Not this year.
The rain turned off in one day on November 2nd. The trade winds kicked up on that day and have blown the rain down toward the Pacific. It is still raining on the coast.
But not here.
Even though it is nice to be out of the rain, it has freaked me out a little. This is abnormal. Who knows what we are in store for in the dry season?
The party season is in full flight also.
Each year between October 31st and New Years Day, both Panamanians and gringos go wild! For us, we limit the number of parties we attend. It gets to exhausting to party every night.
Last Christmas Eve, we attended 3 parties. Way too many! Not this year.
This week, Tuesday we went to the beach with 3 other couples, we attended a birthday party on Thursday and there is another dance party tonight, which I will miss even though Yella is attending.
Dance parties here have really loud music which you can't actually talk over. You can shout at someone but that gets old fast. So if you don't dance...and I don't...and you don't drink...which I don't...there is little reason to go.
Too bad. There will be so many friends there to hang out with...
So tonight I will go to Amigo's to hear the jazz band with a Rock/Blues singer. I have heard he is good so I will go see. A couple of my amigos will be there. Should be fun.
We have been coming up against some culture clash issues. One of them I wrote about in the previous blog.
This is another one...
A friend went to the Arrowsmith concert in Panama City last week. The concert was reportedly great. At the end, all the Panamanians left, before the encore! They didn't know that the "end" of the concert was just the signal for a couple of encores.
So, the concert ended early.
It was held at the national stadium 20 miles outside of town. When it was over, there were no buses or taxis for transportation back into town. Remember, almost no one has a car and drives. Everyone had to walk 5 to 10 miles to pick up a bus or taxi.
Panamanians think nothing of this. Gringos, on the other hand, struggled with it.
Cultural differences. When in Rome, do as the Romans!
2 comments:
Love the blogs. don't know how many times I have gone out to the fringes in some foreign country and had to walk back. not so bad, now, that cell phones are almost everywhere - the better places will call for a rickshaw, auto or taxi. Looked at all your pictures on Facebook. What Greatness. especially enjoyed the performance pictures from the plays. Though we all love those moments of being the Single Shining Star, our greatest Contributions have to be in our plain old open-Hearted Participation - which is actually never ever plain, nor old. I see what a difference You make in all our lives by just Playing. You are such a fine example to Me/Us. All Love, Darshan
Very kind words. Thank you.
Being on stage is a defined moment with boundaries...much easier to Shine for a finite amount of time. The personal, quiet stuff is in the continuum of life and requires much more of my vigilance. Frequently eluding me!
I am sitting on my porch looking at our casita. There is much of you in my memory of the casita. You are still here.
Love, Tom
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