Yes, the wild things grow here.

Only here, would a business call be interupted by a group of cows attempting to lick my shirt or by a six foot long, four inch wide, black with yellow head snake slithering 10 feet away from me while I chat about important projects with my boss. And only here would I have the experiece of waking up a six oclock in the morning, climbing out of my mosquito net and in the middle of putting on a pair of pants, see that there is a mother scorpion and 25 babies that she has just layed less than a foot away from my thermorest bed. And so only here would I chop a scorpion in half with my machete in the wee hours of the morning while standing in my underwear! And here I, still living and well. Life is good, moving quickly. There is so much work to be done and so many fun things to participate it. I have just finished my first two months in my community and so I continue on! Heres a photo of one of the intense rainstorms rolling through.

Life in General

My days are so full here. Before coming to the peace corps, I expected my first three months, if not six months to move very slowly, without much work, just a lot of time getting to know the people. Instead, time is flying by and I have so much work to do! I am helping train producers in cacao pruning and grafting techniques to increase their produciton. I am teaching in the school, both english and working with their outdoor gardening and agriculture class. I am starting a program with a government agency to help families increase the variety of their diet and improve nutrition as the cost of food keeps rising. I am helping out with HIV and Aids presentations throughout the region and helping plan a girls health camp. And so much more. There is so much work to be done. Also I am looking to help my local school get solar panels and a few computers (maybe the ¨"one labtop every child" computers?), so if any of you have any connections out there and want to help out, let me know!!! So in general life is going well here. Getting started with lots of work and getting to know the community more. Participating in anyway I can. Well, I am headed to another meeting with another agency so I will write more soon!

Man, why didnt I take a wilderness first responder course!!!

These days in the tropics are good. Full of hard work, lots of sweat, lots of boiled green bananas to eat and lots of people to meet and talk to! Lots of sun, lots of rain. Here is a photo of me and two little kids in my community (host siblings of the first family that I stayed with). The cat is my little pet here in panama, who will keep me company and eat any rats that try and enter my house throughout my two years!Yesterday I visited a beautiful farm in my community which had just about every tropical fruit I could ever think of!!! I ate bananas of at least 5 different varieties that I have never tasted before!I have moved in with a new host family who is so incredibly kind. We live up on a beautiful hill overlooking the ocean, about a 40 minute hike out of the center of town. This is the kind of commuting that I like! Instead of sitting in traffic, I hike in my rubber boots each day over 4 streams and up and down hills to get to work! Pretty steller. Havent ran into a snake yet, but that might change my view on the commute! All else is well. I finished sewing my first traditional skirt and am wearing it proudlyg today. I am learning to make the beautiful traditional bags that these people make called chakras and am learning more of the local language every day. Surprisingly I am incredibly busy with work to do every day. I have started teaching english classes in the school and working with the school garden. We are working with cacao and building new stoves and all sorts of things. Even playing in volleyball tournaments. The most exciting thing that happened this past week was when I was working hard with a group of guys, swinging our machetes to cut down the weeds growing around the cacao trees. Suddenly, ran head on to my first real first aid accident in the jungles of panama! A young guy cut into the leg of another, all the way down to the bone! We had to carry him out, the hour long hike to the highway, on a hammock hanging from a stick. And when we arrived, we had to call the ambulence. After that excilerating yet worrisome experience, I have decided that I should purchase a book on wilderness response to read in my spare time. All else is well. Thank you all for all your love and support. I think about you all so often!