I've been pasear-ing to different places this past week. Being away more than usual has made it a little easier to bear with still living with a host family, even though I technically could move out any time now. If only there was a house ready to move into...

Wednesday I had the opportunity to go on a trip to the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle. The comarcas are areas independently goverened by the indigenous tribes of Panama. The poverty level is greater in these areas, however the beauty is astounding. The Ngöbe and Bugle tribes were two independent tribes that combined to rule the area just north of the province of Chiriquì. I went with a group from the national environmental authority, ANAM, to observe and assist with a day-long training of new ANAM volunteers from the Comarca. The day was interesting and inspiring, meeting many people living in poor conditions, yet were motivated and excited about developing more environmentally sustainable ways to live. For example, traditional farming in Panama involves a lot of slash-and-burn agriculture methods, and in the Comarca the burning is relatively uncontrolled, sometimes spreading to virgin rainforests as well as polluting the air with thick smoke. The farmers of the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle are interested in learning about other ways to farm, such as making organic fertilizer, and investing in reforestation projects.

A lot of work goes into a cup of coffee, as I found out on Friday I went to visit a friend's site to help with a small coffee harvest and roasting. Coffee is abundant in the mountains of Chiriquì, where some of the best coffee in the world is grown, some of which has been sold for over $50 a pound. My friend and I hiked around the gorgeous coffee fincas in a valley of Volcan Baru, many of which use sustainable shade-growing techniques, and some of which are organic certified. After the hike, we headed to tostar some green coffee beans. The beans are red when on the tree, and are first dried for about at week in the sun, and then de-shelled using either a traditional mortar and pestle method, or on a larger scale, taken to a coffee processing plant. We were roasting a small batch for a local family, so I worked to smash the dry beans, removing the husk but keeping the green beans whole. The husked were then separated completely from the beans by shaking the mixture on a flat board before picking away husk remnants. Finally, the beans were roasted in a large pan over an open flame for about two hours, being stirred constantly, until they were roasted an even, oily black. I drank a lot of very fresh coffee during that trip.

A couple nights ago my friend came to visit, and we spent a night patrolling the beach, looking for nesting sea turtles. The search was unsuccessful, but there will be other attempts! Today I'm heading to a Halloween party in Santiago, a town about half way to Panama City, before going to the city itslef for a few days. Maybe my house will be ready to move into when I return to my site this weekend!

No big surprise, the expansion of the Panama Canal passed with almost 80% approval.

Today Panamanians vote on the future of the Panama Canal. The expansion will most certainly go through...read the speculations:

Read articles from:

• The Scoop

• La Prensa

• BBC News

In other news, a small article was written in the national newspaper La Prensa about the sea turtle releases at my site, La Barqueta. I was interviewed, and they spelled my name horribly wrong, but if you can read Spanish, it's a good summary.

I can't leave the house without getting my feet dirty. There is earth everywhere. Not imported, transplanted, water-sucking lawns, but dirt: dusty, muddy, dirtying. It gets on my clothes and doesn´t come out. It becomes caked on my sandaled toes, to be brushed off before entering the city landscape, where only manufactured gasoline-exhaust dust is socially acceptable.

Around my house grow trees and plants that from this same dirt that produce edible items ranging from the mundane root vegetable to sweet, juicy, tropical fruits. Stores do exist for luxury items like milk and the oil that my host abuelita uses to fry everything in sight. I tend to seek out the grocery stores more often than the locals, not quite weaned off of their abundant wealth of imported choices. I enjoy feeling an attachment to the earth, and I am truly excited to begin an organic garden, compost pile and composting latrine when I move into my own little place.

There are endless ways to become re-attached to your own parcel of the planet:

1. "Live Consciously, Buy Wisely, Make a Difference" - Check out the New American Dream.
This is a comprehensive site of ways to "green" your life. Save fuel resources by buying from local merchants (find your closest stores and markets with this map!). Turn the Tide by making nine simple lifestyle changes, including replacing one car trip a week with an alternate mode of transport.

2. Don't know any alternate transport methods? Find them and become an advocate for public transportation. It will not only contribute to the health of the environment, but an improved tranport system can improve your own health as well. If you can't get there by public transport, think about carpooling or ridesharing. Of course, there's always walking or biking, if you are lucky enough to live in such a place where such things are possible without risking your life. If there are no sidewalks, form a group to lobby for better walking conditions!

3. Turn waste into yummy foodstuffs. Fancy bins aren't neccessary to compost organic wastes, and there's even indoor non-smelly wormbox methods if you don't have space for a pile. No better organic fertilizer to be found (except maybe the future compost from my sawdust bucket toilet that will most definitely make for some extra-juicy tomatoes next year).

These are just a few options to quench that Earth-Zen craving you didn't even know you had. There are a world of ways to break those Wal-Mart Superstore-inspired habits, even inside the confines of the ultra-comfy cushions of the American consumer society. Be inspired by the dirt.

Querida the talking parrot was there to greet me with a loud squawk upon my return from Panama City last week. My host abuelita asked me if I was going to buy a parrot when I move to my own place next month. She is very concerned about my living alone and lejos, even though the house is just around the corner. I have developed a certain attachment to the bird, and will be back to visit and converse with it once the move is made. For now, I´m waiting for the owner of the house to return from his work on a nearby island so he can begin finishing the place. Right now it has no sink, shower, latrina...virtually nada.

I was comforted by the parrot´s greeting after an exhausting week in the city...a nice welcome back to the tranquilo lifestyle in the campo. I made the 14-hour round trip bus ride with intentions of getting a little work done in the office headquarters, and seeing some friends that were in town for a conference. Both of these goals were accomplished, but the change of lifestyle from 9pm bedtime to going out with friends in the American-esqe cuidad left me without much energy for our regional meeting in the mountain town of Boquete. Nonetheless, the meeting went well, and I was encouraged by meeting some of the veteran volunteers. The director of the entire Panama program came to my site the next day, and I may have been deliriously tired. Remembering the day arrives to my mind in snapshots, like a dream, one of which is the parrot singing his greeting to me as I stumbled in the door, forgetting to pay the taxi driver in my excited and tired state. What amazes me as I reflect on this day is that arriving to my host family`s house after almost a week away actually felt like coming home.