I am a machete slashing soccer mom.

I spent this morning and yesterday doing what is probably my favorite activity in all of Panama (among many other favorite activities) - slashing the crap out of a the jungle with my machete. We call this activity limpiaring (or cleaning) and given that I live in the jungle and plants grow at ridiculously fast rates, every few weeks farmers need to sharpen their machetes and wage war with the weedy plants and trees on their farms, slashing everything but their crops. It makes me feel so badass.

In contrast, my other latest and greatest activity in the community has been to accept the role of "madrina" for the teen boys baseball team, which can be roughly translated to "soccer mom". This means that every Saturday I accompany the team to their game and make sure they have juice and snacks and shout encouraging words. I am so dead serious about this. I guess I must now consider the possibilty of buying a sporty SUV. (although my community does like to joke with me that part of my role as a madrina is to buy the team a bus, the funny part is that they are not reaaaally joking.)

In addition to the limpiaring and new role as madrina, I am finding many other delightful ways to pass time here.

1. I got a new cat. My neighbor children named her Gafi (full name: Gafiela). She looks like a small panther and she likes to alternate between killing things and cuddling with me. see photo below of an exceptionally cute girl holding my exceptionally cute cat.


2. My volleyball skills are improving considerably.

3. It is pretty fun living in a town where you are everybody´s favorite shiny new toy. I know that eventually I will head into loved-and-cherished-but-not-so-exciting teddy bear status, so I am enjoying the excitement my newness generates for the moment.

4. My cooking skills are in high demand. So far I have made pizza and brownies, both well recieved - though both hard to split 30 ways (once word gets out, everyone wants a piece).

5. There are many fun new jungle creatures and bugs to see all the time.
As a matter of fact, while waiting for the bus today there were two sloths in the tree next to the bus stop. Also, last week my friend Jorge (nickname: chucky - after the diabolically doll) invited me over for a suprise. He had killed two beautiful jungle cats and we posed for lots of pictures. You might notice that in this photo I am smiling, but really i am crying a bit on the inside.




6. The kitchen in my host families house has a really rad view, out into their plaintain trees. We cook all meals over a fogon (or fire) which feels a bit like camping every day. Here is same cute girl, in my kitchen.


7. I am having a lot of fun teaching English class. Yesterday I taught the song "Are you sleeping brother john?" and had three groups sing it in a hilariously performed round. It was a site to behold.

As you might can tell, things are improving by the day here. In fact, I am trying to keep myself from getting too caught up in how delightful I think my little jungle paradise is, though for the moment I feel like one lucky volunteer.