This may or may not have been the best two and a half months of my life... but signs are pointing to yes.

Training has been officially over now for three days. And it has been a hell of a three days. We left Ciudad de Saber Wednesday morning and said goodbye to most of the people that we had almost gotton to know as family over the last two and a half months. It was difficult leaving my host family in Nuevo, but I have a feeling I´ll be seeing them again. After having been in the equivilant of cultural boot camp for two and a half months it is very strange to all of a sudden have the freedom to manage your own time.





















A group of us went to Las Lajas on the Pacific Coast for a couple days of R n R. It was incredible to get away and get silly for a couple of days with ten of our closest friends. Germany beat Argentina this morning in a HUGE way - pulling out a 4-0 victory.

It took me a little bit longer to get back from the beach than I thought. I missed the last transport out of Chitre by about 3 minutes and will be staying at a hotel with John (who also missed his transport) for the night. First thing in the morning its back to the terminal and off to Esquiguita. I felt bad for John the first night at Las Lajas. He had to misfortune of being the last to call it a night and wound up sleeping on a couple of chairs on the front porch. We now know better. You can rent a hammock on the beach for $4 per night.



Its very interesting to feel so at home here now. Its awesome. Kayla - a PCV that extended a couple of months past her close of service date to finish the CEC project overview manual (and the one in the pink in this photo) - was just offered a job with Panama Hire, the contractor that the federal government hires to staff most of the positions in the PC office in Panama City. (Interestingly only like 6 of the 40 some odd staffers in the office are Fed employees.) I don´t know what her final decision was but it was impressionante to see her internal conflict.

I´ve probably already said enough about office stuff. I really can´t wait to get to my site tomorrow and start limpiaring. With the new rubber boots I baught nothing (mud, scorpions, snakes) will stand between me and the bananas/yucca jaja. I´m also looking foreward to really starting my community and environmental analyses in ernest, then In Service Training in November with everybody from the old Hood. But first - its time to make a whole lot of new friends.

Out of the fire and into the frying pan - here I come world!