Community Service

One of the most conspicuous differences between great towns in first-world countries and less developed countries is the amount of trash the litters the side of the roads.

Take Boquete, Panama, for example. This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to, surrounded by verdant mountains and ubiquitous colorful flowers. It was a shame to me, then, that in certain places there were so much trash (plastic bags, food containers, aluminum cans, etc.) littering the sides of the roads or banks of the rivers. Being a near-obsessive/compulsive neat freak, I felt the urge to come out with some garbage bags and pick up some trash — a feeling only pacified by the reminder that I was not going to be in Boquete that long and that our schedule was already jam-packed as it was. Continue reading »

The sky was clearing, the birds were chirping, and spring was almost here. This made for a great time for a dinner/camping/volunteer event.

This one was organized by Community Impact and Stanford C-Ya member Kim Chiu, with Erica Guerra providing lots of assistance in organizing the dinner.

Here’s something of a recap of the event, in all its glory… Continue reading »