Peace Corps has kept me running around lately, fulfilling the requirements for in-service education. It's been kind of strange spending so much time with other volunteers.

I feel if I'm writing home to share my experiences and the culture here, it seems worthwhile to spend a few lines on Peace Corps volunteer culture. Because we are some strange critters. During a meeting this past week, I remember stopping to think how the language we use would be completely unintelligible to outsiders. We speak in a thick pidgin mix of English, Spanish and acronyms. Probably to be expected because nobody is much used to speaking English anymore. And the personality of the group is bizarre. I think the most typical volunteer kind of straddles a line between the stereotypical expat arrogance and a type of missionary zeal and confidence (spreading the good news of compost, hand washing, and appropriate management techniques for small businesses), but maybe with some backpacker in there too. Strange critters, to be sure.

Back in site, things are different these days. The rain stopped. Now we've got wind. A hot, dry wind from the north that goes all day, knocking down plants and houses and generally making a nuisance of itself. The trees start moving up in the hills and after a slow ...1...2...3.... the wind hits Cerro Papayo. I think the dry season will be fun though. The rivers should be low enough soon for spear fishing and people start going on long walks visiting different family members in other towns and in a few months there will be a balsa, the traditional gathering to distribute the harvest and fight for the women of other families. More about that another time.

Today I've been chilling in my shack, doing my computer work on battery life left over from the city. Mostly I've been working on a series of grant applications for the artesan's group. The group exists to facilitate the production and sale of traditional crafts, and members feel that they would benefit from having a building to work together and to store equipment, material, and products. Felix drew a design of the building that they want and estimated the cost and I'm putting the application together to present to a Panamanian development agency. I'm in a hurry to get this done so I'm going to visit town one day to print the application and send the blog off into space.

Okay. Hope everyone is doing well.