School

Monday to Friday I go to school.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have English class.  Tuesday and Thursday Spanish and math.  Mrs. Del is the English teacher.  Mr. Hector  (with a silent H) is the Spanish teacher. Mom comes to school and helps on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.    
Me, Emi and Eon are the only third graders.

After School
After school, I have a snack and ride my bike home. I play after school.  Sometimes I go to Emi or Eon's house.  I  have to take a boat to Emi's house.  Eon's house is next to the school.  I like school!!

Ethnobotany!!

eth·no·bot·a·ny

ˌeTHnōˈbät(ə)nē/

noun

1. the scientific study of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses.

How cool is that!  Today, I was lucky enough to visit one of the local Ngobe tribes and learn about some of the medicinal plants that they use!  This was an amazing trip for me because it combined my love for plants, the rainforest, and indigenous people. The tour was organized by a woman who started  The Darklands Foundation, which benefits the native people by working to empower them.  We took a boat over to San Cristobal Island, briefly stopped in their village, and then took a sidewalk into the rainforest!  One of the women of the community, Veronica, led the way, stopping to show and teach us about some of the plants that they use for medicinal purposes.

 We learned so many things about the Ngobe culture in this short trip, like how significant the Cacao plant is to their culture, that they plant a species of sugar cane to honor their dead, and that the phases of the moon are very important to their customs.  We also, of course, learned about plants that they use for infection, stomach pain, fever, insect repellent, bruises, and more.  

After our hike through the jungle, we went back to the village and ate a specially prepared lunch of fish, chicken, coconut rice, yucca, and plantain served on wooden dishes.  I had the chicken, rice, and plantain, and it was all very good.   Following the meal, the women took us back to their "community center" to show us the process of making chácaras.  These are handwoven bags that the women make out of a plant related to the agave plant.  The process is VERY labor intensive, beginning with harvesting the leaves from the forest.  The leaves must be cut, edges trimmed of thorns (before they transport them back to the village),  and scraped so that the fibers can be pulled out.  Once the fibers come out, they must be dried for 5 days, then woven into rope, possibly dyed, and THEN they can start weaving the bags!  The process is amazing!  I bought a beautiful bag for $40.  They also showed us how they used some of the plants we harvested during our hike to dye the rope for the bags.  

 I am grateful to have had the opportunity to go on this amazing trip and to have met both some of the Ngobe women, and Mathilde Grande who is working so hard to support the indigenous communities of Bocas Del Toro.  

Of course, there is really so much more to what I learned on this trip.  Please follow some of the links I've included to find out more.  

Next week, I start volunteering at the kids' school!  Stay tuned to get the inside scoop! :)

First Week

Well, its been just over a week and a half since we left Vermont and we've officially experienced a full week of living here.  The kids started school last week and seem to be adjusting quite well.  They're making friends already and are getting into the routine.  Noah and I are also happy to be meeting people and families from the Tangerine School, but are still working on our routine. :)  This week has been quite lovely I confess, as we drop the kids off at school, then go enjoy a cup of coffee at a different location each morning.  Its been great.  Our caffeinated journey then takes us on errands for items for the house and meals before we head home to relax and settle in.  

Each day that we're here, I experience mixed emotions.  Sometimes I am in disbelief and thrilled with the realization that we did it!  We're here for a year and I am living my dream of spending a year abroad with my family!!!  Other moments, I experience fear.  Fear that we won't make it a year, fear that we'll come to dislike this beautiful place, fear that we won't be able to stay busy enough and will need to go home to get back to the rat-race, fear that something bad will happen,... But today, as we rode a boat over to Bastimentos for our daily walk and coffee, I again was reminded of the beauty and friendliness of this place.  I've loved it here since I first came in here in 2000.  Bocas isn't for everyone, but to me, it is magical.  

As part of our settling in this week, Sy and I got bicycles so we can ride to school together (and not have to wake up poor Miguel our Taxi driver....).  It's been lovely riding along the beach into town each morning.  We've been spoiling the kids, bringing them a fun snack for afterschool and stopping to play somewhere, before heading up the hill to Vista Linda.  

It'll be so interesting to see how we all evolve over the next year.  So far, so good!!

Island Wildlife! with SY

Armadillo-
Today I was walking out the door and saw  2 !!!!
FACTs- Armadillo is Spanish for little-armored thing. There are 20 different kinds.  The kind that we saw was a 9-banded armadillo. 

Sloth-We saw one from our window and another in a tree by the neighbors! There are both 2 and 3-toed sloths in Bocas. I think we saw the 3-toed sloths because 2 toed sloths are mostly nocturnal.  
FACTs- they live in the rainforest. Sloths are the worlds slowest animals. 

Walking stick-I saw one up close at the neighbors house.
FACTs-they eat at night so predators can't see them. They can shed a leg if an enemy grabs it.

Here is link to a site that names some of the mammals on Bocas.  I also used Pebblego.

Sy's perspective

We got on the overnight bus. It was about 11 hours long. We left at 8:00 and arrived at 7:00. Then we went to Taxi 25 and took a fast boat to Bocas del Toro and took a taxi to Vista Linda.I got a cool new purple Pok'emon. hat  at the bus station THANKS Vasanthi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dinner

on the boat

my new hat

at the bus station

How to Pack for a Year Abroad

If you think you will find the answer to that - How to Pack for a Year Abroad - I fooled you!!!😀  What a question!  Even trickier, how to do it in 6 suitcases, with 2 kids and 3 instruments!

Well, actually though, I think we did pretty good.  The majority of the work was in packing and cleaning up the ENTIRE house.   I would not have been able to do it without many weeks off and the super duper help of my friend Joy.  Together, (but Joy did WAY more than me) we cleaned every nook and surface around here from top to bottom!  She rocked it out with me.

There were weeks of cleaning, packing, donating, cleaning, packing, donating, ...... etc until each room only had left in it what I hoped to pack.  Then, it was more cleaning and sorting/prioritizing and packing up the things that I knew weren't reasonable or too important.  We leave in about 12 hours, and I think we still have 2 last minute bins out and open so that we can throw in the remainder of things that we can't bring with us.

Overall, we rocked it!  Got 3 bags packed last night each with every initial thing I wanted to put in them, so I had room to throw in some of the smaller, non-clothes items.  I was definitely psyched on my success.:)   They're pretty close to 45-50 lbs too!  Not a bad start, though its the end that's the hard part.  But I know we're gonna make it JUST by the skin of our teeth!  No doubt we will be a sight to see heading out in the morning! 

In the end,  we made it, with one small (huge) problem -- our luggage got soaked in the downpours at our ATL layover! 6 suitcases with all of our stuff for the year WET!  SOME of it is soaked, SOME partially, and SOME is untouched.  I'm too afraid-  and overwhelmed, to check it all. It's too big a pack job to undo, and we are catching a bus at 7 .  Fingers crossed that it's ok🤞.

We'

ll be to Bocas by tomorrow at this time.  Keep ya posted.  

For now, this is the scene.....