May 23, 2011

How interesting is THIS? We lost the electrical power at school this week and life went on as NORMAL! No one got freaked out, no one seemed to care other than the fact the A/C was off and it got pretty warm. But teaching and education went on. Makes me remember in the states when all the rules and regulations have to be followed and we all went to the “safe” place in the gym where 400 teenagers were trying to knock each other down, while things “could” have been going on as normal, just without lights. And not one of the kids here said, “Will they send us home early?” Doesn’t happen here. No way could you get all the taxi drivers, etc here early to pick the kids up. All buses are these little private “school” busses. Many taxi drivers. Many parents. Very few kids drive to school. Just a few seniors is all.
We were walking the other night and right in back of us, a nanosecond after we passed under a tree, a mango came crashing down from a tree and landed with a loud thump. It was the size of a grapefruit and probably a little heavier. Mangos are everyplace, everywhere. There are some 15 varieties of mango in this city. Apparently, mangos cause many problems with allergies, especially if you are allergic to poison ivy. Even touching the leaves is bad. The pollen can be an issue as well. It causes a lot of respiratory problems. Beautiful trees and great fruit. Although some people can’t even touch the mango, they can eat it without any problems, as long as they don’t touch it with their bare hands or allow it to touch their lips.
Went to a gathering the other night at an outdoor restaurant. Dogs were allowed. Ace had a blast. But, what interesting people we met. One couple sold their house, put their stuff in a storage unit, bought a RV and have travelled for a few years now. (Guess they flew down here, though). Another couple from Austria lives on their boat and have sailed across the Atlantic several times. Me, just looking forward to an apartment with two bathrooms!
It is soccer season here. But May, being the rainiest month, means most of the games are cancelled since it pours about 2:30 every afternoon. Kids have had every game cancelled for the past three weeks. Finally, it is drying out some and make-up games mean there is a game nightly. They play on the Kiwanis Field (pronounced KEE WAN NEES in Spanish, sounds so dog gone funny to me!). Sport seasons are backward from what I know. American style football season begins about now. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in those uniforms in this heat.

Pictures from our window at the apartment. Also we went to lunch with friends from church Sunday to the Fish Market. Our boys said they saw a program on TV about Panama and the Fish Market. Downstairs was a large fish market with all sorts of fresh fish (just caught) for sale. Upstairs was an open air restaurant overlooking the ocean. Pretty cool.