Monday July 19, 2010

Started my immigration process Friday. We did find the building, even without an address. Guess you learn to find places here just by noting landmarks. There was no parking lot (never is, since most folks take a cab or bus), so we had to park several blocks away at a strip mall. Found out there was a parking lot. It was the grassy area between the roadways out front. Meanwhile, there was a huge line already in place about twenty minutes before the immigration office even opened. The lawyer’s assistant met us there to help us through the “simple” process. Apparently, this day was just a baby step to the real thing. It was quite interesting because the lawyer’s assistant knew not a word of English. He would just smile and nod when we tried to say something (be it in Spanish (our version of Spanish) or English). The immigration clerk knew very little English, so it was a struggle just to figure out information that I needed to give her. You learn to play a wonderful game of charades. Now I have to wait for a few weeks for the next step.
It has been a great weekend. We were invited to a birthday party Saturday night at the local Elks lodge. Only knowing three people that were there, I had the opportunity to meet lots of new folks. It was a bastion of English speaking residents, so we didn’t have our typical communication difficulties.
Ace and I were taking a long walk yesterday and a gal stopped me to ask ME a question. She obviously didn’t realize I had no answers. She had just arrived from Costa Rica and was here to study for a week. To get her answers, I did suggest that I could walk her to place I knew had people in it on a Sunday afternoon that she could talk to in Spanish and maybe get an answer. I had such a good time because what I considered “short” walk took us about 30 minutes. The entire time she was trying to teach me some Spanish when she wasn’t complaining about how far we were walking. Ok, guess my walking reputation has yet to reach Latin America. I told her I had been in Costa Rica the past five years and in her hometown of San Jose. She asked me where I was. When I mentioned La Carpio, her face just dropped. Granted, La Carpio are the slums where we minister. And I neglected to mention it was a mission’s trip. La Carpio is not the scenic place to visit in that beautiful county.
My school meetings begin Friday. I was just thinking that I BET I won’t have that video from OSHA that I would have to watch for the 20th time about hand washing! And I bet I don’t have to watch OSHA’s video on blood bore diseases this year. Panama doesn’t seem to have all the rules and regulations as in the states. I love learning year after year to wash my hand for 4 minutes and then realize that I only have about 4 seconds to accomplish the job between classes. It will be just so interesting to see how my meetings differ from CHCA’s meetings. Stay tuned!