¡Junta Grande!

On Wednesday January 14th, I, with the help of my neighbor Cornelio and my friend Charlo, organized a Junta for 30 people to haul the wood for my house from the three different locations where it was cut to the center of town, where I am building. For the Junta, I purchased 30lbs of chicken, 15lbs of sugar, 15lbs of flour, butter, pinolio (ground up processed corn for a strange drink), milk, salt, 3 dozen eggs, onions, peppers, garlic, coffee, and 30 lbs of rice. There may have been a few more items that I can’t remember. I spent about $80-$90 on food. The deal with juntas is that if I provide the food, they will work. The day of the Junta was also the same day that my boss was coming to visit and see how I was doing. Originally the Junta was going to be scheduled for the 17th, but since my boss was coming, I was able to arrange for the Junta to be the 14th instead. I told them my boss, jefe in Spanish, was coming and that he really wanted to work. Since the wood was in three different locations in my community, hauling it was a great way to show my boss, Zach, my beautiful community. The hikes ranged from 30minutes to an hour one way. One of the hikes was practically straight up hill. The longest hike was mainly flat ground. The hike was beautiful, but hauling heavy wood on your shoulder through sticky, slippery mud can be a bit tiresome.
Anyways, my boss arrived at about 6:30 in the morning in time for breakfast. I wish I had my camera with me for breakfast. We had egg sandwiches and coffee. The bread was made fresh the previous day; its actually called a Johnny Cake. It’s made with the water from coconuts as well as a little shredded coconut as well. The Johnny cake was cut in half lengthwise, a slab of butter was tossed on it followed by some eggs scrambled with peppers and onions. I think this was by far the best breakfast I’ve had since I’ve been living in Rio Oeste.

The above picture is of Johnny Cakes. This first batch was made with some funky yeast. They didn’t rise properly. They should be a little thicker.
After breakfast Zach and I were each handed a length of rope before we started the uphill hike to the first location of the wood. After arriving at the location, we tied together 3-4 10-12 foot boards and then tied our rope around one end. After everything was secured, we just started dragging the wood down the side of the hill. It almost became a race. There were about 20 of use running down the side of this hill guiding the wood between the trees and the bushes. The wood would start to gather momentum and you just prayed that it didn’t knock you off your feet or your neighbor. If you think of lumberjacks directing logs down a river, that’s what we were doing, only we were directing boards down the side of a steep, steep hill.

The guy in the middle in the gray is my boss, Zach. This is Zach and I with our leashed wood almost to the bottom of the hill.

From the bottom of the hill we tied the boards to horses to finish hauling them to my future house location.
After this first trip, we replenished our water supply and started the hour hike to the farthest wood location. It was a beautiful hike that followed the course of the river.

Loading up the horses.

We arrived at the site to help load the horses, grab a few boards, and start the hike back with the boards on our shoulders. This hike was rough because we forgot to grab our pads to cushion our shoulders for the long haul. My shoulder was bright red with the skin beginning to peel off by the time we were done. After that, we grabbed lunch and went to the third location up in the hills of my host family’s finca. This hike was short and easy, which was a nice way to finish the workday.

This is the site where I am building. I’ll provide more updates as my house comes together.


En la lucha,


K

New Year’s Eve The Isla Colon Adventure

For New Year’s Eve, I along with about 12 other volunteers, ventured to Colon Island and the town of Bocas Del Toro. The actual town of Bocas Del Toro is the tourist hub in Bocas Del Toro. This central location in the islands is full of little restaurants, bars, shops, hostels, and hotels. There is a beach on the island, but the most beautiful beaches can only be reached by hiring a boat driver to take you there.
The main launching point for this island paradise is the sketchy town of Almirante. Almirante is the closest town to my village. Every time I venture into Almirante to purchase supplies, I am constantly hassled as a tourist. Everyone always assumes I’m going to the islands, and I’m constantly giving them disgusted and annoyed looks and telling them that I’m not a tourist. I live in Panama. As I passed through Almirante on New Year’s Eve day, to my dismay, when asked if I was “Going to Bocas Man,” sadly I had to say yes… Anyways, we took one of the water taxis through a company called Jampan. The price quoted to us at first was $3 per person. By the time we actually started paying the price began to increase to $3.25 then $3.50. Arriving on the island was a strange experience. Getting off the boat I was greeted by the signs for a Subway Sandwich shop. It was strange to be back in a place where a majority of the people spoke English and were of fair skin.

After arriving on the island, my friends and I made our way to our hotel. It was called Hospedaje Dona Irma. It was basically a house with the top floor turned into a hotel. Each room had two beds and a fan. At the end of the hall there was a sink and mirror along with two bathrooms, each with a shower and toilet. The fee per night was $8.50, which was great for the poor Peace Corps volunteer.

On New Year’s Eve we explored the bar night scene on the island. When midnight hit, I was sitting on a pier watching fireworks over the water. The following day, two other volunteers and I rented some bicycles from a hostel and road them to the beach for the day. It was nice to go relax on the beach. Also, on our bike ride there was a cave off the road that we explored; it was full of bats! Check out the pictures of the island and the beach in my Flickr account!



En la lucha,

K

Feliz año nuevo

Happy New Year!

I spent my new year on Isla Colon (Colon Island) in Bocas Del Toro, Panama. I'm currently uploading pictures into Flickr. So go check those out when you have a chance. I'll update this New Year's blog in the next few weeks with some pictures and more descriptions.



Aqui en la lucha,


K

Ngabe Cookies

Still having large quantities of chocolate, I recently put it to good use. Therefore, I thought I’d share some pictures of my most recently chocolate cooking adventure. So I made No Bake cookies or “Ngabe” cookies as our village residents have named them. Check out my pictures of the “Ngabe” (No bake) cookies with fresh, delicious cocao.

The initial mixing

Looks lovely doesn't it.....

They were delicious and did not last long.