Rough week, physically. I've been constantly knocked about, bitten, kept awake, and worked to exhaustion, and my body is still suffering for it. But I'll get to that. First let me tell you about Sunday. We had nothing scheduled for the whole day and we found a white sand beach without another person on it. I can't describe how beautiful it was. The water was perfect and I swam for hours, just letting the surf pick me up and carry me. In the evening, there was a fire on the beach and tropical fruit for dessert. I'm beginning to feel very close to the group here and it was wonderful to be able to sit and relax for a minute.

It was a good day off, which was lucky because technical week turned out not to be a vacation. It was intense work in tree nurseries and reforestation projects with a couple government agencies, some environmental education and organic gardening in the schools, along with general lessons in Panamanian hick life from the host families. For instance, I've begun learning how to milk a cow. I went out every morning with Sabino and milked one cow. It took forever, my hands hurt like hell every day, and the chiggers and ticks chewed my feet into bloody masses, but I successfully milked the cow. A gentle cebu/brahma cow with vampire bat bites. Also, I started to learn how to throw ropes,but less successfully. It went badly when I tried to rope a calf. I'm used to horses that don't obey commands, so it didn't occur to me that this one might. I dropped the reins to focus on the rope, the horse took off and terrified my campesino buddies by almost throwing me into a fence. I got some riding lessons after that and on several occasions rode a horse without it bolting, bucking, or refusing to walk. It was new for me. And I'm practicing my grito, a Tarzan yodel thing that the men do. And coconuts! It's possible to peel one with a machete so that all of the shell is removed, leaving a ball of white meat with the water inside. I'll get there. I learned profesionally useful stuff too.

And today we had a meeting. I'm excited to tell you that I'll be spending the next couple of years in a town called Cerro Papayo in the Comarca Ngöbe. It only has 300 people, but you could maybe find it on a map if you looked on the road between Vigui and Llano Ñopo. I´ll be working with an Ecoclub, helping primarily with reforestation projects and organic gardening. I´ll also teach environmental education in the school and help a woman´s group organize to sell handmade stuff. They´re great, you should come buy.
It´s an indigenous community, which means I need to learn a new language and culture. They live on subsistence farming and occasional wage work. And it´s supposed to be beautiful. I know a lot more about the town and culture, but can´t think of what would be interesting to you. Ask some questions in the comentarios section and I can explain more.

I guess summer is starting back home. I suppose the college kids are all graduated and scrambling for employment, so good luck. I miss everybody.