We’ve made several trips to Panama to work with a small community a few hours west of Panama City called Farallon. The people there are simply wonderful and the community, though poor by our standards, is a wonderful place to spend time and make friends. We’ve also had the opportunity to work with some indigenous tribes north of Panama City, the Embera. We will post pictures and updates on the work the Uptons are leading here on the blog.
All four of us joined Mark and Miriam and a small team of guys to go work on a small community center for the kids of Farallon. The kids got an extra week out of school (Hannah jumped, Houston was a little less excited about missing so many days) and we spent 8 days there on this trip. The Super Bowl was played the day after we arrived, and we don’t have access to any television in Farallon. So, we tried to make it all week without learning who won the game so we could watch it when we returned a week later. All of us gave in except Willie, but we didn’t spoil the surprise. However, flying back the following Sunday, someone in an airport restaurant asked him what he thought about the Giants win….ARRRGHHH Read more
We journeyed to Farallon to construct a small community center that the teachers and adults could use to work with the children in the village. We laid a raised concrete pad–lot of hard work, and we proved just how much weight pieces of scrap plywood could support with the wheelbarrow after Read more
We went down in January 2011 to begin work on Romalia’s house (it was nice to get out of the cold and snow in Memphis, and spend some time on the Pacific coast for a few days). She’d never lived in a home with concrete walls (guessing she was in her 50s), and was really excited about the prospect of having a small, simple but stable home to live in with the extended family she was caring for.
To say I learned a lot on this trip is a fantastic understatement. I’d never worked with concrete Read more