Just got back from my visit to Cerro Papayo. I loved it. And I was misinformed. Everyone told me that the Ngobe are really closed-off and that people would be too shy to talk to me for the first few months, but they had a big crowd and a welcome sign when I pulled in. They immediately decided by committee to name me Chiti. And I was told the food would be horrible and monotonous, but it was flavorful and included vegetables and spices from everyone´s gardens along with homegrown rice and beans. I don't think I ate a single thing that wasn't from right there. And I was told that people where lazy and dirty and disinterested. It might just be an initial glow from meeting everybody, but I feel these folks have been slandered.

I'm living the first month with Felix, his wife Senia, and their kids Clementina, Felix, Elvis, and Elixelis (13, 8, 6, and little). The house is right across the road from the school, built of roughsawn mahogany with a tin roof and a dirt floor. Felix built a little room off the side for me. In the morning the window opens out to a sunrise out over the mountains. My garden plot has been picked out and I'll be carrying seeds when I go back. I haven´t decided yet, but I think I'm going to build my house next door.

And I did some walking. To go see people, to visit someone's farm, or to go to another town, you need to be prepared to hike over the worst trails ever through deep mud, up and down steep little hills. And you´ll probably be expected to haul firewood, since you´re heading that way. I'm going to come back in the best backpacking shape ever.

I need to learn ngobere right now. Everyone speaks Spanish well, but they only do so when directly addressing me. Which was awkward in the meetings explaining why I was there. Felix would switch to Spanish to ask me if I had anything to add.

I've got a better idea of my work now. I'll mostly be working on established projects, and I'm excited that the community has already demostrated their interest and willingness to work. There's a tree nursery supplying fruit and lumber trees to community to help reforest the region. And there is a large school garden run by the PTA. And the ecoclub is interested in setting a better waste management system. So my work will be somewhere in these areas. I´ll have to wait and see what seems best in a couple of months.

Well, I hope everyone's doing alright and I hope to hear from you soon.

So Cerro Papayo.

I haven't been there, but I can explain what I've been told. It's a town of about 300 people, spread out over a large area in the mountains. The town is about a three hours drive from the Panamerican Highway, which means it's remote. Somebody recommended that I buy a horse because buses seldom bother coming all the way up that road. There's no electricity or potable water, and the road has only arrived recently. The community is unusually organized and motivated. There's a group interested in reforestation of watersheds to reduce soil erosion and the loss of water sources, a one-room school, and a women's group that sells artesania. The people there are farmers, raising cattle and growing a mix of yuca, otöe, and corn for personal consumption. They are in the process of installing basic latrines.

That's all I know about my actual town, but it's easier to find information about the region, which is the poorest area in Panama. In the Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca, literacy is around 50%, the infant mortality rate is about 1 in 12, and there are often food shortages. Even when food is plentiful, there are nutrition problems because the food is so plain. People mostly eat boiled plantain and tubers. I will be planting chiles first thing. Permanent villages are relatively recent to the indigenous community and the houses are still made of bamboo and palm leaves. Ngäbere, the language, is beautiful and I'm excited to continue studying. The only frustrating part is the five sounds that are impossible to make and are absolutely essential to be understood. So it goes.

On Tuesday I'll meet my counterpart and go with him to visit the town for the week. I'm kind of nervous. I'll have to meet a bunch of new people and be really friendly, not knowing the language at all almost. I hope I get along with everybody.

I'll be sure to write again next week with my first impressions of Cerro Papayo.

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.