Thank you!

A quick thank you to all of the Volunteers at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. The camera that you gave me is responsible for all photos posted here! Thanks a bunch. I love it. April

Training - week one

Hello all,

So this is April, not Kevin like the computer thinks...he logged in, but I am the one doing the typing.

We are done with week one. One of the longest weeks of my life just because my brain is working hard. There hasn't been any time off at all...just a stolen moment or two laden with guilt because I know that I should be using those moments to practice my Spanish more. But sometimes the brain is just ready to quit.

Today we did a training with two veteran volunteers to learn how to get around Panama City. We finished mid morning and now are at the big local mall taking full advantage -food, internet and maybe even see Pirates of the Carabeen-before heading home- the photo above is of the wonderful house where we are living. I get a lesson in how to wash la ropa interior later this week from our wonderful house mother Marta.

Many of you had asked about what we were allowed to bring with us. I had been meaning to post the recommended packing list for you, but haven't had time. I may or may not get to it. But just to amuse you, I will say that we wieghed in with about 60lbs. luggage each -including carry on. Peace Corps has already added thier own 15 plus pounds of books, med gear, mosqito net and such. Arg. Below is a photo of us with our luggage as we prepare to head to our training site.

Yup...we could still carry all of it as of when this picture was taken, but maybe not now because there are more big binders and books.

We have a full schedule, so full I am ready for a break...I guess I am using that break to type to you. Ok, I tried to make an email smiley but failed miserably on this Spanish keyboard.

A typical day of training goes like this- get up at 6.30 yup you know how thrilled I am with that, eat, get ready class from 8-11.30 either language or technical class, lunch at home, class from 1-5pm, dinner and shower, homework, talk with family and struggle with spanish, go to bed around 9 because my brain is done for the day and it gets dark at 6.30. The daylight is 6-6ish year round here.

In out technical classes we are learning all sorts of things including how to plant yucca, how to do a fast compost pile in 15 days, how to safely use a machete, and how to gather information about your comunity and their needs. Kevin is planting rice in that photo, on a burned area.

We have had the chance to see traditional agricuture here, mostly subistance farming. Yes, they do practice slash and burn agriculture for the lack of a better option. The photo below shows a slash and burn site that I saw on a class walk.

I had a hard time understanding this at first, but there just isn't the access to information about best practices here that there is in the states. I had to remind myself that in the States each major university has had an extension agency for a long time who's purpose is to research best practices and then get that information out into the hands of local people who can use it. That doesn't seem to exist here. In a way PC is serving as Agricultural Extension here.

I have heard some great sucess stories from other volunteers. One volunteer we met has farmers in his community who are not going to clear any new forest this year, focusing instead on using the rice tanks that he helped them to get started. I am sure that there are both sucess and failure stories to share in the future.

What else is important...can't find the question mark now.

Yes there are mosquitos...I seem to be more tasty than Kevin. Little surprise there, the mosqitos in the States thought the same thing. The weather is wonderful, said with no sarcasm at the moment. It ranges from hot and sticky yucky to cool and refreshing. By the time the rain comes it is very welcome. The thunderstorms are spectacular- great thunder, some lightning and anywhere from a light rain to an all out downpour. The heaviest rain in the states is common here...and I am loving it. I have always been a sucker for thunderstorms. The needle count is up to 6 sticks. Love this job.

I am about out of time. More later. Love to all at home. April

Visit to the campo

Campo is country in Spanish. Today each training group (Kevin is Sustainable Ag and I am Conservation Education) went on a trip to visit a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) at thier assigned communities. One 2+ hour rear-end numbing Land Rover ride later (I had my first grip the seat moment..but all is good Moms) we arrived. We got to:

see some school children do a local dance for us,
climb a mountain (hot, steep, got blister, beautiful) & eat lunch (they serve too much to guests), plant tree seeds,
and work (read play) in mud to aid in building a new room on a house (mud/grass wall building technique)

It was a good day and I am tired. Kevin also had a good day, but he seemed a bit jealous when he heard about all that our group did. He did get to plant rice though. Yup, they grow rice in Panama, more about that in the future I am sure.





Tomorrow we head to a new training site and start living with host families (that means mucho espanol por Abril). I don't expect to have internet access for a couple of weeks...so be patient. (for those who are counting - I certainly am) I have now had 2 shots and a blood draw. More shots to come. Arg. That will tell some of you just how much I want to be here.

Love to all.
April

We have arrived!

Staging was fairly uneventful other than meeting our fellow volunteers. We did take time to print photos of home, family and friends to bring with us while we were in Georgetown. (They are in a 4x6 album with spaces left over – hint hint!) The flights here were fairly good. Senator Joe Biden was on our flight to Miami just two seats in front of Kevin. Smooth flights, they went quickly despite American Airlines now trying to charge you for a simple snack in-flight.

It is a good group of people in our class. Kevin is having a fabulous time goofing off and making friends. I am also enjoying it all, but am a bit less bubbly about it. The past few days have given me a whole new window into why Kevin was voted “Most School Spirit” in high school.

I know, I know…So what is Panama like? It is so humid that at 8:30 at night I walked out of the airport and my glasses immediately steamed up…completely fogged over from the humidity. The smell here is the smell of Florida after a rain…but almost all of the time. The heat has not been terrible…yet….but it has been mostly overcast. It sounds like the bid section of a pet store outside. The different sound of the birds was one of the first things that I noticed when I woke up.

It has been fun to be here…very interesting. I have seen a new hummingbird, very cool since we only got ruby throats in everyplace that I have lived. For the bird lovers out there it was (as best as I can tell) black with a white breast and a slightly curved beak. Also sighted: a tree frog that was 4 inches long, some parrots, many mango trees with lots of un-ripe fruit. I didn’t see the mosquito who got me, but one did (don’t worry Mom, I will survive.)

It gets dark here around 6:30pm. Everyone has been really nice here, the Panamanians who work with Peace Corps clearly want us here. I think that we are lucky to be in Panama. PC Panama seems to be a very well established program. They say that attrition from this program is very low, and that volunteers here report a high level of satisfaction with their time in PC. Also, (this is for the Moms who worry) PC Panama has a great health care system – good enough that they are the Evacuation hub for the region. All PC Volunteers who need medical care evacuations in Central America are sent here.

We are currently in Panama City and have seen the Miraflores Locks on the canal. We are doing some introductory classes and interviews here. Accommodations are simple but nicer than I would have predicted for PC. We do know where we will be going for training, but I am not going to post it here for safety reasons. We leave for the training site on Sunday and will be then living with our host families for the duration of training. It has been announced that Kevin and I will be placed in the same host family. We won’t find out our site assignments for 4-5 weeks, so please join me in trying to be patient.

How about some stats to round out the picture:
*There are currently 7300 volunteers serving in PC in 73 countries.
There are 34 volunteers in our class here in Panama.
*27 is the average volunteer age – our class oldest is 38 and youngest is 21. Oldest ever to serve was 84 and current oldest is 79….so many of you still have time to serve!
*58% of volunteers are women
*9% are married in PC overall. Our class of volunteers has 5 couples in it – 1/3 of the class…that is a lot.
*178 thousand volunteers have served since PC was started by Kennedy in March 1961.

Why is PC serving in Panama?
*20% of the population here earns 60% of the income. *40% of the population lives in real poverty (68% of those in rural areas, and 98% in indigenous communities.)

*Projects here address sustainable agriculture, education, health, promotion of eco-tourism, teaching English, and many others…all requested by the Panamanian Government and local communities.

I don’t think that the access to internet will last once we go to training, but phone coverage is supposed to be good. Many of you will laugh at this: 95% of volunteers here have cell phones…so Kevin and April will probably get one after training. Just think, we avoided cell phones for years only to get one in Peace Corps. Oh the irony!

I think that is all my fingers can handle for now. Love to all. We are well and happy. Don’t worry!
April & Kevin

So much done, so much to do, just to leave!

What a whirlwind process it has been! I way under estimated how long it would take to finish packing the house, how much space we’d take in the truck, how long the final cleaning would take, and how many times we’d make a “final” trip to the dump with trash and recycling. Thank goodness for the friends who came to help load the truck, and for the love and patience of my wife and folks, who said take your time, do it right and don’t stress it, and get here when you get here.

I keep thinking that once I get [to Lexington, to Cincy, to staging…] that I can breathe and feel like I’ve gotten everything done. But I haven’t reached that point yet. The list of “things to do before we go” has definitely shrunk, but there are an amazing number of items still on it, considering we leave for staging in four days.

One of the items on the list of last things to do were a couple of questionnaires from the PC. They wanted to know about our preferences so they could identify a host family for training, and about our goals and such in PC. Yes, we’d already filled out most of those goals in previous essays, but it probably isn’t a bad idea to get an updated version with our feelings a week before we get there instead of a year out, when we put the “right words” in there to be accepted. :) And it did make me think; what do I want to get out of PC time, personally and professionally. What is my biggest fear? What could make me come back?

For the first, I said learning Spanish and always being proud to be able to say, “I served in the Peace Corps.” For my biggest fear, I had two: getting sick enough to have to come back (like Jason did), after all the planning and arrangements for two years of being gone and all the looking forward to serving; and losing a loved one while we are gone. April and I both lost a much loved grandfather last year, which gave us some long discussions about family and what might happen in the next two years. We love our family and we will miss them for two years, and it means a lot to have them supporting us as we assist others less fortunate in their initial circumstances of where they were born.

Related to that, there is a website where PCVs from around the world, as well as invitees, can discuss about their assignments, what to bring, what to do, etc, called ThirdGoal.com. We posted there in the Panama section a couple of times. I just came across a really interesting post there, from a couple of years ago, but I think it describes how the Peace Corps compares to the “real world” (whether US or host country) pretty well. If you have ten minutes, it is a worthwhile read. http://www.thirdgoal.com/ottojones/2005/12/12/posh-corps/#comments

(The Third Goal of the Peace Corps is to share information back to folks in the US who haven’t had the opportunities PCVs have to see the rest of the world about what that world is like, how other people live and survive and thrive, perceive the US, and those of us from the US. It is the one goal that we will continue to work on for the rest of our lives, long after goals one and two – assist the host country, and be impacted ourselves by our service there – have been completed.)
kevin

How to mail to a PCV in Panama

We still don't know exactly where we'll be for training, but they say it can take a month for us to get mail from the States, and up to two months to get mail back to you, so if you want to write, send it now, be patient – and definitely put a date on your letters! It is also strongly recommended that you number your mail so we know if we missed one. :)

Sending mail/via USPS:
April Cropper PCV (or Kevin Cropper PCV)
Cuerpo de Paz/Panamá
0834-02788 Entrega General
Panamá, República de Panamá

Sending FedEx/UPS/etc:
Cuerpo de Paz
Edif. 95, Ave. Vicente Bonilla
Ciudad del Saber, Clayton
Panamá, República de Panamá
Tel: 507-317-0038, Fax: 507-317-0809
Attention: April Cropper PCV (or Kevin Cropper PCV)

They recommend sending padded envelopes if possible instead of boxes, which are taxed and opened more frequently.

Reality starts to sink in

It happened today…the reality of what is happening sunk in in a way that hit me in the pit of my stomach. The reality that we are doing something different than normal, how do I say it….that we are stepping outside the normal boundaries that have defined our life up to now.

I expected it to happen when our house of 8 years…our first house...was empty and we had to close it and drive away, but that just felt like a normal move. Sad yes, but normal. I expected it when I left work, when I went to goodbye parties, when I packed my dishes, when we loaded the truck, and when we sold the car. Don’t get me wrong….each of those moments were big. Each had real emotional impact, but they did not yet step outside the realm of other past experiences. For example, when I collected stuff to pack for Panama, it felt like packing for a trip or vacation.

So what finally brought it home? Kevin and I are at Mom & Dad Cropper’s house right now. They are graciously storing some of our furniture and clothing (they get ½ my parents are graciously taking the other ½). Some of what they are storing is our bed and dressers. We set up the bed in a corner of their basement and that is when it hit me. Strange, but for some reason seeing my bed set up in the basement crossed some line in reality for me. There was no reason to set up my bed there if I was going to be using it in the near future. I wasn’t going to live there in the basement so why set up my bed there?

It was an action that did not fit in to the other emotional scenarios that every other recent milestone had fit into – moving, taking a trip or changing jobs. My furniture being set up there was outside the previously normal…and connected to a new reality…and being on the verge of a new reality and feeling it for the first time was a gut clenching moment. I guess Peace Corps has been lingering on the periphery of my mind for so long that it is a comfortable possibility, but it had not started to translate to emotional reality yet because all of the other changes felt familiar so far. I expect to hit more and more of these moments in the next month.

Just to be complete, here’s an update: We have both quit our jobs. We have left all our volunteer work behind. We have packed, cleaned and closed the house. We packed the 16 foot moving truck, and the station wagon (which we hauled to VA) and the back of the beetle. We left for VA 24 hours later than we had hoped because we are slower than we expected (well, honestly it is because Kevin is an optimist…April knew that we would not be getting out of there that soon J With in 4.5 hours of arriving in VA we had sold our station wagon (we listed it here before we left MD, but we couldn’t get it sold in MD). We unloaded just over ½ the truck, we reloaded some stuff and then planted the plants that we brought from our yard. We are just over ½ way through the move and I am tired.

Thanks to the folks that helped us load the truck: Jeff, Bill, Pat, Rebecca, Pamela, Jim, Meg, & Justin. Thanks to Dad Cropper who worked like a workhorse to unload my heavy furniture. Thanks to all of our Parents for keeping so much of our stuff for 2+ years.