Okay. In Panama City, writing from the lobby of the Hostal Amador. We landed in fading light and as we came down we passed right over the Bridge of the Americas, one of the items on my "to see" list. We dined at the same place we did when we flew in, Nikos Cafeteria. It really is a walk-down-the-line style cafeteria. Then on to the hostal and we are now taking turns on the shower. The bed feels heavenly and for about 20 minutes the room was very quiet as everyone was absorbed in private thoughts or texting. The occasional chuckle, weather reports and such.
I want to share with you all the sheer size and scope of what my crew has done. They have been on this project of over three years now. This is their fourth trip. They have previously assessed the problem in this community, designed a solution at a distance of 4000 miles, planned and implemented a $15 000 dollar construction project in a foreign country under extremely challenging working and living conditions and done it all on schedule. On top of this, at the mentorship level there was a last change of personnel with Scott and I replacing David, Alex and Chip less than 6 weeks before departure date. This is nothing short of stunning. My hats off to Jesse as project lead, Tom who did all the travel arrangements, and Amber who maintained telephone contact via once-a-week phone calls to our host leader Ambrosio. Kyle's performance was masterful and leaves no doubt in my mind as to the amazing future of this talented guy. Even more, there was some skepticism by Ambrosio and the community at large as to whether we would actually implement the project. Well, my group delivered. Plain and simple.
Other stuff. More about cuisine. It occurred to me as we were flying back that the lack of electricity means no refrigeration. Yeah, so? You knew that. However recall that we were on an isolated island. The implication here is that any meat we had with a meal, such as chicken or fish, had been walking, clucking or swimming not to ling before it wound up on our plates. Talk about fresh!!!!
Next up - Project humor.
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