Time is a new thing now

Here it is almost Saturday and I have attended but one meeting and no other appointments traveled only 80 miles and still the days wing by in chunks of morning and afternoon unmarred by hours or minutes.

I don’t wear a watch and there is only one easily visible clock in the house so the way we tell time is by the firehouse air horn which blasts at 7 am, noon, 4 pm and 9 pm. I guess this is because a lot of Panamians don’t have watches either and that gives them a general idea of the time.

But also looking at the future in time is different. I used to keep a computer calendar that had appointments and meetings and conferences months in advance and I would fret and get ready for them…..but now…no. Time is a much more immediate thing with no long term consequences. Let me describe it this way. A couple of years ago I crewed on a sailboat crossing from Long Beach to Honolulu. After a couple of days shake down we all got into the routine of standing watches of varying hours every 4-8 hours. So suddenly my life only looked forward to my next watch, the next great meal, and the next time to sleep. Time became a very short term thing that I could focus on because it was only one day large.

It is not so different here in Panama. Linda and I make plans sometimes together, sometimes separately, but most often not more than a week out. And we have learned that a task like going to the store which might have taken 1 ½ hours in the states could be all morning or afternoon, depending on what adventures or friends or traffic jams or special errands that is suddenly remembered. That is all part of the adventure.

I know we have all heard retired folks say that they don’t know how they ever worked because NOW there is so much to do. Well now I know what they are talking about. The days and nights fill up with stuff that never seemed to take so long before. It is now 9:45 pm and I have been up since 6, let in the housekeeper, set up for the painter (who was 3 hours late) gone to a Spanish class, came home for lunch, met with our Spanish tutor, cleaned up after the painter, took the dogs to the beach, washed and tended to a sick dog, put the furniture back in place, had dinner, washed dishes, and watched 30 minutes of TV. I sound like one of the Facebook people who Twitter their every action but the point is none of that stuff seems so significant and yet they all seem to blend together into this thing called life.

I gotta go.

Stephen Gets Out of School

Did I mention that I was a volunteer teacher at an International School a couple of days a week? Well after a long hard spring of study, school is out for three months I am on to other educational endeavors. That includes a more intense Spanish course, a SCUBA training program, and learning how to bid, negotiate and supervise a contractor to do work at our house. So things will be no less busy, just new stuff.

But back on the school…..It was great fun. I got to teach pre prepared lessons in science, math, geometry, language (English) and other stuff. And since I was the only gearhead on the faculty of three I put together a small engines course with 4 boys and 1 girl who all got greasy and sometimes frustrated in taking apart a gas engine…….and putting it back together. Five times. These kids are whizzes on a mouse but mechanical stuff was a mystery to them. None of them had ever touched a ratchet or box end wrench before. It was fun and they want to do more in the fall.

Anyway there was a graduation where every kid in the school got a diploma for completing a year. They all wore paper ties so I wore my dress up tie. The pics are cute so I included them.

Now I gotta go study SCUBA and Spanish

Exotic fruit in an exotic land

As the dry season ends a lot of the fruiting trees are now ripe with lots of wonderful exotic fruits many of which I have never seen much less eaten . And Mango trees are considered a “junk tree” here because there are so many of them and they are really dirty when they drop all their fruit. Above is a picture about 2 blocks from our house with the ground littered with mangos. The young boys in the neighborhood split their time between skateboarding and throwing things into the trees to bring down mangos. There are as many types of mangos as there are wine grapes and we have quickly become discerning eaters. Only the biggest, sweetest mangos touch these lips since eating a mango is always a messy but worthwhile experience. I guess that is why they call them “exotic fruits” 'cause you have to get involved with the fruit to eat it. I have not yet learned a way to eat a mango that does not end in washing my face and hands afterward.

In addition to mangos there are lots of other strange and exotic fruits we had never seen before……Mocambo, Star Fruit, Maracuya, Guanabanas, giant papaya, Panama Berry, Alligator Pear and lots more. Many of those trees are prized and protected but still the birds and iguanas get a lot of the crop. Not only do we need to learn the names but also how to pick, ripen, juice, puree, barbeque (yes!) and just plain eat all of them.

In our back yard is a producing avocado tree with probably 200 fruit on it. Seems every one in the neighborhood knows it is there, since it is an old tree. Last week a woman up the street who I only know to say hello ask if I would give her some. I said yes as soon as they were a little bigger. So I guess this is the season to win friends and influence people with fruit.

Burn it and make it go away (or should I start smoking again?)

This part of Panama has an air pollution problem. I tried to get some pictures that would show the situation but just cannot get a lens big enough (or maybe it is the lack of skill of the photographer). So I will try to show you in words.

Anyway the air pollution is not just from lots of old diesel engines or thousands of 2-cycle weed eaters. No, the majority is from the burning of the countryside. You see, from February until now it has not rained and the Panama custom is to burn any and everything they want to get rid of. Incidentally the city trash collection and disposal for service three times a week is $27 a year! The trash collection guys in our town will not accept green waste (brush, grass clippings, leaves, etc) unless you pay them a couple of bucks extra. I guess because it takes too much effort and fills up the dump too fast.
As a result the neighbors rake up their leaves and palm fronds into small piles and burn them right there in the yard. There are about 25 burn piles visible from our back gate.

And on a much larger scale, land owners clear the underbrush of large plots the same way. So in the summer months of January through April there are hundreds of fires burning every day. It may have made a lot of sense in earlier times as it was a way to clear the undergrowth and leave the trees and large bushes intact. But now houses and fincas (farms) dot the landscape everywhere and some get burned up. And on the windy days more fires are started because they burn better. Never mind that the undergrowth fires get out of control. The fire department does not usually respond to these fires unless called to protect a structure or to reduce the smoke drifting across the Autopista. But they usually leave when they run out of water regardless of the status of the fire. Life is so different here!

So today, we're were driving back from El Valle, a little volcanic valley about 2500’ in the mountains, and looking toward the Pacific we only see a thick haze on the horizon and wispy plumes of white smoke drifting up from 30 or 40 fires in our field of vision. Along the road was a blue haze hanging about 4 feet above the ground where the grasses had just burned. It is like everyone knows the rainy season is coming soon and needs to get everything burn that they can.


You would think in this decade dedicated to reducing global warming that there would be at least SOME consciousness of the impact of open burning on the atmosphere. If I can see the smoky haze over all the countryside can’t anyone else? The “government” does have a law or ordinance against burning but like many other laws in Panama it s not enforced. And the problem is much larger now there synthetic products everywhere so in addition to burning organic stuff anything else in the way gets burned up. That includes a lot of plastic, paper, paint cans, used oil and whatever else gets thrown into the fire. We have some friends who own and run a very environmentally sensitive and sustainable finca and the only alternative they have to trash disposal is a burn dump on their property. There is not trash collection in the rural areas and no one knows where the municipal dump is (sound suspicious?).

So all the years I spend protecting my health by wearing a mask or respirator or avoiding smoke has now been pretty much negated by all the diesel exhaust and burning plastic. But the beaches are great!
And it WILL rain soon and clear the air.

Got a light?

Adventure trip to Santa Catalina

Recently Linda and I, our friend Alex from Venezuela, and two acquaintances from Santa Cruz took a trip to a wonderful surf/fish trip to a place called Santa Catalina. We also took Grayson our Weimeriener ‘cause he is a handful to leave with a dog sitter.

Santa Catalina is about 200km away but takes about 5 hours to get there on the small roads. It’s a small fishing village near Coiba, an island national park in the province of Veraguas (if you want to look it up), that is a world class surfing destination when conditions are right and great place to game fish for all sorts of varieties. The diving is also some of the best in the county.

Well anyway, we stayed in a surf hotel that Alex used to manage for $19/night. Linda surfed right in front of the hotel and Alex, I and our acquaintance fished with a local guide. We caught one of each kind of fish, a total of 5 and 2 got away. They were are in the 7-15 pound range and fought like their life depended on it. As we trolled along the short it was clear there were not roads, houses or development as far as we could see. But the Panama Coast Guard came by to check us out in a big grey launcha bristling with guns. We put on our life jackets just before they got close enough to see.

The second best part of fishing is eating what you caught and this was really true when we had a local restraint (with Alex’s direction) prepare the tuna and Wahoo as the best I have ever eaten. And that is not just because I caught it. We intend to return to Santa Catalina again soon.

Return from the Aromas Campground to a Doggie/Cat hospital at Latitude 08

After spending three weeks in California doing the annual tax stuff that needs to be done for being an American citizen (the only country in the world which taxes its’ citizens who do not even live there) and working a little for the Authority I have shed my long pants and shirts and returned to Panama. It was the first time I have spent three weeks in the little trailer we have on the Aromas property and it worked really well. I think the secret is the two sheds we have deemed “the closet” and “the garage”. That way we don’t have to stuff all our stuff into the trailer itself. Anyway, I packed the Worlds Largest Suitcase and one of its smaller brothers and returned home just below weight limit with lots of goodies.

Immediately after getting home I was swept up in the preparations for a spay/neuter clinic in our little town. You need to know that there are a lot of unwanted dogs who roam the towns of Panama and the local solution has historically been to put out poison bait and give them a slow painful death. In the past ten years several expat organizations have put together platoons of volunteer vets and technicians who swoop into an area and do marathon spay and neuter clinics which allows the dogs live but just takes the thrill out of their reproductive lives. So was the San Carlos clinic. Last Sunday I was the taxi for locals with no transportation to or from the clinic and the trapper of vagrant cats. Linda was the recovery room caregiver for dog’s ears. In one night and one day we sterilized 168 dog and cats and lost only one….the mother cat that lived next door to us and had produced at least 15 kittens in past six months. See the website at spaypanama.org and look for San Carlos. It was a well coordinated effort and most everyone had a good time, except the dogs and cats who were a little sore for a few days.

Anyway, things are back to the Panama norm of always 81 F, always changes in plans and almost always smiling’.

I did not make this move alone

You know, to this point I have done all the writing and that is not fair since Linda has been my partner in all this stuff. She recently sent some friends in Aromas a summary of her impressions of our few months in Panama.

Here it is:

" I'm sharing some of my thoughts about Stephen's and my new home here in San Carlos Panama. San Carlos is located on the Pacific side of the country about an hour's drive W from Panama City. For the past 3 months we've been creating our new home, friends and affiliates. All the while doing it in a foreign (to us) language and culture. We're studying Spanish and trying to learn the local culture so as not to offend and to understand. We've met tons of expats from the US and Canada. Most have good stories - some may even be true.

Many expats live in gated communities with only the local contacts being their housekeepers and gardeners. A lot of them are comfortable with that sort of lifestyle from past government careers, exclusive lifestyles and outlooks. S and I were looking to become a part of a local community. Naturally we're looked upon as outsiders but not unkindly. S began teaching at an International School 2 days a week. I'm involved with an animal group entitled, Spay Panama. I'm helping to coordinate a spay/neuter clinic in San Carlos later this month.

I'm finding that change is a little more taxing than I had anticipated. Perhaps it's my age, perhaps my sense of adventure isn't as piqued as it once was... Accomplishing tasks takes far longer than anyone could ever imagine. Sourcing items is far different than in first world nations. A new realization for me is that in the US we have always taken for granted that we can purchase any item we need - and if it's out of stock, we simply order it or go to a different store. Not so here. If you see something you need - or will ever need - purchase everything that is on the store shelf because you may never see it again. Especially in grocery stores. I now have 8- 2 lb bags of brown rice in my refrigerator!

All in all, S and I are still excited and looking forward to exploring our new country. There are only 3 million people here with beautiful beaches, mountains, rivers and forests. To date we've only experienced a tiny portion of what Panama has to offer.

Below are some of my current findings:

Some good news
the US dollar is the local currency
Official retired status gives b/w 10-20% discount on food, drugs, movies, flights, etc.
warm weather
warm water (no wet suits required)
good health care and insurance available at affordable prices
affordable housing
house keepers available for $10 per day
daily laborers charge approx $12 daily
dog leashes never required
dogs can run freely on all beaches
Panama City is cosmopolitan and has nearly everything you could want; however, finding it is challenging
Panama City residents are typically well educated, well traveled and speak at least 2 languages
buses are plentiful, inexpensive and run regularly
household/hardware items are plentiful and inexpensive
And some not so good news:
the US dollar is the local currency
constant warm weather breeds many pesky bugs such as ticks like you can't imagine
most all of the beaches have lava rock beneath the water. Surfing is not for sissies.
house keepers and laborers have very different standards than North Americans
most dogs and cats are not spayed/neutered
Panama City is in such a growth spurt that it's difficult to recognize from month to month and makes driving quite sporting. It currently has more skyscrapers than many US cities.
buses play local music at deafening levels along with air conditioning temps requiring sweaters and scarves
Household/hardware items are mostly cheesy products made specifically for developing nations. By North American standards, most items are worthless.
Locals outside of Panama City are literate but not educated. The educational system here is rote memorization. Students are not taught to think or problem solve. Employees rigidly adhere to rules and are unable to work outside of them. For instance, if an item does not have a UPC code on it, a cashier will not sell it - at any price. Even grocery clerks will not sell the last bag of coffee or only head of lettuce to a customer if the code is missing. No amount of reasoning will change the clerk's mind - even if you can speak enough Spanish&^%$#@!
There are more items in the good news list, so we still are positive about our move. It's only been 3 months and the house is nearly the way we want it. Oh and we have increased our family with a new stay kitten and street dog named Negrita. Two cats and two dogs seem to be a nice balance - for now.

Miss you all and especially discussing books - any books!!!
Linda"

A trip to the end of the road

Hi there,

Sorry I have not posted anything for a while but life just gets busy when you are retired.

I am now sitting a crowded garage office we still have in Aromas. It is cold and raining out and I have been here for over a week working on two sets of income taxes and also at the Authority (for a few bucks). I called my son Tyler on this birthday on the 2nd and did not reach him. That always leaves a vacant feeling....oh well.

The campsite of a trailer and two sheds we made on the property works well but it seems I am always schlepping something up or down the hill to the office. In real camping I would be schlepping firewood and water but here it is laptops, briefcases and water.

Of course people here ask me how I like living in Panama, what is it like and lots of other questions. And sitting in this garage it seems like a long ways away right now and except for my images of Linda and our house and dogs it is a little fuzzy. Guess that’s because I am cold and lonely here. I really look forward to the daily Skype calls with Linda. Now we can fight long distance and actually see each other! But that is who we are.

I am almost to the end of the income tax stuff for both us and mom. Of course that just means I am done and give it to the respective “bookies” to gin up the results. Then a week of working and packing and back to Latitude 8 on March 15th, The Ides of March. This working takes a lot of time.

But that is not where I started on this episode so here is the fun stuff.

A few weeks ago Linda and I took a very short road trip with surf friend Obie and her two kids to a surf spot about 160 miles from home. The destination was Quanico, a crescent bay on a road not shown on any maps. The road ends at the beach were there is a single restaurant and two rooms for rent. And the only communication is the pay phone at the restaurant. But the rooms have satellite TV and AC.

Linda and Obie surfed their hearts out (witness the pic) and the kids played. Down the beach about ½ mile is a compound built by two young Brits, Russell and Laura. It is truly a work of art with wonderful craftsmanship and a warm feeling. The two pics are of the main house and the outdoor shower.

The quest for organic veggies

You would think in the tropics that vegetables would abound. Lots of starchy veggies yes, but lettuce, tomatoes and other broad leaf plants, not so. Yesterday at the super market we saw baby spinach from Salinas for $7.25 a small box. Not on our list! So every week we make the trip up the hill to El Valle to buy organic veggies from Thomas the organic farmer and his family. He has been workireat funng the same farm for 25 years and it is a model of sustainability. And it is great fun looking for and picking the lettuce, onions, carrots, and other stuff and then weighing the harvest and playing with their kids and dogs. The bill is about $15 bucks and it tastes great.

(Still haven't figured how to place the picture next to the text. They always end up at the top. If you know how to put them other places tell me!)

And while we are there sometimes we go next door to a very fancy hotel called los Mandarinos and have a look (or occasionally lunch). When we are at Thomas’ we see the los Mandarinos staff gathering and buying their own food. El Valle is round valley about 2900’ in elevation and a micro climate of cool days and much more rain than San Carlos. Great veggies and flowers. That’s what happens when you live in an extinct volcano not unlike Jurassic Park. As a matter of fact Thomas even has a dinosaur garden complete with plastic beasts in among the leaves.

I'm going to have a salad.

My wife has become a kilowatt junkie

I don’t know how much more energy efficient the United States has become in the past four months but I bet the rest of the world is still way ahead of it. In Panama where electricity is typically $.20 a kilowatt people are very careful how they use it. And anywhere that light bulbs are sold there is often nothing but compact fluorescent bulbs. You know, those funny looking things with the little white tubes looping around. Well now they produce up to 125 watts according to the label. And they give good light but according to Linda it is just too white to read with. So on every shopping trip Linda looks for and comes back with a treasured incandescent bulb…. The plain old light bulb. And we have a few around in our house for reading and quite a few spares as those wear out (and they do pretty fast). As an old energy management guy I wince when I know that the reading bulb is using 5 or 10 times as much juice as the new ones, but what the hell, I only read a couple of hours a night if that.
Now I gotta turn out the light.

The Fire Cracker People of New Years

Want to blow up your favorite celebrities, enemies or adversaries? Well the People along the Panama Highway near our house have a way. They make up dummies of the character they love, despise, or are upset with in some way and fill the dummy with firecrackers. Often you recognize the dummy as a politician or Bart Simpson or a celebrity with a sign telling who it is. This tradition started with the local Indians making dummies with heads painted on coconuts and stuffing old clothes for shape. Now the practice has refined itself and spread geographically along Highway for twenty miles. There is even a judging and awards with money given out and on New Years Eve the dummies are for sale so you can take them home. I have included a few pictures of the dummies some of which are works of art. The dummies are just appeared right after Christmas until New Years Eve when at midnight they are all BLOWN TO SMITHEREENS! Talk about closure!

And since fireworks are legal in Panama the celebration of the New Year is very loud and sparkley. We have a friend and her twelve year old twins here so the best way to bring in the New Year was to light it off! We went to the beach with rockets, sparklers, and other exploding gizmos and after had set off all of our stuff we witnessed at least three major major displays put on by private parties up and down the coast. It was as good as any 4th of July I have ever seen. The after midnight the discos open with live music and dancing until 6 am. We closed the windows and turned on the AC and went to sleep. After all, Linda had to get up real early to go surfing and I wanted to write this episode.

I love driving in Panama City

I was born to drive in Panama City. In this compact metropolis with too many cars, almost not traffic signals and not enough road or parking space, ANYTHING GOES! And I love it.
All the stupid rules I dutifully followed in the states (even though did not always make sense) are out the window here. As long as you act like you know what you are doing it is fine to:
turn left from the right lane, or
pull out in front of a line of traffic causing them to stop so you can go through the intersection or
Drive over the center divider to hang a U turn anywhere or
Make a third lane of traffic when the other two stop.

And surprisingly I see only a few collisions. With all these crazy drivers, combined with the big Diablos (old US school buses painted up) roaring around you learn to pay close attention and move quickly when given the opening. It is like an adult go cart track with consequences. But once a week is enough. I would not like to do it every day.

Now I know what it means to be retired

It was not until early one morning this week that I realized that I was “retired” Linda was out of county, the animals were still asleep as was the town (no noise) and I was awake, mulling over what I had to do that day. First, I had to remember what day it was (Wednesday) and know that I had no commitments to be anywhere or do anything. It was then it dawned on me that I DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TODAY!

Therein also lay the problem. With no commitments my day was entirely up to me and I could:
Go back to sleep if I could live with the town noise
Go online and read the news
Study my Spanish
Take the dogs the beach
Clean or fix something around the house
Make some coffee and enjoy the morning

Well I did all of them during the day but did not leave the house except to run the dogs. Life is good!

The LONG Christmas Letter

A Christmas letter - an abreviated version was emailed to friends and family and here is the full novel

December 2008

The big year for the Monsons (Murdock/Johnson)

Almost every year I try to write you a pleasant short summary of the past year and some times it works and other times it doesn’t. This year there have been so many important events that I can actually remember all of them.

This was the year we had been working toward and all the pieces seemed to fall in place like we had planned them (which of course we were hoping for)
Let me list them in order by month.

April – We bought and set up a 5th wheel trailer on our property as an apartment to live in occasionally once we rented the house. There are also two sheds call “Closet” and “Garage” for the overflow from the trailer. So we have our very own campsite with a washer and dryer!

May I retired from the Authority and was given a wonderful send off from all the great people there. As a parting gift I was given “the shirt of our backs” and now am the proud owner of 25 Hawaiian shirts.
The going away plague with the greatest significance came from all the staff of the Authority and included all the ten business cards from my career (at the least the ones that had cards) along with a quote
And will you succeed?
Yes, you will indeed
(98 and ¾% guaranteed).
- Dr Suess


And, and, Linda sold Happy Dogs for a tidy profit and received the funds on the very same day of the Stephen’s retirement party. Good timing eh?
Then we started to “thin out” our stuff

June – We moved my mother, Lois, from Arkansas to an adult living place in Austin Texas. She is very happy there and does not have to drive a car any more. At 93 that is a good thing.
Mom is in a facility for about 120 people. She is busier than I have seen her in years and close to Brother Michael and Mary. And Michael and wife May have taken on the duties of watching over mom in addition to doing all the things connected to running an art store and a life coaching businesses. Thanks Michael and Mary!

July- I worked a little for the Authority and started doing some volunteer time with the Clinton Climate Initiative.
We got serious on getting rid of stuff and planning to get to Panama by fall.

August
We saw Tyler and his girlfriend Amber once this year and are happy to see both of them moving in a lot of good new directions in Portland last year. I've asked Tyler to write his own blurb and here it is:

I'm still living in Portland (Oregon, not Maine), though now with my girlfriend Amber. In case the dish hasn't made it to your inbox before now, she's a special ed teacher, currently going back to school for her master's degree, so that she can win all our arguments on the basis of her higher education. We also have a new dog, an old house we rent, and a real love for the city where we live.
Merry Christmas, all.

September – I took a last trip to the Sierras (for a while) as well as fishing trip with Leo and Rich on the Rogue River in Oregon. And Linda stayed home and packed.

October – We scurried around to move out of our home in Aromas, give away or sell most of our stuff and move into the trailer. By this time we were saying “We are actually going to do this!” No turning back now! Holy cow we are really changing our lives!

October – We rented the house, packed our two big suitcases each along with five boxes and a dog and a cat and moved to San Carlos Panama. On the way we visited with lots of people important in our lives; Michelle in Templeton, Jack & Susan, Jules & Neal, Mike & Amy in Solvang, Wilbur & Alby in Woodland Hills and Pam at the airport.

November – having forgotten a few things and given the opportunity to fly back for free (to speak at conference) I went back to 11 days and left Linda to keep on nest building.

There were some sad things as well this year as well.
We went from three dogs to one and three cats to one of each. Our two old dogs, Sarah and Thunder (both 15) were not up for the trip or life in Panama so we had them relieved of their troubles in October. It was really hard but best for both them and us. It’s just not fair that dogs don’t live as long as us.

The two cats we did not take with us faired much better. Gracie, the youngest, went to live with Wendy Welkom and her two girls and has more playmates than ever. Ranger, our old semi feral cat stayed in Aromas under the care of our tenants. Hope that works out.

So now, here we are in our little house in Panama, learning a new culture and a language I should have learned 50 years ago (read embarrassed). Our days are filled with little things that seem to take a way long time by North American standards but that is the way it is in the tropics. I started a little blog if you want follow our adventure.
http://panamamove.blogspot.com/
I try to add something once a week, when the Internet is working.

Linda the SurferDawg alternates between the heaven of “surfing in champagne” to depression of not even getting in the water. This is not the best time of the year for surf in Panama and she has a lot of other things to get done as well. I know those other things will drop away when the surf gets better.

And as we end of this eighth year of the millennium, with the world spinning out of control, our new president will face daunting foreign-policy tasks as well as a mother-in-law of a recession, we hope you all take time to listen to the trees and hug your loved ones. And to be very very nice to everyone you meet. And stay in touch.

Happy Holidays
Linda & Stephen


Murdock/Johnson
PTY 14079
10000 NW 25th Street Unit 1
Miami, FL 33172-2204
Home phone 011 507 240 9984

Got a new Fridge!

Linda's new stove and frig as well as the buffet before we ate.

You probably don’t know this since most news we received is only close to our part of the world. But there have been horrendous rainstorms all over Central America for the past two weeks. The damage is wide spread, especially the mountains of Panama and even affecting the only two bridges spanning the canal.

And suddenly this week lots and lots of 5-foot Douglas fir Christmas trees have appeared for sale. Now, you know they have made a long long trip to shed their needles on warm floors all over Panama. The tree lots are often under a big tree (appropriated) and the merchandise is hung by twine from the branches. So it looks like a lot of dancing
Christmas trees under the boughs of the mother tree.

As we were driving on the main highway we came across an Atlas Beer truck which had crossed the road, hit a bus and tipped over. Several people were killed and all the carnage was gone by the time we arrive. What was amazing was that there were dozens of cars and truck stopped by the wreck with everyone rushing to take as many cases of beer as they could carry. There was police there but they were just directing traffic and making no effort to stop the looting of the truck. I have to get used to this.

I have spent my first week as a volunteer teacher at an international school. My job is to do as I am told and have a good time. And I am teaching English to Spanish, New Zealand, Mexican and Dutch kids. Then I get to do Spanish vocabulary with some of the English speaking older kids. It is fun to be in that environment 8 hours a week and the only homework is preparing for the Spanish lessons since I already know English pretty well (or is it good?).

We had our first house party today with about fifteen people. Linda decided since we don’t currently have a table to seat more than 4 that we should have a luncheon. And when we began planning the party we had a very old and dysfunctional stove and a tiny tiny fridge. So on top of scurrying around to at least five stores to find the stuff we needed (since grocery stores in Panama do not stock the same items all the time) we shopped for a stove and frig. After looking at the large chains and not striking any deal, we found a small independent store that had a wonderful stove made in Ecuador with electric sparker and a great large fridge to match. We bought it the day before the party and it was delivered at 8 that night so we were just like newlyweds with a new kitchen outfit and me outside with a fresh red weed whacker making the front steps spiffy.

Anyway as we go into month two here, Linda left for Guatemala for a one week Spanish immersion program so I am here with our two dogs and a cat. Oh yeah, we have a fresh dog. She is small black street dog named Negrita who Linda rescued along with a nice man in town. She has now been spade and is learning the joys of regular meals and getting Grayson to stop growling and starting to play.

I gotta go take the dogs to the beach.

A quick trip to California

No sooner were we just settling into the routines of being imigrants in a strange and wonderful new land WHEN I had to go back!

Yes, there was some fire insurance stuff on our house in Aromas that I had to take care of fast and there was a corporate sponsor who offered to pay my way to a conference in San Diego. Well I think I already told you all that but my memory fades fast and I guess in a blog it is better to have continuity by telling things twice so you don't have go back and read everything.

Anyway, I went and spent a week in Aromas, limbing trees, paying bills, working a little at the Authority and camping in the trailer. This was the first time I had spent any extended time alone in the "campsite" and everything worked well. Ranger, the cat we left behind popped in every night and all the neighborhood dogs came by looking for Linda.

Well, I had a huge list of stuff to bring back with me and I needed some way to carry it. So I went out and bought the World's Biggest Suitcase. It is large enough to swallow what had previously been my biggest bag. Now I have spent my life being critical of travelers who wheel in these behemoths and now I am one. But it worked........Inside was a printer, hair rollers, books, lots of liquids from the drug store, and more. 62 pounds of stuff.

Well, everything went well on the Southwest flight to San Diego. The bag was overweight and I paid the charge. But when I left San Diego on Continental three days later I learned that contrary to their website (with a max weight of 70 pounds) there is "holiday embargo" on overweight suitcases and I had to get both bags down to 50 pounds. That meant I had to open all my bags on the floor in front of the ticket desk and pull out and heft those heaviest items and then cram them into my carry on bag. Well my carry on now weighed 25 pounts but I made the flight with all the stuff still going the right direction, just in different containers.

I thought my adventures were over. After all I just had to change planes in Houston and then jet home to Panama. But I was mistaken. Just past the ticket taker for the Panama Flight were four Customs agents questioning everyone getting on the flight. You may not know that it is a big no no to carry more than $10,000 out of the country and these guys were looking for any money smugglers. They also had dog with them sniffing but not for money (since we all had some of that). I could only think it was a drug dog looking for really dumb crooks trying to smuggle drugs OUT of the US.

Anyway when I got up to the chief customs guy, he looked me right in the eye and cited the statue the makes it a no no to take money out of the country and and asked me if I was carrying more than $10,000. I looked him back in the eye and said "no". He then asked me how much money I WAS carrying and I told him it was none of his business since I just said that I was not carrying too much. Well we went around a couple of times and I finally said defiantly that I was carrying a hundred bucks. He moved me to the side and said "I will handle you over here". So then his cronies took apart all my carry on. Yes, that one which had 25 pounds of everything carefully packed in a small space. When I asked them why, if the new currency has RFID strips in it so the money can be detected electronically, they did not know what I was talking about. Anyway they found no extra stash of cash, just lots of stuff I would not rather show to anyone but close friends. BUT they did not even pat me down so If I was harboring a wad of $100's in my crotch they would never have found it.

Oh, the measures our government goes to in an effort to keep us paying taxes.

And now back home in Panama we had a very productive day. We almost got another bank account (we need few more papers), we paid our cable bill all by ourselves and we arranged to have a cabinet maker come to the house later. Big day eh?

Live well and be very very nice to everyone you meet.

Panama in the early morn

I had to make a 10:00 am flight to Houston Monday so arranged to get a ride from Alex, our former tenant. Alex is Venezuelan working on project developing a resort on the Caribbean side and a very dynamic guy. After one year in San Carlos he knows and is liked by everyone in town. Anyway, Alex had a change in plan and was not going into Panama City that morning but arrange for a taxi driver and friend named Nene to drive me in, at Alex’s expense.

I was a little concerned knowing the Panamanian penchant for being late (sometimes really late) but Nene showed up at 5:31 and off we went.

This was the first time I have seen the road to Panama City while not driving and very early in the morning. The sun rises at 6:15 and sets at 6:05 all year round. Remember it is Latitude 8 and there are very little season changes in the sun.

As we drove along I watched Panama wake up on a holiday Monday. It was like being in downtown LA at 7:00 Sunday morning. A few people walking on the highway or waiting for bus, very few cars, trucks or busses on the road. In fact Nene said there were no police either and we cruised at 115 km/hr all the way in. The sun was coming up in our faces and low clouds hung on the mountains until we crossed the Bridge of the Americas (La Puente de la Americas). There are only two bridges over the Canal and until two years ago there was only one, the new one Centurillo which was built by a German firm and is beautiful with a fan of support cables holding up the span. How is that for a run on sentence?

Even in Panama City it was very very quiet compared all the other times I have seen it. You see, anyone with any money at all has a house in the “interior” where they go for long holiday weekends. Places such as San Carlos and all the surrounding beach development double in size on a fiesta weekend.

So we cruised through the city and I got to the airport 2 hours before my flight. I will have to consider flying again on a Panamanian holiday.

And if you think US TSA is illogical consider this one………I go through security (X-ray, pull out the laptop, all but the toothpaste and face creams in plastic bag bit), have a bit of breakfast in the secure area and then queue up to board. At the gate are four nice young Panamanians in uniform, physically checking inside every carry on bag? And when they find I have bottle of water I just bought I am told I can drink it there but not on the plane. Ya just gotta laugh at the way things happen.

More in a couple of weeks
sj

A dogs trip to the beach

Twice a day now either I or Linda and I take Grayson on the 10 minute walk through town to the beach to run his ass off for 40 minutes and cause him to be civil for the day. Otherwise it is like living with a 15 year old boy. I took some pictures today to show the trip.

Let me know what you would like to know or see about our new town, pronounced locally as San Carlo.

Now I gotta go lock up and take a snooze

sj

A regular Friday in San Carlos

Two weeks have passed since we landed in our new home and a little of routine is beginning to take shape. Still I marvel at how casual life is and the size of the trees but here are the events of the day. Notice how trivial they are to some of the major events in yours.

• 6:30 get up, make coffee and watch the town wake up
• 7:30 Walk Grayson, our Weimeriener, to the beach and throw the tennis ball for 40 minutes into the small surf. I am the only person on the beach.
• 9:00 attend a casual Spanish class of expats
• 11:00 arrive home and meet the housecleaner ($10/day $15 if she does the windows)
• 11:15 A new acquaitenance pops in and asks for me to go help him get his car started 8 miles away
• First we have lunch at the Chinese restraunt across the street
• 1:30 return home and spend 2 hours painting our walkin closet in my underwear(I have no paint clothes)
• 4:00 I get a lesson from a retired hairdresser on how to do Linda's hair.
• 5:00 got to the beach with Linda and Grayson
• 6:00 watch sunset from the beach while it begins to rain.
• drive home in the rain
• 7:00 have dinner of ceviche, salad and soup while watching old versions of Three Men and Boy while Grayson is already sound asleep
• 9:00 go to be with all the widows open and the ceiling fans on

So you see our lives sometimes can be pretty mundane but still it feels like a vacation with a lot less expense and plenty of clothes an gadgets to play with.

What I did not metion was the holiday celebration that took place right in front of our house. You see November 2nd is one of the Independence celebrations in Panama. It is always a really big one because everyone in Panama City get paid on the 1st and 15th so they were flush. And really big in San Carlos because it is the government and social center of the region and the place of the parade. We had heard several bands practicing for days with snare and base drums, a few trumpets and lots of marchinng girls. Well the parade was seven hours long! It had bands from every little school in the region, with the kids in band uniforms and the girls dressed to the nines. The last two days have seemed very quiet in comparison. Next holiday is Nov 10th the Colon independence celebration.

I gotta go

A week into our adventure

Finally getting some pictures for you to look at. these are us shipping our boxes at LAX, Linda saying goodbye to our trailer in Aromas and us striking out in our rented van towards Los Angeles. More pics will follow soon as I learn how do this blog stuff.
You see that I have not posted anything for a while. That is because the beauty of Panama is that everything takes a while....longer than you would think. so in the first week we have been here we have accomplised a lot: we got our house cleaned, we got 2 cell phones to work (although we still can't retrieve messages) a printer and other computer stuff working and a number of trips to many stores.

The first big adventure was to go into Panama City to the airport to recover our 4 boxes of household goods we shipped air freight from LAX. After chasing the boxes by phone for three days we finally were assured there were there and off we went. Of course we took the dog, Grayson because he barks incessentaly if left alone. And a loud barking dog in the middle of town is not a good start with the neighbors. Anyway we found the air freight terminal and had to make 4 stops at three different buildings (collecting stamps on the paper) before we could get the stuff.

So now we have our SUV 2/3 full of boxes, with a little space for the dog and off we go to buy stuff for the house. It is now miday and hot and since we are not comforatble leaving the windows down while shopping one of us stays in the car and the other goes into the store.

Now the stuff we need is not small, printers, dishpans, utility racks, and all the other stuff we can get at the Do It center. By the time we left the back of the car was piled high so we could not see out the window. We got home after dark, which is a challenge because the used car we bought has a darkly tinted windshield and makes int really hard to see. But we made it.