Projects around Santiago

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We woke up early and traveled North to the town of San Francisco. The health fair last year was held at the school in San Francisco. They used the facility to treat around 7,000 Guaymis Indians. This year the health fair took place in Sante Fe which is further north and therefore closer to the bulk of the indians the health fair served. The health fair took place a couple of weeks before we arrived and it sounds as though it was another exciting event. They served even more people than the previous year.

The school that hosted the health fair last year also serves meals for a large portion of the surronding area. In many cases it is the only nutrious food the children recieve. They serve around 800 people a day. They took us to the kitchen to show how inadequate their facilities are. They cook the food on three gas burners. As you can see by the pictures it is surprising that the stove still works. It has very large cracks in it as do all the counters in the kitchen. We are hoping there is a club out there that would be interested in adopting this kitchen. The Santiago Rotary club is putting together cost estimates and we hope it is not too expensive. Again, this is the only place where many of these children receive a good meal and we hope that they will be able to continue.

From the school we drove to the Iglesia San Francisco. This is the Church of San Francisco. I thought that they had told me it was built in the 1600's but my guide book estimated it at 1727. Eitherway it is a very old church that has Baroque art and architecture. It is in the process of being renovated so we were not able to see the altar or the carved Old and New Testament scenes.

When we returned to Santiago we were taken to the different schools that the Santiago Rotarians work with. There is plenty of need in all of the schools. The club is working on computer labs and English labs. They showed us one of the schools where they had a completed English lab. It was painted with Rotary symbols and sounds like it has been successful in helping teach English in the schools.

All too soon we were taken to the bus station for our ride back to Panama City. In Panama City we were again greeted by our hosts and wisked away to our hotel.

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Photos

Needing new kitchen stove
These three burners cook the food for 800 people each day.

Needing new kitchen
The entire kitchen is seriously in need of a renovation

Church Renovations
Although the church is being renovated we were still able to see some of the wonderful baroque carvings.

Schools
We visited many schools in Santiago

Stealing candy from a child
I was trying to ask this little girl what she was eating. Here mother was a teacher fixing up her classroom and she came over and made her give me some of her food. She didn't look very happy. I think it was yucca or something that was soaking in some spice like dill. Neither the girl or I were too thrilled by the transaction.

Teachers getting ready for school
School starts up again in March after the summer break. The schools were all being painted and many teachers were there getting prepared for the next week when school starts again.

Bus to Panama City
Nothing too exciting about the bus ride. But it didn't smell too bad with the help of the air freshners