Drum Roll, Please!

"Calobre is a serene mountainous region most famous for its coffee and sweet watermelons. The town of Calobre itself is a nice little developing town where everyone knows your name and it makes you feel like family. After getting to know the bustling streets and lowland heat of Santiago, head up the mountain highway past Calobre, where you´ll find cooler temperatures and a serene lake surrounded by pine forests and mist shrouded peaks in La Reserva Forestal La Yeguada."

I AM GOING TO VERAGUAS!!! My community is called El Alto, part of Calobre (as described above!) in the province of Veraguas. Ready for a description of my site? Cool:

"El Alto is a sector of the community of Calobre. Calobre is a Latino community of about 856 people. Your community is defined as El Alto because Grupo Emmanuel, the group of female farmers that requested a volunteer, have collective farm in El Alto where the main work is. El Alto, Buena Vista, Manzanillo and Laguna are marginal sectors that do not have electricity in the majority of houses. The people in El Alto are welcoming and friendly!
The main agricultural activities are the production of chicken and pigs to sell. They are sold in the town of Calobre. Grupo Emmanuel is producing organic fertilizer, bocachi, as a group activity, as well as working on chicken projects. The group wants to increase their chicken production and start pig projects. To do this, they need to install an irrigation system in their collective farm. (YES!) For subsistence, they produce corn, beans, rice, platano (YES!), yuca, among other crops and fruits.

Your potential work includes: facilitating the improvement of the Grupo Emmanuel chicken projects and organic fertilizer projects, facilitate analysis and decision making on the options for an irrigation system that is needed, facilitate and work with Grupo Emmanuel to implement sustainable pig projects, work with the Granja Sostenible on their chicken projects and the traditional crops projects, as well as overall SAS support, i.e. soil conservation, crop rotations, integrated pest management, etc, and teaching English classes.

You are going to be the first volunteer in El Alto. People are looking forward to working with you!"

I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!!!!!!!!!!

YES! Amazing location. Centrally located in Panama, close to the Caribbean, close to Cocle, close to Colon, Herrera, the Azuero, Comarca, Chiriqui, relatively easy to get to, awesome projects, loads of community groups in a small community of just over 100 people, animals all over...I could go on...I am so excited.

:)

Tech week was pretty cool. We were in Veraguas, but on an agricultural high school campus, so not much of the province was actually seen. (soon...very soon!) Learned a lot on rice tanks, fish tanks, goats, cows, chickents, pigs, tree grafting, pasture management, water systems, etc etc. Visited Santa Clara beach in Cocle on our way back to the training community, and that was beautiful. I will add photos of the trip next time, don't you worry!

eeee!!! El Alto! (the stop...or the tall? either way, I LIKE IT!!!)