November 28, 2010

There is an empty lot in our neighborhood and people are building a house. Available lots are VERY difficult to come by, because so much of the land is “protected jungle” as a watershed for the canal. So needless to say, it is beautiful to see all the jungle, but the price of even a tiny piece of land is out of sight. Anyway, the pictures attached show what I guess is their answer to not renting a porta potty for the time the house is being built. One day, we saw a toilet installed where the sewer pipes were, the next day the pieces of wood surrounding it. Now really, I do hope they put wall up before anyone uses it. So far, haven’t seen a workman “visit” what is there.
Went to dinner last night with some friends. They have previously lived in Taiwan, Africa, Ecuador and now Panama. So we, as typical of our conversations, are marveling about how the people drive like crazy people here! Our friends, on the other hand, tell us how “sane” the drivers are compared to other parts of the world! All about perspective, I guess. But even Wayne has started looking at the 8 sided signs that say “ALTO” (STOP) and just slowing down. There is fear that if he actually did stop, he would be rear-ended for doing something so unexpected. I have yet to see anyone actually STOP at one of them unless absolutely necessary (like a big bus coming into the intersection). Thankfully, they do stop at the red lights. Or at least they do after several taxis have moved on through.
Have been warned to stay away from the malls for the next month and a half due to the crowds. The mall by our house is bigger than any mall in Cincinnati and they are adding another 100 more stores and a casino to it. Lots of casinos here. Haven’t been to one (don’t really care to go to one), but they are certainly around if one wishes to gamble. Lots and lots of toy stores. Someone told me that the “helicopter” parenting practice actually began in Latin America. Malls in Panama have many more toy stores than most malls I have been in. Many people are dragging suitcases on wheels around with them while shopping. My first thought was there must have been a big sale on luggage, until lately I have discovered, they buy so much during their shopping trips that they need a suitcase. Maybe, some of them come from the interior and only shop occasionally. Guess you have to make do, if you have no car and must take the bus or taxi everyplace. Wonder what people do with all their “stuff”. Homes are “tiny” and haven’t see those storage units that are everyplace in the US, yet.
Speaking of storage units. There are motels here that are called “push buttons”. I thought they might be a storage unit when we passed one, but they aren’t. You drive up, look for an open “garage door”, pull your car in, close the door, and then pay through an automatic machine for a hotel room for a certain number of hours. You go into your hotel room directly from the garage. Later, you will get a call when your time is up, so you either pay more or get out. You can have food or drinks delivered via a “dummy waiter”, so you won’t be seen if you wish. Guess you can figure out what these rooms might be for, but one of the gals that I met that grew up here said it also was a place for high school kids to go drink.
Flowers are blooming here every day. Guess the end of the rainy season brings out more of God’s beauty. The ones in the pictures just came out right by our apartment. I look at them at the end of November with amazement.

November 26, 2010

Messed up my knee again, which is typical for me. So, I went to a store to try to find a knee brace. Found one that would work, but the package had a large label that said “Knee Warp” (not wrap). I guess the packaging company made a BIG error in the development of the package and they then decided to sell the product in a country where people likely don’t understand enough English to know the difference.
November is the “Independence Holiday” month in Panama. One holiday is for Panama’s independence from Columbia, another for a “Call to Freedom”, yet another for their freedom from Spain. Apparently, there were many parades (again, parades are very popular here) in which all the school children and teachers marched (all the public school children and teachers, that is). The president of Panama expressed his indignation at private schools for their absence from these parades. So now, he wants to force all kids and teachers of private school (i.e. international schools) to march next year as well. So the Ministry of Education is working on regulations that will require all private school students and teachers to participate in the parades in order “to encourage civic sentiment”. If they don’t, then those schools will not have their diplomas recognized by the government. Hummm, wonder how that will play out??
People shovel snow from their sidewalks in the states, down here we have seen folks power wash their sidewalks. Guess you don’t realize how dark they can get with mold and crud because of all the tropical rains. Goodness, there is a difference between before and after. When it is raining, they can be a little slick, at least to run. I certainly can’t run anymore with bad knees, but Wayne can. And the chance of getting caught in the rain is pretty high, but with the heat, it is actually inviting. However, we wish everyone washed their sidewalks, but like in the states, just “some” shovel them and down here in Panama, just some power wash.
Guess we had probably the most interesting Thanksgiving Day of our lives. I had to get up at my regular time and go to WORK!!! Our school only had a half day of school, then at 1:00 (when the kids got out), the church/school served turkeys, while the rest of staff brought side dishes. We had a marvelous Thanksgiving meal and gathering that lasted most of the afternoon. We could have attended another dinner at 4:00, but were way too stuffed and tired to do the food thing again. Came home and put on my shorts and sleeveless top and went for a pleasant walk instead. How great is that for November 25th. However, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), there is no Black Friday mania in Panama.
Ended the evening with a SKYPE vist from our adorable granddaughter! Can't wait to see her in just a couple weeks. Great day even with working!

November 21, 2010

Beautiful, beautiful night last night. We had all of our windows and doors open to sleep. Easy and safe to do since we live behind bars!! But about midnight, our neighbors were having a party and was it ever loud! Had to shut the windows and turn on a fan in order to sleep. Even then, it was still loud. People here are so sweet, yet they just don’t seem to have that decency to understand they just may be disturbing other people. The party went on all night, as I guess most parties do in this country. When Ace and I left for a walk this morning, there were a lot of cups, bottles and cans in the street and gutter. I wondered if anyone would pick them up, since tossing trash around seems to be OK in their minds, but they were out this afternoon gathering the left-over trash from their party. Thankfully.
We went to an area of Panama City today to wander around, which would not be considered “gringo-ville”. In fact, we were there for close to four hours and didn’t recognize another gringo anyplace. A couple of little girls we noticed were just starring at us, so I imagine there aren’t many gringos that visit the area. But what fun we had. It was just so interesting. Street vendors all over. In the five months we have been here, we have only seen one or two people in total that were begging. Most others at least try to get out and sell something. They grab a little area on the sidewalk (and sometimes in the street itself), set up their little table and sell whatever they have or can get. Such fun to see all the locals out getting their weekly groceries. We found a place to park in the parking lot of a big store (rather like a super Wal-Mart of sorts), but the parking lot was very small for the size of the store. So you know that most of the people that are shopping there either walk, take the buses (25 cents a ride) or even a taxi. In wandering around the area, I saw a rack of khaki pants for a dollar a piece. They looked American, so checked a little further. Amazing brands - Dockers, Liz Claiborne, Talbot, Brooks Brothers, etc. Couldn’t believe it. Looks like the store gets containers of leftovers from the states or overseas factories, then the store will sort everything, place it on racks or in piles and sell it for practically nothing. I have heard you can get amazing bargains here, if you are willing to “search” through the racks and piles of stuff. It certainly is a treasure hunt.
Wayne and I went to dinner tonight on the canal. Had to include a picture to show you what I am wearing on the 20th of November! Loving these 80 degree days, when I know what the temperature is up north. There are things I miss from the states (clean streets and sane drivers), but this weather is just too good to be true.

November 18, 2010

We had an amusing morning that we have never had before. Wayne and I had our “marriage” interview today, a needed step to obtain my visa. Needless to say, I was concerned about it. I have heard such horror stories from those that have gone through it before. You can’t figure out just how it will go because the rules and procedures change all the time. Even the lawyer doesn’t know how things would work. But they have to interview you to see if you are “really” married before granting a visa. Seems simple when we have been married for 34 years, yet the hoops that others had to go through after many years of marriage didn’t make it seem simple at all. The immigration lady who interviewed us spoke very very little English and was not too pleased when the two of us show up and could speak practically no Spanish. A gentleman that I met in line, while waiting, offered to translate, but they would not allow it. So I was first, while Wayne had to wait outside the room. It was comical as she tried to ask questions in broken English and I had to write the answers on paper for her to figure out. Wayne could see through the blinds in the window and noticed I had her laughing, so realized things were going great. His interview as about half the time of mine, so we figured she was just verifying that what I had said. I don’t know, maybe it was that we were “older” and that we were the only gringos in the entire place, so they “profiled” us as not being people trying to “sneak” into the country. But an experience that I have never had, yet have seen on television. It ended up being fun.
One of my friends went to the states a couple weeks ago. Having not been there for over two years, she said they was so surprised at her first four way stop. Everyone stopped and they actually took turns at the intersection? Strange indeed!! The rule of thumb here, as someone told me the first week I was here and didn’t understand at the time, was that the person that is at least ¼ inch ahead has the right-of-way. And four way stops do not mean you actually “stop”. Now I understand. Wayne is afraid he won’t know how to drive back in the states. I watch the USA news and see the accidents because people are using their cell phones. It is totally illegal here, yet I don’t understand how anyone COULD. You need ALL your wits about you when driving. Now, if someone could convince the people here to keep their streets clean. It is so disgusting to see people throwing trash out the window of their car. Honestly, I remember people doing that way back when I was little and thinking it was “OK”. Then there was the big campaign to stop littering that I remember very well. Apparently it worked in the states. Someone should dig up those old commercials and send them down here.

November 10, 2010

Feeling very humble today about the difficulty first graders have learning how to read. A new friend (a Spanish teacher to boot – does that sound familiar??) gave me a first grade book in Spanish to practice with . So I frequently “read” to her and she corrects the words I don’t pronounce correctly. After about 10 pages (which is the entire book), I have a headache from trying too hard. Granted I am learning, but it isn’t easy! But I am trying. But these little first graders are learning how the vowels are pronounced in English one minute and then the Spanish pronunciations ten minutes later. They don’t get as confused as I do.
Interesting story I heard last week. I guess Dell along with a couple of other major companies settled on Panama as their headquarters for Latin America and tried to set up very large operations here in the past few years. But they found that, in spite of the decent salaries they paid (compared to what the average wage is in Panama), they just couldn’t find enough educated people for middle management. So, after a few frustrating years they moved out. How sad for the country. The smart, well educated kids go to the USA, Europe, or elsewhere for college and most do not return because salaries are just painfully low compared to the cost of living. And the public schools that educate the masses are just plain horrible. Apparently, the only really good paying jobs are associated with the canal, but you have to speak both Spanish and English fluently. That leaves a lot of people out of those jobs. The country has great plans for the tourism industry, the canal and other ventures, yet don’t have the people that can run them. All because of a bad educational system. All the kids that graduate from my school have to go to the states to college. I was told that after graduating from my school (which is all in English), they are not prepared to do academic work in a Panamanian college because they wouldn’t have the Spanish skill set to handle college work. Granted, they can speak it very well, but not being educated on how to write good papers, read literature, etc. in Spanish hurts them.
I was off Wednesday for another holiday. This one was for one of the first “Calls for Freedom” from Columbia or Spain or something like that. In the afternoon, we went to the local shopping mall to wander around. Actually, it was really funny because when we got into the mall we heard band music. There was actually a parade IN the mall. A rather large (and loud) marching band was parading down the concourse. Apparently, Panama is known for their marching bands and during these holidays, there are a lot of parades here and there, but IN the mall itself??? Guess you don’t have to worry about the heat, humidity or the rain when you are inside.
Christmas decorations just went up this week inside the mall. Seems strange to me to see those when I am still in shorts and sleeveless tops! Still in the upper 70’s and 80’s here. No snow in the forecast!
For everyone that see Chris, please tell him I was touched by his YouTube video he did for me. That was sweet.

November 18, 2010

Some more on the Day of the Dead. Apparently in Panama you are not allowed to purchase liquor, drink liquor, play loud music or dance on that day. So parties may start before 12:01 am but you have to keep the music down or be fined if caught. But what I thought was really interesting is that I was told lines start forming at 11:30 pm outside any establishment that sells alcohol so immediately at 12:01 they can purchase what they need. The culture here is apparently not to “plan ahead”. You know the stores will be closed one day a year so buy what you need before that day?
We had plans to head to the beach this weekend. To get to a good “tourist” beach is about a 90 minutes drive. Got to admit that is a lot better than a day and a half drive to Myrtle Beach or the Panhandle in Florida. It was a great time to go because the skies were overcast all day on Saturday. Granted, not what you might want on the beach but we could be out right by the ocean the entire day and not worry about getting burnt. We didn’t mind at all. We met a couple that were there from Canada and they were talking about the snow being on the ground when they flew out a couple days earlier. That made the weather seem all that much better. Sunday morning it rained (thankfully AFTER our long walk on the beach). We could have waited to be shuttled around by the hotel shuttle (like everyone else) or just head out and walk through the downpours and deep puddles. We opted for the later and had such fun. Like being a kid again. Not bad when you already have your bathing suit on and it is still 80 degrees. Ace found a schnauzer friend that he got to spend the weekend with. Granted it couldn’t have been as much fun as spending time with Dr. Nancy’s 4 little white doggies but more fun than a kennel.
We booked our reservations as a “Panamanian” and in order to get registered we were in a large convention room. A man came in at “checkin time” and talked for 5-10 minutes all in Spanish (wonder what he said??). Then we had to listen for our number to get registered. Needless to say we practiced and practiced saying our number (26) to each other so we would hear when they called our number (obviously in Spanish). We listened so careful yet some guy next to us had to poke me when they called for 26. Thankfully he saw our number and figured we were clueless (we were). Somehow we did get registered and did get to our room. We were the ONLY gringos in that large room filled with people.

November 3, 2010

Just read what I wrote a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t post until today. FINALLY, I have a day off. It has been a long haul without any time off from school. I have been very busy to say the least. Now, some downtime. There are four national holidays this week and we get three of them off. I guess “EVERYONE ELSE”(according to the students) got yesterday off (Tuesday). It was the Day of the Dead or something like that. You honor the dead by decorating your family’s graves. Anyway, we have a cemetery next door to the school (which I have mentioned before) where they bury the bad guys. Apparently, again, according to the kids, there have been gangs there “honoring ”a bad dead guy” and fights break out between gang members. The boys were wanting to go to the window to “look” to see what was going on all day. It was very pretty as you pass by the cemetery because there were many many flowers all over the place. But our school didn’t get off and the kids whined all day. (Obviously, kids in every country in the world are alike in that respect). Also, apparently you couldn’t buy alcohol anyplace on Tuesday, either. In the past, many people got pretty drunk “honoring” the dead. Today is Flag Day and I hope to post a picture of all the flags at the entrance to our neighborhood (an old army base). Really pretty. Tomorrow is something else and Friday is yet another holiday. Then, next Wednesday is something else again. Our neighbors across the street had a party last night, which must have been “one” of those parties that I have heard about here in Panama. It was going strong when I came home at 9:00 pm from a Bible study and, it was going even stronger at 2:30 am when I woke up and could hear thumping music thru the closed windows of my bedroom. It was STILL going strong when Ace and I left for our walk at 7:00 am this morning and again when we came home around 8:30 am. So, they do know how to party down here. Don’t know when they really ended the party, but it is now very quiet around here.
Sunday, we went down into the city after church and walked. We headed into the area where the million dollar high rises are. The building were beautiful, lobbies (from what we could see from the outside) were spectacular. One of the buildings is Donald Trump’s. It is about ready to open and I guess apartments are close to a million dollars apiece. However, with all the construction still going on at multiple high rises, the streets, sidewalks, etc. around the neighborhood are an absolute mess. Yep, there are a lot of really wealthy that live in this country, along with the massive amount of poverty.

Check the pictures. One is the NO SMOKING sign in an outdoor park. What a beautiful place to swing, right by the ocean!

Actually from Oct 24

October 24th although didn't post until today
Goodness, it has been ages since I updated this blog. I guess things just don’t seem so “weird” anymore. They finally are beginning to pick up our trash on somewhat of a regular basis. I guess the city has 50-60 trash trucks, yet most were broken down. No one wanted to pay to have them fixed.
One of the reasons the government is anxious to get all the trash picked up is the first week of November has all kinds of holidays. Finally, after 14 weeks of non-stop school without a single day off except for our “water emergency” a few weeks ago, we get a number of holidays in November. The first week of November there are four holidays, all for independence from someone or the other. I guess people go rather nuts and the officials knew there would be enormous amounts of extra trash during the holiday time, so they wanted to get ahead of the need. The local shopping mall is full of RED, WHITE, and BLUE so it must be kind of like our 4th of July. (the flag of Panama is also red, white and blue). It is of course mingled with all the orange and black for Halloween. A lot of Halloween merchandise is available, but nowhere NEAR what the states has. I asked my 8th graders if kids went trick or treating and they seem to, but with all the houses and apartments gated in with bars etc, I wonder how it is really done. Guess I will find out soon.
We went down into the city to wander around the other day. There is picture of a city park that is really beautiful. Yet the sign going into the park says “no smoking”. Interesting, as I wonder where all the people that are in the office buildings etc go to have their smoke? As I have mentioned before, I seldom see anymore smoking here, so maybe it isn’t a problem. But I don’t think I have ever seen a non smoking sign in an outdoor area in the states before. Now, if that would only translate into “no tossing trash everyplace”.

I still have a window on my computer that displays the current temperature in Cincinnati. I envy the 70 degree days there, but not the 30 something that I sometimes see in the morning. We have actually had our air conditioner off several days this month, because the temperature gets down to the mid 70’s at night. Nice to have our windows opened all night long. With a fan, we are very comfortable. We can keep our windows open all we want, because there are bars over all the windows. Very difficult for someone can break in. Also, it is not necessary to watch the weather forecast every day. “Warm, humid with a chance of showers” is all they can say. The “dry” season is about to come upon us. I guess that is when all the tourists want to come to Panama, yet the locals seem to like the wet season the best, because there are overcast days and the rain can be so refreshing. And it is!