The jungle isn't afraid anymore!

Well it's been a whirlwind of a past - what - 2 weeks?

In the valley last, we had a lot going on. The wind really came to basecamp, and at one point it tore off part of our tarp structure. We had to fix it the next morning, so everything was back to normal pretty quick. It was the only day that we had crazy weather - but let me tell you, being in the valley with a rainstorm was a little intimidating.

That same morning, the gate to our property got left open and the local campasinos (farmers) were herding their cows to another field. So the cows wandered in and were heading straight for the tents! They rallied the cows with their horses and all was good after about 30 minutes.

I was able to get some work done! Finally. Kylie, an outdoor rec intern, and I made table for herbs that she plans on planting for the valley. The table from concept to finished project:

Drawing of the table

The finished product!!

Another project that happened was something called a "Magic Circle". This thing is cool. You dig a pit of about 3 feet deep and around the pit you plant banana trees alternating with yuka plant (similar to potatoes). In the middle of the pit is where compost goes. Also in there you plant nitrogen rich plants to keep the soil enriched. Within 3 years the trees will be grown and you never have to turn the compost! So cool - so we tried it in the valley:

Kelsey and her Magic Circle

The design build team was commissioned to help out the Outreach team remodel a classroom in San Miguel. It was a plain concrete building that needed interior painting, tiling, and roof panels. We started by painting the inside. Some students were so excited - they wanted to help out so bad. Within 5 minutes, only the children were painting!

This may not be the safest way to paint...

And then we played baseball with the little kids. I captured a good moment where one girl ran over to the pitcher who fell on the ground and was pretending to hit him with the bat! Crazy kids.

Because it's Panama and we're young interns, there wasn't enough materials to finish the room - let alone just painting the walls. So we had to come back another day and work some more. The walls aren't square, so getting started was tough, but we got the room started and will hopefully finish it this week.

From this point on should be for non-family members only.....

On one of the trips out, the car got a little stuck. It wasn't raining, but the road has a lot of ditches, so it slipped into one. We ended up getting the car out pretty easily, but it was a sight to come up upon.

I'll leave you with that one! Welcome to Panama. And as we say here "Gotcha!"