May 8, 2013

Somehow May arrived.   Our dry season typically and very sadly ends around April 15. This year is different.  It still hasn’t ended and I have loved it.  These dry, low humidity days are wonderful.  Evenings are incredible, as are the mornings.  Afternoons get mighty hot and especially as the dry season continues and it seems that it has been hotter than any time since we have been here in Panama. That has been confirmed by the long time residents.  They can’t remember it ever being this hot. But with the extended dry season, there come a lot of problems.  Panama gets over 50 percent of their electricity from hydroelectric plants.  And with the lakes falling below optimal levels, electricity generation has been reduced.  So the country is taking some pretty drastic measures to conserve what power they have.  The first step was to have government offices open at 7:30 am for shortened hours.  The second, which began today, was to close all public and private schools for the remainder of the week.  So, an unexpected 3 day vacation just began today.  Yep, just like those snow days, except the weather is beautiful!   People were screaming, because casinos and malls were left open, but schools closed.   The minister of education said schools were going to reopen on Monday, but conservation measures would have to be put in place.  What that means exactly, I do not know.  But perhaps by Monday, the rains will return.   We still have about 6 weeks of school left, so wonder how this will all work out. The Panamanian public schools keep going to school through December. Their school year starts in March and ends in December. Also, tonight at 10:00 pm, everything is supposed to shut down - bars, casinos, restaurants, grocery stores, everything, until 6 am!   Wonder how that will work.  And offices etc. are not to turn the a/c on until an hour after they open. 

Earlier this year, some farmers were burning off a sugar cane field in the interior of the country.  The fire was right under a major power transmission line.  Anyway, the line overloaded, tripped the circuit breakers and the entire country (I mean the entire country) lost power.  Thankfully, we only lost our electricity for about a half hour or so, but parts of the city were blacked out for hours.  Our traffic is such a nightmare anyway, but when no stop lights were working, well, let’s just say it got worse!

I had an appointment at immigration today to get my permanent resident identification card.  Yes, no more crazy stamps in my passport to get in and out of the country when I travel.   The good thing was the immigration office opened at 7:30 am and I could easily get back to school. But, then there was no school, so not a worry anyway.  I got in and out of immigration in 45 minutes. That was a record to put in the books!! 

Pictures above are just some more of the incredible flowers that you can find here.