Friday, January 16, 2009

Panama Verde

This is the Panama Verde group with the trash can that they built.  This is the first public trash can in the community.  They are learning about trash management and environmental conservation and I am learning along with them.  Imagine if you did not have trash pickup and you had to figure out how to manage your garbage without contaminating your yard or your farm or your drinking water.  Most people in the community burn their trash (which can be bad for their health and for the environment).  We used to burn ours too but now we are using a landfill system at our house.

Healthy little girl

This is a cute, healthy little girl.  Her mom said that she almost died when she was a baby because of a scorpion sting.  They hiked her out to the hospital.  

Lazy Monkey

This is a sloth with her baby in our back yard.  They are called lazy monkeys in Spanish.

Orchid Tour






We got invited to a house during Orchid season.  They had over 25 different types of orchids in bloom.  This is one of the families who is not connected to an aqueduct.  The mom hauls 5 gallon buckets of water up from the stream behind their house 3-5 times a day.

The picture of Lee and the kids was not posed.  Lee squats like that a lot.  I just turned around and the kids were right beside him doing the same thing.

Sunset



A pretty sunset from the hill in front of our house.  And some little purple bananas.

Harvesting Oranges


I spy a kid in a tree...

Hunters


The community was pretty excited when the cats made it onto the roof.  That meant that they were starting to become hunters.  Cats are prized for their mouse and rat hunting skills.  If a cat manages to stay alive until adulthood and can hunt people will ask to borrow the cat or buy the cat and some families even give them milk as a reward.