Off to visit a volunteer

Que Pasa?
Today I´m going to visit a volunteer in a town in the west of Panama (closer to Columbia) called Piariati. I´m kinda nervous because it is my first time using the bus system by myself. There are 2 types of buses here. There are your traditional greyhound type busses that go from major city to major city. These buses somtimes have movies dubbed over and spanish are always freezing cold. The other type is called a Diablo Roja (Red Devil) . These are old school busses from the United States that failed the safety inspections. They are all decorated with bright murals and huge chrome tailpipes. I hear some in the city even have neon lights outside and velvet and black lights on the inside. Usually they are blasting music, and are quite cheap.

This week was much like last week. In the technical sessions we did more stuff with aquaducts and met with more current volunteers. On monday we built a rain collection system for the family that lives near our class. We cut a line in PVC and bent it around the lip of the family´s metal roof . The pipe then drains into a 55 gallon drum. This is a major improvement for the family because they used to have to walk down a steep hill to get water that was obviously dirty. In spanish class we have been discussing about alot of culture and learning slang words. One of the more loco things is ¨chicha fuerte¨Chicha is a any fruit drink, most of the time is is just powder but other times is is real juice(I drink this a pretty much every meal except breakfast which is coffee). Chicha fuerte is essecially grain alcohol mixed with a little juice. Sometimes in the campo (rural areas) they put battery acid in it!! I´m trying to stay away from that.

In other news my parents have succefully moved into Cambridge and are in the process of unpacking. They also sold my Cadillac.