Coaster Ride

Part 3 in the "What is your commute like?" series...adventures in transportation with Peace Corps volunteers in Panama.

In this addition, let us look at a really common form of transportation in Panama...the Coaster Bus. In terms of size here is a breakdown of public transportation options here in Panamá:

• Big bus (like a Grey Hound bus)- These run the big city to city routes that serve lots of people. Some have air-conditioning that will freeze your toes and many show movies...mostly either copies of what is in the theater (I just saw Batman 2 times...once in the theater and then on the bus the next day) or some old violent action film. Vin Diesel, the Rock and such "actors" are common bus fare.
• Diablo Rojos (retired and highly decorated but rundown school buses from the USA)- these run in and around Panamá City and the surrounding towns. They are cheap and can be scary in how full they fill up....like 3-4 adults and 3 kids to a seat and the aisle crammed full of standing passengers. No A/C.
• Coasters (small buses with bench seating maybe 1/4-1/3 the size of a school bus)- These serve popular routes in towns and out of towns to surrounding communities. Can be standing room only full for short trips, but longer trips only the seats will be filled...well maybe one or two more people sitting on buckets. May or may not have A/C.
• Chivas (pickup trucks with benches in the back) - like the video in Part one of this series. Chivas serve communities that need 4 wheel drive to get there or have too few people to warrent a coaster. No A/C.

The video below was taken on my coaster ride between Port and Santiago. Before you watch you should know that the coaster is practically empty when I first get on. It fills up as we go along, stopping frequently to let people on and off (sometimes stopping every 15 feet because anyone can ask to get on or off literally where ever they want to...arg). This video was shot when the coaster is at its almost fullest state. By the time I get off almost 1/2 of the people will have gotten off before me.

This is really common in Panamá. I have ridden standing up for a good distance, but am lucky that where my common stops are the bus is not too full...so I pretty much always get a seat. I have also see men give up seats for women and older men....especially for women with children. I have seen strangers take bags or babies onto thier laps to help out other passengers. I have had other women offer to hold my bags on the rare times that I have had to stand. The one and only time I have gotten stuck sitting next to a guy who was rather intoxicated I could tell that the other passengers were watching out for me...and when a seat opened up they aided me in moving away from him. It can be quite a friendly place to be on those buses.

In terms of carrying stuff...since this is the common method of transport, bringing cargo with you is quite common and readily accepted no questions or usually no charge (something big like a mattress might get a charge if the driver is cranky that day). People and drivers are quite helpful with cargo and I have never had a theft problem yet...knocking on wood even as I type.

Overall, the bus system in Panamá is cheep and easy to use. It is not always fun...and occasionally quite squishy...but always ready and fast. Where in the USA can you travel 120 miles for $7.50 on public transit with no pre-planning? Makes me not want to come home to my beautiful vegitable oil drinking VW Beetle....almost. Stay safe out there. Please use your seatbelt...seatbelts are not common here and I miss them a lot.

House Update

We have now been living in our island community for a year, and in our own house for 9 months. We are finally getting close to having the house "done".

If you don´t remember what it looked like before you can see some older pictures of the early kitchen, fully outdoors, at our post from January on cooking: http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-and-how-do-we-cook.html, and some pictures from when we first moved in at http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2007/11/some-house-udpates.html or even before we moved in, http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-housethe-first-step-of-many.html

For those of you who don't remember (it was a very long time ago), the house was just two rooms with doors that opened onto a BIG porch of about 28' x 30'. Well, we used one of those rooms for storage/toilet room, and the other one for a bedroom. This left our kitchen and main living areas out in full public view. My neighbors are great people...but I was getting tired of being in full view 95% of my awake time in my own home. People could walk by and see us anytime.

So we added bamboo walls to divide the space, provide a bit of privacy, provide an indication to neighbors of what was outside and what was our space, and provide a way to open our bedroom door without being right next to the path and fully outside. We also did not want to make permanent changes to the community's building, and these should be fairly easy to remove.

We cut the first batch of bamboo, about 60 twelve-foot pieces and a few longer, at January's full moon (supposedly the bamboo does better with insects / lasts longer if cut at full moon, but frankly, there is a lot of powder coming out of the slats on a daily basis) and a second batch of 10 pieces in April.

A view from the outside looking at hammock area. We have 4 hammocks hanging...so we can welcome guests easily.As you can see below, the walls are only about 5 feet high...high enough to be taller than most people in the nieghborhood when you add in the step down off the cement pad. You can still peak through some spots, but those areas that look into private areas were built with closer or overlapping bamboo.

Kevin made the three walls for the four-foot square shower first and we put those up. Then he made a 13 and a 14 foot section for dividing the house, a 7 foot section to angle off the "bathroom" area, and a ten foot section to go from the wall by our door to the first post. We put all those up and were missing just the wall by the kitchen, on the back side, but we were loath to lose the light and the ability to toss stuff out. So we finally built a half wall with a two foot stretch that is full height, for blocking wind from the stove.

In the photo above the shower is just behind the curtain and the kitchen is to the right. The sink is multi-purpose: dishes, teeth brushing, clothes washing. Anything too yucky for the normal sink is done on the outside faucet in the lower left corner of the house. The big silver can on the counter is a water filter. We do fine healthwise without it, but water without floaty bits just is more fun to drink.

I have also made things more interesting by hanging 4 hummingbird feeders up with great success. (Thanks for the feeders Mom!) Most moments I can look out and see between 1-9 hummers hanging out nearby the house. If you were to add in the major hummingbird flight paths (red lines) into the house diagram you get something like this: (no joke...they really do fly right through all the time!)

The only path missing is the occasional circular loop into the bedroom and back out.

We also have started gardens to grow vegetables. Growing food here is easy and hard at the same time. Easy with temperature, sun and water (except sweet corn, which apparently needs longer daylight hours; OH we miss sweet corn!). Hard with too much water, and plenty of pests and fungus and other plant problems to deal with. In addition to the beetles that most USA gardeners are used to battling, here we get to fight leaf cutter ants for our food....great fun to watch them when the leaves that they are carrying are not from your garden. Our garden is protected from scratching chickens, munching horses, horsing around dogs, and running kids by a "fence" made from a retired fishing net. The garden looks tiny and sad so far, but all that can change in just weeks around here.

This is an experiment to grow tomatoes next to the house under the eave where they are protected from too much rain. The rain increases fungal and mold problems in tomatoes. We will see...and so will all of our nieghbors who are watching our strange ways with great interest.

So that is our home-sweet-home. I am still looking forward to coming back to the style of houses that I am used to in the USA, but for now we are very happy and reasonably comfortable.

One Year More

As we just passed one year since swear-in as official volunteers (trainees or aspirantes before that) and have one year more before our COS (close of service) date, we figured it was a good time to think about what we look forward to in the final year.

Things we are looking forward to:

• Eating our First Tomato from our tomato plants: April started about 30 seedlings, and we have 15 to 20 in the ground, so we are hoping for a bumper crop; keep watching for updates on what works and what doesn't
• Making our First Estufa Lorena in site: we have about two or three families interested right now and collecting materials, we just need to get everything together and actually build one
• Building an Estufa Lorena in the school: we need a working model at someone's house first so everyone knows what it really is and really entails, but we'd love to get the smoke out of the school kitchen
• Visiting the Kuna Yala comarca (autonomous zone): we are planning on going there in September for our Tenth Anniversary for lots of white sand beaches and snorkeling
• A Visit from April's folks: currently planned for the end of January / beginning of February, and possibly including Grandma Dierks
• Planting all the Trees currently in bags behind the house: we hope to get a junta (working party) of 10 to 20 people organized for sometime in early September
• Teaching in Coiba: April delivered her proposal today to ANAM, the environmental agency, to visit Coiba National Marine Park for two week stints with their park rangers to provide training on resource interpretation (how to present the unique qualities of a location to vistors)
• School Garden growth: the kids are really interested in what is planted and have learned a lot about how and why it is planted too
• Visiting Baro Colorado Island / the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, in the middle of Lake Gatun in the Panamá Canal: The Smithsonian Institute has several offices in Panamá to do research and preservation of biologically unique sites. Barro Colorado Island was formed when the Chagras River was dammed to form Lake Gatun and has been a wildlife refuge since. Visitors are sometimes allowed to accompany scientists on the boat there and can wander the paths and view amazing wildlife
• Learning to Gritar and Salomar: hard to describe, it is a very common way of communicating here while working in the fields, and sounds kind of like yodeling. You have to hear it and so we'll hopefully put up a video of either someone good or of us. (We haven't learned yet because most of them are too embarrassed to teach us when asked.)
• Watching Panamá Election 2009 here in Panamá: the next Panamanian president, respresentatives, and local offices (all levels of government) will be elected in May 2009. April is already taking pictures of campaign signs.
• Watching US Election 2008 from here in Panamá: we are glad to only get to see news every couple of weeks, as the minute nit-pickings on the candidates and their campaigns would get old quickly I think, but we are planning on coming out mid-October to get and send our Absentee Ballots and then again for November 4-5 to watch whatever coverage we can get here. (We do have CNN, bad as it is, in the motel, and the cable package in motels frequented by PCVs in other cities even has BBC and CNN International, so we'll find someplace to hear all the latest on which state went which way and how Chad is doing.)
• Thanksgiving with over 100 other PCVs from Panamá: April and I have been asked to help run the kitchen again; nothing like success (read: a full yummy tummy) to be appreciated.
• Possible other visits from friends: Linda, Tabassum, Kori, and Kristin have all expressed interest; anyone else?

So it will be a full year, just like our first one was. We are very much looking forward to it!

One Year Reunion

So we have officially been Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) for one year now.

This past weekend, we got together with others from our Group 59 at a hostel on an island in the Colón province (northern side) of Panamá to talk about how life was going; what we have accomplished; what we have yet to accomplish; who is going to quit early (just one, depending on grad school), finish two years and ya (ya is Spanish for enough, done, ready, etc; the majority were in this camp), and who is going to extend (several looking to be Regional Leaders and such); and get re-inspired for our second year. Here we are at our official lunch meeting to talk compost, environment, organic fertilizer, and other projects.

We took one formal picture too, on the dock nearby.

Getting to the island via a short 5-10 minute boat ride was nothing for us, although some other volunteers found out that boats are not their thing and they probably will not come to visit us.

The really interesting part of the trip there started on the bus from Panamá City to Colón City. We received information from the PC Office of a transportation strike (apparently not that uncommon, and they usually last just 3 to 24 hours, protesting the high cost of fuel, or food, or something) in Colón, which is already not a city for touring. When we got to the terminal, the police had arranged to bring all of us (seven had taken the train, six of us were on the bus, and about eight more were on later buses and managed to catch up with us too) to the police station for safekeeping.

We sat around their conference room, ate an inexpensive lunch from the police grill (a very tasty tipico meal of meat, lentils, rice, and even lettuce and a tomato), played Cranium, and wrote a letter of thank you, before finally being moved to a special bus they had arranged for us. The bus took us first to the supermarket and waited so we could pick up bread, cereal, PB and J, and such for the weekend, and ironically, the last of our group, coming in on later buses, caught up with us there. Then he drove us the hour-and-a-half out to the island. How wonderful, flexible, helpful and accomodating!

The island had a nice beach on one end, where April and I went snorkeling with our new gear (thank you Grandma Cropper) and shared with other volunteers. On the other end was a Gustave Eiffel-designed lighthouse, 94 steps high, with a great view over the island and the cove. Unfortunately, we didn't get pictures of all that, but hopefully other volunteers will send some to us.

It was a great chance to catch up with everyone, reminesce, and get inspiration for our next year.

We left on Sunday with a short boat ride and then a regular bus back to Colón City (we did see some amazing winds on the ride, with a roof blowing off a house as we drove by and at least one piece of the zinc spinning 200ft in the air), then a bus to Panamá City, a quick jaunt in a diablo rojo to our embassy host family to pick up some books we'd left there (and some great leftovers she pressed on me), then a bus to Santiago for the night, finally getting in about 11:30. Now we are finishing up some posts (including some stockpiling, now that Blogger lets you post-date posts to publish later, so even though we'll be on the island, you can read new adventures from Panamá), sending and checking mail, and buying groceries. We go back in to site tomorrow early.

Thus starts year two...

Snakes Alive!

We recently wrote about snakes and the fact that they often end up dead after any contact with people in my nieghboorhood. (Missed it? See the blog from 6-20-08 called Snakes alive? found at http://ak-panama.blogspot.com/2008/06/snakes-alive-video.html)

Well, I am happy to report that since that blog posting I have witnessed at lease 3 snakes come into view of my nieghboors and live to slither away again. Most notably was a little boa that Julian caught....yes caught! He, without prompting from us touched it and showed it to others. I will say that this gave me a huge smile for many days...partly because of how brave he was. If you look at the photo above you can see that he was not taking any changes, he was holding it just behind the head and tightly. Just after the photos were taken he released it into the woods near our house.

At a different event the kids found a vine snake. I was shocked that no one ran to kill it, not even the kids. We were not even in our home nieghborhood were people have seen us not kill snakes, we were on the far side of the island. Well, we figured that this was not going to last for long so we caught it and let everyone look at it.

We tryed to convince them that it is not venomous or dangerous...yes it would bit if it could...but only because it is scared. I often say "I have a mouth too...and if you scare me enough I will bite just like any other animal!" We then released it far away from the people who were gathered around.

I often get a chuckle (or sometimes fusterated) when they tell me that snakes like the one above will eat chickens (one of the two common reasons to kill all snakes - venomous or kills chickens) ...he would have a hard time eating anything bigger than Kevin´s thumb. We are trying to help them see that different snakes have different body types and that this indicates what they might eat and how.

In another moment of small sucess the nighborhood kids brought us a young iguana the other day. He is small enought that he probably hatched in the past 4-5 months, most eggs are laid in January-March.

We used the opportunity to talk more about reptiles and why they are important. Iguanas have the fault that they are tasty, kinda like chicken (sometimes called pollo del arbol or chicken of the tree)...and thus endangered. The problem here is convincing people that every iguana matters, and no there are not enough iguanas in the world.

It is often hard to appreciate how interesting the world that is our personal nieghborhood is when we live there all the time. I bet the kids on the island would think that mudd puppies in Maryland are cool. Mudd puppies are a type of aquatic salemander. They can be 12" long and live to 20 years and never loose thier gills. When was the last time you thought about them?? It has been a long time right? Sometimes close proximaty makes it harder to value that which we have or believe that there could be a time when we might not have it.

More small wildlife photos

It has been a while since I did a bug blog...and Kevin will atest that I do love to photograph the fun and facinating bugs that we find around here. Here are some of the most recent. Yes, a photo is worth more than all the words that I could try, however I did add some words to help you see the signifigance where needed.


Kevin made us a Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches one day and was a little over generous with the jelly...and it dripped on the floor...out near the hammocks. A little while later each of the three (yes three!!) dripps had it´s own cleaning crew of leaf cutter ants working away. In the morming they were gone. Each ant is just over 1/4 inch long.

This little guy was cute and cool white and yellow coloring. You can tell how small he is in comparison to the weave of the fabric on my camera case. I had a hard time getting a serious shot of him because he kept reaching for and clinbing onto the lens.
This is a praying mantis that had cool leaf camaphage..camaphaouge?..or however that silly word is spelled. Note the finger for scale.
This is a grub that Kevin encountered when planing in our yard. For scale note that he is on the tip of our machete...which is at least 3" wide at the tip. If this were Austrailia the kids would have been telling us to eat it...first time I have been glad to not be in Austrailia.
This guy was just cool...he is the type of beetle that I was hoping to see by being in the tropics....one with a strange nose. This one is in here in honor of Kerrie Kovaleski at the Zoo cause he reminds me of a rhino. (someone please show her this photo).
This is just a butterfly that for some reason visited at night. I just wanted you to know that we have non-scary bugs too.

This one doesn´t need much help....other than to say that he is not the biggest that I have seen. These have pretty red and orange wings. They also tend to scare the sh*t out of me when they decide to be attracted to the candles at night and fly up while I am cooking.

This guy is only about a 1/2 big, but I really liked his orange and green colors...especially on my blue laundry soap bar. Some would say..."You have bugs on your soap!!!" and I just say "cool colors!! Get the camera!" Kevin is starting to promote the idea of a degree in entomology for grad school as a way of changing this interest into something useful rather than just strange.
This is not a great photo, but it is here beause one week these little orange beetles with long snouts showed up and they were everywhere...not in huge numbers...but enough to say to yourself "this is strange". Then, three weeks later, they were gone.
I see lots of cool beetles...this one is only 1/4 inch long.
Saved the best for last. This spider (who is about 2 1/2 inches long if you measure only the body...no legs) wandered across our floor one night. Tho ball under her is an eggcase. Very cool. But having her babies all in my house would not have been soo cool....so after her photo session she was escorted out.

Take care out there...and please don´t just kill bugs for no reason. No, being ugly is not a good reason.

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.

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!

Story time!

I recently started a new project at our small school on the island: Story time! Books...all types of books are very expensive here in Panamá and librarys are not common and do not lend the books, you can only use them in the library. These factors do not encourage youth to read for fun...and the my guess is that there is very little reading for fun or other wise. Reading, as far as I can see, is only done for studying for school in youth. In adults, pleasure reading is sometimes negativly impacted by literacy levels, avalability and cost of books, and past esperience with reading.

Well, most of you know that I LOVE to read. When I was a kid I used to use the light unit from my small microscope for a reading light under the covers in my room so my parents wouldn´t know that I was reading in bed. I stole and swapped batteries from all sorts of things to feed my night time habit. I remember sweating under a blanket in the summer to keep the light dimmed so Mom wouldn´t see it. (Sorry Mom and Dad...I don´t know if you knew all this.) Anyway...I love to read. I am currently averaging a book a week here in Panamá (Volunteers swap books like crazy to feed our need for books...there are always books getting swapped at our events, so my drug of choice -fiction- is free here.) Heck, all the people in my community know that I read a lot.

Needless to say, it was a shocker to realize that it was very likely that no one was reading to these kids in my community. They only read school books...and not always that. I found myself thinking ¨How can a society grow if it´s people don´t read? How can someone grow into an adult that looks to the writen word for ideas and knowledge if they aren´t introduced to it in youth? How do you get beyond the realities offered by the news media if you don´t know how to access other forms of information?

So I decided to encourage an interest in books and reading. I decided to start reading small books in Spanish to the kids of my community. Every Tuesday that I am on the island I go to the school and we have ¨Hora de Historia¨ or story hour.

April reading about why eating vegetables is important to your health.

The result...the kids run to greet me when I come to the school. They wiggle outside the empty classroom until I open the door. They beg thier teacher to be one of the grades that can go to story time this week (they have to have finished thier work to get to go). They tell me which books they like.

April doing a listening activity between stories.

We structured the hour very simply. They sit on the floor after sweeping it (so it feels different from thier classes). They crowd around me until I feel a bit clausterphobic. I read two small books with a calm activity between the two. I get help wih the long Spanish words from the older kids. Helping me with pronunciation ensures that they are following allong and builds their confidence in thier reading too. One of my goals is to get the 6th graders to read to the younger kids...so that they practice and the activity is sustainable even after I leave. They remember our basic rules and we review them each week:

• Only clean hands can touch the books.


• No writing or drawing in books.


• No tearing or damaging our books.


• Big ears and small mouths are good. Small ears and big mouths are bad.


• You need to be sitting to be in storytime room (this one flexs a bit as they stand in the back to see over thier peers).

How the story time rules look on our board...easy for readers and non-readers to understand. Enforcing the rules is easy...I just have to remind them that being in story time is not mandatory and they can leave if they don´t want to be there. That calms them right down because they DO want to be there.

I am also hoping to work with the community to raise funds to start a small library of books for youth in Spanish. Two books a week, even with repititions, will go through my little collection of books pretty quickly. I did manage to talk a publisher of kids books to give us (and all of Peace Corps in Panamá) a 30% discount on all of thier books. I just wish that some of the books I loved as a kid were in Spanish...some are, but translating Shel Silverstien would just loose something.

If you haven´t noticed the tally list of books we have read while here in Panamá, check out the lower right hand collum of the blog home page (but remember...we are really working here too!). We even scored them to indicate which ones are good. I would especially recommend: The Earth Moved, The Tipping Point, Snow Falling on Ceders, and one I really liked: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Good reading to all!

One Year Ago....

One year!

May 16, 2007 – It was one year ago yesterday that we arrived here in Panama to start our Peace Corps adventures. What a year it has been! Boat rides home, new foods, hard work, hot weather, rains so hard you can’t talk for all the noise created by the steel roof, wonderful new friends, generous neighbors, and the sound of parrots all day. We have had a good time writing blogs about it for all of you…and have enjoyed your responses too.

We hope that you all are as happy and healthy as we are here in Panama. We miss you all, and we do miss home regularly. Your emails, letters, packages, and calls are always a wonderful smile inducing treat. Thanks to all our friends and family out there for your love and support. It has been a great year and we are honored that you have been sharing it with us.

Check out the one year slide show above…Old and new photos... Enjoy!

Composting update....

So, it has now been about two weeks since we made the compost "bocachi" with the contents of our compost toilet. The response to the last post on this subject has been very interesting...and at times revealing.

I am happy to report that the compost heated up very nicely for a few days. It also lost about 8 inches in height in the box...a really visible decrease in volume. After that (this is only about 5 days after making the pile) it cooled down to where you could not feel heat above the tubes anymore, just in the pile itself.

(Kevin next to the settled pile after one week; it started as high as the screening)

We decided to mix the pile to kickstart it again and ensure complete composting. Mixing, or turning the compost serves to mix the un-composted materials into the center, stir more space and oxygen into the materials, and promote microoganism growth. We turned the compost just by opening the box, shoveling it all out, shoveling it a bit to mix it, and shoveling it all back in. While it never did regain the high heat of the first few days it did heat up nicely and is warm to the touch just an inch or so below the surface.

(Kevin turning the compost before putting it back in the bin.)

When we turned it we found that the whole contents of the pile had become fairly uniform in color and texture. There were still bits of banana tree and leaves that were identifiable, but on the whole it was well on the way to looking and smelling just like good black soil. We were very happy with the results so far just based on 7 days time. We could almost taste big tomatoes.

(The humanuare compost after just 5 days of composting time...looking good!)

We also co-taught a class about making a compost pile with MIDA (the national agricultural ministry) on Friday and used a sample from our pile to show what was possible in 2 weeks time. During the class we worked with the students to make a sample pile that will then be used in the school garden when we get it started (waiting on the rain to arrive as the school does not reliably have water). The class went well and much fun was had by the students (all adults). We also gave away compost tea (a liquid form of compost fertilizer) as prizes for people who correctly answered questions about compost at the end of class.

(April (on the left) and the community watching the hands-on portion of compost pile creation)

(The men working on spreading bala leaves in the first level of the pile)

(The women working on spreading bala leaves in a later level of the pile)

However, while we told the community that we made our pile with manure, we didn't mention that it was humanure. We aren't sure they're all ready for that, and we don't want them to think we are so far out there that they decide to dismiss all of our ideas as too far-fetched to try.

Reforestation....the first steps

One of the projects that we are working on on the isla is reforestation of areas around streams and natural springs. Reforestation will help protect them from solar evaporation. Having trees around them really aids in conservation of water and minimizes erosion contamination. Most of the community has problems with having access to water at some point in the 4-5 months of the annual dry season...so this is a big issue for them.

Well, we officially (and literally) broke ground on May 8th. Together with 6 of our Panamanian friends we filled almost 500 1-liter size nursery bags (supplied by the ANAM, the environmental agency) with a mixture of good soil and fertilizer (supplied by ANAM as well). We used chemical fertilizer this time but next time we will have finished compost and use that compost instead. We are not using compost right now because we only have the humanure compost that is close to ready...and we have garden plans for that.

We filled the bags by breaking up the topsoil in a very nice spot near our house. We then measured out 25 gallons of soil with 5 gallon buckets (the regular measuring tool here) and mixed in 1 lb of chemical fertilizer. We mixed it just like it was concrete and then gathered round and stuffed it into bags until they were bien lleno (good ´n full).

(Filling bags with community members)

(Storing bags on a cleared spot just behind our house)

Filling the bags took us all about 4 hours. We were lucky to have a cloudy morning to work in and the temperatures were nice until the sun broke out in the final hour. We also had one man working with us that kept up a constant and funny conversation...his talking did more good for the morning's work than his hands...but everyone does what they are good at right?

(The completed bags - some more are out of site in the front row - and the workers)

The next step in the process is to plant the tree seeds. Large seeds will go straight into the bags, and small seeds will get planted into sand and only the strong sprouts will get transplanted into bags. We will raise them in bags for about 4 months to give them a good head start and then transplant them out into the land around the fuentes de agua (water sources). If planted by the end of August or early September they should have enough time to establish good roots before the dry season arrives again.

Composting Latrines

It isn’t gross, so keep reading.

Our house was just a storage room and office before we moved in, without a spot to go to the bathroom, a deficiency we had to remedy before moving in. It is just a few feet above high tide level so we figured a normal latrine (with a nine-foot deep hole) would likely hit water quickly, and since we’re only going to be there for a short time, we didn’t want to make any huge permanent changes. So we did some research, talked to some Environmental Health sector volunteers, read some of a book titled The Humanure Handbook, and decided to go with a composting toilet.

Now please know that the system that we are about to describe is tailored to our needs and does not follow exactly any of the systems that Peace Corps or The Humanure Handbook recommend. However, we did keep a healthy respect for all of the sanitary and pathogen related issues involved. We carefully used the concepts taught by those respected sources to try to make a system that was going to be safe, sanitary, and yield pathogen-free results while fitting the needs of our housing site.

First, what is compost? Compost is the process of using the soil’s normal microorganisms to eat organic materials (plant based products like leaves, coffee grounds, grass, paper, sticks, vegetable waste, manures, etc.) and turn them into rich healthy soil. Normally composting is done by putting together a pile of organic matter so that the pile has the right conditions to encourage those microorganisms to be happy, multiply rapidly, and thus to eat more organic materials. When the conditions are right the microorganisms actually produce heat from all of their liveliness and this heat can kill weed seeds and pathogens in the compost pile.

Why use human waste in a compost pile? Well, any gardener or farmer can tell you that manure is good for plants and the health of the soil. If you look at the main nutrient (nitrogen, phosphorus, and sodium or NPK) values contained in various types of manure, horse and cow are good but chicken poo has very high values. Well, human manure has values comparable to a chicken in sodium and phosphorus. Nitrogen is higher in chicken poo…but that is found in human urine. So all told our waste has real potential for being a valuable source of fertilizer. Also, humanure is abundant (each adult produces roughly ½ lb. a day) and easily available. It does need to be treated to kill any pathogens that could spread illnesses before use…but cow and horse manure should also be composted to kill weed seeds that are capable of growing after a trip through the animal.

So what did we do? We purchased a 55-gallon barrel with removable lid (very similar to our old grease collection barrels from our greasecar system back in Maryland, if you ever saw those), cut a hole, attached a seat,

ran a funnel and tube to separate the urine (as recommended in a large collection system like ours, whereas smaller 5-gallon systems like in The Humanure Handbook do not separate), got a few sacks of sawdust (both fine, from a woodshop, and large, from a chainsaw),

and went about our business. The idea is that after every deposit you cover the poo with dry organic material to balance moisture and to prevent insect interest. The organic cover material also prevents odors. I know it is hard to believe, but you could stand next to our tank and either smell nothing or a slight smell of damp sawdust on humid days. We had very few problems with odors or insects…much less than the typical pit latrine (and we now have plenty of pit latrine experience for comparing).


After a couple of months, we started asking at the store where we’d bought the barrel about getting a second, with the idea that when the first filled, we’d swap the lid/seat, cap the full one and let it sit for six months or so in the sun to compost and kill all the bad stuff.

But even after trying all over town for 3 months, we had no luck tracking down a second barrel with a lid like the first to fit our system. We finally decided we need another solution, so we did some more research, read some more in The Humanure Handbook about what it takes to make it safe, and decided to use our tank’s contents in a bocachi compost pile. Bocachi is actually a Japanese term for a fast compost process (typically resulting in usable compost in 3-4 weeks vs the 12-20 weeks of a normal compost pile) that generates some high heat almost immediately. Amongst the recipes are several that use estericol (manure), typically from cow, horse, or chicken, but we figured (based on nutrient levels) we could use ours too.

So we set about collecting the other ingredients (measuring in gallons because 5-gallon buckets are used for everything here and thus form a basic measurement unit in the field):
· already had the sawdust and estericol mixed together (we estimate a mix of 1/3 poo and 2/3 sawdust in our tank), about 40-45 gallons;
· banana tree (chopped), about 10 gallons;
· dirt (for the microorganisms), about 5-8 gallons;
· ash and charcoal (slightly larger, not fully burned to ash), about 5-10 gallons;
· yeast (to actively grow), about three-quarters of a pound;
· a molasses-type mixture made from raspadura, which is sugar-cane pucks, about 5 gallons;
· and balo leaves, balo being a tree that is commonly used for fences here in Panama because when a branch is cut off, it can be stuck an inch in the ground and it will grow. Balo is also a plant that is known for having insect repellent properties and it fixes nitrogen and its leaves are very high in nitrogen which is good for compost piles (the sacks of leaves we collected were very warm to the touch within a day). My guesstimate for collection of enough balo was that I could do it in one morning; it took two days, with April helping the second day. We collected an estimated 120 lbs. of balo leaves.

We also collected, with permission of the owner, some left-over side boards from when folks cut down teak trees and chainsawed them into boards. We used these, along with screen material, nails and wire, to build a “box” for our pile, which according to the “special fast bocachi” directions, needed to be 8-inches off the ground to get proper air circulation for heating up. Air circulation is important because the microorganisms we wish to encourage are aerobic…they use oxygen. There are also anaerobic (without oxygen) microorganisms that compost, you can tell the difference between the two because anaerobic microorganisms release an ammonia smell. Aerobic (oxygen users) microorganisms are preferred…thus most compost is turned occasionally to admit oxygen and stored in ways that allows airflow.

To further ensure proper circulation throughout the pile (which is to be 3-feet square and 4-feet tall), April drilled holes in 1” PVC tubing we had left over from construction and we placed these in the middle as we filled the box.

Finally we had everything ready and “rolled out the barrel” to begin the mixing process. We shoveled out the sawdust/poo mixture.

As you can see, it just looked like sawdust and there was no smell beyond a faint earthy sawdust-y odor. Other than the top (most recent) layer, everything we encountered was sawdust or dried hard (think a cow patty on the Great Plains). (For the most part, we did like most places with flush toilets here in Panama and bagged then burned our TP; there was a week or two when we put the TP in the tank, but we never found that layer when emptying the tank. It had totally composted and disappeared; it looked like nothing other than sawdust.)

As I shoveled in the sawdust and carefully broke up the few lumps, April added the other ingredients.

We shoveled, stirred, and added some water to get the proper consistency (the directions said to grab a handful and see if it clumped right, but I think they were working with other types of estericol. We gauged by eye, based on lots of past composting experience not clump.) It was a large pile. Too large, we wondered?

Then we began to shovel into the box, with April holding the PVC tubes upright. It fit perfectly.

The next morning, April put her hand over the top of the tubes, to see if it was heating up like promised. A definite hot breeze of air was coming out of the tubes.

They say it will be ready in about three weeks, but we’ll give it a bit longer just to be safe. Research on common human pathogens indicates that we need about a 14 days (week then turn and a week more) at our compost pile’s normal temperature to kill the bad stuff. If you have doubts about this please refer to chapter 7 of the Humanure Handbook available at: http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/downloads/PDF_all%20chapters/Chapter_7.pdf
After it is done we plan to dig a garden bed, pour it in, cover with a thick layer of dirt, plant some seeds, and a while later, hopefully enjoy the best, biggest, tomatoes ever. Other volunteers who have done composting toilets report that tomatoes love the finished compost and we love tomatoes.

If you are interested in knowing more about using human waste in compost please check out the Humanuare Handbook by Joseph Jenkins which is available online for free at: http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html yes, you can buy one...but scroll down and you find editions available for download for free. Great book...I think you can look forward to composting toilets at the Cropper house in the States in future years. (I hope that won´t keep you from visiting!)