1st Month on Site

Hello!

I apologize for the long delay in blog posts. I´ve added some photos and captions to Picasa, which can be accessed here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Kevin.D.Orner/FirstMonthOnSite?feat=directlink

I´ve really enjoyed my time on site thus far. My community is situated within biking distance of the beach and is up in the hills a bit, so I can call back to my wonderful fiance and have a wonderful view at the same time! My house is without electricity, but has a water tap, pit latrine, and a bucket shower. The people here speak Spanish and the indiginous language Ngabere, so I´m working on two languages during my time here. They´ve even given me a Ngabere name: Idoli Gudubu (Idoli from Gudubu, the community name in Ngabere).

A normal day for me is waking up around 6:30am, showering, praying, reading the bible, having breakfast, and studying Ngabere. I´ve been attending the church and they gave me a spanish bible and daily reading material, which has been helpful to keep studying the bible and to expand my spanish vocabulary!

The days are spent between three communities, where I have been walking around visiting the families and talking to them about latrines, acueducts, and teaching them some english words. I´ve met with the communities to draw some community maps, which helps me understand how they see their own community and helps me find my way around as well. I am currently in the process of writing down their census data, history, stories past down from the older generations, daily activity schedules, and yearly schedules. I´m also giving some presentations on latrine use, how to address acueduct problems, and will be giving my first english class this upcoming weekend--should be exciting!

The evenings are usually spent having dinner with my host family and then playing dominoes, talking, calling my beautiful fiance, or reading a book. I´m in bed most nights by around 10pm or so--that´s late!

I really appreciate the kind messages of support, so keep them coming! Thanks for keeping in touch!

Kevin