In the groove

"My" kitty Monkey

Scrabble game

Raul and Rafael

Alvis, Yami, and Mile

Hey y´all, I am pleased to report that although one of the English classes never really survived the gestation period, the other two have not died just yet. Numbers are very small, but there are a couple dedicated students who are learning and doing well. Last week instead of a regular class for the teachers, I invited them to my house for dinner and Scrabble. It was fun, and they got to practice English in a relaxed environment.

However, I think that to get the best use of my time here in Panama, I will have to change my work focus. The whole English-Tourism thing just isn´t doing a whole lot, so I think I would like to change my focus on issues that are youth and gender related, such as developing self-esteem and creativity, making good life choices, sex ed and HIV-AIDS ed, etc. I think if I host a series of workshops, with maybe a couple seminars during the summer, these would make more of a difference in the lives of the people of my community than a couple of English classes that no one seems to find the time to attend. I just attended the meeting for the Gender and Development group and have volunteered to be the Comarca representative, and I am going to try to take advantage of some grants they have for setting up these activities. I talked with the counseler at the high school yesterday on the bus as I was traveling to Santiago, and he has expressed interest in teaching the kids about AIDS, drugs, and teen pregnancy, an asked if I had any resources on this, so maybe I could work with him to get something going as well.

Things have continued to be busy and will continue to be so until I leave. The day before yesterday here was my day. At 6:00 am I got up to collect water when it came on, hauling the buckets up from the neighbor´s. Then I cooked breakfast, washed the huge pile of dishes that had stacked up from lack of water, and mopped the floor. Then I washed clothes for several hours, since due to lack of water, they had been piling up for a couple weeks now. After that, I went up to the monte to work in my garden that is two hills away. I planted some more corn, lentils, and beets and weeded what I had already planted. I would have planted some more stuff but time ran out when it was beginning to rain and I had to get back to my house and put my partially dried clothes under the roof. Then I cooked an unsuccessful lunch (I found some yuca as I was planting but it turned out to be one of those that don´t get soft when cooked and are nasty) so I cooked a second quick lunch of rice, fried egg, and avocado. I collected more rain water while it was coming to take advantage of the water that comes right to my window, and washed the dishes again. Then in a hurry I had to plan the lessons for the English classes that were coming up in like a half hour because I should have done it the night before but didn´t, and then I had to hurry and hike up in the rain in order to get to class on time. I taught classes for three hours, went back down, and cooked dinner. I also decided to make use of an apple and pear that I happened to have and make a "pie" (or something like it that tastes good). That was more work but very good, and after all that running around and work I´m sure I needed the extra calories. At that point I was ready to go to bed, so I bathed, brushed my teeth, and hit the cot. Pretty much non stop activity during the daylight hours is normal for me, except for when I am waiting for Panamanians. Then I sit around and do nothing when I could be getting all this other stuff done. And tomorrow it starts all over again! Woo hoo!

Well, I must go now and catch my bus. Thanks to all you guys for listening to what I have to say, it is an extrememly watered down version of what my life is like but here you have it as I have time to write it.

TTFN