A bit of humorous complaining

Ahhhhh, my apologies for skipping a week of writing.  I have been very busy, working at the school, selling yogurt, teaching English, playing with kids, gardening, building a chicken coop, and teaching drunk men to country line dance (the story is below).  What else, with the change in temperature and rain fall has come a large amount of insects and snakes.  I bought a anti venom for vipers the other day, just in case and am very excited NOT to use it!  Also bought a mosquito net that is coated in DEET, and am going through a tube of hydrocortison cream a week.  Fun!  My legs look like they have the chicken pox and I am in constant war with my chancleta (flip flop) and the little varmints that invade every evening at dusk.  Any happy with my new purchases and keeping positive that although the bugs are HUGE the majority aren't dangerous and I can take em'!  One more piece of bad news, my external hard drive is broken, which means I have lost all of my pictures :( and I am heart broken.  But there will be many more to come, just have to buy another memory and hope it survives the humidity here. I am learning not to sweat the small stuff and not feel sorry for myself that my piece of equipment is broken, I have to remember that many of these people fight every day to put food on the table, and I shouldn't value material wealth as much as I do.  Yes, a work in progress...

On a lighter note, I am still having a good time.  Labor day here was last Monday and in celebration of not having to work my host dad/brother/man in my house (30 years old) and his friends wanted to teach me how to "cook" (which means fry meat and boil pasta) and dance!  I embraced the day and the meal and enjoyed watching them get drunk and take turns teaching me traditional Panamanian dances.  After the meal, and their 4 more shots of Seco they asked me to teach them traditional American dances.  Mmmmmmmm!  I thought, I am not about to break out the Dougie, so instead I taught them the classics, the sprinkler, shopping cart and thanks to 4th grade PE, country line dancing!  It was a hoot!  I dug out my secret country stash on the ipod and broke it down to boot scootin' boogie!  Miss B. would be so proud!  They all liked it a lot, and now when any of them see me in the pueblo they make sure to slap their leather (sole of their shoe).
Although I am having a tough time with the bugs, I am making more friends my own age more or less (although my best friend is 14).  I move into my house in June and I look forward to a little more privacy, but mostly to cook for myself.  My new favorite food is raw green mango with salt and vinegar, it´s awesome!

The yogurt business is going good, and we sell at the touristy/ex pat farmers market, so once a week I get to buy good organic produce and speak a little English, although I spend 6 hours on the bus to get there an back I really do enjoy it.

The school garden is coming along slowly and they have asked me if I would be interested in building a chicken coop and working with families of children with disabilities to maintain it and raise chickens to sell for wheel chairs, hearing aides, and other needs of these students.  So I added that on my list and in my schedule and am liking the physical labor as long as its not mid day when the sun can melt a sneaker.

Since I lost my photos and haven't any new ones, I will leave you with this: