First Pictures!

Finally got some pictures on here! (although they´re not in order) Enjoy!

Mi casa!

Pretty view from my house

The school

My room, mosquito net and all

The backyard.  Latrine is the structure to the left, and the one the right is for bucket showers

Some of my host family

Edwaur, my host brother who had an accident on a bicycle a few days ago

host brother, mom, spouse and child and other host brother 

And another host brother with his wife and child, although they dont live in the same house as me

Some neighborhood girls that like to follow me around

So this actually was my first picture in Panama.  It´s funny that it was of a bunch of vacas (cows) blocking the road, 

because I´m pretty sure that was my first picture in New Zealand too...

Talking about how to make organic fertilizers

A plant nursery we visited

Sprouts on a seed bed

The berries of a coffee tree

The house of a current volunteer we visited. Small, rustic, and no electricity, but it looked cozy!

The villas in Ciudad de Saber, where we stayed for the first week in Panama.

Our pollitos!

(They are much bigger and uglier now..)

Building a raised seed bed out of whatever we could chop down with our machetes

We used bamboo too

Giving the chicks some vaccinations

This little guy was as terrified as I was with the vaccinations

But now he´s happy and healthy

The massive tarantula with a hand for size comparison

A little further along with our seed bed

And finished!  We put in the soil and planted some seeds, and used palm leaves for shade

Building the seed bed took all day, and this guy took about 15 minutes to make his own version.  The 8 yr olds here have  insane skills with machetes and construction.  It´s slightly terrifying watching little kids running around with 22 inch machetes.

Our gardens, where we will transplant the plants from our seed bed

My section of the garden.  We installed a drip irrigation system to save on water.

This is Ruby, a current volunteer that I visited for 5 days, to see what her daily lifestyle is like as a volunteer.

We made totumas by taking a large fruit and scraping out the insides and carving pictures on the outside.  They are commonly used as mixing bowls.  It was a day long process.

She had the most adorable kitten at her site.  I´ve learned that most volunteers have pets (cats, dogs, or even horses)

The view from her house.  There is a river down below where we swam and bathed

Another view from the porch

Chilling with the kitty

Every volunteer needs at least one hammock

Her clay oven that she built

The kids came over every night to make bracelets, play traditional Typico music and dance

This is a horrible picture because it was so foggy out, but I took a 2 hr boat to get to Ruby´s site, which was fun.