December 12, 2010

One of the biggest holidays in Panama was Wednesday, Mother’s Day. They celebrate Mother’s Day on the 8th of December as a national holiday and the country closes down. Thus, a day off from school. Would have been really great except it started raining Tuesday about 10:00 pm and rained all night, and all day Wednesday (did someone tell me the dry season started??). Sometimes it poured, sometimes it was heavy, sometimes the skies opened up. Amazing!! Absolutely amazing! Still warm. At one point, I just had to go out and walk even though it was raining. Kinda nice really if you don’t mind getting soaked. But, we figured it was “just” the tropics, except that we found out the Panama Canal was closed due to flooding and it was the first time it has been closed in 20 years. Guess it really WAS a lot of rain. So all schools throughout the country were closed for Thursday as well. Tough for high school kids as final exams begin next Tuesday. Really, like any of the kids cared?
We were warned. We were warned that if you wanted normal sliced bread during the holiday season you couldn’t get it during Christmas. I guess all the bakeries stop production and only make this wreath bread (a sweet bread) for the holidays. So we went to a store today (the 8th) to get some and put it in the freezer for our company. I figured the 8th was probably way too early and I hate to freeze bread. But the shelves in the major grocery store we went to were completely void of normal bread. There were piles of this Christmas wreath bread in 2 pound, 5 pound, 10 pound packages! But doubt that ham and cheese would be all that tasty on it. So hopefully PriceSmart (Costco) has some this weekend. Who would have thought on the 8th! Oh well, can’t say I wasn’t warned.
We haven’t had our air conditioner on now for the past week. Even my neighbor said it was the coldest here that she ever remembers and she was born and raised here. Really, very pleasant. All the windows opened, still in shorts, but sometimes I need to put on a T-shirt with sleeves (rather than sleeveless). Can’t imagine where you would go to get warmer. We are at sea level and practically on the equator.
Our school had a “civil day” Friday. Since uniforms are required by the government for EVERY school kid in every school, each school is allocated a few “civil days” during the year where they can wear something other than uniforms. So our kids got to wear red and green.
Another interesting school fact. The government will not allow a student to receive a zero on an assignment if he / she turns it in. So a five page essay with nothing on it but an incomplete sentence has to be awarded a grade of a 40 or 50 percent (whatever the school determines). Kids certainly have THAT figured out, but it is government policy.