Here are a few pretty rediculous pictures that were taken and sent to me throughout training, i thought that i would share them with you all. The one on the left is our going away party in Santa Clara, it was really fun. One of the families through us this party, it was pretty much our last day in the training site.

The next picture that you see is pretty silly but i thought that i would post it none the less. It is in the early stages of the "Tom Selleck Challenge." It was actually my idea, which i was proud of. In the end there were several participants that dropped out due to the feeling of "sleeziness," I dont know where that came from.......The picture with the parrot is out on the pacific coast a couple of weeks ago at the beginning of the challenge.


The last one is the final stage of the challeng and the remaining participants. Everyone got a big kick out of the whole deal including myself. From left to right: Brandon, Ryu, Myself, Colin, Joe and Kevin. The winner was based on sleeziness and rediculousness, the conclusion that we came to was that we all looked pretty damn sleezy but either the guy on the far left or the japanese guy won the challenge. You can decide for yourself.
Anyways I thought you all might enjoy these pictures, more to come in the coming days.
Panama Jack

Well I have done it, i swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.....again. It was nice to end training.....again, but now it is over and all that boring stuff is behind me. Now I can go out to my site and start working......again. I am really excited about getting back into the Peace Corps life, when we are in training life is very regimented (if that is the right word) and most of the days are filled with activities even if they are extremely reduntant. Actually it reminds me of college, if you can jump through the hoops then you will make it. Well anyways I am happy that i can now do what I came here to do.
Swearing in was really fun, we had it at the Panama Canal Museum which is a nice place. It is located in the old part of the city, it really reminded me of Buenos Aires all of the colorful buildings. Afterwards we went to our program managers house (my boss so to speak), it was just us the Enviromental Health group, there are sixteen of us. There are more like thirty in the group but the other half are business volunteers. His house is really nice, it is downtown in a high rise. He is a former volunteer from El Salvador, so he is loving life here in panama. Anyways, we all made dinner together, burritos that is. You never realize how much you love Mexican food until you cant have it for more than a month or two. After that we went out for a night on the city, let me tell you they know how to do it down here. There is a reason they call this place the Miami of Latin America. So we had a good time and met up the other volunteer that are currently serving in country.
So now we are going on our honeymoon so to speak. We have a bunch of really nice cabanas reserved on the Pacific Coast to the west. So we will be staying on the beach for the next couple of days, but that really doesnt matter for me because I live on the coast now! I guess it will be a little different because i will be on the pacific coast which has other things to offer than the carribean. Isnt that kind of cool, I can spend consecutive weekends on two different oceans, the carribean and the pacific, i am not sure that it gets much better than this. I guess i have already down it twice since i have been down here, but it is not something that gets old very quick.
That is pretty much it from here, life is good and i really cant ask for much more (except for maybe a pair of Chaco sandals). Anyways hope all is well back in the states, i will be posting again in a week or two so stay tuned, next time i should have some pictures from swearing in as well as my site.
Hatwyaita Mroko (Ngabere for goodbye y'all)
Panama Jack

This is another picture of my site, i thought it captured the sunset well. It looks like this just about everynight, ahhh what a relaxing atmoshpere, no matter how hard i work during the day i will be able to relax to this at night.








I took this picture last night, this is my host family. We are giving our families gifts when we leave, so a few of us thought it would be nice to give our families pictures of us together. Anyways I thought it was a nice picture.

So this is my first posting after visiting my new site, my what a beautiful place it is. As you can see by the pictures it is on the ocean, i mean right on the ocean, my host family lives about twenty feet from the water. The really dark picture with the purplish sunset is from the kitchen window of the house i am staying in. The people are really friendly and ready to start working. But for the time being they are very interested in sharing their way of life with me. The are convinced that i must master ngobere (the language), i also must be a very strong kayaker. they are providing one for me so i can fish and go snorkeling. I actually suprised them when i proved able to do both fairly efficiently. We went fishing out on the open water (the ocean) in a small dugout canoe, i caught eleven fish as opposed to his twenty five, but i figured that was a good start.
That night we had a fish fry and all ate together, it was really cool to go out get your food and then prepare it that night. We also went up to the finca (farm) to pick vegtables and fruit to go along with the fish, it was one of the most healthy meals i have eaten in a long time.
I have also been officially named, which will stick for the next two years; Tuchi (pronounced "toochi"). It means little teeth, but it actually comes from an old man that has since left the village, the felt as though i was going replenish the wiseness of the village, little do they know. I have to admit i really love the place, they are some of the most kind people i have met in a long time, i cant even begin to explain how lucky i am. they took me on a hike through the rain forest, it was really amazing. we hiked for about an hour more or less, traversing through the mud and trees and foliage. when the trail finally began to drop out of the mountians we crossed a small stream and all the brush fell away, we had a arrived to a small deserted white sand beach with crystal clear water flanked on both sides by coral and islands scattered about one hundred yards off shore. i couldnt believe my eyes, it was on of the most beautiful places i have ever seen in my life, and it is only an hour walk from my house. i might be the luckiest volunteer in the peace corps.
This picture is the view that my house will have, the house that has yet to be built but is just
around the corner. it is on the side of the mountian above the village, they picked it out for me. It is absolutely incredible, as may be obvious from the picture. there are people that would pay big bucks to wake up to this view of the carribben in the morning, and here i am enjoying it and everything else for next to nothing, only a couple years of my young adult life. i wouldnt trade it for the world. Anyways there is more but i cant even begin to explain it, it is just one of those things that you have to see for yourself. I will write more when i get back to Panama City and have more time.

Take care and wooooooooooo piiiiiiiig soooooieeeeee, i leave town and we win, oh sweet irony.
Signing off,
Panama Jack, aka Tuchi