In two words: No Privacy! While adjusting to the heat of Panamá and lack of running water (fixed now!), nothing seems easy. Most of my days start out with “Why am I here?” While I´m sure the good Lord is testing my patience, he is also helping me to understand why I am here: to help ensure that folks get good clean running water, always!
Back to privacy. Visiting is the thing to do here, and seeing as I have the only white baby in the country (ha! Ha! No but seriously, it does feel this way at times), she is pretty popular. Some days I have visitors what seems to be all day, and other days, I might only get one visit. Don´t forget it is more difficult for me to receive visitors, because I am still learning Spanish.
One day, I felt so frustrated and Alan came back with a really good analogy that hit home for me. He said, “Colleen, we might as well be from Mars. Some of these people have never left the countryside, if they do travel, it isn´t far from home. Some of the wives that visit you are lonely, their husbands are out working all day, the kids are in school…Picture a family moving next door to us from Mars…they build a funny house, and look and act a little differently from what we are accustomed. Of course we are going to be very curious to learn more about them.”
Sure enough, the next afternoon, while receiving a visit from Elena and her 2 young children, her little girl kept saying she wanted to go home. Elena responded with some words I didn´t understand, but I made sure to remember them and ask Alan later…She responded to her little girl with….I am lonely.
So while being from Mars helps me cope, little by little I have learned to appreciate my neighbors. They are all genuinely interested, friendly, helpful, and generous (and of course helping me learn Spanish faster). I really couldn´t have asked for nicer neighbors. I do realize as the language barrier lessens, I will be talking up a storm!
Colleen and Kalea arrived last night, and it´s so wonderful to be back together again. Kalea has a little more hair (and maybe I have a little less) and Colleen looks younger (what does that say about being away from me?) Our little neighbor, Luris, 4, can finally stop asking when Kalea will arrive, and we´ll do our best to settle in while I finish construction of the house. Thanks for all the words of encouragement during this challenging transition. And thank you Mom for not kidnapping your grandchild. We Love You and miss you already!
El Feo is an ´86 Mitsubishi Montero whose owner, an old Ecuadorian man, vowed sincerely that he couldn’t bear to get rid of the car, but his grown children were mistreating it and his leaky roof needed replacement. After several redundant office visits and 1 full day of bureaucratic nonsense, Nick and I were cruising out to the countryside, title in hand and the shrunken head still hanging in the rear window (really). El Feo has custom wiring. For instance, the bright/dim switch is of the old foot-operated style, yet is located about 12 inches under and left of the steering wheel next to 2 custom switches for the headlights and instrument panel lights. This means two things. 1) If the road is bumpy (most are) and your seatbelt locks, you cannot reach it. 2) If you miss the switch ever so slightly, you disable all the cars lights at full speed and terrify the family you’re hauling back from nighttime church service. Also, the electric locks function… at will… so the spare keys have come in handy. El Feo has very special fuel injectors such that any application of the throttle beyond the most gentle will shroud would-be pursuers in an impenetrable screen of black smoke (hoping to fix that soon). We’ve got 850 miles together under our belt and continue to burn more diesel than oil. I don’t like red cars, but this one is growing on me.
than die of dengue. In fact, most cases produce flu-like symptoms at their worst, and many people never show symptoms at all. A little knowledge and/or common sense will prevent you from contracting dengue and getting run over by a bus. I think I was lacking in both on that fateful day when I rushed to visit a friend’s dad in the public hospital [read: trashy area in downtown Panama City] and did not dress properly or take any measure to protect myself while going to a place where sick people congregate en masse. I’m sure that’s where I got it. The Aedes thrives in trashy, urban areas and is a real home-body, usually traveling 50 or 60 yards at most from where it hatches, so outbreaks are localized and preventative measures, like not leaving stagnant pools of water around your house, sleeping naked in alleyways, or engaging in mosquito farming, are very effective on the prevention end of things.
