Swear in and 1 year celebration

The new group of Environmental Volunteers just swore in with a ceremony at the Panama Canal Museum. The US Ambassador spoke about the importance of Peace Corps in Panama.

Ambassador Eaton with our Country Director.

As a group we took a vacation to go to the Royal Decamoran all inclusive resort to celebrate surviving one year in country. The above picture was in the swim up bar. This was also a great chance to catch up with other volunteers that live far away and to exchange ideas. For example I learned of a business volunteer that is buying a machine that automatically takes the shells off rice. It sits in the bed of a truck, to operate you jack the wheels off the ground and use the car engine to turn the motor. This is a great example of using local resources and also the rice peeler will go where the rice is.

This is one of the main pools and the discoteca at night. It was a wild time!

Go Sox!

Friends from home ask, were you able to catch the Sox game? I did catch them beating the Indians at my house with my crank radio. My host brothers and I listened to the TV broadcast on the radio cause there is less adds and you can here crowd noise. The antenna on the radio has long been broken off and to get the best reception I had a piece of wire attached to the radio and tucked behind my ear.



Not all Peace Corp Volunteers are roughing it in the jungle. This is my friend Kelly's house. She is a volunteer and lives in a much more developed community. She has a fridge, oven, dishwasher and flush toilet!!
My Panama Verde group planted tree in the water shed of the town aqueduct to prevent erosion during large rains.
I am still working on the aqueduct tank. Here is Jose putting on the water proof mortar inside the tank.

Tuning in to the Sox broadcast.
Later in the night playing dominoes , sharing Night Train and still listening. VICTORY!!
Even Melissa is supporting the Sox. This was in Panama City for game one of the world series.

Building a 3300 gallon tank

My neighbor Brandon recently just changed sites. So I have been living there during the week to help finish his aqueduct tank. This is 3300 gallon tank made with 8 inch blocks, which is almost unheard of in Panama. These blocks were donated by the US Army and I think are actually made in the USA.

That is my friend José who is also a very experience mason, I work with him all the time. He is also the President of one of the aqueducts in my town.
Me and Brandon during construction.
Our construction inspector. A lazy bear, or sloth, just hanging out.

These blocks are really hard to split without a saw. This meant there are larger spaces between them with we filled with mortar. The tank is 8 feet tall.
Mixing mortar.
Sieving sand by hand. You can't have any rocks in the mix. We had some kids helping out with the work.
That's our make shift scaffolding we set up. The last foot of that steel will be bent over to and attached to the steel in the roof.
That bandanna may look ridiculous but it was REALLY hot working in the sun.

Fresh Pork and Certificates

A WARNING: There are some pictures of a pig being slaughtered below. Beware. I'm busy so these will have short captions.


Just finished hiking up this super steep hill for 30 minutes. You know your in for a serious hike when the Ngobe your with gets a walking stick.

I got pretty sick for a few days drinking this water. This is what it looks like when we get heavy rain, the aqueduct is creek fed so all the sediment gets washed in. Normally I filter this and its fine but that night I was staying up late to help with this pig and drank some coffee from my host family forgetting about all the rain.
My two host brothers. I don't know why Justin is wearing that santa clause hat. Right before this happened my uncle, Benito, hit the pig with the blunt end of an axe to stun it so it wouldn't squeal alot.
After it is killed you put boiling water on the skin then peal all the hair off with a knife. Then take the insides out. I didn't actually really do anything besides keep the water boiling and shine flashlights for them.

The water committee seminar came to my town and the theme was protecting your watershed. This is a guys from my town that runs this vivero or place where you keep trees before planting them. He spoke about the importance of reforestation to keep water in the ground and then talked about how you actually plant the small trees. Later in the day as a group we went and planted several small trees donated by the Bocas Fruit Company, aka Chiquita Banana.
These are the guys that I work with. There are 3 committees here. My town has two aqueducts then the one I built next door has a group too.

These are pictures at the last day of the seminar with all the participants and there diplomas.