Culture Week and Tech Week

So you haven´t heard from me for a few weeks, but that´s because so much has been going on. A couple weeks ago I found out where I´m going to living for the next two years. My site will be in a small mountain town in the province of Coclè due west of Panama City. I haven´t had the opportunity to visit my site yet (I´ll be doing that next week,) but I did get to spend a week in the town of Membrillo and learn about the culture of Coclè. The community we visited was group of artisans who make wood and soapstone carvings. They produce some gorgeous art in Membrillo. We followed that with a trip to a Ngabere site in Cerro Iglesia for Tech Week. We spent the week building a couple of composting latrines and learning the other technical skills we will need once we get to our sites.

Good Parrot.

Seth and I making tamales during Culture Week.

On top of a small hill behind the property of my host family during culture week. That´s my host father and two of his sons in the middle. On the left is Seth, who will be the closest Volunteer to me, and on the right is the other Josh in our group.

Planting rice at the granja (farm.) A hard day´s work in the sun.

Making sugar cane juice. This machine is the traditional way of making sugar. The sugar cane would be crushed into a juice which would then be boiled to form discs of hardened sugar. We drank the juice straight from the machine which resembled muddy water and was unbelievably sweet.

This is where chocolate comes from (a cacao pod.) The pod is about a foot in length and contains quarter sized seeds that are used to make chocolate. The seeds a have a gooey white coating that is sweet, tart, and tastes a little like apple.

A loro (medium sized parrot) sitting in a tree.

Balsa wood carvings done by one of the families in Membrillo. The white bird on the left is a harpy eagle, national bird of Panama.

These 2 pictures are from the beach at Las Lajas where we went to relax for a night following Culture Week and Tech Week. The beach is even prettier then the pictures, and for $5 a night the price was right.