Site update and new pics...

Greetings, here is my counterpart Jose with his daughter, Marisel.

Here is the corner of my new home, which I affectionately refer to as, `the tree house`.

Hola!
Two weeks in and things are real good. I snuck away today to rejoin civilization so here we go. I`ve been working with the Agro-pecuario program at the colegio. Last week they had a congreso which was a big deal. It was basically high school seniors working on their senior project. In this case, they did power point presentations on subjects like organic composting, water conservation, fattening chickens, and artificially inseminating cattle, among other things. I helped them with the power point the week before and then I was a judge, somewhat. I hit the ground running the first week here: working at the school, bridge fishing for `bobos` which are kind of like croakers, and working with Jose for a day at his farm. The farm is more like a mountain in thick jungle with lots of plantains, bananas, sugar cane, and yucca, and some cows. To get there we had a 45 minute hike at altitude followed by 3-4 hours of machete work. I thought I was in shape until I tried the return hike and about passed out after reaching the top of one hill. And, I am probably going to build my house with Jose. Stoked. Here are some pics:
School kids doing the congo, which is this cool dance with drums, before the start of the congreso. The music is made by two bongos, a chorus of voices and clapping. It was real cool.

These two girls are in traditional dress and ushered the distinguished guests to their seats. I don`t know how I ranked as distinguished, but I went with it.

This is my little host sister Marisel, super cute with an infectious laugh.
This is a freighter about to pass through the Gatun locks. This is the view from the bus when it crosses over this little one lane bridge. Millions of gallons of water is dammed up on the other side and the ship is bearing down on the bridge. Uhhhh, n-n-not scary at all, but I`m not sure the diablo rojos can float.

Until next time...hasta luego!