Looking Back Video 1

So...we have some videos from Panama, both in HD format and from our regular camera. I was digging through our photo files and thought I would start by uploading some of the camera files, as a test to see how well this works. Hopefully in the near future I will be able to edit some of the HD files and post them as well. This first video is of a Marciaga family birthday party and was taken in July of 2008.

This second video is a short video of what Panamanians call "Gritando"or "Salomando" , it is a form of shouting or calling to each other that they often use when working together. They also have formal competitions, which is where this video came from. The boy on the left is from an area of our town called Rio Abajo and most recently won a national championship for his gritaring skills.

This final video is turned on it's side so it is a little harder to see (hopefully I will be able to correct this soon), but it is one of my favorites. Ricardo is 11 in this video and he seriously makes cutting this coco, with no shoes and a machete that is half the length of his body look easy.

Back in the USA

Well...... we are back in the old USA. Since we have been back we spent some time in Colorado, went to a wedding in Massachusetts and have now officially moved to North Carolina. Thomas started his first year of a PhD program in Environmental Engineering at Duke Monday the 24th and I have been accepted into the Duke ABSN program starting in January 2010.

As a few final words on our experience as Peace Corps volunteers, we would like to give a big thank you to everyone who has helped us through this crazy adventure...our people in Capuri, the Peace Corps Panama staff, our fearless regional leader Heather Murphy and all our awesome volunteer friends. We also want to thank our families and friends back here in the US for always being supportive, even though sometimes it was hard to understand what we were going through.

Finally, we would like to wish a lot of luck, patience and love to all of those adventurers who are still out there in the land of Peace Corps, as well as those of you who are looking to become volunteers. Peace Corps is a unique experience that will change you forever...so as the Jedi warrior always says...May the force be with you!

My Dad taking pictures at the wedding.

The Worley family at the wedding.

Wedding flowers.

Driving accross the country.

Missouri!

Tom's parents help us move all our stuff...post 2,000 mile drive.

Ous new front gate.

Our new front porch.

If anyone was worried about the arrival of the animals...they are great...here is the cat learning about the power of the sofa.

Dude...Back in the USA...isn't it great!

Say Goodbye...

We officially COSed (Close of Service) the 9th of July. As a final Panama post we though we would post some pics of the going away party our awesome people threw us, some final reforestation efforts and the last few days of latrine work. We hope all of you have tracked our blog have enjoyed our pictures and comments as much as the experience itself changed us. Overall Peace Corps was a long and difficult journey, but it was also an awesome unique experience we will never forget!

The girls getting ready to dance.

Dancing...

Cantadera (free style Panamanian rapping to to Spanish guitars)

Before the despidia we went from house to house to say goodbye to our friends. As for the latrine project we finished construction of three of them and had the other three started (mostly done). (FYI...we have recieved calls from all the particpants in the latrine project since arriving home and all latrines have been finished and are now being used!!)

La Palma in the winter.

Girls being girls.

One of our final projects that we did before we left was to do a tree planting with the trees that we had grown from seed. We invited ANAM, the local Environmental Agency to help the students in the school plant trees. The project was a big success, as you can see from the photos.

Bredio getting ready to plant a tree.

Our local Environmental Agency (ANAM) at the tree planting event at the school.

Hanging out.

Tati

Many many thanks to our host family, especially our host Mom!

Our group 59 decided to go to the Decamaron resort to enjoy the last few days.

The final group photo before leaving Panama.

ZoZo getting her bath before leaving.

Composting Latrines...

In May we received the funding for our composting latrine project and in June we went to work in hopes of finishing the project before leaving in July. So....

First, we would like to thank everyone who donated to our composting latrine project! Second, we would like to thank all of the Peace Corps volunteers who came to help with the project.


For each latrine, we dug a small foundation and poured a concrete floor that was approximately 50 x 80 x 2 inches. In the photo above with Pete you can see the dugout foundation.


Initially, there was some apprehension among the residents building the latrines as how to work with cement. But as you can see from the above and below photos we quickly figured it out.

Edwardo finishes smoothing out his concrete slab.

We let the first concrete slab dry for two days before we began to lay brick. These Panamanian workers were fast and we finished laying brick for three of the latrines in one day.

After the brick was laid we built tables in each of the latrines to hold up the final slab of concrete. Once the final slab is dry you can remove the tables and connect the PVC tubing to the concrete seats.


As you can see in the photo the composting latrine has two chambers. One side is used until it is full, then it is covered. The family then switches to the other side, and when that side is full, the first side is ready to be removed and disposed of, (or used as fertilizer).


Part of the grant required us to supply some of the wood for the construction of the latrine houses. So we paid a guy to cut down two large Espave trees to make the required 2x4s . In this photo we are cutting the pieces to interlock together.


With this style of composting latrine, we used a special seat mold in which the hole is divided into two parts. One part in the back for excrement and the front part is for urine which can either be collected outside of the latrine and used as fertilizer or it can be piped away from the latrine.


The actual wood structure of the latrine is pretty easy to setup, the difficult part is to get the zinc on top of the roof, as the structure is about 10 feet tall.

Overall, the latrine project was a big success! Buy the last latrine, we were non-official masons, and best of all, we were able to see a big increase in the self esteem in the people who worked with us on the project. Thanks again to everyone who donated.

Working hard for the money...

Meghan and I have just under a month of Peace Corps service to go before we are back in the States. We are finishing up our work here in Peace Corps and just got back from working with a friend on a small household gardening project.

We found when working with extremely depleted soils, the best thing to do for small gardening was to completely ignore the soil and use a raised bed. We normally fill the box with composting materials and let the soil compost for a few weeks and then we plant our seeds.

Setting up the grid on the boxes.

The finished product.

The family that we were working with.

World Map that Brianna is painting.

Sunset in Coclé.

A man who lost his cow...

The cow he lost hanging out at our house...

From our previous posts you can see that in our region that we produce lots of molasses from sugar cane. We also tend to eat lots of it too!

Meg and I enjoying a nice sugar buzz!

Ladi enjoying the sugar too!

Hanging out with the people.

We where lucky enough to visit the ANAM Isla Iguana Nature Sanctuary in the province of Los Santos for the day. We left from Pedasi and took two boats between our group to reach the island.

The main strip of Pedasi

Meghan and her sister who came to visit.

Birds on the island.

The boat that brought us here.

Just about to leave.

View from the other side.

The following photos are from our site.

The contryside is green again with all the rain!

Orange and Soursop fruit in about 10 years.

Our composting latrine project has recieved all of its funding! And we have started working on the project. The following photos are of our community taking gravel and sand from the river to mix with the concrete.

We also recently gave an Organic fertilizer talk with the local Panamanian environmental agency ANAM.

Go Ito!