Recent Happenings in the Jungle

Hey everyone! Just wanted to give a little update on what has been going on lately. I have done my fair share of walking in the jungles of Panamá lately; once to evaluate a new water source and various other times to build roads for communties living in the interior. Protecting the jungles here is so important to maintaining a source of drinking water for the people here. The trees and other vegetation help to provide a continual source of clean water that cannot be found in the local streams and other surface waters here. So, one of the things the foundation here does is try to buy the land where there are good water sources so that no one will be able to go in and harvest the very large trees that can fetch a very good price. It is hard though, because many people choose to buy or sell land only for the purpose of taking the wood from it and many Europeans and Americans are buying up the land around here just for that reason. So, more and more foreigners are coming to plant and harvest teak, which is not a native species, which is causing a lot of problems with the environment here. And they are doing this under the context of ¨reforestation¨ which the Panamanian government is supporting. So, there is some corruption going on somewhere along the line. But, luckily there are groups here that are aware of the problem and hope to buy land in order to protect it. I understand there is a lot of greed in this world, but when I was walking through this one jungle the other day to find a good water source, I was stuck by its beauty and could not imagine how anyone could cut it down. There were trees with trunks and roots bigger than trucks and beautiful flowers, streams and also a good amout of wildlife. There were about 15 monkeys swinging from branches overhead as we laid pvc pipe to bring the water down the mountain; just wonderful.

Recently, due to many people asking me about learning English, I decided to start teaching an English class every Sunday. I only started the class two weeks ago. The first week there were six students, which I thought was a good number and very manageable. The second week there were over twenty. So, because I like to be busy, I decided to teach two classes every Sunday. One for adults and one for kids. I figured this would be better for me and for the students as well. I am already learning a lot just from teaching and am discovering what my teachers in the past have gone through to teach me. Sometimes I wonder if the student or teacher learns more. So, please keep me in your prayers on Sunday afternoons that I may be patient and clear.

As the battery that I am running this computer on slowly loses juice, I realize it is time for me to go. Thanks for reading and keep in touch!