Pressing Sugar

Back in April, just after the All Volunteer Conference, we went to visit another volunteer who lives near Chitre, where AVC was held. While there, some folks in the community were pressing sugar cane.

Sugar cane is pretty much a grass that can be grown one little plot in your yard, or in massive fields. The companies burn the fields to get the scratchy leaves off before the workers go through and cut it (so they end up sooty and blackened, but not scratched), and you'll see heavily weighted trucks carrying stacks of the about 8-foot long, 2-inch across stalks to the factories, where it is processed.

But small farmers do it on a smaller scale. They load the cane into horse-drawn carts and haul it to the trapichi, which is a horse (or person) powered press. There, each stalk is passed through twice to squeeze out the sugar juice.

(Jon and April watching the horse and farmer press cane; the juice drains out onto the metal ramp which sends it to a filter to remove chunks and then drip into the barrel)

Once the juice is squeezed out, it is heated / simmered over several days to concentrate it. Huge metal bowls are used to the process. This farmer had his built into the stove for the process.

(The bowl of sugar cane juice concentrating. The stick has a large strainer bowl on it for scooping out the concentrate.)

His stove was almost like the Estufa Lorenas, in that it concentrated the heat, thus using less firewood. The mouth of this stove is an old wheel rim.

(The stove mouth. The barrels hold processed sugar juice; buyers will pay $50 for the barrel, but then probably sell the contents piecemeal in town for $100)

Of course, there are other kinds of sugar and honey you can press. :) April and I, dressed up to go to a Samy y Sandra Sandoval concert the next night at the International Fair of the Azuero (the Azuero is the eastern side of the big peninsula on the south of Panama, containing the provinces of Herrera and Los Santos, and is famous for its "typical" Panamanian culture). Samy y Sandra's grandmother lives in the community where we saw the cane being pressed.

Burning: Why and What are the Alternatives?

(Ed. Note: I originally wrote this a couple of months ago for La Vaina, the PC Panama revista (magazine) that comes out every regional meeting (now every four months). La Vaina has articles from the office about on-going work, as well as summaries of various committees and groups, and photos and stories or other submissions from volunteers, covering everything from what is the best cheese-puff in Panama, to thoughts on sustainable development, to recipes for zapallo soup (zapallo is like pumpkin; remember when we carved some with our neighbors?). In Panama, La Vaina means "the thing", as in "da me la vaina allá" - "give me the thing there". Back issues are available online at the Friends of Peace Corps Panama website. Sorry I didn't get any photos to submit with it, although one of the editors added one of some small burns on a hillside; you can find the article - minus the last two paragraphs - and his photo in the May 2009 issue.)

Burning: Why and What are the Alternatives?

As summer comes to an end, the pace picks up. Everything is as dry as it will be. Soon, the rains will green everything again, and new trees, brush, vines, and grasses will grow over the trees, brush, vines, and grasses that were cut over the past few months. In other words, better burn the dry stuff now.

Why is slash & burn the preferred method of farm management? What are the gains from this destructive option that outweigh other safer, less-damaging alternatives?

There are several reasons for slashing, and several for burning. The basic slash reason is the paucity of “good” soil here in the tropics. While many of us from the US are accustomed to feet of good, grow-able soil, here in Panama and other tropical lands, the topsoil is often less than a foot, sometimes merely inches. Once exposed from the protection of tree canopy, brush, and detritus, the winds of summer and rains of winter quickly move the soil into streams, rivers, and the ocean. Within a few years, a recently but not maintained cleared plot will not grow crops well. So it is time to move to another patch of “good” soil. (At least here in my island community, that frequently means a plot that was previously cultivated and has been let fallow for a few years, so no more “old growth” is normally lost.) Chop through with a machete, and it is ready for planting (or in the case of tirar-ing maize, plant first by tossing seeds so they reach the soil, then cut everything down so sun and rain reach the seeds). It isn’t hard to slash – a day or two’s work and everything is down.

What is the alternative to slashing? Well, for starters, you could maintain the plot you are currently using. Which means adding abono (fertilizer) organico; preventing erosion through live barriers, abonos verdes, and terracing, and drainage catchment systems; and weeding to prevent overrun of your plot by malaisas. Those efforts, which SAS and CEC learned in Pre-Service Training on a small scale, take time, especially if you are trying to apply them on a large scale. A lot more time and effort than a few days of slashing.

As for burning, once you’ve cosechar’ed (harvested) that primero coa de maize (first planting of corn) in your slashed plot, the time has come to burn down the now dried materials. Burning removes the sticks and stumps from the field, and adds ceniza (ash), with its associated nutrients. This serves at least three purposes: one, it adds (albeit limited relative to alternatives) nutrients and minerals to the soil, which will make your next crop grow better; two, it kills weeds, which decreases the amount of work necessary to maintain the plot; third, it reduces the large debris, so it is easier to move around the plot when planting, weeding, and harvesting. It isn’t hard to burn – a hour or two’s work and everything is aflame.

What is the alternative to burning? Presuming you’ve already slashed, then you could use the same plot without burning (possibly you already did this with that first coa de maize). The downed trees could be placed horizontally as dead barriers for erosion control. You could weed really well right away, while the weed counts are low; and you could plant abonos verdes, such as mani forajero or canavalia to help control weed populations. These efforts take time, a lot more time than a few hours of burning.

Another option is to mulch all the downed material. Smaller items (leaves, twigs) can be piled for compost, but branches, limbs, sticks, and trunks are too large. A chipper shredder would be required. This takes time to transport and time to use (the gallon of gas to run it we’ll call a wash with the gas to start the fire if burning). And you still haven’t really addressed the weed seed issue. A lot more time than a few hours of burning.

So, it sounds like in terms of the farmer’s short term perspective, slash and burn is the easy and positive winning option. Less work, fewer weeds, more nutrients in the soil.

The alternative, for the farmer, requires thinking well into the future, when the effort of maintaining a plot long term begins to pay off through the need for less land, and less distance travelled to that land. If the same plots could be used over and over, all your land can be in use at once; there is no need to allow a plot to revert to monte (transition level growth between grasses and true forest) so it will grow material for later burning for nutrients, etc.

So why are we against burning? Why is burning bad? By whose values? There is an image of burning as a terrible thing – dirty, polluting, resource consuming, illogical. Is that because it is a single big event? Like our fascination with plane crashes even though they are less threatening than car crashes, burning a single big burn is more noted than the small, less visual, impacts of tailpipe emissions, etc. What is dirty and polluting? Burning a hectare of monte releases CO2. Driving a car releases CO2. Which is dirty and polluting? What is resource consuming? While natural resources may be lost, we’ve already seen that more immediate resources (time, money) would be necessary to implement alternatives to burning.

So what can we, as Peace Corps Volunteers, do? We can bemoan the burning. But most folks will still do it. If we feel that it is really important enough, that our values can be understood by our community members, then we must provide alternatives that are feasible and adoptable. Maybe start with your MIDA (Ministry of Agriculture) or ANAM (Environmental Authority) office to talk about a demonstration plot of mulching, with a multi-year use plan. Maybe with a community farmer, so others understand it can be done and isn’t all due to MIDA magic or ANAM abono while they aren’t looking. Or you start with talking to community farmers about why they burn. Ask, don’t lecture. Learn, don’t teach. Start early. After a while, offer alternatives to their reasons for burning. By your second year, maybe you’ll find someone willing to implement some of the ideas. Then call in MIDA or ANAM or other PCVs to help you start, so they see there is interest and they aren’t alone.

By the time you leave, maybe one small plot less will burn. Congratulations. That’s your reward.

Kevin Cropper is a SAS PCV in Group 59. He loves the smell of a campfire, but not a forest fire. He hasn’t figured out how to determine if that one plot less burned, thanks to his efforts.

Panama National Election 2009

"Change" seems to be a global presidential theme. On 3 May 2009, Panama held their once-every-five-years elections, and Ricardo Martinelli (millionaire owner of the Super99 chain of supermarkets here in Panama), who started his own Cambio Democratico (Democratic Change) party, defeated Balbina Herrera, of the PRD party, a long standing party which currently holds office with Martin Torrijos. (Presidential candidates can not succeed themselves, so Torrijos did not run.)

But while the global themes of campaigns were familiar to the local campesinos (countrymen) in our area (we were often asked about Barack Obama, who did we vote for, and the similarity in themes between Obama and Martinelli), elections in Panama are much more of a local event. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post.

As I said, elections are held every five years. At that time, citizens vote for Presidente, Diputado, Alcalde, and Representante. The Diputado is like a Representative in the US, serving at the national assembly level. The Alcalde is like a mayor or county executive. And the Representante is in charge of the local level issues (such as attracting the government funding to accomplish things like the solar panels all the houses have in our community, or the sidewalk constructed last year). He (or she; we had two female and two male candidates this year) is generally the first person residents ask when they need help with a project, need building supplies to improve their house, or need a new battery for their solar panel.

So over the past year, newspapers, TV, and radio were covered with ads for candidates (many analysts said that Martinelli could sink so much of his own money into the campaign that it greatly changed the dynamic and methods compared to previous campaigns). Other popular advertising methods include Tshirts, hats, and flags, as well as banners on the street lights, posts and trees. These banners often indicated who to vote for at all four levels. We even had a banner appear on the island that listed PRD candidates for Presidente, Diputado, Alcalde, and the local Representante (sorry, I didn't get a picture). When you see the ballots below, you'll understand how they can indicate who to vote for. But all organized events and paid advertising had to end by midnight on Thursday, 30 April. This was rather nice, as it provided a three day respite before the election. (The sale of alcohol was prohibited in this time period as well, so you couldn't be drunk the day of the election. Unless you made your own.)

El Dia de la Votación was Sunday, 3 May. And it is an event. Many folks are still registered to vote where they grew up, so although we have only about 150ish adults on the island, there were 265 votes cast in each race. (The influence of "outsiders" was greatly discussed, since they aren't really affected by the vote they cast for Representante, which to most of our neighbors, was the most important race.) Each of the four candidates for Representante provided a number of boat rides from port to the island in the days prior, and food the day of. Why food? Because everyone goes to the school to vote (polls opened at 7am) and then hangs out for the day, chatting with friends, etc, and awaiting the close of the polls at 4pm. At which time, the counting begins.

The voting is held in the school, with three members of the Tribunal Electoral (the election board) and one policeman to ensure the security of the process. (There is no vote by mail, or absentee voting, so those four could only vote for Presidente. An odd twist to service towards voting.) On the wall outside the voting room, they pasted instructions on how to vote and sample ballots.

(Fairly simple instructions on how to obtain your ballots - you need your ID card - then how to mark them, and finally how to cast them in their appropriate box.)

(No cameras, video cameras, or cell phones allowed inside the voting room.)

There is a separate ballot for each race. Each ballot has its own color coding to facilitate the process.

(The blue Presidential ballot, with pictures and names of candidates with party names and flags. )

There were EIGHT parties early on in the race. As time passed, alliances were formed that generally held at the lower levels as well. In a drawing of lots, the order of the parties on the ballots was established. PRD drew 1 (the red, white, and blue striped flag) and Cambio Democratico drew 5 (the green and pink "CD" flag). If you wonder why several of the photos and names look similar, that is because PRD formed alliances with Partido Popular (2, green star on blue flag) and Partido Liberal (6, red/white/red striped flag), and CD built alliances with Molirena (3, red and yellow triangles flag, with a red rooster), Partido Panamanista (4, purple/yellow/red flag), and Union Patriotica (7, red with orange stripe flag). A former president formed his own party, something like Vanguard of the Moral Front, and was spot 8 (of the 269 votes in our island, he received 2 sympathy votes from folks who apparently knew Martinelli would win and didn't want the guy to get nothing).

So if you wanted to vote for Martinelli, but were really a fan of the Molirena party instead of Cambio Democratico, you could cast your vote in spot 3, instead of spot 5. Thus your party (Molirena) was credited with bringing support to the alliance, and in the total count, Martinelli got your vote. Then (so goes the idea), when he is president, he will support your party's desires as well and reward your party bosses for the votes they brought to his election.

(The orange Diputado ballot. The pictures and names are smaller, and there are three "open" positions for anyone running as an independant. But the party flags and numbers remain the same.)

By the level of the Diputado ballot, some of the Presidential alliances had broken, and parties were running competing candidates.

(The pink Alcalde ballot. Molirena, 3, did not have an Alcalde candidate or alliance. The blue stamps indicate that this ballot has been nulled, so people can look at it outside of the voting room.)

All of the parties were allowed to have an observer in the voting room. Four of the parties did on our island, and the observers were residents of the island. Each one had a full list of the voting roster (a book with the name, picture, and ID number of each person registered to vote in that voting location). They watched from 7am until the counting ended, about 11pm, and ensured ballots were cast correctly, without coercion, and counted correctly. We did have one blind man vote (he does not live on the island, but I think grew up here; we have seen him before) and he was assisted by someone to mark his ballots, fold them (into quarters) and drop each one into the appropriate cardboard box, one for each race, with the appropriate color across the top.

(Our race for Representante. There were four candidates.)

"Chayo" ran on PRD (1), aligned with Liberal (6); he actually lives off-island, although he has a house in the south and is the brother of several residents. Popular (2) and Vanguard (8), did not have candidates or alliances at this level. Efrain Miranda (the Representante for the past 20 years, or since the new government process was instituted after Noriega's removal by the US and George Bush Sr) ran on Molirena (3), aligned with Panamanista (4). Paula (our first host mom on the island) ran on Cambio Democratico (5), aligned with Union Patriotica (7). We also had one Independant, Vielka, running alone in the pale blue 9 spot; she also lives off island but has a house in the south and family.

At 4:11pm, the workers from the Tribunal Electoral officially closed the voting and taped the boxes closed. The policeman entered the room to ensure the boxes were not messed with. The officials demonstrated all the remaining, unused, ballots to the observers, and then all seven of them walked outside and burned them (so no one could cast an extra ballot). Then they opened the box of Presidential ballots and counted them all out onto the table. 269, which is how many their records showed had voted that day (265 local, plus the three workers and policeman). Then they returned all the ballots to the box. They taped large sheets of paper on the wall, one for each party, each sheet with 20 rows of 15, to record the counting. Then one worker pulled out a ballot, determined how it had been voted, announced it to the crowd (while the party observers were in the room, interested community members crowded the windows and counted along), then demonstrated it to one window, the observers, the other window, and finally handed it to a second worker who double checked that the announced vote was correct and built piles for each party. The third worker marked one vote on the sheet of the announced party.

April made a video of this process. I highly recommend observing a part of the participatory election process that takes place in Panama every five years. Can you imagine this kind of interest in the United States? This video was during the Presidential count. You can see the boxes for the other three offices next to the reader.



After this, we walked back to the house, ate dinner, and I walked back again about 8:30 that night. They were in the midst of counting for Alcalde. After each race was finished, the workers summed the totals, the observers gave agreement, and the workers recorded on the official papers the votes per party, total votes, blank votes, null votes, and then they signed and the observers signed. Then they took the ballots and the sheets from the wall, and they all went outside and burned all the papers. No hanging chads around to count later.

The count for the Representante, the race the residents were most interested in, began about 9:30pm. It finished about 11. While Vielka (the independant) started off strong, Chayo collected a streak of votes and then never relinquished the lead. With their alliances only suppling a few votes to each candidate, their totals were: Chayo, 112; Vielka, 82; Paula, 35; and Efrain, 33. Some folks were very happy, some were frustrated, some were confused. Some thought the Representante should live on the island, but obviously even the majority of island voters didn't agree, so it wasn't a conspiracy of outside voters. I talked with Paula later, and she was happy; she may not have won, but her presidential candidate had won handily, and that was enough for her.

It was a long and tiring days for us, and we didn't even vote (we were taking Family Fotos as a fundraiser for the library project). But what an amazing chance to see such interested and enthusiastic involvment in the democratic election process.

A Parading Nation

(¡Lo siento! I wrote this post a while ago on November 28th, but computer gliches saved it wrong. Today is the first chance I have had to correct it, so please don´t be confused about why there was a parade today...it was Nov 28th. )

Panamanians love a parade! November is a big month of celebration in Panama. In addition to all of the national holidays:

November 3. Separation Day (from Colombia).
November 4. Flag Day
November 5. Colon Day
November 10. "Primer Grito de Independencia de la Villa de los Santos" The uprise in the Villa de los Santos against Spain.
November 28. Independence Day (from Spain)

There are local holidays as well. Every holiday gets a desfile, or parade. Large or small, November is full of parades. I was in Santiago one day and literally saw 6 parades of one float each (paying homige to the Virgin Mary) over the course of the day. Live music, marchers, some fireworks and a float and off they go to parade the streets. It happens with incredable frequency. Panamanians love to be in a parade!

Today they celebrated Independance from Spain...the official celebration are bumped to Mondays when their date falls on a Friday to make a two day weekend as many buisnesses work 6 days a week. I was lucky enough to be in town at the time and it was my first BIG parade. I had seen small one float parades...but never the full deal. This was cool. The parade was a celebration of Teachers day...and every float represented a school zone. The riena, or queen that graced the floats were teachers especially given the honor of being riena. Below are photos of some of the floats from today's parade.

Front of the float. What you can't see from this photo is that the young guys in the middle are scanily clad and painted with glitter paint so that thier skin shines an irridecent green.

Back of the same float. I really wanted the riena to turn around and put her arms around the big guys neck, but sadly that photo was not to be.

This float stopped and the band started up and all of the float followers did conga lines around the whole float for 5 minutes.

Dreaming of being a riena starts young...this girl can't be much older than 11.

I loved this one...it was the only one drawn by animals. Wonderful. They didn't even flinch at the fireworks popping off. The urn at the girls right side is full of candy for her to fling. They stopped right in front of me and she did the very picturesque job of ripping open the plasitc bag of candy and pouring it into the urn.

This ladies green fethers were something magnigicent to behold. She also gave me a great smile for the camera, but the young girl was quite sour faced.

This was a very traditional float and the dress featured is the traditional festival dress of Panama called a pollera. THey can be quite expensive...a really good one can cost more than $1000. I stand corrected, a friend of mine just told me that a good one made by hand can run $10,000.They are typically worn with enough beaded hair ornaments that you can't see much of the girls hair...it is just a mass of white beaded ornaments.

This lady had on a nagua, or the traditional dress of the Embra Indians. Hers is not as volunimous as most...most have yards and yards of material in them.

Girls in the pollera style typical for young girls. I guess it takes a while to accumulate all of those hair ornaments. Those flowers can cost $6.00 a set (they are made of intricate beads). A set includes one for each side of the head. My best guess is that the girl in the center has on three sets. Her head will be almost covered by the time she is 18 if she keeps collecting.

Cute girls riding in a car behind a float. I don´t know if the rest of thier outfit was cute or not...the windows were tinted and you couldn´t see a thing. I couldn´t help but wonder what the point was of this car being in the parade at all, but thier heads were cute.

An example of a small float. These are typical of the smaller parades as well. Not to ignore you gents out there: the man in this float is sporting the tradional 4 pocket dress shirt that is common in some central American courties, including Panama. He also has the traditional sombrero (hat) of Panama on. I really should do a post on what is a Panama hat because what most of you reading call a Panama hat is not the real deal.

Here is a nice heafty headress...when she wasn't waving she was holding it on and she was smiling the whole time.

A closeup so you can enjoy her outfit and smile.

This is my favorite of all the headdresses....look close to see the 8inch mirror ball that is part of the headdress. She was smiling for the camera, but not all the rest of the time...it was hot out there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

Despite heavy rains, flooding, emergency action plans and general difficulties, the majority of the PCVs in Panamá managed to have a good Thanksgiving. We managed to move the location of our gathering by more than 200 miles to get out of the flood impacted areas and still get 3/4 of the attendees to show up and eat the feast. Kevin and I were the head cooks and in charge of the kitchen and all things related to food. It was kind of like running a search and rescue command base but with taste testing. Because we were taking over the kitchen of the hotel they said that they did not want to provide any other food service...so we ended up providing 3 meals= dinner Wednesday, breakfast Thursday, and Thanksgiving. It was a marvel of team work that was wonderful to be part of.

The hotel treated us brilliantly. They moved an extra stove in from the owners house for us...giving us two slightly smaller than USA stoves to work with. They cleared shelves and a frigerator. They stayed out of the way but close enough to answer questions and to ask some of thier own. Even with all of thier help I was worried about how things would turn out...I ended up making the pie crusts without any measuring cups to help me...and I am not a pie expert. But everything ended up well. There were tons of compliments and very few complaints (mostly about the pie not being amoung the leftovers).

We made 4 turkeys, 3 hams, 40 lbs of brocolli, 45 lbs of mashed potatoes,vegitarian lentil loafs, cranberry sauce, stuffing, 8 "pumpkin" (zapollo squash really but tastes the same) pies from scratch, two large apple cranberry crisps, herbed butter, turkey gravey, ham gravey, veggie gravey, and orange juice, hot chocolate from local Panamanian chocolate, and real whipped cream.
We had the perfect amount of turkey and ham and pie. Everything else had a bit of extra...but the PCVs shared with the hotel staff and everyone kept nibbling until midnight. Many ate leftovers for breakfast.

Needless to say, we were exahusted the day after. The last of the pies came out of the oven at midnight on Wednesday and the hams went into the oven at 6 am on Thursday.
A good safe time was had by all. Well, the guy who was silly enough to make a bet over a football game had some not-so-fun moments as he paid up on the bet (which was to have his back waxed...silly boy...what was he thinking?). We even had a random couple of American travelers pay into the pot and join us for the meal.

So we are thinking of you all. We are very thankful for you our family and friends.We miss green bean casserol, and sweet potatoes...but we can hold out hope for those and the hugs that make Thanksgiving such a powerful holiday in 2009.

Flooding

Just a quick note to address the flooding that you may have heard about on the news.

Yes, there has been signifigant flooding and some landslides in Western Panama. There has been both loss of property and life in the regions of Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro.

Kevin and I are safe. Our community will likely not be impacted at all as we have great drainage to the gulf. Other PCVs and thier communities are impacted, mostly in thier ability to travel.

Our thanksgiving day plans have been changed to a location that is less impacted by the rains. So life is good.

On the front lines of a quiet culture war (sea turtles)

This past week I had a very turtlely week and learned of a quiet battle that is being faught every night on the dark beaches of this lovely country. Please excuse the lack of photos...a sore point as I lost some great shots with the theft of my camera from my hotel room.

I spent my week traveling to learn more about sea turtles in order to teach about them in my community of fishermen. Sea turtles are an important part of the ocean ecology, and not all that well understood because of the range of thier travels, the lenght of their life span, and the difficulty in following an aquatic animal in the world´s oceans (especially when they are too small/young to tag). All 7 species of sea turtles in the world are in danger of extintion, and about 5 of the species are known to lay eggs on the coasts of Panama. These include the Olive Ridgley, Hawksbill, Green, and Leatherback, which is the largest of the turtles who´s shell alone can reach 6 feet long.

I started the trip with a visit to San San Pond Sak...which is a wetland park located in Bocas del Toro, very close (3km away) to the Costa Rica border. It is a wildlife preserve focusing on protecting both sea turtles and manatees. While in Bocas del Toro, I got to see and hold my first baby turtle, a leatherback who emerged from his nest a day or two before his siblings....so we only got to see the one baby. Oh boy, was he cute. He had his own paparazzi of people accompanying him to the sea.

(imagine a couple of photos of a turtle baby here)

The egg laying season was finished on the Caribean side...so I went home with my friend and fellow PCV Cassie to her site in Veraguas, on the Pacific side. Together we did some work, some teaching, and went walking the beach in the middle of the night looking for turtle eggs. Sea turtles in Panama face many risks here in addition to the natural risks found in the wild, including:

• human consumtion of eggs (also collected to sell at $1 for 3 eggs for eating)


• dogs eating eggs


• removal of sand from beaches for making cement for construction


• eating turtles for thier meat


• getting accidentaly caught in gill fishing or lobster nets
  

In Cassie´s community there is a small group of people who walk the beaches to collect turtle eggs and protect them in a fenced area of sand. Your typical turtle nest has 100-120 eggs and is burried 12-20 inches deep. They are at the greatest danger from humans the 1st 24 hours after they are laid when the tracks made by the mother still are visible. Each night there were more footprints in the sand in the middle of the night than at any other time of day.

In my three nights of walking the beach I saw about 8 sets of turtle tracks who´s nests had already been robbed. One night I got up at 12:40am and walked with Cassie. We saw 4 nests that I don´t think were robbed but we did not manage to locate the nests to collect eggs. The rising tide was limiting our time...it was raising a river between us and bed. The river went from knee to belly botton hieght in the time we were out there.

While walking back to the river we encountered a turtle who had arrived while we were down the beach a ways. She was just finished laying and in the process of covering the nest up when we arrived. She was not a very large turtle...we couldn´t measure her as she was not in her egg laying state any more when we appoached. It was awsome to sit in the weak moonlight and watch her finish shuffeling and packing sand to cover and hide her nest. We then walked behind her as she went to sea.

(imagine a photo of a green turtle and me here)

After she departed we used a stick to poke the sand and figure out were the nest was...it took 4 trys to find it as she had already filled it in when we arrived. We then collected her eggs (suffering 40ish bug bites along that tender strip of back that shows when your shirt rides up as a reward for my efforts leaning over the nest). We carried them back to the protected area (including wading the now waist high river) and reburied them at the same depth in the same within the fence.

(Imagine a photo of a dirty happy bugbitten April with a while pingpong ball sized egg in her gloved hand here)

All in all, three nests were collected for protecting in my three days of walking the beach. The turtle volunteer group estimated that 15 nests were lost to poachers or dogs while I was visiting. Add those losses to the following facts and you start to see why this is an important issue for the species:

• 1 turtle hatchling in every 1000 lives long enough to reproduce. This is one egg for every 10 nests. For Leatherbacks the number is closer to 1 in 10,000.
• Turtles don´t lay eggs every year....they sometimes skip 1-2 years between laying.
• A turtle must live 9-40 years before it can reproduce...most species averaging 23-25 years before they reach sexual maturity.

Add all the above together and a turtle must survive to reproductive age and lay 10 nests over the course of years in order to beat the odds so that one of her offspring survives.

We saw and talked to a couple of people who were walking the beach to illegally collect eggs. In some cases they responded with exactly what I expected...denigal that they were out to collect eggs (as if walking the beach with a stick in hand...used to poke and feel for the nest... at 2am is normal Panamanian behavior and had nothing to do with turtles). We also got told that the eggs collected were for personal consumtion and not for sale. There are Panamanians out there who don´t have enough food and turtle eggs can be an addition to the diet...but I think that they are the exception, not the majority.

It is a quiet and secrative war being faught over turtles and thier eggs...but yet there are nightly manuvers on both sides. There are very few confrontations in the night. The local volunteers lack the authority to do anything other than talk and it is hard to do when it is your nieghbor you are addressing. The authorities lack the resouces to be out observing and enforcing with frequency. Thus, at the moment the poachers are winning and the world´s turtles are losing.

Stay tuned...this is surely not my last visit to the turtle beaches of Panama...and I am deturmined to get sea turtle pictures!

Olympic Update

For those of you who are watching the Olympics you may have seen the Olympic moment that has rocked this istmas....

Ships in the canal blew their horns and people in Panama City streamed out onto the streets cheering at 9am on August 18th when Panamanian long-jumper Irving Saladino's clinched Panama's first gold medal ever. This gold is Panama's third Olympic medal ever -- the only other medals were by sprinter Lloyd Labeach who won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m sprints in 1948.

Not only were there celebrations...but the whole nation took the day off last Thursday the 21st to celebrate the victory. Schools, goverment offices and some stores were closed. So far the only parts of the olympics that I have seen are 300 replays of the gold medal cerimony, one competitor for syncronized swimming, the men´s 2000 meter race, and a couple of women throwing/hurling heavy balls attached to cords. All in all an interesting experience.

The most interesting part of the coverage was that some of the channels that carried the awards cerimony for Saladino blacked out (literally with a big black digital square) the head of the man who placed the the medal on Saladino on the olympic podium. I never did get a clear answer there...but it seems that there was some contraversy over wether Panama´s Olympit athletes would get funding to aid thier trip...and this guy was part of it. Very strange. I don´t know if I will ever understand clearly why he deserved to go headless in the eyes of some TV executives here.

The best part was seeing the medal ceremony when they played the national anthem of Panama. I have always been a weepy sap for the national anthem of the USA... I feel the emotion well up everytime I hear it, even more so for special events like Olympic victory. It was funny (in a good way) to see the medaling ceremony for Saladino and find myself having the same emotional responce for Panama and their national anthem. No, I can´t sing it all...I don´t really want to. But I do feel enough connection to feel the welling up of happieness and pride like that.

I doubt that I will see much more of the games...but I have managed to hear that Phelps is rocking the swimming world again. Congratulations to both Saladino and all the other athletes who are wowing the world.

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.

Olympics sightings?

This one is dedicated to Todd in thanks for his excellent question.

Yes, the olympics have started...or so we have been told. I wouldn´t know anything about that other than Panama does have a team representing in the games (at least that is what people in the States have told us when we talked)....and that is the full sum (to date) of my Panama olympic team knowledge.

I am guessing that some of my nieghbors are watching the winter version of the summer olympics...winter because of all the snow they will see from the bad TV reception that they get out in our neck of the world. Also, the only TVs on the isla are small (9inch) black and white TVs...so the snow doesn´t help an already tough situation. However, some people can and do watch a limited amount of TV. Remember their electricity is from solar panels and if the charge for the day runs out....no lights tonight. They can and do run generators as well...but gas ain´t cheep here these days.

We can listen for news of the olympics...and read papers. We sometimes have access to TV with cable in hotels. I have faith that if any athletes from the USA do anything termendous (or termendously stupid) word will trickle to us from our community...it usually does. Since they can keep up with all the radio guys say in rapid spanish, they have more patience to listen for more news than I can.

So, if you are watching the olympics out there...please do chear for Pamana when you get the chance!!

Spay Panama

I just had the opportunity to spend the day at a wonderful place...so of course I want to tell you all about it. I spent the day volunteering at Spay Panama. Together with a group of other volunteers, Patricia Chan (wonderful lady below) opened Spay Panama in 2001.

Spay Panama's mission is to put a stop to the misery by controlling the overpopulation of cats and dogs through an intensive sterilization program. Spay Panama is a spay and release clinic. They work mainly with street animals that are caught, spayed and then re-released into the area where they were caught.

Yes, having them adopted or sheltered would be better, but the reality is that this is not realistic for many of the animals that have grown up on the street...and people looking to adopt are not as common as one would want.

The clinic has a wonderful facility in a converted house in a central neighborhood in Panama. They have a dog bathing area, cat and dog kennels, a surgery prep room, operating room, lounge, kitchen and office space. The cat room is shown below. Everything is wonderfully clean and taken care of. This is one of the best run organizations that I have seen in my time in Panama!Volunteer help is key to Spay Panama. Volunteer veternarians and vet students do the proceedures. Regular dedicated volunteers are used to help with moving animals, weighing, tagging, holding and giving injections, shaving/sterilizing the operation area, monitoring health, sterilizing tools, providing additional health care to animals before they wake back up. Each dog and cat is not only spayed or neutered, they also have their ears cleaned, eyes checked and cleaned, and are treated for fleas and mange. They are marked as spayed with an ear tatoo for dogs and an ear clip for cats.Sometimes there are 6 operations going on at once in the operations room. This place runs like clockwork. While I was there they did 6 spays for animals brought in by their owners (a small donation is requested of animal owners who come in, but is not mandatory for those who can't pay it.). They also did 17 dogs from the streets of Arrijan...a town about 45 minutes West of Panama City. Those dogs were brought in by a concerned community member who rounded them up and brought them in. They finished up with 6 kittens...one of them also got his hernia fixed. I was amazed...but they just told me that this was a fairly slow day.

Below are dogs in recovery, they wake up an 1/2 hour - hour after the proceedure.
Below is my host in Panama city, Devon, who introduced me to Spay Panama. She volunteers weekly. Devon loves seeing and helping all the animals so much she isn't even bothered by the fleas and dirt.
What would a story about Spay Panama be without a cute and kitty photo and a plea to please support a shelter through adopting an animal or donating time or money.

If you wish to donate (tax-deductible, they are a 501(c)3) to Spay Panama you can through their webpage: http://www.spaypanama.org/ About 1/2 of their operating budget comes through donations...and more are needed.
This is Petis...I really wanted to take her home. I am still in spouse-to-spouse negotiations on this subject. Isn't she cute...and she purrs up a storm.

Remember, some animal affection is good for the heart....in more ways than one!

The morning "carpool"

Part 2 in the "What is your commute like?" series...adventures in transportation with Peace Corps volunteers in Panama.



This morning (July 3) I carpooled...well boatpooled really... with 14 other people to get to port.
Kevin and I have a meeting at 9:00am on Friday the 4th of July in Santiago- our closest big town. It is a normal regularly scheduled meeting...quarterly. Normal work kind of meeting. Here is how we got there:

First we asked around to all of our neighbors and community members: "Do you know anyone who is traveling to port on Thursday or Friday?" Typically I will ask this question of 10-20 people before figuring out how I am getting off the island...or how I am not getting off the island because no one is going close to when we need to go. People are helpful with finding a ride when they can be...they know that they will be in the same situation soon.

This time I got lucky and one of my good friends knew of 2 possible rides for Thursday...one of the first people I asked! Score! I got even luckier when one of the guys going came to her house while we were there and we got to ask him directly...double score!!! Then he offered us a boat ride home...saving us a 2 hour wait for the ocean tide to go down so that we could walk the 50 minutes home...put all of those together and it is the equivalent of winning the isla lottery.

The next step after finding the ride is getting ready to go. Here are some of the steps that we go through when we leave our house empty for more than a day:

• Put all the kitchen stuff into the back room (food, pots, dishes, soap...everything)


• Hang all the landry I didn´t get to wash yet from the rafters to protect from mold


• Bring in the hammocks


• Clean and fill the hummingbird feeders


• Close the toilet down with a fresh layer of sawdust, empty the pee container, and properly dispose of TP


• Give away any veggies that will go bad while we are gone


• Pack clothes and stuff


• Go over the "to do" lists and make sure we have everything we need...no turning around for forgotten items


• Write a note for each of the two closest neighbors saying when we are leaving, returning and our phone number so they don´t worry about us (unless we don´t appear on time...then they will call PC and ask about us)
  

Our ride out this time was a madrugada ride. Madrugada means early morning...usually before 5am. This ride was scheduled to leave at 3am. Yup, 3am sounds painful, but some of the best rides are this early...cooler, no sun, less chance of rain (most island boats do not have roofs) and you get a full day in town to get stuff done. Of course, this also means that I am ready for my nap at 9am (cutting into that time to "get stuff done"). In light of the departure time, we completed the "leaving checklist" before going to bed at 9pm last night.

At 2:30 this morning the alarm went off...it was painful. To make it just a bit more fun we could hear rain on the roof of the house - so much for less chance of rain. We got up and got dressed and put together the last of our things. As I got ready, I thought to myself "I bet he arrives at 3:38". Guessing when the ride will really get there is a regular game with us as they don´t often depart on time.

We were ready at 3:00...ready enough that we got a hammock back out to wait in. At 3:15 we had a snack to settle the tummy rumbles. Several times we thought we heard the motor of the boat in the distance...but it was either a different crazy madrugada boat or dillusions. Later when we really did hear the boat coming up we grabbed our stuff and headed down the 70 yard long trail to the shore...I checked my watch and what do you know? Spot on at 3:38.

We were the closest neighbors of the guy who was going to port...so we were the first passengers picked up. Today most people were going to a meeting with the local govenment, we were just lucky enough to tag along. After we got in, the boat headed south (port is north) to go around the island picking up everyone else. Usually we are among the last people picked up as we live on the side closest to port; but today we got the pleasure of waiting in the boat (in the rain and dark) for everyone else to come out of their houses. At 5:42am the last of the other 13 passengers loaded the boat.

The ride was not all bad. Yes, I was tired, wet, chilly and cranky and my rear end hurt from the hard bench...but I have to say that the water around the boat this morning was full of bio-luminescence. When the boat was moving the water wake of the boat shone blue, it looked like there was a light shining in the water under us, like a lit up pool. As we sat and waited for others the raindrops hitting the water caused spots of bio-luminescence to appear and disappear....it looked like the water was a field of teal fireflies, or kind of like all the flashbulbs in a stadium at a major event. When I trailed my fingers in the water they set off sparks of bio-luminescence, like mini fireworks trailing my fingers.

(Photo from Flicker user: The Gentle)

After we picked up the last passenger, the actual ride to port was about an hour long (raining all the way) and we all sat bumping each other as we huddled down behind our various umbrellas and plastic sheets, wishing the whole way that we could just fall asleep. We arrived at about 7:00am. At three and a half hours from when we got into the boat, the ride was a bit longer than normal because of the round the isla detour to pick up everyone.

The boat ride can cost from $0-$25. Zero if you go with a friend and they don´t want your gas money, $2-3 with a friend who will take the gas money, and $25 if you have to pay the taxiboat guy to come and get you. We tend to average at the $2-3 ride price, but we have gotten free and $25 rides too.

After arriving at port, we got on a bus...the easy part of the commute. The bus costs $1.10, but sometimes the guy will give you an even $1 change rather than $.90. The busses leave frequently and often feature loud music with accordians and torturous DJs talking/singing over the music. More about busses in a different post.

My clothes are now dry and I am tired. Time to seek out a nap if Kevin is ready to get off the computers. I am just glad that I don´t have to travel off island for all my work. I will have to share photos of my on-island commute another time.

Be careful out there on your commute! Wear your life jacket!

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.

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!

World Series in Panama

Last week was the World Series.

Well, the Panama version.

Even though the entire country is the area of South Carolina and has just 3 million people, there are about 9 to 12 teams in the Major League here, one (or more) from each province, and they can be pretty fanatical about their teams and province identity. Veraguas, our province, is Los Indios, or the indians, and you'll see hats looking very much like the Cleveland Indians on a lot of folks; one of our friends has a hat with the Indian on the front and "Clevenland" - with an extra "n" - on the back, possibly a misprint from the US. (I don't know for sure the number of teams because we don't have TV or listen to the games on the radio much, and it is never clear to me which provinces have combined teams, and which have more than one.)

The season isn't long, starting sometime in January or so, after the youth leage has played their games after the rains stopped, and finishing in mid-April. This year, Veraguas apparently made it into the championships. And we were in Santiago, our provincial capital, on the night of Game 6. We had to win to stay in. We were downtown, and found out that they (not sure who "they" are) had set up two Huge Screen TVs and massive speakers (you must have things very loud for some reason) for folks to watch the game. Probably 250 people had collected to watch, groan, cheer, and yell as the game progressed.

Here is the scene in the square sometime in the second inning.

In the end, Veraguas lost the game and Los Santos won the championship. But we enjoyed watching the families and people watching the game.

Taking it one small smile at a time

When I imagined Peace Corps, and what it would be like, the images in my mind fell into two catagories:


The Challenges - including, but not limited to: bugs, language, diarrea, strange food that still has hair on it, bugs, distance from family, crowded buses, hard physical work. All of those imaginings have been true to some extent, fortunately not all at the same moment (although I can imagine a possible senario that involves them all!)














(Caption: April carrying two twelve-foot-long, five-inch-wide, bamboo logs, a mile from the bamboo groove to the shore)

The "Peace Corps" Moments - including: walking along wooded paths in an exotic place while comfortably speaking the native language with a local friend; a spontaneous hug from a local child; being really dirty, tired, and happy after a day of working on a subsistance farm; being greeted with a phrase I taught in English class; watching someone try out a new skill that I taught them. PC moments also include the moments that, while not altogether positive, are moments that you just could have never imagined you would expereince...and never outside PC.

I have found that the reality of Peace Corps is peppered with a mix of these moments, of course. What I didn't realize was just how powerful the "Peace Corps" moments would be....and that I would have to remember to look for and celebrate them. At times these moments are the only indications that we have of success, and they help us to keep on working and planning for the future.

So, I want to share a couple of "Peace Corps Moments" that have helped us to stay energized and focused.

Bread Boy

We did environmental activities two days a week throughout February with the older kids during school vacation. For one day's discussion about the economy of buying larger sizes of common products both from a money and a trash point of view, we baked bread (mini rolls with herbs really), using the time for the dough to rise to do the math on what sizes to buy. That day we had 5 boys and one girl. Well, boys don´t cook in Panama...so when we announced what we were doing to the group, all heads swiveled immediately to her. She had never baked anything either so that wasn´t going to be the saving grace they hoped for.

(Caption: Both teams at the stove, wrangling their ingredients; Julian, Bread Boy, is in the white Tshirt at the far end)

We posted the recipe on the wall and formed two teams. They proceeded to make the dough with some minimal guidance. Well, of the two teams' efforts, one rose nicely (taste tests indicated that the other had way too much salt). They baked nicely and were all consumed (even the hard salty bread rocks).

Making bread was fun, but what has really made this a PC moment was that one of the boys came over later the same day and asked to borrow some of the ingredients to make some at his house. I went over a little later to check on him and he was making bread surrounded by relatives (giving him some grief about his efforts). He did fine. I thought that it was pretty brave of him to try it out at home despite cultural norms and the number of extended family who where around to tease him. He has since baked bread 2 other times, each time bring over a peice to share and get advice from me for next time.
(Captions: Members of one team kneading their ingredients, which included too much salt)

Overheard
One day Kevin and I were walking the shore to a friend´s house (about a 1 1/2 hour walk), stopping and talking with other people along the way. One spot we stopped and talked with a woman and her visiting adult children for 5 minutes and then moved on because of the hot sun. As we walked away we overheard her start to explain to her visiting daughters what was an Estufa Lorena. We had talked to her a couple of times about estufas. Wow, it felt good to hear her start to talk about it with real knowledge to another person (with no help or prompting from us). She wasn't talking to impress us, just to share information that she knew. It felt good to get some solid proof that someone has absorbed some new information and is thinking about it.


Full Moon Moment

I hope that everyone got to see the recent lunar eclipse. Kevin and I almost missed it just from not knowning it was coming (we hadn't been listening to the radio). Fortunately we talked with relatives that night and they alerted us. We ended up spending a couple of hours sitting up with the neighbor boys watching and photographing the eclipse. What made it a real PC moment was getting to explain to them, with fists and flashlights, what was happening. Yes, you can do that in the states too...but the difference is that in the states they could go inside and learn it on TV or the internet. Not only are those not possible in my community, but it is likely that their parents don't know what was really happening...and possible that their teacher doesn't know as well. (It is also easier to sit outside for hours on a February night.)

(Caption: A mostly eclipsed view of the moon from Panamá)

Little books, Big steps
I knew that people in our community would be interested in us, but I didn't realize that that would mean random children showing up at random times to sit and stare at me and not respond to questions I ask. Sometimes they sit and stare for more than an hour. It can kind of drive me crazy. One day I wanted nothing more than to keep reading...not interact with a kid who may or may not respond. So I went into the house and got out a small kids book written in Spanish we had purchased to practice, handed it to her, and then went back to my reading. It worked...she read it and didn´t stare for a while.

(Caption: Now her younger sister is reading the books, and sometimes we get them to read to the younger kids too)

The next day that she came over I did the same thing with another book. Again she read it. I kept giving her one small book a day until she had read them all. Then I gave her a small chapter book...she seem daunted by its size. Next thing I knew she was chuckling to herself over the story. Three days later she had read the whole book.

I am starting to hand the books to other kids now and I am thinking of doing an after-school story hour just to encouage literacy. Pleasure reading is not common in Panama as books are very expensive. I will buy more books while out in town, but only 3-4 of them because of the price. Bookstores and libraries are not very common, there is only one of each in Santiago.


We hope we continue to have these little moments throughout our service; they are definately what we will remember years from now as our true Peace Corps impact.