Site Placement and Tech & Culture Week

It's that time again: Another mind-bending blog entry by Franco. First of all, I would like to apologize to all my loyal readers (mi madre, especially) for the lull that has transpired over the last several weeks. You see I suffer from acute laziness disorder which when coupled with the fact that the nearest internet station is a 30 mins bus ride away mixed in with the fact that I have to sit my buttocks down and actually write something can lead to a nice hiatus between blogs.
Enough gobbly-gook, as it were. Let me dive in because i have 15 mins left on this blasted contraption and much to inform you's guys. First, we had something called site placement. We were all rounded up and sat down inthis nice room with a huge map of Panama. Then we were all called one by one and given a sticky picture of ourselves to (for the lack of a better word) stick on the appropriate place on the map. You see, this was all heart-wrenching because it would be the community we wouldhave to live in for the next two years and everyone was going ape-shit on the inside. For weeks, we were all speculating where we would be placed and "hey, i heard so and so is going there... good, because i sure as hell don't want to" or "nah, he's not going there cos he's got asthma... i heard from so and so that our tech trainer said that dude was going to a warm place near the ocean". shit likethat.... and for weeks. So, it was a relief to finally know where we were all going but at the same time everybody wanted the perfect site. I got the region of the Panama that I wanted. I was born for it. It is in the Herrera Province (wikipedia it). It's pretty much the wild, wild west. I am excited and my buddy, Pete is only a one hour walk from me (that's very close in Peace Corps distances) which is great because this man's skill with a nail and hammer would make bob villa construct the gallows then procede to hang himself.
ok, i am being pressured so we will jump to the next topic: Tech and Culture week. We left our host family in santa clara about two weeks ago. the first week was with our sector (mine is environmental health for all of you bad friends who don't remember) where we went to cerro iglesias in the comarca ngobe - bugle. Jake was sick and had butt and mouth pee the whole time, by the way (like always). Comarca means reservation, if you didn't know already. We stayed with the ngobe's and built compost latrines (which are tough and rewarding) for various families. They helped also. We then educated them on how it works and why it's better then than a pit latrine or shitting in the woods/river. Read my second blog if you don't know why either.
Let me stress that i am very excited to be going to herrera (in the azuero peninsula) for my peace corps service. I could have been in a comarca which would have been nice in its own way but it is definetely not for me. They are introverted and eat boiled bananas andsuch (out of necessity of course) and that weeks was tough but beautiful. Shit, only two mins. ok, then i went to the azuero peninsula with those of us who are going to be placed there for 2 years (5 of us) and it was really nice. it was in the mountains which had fresco weather and great food. the people were really nice and warm. i am excited about my site because it was only a 2 hour walk from where we were. ok, gotta go. will add more late. pictures at some other point.
suerte.