Things
are going well in Cerro Gallina. My first community-wide meeting didn't go very
well, as I invited 37 families and only seven people showed up, but the second
one went much better. I had at least 20 people there! I also provided a whole cubo
of cacao, which was gulped down quickly. My community wants to meet with me
every three weeks, something that they suggested and I was really impressed
with! Next meeting is on November 8th. I had somewhat of a wakeup
call last Saturday, when during a cacao session a bunch of people called me out
on my slow progress in Ngäbere. I realized that even though I've been studying my Ngäbere manual, I haven't been putting 100% into my
speaking. So now I'm working on throwing in whatever phrases I know into
conversation when possible. People seem to appreciate it!
She has strange colored eyes, skin,
and hair, wears weird Jesus sandals, loves dumping hot sauce on her food and drinking coffee WITHOUT sugar, and
lets cats fall asleep in her lap. What kind of odd human being were we ''lucky'' enough to receive?!
I
have no shortage of time to wonder what my community thinks about me...
But
overall, I am feeling good. Muy buena gente here in Gallina. I've been invited to late night cacao drinking sessions, juntas (communal work
days), birthday parties, and a lot of people have asked me about potential
projects. It's still early to tell, but there are at least five
different groups of families spread out throughout the community that have
expressed interest in my help with aqueducts. So it looks like I have WORK
ahead of me! Next week I suppose I am starting some official WASH work, as I volunteered Zach and I to spend a day giving handwashing seminars to the entire
elementary school in Cerro Mesa. I have yet to plan it (shhh) but I love
working with kids so I can't wait!
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Panama? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Panama in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez