Alternating Current and Frog King

There they are… a bunch of good-humored and tireless helpers swarming on lo tuyo. Further helpers are coming soon, there is a lot to do.

Tito finished the well; a 6 meter deep hole dug straight down into the ground using only a shovel, a bucket and a pulley system. To reinforce the walls, a huge plastic pipe was inserted. Master Builder Miguel, who is Tito’s brother, surrounded and enclosed the protruding part of the pipe with natural stones and cement. Now there is “fresh uata” on lo tuyo. The vegetables haven’t noticed it yet; at siesta time it regularly rains cats and dogs.

Like the well in the story of the Frog King, a bucket dangles on a rope that is secured to a sturdy wooden dowel supported by two poles and the treasured groundwater can be lifted up to the surface. Master-Tinkerer Miguel (indeed, there are many of them in Panama) is already fiddling with a pump technique and an irrigation system. The well is ok – everything is ok.

That – is – the - house - of … no … not really … but, here the first guesthouse for the lo tuyo team is coming into existence. Eda, Hanna and Carina decided the perfect spot on Lot 1 to build the first honeycomb of el abejar (beehive, that’s how we call our guesthouse compound). Taking into consideration the earth’s magnetic properties, views towards the sunset, shady terraces - everything was aligned up neatly.

For the footings, big holes had to be dug again. The house is going to stand on stilts made of heavy zapatero trunks, an indestructible hardwood, harvested from one of ForestFinance’s nearby managed reforestation projects. We hope that even the termites will accept the wood as indestructible. Ali, the blacksmith with a magical touch from Panama City, welded the steel bottoms that are needed to fix the zapatero stilts. He managed to finish them in the twinkling of an eye. They are already encased in concrete and sunk into the ground. How Ali also found time and materials to weld the table for the homemade circular saw along the way, is a mystery that he doesn’t allow past his wizard-like beard.

Then Carpenter Florian appeared at lo tuyo, flying in direct from the German Alps to begin our first guesthouse. Our electricity was continuously coming and going, swinging back and forth between AC and ZeroC, and the sawing blade was not working properly. Finally, and after a last delay with a delivery of sawn wood from the sawmill (no deliveries possible because of a flat tire), everything started flowing.

Strong hands from the local workers now help Florian on site. Two of them feed the saw with huge tree trunks; wood shavings fly around, planks and beams are piling up at lo tuyo. Everybody is curious about what the tall calm carpenter would conjure up next. And, poof!, the frame for the honeycomb formed roof was done. And, as if there was nothing else to do, in only one day, a tool shed sprouted of the ground – made by Florian and his favorite tool, the chain saw. Amazing! A welcome dry spot during the daily coming heavy showers.

What will our carpenter pull out of his magical hat next?  What sort of improvisational art will we see happening to solve something else? And, how long will it be before, unobserved, a misty-eyed maiden throws something into our fresh water well? Find out the answers to these questions, and what dreams come true in our next Blog!

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