A Red Letter Day!

We paid our builder his final payment and cut him loose.

That doesn't mean we are finished but we had squeezed the last little drop of work out of him on Saturday. It was getting kind of weird in the last 2 weeks. He was telling us he would do some work but his worker would tell us the contractor told him not to do it.

What was that all about? Probably out of money.

So we bit the bullet and paid him off.

Yella showed remarkable restraint at the meeting. She didn't rake him over the coals for all the nonsense he has put us through. She didn't let him have it. She just let it go.

Way to go Yella.

It probably is more important to keep the relationship in good shape than to get our pound of flesh...especially since he wouldn't have gotten what the problem was anyway.

Now to the next BIG THING...

Union Fenosa was on our road digging the holes for the power poles.

Oh my God, maybe they will get the power in this year. With much hand waving and some broken Spanish, he indicated that it will be completed in a couple of weeks.

Here is some of the difference in Panama and the US.

They were digging the holes by hand. That's right. They were digging 8 feet deep round holes with spud bars and post hole diggers. That 's the way it is done here.

I passed my neighbor on our road and told him, once again with much hand waving and broken Spanish, that electricity would be installed. And I said it was for him too.

He made the universal money gesture with his thumb and first finger and said, "No hay" (pronounced "no I"), meaning he has no money.

Most Panamanians don't have electricity because they can't afford the $10 or so that is costs each month. That certainly puts the value of money in perspective. I have been complaining because I don't have power and they don't even consider getting it because they can't afford it.

It is good to get out in the world every now and then to adjust my perspective. I keep thinking about one of my early blogs titled Unspoiling the American Brat. I am embarrassed by my need for consumption. No wonder much of the world looks at us with a jaundiced eye.