Chad Peterman '09 - This morning I woke up and was surprisingly cold. I say surprisingly because the day before I sweat more than I ever have in my life. The reason I was so cold was that we had turn the air conditioning up to the max in order to cool down the previous night.  Breakfast was delicious and after that we got started out on our day. 

We journeyed to another farm to do some more work much like the day before.  his farm, however, was not the easiest to get too. Our bus climbed hills and went down hills that I would attempt to navigate in my own car. We did arrive safely, thanks to our bus drivers that could possible qualify for the Indy 500 in their tour bus. The speed limit is of no concern to them. 

When we arrived we split up jobs and got to work. I along with nine other daring souls decided we would dig for yams. I thought this sounded kind of fun and a lot better than digging a pond which some of my teammates were doing. One of the men took us back up the path to show us how to dig for yams and everything was going great until he veered off the original path, took out his machete, and started blazing a new trail on the side of a rather steep hill. The crew and I looked at each other and realized digging for yams was not going to be as fun as we first thought. 

We finally made it to the hill where the yams were grown and we were instructed on how dig the yams out of the ground. We dug up yams all morning long until it was time for lunch. It was tough work because of the fact that we were standing on a hill the entire time. We had a yam soup and rice for lunch which was very tasty. My yam digging group and I reminded the rest of the team multiple times that it was because of us that they were eating lunch. 

After lunch we dug out the rest of the yams at the top of the hill we were working on and then I made a crucial mistake that my lower back is still reminding me about. I took a turn transporting the yams in a homemade basket. I learned two valuable lessons during this activity, yams are heavy and carrying them down hills only makes them feel heavier. I should also mention that it rained the entire afternoon which offered some relief from the heat. 

One added incentive to working in Panama compared to at home is the wonderful scenery.  We had a postcard backdrop to work in front of all day long which made the work a little easier.  However, at the end of the day we were all reminded of how much it meant to the people that we were out there lending a hand.  They mentioned that the work we did would have taken them months to accomplish.  So far, after two days on this trip we have made a tremendous impact on the people here.  Making an impact on people is something we can all smile about.