Here, There, and Everywhere

Hello all,

Sorry I have no new pictures right now, just wait till after Thanksgiving. It feels like I was just here in David the day before yesterday. Oh wait, that's because I was! We were going to go to Las Lajas but it was rainy and would have made for a gloomy beach day, so here we are in David. I am honestly quite tired of travelling so much, I hope that December can be spent mostly in site.

This last weekend was quite unproductive, but after returning back to Chichica I had a full day on Monday. First of all, the waterfall trip was cancelled AGAIN and instead we had a meeting with Hector, who had the idea of organizing a tourism fair in Chichica. I think it's a good idea and it gives the group a concrete goal with concrete results to look forward to, and also just general exposure as a tourism destination. I just hope that they can pull it off. It's going to be a lot of work and planning and they are going to have to follow through with their assignments or it's not going to turn out well. Afterwards Hector wanted to go see the place where they supposedly make salt over at Cerro Caña, but once we arrived at the town it started to rain so we decided to postpone this trip too.

Afterwards he dropped Jessica and I off at the high school. I wanted to work on the map and Jessica needed to talk to the director at the school but of course that is an impossible task. Mile was there, and we had some serious talks about the status of our relationship, just to clear up some weirdnesses that keep coming up. I think that both of us feel better after talking things through. I really like him a lot, and I think he feels the same about me. I am going to be spending Chrismtmas with him and his family in David. I am also really proud of him because his English is improving really well, he knows a lot but just needs to practice speaking it more often.

Jessica helped me draw some of the coastline on the map. It's coming along steadily, and I think I will meet the deadline I set for finishing. People still keep asking me what it is. Is it not obvious yet when half the country is drawn out, or do people not know what their own country looks like? I like Jessica, I think we'll be good friends. We were invited to the birthday party of Profesor Bautista, where we played dominoes. I know the general idea of how to play but really have no strategy except to get rid of the dominoes when possible. I know you're supposed to count what there is and pay attention to what other people might have and play accordingly, but my brain just doesn't want to work that hard. And Jessica didn't know how to play at all yet.

I didn't bring my flashlight because when I leave the house at 8:00 am I usually hope to be back sometime before dark, but that didn't happen so I had to go home with Jessica who luckily was smarter than me and brought her own foco and happens to be living down the same trail as I do right now. Plus the trail is really really muddy right now because the people supposedly "fixed" it by leveling out all the spots that had been washed out by the rain, but this only loosens the clay that turns into impossible mud bogs. It would be better to just leave it alone, because the firm clay doesn't get that muddy or wash away very much. Oh Panama!

So then I woke up early this morning (4:45) in order to get to San Felix on time for the MIDA meeting at 9:00 (which turned out to happen around 10:00, in which case I could have left much later). There were only six of us that ended up even going to the meeting. Even though the meeting was with the ministry of agriculture, I decided to go because my neighbor is the director there and I think that he doesn't consider me as a work counterpart. All in all, it wasn't really even that useful for most of us, but it was good for relationships between the two entities of Cuerpo de Paz and MIDA. We were going to go to the beach afterwards, but as I mentioned it was raining cats and dogs and pigs and chickens and whatever other animal you might find falling out of the sky. Maybe even toads! Nö bobtäre kite tibien! Ha ha, Ngäbe joke. . . guess you gotta be here to appreciate that.

And now I am back in boring old David, getting the errands run that were unsuccessful last Saturday. There are like a million Peace Corps Volunteers in Hotel Toledo right now because we´re all heading up to Cerro Punta for Thanksgiving! Woo hoo, turkey! Real mashed potatoes with gravy! Pumpkin pie!!!!!! This meal is going to cost like $15 a plate but will be worth it, I believe. I think I´ll go visit Mile´s aunt and uncle and maybe take them a plate of food if there is a bunch left over because they were really nice while I stayed with them for four days.

Well, I think my next mission will be to search for a pint of really good ice cream and eat it. Yes, that sounds like an excellent plan. Wish me luck in its fulfillment! To the Romero supermarket, da da da DA!