What is your commute like?

How do you get to work? How do you get home? We thought that you might like to to see how PVCs get to and from their communities, so below is a good first example.

Foy and Jeff are another couple from our group. They live in a community east of Panama City, the only volunteers from our group on that side. From the "hub" town in their area, they have about an hour and a half ride in a chiva, the pickup truck with a caged back and hard roof. The chivas tend to have two hard benches along the sides for passengers. This is the only regular transport into their small village (other than 2-3 private vehicles that go up to their area) and all the local families use it regularly.

A full chiva will typically have 6 adults on each bench, some kids in the laps of the adults, a couple of people sitting on the mound of cargo in the center of the truck bed between all the knees. Also, there will be people hanging off the back bunper...and they tend to get a bit muddy. More cargo (and occasionally people) go on top of the chiva roof. Chickens, other animals, large sacks of grain, propane tanks, and construction materials are all common cargo.

This video shows the view and the chiva. Looks almost like the Metro in DC.

Most chiva rides last anywhere from a 1/2 hour to 4+ hours. When the roads are bad the passengers will have to get out and walk until the truck clears the worst of the mud. It is also not unusual for a chiva to cross rivers high enough for the water to seep in the truck bed at the back end.

Stay tuned for other interesting commutes....

Isla Rummy (game rules)

We have all at some point been asked "If you were stranded on a island what would you want with you?" Well, we are not quite stranded on our island community...but my answer to that question will now always include games and cards. Imagine, we are alone together without electricity almost every evening. (Some of you should get your minds out of the gutter!) The sun goes down around 6:30 and we head to bed around 9:00 so there are 2-3 hours to fill. We tend to have only the following options for entertainment:

• read
• study spanish (not really entertainment)
• visit nieghbors (usually already used all my spanish brainpower for the day)
• play games: cards, yahtzee, dominos, other card or dice games
• call family and friends
• search around on short-wave radio for interesting programs (like news in Spanish broadcast from China)
• sleep

We do a lot of all of the above, but I must say that rummy is only amusing for just so long when played by the same two people every time. The lack of options eventually lead us to try to make up a game...and that lead to the following version of rummy for two people. It is good for at least a month's worth of evening entertainment. Introducing: Isla Rummy

Isla Rummy

(for two people)
Courtesy of April and Kevin Cropper, Group 59, Veraguas Panama

These are the changes from the normal game of Rummy to get Isla Rummy. You can play with whatever version of Rummy rules you desire; if you need Rummy directions, check these links (which are different from the house rules we were taught...feel free to use your house rules.):
http://boardgames.about.com/od/cardgames/a/rummy.htm
http://www.pagat.com/rummy/rummy.html

Dealer deals four piles of seven (7) cards, using whatever manner they want except all seven at once. The other player picks which two piles they want first. Each person selects one pile as their “hand” and one as their “foot”. Set the “foot” aside where you won’t lose it and won’t mistake it for the draw pile or your “hand”.

Play Rummy like normal, using your “hand”.

When a player gets down to two (2) cards in their “hand”, they can pick up their “foot”. If you get to two cards during the course of your turn, you can pick up your foot and continue to play with all of your cards. If you get to two cards by a discard ending your turn, you can pick up your “foot” but must wait until your next turn to play it.

If you make it to the bottom of the draw pile without a player using all of their “hand” and “foot”, the player who draws the last card finishes their turn and the game ends; the other player is stuck with the cards they are holding. Total your points (played cards positive, cards still in your hand negative). Highest total wins.

Persistant toe bugs loose war

Just a quick update to let you all know that the persistant infection that caused Kevin to visit the hospital two weeks ago seems to have given up the war. His toe still looks funny...but this seems to be it's natural funny look. It is pealing skin, due to the swelling, but otherwise seems good. I would post a photo with this blog...but who wants to see a healthy toe? I didn't think so.

To all of you who were upset that we didn't tell you about the hospital visit...please remember that his parents were about to come down to visit and we didn't want to worry them just before departure on an issue that REALLY was not a big deal at the time. In reality, we felt kind of funny hanging out in the hospital when he felt very healthy. I promise that we will always be as open as possible about our health and give the correct information as soon as possible.

So our heath continues to be good. Little bouts of travelers diareahha every now and then...but that is a wonderfully small issue compared to what is possible world wide. We feel lucky here with our health.

Snakes alive? (Video)

I feel a bit like a bad luck charm for snakes...there are few snakes that see islanders and live to tell the tale.

I find that people on the island seem to have more fear than knowledge about wildlife in general and snakes in particular. They tend to kill every snake that they see and many of the animals too. Every time they kill a snake they look at its mouth and head. They are curious about the snakes but fearful of them. They assume that it is venomous even when it is clearly a boa that kills by constriction.

Recently our neighbors encountered a 7-foot boa in the vacant house nearby, chopped its head with a machete, and carried it by our house on their way to dispose of it by the shore. We asked to see it, and then we talked about why snakes don't all have to be killed. We used the opportunity to talk about what this snake eats and how often and what alternatives they have to killing it. We also talked about how to tell a venomous snake from a non-venomous snake.

Since the snake's head was only split, and the snake was clearly responsive to stimulous and still writhing 20 to 30 minutes after they'd hit it, we chopped the head off to end (our feelings for) its pain. This video was taken probably 20 to 30 minutes after that. All the motion you see is after beheading and is reflexive.

You can see from the video that it was a large snake...more than 4 inches wide at its widest point. It showed all the distinticve signs of being a boa: squarish and stout muscular body that doesn't taper much before the tail, narrow slightly bulbus head, and sets of small inward pointing teeth...no big fangs for venom. In my experience, most people do not have enough knowledge to look for these traits. Seeing the differences is the first step towards thinking about whether or not to kill a snake.

When our neighbor Elvis touches the snake in the video it is likely the first time that he has touched a moving (even if dying) snake; he touched it after seeing me do so first, before that he touched it only with a stick. It is my hope that conversations like this one will result in the future in them coming to get me to show me a live snake...maybe even a snake that could be lucky enough to survive the viewing.

Panama Visit

[Ed. Note: Mom & Dad Cropper started this post earlier this week on the date indicated, but didn't get to finish it before they left this morning. We are finally online again and are uploading images to go with it. Some other updates: the train trip didn't happen (full), and we saw lots more of Panama City's history.]

Our Panama visit is more than half over and we are having a wonderful time, thanks to two terrific tour guides. We have travelled by jet, taxi, bus (many and adventursome), boat (fast and slow), propeller plane, and often on foot (both in the extreme heat and in the rain) -- a train is scheduled soon.

(April and Mom C and a bunch of sleeping Panamanians on the bus from David to Cerro Punta)

(Dad & Mom C on the fast boat from Almirante to Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro.)

We spent several days at Kevin and April's site, meeting the people they work with and exploring much of the island. We learned the ropes of no electricity, a cold shower and the rules of the compost toilet. We are VERY impressed with Kevin and April's creativity in the way they use the resources they have in the community where they live. Seeing children walk to school every morning in a fresh uniform was quite a sight.

(Sixth graders Amarylis and Kenya on the shore path home from school)

We were able to help with English lessons, story time, and even planting. IF the seedlings live, we will be able to say we helped to reforest a part of Panama.

(Dad and Mom C looking at pictures of community members with Carlos, Christian, and Kenia, after English class)

(April and Mom C reading Donde Viven Los Monstruos - Where the Wild Things Are - in storytime)

Then it was off on more buses to explore more of the country. We have been to the cloud forest and we have snorkeled in the Caribbean. Today we visited the Miraflores Locks on the Canal.

(Starfish in shallow water off Isla Carenero, Bocas del Toro)

(Mom & Dad C at Miraflores Locks Visitor Center, Panama Canal)

Along the way we have had an opportunity to see beautiful hummingbirds, a few monkeys and red dart frogs and other wildlife. Not sorry that we missed the snakes!


When the time comes, we will be sorry to say goodbye to our hosts and to their beautiful country. But we will be happy to share some of the hundreds of photos when we return.

Family in country

Hello to all. I am currently typing from Cerro Punta...located on the West side of Panama in the mountains. It is deliciously cold here at only about 60 degrees F. Loving the cool weather which is normal at the 6000-7000 feet of altitude that we are at. See the map at the bottom for clarification.

Kevin's parents, Dennis and Ginna, are here visiting us for about two weeks. We already visited Santiago and the island where we live. We had a very productive time with them on the island - we did english class, story time, planting tree seeds, fixing up the house, building a semillero (a place to sprout seeds), hiking the isla, making insect repellent, and talking to the nieghbors.

Yesterday we traveled to David. We ate in a casino in David last night (best natchos in Panama and they even had a margarita!!! Yum!). We are headed back to David for the night (and another margarita if I am lucky...remember there is no refrigeration where we live so cold drinks are not normal and these may be my only margaritas of the year.) I think that we are all having a fairly good time, but I think that some of the bus ride was a little challenging for Dennis who can sometimes get carsick. Oh...I stand corrected by my editors...they (Dennis and Ginna) say that we are having a wonderfully good time.

Here in Cerra Punto we hiked in the cloud forest a bit and had close encounters with hummingbirds (photos...without touchups later!). We also lucked out and saw a resplendant quetzal....yup...all you birders are now jealous. For those of you who are not birders check this out:
No I did not take the photo...it was on the desktop here in the lodge where I am working. The lodge, Los Quetzales, is where we spent Thanksgiving last fall. See our Thanksgiving blog post from the 4th of December 2007 to see photos of the lodge and bueatiful Cerro Punta.

I would load some pictures for you...but I am working on a Mac and don't know how to do it without it taking forever. The (stupid) Mac only wants to let me download all the photos in my camera and I am not patient enough just now to learn how to do it better. I am still thinking of getting a mac someday...but until then their strange operating system is just frustrating. To all you Mac lovers...no I don't want directions...Macs are not that common here.

I just wanted to say that we are having a good time with family. We will be posting soon...probably some fun photos. We are hoping to put up some of our strange "what is happing in this photo?" kind of pictures and let you all guess what is going on (answers to be posted later). Something to look forward to for when I am not working on a mac.

Persistant toe bugs go to the hospital

Kevin got to experience first hand -literally- Panamás hospital system this week. He underwent IV antibiotics, injected into his hand; every 4 hours for about 36 hours. He has an infection in his big toe - like an in-growing toenail. He went to the doctor two weeks ago and got meds for it...they worked until the pills ran out. After the pills ended the toe got worse again and he got a fever. Nothing spectacular...just a big red toe. Anyway, since we are already in town..and since the pills didn´t cut it, the IV treatment was started just to be sure that Kevin is all better and ready for his parent´s visit over the next two weeks. We did manage to bribe the nurses with cookies and sneak him out of the hospital for 2 hours to walk next door (literally next door) to see the final Indiana Jones movie, so his spirits are not as crimped by hospital time as they might have otherwise been.

When we left the hospital earlier the toe was looking fairly normal but still ozzing a tiny bit of puss. Well a body exposed to as much antibiotics as his has had this week should not have puss still...so they took a sample and will check to see what it is. That is a job I would not want...growing Kevin´s toe goo bugs. The infection is only local to the toe just at the moment...his white blood cell count looks good...so he is free to move about the country (yup I do like Southwest). We will be in touch with the doctor for further battle planning Monday if the toe goo monsters don´t give up the fight.

I am sure that he will be blogging soon about what the hospital is like. Medical care here is federalized and free to all, although I think that Panamanians do pay for medications. I got to stay with him at the hospital...all I can say so far (having already spent two nights) is you should bring your own towel for your Panamainan hospital stay...this one doesn´t provide them. :)

Never fear...the big red toe bugs are bound to lose this battle. More later...

School Garden - First steps

We (Kevin, myself, and the committee called Padres del Familia) started work on a school garden this week. There is an area of wild pland growth (but not old growth despite what the pictures seem to show- it just grows darn fast) within the school fence that used to be a garden.

Below you can see what the school garden looked like at the start of the day...a little intimidating to those of us who are new in life to the art of using a machete (like me).


But two hours (and some stinging bugs) later, it started to look like this:

A bit later they were working (with much sweat and jokes at Kevin´s expence) on digging a double dig garden bed. Why / what is a double dig bed? A double dig garden bed is where you dig down deep...as deep as two feet sometimes and add organic materials and compost to the soil. A double dig bed is not recommended for all areas or all soils. It is most often done when the soil is compacted or low nutrients as the process loosens the soil and adds in future nutrients. However, it is a ton of work and also disturbs the soil ecology in a big way. We chose to do it because:

1. The soil was heavy clay just below the surface and we wanted it loose for kids
2. We wanted to boost the chances of sucessful plants by adding organic nutrients to the soil...want the kids to have good sucesses with thier plants so they enjoy the work
3. We were looking to control weeds by placing the upper weed layer so deep that it can´t grow back. Weeds are a seriously fast threat to gardens here. Weed control is usually a factor in why they burn. If we can control weeds without burning it will be a great example to everyone of what is possible.

After digging the soil out the bed was put together in layers from deepest to swallow:

1. weeds and plants from before
2. soil
3. nutrient rich organic matter (banana trees, rice husks, and such)
4. soil
5. finished compost from the compost class that we did a couple of weeks ago with them
6. soil

All of those additives will put air, space, and nutirients into the soil. When done right in Panama a double dig bed mounds higher than the original soil. This allows for settling and improves drainage away from plants as too much rain can be an issue here.

In the photo above you can see that the soil quickly turned reddish and clay heavy. We got the whole area cleared and got two of the four garden beds dug up in about 5 hours. All the guys were tired at the end (see Carlos resting below). Other school fathers will take a turn at digging the other two beds this coming Sunday...which is cool because we will be gone so another community member learned enough to lead the group on Sunday. That is it´s own sucess.

And what where the women doing during this process? Well, Panama is still fairly defined in gender roles...so the women were working up a big meal of beef soup and rice to serve at lunch time. Don´t worry, we do get them out of the kitchen and into other types of work occasionally...they pitch right in when asked to.

Next steps? Well, the 21 kids of the school will be split into 4 teams, each with thier own garden bed to tend. Next week we will teach the kids about the work thier Dads did for them and why stepping in the beds is bad (soil compaction). Together we will plant a ground cover plant hoping for future weed control. We will also plant the first seeds in a seed starting bed. Should be fun. Any time kids are learning and getting a bit dirty at the same it is fun.

Stay tuned for updates because when plants are happy here they can grow pretty fast!