Communal dinner

Hassan cooked a beautiful dinner for all of us at the guest house tonight including Mudi and Angie. Chicken, eggplant, potatoes and peppers. It was delicious!

Phone booth

Toured Penonome this afternoon. This phone booth was near the old town.

We stopped in to a local bar to sample the local beer. While we were there we made friends with a very drunk Panamanian. He had no English and we have very little Spanish but the real hurdle was the background music.

Playa Farallon

This is the view looking East across the Pacific Ocean. The water was refreshing but we went late in the day and thunderstorms were threatening.

Hassan, a guest from Villa Astoria that has been here a few weeks, went with us and helped explain how to catch the local bus and how to pay the fare. The gist was pay when you exit and assume the fare was a dollar; they don't make change.

Banded Peacock on the Lantana

The courtyard here is beautiful. The banana tree has bananas, the coconut palm has a coconut, the bushes have flowers and the flowers have butterflies.

Beach Building Networking Meeting

Every Tuesday morning a group of amazing individuals get together to network. Retired teachers, cops, lawyers, physical therapists and corporate types all explaining their new passions and supporting each other. A very positive way to start the morning. 

Rebecca provided the "Teaching Moment" on her passion... Permaculture.

Villa Astoria & 8th Life Panamá

This is the guest house where we are staying.

Arrived in Panamá

This was shortly before we found out that our luggage went to Houston instead. That's an issue for another day.

Oops. Day 11

42 steps!!!!! Yes, 42 steps up and back down again all day long removing furniture, moldy wood and other trash. I took a record breaking 19756 steps during the day in total. I took a pic of one of the rooms which had purple walls, the daughter's room. She had pics on the wall, which during the hurricane got wet and faded. Artwork of hers that she made were just blank pieces of paper. The lady of the house allowed me to pose with some "sashes." Check out the pics and zoom in on them. We do have fun sometimes as well. Lastly, we also saw a cute turtle next door.

Point Pleasant Resort

This was were we spent our honeymoon 26 years ago. The resort property was closed and guarded. This was all Sid could see.

Additional pictures

Day 12

In the morning we helped finish a house that another team worked. That house was so sad. Complete gutting out of the entire house. Total loss of pretty much everything. Filled up one dumpster, but could have done 2 more dumpsters with all the trash. Found a set on antlers that i put on my head to maximize the fun.

Day 10

We collected a bunch of debris from an old lady's yard. When we arrived, we were told that she passed away last night. She was 95 and had been sick a bit lately, but wanted to move back into her house. Her son came over and we passed to him and the family our condolences. He started to talk about the house he grew up in and I then asked about his mother. He talked for about an hour. He had us all in tears. I gave him a long hug. He really needed it.

Day 9

We were in a badly hit neighborhood today. Almost every house had some major stuff wrong with them. Roofs, broken windows debris everywhere.... it was a nightmare. Met a sweet couple that just had a house torn apart and strewn all over the yard. What was special is was this guy built this house by himself 26 years ago. He got married and the wife with help of a midwife had three kids in that house. I hope their dreams of rebuilding and coming back strong will be met.

Day 8

Finished Ms. Loraine's house. She was nice as she could be and we were happy to help. We got off late today and were all tired, but the hugs from Ms. Loraine were worth it. Building some friends here and know that I will miss them as we part ways again. At least I got to know them for the short time we have had.

Day 7..... Utter Frustration

We helped out a lady today that just hit her last straw. She had tried to hold back the tears as we helped remove items from her house. But the damage to her concrete roof was too much to stop and her ceiling was soaked. To add to her issues, it started to rain when we were there. We removed all the walls that were sheet rocked and other damaged areas. She was very thankful and we told her we would be back tomorrow as there is more to get done.

More birthday beach pics

Day 6.... My Birthday in the USVI

The "Older Folks" in the group decided to go our own way with a relaxing stop at a local bar and hit the beach for sun and fun. The other big group went to the island St John. Our group celebrated my birthday in style. I had a great time on our first day off.

Day 5.... New Project

Best guy ever. Got to talking with this guy who has lost everything, but has the attitude of a guy that has it all figured out. We want too many things. We need to need less. Love these people. I feel bad feeling sorry for them.

Day 4.... Move off the cruise ship.

The church we were supposed to move into is ready today, so our group, All Hands, made our way off the wonderful ship with all it's pleasures to a nice church filled with just us.
I assisted in setting up an outside "Cold Water" shower for all of us today......REFRESHING. Also cuts down on the 30 minute warm showers....LOL.
These guys and gals are just remarkable people. It is a wonder that there are so many bad people in the world when your world view looking and interacting with such good people everyday. Really makes you want to be a better person. Tomorrow, we go back to helping the grief stricken people of St Thomas.

Day 3..... New project house.

Day 2... First day at work.

USVI Hurricane Pics

USVI Hurricane Pics

Day 1 - Island Arrival

I arrived ready to get to work. Jason, my volunteer coordinator, met me at the airport with the bad news. The church where we were supposed to stay is not ready. They made some alternative arrangements on board a docked cruise ship, The Grand Celebration. Buffet style meals and cushy beds, but alcohol is not included. We have to rough it like this for two more days.....Damn!!!!!

Relief Effort Donations

If you are interested in donating to the relief effort in the US Virgin Islands please consider donating to https://www.gofundme.com/Sid-USVI-Trip

 The All Hands volunteers were asked not to bring specific items as the overall needs are too great for that to be impactful. All money collected will go directly to support the relief effort.