Chocolate, Bano Completion and Color

Freshly harvested cacao pods - autumn colors

Cacao (cocoa) beans, naturally fermenting

One of the lovely young
 ladies at the cultural session
 for the GB volunteers 

It's cacao harvest time in Ipeti. The fruit is beautiful, but the cocoa beans inside are the prize. The seeds here are fermenting and will later be dried and peeled. It takes the beans from about 5 fruit to refine into a single tablespoon of cocoa powder.Think about that next time you savor a chocolate treat.

25 Global Brigades volunteers returned to TOTALLY COMPLETE the 30 Bano units !!!! These college students really worked hard and fast to get everything done by lunch time, when the (light) rains started. They even had time to completely clean all the litter around the village. They were treated to some cultural education and dance by the ladies, young and old, of Ipeti.

Lots of future Peace Corps folks in the group.

Two bat houses completed - one for the big guys and another for my smaller friends. A couple of days to dry out (the pavey wood was wet) and air out and up they go. Now taking advance reservations.
The bottom lip is their landing pad.
In Panama 4 months now, with zero skeeter bites at the cottage.

More colorful crafts from the Kuna ladies of Ipeti.

 I will publish a "catalog" with prices for my friends in the US next month. The (non-profit) Goyo Import service.