Tangible Proof of Our Demise

Here are some pictures of the new house we are renting.

I noticed that I have been a little depressed yesterday and today.  The reality of renting a house for 8 months is a big action that says "defeat."  It's is like saying "Uncle!"

If I could reframe this as a way to lay back and let life take it's own course, I might survive it.  Time will tell.

Now that we are trying to deal with the electricity issue on our own, the builder is doing the Panamanian Avoidance Dance by not returning phone calls.  His wife is due to have a baby next week so he will be out of commission for a week or two.  Add the avoidance to that and we are bogged down again.

I just can't help feeling a little useless.

On another note, this is the most gorgeous day the year.  A mild breeze,  sun over head and beautiful bajareque higher in the mountains.  It is hard to stay down today.

We are off to visit some friends at Kotowa Coffee and then back home...where we have our DVD player set up for movies tonight.  It is starting to sound like we are really setting up a home, just not in our house.

There is a Door at the End of a Rainbow

We have been avoiding going to our house all week after the disappointment and upset last Saturday.  I guess our builder picked up on our state of mind because he got some work done this week...just a little but he was very proud of it.

The front and rear doors were installed last Tuesday and we didn't even know it.  That upset and confused our builder a little.  What's this, you are not going to the sight every day?  And 2 toilets were set but not connected to the water supply.  And, the electric service structure was started.  (But we won't have power for months so this little gem is worthless)

Now, you say, that's something.  You're right but it is not really much.

So, I am showing you a couple of pictures of rainbows.  Rainbows are spectacular here.  Pictures always fail to adequately show have magnificent they are but we tried to get pictures anyway.  Rainbows touch the ground on both ends and have rich, vibrant colors.  Breathtaking!

Now back to reality.  One step forward and two steps back.  

We uncovered a set back with the electric supply today.  We will investigate next week to nail down exactly what is going on and how bad things are delayed.  

It is always something.  This disappointment got to me for a couple of hours but I rebounded.  It is the only way to stay sane.  Let it go.... Let it go... Let it go...

My new mantra.

Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday's Hangover

I'm sure the Catholic Church doesn't look at it this way but the pope should visit a Panamanian town after a really big party.  All eyes are red and all heads are pounding.  The application of ashes to foreheads at morning mass must have been painful.

Boquete was dead.  Nothing moving but a few gringos.  I was worried for a while that the party had killed off most of the population here.

By 11 am things were starting to move.  Banks were opening.  In Panama, banks can only stay closed 3 days and no more, so they had to open.  Most people looked in pain.  

Yella went into David for a shopping day with girl friends.  This is good.  Shopping is healthy for an American girl.   

I was hanging out at the cafe most of the morning, trading stories with the gringos.  This has become a frequent guilty pleasure for me.  Sitting in the sun, hanging out, jumping into the conversation, moving to the sideline and, of course, judging the parade of people.  It helps that most ExPats have unique and unusual lives.

I dropped the car off at the car wash.  Your picture of a car wash is probably not accurate for here.  This is a roof, hoses and young men hand washing the cars.  The place is packed on this holy day.  I had no idea Panamanians worshipped cars but I guess they do.  There are 4 or 5 car washes in this small village so it must be important.

I had them strip the tint off the driver's and passenger side window.  They use a dark, dark tint that makes it impossible to see through the window at night.  This makes it difficult to see pedestrians.  Add a little rain and night driving is precarious at best.

When I return to pick up the car, it is immaculate, inside and out.  The tires are polished and treated. The tint is gone.  These guys really take pride in their work.  The owner, maybe 25 years old, speaks enough English to deal with us.  All in all, a pleasant experience.

$5 for the wash and $3 to remove the tint.  A bargain!

As you can tell, my sanity has returned so I wanted to share a regular day in Paradise.  Nothing exciting but oh so relaxing.

Oops!

I re-read yesterday's blog.  My oh my.  What can I say.  That wasn't pretty, was it?

It's amazing what a nights sleep and a strong cup of coffee will do to my future outlook.

Yella and I feel pretty good today.  We have accepted our fate.  And, decided to get on with our lives in Panama. 

Yella mentioned that life is more difficult here but there is a calm satisfaction to living this way.  (Assuming you don't go off the deep end)  Something grounding, more natural.

But, here is what a day will throw at you.

Yella washed a load of clothes at the laundry facility at our rental house.  When she went to use the drier, it wouldn't work so she hung the clothes on a clothes line with clothes pins.  When is that last time you saw a clothes pin.  Of course, the wind is howling and fine bajareque mist is dampening the clothes so the drying process will take 2 days or more.  Hope the clothes don't blow away.

This morning I walked down to town, a nice 30 minute walk down hill.  As I am sitting around a cafe talking, Yella calls and says the diesel beast won't start and she wants to get to our storage unit to get some of her professional computer equipment for a job she is working on.

So, I scamper up the hill in 20 minutes, getting a full blow work out.  I give the beast 2 or 3 blasts and it starts right up.  She did all the hard work so I could get the glory.  All is good, the car started.

She drops me off at the cafe on her way to the storage unit which is 20 miles down the road.  As soon I get settled in, she calls and says none of her keys will open the unit.  Damn!  She is on her way back so I say turn around, the key is hard to use.  She tries is again and it opens!  Second disaster diverted!

I leave the cafe and head over to where the fishmonger hangs out.  I was surprised to see him this morning because it is Carnival holiday, Fat Tuesday before Lent, so not much is open.  I've been looking forward to fresh Sea Bass filetes all morning.  He's gone! 

Now to plan B.  I go to the market to look for chicken breasts.  All sold out.  I guess it will be a vegetarian lunch for Tom today.

Start stop, up down, hot cold...nothing is steady, consistent or easy here.  But, with the right attitude, it is satifying.

By the way, Yella is doing great with all these issues.  I have to say she is doing better than I am.  What's that all about?  I need to get with it and catch up to her.  I can't have her winning the "Who's Doing Better in Panama" olympics.

Say Uncle, Say Uncle damn it!

OK, I say uncle...I give up...I admit defeat.

After spending the last 2 days in rage: white hot, blinding, want to break stuff and throw it through window, rage.  The kind of rage that is generated from frustration and the complete and total inability to do anything about anything...

This country has beaten me.  I admit defeat.  I can not get anything done or completed here.

All that is left is surrender to it...or leave.

After having our builder promise to have the exterior doors installed on Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday, then Saturday...and it wasn't done.  (You may remember that our builder has promised to have the doors installed for the last month!)

That's when I snapped.  And the rage started.

There is nothing that can move these people along.  Nothing!  

This is an affront to the American way and it hurts.  I'm not saying that this way is wrong but it is disruptive to an old US boy for sure.

So, now, Yella and I are renting a house for the next year.  That's right, twelve months...and we are worried that this is not long enough. 

There is no way we will get the house finished, much less electricity to it, in a few weeks much less a few months.  All that is left, is to accept the inevitable and go with the flow.

But I don't like it...not.......one.......little.......bit.

You can probably read between the lines and see that I have had some serious heart to heart talks with myself.  I have had to admit that I was wrong...about most of my research on moving to Panama...on building in Panama...on most everything else about Panama.  

How in the hell could I make this big a mistake?  It is a mystery to me.  A little hint: you can't evaluate another culture from the one you are in.  All of my contexts and paradigms of life don't mean anything down here.  It just doesn't compute and boy, did I screw up.

Believe it or not, I am still hopeful that we will end up liking it if not loving it here. Panamanians are happy, content people.  They have a lot to teach us.  

Maybe I will appreciate it in a day or two.

For now, I feel defeated.  

A Crappy Day... Literally

While we were up at our house, Yella went off to forage for some lemons from one of our trees.  Soon, I heard prolific profanity, screams of rage and other indications of extreme unrest.

Yella had stepped in some excrement...in her sandals...human excrement.

There are no construction toilets in Panama.  It is the great out of doors or nothing at all.  It seems that Yella had found the Panamanian construction bathroom...with her foot, fully exposed in a sandal.  OOOOOOOOHHHH!!!!

My only comment: "how could you possibly like this place after that!"

To say we have had a series of set backs is simply an understatement.  And, this one tops all of them.  Remarkabley, Yella has been rolling with the punches really well.  (She did dip down a bit during The Great Human Excrement caper.)

Last minute stress is the name of the game here.

Our shipped goods were arriving today at 9 am.  We were going to put them in our house.  The house has no doors yet but our builder promised to get the doors installed today.

Ya, right.

Last night, at 7 pm, our landlord suggested that we rent a storage unit and store our goods so we didn't have to risk putting them in our house.  The risk of theft is too great when no one is living in the house.  (Especially without doors!)  Our house is a least 4 to 6 weeks away from being livable and that's living on electricity generated with a gasoline generator.

So the fire drilled started again.  Why doesn't anyone have these good ideas a day or two before they are needed!

We start calling and making arrangements after 7 pm.  Remarkably, everyone was willing to talk and is actually helpful even at this odd hour.

In spite of the stress, the day goes well. 

The shipping people are ON TIME.  Holy shit!

The storage people are great!

Everything is off loaded in less than an hour.

Just to make things a little more dicey, our builder calls and says the backhoe just arrived on site to dig the ditches for our road.  This is a tricky task because Panamanians don't understand drainage very well so I had requested to be present when this was started.

Well, we are at the storage place and tied up for at least another hour and a half with travel.  So we race out of the storage place to our house.  When we arrived, all was well.  Things were progressing nicely although slowly.  Senor Carlos was no speed demon on the backhoe.  

This is the way of it.  When it rains it pours, etc.  At least we were making progress with our stress.

Footnote:  We checked with our builder in the late afternoon and he was no where near getting the doors built much less installed on the house.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Where to start...

 

We learned this morning that our Voip Internet phone will probably never work here.  All that research I did back in the US and all the research I did once I arrived in Panama did not lead me to a phone that works.  Very frustrating.

But, oh wait, our Internet provider, Barranco, has their own Voip phones that should work just fine.

OK.  We travel to the Internet gurus house, way out in the sticks.  This guy has been here for 30 years and is, how do you say it, quirky. 

He has a phone for us but, as of this time, we have no idea if it will work because they are setting it up in the David office.  I say 50/50 at best.

But we do know that this guy is a talker...for 2 and a half hours he talked.  I will admit that every 30 minutes or so he said something that was very informative but give me a break!

He talked so much and so long that I finally hit the wall and thought I would explode.  We had been standing through his entire diatribe.  I don't know how many times we shifted from leg to leg and foot to foot but it was a lot.  

So we wrenched ourselves away and got the hell out of there.  Unfortunately, I was whipped and felt like someone had beat me with a 2 by 4.  Extreme boredom does that to me.

Then we went to our house to see if our doors were installed.

Five weeks ago, I told our builder that our shipped goods from the US would arrive in a week.  Each week I told him the same thing.  He promised the doors each week and, of course, no doors.

Today, I was notified that our goods will actually arrive at 9 am tomorrow.

Uh oh!

We left a message for the builder and finally got a call through at 4:15 and ran over to his house.  

I must say that he was freaked out.  Good!  It's about time.

In the course of the conversation, we find out he will have to work all night to get the doors ready.  And, oops, where are the lock sets for the doors?

So we take off from his house a few minutes before 5 pm only to find all the stores closed.  So, we called him back and told him it's his problem and he will have to go into David tomorrow and buy them because we will be busy with the shippers receiving our goods.

This is how it goes here.

Tomorrow, the shippers will most likely not be able to get their truck up our road to deliver the goods; the builder will probably not get the doors installed; and honestly, I don't give a crap!

It's their problem.  They always get it worked out.  It could be fun watching them do it.

The Ying and Yang of Panama

After a long, stressful Friday in Panama City, I went to the airport to fly back to David.  I tried to check in at the airport and I was told I didn't have a reservation on the flight.

What!

I listened to our travel agent make the reservation and she made notes letting me know who the agent was with Air Panama and the exact time of the reservation.  There was no way she didn't make the reservation.  Come on!

I noticed several other passengers milling around and the lines at Air Panama started to back up.  Something wasn't Kosher.

I called our travel agent, Anavilma, and told her what was going on, so she started making calls on her end.

As it turns out, the flight was cancelled because of mechanical problems.

Rather than telling us what was really going on, they lied...blatant, bald faced lies.  What's that all about.  I have been told that Panamanians don't like to admit mistakes, not that a mechanical problem is some one's mistake.  Hard to figure this one.

Mean time, the competing airline, Aeroperlas, scheduled an additional late night flight so we could actually return to David Friday night.  How many US airline competitors would do that?

This is very good because hotel rooms in Panama are scarcer than home and car loans in the US, scarcer that happy conservatives with Obama's bailout, scarcer than consistency in Panama!

Now the amazingly good part.

Ananvilma traveled to David, a hour from Boquete, and went to the airport.  She had 2 clients caught in the flight dilemma.  She located Yella and let her know what was happening and offered to wait in the airport for 3 hours until I arrived and drive me home, a full 2 hours out of her way after the 3 hour wait.

Yella, of course, told her that she would wait even though the offer was sincere.

Time after time, an unbearable problem is solved by the kindness of a Panamanian.  This is truly the land of opposites.

While I don't like the inconsistencies of Panama, I am so impressed with the kindness of the people.

Sex, Money and Boozed in Panama City

It's 3 pm and I'm walking along the busiest street in PC, Via Espana.  It's hotter than...well...hell.  I'm power sweating where the water shoots our of your pours.  I just pounded down a liter of Pepsi for Gods sake, and I'm ecstatic about it.

This place so vibrant it feels like I just mainlined speed.  The traffic is crazy and fast.  To say horns are honking just doesn't get it, maybe blaring is better but it still misses the effect.  People are everywhere.

As I look up the street I see gambling casinos, whore houses, banks, more banks and even more banks, liquor stores, lingerie shops dedicated to defying gravity, and some of the most beautiful people in the world.  

I can't take it any more and return to my room that is refrigerated...ah, just right.  I think I will go back out in the evening when it is not quite so hot.

We left Boquete at 6 am to fly to PC and get a few bureaucratic things done.  Not stuff you ever want to do but stuff you have to do.  Yella returned on 4 pm flight back to Boquete and I'm staying until Friday afternoon to finish up.

We were supposed to meet our driver at the airport in PC at 9 am but he didn't show up so we started out winging it...not a good idea.  

We met a guy who was hanging out at the airport waiting for his daughter to finish flight training.  He offered to drive us around.  This is the sort of thing that happens in Panama.  People can be so helpful at times.  Of course, we paid him.  You really need someone to take you under their wing and lead you to the right places or all this would simply be impossible.

This is an intimidating place to get around.

First, we went to the US Embassy to get our US drivers licenses authenticated so we can eventually get a Panamanian drivers license.  At security, we had to give up our cell phone, electronic car door opener, note book computer and food.  I'm surprised they let us through at all.

After about 45 minutes we finished.

Second, we went to the Ministry of Exterior Relations in a mad house of a building to give them our authentication of the US licenses.  We never would have found it without the help of our friendly driver.  After about 20 minutes we then went to the bank to pay something, I don't know what.  This was an adventure and took about 30 minutes.

Third, we went on a scavenger hunt for the importer of our goods from the US.  We NEVER would have found it without our driver.  He had to call them a couple of times to finally get there.

Now, this is interesting.  We had called them, 3 times in the last 5 minutes.  We ring the door bell in this warehouse and no one answers.  It's not like they don't know we are coming, right.  So we call again and pry them out of the back office to open the damn door!  This place goes from helpful to plain impossible.

After 20 minutes we finish.

You'd think we are done but NOOOOOOOO!  

I have to return to the Ministry of Exterior Relations to pick up what ever we left there and I have to return to the importer to get my passport back.

Then, I get to fly back to Boquete Friday afternoon.

Sometimes this is an intolerable paper chase.

Oh, by the way, all this drivers license stuff is not finished.  We have to go to David (close to Boquete) and take hearing and vision tests AND get a blood test, then we get a Panamanian drivers license.  And they wonder why so many people never get one.

The fun never stops.

The Big Blow Really Sucks

The storm last week was reportedly as strong as a Category II hurricane. (Don't ask me how fast the winds were because I haven't memorized the Category scheme)  Most places have power BUT NOT US.

I think this is a personal storm out to get me.  We are struggling with it.  As a matter of fact, we almost folded up our tent yesterday and went home. 

Not only are we dealing with no power etc., but we are also settling into me being retired.  I think we need a little space.  So, we started to work on "going our separate ways" for a good portion of the day.  I am pleased to report that it is working well.

On one hand, this relocation thing sucks but, on the other hand, there is an amazing capacity with Panamanians to help you out when the chips are down.

My cell phone won't let me access my voicemail.  Several people are getting fed up with me not getting voicemail.  I can't have that.   

So, down to Cable & Wireless, the most hated entity in all of Panama.  I have been putting off this dreaded trip because of all the nasty stories.  

Why do I have to go to the service provider to get voicemail, you ask.  Well, that's how it's done down here.

I enter the office and ask if anyone speaks English.  Nada.  Now I'm stuck.

But, in steps the most helpful, nice Panamanian lady who starts to translate.  Not only translating, but badgering the office lady to do things right.  

As it turns out, the voicemail has to be turned on by the reticent office lady.  Then all the instruction on the phone are in Spanish.  She could have turned on the English language version, but no!  The nice lady has to request it and then all is well.

She gave me her cell and home phone number and told me to call if I need anything.  Sometimes Panamanians are so considerate it defies the imagination.

Then, I'm on to the the machine shop to get a highly critical part for changing a tire fixed.  My used car came with the wrong rod to crank down the spare tire.  This has caused major problems fixing flats which are prolific here.

With a mixture of hand gestures, Spanish and English, I get the problem communicated to the mechanic.  He and a couple of his fellow workers struggle with the fix for 90 minutes.  They try all sorts of stuff, all of it not working.

Finally, they get it.  What a relief.  This has been on my mind for 3 weeks.

The charge...$10.  A bargain even though they probably over charged me.

I am impressed with Panamanians persistence in solving sticky problems.  The just don't quit until it's done.

So, the yo-yo goes down and up.  Today was up.

We will go to Panama City Thursday to provide documents for our shipment from the USA.  And, we will go through the incredible ringer to get a Panamanian drivers license.  A blog for another day.

What is a Panamanian Public Works Crew?

You.

The entire town of Boquete may have one Public Road Crew.  So, if you want the trees removed from the road, you do it.  You grab your trusty chain saw and get with it.

The wind has been blowing Colorado style, 50 to 70 miles per hour.  Trees are down everywhere.  Power lines are down everywhere.  

No power here or David or anywhere in the Chirique (like a county) region.  

Locals say they  cannot remember a storm like this.  I don't know if Panamanians have short memories but this is one hell of a storm.  The storm itself lasted 3 full days.  The aftermath will last 2 to 3 weeks.

At this point, we are estimating power in 2 to 3 weeks.

So, after we cleared the roads, we went to get our generator.  This is Panama and this is not just running across town to get it.

We have to stop and get money to pay for it (we don't have checks for our checking account yet).  We stop at the lady's house who is selling it.  We call her foreman to see if he can unlock the construction shed where the generator is stored.  Then we meet on site and get it.  All of this through the "Big Wind", rain and downed trees.

Oh, but we need gas with, of course, no gas can.  We dig around and find a one gallon plastic bottle. 

Now to the gas station.  The wind is blowing so hard, we struggle to open the rear door to the Beast.  Once open, the station attendant has a fit and tells us doors have been blowing off cars all day.  So we shut the door (easier said than done) and put the leaking gas can in the front of the car...oh boy, now we smell gas every time we get in the car. 

Now we have power for the refrigerator so we don't lose all our food and we have a light.  

The biggest problem is that all the repairs to electric lines will delay the installation of the electricity to our house.  The floods in December set the our installation back 4 to 6 months.  Now these repairs will delay our installation once again.

We are considering going off the grid for power because we may have to wait a couple of years for power to the house.

This will be an interesting problem to solve.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

So how am I on the Internet, you ask.

Well, our landlord has 4 houses on his property.  And, he has the relay tower for the internet service which, of course, has no power.

So we run a power cord down to the electric panel that powers up the internet tower and his switch and plug all this into the generator.  We run an extension cord to the house with the internet router, internet phones and computers and fire it all up.  And, miraculously, it all works without burning up the generator.

We have power cords running all over this 3 acre site and a couple of generators going.

So, not so instant internet.

We will be running the internet each evening for 3 to 4 hours.

It is good to be back in communication, no matter how limited it is!

Dinner Melodrama Proceeds Melodramatic Storm

(I wrote this Post last Wednesday but couldn't post it)

The local not ready for prime time players (not even ready for dinner theater players, so dreadfully bad you just had to laugh) put on a melodrama at Tammy’s, a local Israeli restaurant.  Tammy is known for her wood fire roasted chicken and falafals. 

We decided to go to support the fundraiser for a local orphanage.  Remember orphanages? Not something you here about in the USA anymore but still around in other parts of the world. 

A really remarkable couple from New York own a bar specializing in music on Thursday through Sunday nights.  They have adopted music programs in the orphanage and support them with fundraisers.  Who says Rock n’ Roll musicians can’t do good.

The play was so bad that everyone enjoyed it with much hissing, booing and throwing popcorn at the villain. 

Before we left our house for Tammy’s, the power was out.  We headed home assuming the power would still be out because the wind was really blowing. 

On the way home, the road was blocked with a downed tree so we headed back around a 15 mile loop to come in another way.  About 10 miles into the loop another tree was down.  Fortunately, someone else who had been at the melodrama was ahead of us and we got around it together.

Another mile down the road we hit another downed tree.  This time Yella moved it…go Yella.  Then another mile and another downed tree.  We both worked on this one and barely got by.

We were worried at this point.  The wind was howling and leaves and branches were littering the road.  We still had another couple of miles to go.

I don’t know what the hurry was because there still was no power in our area. 

By the skin of our teeth we made it home…to a dark house.  So it was candles and flashlight to get into bed. 

It’s one challenge after another here.  Any of these incidents as isolated events can happen anywhere but strung together it takes some getting used to. 

This is the flip side to paradise.

It is still fun to see how people get together and entertain themselves, in the land of challenges.  Most of them who have been here awhile, don’t even notice it. 

Ah, paradise!

Lights Out!

We have been with out electricity for 5 days.  Most Internet connections are down.  We just Rube Goldberged the Internet connection  where we are staying to a generator (long story) so I will be able to be back in communication tonight.

Rain Washes Away the Blues

As goes the progress on our house, goes my attitude.

Today, stuff was being done on the house, therefore, a good day.

Yesterday, the road was graded and it looks great.  The ditches and drainage were supposed to be installed today but no one was on site with the backhoe.  

Ah, you say, that's progress?  

The tree felling expert was on site taking down a particularly touchy tree.  When the driveway was cut, a major portion of the roots for this large tree were removed.  We have been debating whether to take this tree down because it might fall over onto the house in a stiff wind.

We decided to remove it but the builder wasn't comfortable with his skill taking it down so the expert was contacted.  

And, lo and behold, he actually showed up!  Fast!  Will wonders never cease!

We arrived on site at 10:30 am and the tree was down and 50% cut up.  Impressive.

The backhoe was not on site because the tree had to be removed before he can take out the stump.  So cutting in the drainage on the road was delayed a day.

All is OK.

The painter is finishing up the interior paint.  

Wow, a big day with progress.  Don't let anyone know we are experiencing PROGRESS.   Or, that I even mentioned the "P" word.

I included some pictures as proof...I know, I could photoshop them but I'm not that smart so take a look!

What about the rain, you say.  This morning bajareque, a fine mist that dances in the air, was here.  This ultra fine mist moved through an open window on a puff of air and dampen Yella's face.  This is what keeps a topical cloud forest moist.

The bajareque changed to a light rain on a stiff wind in late morning.  Too much rain to hike or run in.  This is the first rain since I arrived on January 4th.  

No problem...all is well with the house.  Obsessed you say, well, ya!   

A Good Day in Paradise

Oh no, a good day in Paradise.  What have we here?  I can't believe it.

I want to introduce you to Migel.  He is a master cabinet maker that will craft our doors and cabinets.  We met him briefly yesterday at the house.  

For the most part, all doors and cabinets are hand made in Boquete.  Actually, they get the wood in blocks of raw timber and cut all the boards from the blocks.  I guess this is what you call "from scratch."  

Today we stopped by his shop to show him our "design" for the cabinets.  This was a crude scribble on a plan that was almost unintelligible.  

He instantly got it.  He was fast and perceptive with good comments about this issue or that.

We asked him about the color of the finish so he showed us.  He opened a can of clear sealer, stuck his hand in the sealer and worked it into an oak board and a cedar board.  Both were beautiful but I was amazed how he showed us.

We then went to David to purchase a dishwasher.  Yesterday, a problem with the location of the water line for the dishwasher came up and we needed to have the actual unit to see how to solve the issue.

Driving in David is dicey at best.  The drivers are as aggressive as in Panama City, their are NO maps of David, addresses are useless so all directions are with landmarks and we have been hopelessly lost many times.

Oops!  We only made one wrong turn and found the shop, got the dishwasher and we were on our way!   Yes, there is a God.

Just to give you a little insight into the communication with language and culture issues: I told the builder on the phone that we bought a dishwasher and had it in the car with us; he said great he would sent someone to David to pick it up; I said no, no we had it with us; he said you haven't bought it yet, and so on.  I gave up.  We will show him the dishwasher the next time we see him.

Now for the Creme De Le Creme.  The Retro (backhoe) was working on our road today!  Ya!  We have been struggling to get this done for 2 weeks.  This is a big issue because our household goods shipped from USA are arriving in a few days.  There was no way to drive the road to deliver the goods so we had to get this done prior to delivery.  

Just a side note.  The shipper has now asked us for another $700 for fees etc when the goods arrive in Panama.  In hind sight, I would ship NOTHING from the USA.  This is one of the most expensive propositions in the whole deal.  We will have spent about $10K to ship towels, books,  etc.  I am sure we could stock the entire town of Boquete for the cost of shipping!

Whew!  A big day in Panama!

How to Un-spoil the American Brat

OK, I admit it.  I'm a spoiled American.

I want it my way and I want it now!

You are probably getting tired of this theme but I am just not getting the message in a powerful way.

Panama is the perfect foil for the quintessence American.  We break out in unfulfilled "want it" like pimples on a teenagers face.  Believe me, it is actually uglier than acne.  I had no idea I had so many  "want it's."  Where is the suave for the raging American "want its?"

I intellectually get it.  I know that this culture is not set up to fulfill immediate gratification. Delayed gratification is the name of the game.

The results of the Panamanian way are every where.  These people are not only happy but absent of anger.

Take their driving.  The horn is used all the time for anything from saying hi to warning someone that you are coming.   Sometimes it is used to hurry a car along.

But it is never used in anger.

In addition, these are the most accepting people I've been around.  For the most part, I don't see much judgement.  

They value a conversation on the street more than moving along.  Our builder will spend too much time talking to us when I know he is in a hurry and needs to get to another jobsite.  I watched a guy thwarted in his task wait patiently for an hour or more rather than start something else.  

Looks to me that it is results vs. happiness and the more attractive option is happiness.

But, how to get there.  

How do I surgically remove the spoiled American, the "I want it now," from me?

I guess being here will eventually crush it right out of me.  Others who have gone before me say it will come with time.

I am looking forward to that time.