of the east side of the country. The landscape is very different from where my site is. In my site I am surrounded by mountains covered in lush green rain forest. Traveling east, the mountains disappear into long expanses of plains used for cattle. The road is flat and relatively straight, and after about four hours we got off and walked down a short side road to the location of the goat roast. Arriving as late as we did the goat had already been killed, butchered, and cooked (fine by me, I was happy to only part take in the eating). There was a goat soup and pulled goat barbeque sandwiches (yum!). I collapsed into my hammock with a full belly and let the star covered sky and bright moon lull me to sleep. Side note; sleeping in a hammock is incredibly comfortable.

The following week my boss (who oversees the agricultural volunteers in Panama) came to my site and we had a meeting with my community to decide what my main project will me. Main project: improving production and sale of the main cash crop in the community; culantro (very similar tasting to cilantro). Secondary projects: working with coffee, plantains, and fish tanks. The first step we decided to take in terms of culantro was to have a soil analysis done. I trained several people in my community on how to properly take a soil sample of a parcel of land and then I traveled six hours with 20 pounds of dirt to the lab who would conduct the analysis.

I had a work day in my site to commence digging a fish tank for a member of my community. I invited (asked/persuaded/begged) several other volunteers to come and help.

Making Progress

Swinging a pickaxe until you have to take pain killers because your arms hurt so badly. Agricultural work in the campo.

I also returned the favor by going to a neighboring site to help dig a tank for a member of their community.

Also in February I had the unexpected pleasant surprise of running into an old friend. Four years ago I studied abroad in Costa Rica and met many wonderful people in my program. There were a couple of people employed on one year contracts to help plan and organize on the ground activities for the group of students who was studying abroad. Image my surprise when I ran into one of these people four years later, who I haven’t seen since my study abroad and who is currently living Chile, in a hostel in Panama City! Craziness.

I also got to experience going to my first quinceañera 

 

 

 

Garden progress