El Valle...

Our camera stopped working. Life goes on, but the blog has suffered a bit. We’ve been at my Aunt and Uncle’s house for about 10 days now. They live in a town called El Valle, located in the crater of the world’s second largest extinct volcano. Given our love for nature and scenic spaces, we’re pretty content. Some people connect with nature, some people don’t. We do. (If you missed the post about our epic hike, check it out here.)

In the background of our town lies “la India Dormida”, “the Sleeping Indian”. It’s scary how much this actually does look a sleeping lady. You can sorta tell in this picture. Even the tree line makes up her flowing hair perfectly.

Since we’ve been here, we found a guy named Thomas who has an organic farm. We went the other day to help out for a few hours, and we plan on doing that at least once a week. We get lots of joy and fulfillment out of doing things like that. Maybe it’s the being outside, or being next to living, vibrant vegetables. He’s got some really creative stuff going on and we’re hoping to learn more (along with practicing Spanish).

One of my goals this year is to become proficient in Spanish. The other day I was trying to buy a 5 gallon tank of water, which turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I originally thought. One of the lady’s eventually asked me my name – “tu nombre?”. The word for name in Spanish is very similar to the English word “number”. And so thinking she was asking me for my telephone number, I replied, “no se (I don’t know)." They all busted out laughing at the guy who doesn’t know his name, and I quickly realized it and revised my answer. Like I said in a former post, having to learn a new language is like starting all over in life. I don’t even know my name apparently.

So, not being fluent in Spanish is sometimes awkward and uncomfortable (think of me playing charades, making hand motions, pausing for 10 seconds with a strained look to think of that stupid word I can’t remember while a Panamanian stares back confused). But doing things that make us uncomfortable seems to be a good discipline in our lives so far.

The other day we went to visit a house that we’re going to help finish for a family that is having to leave their present one. My Aunt and Uncle frequently host groups that come to Panama to help build houses, provide medical care, or do other service type activities. This group will be here in a couple weeks, and I’m sure Lynea and I will be helping where we can.

Us with Patrick in front of the Catholic Church building.

Con tia Lisa