Noticias de febrero

Hello, everybody! We're still having summer down here, with lots of sun and no rain, and we've been swimming a few times recently (above). It's hot during the day, but the lack of humidity makes for cool evenings like the best ones we get in New York/New England summers. We don't look forward to the return of muggy, rainy days in a month or so. In the meantime, cutting cane in our community remains a 24/7 job. And they're getting ready to celebrate the feast of our patron saint, Juan de Dios. Every town goes all out for these fiestas, or patronales, with processions, dances, and house decorations.

We just got back from a week of in-service training in the province of Cocle, where we were able to go swimming in the Pacific. Perfect water! They have us stay for these things at a government conference center run by the ministry of environmental protection. It's about an hour's walk from a public beach and there are dorms and a cafeteria. It was great to see our pals, including some we hadn't seen since training. We had whole days of Spanish classes, technical seminars and meetings with Peace Corps officials. They were all very good, especially the sessions led by current volunteers on organic gardens, latrine building and working with the health ministry (which handles water systems).

Thursday, when it was all done, we went to Chitre, a pretty little city on the way home. Matt and some pals went to a baseball game between the provinces of Herrera and Veraguas (the visitors from our neck of the woods). Each province has a pro team that plays a 40-game schedule in the summer. The talent level is pretty good, and we saw some nice plays and OK pitching. It was just about soldout and the fans go crazy, screaming and waving flags and jumping up and down for every little play. The Indios, our team, had fans and a brass band filling one whole section. The Brujas (Witches) of Herrera, a superior team, won. It was a really great vibe! And they sell 60-cent beers and Panamanian treats like fried dough. Baseball is #1 here, and our host family watches every televised game, so it was really cool to see it all.

Speaking of our hosts, we're scheduled to move into our own house March 1. We can't wait to have our own space and cook our own food, but we'll miss these folks because they've been very good to us. We're set to live in a tiny block house with 2 rooms and a porch area where they cook and clean. It's got plenty of shade, which is good for now but could get pretty dark once it starts raining every day. While living here for 3 months or so, we'll be renovating the house we're planning to live in for the remainder of our service. Thankfully, many people have offered to help out.

Before signing off and writing some captions for these photos, we want to send our best wishes to everyone in Burlington, especially Christine and Andrew and Mim and Ed. You're in our prayers, of course, and we're anxious to see you all in July. God bless!

Matt relaxed by the river recently. A group of families took a pickup ride about a half-hour out of town to get to the swim spot. People catch shrimp in these waters with hoop-shaped nets.

Lisa and the son of the truck driver and our pal Lilia (in a Veraguas baseball hat) rode in the back of the truck with Matt.

This is a shot from the recent baseball tournament hosted by our Ecoclub. We had 5 teams, including 3 from our town and 2 from the big city, Santiago (they had the catcher's gear). About 100 people were out for the day, and it was a lot of fun to see. Our host brother, Alejandro, was the umpire. We were really proud of the kids for putting it together. Getting more organized sports up and running is one of our big goals.

These Ecoclub members sold juice (chicha), fried dough, and little white rolls with this orange mayo that everyone eats here.

With our volunteer friend Shawn from New Mexico, we walked 20 miles from our town to a town near Santiago on a pilgrimage honoring Jesus Nazareno. It's the biggest pilgrimage in the country, and people walk to this town from all over Panama the first week of Lent. It took us 5.5 hours, and we were totally wiped out for a while after. Matt still has blisters on his feet. There were thousands of people, and they said Mass all day and all night as the walkers and busloads of city residents came streaming in. It's been really great to participate in all of these Panamanian traditions. We are very lucky!