Ancon Hill and BYC December 2012

Beach with kids December 2012

December 9, 2012

 

Above pictures are just a few of the summer flowers (summer being December through March).

We went to a wonderful Christmas concert this afternoon at a beautiful church sitting on a hill. No a/c, so all windows were opened and the fabulous dry season breeze came blowing through.  Looking out the windows, you could see the tops of the palm trees and jungle in the background.  Still seems strange to me sitting there in my sundress and sandals listening to Christmas songs!   And to hear songs that had “snow” in them???   But we got to the concert at 1:50 (it was starting at 2:00).  But, there is no problem in Panama  getting someplace on time and finding a great seat, since the general population runs late and seats were certainly available.  It did get pretty full, but we got our pick of seats, just because we were on time!

Speaking of immigration, I was told by someone to get as much done as possible right now.  I was warned that about a year before the next election, people in government offices stop working.  Yes, they are still on the job, just that they don’t work.  In Panama, the presidential terms are 6 years and they you can not run again. So, once someone gets into office, they hire all their friends/cousins/family/ etc for all the positions.  So they all know that when the current presidential term is up, all will be fired for the new family members, friends, etc..  Therefore many just essentially stop working.  One friend said he went for an appointment at immigration at 10:00 in the morning and had to wait until noon to see someone, since there was a birthday party going on and all office activity just stopped!!

I had one of my “ah ha“ moments on Friday. I had to go to a new lab for a simple test.  But I maneuvered to the lab via the car, found my way, found the lab entrance, got through the paper work by myself and made it home. Granted, in the states that would just be one errand to check off the list for the day. But, here it is an adventure and when successful, you feel like you really accomplished something!

It certainly seems like the dry season is coming early this year.  Weather is incredible. Lower humidity, wonderful breezes and fluffy clouds in the sky.  Wow!!  We should have about 90 more days of this. This is the time to come to Panama.  Generally, the dry season doesn’t begin for a couple more weeks, but it appears to be early this year.

December 2, 2012

 

December 2, 2012

The pictures is just all the "green" along the street.  Remember, it is December!!!

 

Christmas season is upon us.  Wow, just seems really strange.  Wearing shorts and tank tops just doesn’t seem seasonable.  Our church looks beautiful with all the decorations.  We finally put our little 4 foot tree up today but still……  doesn’t seem like Christmas, since it is 90 degrees outside in the middle of the afternoon.  Not a lot of outdoor decorations like in the states.  The mall is exactly like the states, though with Christmas music, decorations, etc.  But not the light displays that you see in the states.  No constant TV ads like in the states. Hum, maybe there are, just that we can’t grasp the language enough to know what they are saying.

I have to get my passport renewed. I ran out of pages for visa stamps.  I am within a year of renewal, so figured I might as well just go ahead with it, while at a point in immigration where it makes sense to do so.   Went to the store to get my passport picture taken.  Pointed to the example photos in the “book” that said USA passport.  Went through the process, paid, took them home and they were totally wrong.  Ahhhh…I do believe I have mentioned customer service before (or the lack of).   But, thankfully when I went to the embassy, they had plenty of vendors outside the gates of the embassy taking photos!  They did a super job. Getting my passport renewed so far seems like a piece of cake when you are out of the USA.  In ten to twelve days, I go back to the embassy and pick it up. 

Today, going to church, there was road race for runners.  In our little city (community) in which we live, there are lots of races, but this one was on the main highway (one of two roads going to one of only two bridges going over the canal, so it can be busy).  This is a two lane highway (fast driving when there is no traffic, which usually only happens on Sunday morning).  But people were running on the road (with no shoulders), sometimes two or three abreast on the highway.  Talk about gutty people.  The way the locals drive that would be totally scary. 

November 17, 2012

The pictures are from Aruba.  It is less than ninety minutes from here!  So we went there for just a few days last week.  It was beautiful but just so American. 

OK, I’ve been in Panama for over two years now.  Not bad for a simple sabbatical leave that was to last for 10 months?  But, this place never ceases to amaze me. When I think I have it figured out and I have had all the experiences and then – POW – another experience hits me in my face.

Early yesterday morning, Wayne and I had blood tests at a hospital on the other side of town.  The “other” side of town is 12 minutes away without traffic, but it could be “days” away with bad traffic.  But, we were sailing along on the main four lane road thru town, because there was no traffic at 6:30 am.  We had to get there early, because the lack of caffeine was doing me in.  So, on the four lane road with no shoulders, where people were driving at 40 / 50  miles per hour (actually kilometers per hour here) and no cross streets, someone actually stops in the right hand lane to let someone out of the car!!!  Not once, but twice, plus a cab also simply stops in the roadway to pick up a fare.  So, Wayne had to repeatedly swerve to avoid hitting these guys and almost side swipes other cars!   Now, I totally understand that it is probably much safer to be in rush hour traffic, when it crawls and you have time to react!!!  We see these crazy “driver” issues on a daily basis.  Guess in our neighborhood, we have multiple speed bumps that hopefully slow cars down.  (Wayne said Panamanian drivers are either accelerating or braking, nothing in between).  Of course some drivers have realized that they can sometimes go at the regular speed and just go right over some of the speed bumps without slowing down.

But anyway, we had our blood tests done.  Made it through with our increasing, but yet still deficient Spanish.   Comparing the prices (before insurance) from the states to these prices was like … unbelievable.  A urine analysis  test, which tested for about 20 things was 7 dollars.    Plus, I had the results of our tests in my email by 3:00 pm the same day. Some tests that take longer were not there, but most were.  No more waiting days and then begging the doctor to give you a copy of your results during your next appointment that he charges you for.

Anyway, today my friend and I had an appointment for a couple hours at a spa that we had gotten from a Groupon coupon.  We were totally excited about the experience.  We have been at this spa before, knew where it was, knew it was a great place at a great price.  So, we get there 30 minutes before our appointment (again, you never know the traffic situation).  A very poorly made sign on the door said they had moved.  OK, where to ?  They gave an address, but there really are no real street addresses here in Panama.  So, we walked for a half hour trying to follow the directions.  Nothing.  Got back and looked at the sign again and it had three phone numbers.  So, we tried all three phone numbers. If someone had answered, we really didn’t know what we would say in Spanish.  But it was no issue, since no one answered.    Needless to say, we now need to fight with the agency that sold the coupons to see what happened.  Thankfully, the coupon agency is one of the few companies in Panama that is said to have excellent customer service.  Yes, customer service needs to improve here, if the country plans on developing tourism.  Funny.  In my Spanish class, we were talking about the word “Ordener”.  It means order. It is said to be a “bad” word here.  People do not like to be “ordered”.  If you use that word, people get mad and won’t do a thing for you.

November 2, 2012

The concept of “thank you”.  Having been here for going on three years now, I question the concept of “thank you” and “you are welcome”.  I have always been of the mindset to “thank” people for services provided, for help they give me, for almost anything.  Gratitude is a wonderful attitude for those that are receiving it or giving it. So, in this country where customer service is pretty limited to say the least, I really make an effort to “thank” people all the time.  I will not check out of store (even with bad service, which I generally get) or frankly anything without a “thank you” and a smile.  But, in return I have often noticed that all I get from the person is “OK”.  I suppose that I didn’t’ realize this until last week when I was checking out of a grocery store,  I  said “Gracias” and the clerk said “da nada” (which in  Spanish is “you are welcome”).  I was so shocked, because generally I just get an “OK” .  So I started asking people just why was this?  Most reflect that it may be because people just do not express gratitude here.  They really are not “trained” to respond like those of us from the USA with a simple “You are welcome”.  I find that very sad.  So, if nothing else in my time here, I will express gratitude and hope that maybe, just maybe someone will see that gratitude is a behavior that can make the world a better place.

I am trying to update my blog regularly.  It is difficult at times.  I do not want to repeat myself.  But, I am still in a “foreign country”.  There are people that just don’t realize what living abroad might look like. I totally know that I don’t.  I need to be moving to other places in the world. I just don’t want to move that far away from my grandkids, so I stay here!!!

October 28, 2012

It has been a long time since I updated this blog, I thought I would.  Panama has been rather interesting lately.   In Colon (a city at the other end of the canal from Panama City, but only about 50 miles away), they were having some serious political issues. The government was trying to sell some property and people were furious.  So, as in many Third World countries, one of their only recourses is to stage protests. The protests then turn into riots, looting and mayhem.  People on this side of the country (mostly activist construction union members) decided to assist in the “noise” that was being made by planning a protest in the capital city.  A typical protest means they block traffic.  It doesn’t take much to make horrible traffic jams in a country that already has traffic problems and so everything came to a quick standstill.  Using barricades and burning tires, the major roads were blocked by union members.  Schools didn’t know what to do, so many of them closed early on Wednesday, trying to get the kids home before a huge protest was to be held down in the city.   On Thursday, all was well, but there were plans for an even bigger protest and a general 24 hour strike that were to take place Friday.  Schools were not forced closed by MEDUCA (the Panamanian ministry of education), because teacher unions were said to also be involved in the strike and they wanted to keep the teachers in school.  Many of the private schools (with non-union teachers) either closed or told the students they would not be counted absent.  So Friday was a mess, needless to say.  I wandered down to the entrance to our neighborhood and traffic on the main road was being blocked by construction workers.  We were watching the local news on TV (which, of course we still don’t understand the rapid speaking of the newscasters), but videos of the protests downtown were pretty incredible.  Even though all the stores had closed in the city, the mobs broke into stores and started looting. The TV cameras caught a lot of it.  We were watching people looting by carrying out a case of beer, then the guy behind had a big screen TV.  One guy carried out a refrigerator!!!! On his shoulders!!! Then, it was found later by the side of the road. Guess it got pretty heavy.  Plus, it was likely hard to load it into a cab or take it on the bus.  Many were saying this brought back memories of Norega’s days when looting at times was really bad.  In fact, a guy mentioned today that when all the horrible looting was taking place 20 years ago, the only stores in Panama that never got looted were the bookstores!!!  Guess you can tell it is not a culture of reading.   Now, I understand why the malls here will not allow anyone (except employees) into the malls before the mall actually opens.  Someone said the “riot” gates were pulled down over the all the entrances of the huge enclosed mall nearby to avoid any problems there.  Obviously, everything was closed for the day.

So, the funniest incident was a government owned car that pulled up to a store that had MEDUCA (the Panamanian government ministry of education) on the side.  Someone got out of the car, ran into the store, stole a TV set, put it in the back seat and took off.  All of this was on television!! Guess the driver to who the car was assigned should get found pretty easily.

Things seem to clear up by later in the afternoon.  Our president, who was in Asia at the time, finally returned home and overturned the law that everyone in an uproar.  Street protests seem to be about the only way for the lower class to be heard.  Ahh, living in the Third World does get interesting at times.

opyright 2012 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Don't forget to follow Panama Guide on Twitter. Salud.