Long long time since I wrote anything! Whoops. Sorry Mom, Dad, and Nate, but I am just revising the emails I wrote to you guys when I got to civilization after all these places!

After 3 relaxing days in Panama City, we flew to Bocas del Toro and took a bus and a boat to San San Pond Sak Wetlands Reserve to study sea turtles and manatees! We stayed at the research center for Amigos y Vecinos de la Costa y Naturaleza, Friends and Neighbors of the Coast and Nature, where we had dorm rooms, good food, and slept under mosquito nets. I was non stop eaten by mosquitoes and sand flies for 3 days. I took my malaria medicine even though they claimed there wasn’t malaria there… the Panamanians don’t really understand my sweet sweet blood. The first day we rowed 3 person canoes through a water-trail…. so stereotypical jungle! It was right out of Jurassic Park or Africa Queen or something. At night we went out with a turtle conservation group from 9pm-1am, where they patrol a 10 km strip of beach looking for sea turtles that have come to lay eggs, and they either catch the eggs in a plastic bag or dig the eggs out of the ground and bring them to a nursery. They also tag the turtle or record its info. We saw 3 turtles that night! They are leatherback turtles, the largest sea turtles in the world! They can be up to 12 ft long! The ones we saw were probably 6 ft. It was incredibly shocking when we came across the first one, I think at first I saw the head and though “wow, a turtle” and then it registered exactly what part of the darkness WAS the turtle and it was HUGE! We couldn’t take pictures or use lights, but one at a time we could go right up to it, touch it, it was really incredible. However, I got completely bitten up, all over my feet and legs, through my pants. Some parts of my ankles and feet were just covered. I was wearing long sleeves even though it was probably 75 degrees.

The second day we went to a manatee lookout point for the entire day but all we saw was one manatee snout peek up out of the river. I didn’t go out looking for turtles the second night because my body was still in shock of the insect attack the night before.  The next day we had some class in the morning about wetlands, and in the afternoon went to a patch of land owned by Chiquita bananas and helped a reforestation project. We planted a few trees, but the workers at the reforestation area were leaving for the day so we didn’t plant more than 3 each. We learned how to use a machete though! At night I decided to layer up and go look for more turtles!

SO glad I did. Only me, Nathan, Alexander, Leo, and Brandon went, and we walked around with an ANAM guardaparque (basically equivalent of a Park Ranger type deal) and one of the young guys who works for the conservation group, Oscar, only 18 years old. After walking the beach for about 2-2.5 hours we FOUND ONE! A huge leatherback sea turtle had just climbed out of the ocean and onto the shore. Unfortunately we did not see it climb out of the ocean, even though we thought that would be a really cool/awkward sight. But the turtle hadnt laid its eggs yet! There is a thick secretion that comes out of its eyes that cleans the sand around it and makes it look like the turtle is crying. We all gathered around really close as the turtle dug a hole with its back fins. Its flexible fins formed into a little makeshift shovel and scooped out sand! The young guy we were with got in the hole that the turtle started and helped the turtle dig out sand… even though we were going to catch the eggs in a plastic bag, the turtle won’t start to lay eggs until it feels the hole is deep enough. Instincts in action! Finally I guess the turtle felt the hole was deep enough by feeling and scooping around with its back fins. Oscar climbed in the hole and held a plastic bag under the turtle as it laid its eggs… 2-3 at a time oozed out, 90 in total!!!!! We could watch right over Oscar’s shoulder. Right after all the eggs are laid, buried the plastic bag with eggs in the sand a bit to keep them warm. The turtle then buries the area where it believes its eggs to be, but only from instinct because obviously the eggs were not there. The turtle is in an evolutionary instinctive trance, where it just goes through the motions its body tells it to do. After the huge turtle finished patting sand very densely and securely to keep the area of nonexistent eggs safe, it starts its flop back to the ocean. I had seen one go back to the ocean the other night, so instead Nathan and I took turns carrying the heavy bag of eggs 2 miles down the beach to the nursery. We couldn’t get over the fact that we were carrying about 90 little lives in our hands that would hopefully grow into HUGE sea turtles. When we got to the nursery, Oscar dug a hole similar to the one the sea turtle dug… but he digs so fast! I was using my own seemingly tiny little hands and grabbing nothing… he and the turtle grabbed huge amounts in every handful! and it was so deep! Nathan buried the first 40 eggs, then I got a chance to lay them! I had to lie down so my arm could reach the bottom of the hole… so basically my face was right in the bag of eggs and turtle placenta. I was wearing a glove, and because the first 40 eggs were right on top, Nathan didn’t get any turtle placenta outside the area of his glove. By the time I started we were at the bottom of the bag and I had my face so close to the puddles of placenta and mud. I counted 60-something more large fertilized eggs, and then 30 unfertilized smaller eggs. After we were done placing them in, I had to run to the ocean to wash the turtle placenta off my arm. It is dark green, obviously!

The next morning we left the godforsaken bug infested San San Pond Sak to a hotel in Changuinola, Bocas del Toro. At that point, any running water and non-bucket showers are beautiful and clean.

After a long drive from Chiriquí to la Ciudad de Panamá, we spent one night with our homestay families and repacked for a short 2 day excursion to Barro Colorado Island! BCI is the largest island within the Canal, owned by the Smithsonian Institute and dedicated solely to biological research. 40 scientists from all over the world are considered resident scientists, spending their time performing research on the island but traveling to other institutions or living on the mainland in Panama. This was a very unique experience, as not many students have the opportunity to go to the island, much less stay overnight.

We met our bus at our normal supermarket meeting spot at 6am and drove over to the BCI boat, a very small dock and a very small boat that picks up people from the city every morning and brings people from the island to the mainland in one trip every afternoon. Very elusive. The boat was 40 minutes north up the canal, a little more than halfway up north. We met our crazy guide Ian, who was Panamanian but such an expert tourguide that he spoke English perfectly with no accent whatsoever. After a brief powerpoint informing us about the island, we walked through the forest to Big Tree- simply a really big tree. We had lunch in the cafeteria, where all of the scientists eat at designated times. In the afternoon, we learned about a few projects happening on the island. A young postdoc told us about his studies of agouti, or neque en espanol, a common mammal on the island. Three women from Germany then told us all about their bat research, involving studying modes of transportation, communication, and finding food. Although it was previously thought that bats are blind, it has been found that they use a combination of echolocation, smell, and sight! Also, the research with echolocation is used to develop robots, since bats can identify specific objects on top of another, such as a small dead fly on an opaque leaf. Who knew bats could help engineers develop robots that can identify objects?!

That night we went out to catch some bats! We visited the experiment site of one of the women, Kristen, who was filming bats grabbing fish or worms while in flight. She would catch a bat, train it for a few days, and then observe its behaviors in a highly controlled setting. Five of us were in the site at once, which apparently was too many people for the bat and it would not fly. We then worked with the other two women on catching bats! We set up nets exactly like the bird nets we had in Parque Nacional Soberanía. I was allowed to touch the bat because I got my rabies shot!!!! Getting my money’s worth, woohoo! However, we did not touch much, because the scientist woman would get the bat out of the net, identify it and note any special characteristics, and release them. Afterwards, we walked around the developed part of the island with the scientists and looked for interesting insects or amphibians.

Much like my beloved Rutgers Marine Field Station, I learned that it is common for field station to be crazy partiers! Every May they have Derby Days, where scientists and members of the community dress up very fancy and race toads!

The next day we learned about two Panamanian girls’ research involving insect seed predation. After a walk around the forest to find weevils, we caught the boat back to Panama City.

Thus started 3 free days! Originally, when I heard we had 3 free days in the city between excursions in el campo, I thought I would use them to relax and explore the city. Instead, 2 months of schoolwork has piled up, as it is nearly impossible to get work done during our strict schedule and slightly uncomfortable living conditions. Each day Nathan and I found somewhere lovely to work, and had relaxing, productive days. On Sunday we went to an artisan market, where Kuna indigenous people sell pieces of  Panamanian or Kuna art and jewelry.

At the end of 3 short days, not as productive OR as fun-filled with city life as I would have hoped, we packed up for another 2 week trip! This time…. 2 weeks in Bocas del Toro and Costa Rica!

Sorry it’s been a crazy last time! I can catch this up in order of events.

After leaving Boca Chica, we ended our trip staying in Harmodio’s friends house on their coffee plantation, Café Eleta, located in Piedra de Candela outside of el Parque Internacional La Amistad (PILA). PILA is shared by Panama and Costa Rica, thus bridging international divides through environmental protection. Most of the park is located in Costa Rica, and only 3% is in the Panamanian province of Chiriquí, where we visited. Café Eleta was overwhelmingly gorgeous, a pretty luxurious home, wonderful food, and plenty of coffee!

The first full day in Piedra de Candela we took a tour of the coffee farm in the morning. We all piled in the back of a pickup truck and darted around the hilly, vegetated area, dodging large leaves and branches between each stop to learn about coffee. We visited three types of coffee plant: Geisha, Catura, and Criolla. Geisha sells for $130/lb in Japan! Most of the coffee plants were still developing, and by the fall their fruits will be red and will be ready to be harvested. Workers from all around the area come at their will and are paid for whatever they are able to harvest. Neither this farm nor neighboring farms are organic…. although they would sell their coffee for more money, it takes 3 years of running the farm with no chemicals before it can get that organic label and receive those profits. Also, if neighboring farms are using chemicals, they will spread to nearby farms and the soil will never pass as clean. Therefore, unless the entire community decides to make the organic transition, it is not realistic for most farms.

For the afternoon, we visited the area of the plantation where beans are processed. We learned about the difference between beans with cáscaras, shells, café oro, the raw bean, and finally the roasted bean. We were given a taste test to see if we could determine which of 2 cups of coffee was the small farm brand, or the commercial Panamanian brand. I could tell the commercial brand by it’s bitter smell and taste, while the farm brand smelled earthy and fruity. We then saw the giant machines that sort the beans, and the manual areas where women in the community come and sort out the discolored/misshaped beans.

The next 2 days were spent with our professors from Boca Chica, Ernesto and Lourdes. The first day that they arrived at Café Eleta we had an entire day of lectures, learning about the politics and ecology in PILA. By the end of the day, the powerpoints were pretty miserable. We have learned that Panamanians in general are terrible presenters—- the powerpoints always use a picture background with ilegible white writing, the speakers always talk way too much or too fast, and the benches are always uncomfortable. The second day, we hopped back in our pick up truck and traveled the short distance to PILA, where we had a chance to explore the ecosystem. We saw plenty of cows in the rolling pastures, however, because it is a protected area, this is technically not allowed. At night we did an extremely informative and enlightening activity, where we each were given rolls as either Indigenous people, Cow farmers, ANAM (the general Panamanian environmental agency), International NGOs, and Panamanian NGOs. Leo and I were the indigenous people. In a discussion led by ANAM, we attempted to reach a conclusion on what to do about the protected land in PILA. It was actually extremely frustrating, because as an indigenous woman I wanted to be able to use that land, and I would work as a park ranger in order to gain governmental and resource benefits. However, NGOs did not want anyone living in the park area, even if my people and the farmers have lived on those lands for centuries. In the end, we reached an ideal compromise, however I also know that is not how life really works, and things are always just a bit more complicated.

The next day we drove 10 hours from PILA back to Panama City, ending our first campo excursion!

¡Hola mis amores! Another quick post after another great adventure. We finally visited a fishing community, and I had a beautifully fabulous ocean filled week!

In Chitré, still in the province of Herrera, we visited El Parque Nacional Sarigua, a savannah national park! So weird to be in the tropical rainforest one day, drive only 2 hours or so and be in a dry savannah the next. Our group walked around with Milton, our professor from the past week from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Although the soil was really dry and sandy, and the area seemed very much like a desert, there were remains of crabs and other sea creatures everywhere. The Pacific Ocean was right over some mountains on one side of the savannah, and historically the area had been ocean. Now, the savannah is very dry, imagine cacti and dry grasses. There were also salt deposits on top of the soil, because every once in a while the area is flooded with ocean water, and when the water dries up, salt is left behind. In the middle of the national park, there are huge pools of salt water that are shrimperies! 30,000-40,000 shrimp are in each pool at any time. There are tunnels connecting the shrimperies with the ocean that is very close by.

We left Chitré the next day for a 5 hour drive to David, a city in the province of Chiriquí, near the Pacific Coast and one of two provinces bordering Costa Rica. It also supposedly is the hottest place in Panama… how wonderful. Right outside of Chitré we stopped at 2 artisan shops! The first was a potter who made many types of mugs, bowls, and other ceramics. We all got a chance to try the pottery wheels! We spun a big wheel on the bottom with our feet while sculpting the clay on top. I was pretty good at it, but in the end only ended up making a small glass, we decided it would be a perfect espresso mug. The next shop was a man who made decorative masks. From pictures he showed us, it looked like they were dragons and other scary faces used for traditional parades, but he had a lot of other designs hanging on the walls. He demonstrated how he creates a mold with clay, and after it dries he paper maches over it. Then, he cuts slits in the paper mache, so it becomes a mask and ready to be painted. Then we got to make the molds out of clay! I made a shark.

After one night in David, we drove about an hour to Boca Chica, a small fishing community on the Pacific coast. The drive was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen… rolling hills with of short grass with tons of palm trees, cows, and forest. It looked like never ending paradise of small smooth hills and animals grazing everywhere. Boca Chica consisted of a few streets with houses, a few hostels, and a sport fishing resort next to a dock with about 10 boats. The 10 of us moved into a house rented to us by a man who would live in his boat for a few days while we were there. I was so excited to walk 30 seconds from our house to the dock and smell the powerful scent of fish being fileted. I asked what type of fish it was, and they said hammerhead shark!

The first day we met our professors, Ernesto and Lourdes. This weeks topic was Pacific Coastal Resources! I was so happy to finally be studying my main interest. That first day we learned about Panamanian fishing laws and categories of protected areas, however learned that if the waters are not protected by a national park, fishing is pretty unlimited. The people of the town work as fisherman, concheros (harvesting conchas, kind of like clams but live in mangroves), leñadores (harvesting leña, firewood, from mangroves) and workers at hotels or other tourist attractions. It was interesting to visit a town that has had tourist development over the past 15 years… although pretty sparse, since the coast and the nearby islands are very tranquil, it has led to development and changing dynamics in the communities.

The second day, we took boats to nearby beaches and hotels to talk to locals about how tourism has affected their communities. For the morning we spoke with a man from ANAM, the Panamanian environmental agency. We took a boat to the ANAM office of the Parque Nacional Golfo de Chiriquí, the Gulf of Chiriqui National Marine Park. I talked with the official, Carlos Saldana, for a while about a possible project for our ISP, a month long independent study project starting around May 10. I am thinking about a project incorporating either fishing practices or Pacific coastal biodiversity around mangroves, and could stay on this small island with a family or in the ANAM office. I have begun to really look forward to a month of traquility and ocean research on one of the most beautiful coasts I have ever seen, without my group, and using all the Spanish and field knowledge I have learned to create my own independent study, which could later be used by fishermen or biologists in the national park.

Also, we got to have PBJs on the beach! Sooooo good to take a break from typical Panamanian cuisine. And I had really missed peanut butter.

The third day we had class in the morning, learning about mangrove ecosystems and the lives of concheros, leñadores, y pescadores (fisherman). Our professors have been my favorite so far and I am so interested in fishing practices and mangrove habitats. Even though I am concentrating as best that I can, it is incredibly hot and the lectures are in Spanish, so it is easy to zone out. This has probably been my main frustration while I am here, but the challenge has been rewarding. For the afternoon, we took a boat to a nearby hotel on the island of Boca Brava. Nathan, Sarah, and I relaxed with some beers in hammocks and then walked about 15 minutes to a private beach. The sand was black and the beach was surrounded by a thick forest of palms and mangroves. The water had very small calm waves. The water in the Pacific is not completely clear, because most of the rivers of Panama carry sediments to the Pacific coast. Suddenly it was raining, pretty hard, and we just stood in the water surrounded by green, and I felt like I was in one of the most beautiful moments. That night, after dinner, our professors taught us how to dance to traditional Panamanian music, called tipico. Que divertido!

Yesterday, we were supposed to leave our house at 430 am to go out in boats with concheros and leñadores to harvest in the mangroves for the day. however, our bus did not come, and so we did not beat the tide, and were too late to leave. We went to the dock down the road to watch the sunrise. Around 530 we had the brilliant idea of having a swim race across the channel. Alexander, Leo, and I decided to race across the channel from Boca Chica to Boca Brava, get out at the dock on the other side and do the macarena, and then race back. Around 545 we started the race, however only moments after we started we realized there was a significant current. What should have been a 20 minute race turned into a battle against the current. I was in the lead the whole time, however, had to swim diagonally towards the docks and there were many times where I did not move from a spot for 10 minutes. After an hour, I won the race!

After a celebratory breakfast, our group and professors decided to harvest conchas ourselves. We took a boat to the mangroves. I was wearing long pants, a gross tshirt, and hiking boots. Each step, I was knee deep in mud. My hiking boots looked like they were covered in cement. We crawled around the dense mangrove roots, digging around the roots looking for conchas, which look like larger sized clams. I only found one the whole time. I spent most of the morning trying to walk through the knee deep mud. We all jumped in the ocean in our clothes to wash off, and swimming never felt so good. We napped and danced in the afternoon, and then left Boca Chica for the hotel in David.

Today, we had another early morning, leaving the hotel at 6am for Pedregal. We caught a boat in Pedregal, and Ernesto gave us a tour of the mangroves. We learned the 5 different types of mangroves while driving around the islands in our boat. We stopped for a hike where we searched for monkeys, and one of the species we found is listed as critically endangered! Afterwards we ate lunch at a womans house on an island, where we had rice and fried fish. I ate my first fish eyes! Delicious. Afterwards we went on another hike, where we founf poison dart frogs and ate guyabana, a delicious fruit, I forget the name in English, it is not common in the US. On our long boat ride through the mangroves back towards Pedregal, we saw dolphins swimming along the coast! For about a half hour we followed two big dolphins around in our boat! They were never RIGHT Next to the boat, but we were pretty close! They would come up for air and their tails would kick out of the water for brief moments. It was a truly spectacular sight, with mountains, mangroves, and endless ocean and sky in the background.

After dinner in the hotel, our group created a skit to show what we learned this week. It was called Una Concha en La Mesa, a Panamanian fishing community spoof of Fiddler on the Roof. I played Mariposa, the eldest daughter of a poor conchero who decided to marry a leñador. Both are low class and my father was very upset. In the end, my leñador husband´s boat was taken away by the goverment because he didnt have a license, and I had to go work in a hotel. The skit was a hit with the professors, super funny, and showed how much we learned about how tourism is affecting the fishing communities.

Now it is late and we are traveling to Piedra de Candela in the morning, in el Parque Nacional de Amistad, a national park shared between Panama and Costa Rica. Hasta luego!

Ah! Quick post!

I am currently in an internet cafe in Chitré, a city in the province of Herrera.

After the two night stay in a hotel in Penonome, we traveled a few hours to el Parque Nacional El Copé to study mountain forests. After a bumpy uphill ride in a small vehicle with our whole group, our bags, and a piñata, we arrived at a tiny cabin in the middle of the rainforest. Our group of 10 all snuggled in mattresses in our cabin, without electricity but with running water, so fun, yet also not much space. Every day we did mini research projects in the forest in the morning, analyzed our data in the afternoon, and prepped for the next days project at night. It was our first real experience doing science out in the field, and I am so glad I am here getting this hands on experience.

The first day we all worked together and calculated the height of trees along a transect in the forest, as well as the amount of light that gets through the forest canopy. We drew out the heights of trees and a graph of canopy light, and got to see the correlation between amount and height of trees and light that penetrates! The second day we were in 3 groups, each using nets and a special method of hitting the grass to capture grasshoppers! I was the collector of the group and ended up swooping 58 grasshoppers from the grass along the side of the road! The other groups only caught a few, but they were in the dense vegetation, and we learned not many grasshoppers live there. The third day I worked in a small group studying butterflies. We sat in the forest for 2 hours watching our little trays of fruit, which we hoped would work as butterfly bait but really were not effective. If the butterflies landed in our fruit bait we could try to catch them, but unfortunately none did. The last day was dedicated to independent projects in groups of 2. Nathan and I studied the abundance and diversity of soil insects between areas with more disturbance versus densely vegetated areas. We set 4 sweet little containers in the ground at 2 different sites, and waited overnight. The next day we collected our awesome traps, and ended up catching 92 insects total! Lots of cockroaches, spiders, ants, weevils, and lots of other things. I am learning to appreciate insects a little more, since everyones little passions are rubbing off on me.

I havent really said much about the food we have been eating, but I definitely have not eaten much in the last month that was not typically Panamanian. I can almost guess one of a few dishes that will be served at every meal at a research facility or with a family. Every meal, including breakfast, is a combination between some sort of meat, rice, corn, yucca, ñame, and plantains. Typical breakfast is some sort of meat, fried plantains called patacones, or some sort of fried corn patty or ball. Everyone loves patacones but they are super dry and pretty tasteless… I am more of a fan of fried corn products. Lunch and dinner always include chicken and rice. My favorite Panamanian dish is roasted chicken, rice, lentils, some tomato slices, and sweetly prepared plantain. My second favorite is what seems like fried rice with pulled chicken and a few vegetables thrown in, and potato salad. Everything is always warm because there is never much refrigeration. Another popular dish that is not one of my favorites is ñame soup. It has chicken, broth, and huge chunks of ñame and yucca. Ñame and yucca are root vegetables that I can only describe as much more dense than potatoes. Panamanians eat so much rice and dense root vegetables, because they are most commonly grown here. I really like eating locally, and eating what the Panamanians are eating, but my digestion is not exactly loving the tons and tons of starch and very few vegetables.

Miss you all! Next blog next week, I think!

buenas, mi familia y amigos! the past few days I have been staying in a familys home in a rural mountain village based on subsistence farming. All of the differences I felt between their lives and mine and the beautiful things I saw are pretty impossible to put into words. Ill try to sum up my activities but I cant write down anything to describe how friendly, caring, and welcoming the community was to our visit and how difficult it was leaving this morning. I will also forget many details but this is all I can give right now to share my experience.

sunday we left Panama City and took a bus a few hours to Loma Bonita, in the province of Cocle, near the middle of the country. We arrived on a dirt road surrounding by beautiful mountains. We were greeted by the entire town, and we sat in a classroom with all of the host families and introduced ourselves. A typical Panamanian lunch was prepared for us… a rice dish with chicken and a heap of potato salad (sounds very plain but actually pretty delicious, it seems kind of like the Panamanian mac and cheese, I got recipes). Alejandro, Natan, and I were told that our families lived far away, we arrived at my house after 45 minutes of walking with all of our stuff on a rocky mountain road. Natan and Alejandro lived 15 minutes past my house. Also, I will say, I now have a slope named after me, La Loma de Merrill, la muchacha que cae. Merrills slope, the girl who falls. All of the families were still talking about it days later.

We walked up a small slope to my house, which was surrounded by orange, mango, coconut, papaya, and many other fruit trees. The house was just engulfed at the top of a mountain forest. Looking all the way around, I could only see trees, but when I walked up a slope to use the outhouse or down a slope to the road, we were clearly at the top of a mountain, and there were other mountains and valleys all around. My family consisted of my host mother Bita, my host father who I didnt catch his name, a 23 year old sister Mari, 10 year old sister Yoyce, and 1 year old baby sister Suleti. I ended up bonding most with Yoyce, because she was incredibly curious, intelligent, and excited to have a visitor. She learns some English in school, so each night we would have a mini English lesson, whether it be Yoyce practicing her pronunciation of words she learned in school, or writing phrases down in Spanish that I would translate to English. In return, Yoyce was always the first one to explain to adults what I was talking about if my Spanish words or pronunciation were just not working out at that moment. Mari struck me as incredibly mature for her age, and she said she attended university in a nearby city, but every day she just helped take care of the baby. I never really got exactly what was happening… maybe she was on break for La Semana Santa, or maybe she just helps out around the house, Im not sure. Baby Suleti was incredibly adorable and just ran around like a crazy little kid, poking the chickens, playing with bugs, and imitating the sounds of all the animals.

On Sunday when we got to the house, we simply relaxed for the afternoon. I got acquainted with everyone in my family, and showed them pictures of my family and friends. We sat in chairs and silently stared into the forest and mountains, or quietly chatted. At one point Yoyce tied a giant cicada to a string, and held the other end of the string as the cicada flew around. best homemade toy I have ever seen! A cicada flying around on a leash like a dog. Wow… and we spend so much money on fancy toys when we could just have flying pet cicadas! Alejandros host father, Laco, was the uncle of my family, and always came over in the afternoons to hang out. He was super funny, always asking me questions and telling me more about what we would be learning this week. he also tried to help me with my spanish pronunciation, however laughed every time I could not roll my Rs or totally butcher a word he was trying to teach me. After dinner and a bit of an evening walk, it got dark, and we all went to bed at 730 because we couldnt see anything. Waking up at 630 is then super easy with 11 hours of sleep!

Monday and Tuesday were meant for just spending time with our families. Monday, after a breakfast of some sort of creamy soup made of corn or plantain or something, a piece of roasted chicken, a mountain of fried plantains I couldnt finish, and coffee, Bita and I visited the farm which is their main source of food and income located about a 20 minute walk down the road. During the rainy season from May to December, they grow corn and rice in the same plot, and yucca separately. They share the land with their relatives. We walked back to their house and I helped water the tomatoes, onions, and garlic that are growing in a mini terraced garden near their house. I spent a good part of the morning pounding corn. I plucked all of the little dry kernels off of about 20 ears of corn. Some we fed to the chickens, and some we put in this big stationary bowl and pounded with a tool that looked like a small log. Obviously my force and effect with the pounding paled in comparison to Bita, who had probably been pounding maíz her whole life. Little flakes that came off were fed to the chickens, and we definitely began resting time and I did not see the final product of the pounded corn. I think it was probably soft enough to grind into cornmeal and used to make bollo—- cornmeal mixed with butter wrapped in sugar cane leaf and boiled. Got the recipe for that too, but Bita did not understand how I would not at least find a palm leaf to wrap the corn in. After a short morning nap, we had lunch with a cousin and grandmother who came to visit. For the afternoon, we relaxed. I took another nap. During the dry season, it seems like they do all small necessary household tasks like cooking and watering some plants, and spend the rest of the time relaxing and visiting friends and family. At night, Bita, Yoyce, the baby and I walked to Alejandros to visit. Laco took us on a walk up to see a beautiful view, where unfortunately I fell yet again and sealed my name as the girl who falls. The view was worth it. impossible to describe.

Tuesday I made bollo and watered the tomatoes, but then friends Krista and Brandon, with one of their host mothers Yolanda and sister Ani, came to visit. They did the whole long walk up from town center just to visit us! Bita said Alejandro was also coming, and like magic he walked up the hill. I did not understand how they communicated because Im pretty sure they did not have cell phones and I did not hear them making plans to meet today. I ate two oranges from the trees and Bita served us leche de avena (i think) which was juice from wheat (I think). It was milky but pretty delightful. We all then left my house in a magnificent troop and paraded down to Nathans house. Along the way we stopped at an Aunts house to say hello. Everywhere we are immediately told to sit, and we chat for at least a few minutes, but usually a very long time. At Nathans house we all sat and his mother gave us delicious mangoes and chicha de limon…. lemonade. After visiting there we walked to Alejandros where we all sat and were served coffee. Somehow they had milk for the coffee there! At my house we did not. Then we went on the same walk to the magnificent view. By then this is hours and hours later after so many visits and chatting and chicha and fruit. We had lunch at Nathans house because it was his lunch time and his parents miraculously had extra food for us visitors. We had some red meat mixed with peppers and onions, rice, lentils, and salad with tomatoes. very typical but one of my faves. After much more visiting and chatting I went back to my house, and Nathan and his host father came to visit, because it was the only house on the entire mountain they had not visited yet that day. We learned how to weave! We weaved straw into the long strands that are later used to make hats. Without realizing, I was in a race with Yoyce to make the longest strand, obviously mine was much shorter and poorer quality. But still great!

Wednesday was a day of activities with the whole group. We trekked down the mountain to meet everyone else. In the morning we worked a piece of land into terraces for farming yucca! I used a coa, not sure if that is english or spanish, and was very great at chopping up the solid ground into smaller pieces, and then the picks would come in and chop it up better, and later rakes, and so on. Our academic director Harmodio said I was a great worker and made it look easy! So proud. After working for a few hours and making 3 terraces we played soccer with the school boys. How embarrassing. My 5 year old terrible memories of soccer brewed again, and we definitely got beaten by 12 year old boys. After lunch, we chatted for a while with a member of the Peace Corps working in Loma Bonita, David. He was from San Diego and had been living in Loma Bonita for 9 months. And he was Jewish! We bonded over being the only Jewish people in what felt like the entire country. It was really nice to speak in English and hear about all of his great experiences and thoughts on Loma Bonita.

We then went to Sarahs host familys house to see some giant rodents, which seem to be a big attraction in the tiny town. Then we had another intensely narrow and steep hike down to the river! Where we got to swim in a pool next to a waterfall! So lovely. Afterwards we visited Jennifers house, where they had a trapiche! A giant sugar cane press. They twisted sugar cane and put it through large rolling wooden cylinders, powered by pushing big wooden logs on the outside in order to press the juice out of the sugar cane. It reminded me of a giant wooden may pole. the juice fell in a giant bucket and we all got a glass of the incredibly sweet green juice. que rico! we went back to the school for dinner, and afterwards all of the host families gathered at the school for tamborita dancing! The 6 girl students in my group got to wear pollera, the Panamanian traditional dresses! the host mothers dressed us all up, it was so incredibly lovely. we all sat in a classroom, lit by electricity from solar panels—- a project that had been set up at the school by a graduate student and former SIT participant! the solar panels give electricity for lights, fans, and televisions to the school. We had a really lovely final service, where we all shared a sentiment about our experiences with our families and thanked everyone for their incredible hospitality and warmth. They presented us each with little wooden guitars as a gift! A few girls sang beautiful songs with guitar accompaniment, and then older men came out with drums and guitars to play their traditional tamborita music! We all got up to dance and tried to mimic what they were doing, but obviously I had little luck. I just danced and twirled my long skirt of the pollera around like I knew what I was doing! After an intense 5 songs of dancing I took out my headlamp and walked up the mountain back to our house.

I really did not want to leave my beautiful home in Loma Bonita this morning. Partly because I will miss the friendly people, way of life, and beautiful scenery, but also because we had to walk down the mountain with all of our stuff. My host father was a traditional gentleman and carried my heavier duffel bag, and Laco, my favorite neighbor, brought a horse! I was so happy and excited sitting riding the horse down the mountain and giggling at Nathan and Alejandro sweating during their hike alongside me. About three quarters through our walk a neighbor swooped us in a pick up truck. I also forgot to mention that Alejandro brought a Barney piñata from the city to the rural town, hiked it all the way up the mountain sunday, and down this morning. He still has purple and green dye on his arms from sweating profusely and carrying it the whole time.

What a way to end this beautiful and peaceful stay. I really saw how happy these people were because success is defined differently than in the culture I am familiar with. In the US, success is about living comfortably, having a career you enjoy, and resources to support yourself. In Loma Bonita, success is family, community, beautiful mountains and stars, and a good harvest. Although they may be poor by definition, it seems like people in Loma Bonita love where they live, their families, their neighbors, and are so happy to share their way of life with us, and I am so happy I got to experience it.

Our Spanish teachers made our whole group sing this song, and it has been in all of our heads ever since! Ojalá que llueva café en el campo!