How Many Cows

I slacked a bit when I first got home from Costa Rica so I didn’t actually finished my laundry from that trip until yesterday – just in time to pack for Panama!

I am heading to Isla Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro (see the red pinned location on the map above) to scout, test and drill with 5 students and 1 Hydromissions associate. This is the project with the team of engineering students from Rowan University. The students spent the past year designing and building a percussion drill to work in conjunction with the EXP-50 (the manual drill kit we use at Hydromissions). I am excited to test the new addition to the drill kit with them!

The communities on the island we are going to use rain catchment systems. Currently, the water is low and/or gone in some places due to this dry(ish) season. The region is rainforest/jungle so there is rain pretty much year round but this is the driest (least amount of rainfall) season.

We have a long day/night of travel ahead of us. We have a direct flight to Panama City, followed by a 45 min taxi ride, a 10-12 hour overnight bus ride, 30 min water-taxi ride and then we meet with our hosts, the Wood family, for a quick and final boat ride to their house.

Please pray for safe travels for all of my teammates. 5 people are flying from Newark (including me), one student from Philly and one Hydromissions associate from Nashville. Please also pray for safety in country.

FYI: I usually bring supplies to my hosts when I travel (I also send supplies down to Guatemala and Haiti via connections to those countries). If you have extra hygiene (soap, shampoo, conditioner), first aid (bandaids, triple antibiotic ointment, aspirin, etc) or sewing supplies (fabric, needles, zippers) stuffed in your closets that you are looking to find a new home, let me know. You can send them to me (5114 Landis Ave Vineland NJ 08360) or I will pick them up when I am back in the States. This is just something to keep in mind as you start spring cleaning soon 🙂