October 29, 2011

I was walking to school this week, marveling at the gorgeous weather, bright sun, clear skies, cool temps (70 degrees). Birds, beautiful birds were all around. Some powder blue, some turquoise, some yellow, parakeets, a toucan, many I haven’t a clue what they were. It was heavenly, until I was almost at school and a darn bird pooped on me!! With all these birds, I guess it was inevitable to happen sometime!
We had several days of amazing weather. Then Tuesday afternoon the skies open up for about 30 minutes to, I bet, well over an inch of rain during that short time. Looked out the window and there was a cruise ship in the locks. How sad to spend THAT much money to take a cruise ship through the Panama Canal and have it rain so hard during the 30 minutes you are in the largest locks on the canal. No way you could stand outside and watch the locks.
We had an interesting evening this week. Most of the foreign embassies in Panama put on a big gathering at the convention center. Each embassy had a large booth, selling their country’s best of food and drink along with other “craft” items the locals made. It was fun to literally eat and drink your way around the world. Food was fabulous EXCEPT for the USA booth. There you could get hot dogs, B-B-Q, popcorn and cornbread???? The beverage being served was Miller Lite. I didn’t realize that cornbread was an USA treat?
Told you before that we don’t worry about bugs coming in since we have no screens, BUT occasionally we did get another visitor of sorts. You see a picture of the monster moth that came in to visit.

October 23, 2011

You leave in the morning with a list of errands to do, wondering if you will accomplish anything. So this is how it went. Three errands, pharmacy, bank, gasoline. Seems pretty simple. Went to the bank and was amazed. Got an English speaking clerk, got the business done. One Down! Then to the pharmacy. No parking spaces anywhere. Most establishments must think that people don’t drive. Just check the traffic and you know that isn’t true. But, not a single space. So you think, well, just park illegally as many people do. But even those spaces were taken. So you might just think, wait around for someone to move out. Well, you better be ready to be hyper aggressive to get that space when one does becomes available. So anyway, you either find a place to park before 9:00 am or forget it. Of course, the store you want isn’t necessarily open by then either. So forget that errand and on to the gas station with the hopes of getting two errands completed. Whoops, gas station had run out of gas! Oh well, 1 out of 3 is better than 0 out of 3.
Speaking of parking, check out the story below. One of my friends posted this on her Facebook Wall. Typical of what happens here. Crazy, but it really happens.
“Panama City, 5 PM (height of rush hour). Mother driving Mercedes SUV stops in middle lane of main road and lets two 7 year old girls out of the car, to walk through traffic to go to Dunkin Donuts. She pulls over to left lane, still on main road, puts on the blinking hazard lights, brings traffic to stand still, and waits on main road. Five minutes later, girls come out, each with a donut in hand. Mercedes SUV pushes button to automatically open door for girls and goes on their merry way. All the while, when "encouraged" to park in a designated parking area, the said mother smiled and waved.”
I went to a ladies retreat this weekend from my church. The Gamboa Resort was the location and was it ever beautiful. Thankfully, we had a lot of time to just roam amongst the jungle. I met two gals, one from Singapore and one from Mali (Africa). It was almost too funny to hear their thoughts on Panama, which they both have recently move to. The one from Mali couldn’t get over the cleanliness and safety of Panama. She just couldn’t be happier to be here. The one from Singapore didn’t feel that way having moved from probably the safest and cleanest place on earth. Anyway, the resort was incredible with the exception of all the “Watch for Alligators” signs. I didn’t want to venture off the beaten path for sure. Forgot my camera, but did get a couple pictures with my phone.

October 16, 2011

Apparently, because of its location, Panama is one of the best countries in the world for bird watching with over 900 species. We notice some of the beautiful ones on our walks with colors that we never imagined in birds. We love the toucans we occasionally see in the freedom of our world and not caged. But apparently, like people, some of the birds have their disagreements. Our balcony is level with the trees, which is home to some species that have territorial arguments. They “yell” so loud at each other in their bird voices that it is difficult to be nearby and talk on the phone. With no screens, I am waiting for the day they decide to fly into the house. One of my friends lives at street level and she leaves some of her doors and windows open all night (there are gates to keep bad people out, just no screens). On Wednesday, she noticed someone had been there eating a banana that was on her kitchen counter. On Thursday, apparently it came back to enjoy another banana. On Friday, she finally noticed it was a bat!
Socialized medicine! There has been a deadly infection going around in the government hospitals here in Panama affecting babies. The government was trying to keep it under wraps, so it wasn’t well publicized any place and continued to get worse. However, pregnant women were soon refusing to go to these hospitals to have their babies and many headed to a private children’s hospital. Needless to say, that hospital became way overcrowded and had more than twice the number of babies as they had cribs. Socialized medicine …. but there is no extensive welfare system here, so at least people can be treated, although it may take MONTHS. And then if you need medicines, you go very early in the morning and wait all day to see someone. It must be frustrating when you are sick.
You GOTTA love this picture. I was with a friend looking for an extension cord yesterday at a hardware store. She needed a three prong one, but there were NONE except heavy duty ones. An entire wall devoted to extension cords and no 3 prongs???? But here I noticed this one. FOR EXTREMELY COLD CLIMATES?? The only time I am cold here is when people turn their air conditioning so low that you need winter clothes.

October 9, 2011

While watching the rain pour down the other day, we were thinking about the fact the Cincinnati is just a couple inches off of their all time record for rain. As the seasons change from wet to dry or dry to wet, the rain in Panama is amazing. We only get rain about seven months a year, and generally only for about an hour on the days when it does rain. Yet, our total rainfall is double what it is in Cincinnati, so you got to figure, when it rains, it totally DUMPS out of the sky. I love it. Absolutely LOVE it (when I am not out in the middle of it). An umbrella is just silly, it does no good at all. But, it typically comes straight down, it floods everything and everyplace, yet minutes after it is over, it has all run off the streets etc. People here were really smart to keep so much jungle area for water shed for the canal. It has been suggested that you need an SUV here because of the rain. The smaller cars just can’t handle the flooded streets should you get stuck in a storm. Then on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, it is almost double again.
Pictures on this blog. One is taken from the classroom window. I walked into my classroom on Thursday morning and watched a cruise ship move on through. It was one of the smaller ones, but still you can’t help but wish you were on it taking a cruise.
The other pictures are the palm trees that are full of coconuts. Now, remember, these are all OVER our neighborhood. Makes walking a little scary when you think that they might drop at any time. The coconuts are also all over the ground, so you know they do drop.
We went to the mall this afternoon. First of all, the parking lot wasn’t packed as it generally is on a Saturday afternoon. Then, the mall didn’t seem as lit up as usual when we were inside. We noticed probably about half of the stores were closed. It was Yom Kippur and all the stores owned by Jewish people were not open. We heard a lot of the retail businesses in Panama had Jewish owners, but not as many as apparently are.

October 2, 2011

A gal in our SS class this morning mentioned that where she lives (on the outskirts of the city), they have been without a land line telephone and internet since August. She just found out this week that they DO plan on having it fixed – within 6 months!! Thankfully, we live in a more “business” area that probably would respond quicker to those needs.
When in Ohio, after a long week of work, you might look outside on a Friday afternoon and see nice weather and wish you could be out there. I wondered what would trigger those feelings here, since the weather is nice most near every day. Well, this week I found out what it was. Looked out the window of my classroom and saw a very large cruise ship going thru the locks of the canal. The school is right across the street from one of the three sets of locks and it takes at least a half hour for the ship to go through. If lucky, there may be two ships in the parallel locks. Rare, but it has happened. Really neat sight. Nice to think you might be relaxing on the deck of a cruise ship. Anyway, it must be the change of seasons, since the cruise ships are repositioning themselves from the Alaska routes down to the Caribbean routes for the winter. For the next several weeks, we expect to see more cruise ships transiting the canal.
This was probably the most exciting week I have ever had at a school in years and years and may ever. I have been setting up the iPads for the children and this was the “roll out” week. I got to go into every class from 5th grade down to kindergarten and talk to the kids about the iPads and then distribute them. Talk about FUN. Needless to say, it was a challenge to set up 150 of these things with appropriate apps to start out with. I was with the kindergarten kids, when a mom came in to remove her daughter from school 15 minutes early to go someplace. She started crying because she didn’t want to leave her iPad! A third grade boy was “talking” to a cabinet in his classroom that stored the iPads. The teacher questioned him and he said he was just “saying good night” to his iPad before going home. Soon, they will go home with the kids, but gotta figure out a lot of logistics first! I think the only week that could compare to this week was my very first year at CHCA when I got a brand new Mac lab. It was probably the first time most of the kids had ever seen a mouse. Now, that was only 20 years ago!
What a contrast in this place. You saw in last week’s blog about the classroom out in the interior where six grades met in one tiny room with little or no equipment. They were trying to raise money for a single computer to be shared by the entire school. Now, I work at another school where each student has a computer.
I dug to the back of the closet today to get a dress for church that I hadn’t worn in awhile. Now it was at the back of my closet built out of cement. Looked at it, noticed all the mold on it. Guess it has to be washed first. Such a problem here during the rainy season.

September 25, 2011

The law in Panama states that a tourist visa is good for 90 days. Many with no residency status leave the country and go across the border to Costa Rica just before 90 days have passed, stay for 72 hours, then come back, which renews their tourist visit. The last official in charge of immigration extended the time limit for a tourist visa for 180 day to the delight for all those that needed the country every 3 months. Well, what typically happens here, happened and that particular official was kicked out of his job and someone else’s friend wa appointed. Since the law was never actually changed, no one knows what is going on now and confusion reigns. Is it 90 days or 180 days now?
Corruption rules here. Getting stopped for a traffic violation is rare, yet when you do, the fines for a ticket I guess are extremely costly. However, police pay is very low, so the easiest way to get out of a ticket and the most cost-effective is to offer a small bribe. Paying $20 vs over $200 makes both the cop and the violator happy, providing you don’t mind giving a bribe. Corruption rules. Very sad, but it seems to be part of the culture in Latin America.
We spent the day today at a small village in Panama. It was only 35 miles from us, but a LONG drive due to poor roads. After crossing several what they “called” bridges, we were glad to get out of there before a downpour began. There were several places you couldn’t have crossed with bad weather.
Beautiful, beautiful outdoor scenery. Mountains, lush growth, amazing clean air. Wonderful. A Peace Corps volunteer teaches at the school shown in the attached pictures. Grades up to and including grade 6 are all taught in the one room. The people in the village were hosting us today in hopes of getting enough donations to buy ONE computer for the school. Again, like most places, you teach a child some technology skills and a little English and they can hopefully get a job. You just forgot how absolutely gorgeous this country is once you get outside the city. The people in the village were just as nice as can be. The ladies of the community prepared a lunch for us (pictures attached). Soup was really great. This was the first time in 15 months that I had long pants on. Not because it was cold, but because I was afraid once you got outside the city the mosquitoes would be horrible. Didn’t see / feel a single one, probably because it was early enough in the day and it wasn’t raining. On our way back home, we stopped along the side the road and picked some limes that were growing wild.

September 16, 2011

Really, you gotta love being away from what you think is normal. It really makes life so interesting. But you need to see it as interesting or you would lose your mind. Last night, our electricity went off at 12:00. We do have back-up power supplies for our computers, but they start beeping every second when there is no power. After a half hour of beeping and crazy dreams about everything, you finally realized what it is. So, Wayne had to get up and shut down everything to turn the loud things off. Got up this morning only to find out the electricity came on and went off five more times. But, thankfully I was able to get online and thought all was well. Then, we continued to lose power three more time prior to 10:00 am. So, as long as we laugh when it happens, we are ok.

But. of course, all of this was ON TOP of the school losing their internet connection at noon yesterday, right when I was starting a class that was set up to use the internet. The school has a lot of back up lesson plans. I know this happened way too often last year (almost daily). So, even though it was the first time in three weeks, I was still annoyed. Found out it was almost the entire community. Never did come back on before the end of school. But, when we were out walking about 6:00 pm, we passed by a manhole with a bunch of men around it and looking into it. Two guys were down inside working with wires. Hopefully, they were able to fix it. Oh, well

THEN, the most incredible thing happened this week. Our deed for our condo (which was supposed to have been done around June 1) is still hanging around on some bureaucrat’s desk to be registered. We found out that ALL DEEDS in Panama have a hold on them. The crazy government decided a NEW WORD needed to be put in all deeds and they can’t decide where to put it or how to get it done. So, EVERYTHING has STOPPED. The WORLD has stopped because of ONE single word. Yikes, but like I said, you better laugh!!!

So, my new school has all tile floors. That is customary here, because of the mold and humidity problems you have in Panama. Needless to say, the tile gets dirty with 200 kids walking on it all the time. The janitors are always mopping. One came into my room yesterday and I did say in Spanish (successfully, I thought) that my room is not dirty. She proceeded to mop anyway. Then, just a few minutes later, another lady came in with her mop, looked at my floor and started mopping. Really, I have no comment about that story. Make your own conclusions.

Wayne and I took my headmaster (my day off – remember I am only working four days per week this year!!) to the slums to show him around and tour the facility our church sponsors there in hopes of establishing an opportunity for our students to serve. Karen Hordinski from CHCA really instilled me that “service mind set” and I wanted to bring it to a new country. I am trying to bring many of her ideas here. I love her passion of “selfless” service. Anyway, this country needs that mindset. The “classist” mentality here just doesn’t see service to your fellow man as important.

We have widgets on our computers for the temperatures in the states. We know the temps for Cincinnati and Panama. Can’t believe you are experiencing such “low” temperatures. Granted, perhaps those numbers might kill mold, but we are outside walking in T-shirts and sleeveless tops and being able to swim in the pool anytime day or night. I will fight the mold for good walking weather any day.