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!

AK-Panama blog now open to all!

To celebrate our year anniversary in Panama we have decided to celebrate by opening up the blog to free access to all. You will no longer need a password…and you can tell others to visit the blog without complications. Just go to:

www.ak-panama.blogspot.com

and you should get right in without being asked for a password.

We originally password protected it to be able to be more free with what we could write and to protect it from spammers. We have found in the majority of cases we write what we want and it is not sensitive enough to warrant password protection. Yes, there are some issues that we want to write about that could deserve password protection when posted. However those are issues that after thinking long and hard about how to write about them I end up stuck on the how to say it all…so I will keep mulling it over and see where we end up.

Please feel free to share the blog site with family, friends, co-workers and strangers alike. We are still writing to connect with family and friends...but every person we reach is a sucess for our Peace Corps goals. Thanks for sharing this adventure with us. Also, keep the questions and comments coming....it helps us to know what we need to write about next!

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.