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!