Graduacion

This week was Graduation at the school in town. It was a pretty big deal in town, and the parents group really came together. Here is a bunch of photos from that.
The head table with representatives from the Ministry of Education, the school directors.
(Prevent Dengue)
There have been many problems with Dengue fever in Panama city, and some of the other cities but it hasn´t really effected the rural people in the campo. There is not enough standing water here to cause much mosquitoes. In general the mosquitoes aren´t bad at all here, only when I´m near the swamp at night to do I ever get bit.
All the graduates. You can also see how many people came out to see the graduations in the back outside the roof.

This food is for the dinner of graduation which was Monday. There was tons of rice chicken and potato salad. Quiet a feast when you used to boiled bananas. All this food is cooked in the school kitchen, which is really just a shack with a few large fireplaces.

This roofing was constructed by the Padres de Familia. It was in the middle of the courtyard of the school. People sat at the tables and desk chairs of the school.

I was hanging out around the outside of the tables, because I didn´t have any one in my family graduate, and was about ready to leave when the assistant director of the school invited me to sit at the head table! It was pretty cool, being up there, but I also felt like I was eating under a microscope because everyone was looking at me.

This guys name is Jose too, he is my cousin. The ice cream man occasionally comes to town. He rolls on a motorcycle with a cooler strapped to the back. Pineapple orange ice cream cones like this are only 25 cents.

Ochoa and Betti in cafe. You need to leave the coffee beans out in the sun to dry them, and I guess they just decided to sit in it.
Ochoa!
All the mountains around my site look like this.

These are the neighbors in my hammock, they come over some times to draw pictures or just hang out.
The other day in preparation for Christmas I went out to clear the jungle to make a cow pasture. Our neighbor hood was going to receive $100, for all this work. Using the machete is really fun, it works really well. I was cutting down everything from ferns, to serious vines to 3" thick trees. I think I gained alot of respect from the men in my part of town. I ended up with some blisters on my hand and cuts from thorns. On my back in this picture I have my sheath made out of a flattened peace of PVC pipe. And yes I know I have lost alot of weight, I look real skinny in this picture huh?