I remember way back when, before arriving in Panama, thinking that with just a few months in Panama, I’d be highly conversational and ready to take on the world. Ha. That was utterly wrong.
One day my host dad and I were discussing my future house since he would be my landlord. (As a side note, I pay rent each month for a house or I can get an advance of the first few months of rent to pay for construction materials.) He said as a gift, he would build a little extra roofing or flooring onto the side of my house to extend the porch area. I nodded and thanked him and didn't think much more of it.
Several weeks later, I’m sitting on the front porch, working on my sombrero, while my host dad and another guy are off in the woods behind the house doing something. I hear a tree fall and decide this something is worth checking out. I put on my shoes and head on back and discover that they've knocked down a tree. I stand around for about twenty minutes watching them work. It appears that Panamanians have more faith in machetes than in a saw to cut wood into pieces and this is pretty fascinating to watch. Eventually I ask what the wood is for and my host dad proceeds to tell me about the rancho that he’s constructing for me. Whelp. Guess I'll need to work some more on my Spanish.
Check out the construction so far.
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| Chopping down a tree to use as the four corners of the rancho. |
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| Preparing the wood. |
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| Marking the spots for the posts. |
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| I was away for a day and then didn't get a chance to take pictures until late in the afternoon after we'd done some work. |
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Frame is done. Up next is adding the roofing.
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| Housing material which is known as panca |
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