February 2009


Water source in Laguna 2, would you want to drink this water?

Luterio and Miguel. Taking a break at Domingo´s while surveying for the aqueduct.

Taking a break at the church while surveying in Laguna 2.

Another Laguna 2 water source.

Saca mi foto!

Kids cleaning fish.

Amado, the new water committee president, cleaning the spring box.

Kids playing.

Skinny dog.

Kid bracing himself and two chickens in the wind.

Chiva driver with classy tshirt.

Kids pose with tree that fell in the wind. Still windy in this photo.

I know it´s been a while since I´ve put anything up. Sorry.

The whole community except for two houses has moved to a field outside of the community. They do this because it´s summer and it´s nice outside. They explained it to me that the spirits and demons are still in the community since the abuela passed away. This is a picture of one of the temporary houses.
We climbed Peña Blanca. It was very windy as Lisa is demonstrating here. I sat down because it was too windy to stand.

My host dad and host brother at the summit.

Franklin. A small detail: look at his feet. He walked for 7 hours and climbed a mountain in flip flops.

Looking at a star? Maybe.

Group photo at the summit. Lisa is smiling much harder than any Ngabe ever will for a picture.

Clouds over the cordillera from Pena Blanca.

Looking up at Peña Blanca.

Some people who came to visit me at my house.

Rainbow on the way to Peña Blanca.

Bridge on the trail to Cerro Iglesias. For some reason, I took a picture of almost every bridge on the way.

Ngabe superhighway.

Tibujo town center. On the trail to Cerro Iglesias.

Community of Bagla with their newly painted water tank.

Another bridge.

More bridges. There are actually two in this picture.

Same bridge with awesome bathing spot

I have been helping a kid with his english a little by teaching him american songs. He recopied what I wrote for him. I don´t think these are the actual words, though. Celine Dion is very popular here.

Sunrise from my porch.

My lovely house thanks to the previous volunteer.

This might be my favorite picture. I was walking along one day and found this chicken with a bag on its head.

Girl in Laguna Abajo.

Roof Construction.

Typical poso in Laguna Abajo. I am beginning to work with the community to build an aqueduct.

Family in Laguna Abajo.

Laguna Abajo Ridgeline

Chiva ride on the way up the Chami. The current recond is 34 in one pickup truck, but there are rumors of 41.

My host sisters put some red stuff on their faces.

My worm box. Now it´s full of leaves, food and manure. And a few worms.

Some kids who put a butterfly on a leash.

Host sister, Rebecca.

All in all, things are going very well here. Work here is going better than I expected and I really enjoy living here.

Ja Toida,

Chodi

First Week in Laguna

Those building down there are my community, Laguna (Nurude in Ngabere). The big building is the school.
View as I am hiking into my site. It makes the hike in much easier with views like this. On this particular hike, I was leaving my site because there was a cow being slaughtered in Chami, the nearby city. We don´t have meat in our site, so I thought it was worth the hour hike each way. It was.

My two host sisters with Meliciado and Angela in the back as we are preparing to leave the field after harvesting rice all day. The little girl on the right seems cute, but she loves to hit me. She tried to stab me with a safety pin. Still a little cute, though.

The views from my site are gorgeous.

My host sister playing around while the family is harvesting rice.

Little kids, carrying wood to cook with.

Meliciado, my host dad and I carried wood like this for a day to repair a fence. The logs he was carrying were probably 150 lbs, while I was carrying wimpy 100 lb logs. We each did 15 trips of about a quarter mile. He didn´t seem that tired after it all.

This is the view from my cell phone reception spot, so when you talk to me on the phone, this is what I´m looking at. Not bad.

The building on the right is where my host family lives. The building on the left is the kitchen.

This is where I sleep.

My neighbor´s house. Usually it is filled with smoke from the wood fire going on inside. This is very common and I really don´t like it.

Kids really like having their picture taken. The girl in the back every day asks me to take her picture. In my mind, I have nicknamed her ¨Saca mi foto,¨(take my picture) because she asks me almost every day.

This is what my hands looked like after the first day of work.

My host family. They´ve been great. As you can see, ¨Saca mi foto¨ has snuck into the picture in the back.

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