Cacao, Mourning and TV

Raw blocks of  processed cacao (chocolate)

Here is the Real Deal. Pure cacao chocolate. 100% pure and uncut. The taste is amazing - a short burst of heavy chocolate, with a tinge of bitter. Then the cocoa butter (oil) melts and smooths everything out into a heavenly swirl. Shortly thereafter the caffeine (8 x more than coffee) kicks in.

Flag of the Ngobe people

These blocks were gifts from the aptly named Quebrada Cacao community for my assistance to them.

At the same meeting, I was given an honorary Ngobe name: UnchikraKwaribo

I think it means something like "large friend with no fur". The Ngobe call 'em like they see 'em.

The Ngobe Comarca flag of my adopted nation is proudly shown here.

Every morning over breakfast, I watch the local Panama news channel. Some observations after 3 months:
There are no partisan commentators giving opinion instead of fact. This is “straight” news, with interviews of the parties involved – like US news used to be. 
Ample time is given to “Denuncios” (denouncements), where average citizens sound off about local problems they’d like to see fixed.
There is ALWAYS a corruption trial or scandal going on. To a lesser extent, I’m guessing that the corruption in US is just better hidden.
There are frequent “PSAs”, reminding folks of all the things the government is doing for them : new roads, bridges, subsidized propane and rice, free Christmas hams, cheaper bus fares, etc. There are even teasers for planned projects (which may or may not actually materialize). Of course, these always end with the incumbent President’s smiling face – a form of free political ad. 
Commercial advertisements seem mostly for food and cleaning products and remind me of US ads in the 50’s and 60’s – they are longer and feature a housewife extolling the product virtues. Oddly, the women in these ads all live in large, modern, well decorated homes and the women are all white or light skinned with blonde hair – representing about 9% of the population.
News anchors tend to be white women with blonde hair and Hispanic men.

I saw some slick new construction tech in Valle Risco yesterday. Walls are built with these interlocking panels which are filled with concrete. Electric and plumbing slide through lateral holes in the panels.
Some of you may remember the Techos de Esperanza project from last year. The Panamanian government is building thousands of these small homes around the country in rural areas. They are well built with indoor plumbing and excellent electric service. But they have some problems : Soil here is mostly clay and does not percolate, so septic tanks back up. Also, lack of windows means all internal and external doors must be open to catch a breeze. In addition, some are built in villages without good water or electric service.

Panamanians had a day of mourning Dec 20th - remembering the US Invasion (aka Operation Just Cause) 28 years ago. The US military attacked with 23,000 ground troops, artillery, tanks and helicopter gun ships to oust President Noriega, a rogue CIA operative. 
About 1,000 Panamanian civilians were killed in the crossfire, with 2500 injured and 1900 captured. The US occupied in force for 30 days while searching for the elusive Noriega.
Not exactly our finest hour.

Due to the relatively low water pressure of gravity fed water systems and the greatly differing elevations of houses within a community prevalent here in the mountainous jungle area of Bocas del Toro, Panama, houses at lower elevations get tons of water and those above often get little or none. 
The solution is to restrict flow to the lower houses, either with proper reduced pipe size or with these home-made flow restrictors. It's just an ordinary faucet washer inserted into the line, but it does the trick. 
The only problem I had when I used them in Torti was that folks at lower elevation would get greedy and remove them. This time I'm hoping that epoxy glue will prevent removal - only time will tell.