Goats in the Road

I was driving home and saw a herd of goats in the road.  This was in a rural area close to our house.  Also in the road was Rudy sitting on a chair, right in the middle of the road.

The goats are Rudy's.

I stopped behind 2 other vehicles.  I said hi and told him his goats were looking good.

He said, "I meditate for 30 minutes while the goats eat a delicate snack on the grass and weeds along side the road.  This grass is much tastier than the grass by my house."

I said, "Rudy, you can't meditate sitting in the middle of the road.  Everyone stops to talk to you because the goats are novel."

He laughed and said, ya...no meditating.

Rudy is another of the quirky people in Boquete.  He is Swiss, has 6 huge dogs that "vill obey my every command!"

The Swiss are obsessed with order.  So he thinks his dogs perfectly obey him.  I didn't tell him that his dogs visit us when he is not looking.  That would spoil his "world view".

We have been improving several things in our house.  This means we have Panamanian works here.  That means that I am FULL TIME working for them.

That's the way it is here.

Workers show up without the tools and the things they need.  So they are constantly asking, do you have a screw driver, a ladder, a nail, tape, and it goes on and on and on...

Then, you have to run to the store and buy material for them.  And re-buy material because they tell you to buy the wrong stuff, or they can't estimate quantities and you have to buy more stuff, or you bought too much stuff and you have figure where to put it.

It goes on and on and on.

We had our garage doors, the swing out variety, replaced with the standard roll up door like in the US.

Why?

Well,  the doors were so heavy that they needed constant maintenance to get them to close, which is mandatory because of theft issues.

This crew is similar to what you are used to in the US.  They do this everyday, installing many doors a month so they are practiced and tooled by a big corporation.

They were great.  But I had the preliminary work done by my local, normal Panamanian worker and he screwed them up good.

They were at the house until 7:30 Thursday evening trying to finish the job.  This is rare in Panama.  Workers always go home at 4:00.

They didn't get it done because my worker used the wrong kind of wire for their sensors.  They had to return the next day.

It is finally complete...one week total time for one lousy garage door installation.

Next week we start on the living room.  We are install molding around the ceiling because the drywall tape pulls away from the concrete block walls from the high humidity.

We hope to get around this by covering up the pulled drywall tape with molding.

God knows, but this will be at least a full week of work with the painting.

I am tired and frustrated just thinking about it.

Forgetfullness

On the way to the airport to fly from David to Panama City, then onto a foreign land, when we were half way to the airport, I realized that I forgot my wallet.

I literally NEVER forget my wallet. In my memory, I have not done this in the past 40 years. (Quit laughing...I just forgot something and now I am telling you "in my memory"!)

What!!!??? The wallet with my Panama residency visa, the visa I need to leave or get back into the country. Yah, that one.

It would take us an hour to turn around, get my wallet and return to the spot where I realized I didn't have it. That would make us miss our flight.

I called my Panamanian friend that knows everything and asked her if I could travel on my passport only because I did have that with me. She said no problem.

So much for good advice for free.

When I was trying to get through security in Panama City for the international flight, the immigration agent stopped me because I either had to have my residency visa or be considered a tourist, in which case I had been in the country over 90 days and would have to pay a stiff fine and that would take a day.

What to do?

My travel partner was already through security looking back wondering what was going to happen. I really felt bad for him. All this planning and now his traveling companion may not make it.

This is where the best qualities of Panamanians comes out...when you need help.

The agent called his office on his radio, explained the situation, then told me I could fax a copy of the visa and that would do it.

Simple, right?

As I am standing in line, making a bit of a disturbance, I called my wife and asked her to find my wallet, find the visa, copy it and fax it. So off she went.

It was Sunday. No copy-fax places open. She went to a friend who had a fax...no go because it was North American protocol and it didn't work. So she sweet talked a hotel into faxing it.

All of this took 45 minutes and mucho brain damage to get done. Thanks to my wife!

As I was giving up hope, the agent gets a radio call from his office saying they received the faxed copy and all was good for getting out of the country.

Hurray!

While I was standing in line, I used my cell phone several times talking to my wife and travel partner. The agent let me use my phone while he was telling everyone else that they couldn't use their phone...all to help get me through...breaking the rules for me...not something normally done in this country.

And the agents changed during the 45 minutes I was standing there. The first agent made sure the second agent knew what was going on...he certainly didn't have to do that.

When the chips are down, Panamanians come through!

Now all I had to do was get back into the country!

Can't Believe Everything You Learned

I have struggled with how to write about my last 2 week trip to another country. The US discourages travel to this place so I am going to invent a veiled term to indicate the country but the actual name won't pop up in a "Big Brother" internet search.

So I went to a land close to Florida with a government loathed by the US. Let's call it XXX just to have some fun.

Now I will get all sorts of porn inquiries and offers instead of a fine from the "Big Brother" land.

I hope...

I thought that this country was gorgeous...and clean with actual street cleaners...and fun with more music than anywhere I've ever been...and old, old old with amazing architecture...and artistic with pop to fine art.

The people were fun loving, kind and helpful. And, I must mention, beautiful.

And they were happy...

Hmmm????

How can this be? I have been lead to believe that their form of government is EVIL!

Maybe we have been kept in the dark and fed bullshit for a long time. Maybe there are different stokes for different folks...and one size doesn't fit all.

Everyone had enough food, free medical care, free education. They are so much better off than any of their neighboring countries, for sure.

Now, they have their issues and bitches. And the government has changed dramatically several times.

But things are good.

We stayed in peoples homes rather than hotels or resorts. Our visit was immersed in local culture, businesses, restaurants, bars, parks and homes.

My travel partner and I came to love several of these wide open homeowners who put us up. They loved sharing their country with us.

The food was only so so. We had some good (but not great) food and some really bad stuff too.

Oh well, you can't have everything.

We walked all over the main city in XXX. Through the worst and best neighborhoods, resort districts, the old original city, the harbor and docks.

Hardly any police and almost no soldiers. The police were girls without guns.

And there was NO crime. None whatsoever.

I had a hard time rectifying the information put out by the US vs the reality of the country.

I was feeling a little duped...mislead...manipulated.

Now before anyone goes postal on me, I love my country. I would live there if I could afford it. It is my home and where my patriotism resides.

But it is difficult to know your country until you see yourself from someone else's eyes.

I recommend it.

It will be much harder to keep me in the dark and feed bullshit in the future.