well, here i am again. life seems to be much easier here, and the internet much faster and accesible, but that wont be for long. tommorrow i am going on a two week trip into the heart of the comarca ngobe-bugle, it is going to be quite a trip from what i understand. there is a group of six of us that are going on this training, we are going to a place called nutivi. We have to go to the laguna in the western province of bocas del toro and take a lancha (boat) across the laguna and then up a river with class three rapids. the river ride will last about two and a half hours and i have heard that it is a pretty wild ride, so i am looking forward to that. we will be staying with a village of ngobe indians and will be studying their culture. that includes living with a family and learning ngobere (thier language), fortunately i have been studying ngobere since i arrived so i have a pretty good grasp on how it works. but i am the only one in the group that has been learning ngobe, the other guy that was in my class (the native spanish speaker) that an indigenous language wasnt for him and asked for a latino site, so now he just does community projects. everyone else has been working on spanish but yesterday a few of the people tested out of spanish and joined me in the ngobe class. i was really lucky to have three weeks of one on one classes, but now there are five other people in my class, which is a bummer. ngobe is fairly similar to bangla as i mentioned before so i am picking it up pretty quick, but now i have to go put it into practice in the village setting which wont be a cake walk. i feel kind of bad for the people that have only had two days of classes because it is going to be really difficult to communicate, the spanish of the ngobes is really poor so it is difficult to understand. anyways i guess we will see soon enough.
i am really excited about my site, i will be living in a tropical paradise only accessible by boat (three hours). the community is really small and lobster is one of the most common dishes there, i know it sounds pretty rough. hammocks, crystal clear water, coral reefs, dolphins, ceviche, palm trees, houses on stilts, cliff lined coves and me enjoying every second. once i get my house built i will be open for visitors, but beware there is no electricity nor plumbing, so it is not for the tourist, more for those who have adventure in their blood. or better yet, those who just want to escape from the world and disappear for a while into an undiscovered paradise. but it will be a couple months before anyone can come visit me, but for those that want to it will not be a waste of time or money.
anyways enough of that, so all is well in this tranquilo country which is nice but not so great. i miss the excitement of living in bangladesh, there is nothing like it. although it was dangerous and one big circus living in bangladesh i grew an affinity for it. i will always appreciate what i experienced and learned there, it is by far and away the best thing that has ever happened to me, which is easy to say now that it is over. maybe i can find something wild to do here, like take a boat up class three rapids to a secluded indian village ;)
well i guess that is all for now, i will post pictures of my trip when i get back, which should be about two weeks from now so stay tuned even though there will be a gap in my posting.
signing of from a place where i can count the # of degrees off the equator on both hands.
panama jack