Day to Day

I thought I'd write a post explaining a little about our day to day life and some of the challenges it poses.  Our day usually starts around 6:00 am.  That's if the dogs in the neighborhood don't start barking at 5:30 and wake us up.  There is literally no insulation in the walls of these houses.  It's not necessary due to the weather.  However that means when the neighbors are outside talking, or the kids are in the house next door playing, or the dog 2 blocks over starts to bark, you hear it.  Because of that, Tyler and I are both trying to become morning people.  It's a slow, painful adjustment.

   One of the biggest challenges for me is preparing myself for the cold shower first thing in the morning. Sometimes I'm up and need to get in the shower but just cannot get my courage to do it.  When I finally do, I stand there testing the water every couple of minutes like it might actually warm up.  Finally you just have to take the plunge and try to get it over with as soon as possible.  Once we're ready, we either wait for the bus to come around or walk out to the main road where the buses pass much more often. If we wait for the bus to come around, we have to be ready to catch it at least an hour before the meeting for field service starts because there is no real schedule per say.  If we walk out we can usually leave the house 45 minutes before the meeting for field service, but we have to walk about 20 minutes to the main road.  Even at 8:15 in the morning that can work up quite a sweat.  Once we get into David, depending on how much time we have, we either catch a taxi or walk to the Kingdom Hall.  Walking I would say takes about 20 minutes.

After the meeting for field service we either walk to territory or take a bus.  The public transportation has been a real adjustment.  You never know exactly when the buses are going to come around, nor do you know how long it will take to get somewhere.  The buses will stop to pick people up anywhere along their route.  You can literally flag them just like a taxi.  Also you can tell them to stop anywhere along their route.  So sometimes the same route takes 15 minutes and sometimes it takes 30.  Also, sometimes you only have to wait 5 minutes for a bus, and sometimes you have to wait 40.  Because of this we have to allow an hour to get to a RV.  Also if we stop service at 3:00 it could be as late as 4:30 by the time we get home.

I have also had a big adjustment in a physical way.  I did not anticipate the toll that walking around all day in the heat takes on your body.  In the United States people don't usually walk more than a couple of blocks in service if the weather is hot, but here we walk miles everyday.  I have come home from service and been so sore and worn out that I couldn't stand the thought of standing long enough to make dinner.  Fortunately Tyler and I can both tell that are bodies are adjusting and getting stronger.  It's becoming much easier, for example to have two long days in service back to back.  Actually Tyler has almost flourished here in a physical way.  He has had almost no problem with the heat and really seems to enjoy walking all day in service.  I actually expected it to be the other way around.

All in all there have been a lot of adjustments, but I have to say I completely agree with all the experiences we read about in the publications.  It is ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!!  This is by far one of the most treasurable experiences of my life.  The people here are spiritually hungry and so appreciative.  There was one man we talked to a couple of days ago for example, who wanted the Bible Teach book so badly and appreciated the value of it so much, he refused to take it until he could give us a donation.  The same day we talked to a man who didn't speak enough English for us to witness to him, but almost literally begged us for a Bible Teach book in Spanish.  We have turned that info over to the missionary couple in our congregation.  When we go back to RVs that we have placed the Bible Teach book with and ask them if they have their book with them, they almost always walk over to their bag and pull it out.  That's the case even if they are at work.  The people here do not "misplace" or lose the literature you give them.  They keep it with them and read it.  You can just feel the hunger they have to learn the truth.  We believe the fields are indeed "white for harvesting", and feel so privileged to be a part of it.

Tyler with some of the friends, preaching in Volcan.  The hat was to protect his face from sunburn.

Tyler preaching in a wealthy neighborhood in David.  Typically there are many English speaking people in these neighborhoods.  Probably as much as 1/3. Our experience has been that even in the wealthy areas we get very good response from English speaking Panamanians.  Notice the new service backpack.  Also the hat is no longer needed.

Michelle preaching in another wealthy neighborhood.  This was an exceptionally hot day.  A very kind person at one of the houses (who didn't speak English) gave us each a cold soda.  You know it's desperate when Michelle drinks pop and it tastes good!

 

David, Panama - Bus Terminal and surrounding area

The Bus Terminal in David, Panama

Because we mainly use public transportation to get around town (when we are not just walking) we spend a lot of time at the Terminal in David. When we first arrived we had no idea what was going on or where to go. Here are several pictures of the buses and the Terminal. We have basically 3 different types of buses depending on where you are going or coming from. The big blue bus runs from David to Panama City. The large yellow school bus is for going to Boquete. The little white bus goes everywhere around town and to other towns and cities, these are the ones we ride mostly. On the front window of the buses you can see the names of the town they each go to, thus you know what ones might be going your way.

This is the double decker version of the David-Panama bus. The view is awesome from the top in the front.

Here you can see several of the white buses and one of the Boquete buses in the back.

This is where the buses pull up to the terminal to pick up the passengers. Each route has a designated slot.

Inside the terminal where the buses are lined up. On the right are several shops and restaurants.

This is one of the women's bathrooms at the terminal.  I'm not sure where you have to pay to use this one, but as you can see bathrooms are not always free in Panama.

And neither is toilet paper.  The lady behind the desk (you can't see her well in this picture) is tearing off a few sheets from a roll of toilet paper and selling them for you to use in the bathroom down the stairs.  I have personally used this one, and I can say it is better than some others, and had soap the day I was there.  The bathroom, by the way, was free.

Some shops and stands around the Terminal

Some of the restaurants across from the terminal. Most restaurants have open air seating in David.

Another restaurant down the street with some other shops in the background.

There are a lot of street vendors. You can get your shoes shined or buy a new outfit. 

More street vendors and many also sell food. We are not sure why the car has cardboard on it.

Most of the lawyers and doctors keep their bared doors closed and locked, even during business hours.

This is one part of town we go to. Later we will show you some other areas. We have always felt safe and everyone is very friendly.

Stuck between a delivery time and a tile floor

After we rented the house in Los Algarrobos one of the first things we had to buy was appliances (our place is unfurnished so no stove or fridge). The place we bought our appliances and bed from deliver for a small fee so we decided that we would have them go ahead and do that for us. The problem is that they deliver from anywhere from 9 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, and if you are not there when they try to deliver you have to pay again for them to come back another day.

At the time we lived in Volcan. There are no direct ways from Volcan to Algarrobos, you have to go from Volcan to David to Algarrobos. The bus from Volcan to David often takes over an hour and then from David to Algarrobos it is about 20-30 minutes depending on the number of stops made. The buses start running around 7:30 to 8:00 so this wouldn't give us enough time to get to Algarrobos if they were there at 9.

We didn't want to miss the delivery so we decided the only option was to stay overnight at the house in Nuevo Horizonte (New Horizon [our neighborhood]). The problem was we only had a comforter set we bought for the bed. All the floors here are tile or concrete, not exactly the softest flooring around. So to say the least it was not the most comfortable place I have ever slept.

Here is Michelle getting ready for bed.

Tyler trying to keep the bugs out.

The delivery was made the next morning, so we now have our; bed, stove, fridge, washer and dryer. Now we just have to start getting things arranged.

Our home

Here are several pictures of our place. We have been doing work on the place and buying furniture and appliances and we will send updates as we finish the house.

The house is a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. It is in a cute little neighborhood that is made up of mainly young families with little kids. The house has no hot water or air-conditioning, the AC is no problem because it is very nice here but the no hot water is difficult to get used to. We don't even have an electric shower head in our place so we just take cold showers. Anyway here are some more pictures.

 

  

Living room / front door

 

Dinning room (opposite living room) 

 

Hall leading to kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms 

 

Kitchen w/cabinets (unusual in this price range) 

 

1st bedroom - lots of work to do here! 

 

  

 

2nd bedroom 

We are going to be painting every room, the paint on the walls is a very cheap flat paint, so it shows every little mark and you can't clean it (we tried to wash a spot and the paint actually came off just from washing). The girls bedroom is painted pink and has "artwork" all over and stickers covering the door. In the bathroom there is no mirror they just have a little cabinet over the sink so we are going to have to change that. The other problem to figure out is what to do about laundry, everyone does their laundry outside and just bring their washer in and out but we don't want to do that so we are going to experiment with some options.

Home Again!!

Well it has been a month and a half since our last post. So, I guess I will update everyone on what has been going on.

No Internet/Moved/Busy/Traveling/District Convention (aka Excuses, Excuses)

So here is a quick run down of what happened and why we have not been blogging. After our last post we were getting ready to move and had a plan to post about that process, however the entire town of Volcan lost Internet access. It was never restored before we moved. Once we were in our home in Los Algorrobos we didn't have Internet for a couple of weeks because we had to go sign up and get it installed. Finally we accomplished that task and had Internet.

After that we had to try and catch up on our pioneering as we were behind from the moving. Then we both started getting sick. Next thing we knew it was time to travel back to the US. Once there everything fell apart and we were not sure we would even be returning to Panama. However, we were able to work things out and return to Panama just in time for the English District Convention.

After the Convention we traveled back home. We still didn't have any furniture other than our bed so it was rather difficult to work on the computer. This week we went shopping for furniture for our place and purchased a desk and chair. We also found a furniture maker who we have making a living room set for us. So now we have somewhere to sit and work, therefore the blog post should start again.

Panama is already home

On our travel back to the United States we really found ourselves longing to get back to Panama. We are so happy to be back here and when we talk about "home" we always are talking about our place in Algorrobos. Sure there are things that drive us crazy here but we still love it and hope to never go back to the States again, other than for visits.

Our new house

Here are a few pictures from our house from when we first moved in.

Front Door

Side Door/ Laundry area

 

 

 

Step over into...

Changuinola?

When we first started looking into moving to Panama we wrote the Branch Office in Panama for more information on helping the English field and where there was a need. In the letter it gave us four locations, three in the Bocas Del Toro province: the town of Bocas Del Toro, Almirante, Changuinola. The other location was in the Chiriqui province in Volcan. We did some searching on the Internet and the Bocas Del Toro region seemed to be more of our style. It was a little more of a Caribbean style and feel. Also the people there seemed to speak more English in the general population, almost everyone who is of African decent there is from one of the islands and they speak a Jamaican style of English.

So we decided to call the brother in Changuinola to get some more information. (We eliminated Bocas Del Toro really fast because everything and everyone said it is really expensive, it is an island.) The brother there gave us some really encouraging information about the territory and the congregation and how much help they need there. I (Tyler) felt that this was the place we really needed to go, and I really wanted to go to Changuinola. I heard from some friends that visited Bocas Del Toro, the town, that it was a difficult area but that Almirante was even harder. At the same time I was not really interested in talking to ex-pats in the Volcan area. So we decided to go to Changuinola for 3 months and check things out.

However, as most of you know, Michelle found out that she had to have surgery and that the recovery time would be 4-6 weeks. We were planning to leave 6 weeks from that date. After her surgery she didn't feel up to spending a lot of time in Panama and didn't want to go to Changuinola at all now, but wanted to go to Volcan because it is easier here (the water is OK and there is more amenities). As it got closer to our new date to go to Panama she felt better and we decided to spend most of the time in Volcan but still visit Changuinola. So we took off for Panama and Volcan.

Volcan?

I think it took less than a week for us to decide that Volcan was not for us. As previously stated it is really wet, cool and cloudy. The town is small the territory is absolutely huge and so you basically have to have a car or ride with someone who does. We can't afford the upkeep or insurance here for a car on our budget, so we knew that Volcan was not for us.

Changuinola?

We decided to try Changuinola on our third week in country. So I found the contact information for the brother currently in Changuinola. (The original brother and his wife were in the states working to support themselves here in Panama) We asked if he knew of a place we could stay for a week and check things out. He offered to let us stay with him and his wife during our visit. (Everyone here is really good about letting brothers and sisters they have never met stay with them) So we set things up, he gave me the assignments for the Bible Study reader, and the Bible Highlights, Announcements, another Service Meeting part, the Public talk for the Bocas Congregation on Saturday, the Public Talk for Changuinola on Sunday Morning and the Public Talk for Almirante Sunday Afternoon. And Michelle a number 2 talk. This was all just one week, he was the only brother covering Changuinola and Almirante at the time.

Everything was set and I was really happy and looking forward to it because my heart had always been drawn to Chanquinola for some reason.

However, the week before we were to go to Changuinola a demonstration in the Bocas Del Toro Region turned Violent with clashes between the Police and Demonstrators. The Government passed a 9-in-1 law (9 different laws were in this one bill) that included things that tried to weaken the Unions. The Unions lied to their members telling them that the government was taking away their holiday and overtime pay along with giving the guys alcohol to drink thus setting a match to things. The demonstrators blocked all the roads going in and out of Changuinola thus making it so the buses couldn't run. I wanted to wait and see if things got resolved but Michelle didn't want to risk it, also the brothers all urged me to reconsider going over there for the time being. So I emailed the brother over there to let him know we were canceling our trip to Changuinola for the time being.

After things calmed down Michelle asked me if I still wanted to go to Changuinola. I thought about it and said I don't think so. Little did I know that Michelle had just been praying about the idea of going to Changuinola and prayed that if it was not where we should go that I would have a change of heart and mind and no longer want to go to Changuinola.

It was interesting talking with the Circuit Overseer later about the Changuinola incident and how we were blocked from going there. We jokingly said, "of course Jehovah wouldn't start a riot just to keep us from going there." He said, true but he could have moved things so that we picked that week or that things finally boiled over at that point. (The law had been passed over a month before.)

So we were never able to visit Changuinola.

Boquete?

For three weeks in a row we tried to go and visit Boquete to check it out. Boquete is where an English group that started up out of the congregation from Volcan was recently formed and they need help there. But every single time we had plans to visit something happened and we were not able to go to Boquete. A couple in Boquete are ones I grew up with in Independence, Missouri so I was looking forward to seeing them, they also were a great source of information for us in our plans for Panama.

Boquete is apparently one of the most beautiful places in all of Panama. It is called little Switzerland because apparently it reminds people of that type of area. There are a lot of English speakers there because a lot of retired Americans have moved there. It sounded really nice and we would have really liked to go there but it just never worked out.

We ended up finding a place and deciding on a territory before we were ever even able to visit Boquete.

David???

 As I said at the beginning the Branch gave us four places to check out. The three in Bocas del Toro province and Volcan in the Chiriqui province. I knew about Boquete from my friends that were here. We had never heard of David as a possibility until we arrived in Panama.

Our first day in service here in Panama was with the Volcan Congregation as they came down to work David as part of their huge territory. After that Michelle kept saying, "I wish there was a need in David because I just like this town." David is the third largest City in the country of Panama after Panama City and Colon. It is also the 1st or 2nd hottest place in Panama from what we have been told. On Wednesdays the Volcan congregation works David for half the day and then goes shopping in the afternoon for the things they can't get in Volcan. With it being so large and the capital of the Province there are buses and taxis everywhere there. The bus system is great they follow certain routes and you can get on or off anywhere along their route by waiving them down to get on and calling out your location to get them to stop.

There are two sisters that were assigned as temporary Special Pioneers to check for English in David. After their assignment was over (temp Special Pioneers are for 3 months here) they decided to stay. The week we were supposed to visit Changuinola originally ended up being the week that the Circuit Overseer and his wife (they are a missionary couple) were visiting the sisters in David. The English Circuit Overseer covers the entire country and there are not enough congregations in the country to keep him busy so he also visits every group or possible group. In addition they receive special assignments to cover other territory, their last assignment was three months working high-rise office buildings in Panama City. So we decided to support his visit during the week.

He had been kind of talking up David during our times in service so we asked him if he thought there was much of a need in David or was Changuinola a place we should focus on. He said that he feels that David is the largest English territory in the country and that he could see a congregation forming there very quickly, once they had an appointed brother to take the lead that would commit to David. Most people find David to be too hot and so they end up in one of the mountain towns, we think it is hot but not as hot as the states in the summer.

Once he found out we were interested in David and that I am an appointed brother he suddenly changed tune. Next thing I knew he was stopping in the grocery stores to look at the bulletin boards to see what houses are for rent. He would ask what places we were interested in and then he would call and talk to the people for us to get more information and pricing on the homes. We decided on 3 places to look at the next day, so he arranged to work with us again the next day so that we could go look at the houses and he could translate for us.

The next day we went to look at the places, one was a two bedroom one bath for $150. At first the CO and Tyler didn't want to go there, but Michelle reminded them of the experience of a friend of ours who found a place in another country for $100 where rent is really expensive and the place was nicer than most of the ones they had looked at. So we went and the house was nice and cute and well cared for. The CO was in a hurry to see the next place because we had an appointment there to see the house. We went and looked at that house and it was a 3 bedroom 2 bath for $350, but it was not very clean and there were some other issues. Later Michelle told the car group that she had been praying for a house that was $150 so that it would be easier on our budget. The house we looked at was the only house we have seen listed as low as $150, so the CO said, I wish you would have said that earlier, I think you have found your house! So we called the lady the next day and arranged to meet her and pay the deposit and rent.

So we are going to settle in David and help start and English group there with the Spanish Congregation. We will be working closely with the CO and his wife who are missionaries and with an Elder and his wife in the Spanish congregation that will sponsor the group in English and they are also missionaries.

We really feel that Jehovah has directed our steps and helped us to see where he wants us to go here in Panama. I can't even relate all of the little details about what happened in this course, things like other peoples specific prayers being answered, but the people involved here all feel that this is Jehovah's direction for us. One of the days for field service the CO used Acts chapter 16 talking about the work here, we really feel that something similar happened with us so I have the Evans version below.


The Evans version of Acts 16:6-7, 9-10

Moreover, they went through [Panama City] and the country of [Panama] because they were forbidden by the holy spirit to speak the word in the district of [Bocas del Toro]. Further, when getting down to [Volcan] they made efforts to go into [Boquete], but the spirit of Jesus did not permit them... And during the [visit] a [Circuit Overseer] appeared to [Tyler]: a certain [Missionary] standing and entreating him and saying: "Step over into [David] and help us." Now as soon as he had seen the [Circuit Overseer], we sought to go forth into [David], drawing the conclusion that God had summoned us to declare the good news to them.

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY!

The Wet Season

We are currently in the Wet Season of the year. Everyone calls this the "winter" of Panama even though we are in the Summer months. With the rains it is cooler this time of the year than the Winter months that make up the dry season. The actual change in temperature is minimal at best (low 80's as opposed to high 80's). The Wet Season starts around May 1st and goes until the middle of December. For most of the country the chance of rain is above 50% every day.

Volcan's  Wet Season

Now with Volcan being at 5000 feet above sea level and right in the path of the clouds carrying the rain it rains here every day. No, not a few times a week. No, not a couple of weeks in a row. It rains every single day! Day after day, week after week, month after month for EIGHT months! So you just pray for a day without rain, then the dry season comes and you pray for rain, but for now it can go away for a few days.

There has not been one single day since we arrived in Volcan that it has not rained. And this is not a 20 minute shower (that does happen at times, but more is coming later that day) we get full blown rain and thunder storms every day. On top of that it is a lot cooler up here, about 63 degrees at night and 75 degrees during the day. So with the constant damp cool air here guess what happens. Yep, constant mold and mildew growing everywhere. Moss on the trees grows on all 4 sides here, so you can't use that to guide you North.

It is so damp here that when you put on a clean piece of clothing it actually feels damp, like it didn't get totally dry after being washed. The thing is, when we take them out of the dryer they are dry. It is just so damp that it makes all cloth be damp, another reason carpet and throw rugs don't exist here.

The Mold Wars

So far the mold seems to have the upper hand in the battle. I have found it on and in the following locations: ceiling of the kitchen, the closets of both bedrooms, my service bag, Michelle's tote purse, all 5 of the luggage we brought with us, one of my suits, 2 pairs of Michelle's shoes, and 2 pairs of my shoes.

So far our casualties amount to 1 pair of my shoes (the dress shoes I brought with me), and 1 pair of Michelle's shoes (her black meeting shoes). We have since learned some different things to do and we have been able to recover (we think) everything else from the mold.

Going on the offensive I was able to get rid of the mold in the kitchen and all of our possessions. I started working on the closets but I was not able to finish due to time and other obligations. So now mold patrol and killing is becoming a part of our weekly cleaning schedule. We are also trying to use the short time in the morning before the sun gets covered to pull out things we think have mold and use the sun to kill the mold and spores the follow up with bleach water to clean the item.

I think we are making progress, for the longest time the spare bedroom smelled like mold but that is a lot less. We also think that the mold was making us sick and we seem to be getting better. However, with this weather in Volcan we will no doubt see a continuation of the Mold Wars (The Bleach Water Strikes Back) until we move to our new place lower on the mountain in Algarrobos later this month. - But that is another Post

Rear Window....OK, Front Window

Our View, and the Things We See

Well no possible murders yet, even if the neighbor kids do fight and wrestle now and then. We have a fantastic view from our kitchen/living room. Our place faces East, so every morning we get to see the sun rise from behind the mountains and Volcan Baru (the Baru Volcano). This is a truly awe inspiring view. The mountain we see reminds us all the time of the scriptures that talk about Jehovah coming down to the mountain in a cloud, or his throne and kingdom being like a mountain. The view of the mountain is always changing, some days it is totally clear, others there are a few clouds sitting on it and other days there are so many clouds around it that we can not even see the mountains at all. This is probably our favorite thing about our place in Volcan.

We see a lot of people walking down the street or taking taxis and a lot of people ride bikes in the area. One thing that kind of surprised us was how many people ride horses here. Volcan is in an agricultural area of the country so there are a lot of farms and ranches in the area. In fact most of the food grown in Panama comes from here or close by. One interesting thing we have found out is that they do not name their horses here. Apparently you do not name farm equipment. They take wonderful care of their horses but they are a tool and not a pet here. Side note: the animals here are in pathetic shape, the cats and dogs just break your heart. We have a corner market right across the street from us and people ride up there all the time on their horses. And it is not rare it happens 15 - 20 times a day.

So one day we were watching this guy riding around on a motorcycle from house to house. It took me a while to figure out what he was doing. Finally, I noticed that he kept stopping next to the electric meters at each house and was putting information in a hand held device. It ends up that he is with the electric company and he goes around and gets the readings so they know how much to charge you each month. My guess is that there are a lot of homes and meters that must be hard to get to and so you need the ability to go off-road at times and what better way than a motorcycle.

Hopefully everyone gets the reference at the beginning. If not don't worry it is just as safe here as it is anywhere else in these last days.

Ah, Mamon Chino (aka Rambutan)

On the bus from Panama City to David we stopped at one point and some kids boarded the bus selling fruit, vegetables, and ice cream cones. The people across the isle from Michelle bought a strange looking fruit that they peeled and started eating. When they pulled them out of the bag we were like, what in the world is that and why would you want to eat it!

We have since found out that it is called Mamon Chino here in Panama. Apparently it is an Asian fruit called Rambutan in southeast Asia. Rambutan literally means hairy fruit, because of the hairy spikes on the fruit. They are not hard spikes so they don't poke you or anything but it still makes you pause before buying them.

Everyone said that they were really good so we decided to buy them at one of the little fresh fruit stands in town. The place we bought them sold them in bunches still attached to the sticks, I have found out since then this is the best way to buy them because it preserves them and the flavor better than if they are picked off the branches.

You peel off the outside and then you find a very pale almost white fleshy fruit on the inside. They peel like a mandarin orange, really easily and very cleanly from the fruit on the inside. The fruit almost tastes like a peeled white grape and is very soft. Inside the fruit is a large seed that looks almost exactly like an almond. The seed has a very bitter taste, Michelle didn't want to eat any but I sometimes eat the seeds after finishing the fruit. Don't eat the fruit and seed at the same time as this makes the fruit bitter since it has a very light taste on its own.

Rumor has it that the US has approved Mamon Chinos (Rambutan) for import and sell in the near future. We really enjoy them even if they do look strange at first.

The (Morning) the Lights Went Out in (Panama)

So, if you can't tell things in Panama are a little different from the States. There is a saying in Panama; you either get 20 things done in a day or you get nothing done in a day. 

So on Tuesday the 29th of June, we had just gotten to our house on the 26th, we woke up and tried to turn on the lights...nothing. So we went in and tried to turn on the water...nothing. So, I went in and grabbed the cell phone and called Ralph (a brother in our hall). When he answered I asked him, "how do I know if no power and water is from an outage or the bills not being paid?" He said that since most of the town was without power it is probably that and not a payment issue. 

Well it ends up that our house has a water storage tank so that if the water goes out we still have a supply of water. The only issue with this system is that it uses an electric water pump to supply the water to the house. So, when we lose electric at our place we also lose water. We do have a spigot outside that is in-line before the pump so it still has water (as long as the water supply is working) if we lose electricity. The only problem is that you have to carry buckets of water into the house for things like doing the dishes (yep no dishwashers) or flushing the toilet.

Well it ends up that here in Panama we lose electricity basically every day. The appliances saying zero when you get home shows that the power went out while you were gone. Usually, when the power is out it is only a few minutes at a time but this day it was out for hours. From about 2 in the morning to noon.

That night at the meeting we lost power twice, one time was during my part on the meeting. The brother on stage would just have to step over to where they could read by the emergency battery lights and continue until the electricity was restored.

I have not forgotten

I just want everyone to know I will try to get some more postings up in the next day or so. It has been a very busy week here in Panama. The English group we are thinking of joining was having a visit from the Circuit Overseer this week so we have been doing long days down in David with the group there.

In addition we were originally scheduled to go to Changuinola this week but there was a new law passed in Panama about the Unions and because of a lot of misinformation and lies people started protesting and blocking off roads and things. There was also some violence between the protesters and the police with a few people being killed. This was all on the other side of the country, it has been fine and peaceful here where we are at. But it caused us to have to change plans this week.

So I will give some more information on each of these events and others soon.

Death From Above

If you have not read my previous post about our house please read that first, Thank You.

I have training in computers along with years working on them in homes, offices and all kinds of other locations. I have certifications in electronics design and repair from circuits to old CRT televisions. I have done a lot of home improvement with lighting and fans and other electrical devices. I have been shocked and even slightly electrocuted a few times over the years, I know explains a lot right. Anyway my point is I have a lot of respect, training and experience with electricity. I also know that there is one thing that you never ever mix with electricity. Can you guess what that is?

That's right water. Water and electricity don't mix, almost all hand held electric devices even have a tag on the plug that shows not to mix the two. 

So anyway I was looking around the house on the first day and went into the bathroom and looked at the shower. I had read about these before we got here but I still just couldn't believe my eyes. This is what greeted us.

Yep, that is an electric shower head. The houses here do not have hot water heaters. So if you want hot water you boil the water. So to get hot water in the shower they have an electric heater element in the shower head. The way you control the heat is to turn on the shower head heater and the slower you turn on the water the hotter it is and to cool it down you turn the water flow to higher speed. What is really fun is after you are done with the shower and you are half wet you get to reach up and turn the heater off. Michelle has designated me to do this so she takes the first shower then I take the second and turn it off on my way out. 

So if I don't make it, it was probably the shower head. Just kidding, I am fairly sure the grounding wire is properly hooked up.    

Home Sweet Casa - Volcan Panama

26 June 2010

Our Home in Panama

So we finally managed to get to the house in Volcan. The brother who picked us up offered to take us out to dinner or the store, but we were so tired we just wanted to unpack and rest for a while. It was about 4:30 and we had been traveling since 7:30 that morning so we just needed a break. He pointed out that we were also right across the street from a little corner market if we wanted to go there.

As he was leaving another car pulled up, it was another brother and his family, his wife and three children. They also offered to take us to the store if we needed it. He helped me get my cell phone set to English and gave me his number so we could call later if we needed it. About 20 minutes later one of the Elders called us on our cell phone and said that he just heard we were in town and if we needed anything to let him know and now we had his number. We have not even been in town an hour and already we are starting to feel at home.

We are staying in one half of a duplex, the brother just finished having the side we are staying in remodeled. The other side is being remodeled currently so we don't have anyone living next to us right now. The exterior is an orange color, we have found that people do unique things to their homes because there are no addresses here so you need to be different for people to know where you live.

We have a nice fence all around the house with a large orange gate that a car can drive through or a smaller door size one inside it that a person can enter through. We also have steel bars on our windows and door, these are painted red. We will talk more about it later but all security features are out there for everyone to see. In the States we kind of hide all of the security measures but here they want everyone to see how secure things are so they don't even try. (Example: There is a security guard up near the checkout lines of the supper market, he just stands there watching you walk around and shop. Very weird the first time you see that.) So it kind of looks like a bad neighborhood at first but even the best areas are like that here.

Michelle and I walk around town all the time and feel totally safe. There has only been once that we felt kind of nervous but we were out later than we probably should have been. The scariest person I have encountered so far was an American, he just looked bad and mean.

Anyway our house is really nice, it was fully furnished and we even have one of the rarest things in Panama...a clothes dryer. Almost no one has a dryer here, the few that you see are all gas dryers. We have a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom place.

Enjoy the pictures of our new place.

Adventures in Busing - David to Volcan

26 June 2010

David to Volcan Autobus

We just missed one of the buses to Cerro Punta that goes through Volcan. So we had to wait for the next bus. We were probably there for about 15 min when the next bus pulled up. I noticed this one said Cerro Punta but also below that in smaller letters it said Volcan so I knew this was the correct bus.

The autobus looks like a very large mini van with seating for around 35 people. On the front window of the bus it says what the town it goes to on its route. They all go from David to another town, some larger towns have a local bus that just stays around there all day. You can wait at the stops or you can flag the bus down like a taxi and let them know where you are going and if it is on their route they will take you there.

Because we got on at the station we were some of the first people on the bus. A guy helped us get all of our bags on the bus. They ended up taking up several seats on the bus, the helper didn't look very happy with us about that. I don't know why he didn't put them in the back or on top of the bus where there is a large luggage rack. All along the way the bus kept picking up people and dropping them off. Eventually all of the seats were filled, so we figured they would just be stopping to drop people off. That was not the case, they just kept picking up more and more people who just had to stand in the isle of the bus. Keep in mind that these buses are not very tall so the men had to bend or lean over while trying to keep their balance. I felt really bad because we were kind of boxed in so I couldn't get up to give my seat to someone else, and there were all of our bags taking up seats.

The brother we were going to meet in Volcan told me to call him when we were on the bus. I was able to get a hold of him and let him know we were on the bus. He was trying to tell me where to have the bus drop us off but my call dropped. I didn't know how to find out how many minutes we had left so I decided to wait and call again if we needed to. 

We noticed that we passed the location the brother told us to stop at, but in our embarrassment and lack of confidence with the language we just stayed on the bus. Once we got the courage up to tell the helper we missed our stop we were almost out of the town of Volcan. So they had to turn the bus around to take us back. We called the brother and let him know they were taking us back, so he went to go back there. Then they dropped us off only half way back to where we needed to go and I heard the word taxi. So we had to call the brother again and try to describe where we were at. All the while it is raining on us and all of our luggage.

The brother found us and picked us up in his truck, we put our bags in the bed and he took us to the house we will be staying in. We were so glad to see a friendly face and be able to communicate with someone again.

Adventures in Busing - Panam to David

26 June 2010

Panama - David Express

So we are in the last two rows of the bus in the isle seats. You would think sitting next to the bathroom on the bus that I would be the one to smell urine the entire ride. I never did notice a urine smell from my seat, but apparently Michelle did. She asked me later if that was bothering me during the trip because it was very strong where she was sitting. The only thing I notice was that it seemed like a lot of heat was coming from the guy next to me and I felt nauseous the entire trip. I later found out I was getting hit with exhaust from the motor and smelling diesel fumes the entire time.

So one major tip for riding the Bus from Panama City to David. DON'T sit in the back of the bus!

The guy I was next to was sleeping almost the entire trip, so he kept the window curtains closed. I had a difficult time seeing out the window on my side so I kept looking out the opposite side of the bus. I think this one lady thought I was staring at her because she kept looking at me funny. What I was able to see absolutely blew me away, it was so beautiful. 

The guy next to Michelle kept their windows open almost the entire time so she had a much better view. We were on the right side of the bus, and when you are going from Panama City to David you want to be on that side. Most of the really amazing views are on that side of the bus, such as waterfall off of a cliff in the middle of nowhere.

After about 2 - 3 hours we stopped and everyone started to get off of the bus. We were really confused because we expected a longer trip. We also didn't know what to do because we had never paid for a ticket. So as we were exiting the bus the driver told us how much we owed, $13 per person from Panama City to David. We didn't know where we were and this didn't look like the 3rd largest City in Panama. I noticed that most of the people were not getting their luggage off of the Bus, then the bus helper held up ten fingers twice and pointed back to the bus. Apparently this is a stop for food and a bathroom break that last about 20 minutes.

Not for the squeamish: The bathrooms there are not what I would call clean. In the men's several were taped up with apparently out of order signs. I noticed none of the stalls had toilet paper in them and then I noticed a sign for toilet paper $.15. So it is not provided for free to the men, Michelle said the womens did have toilet paper but you might have to buy refills. Oh, the best part is when you go to wash your hands. There is no soap! It wasn't out of soap, you didn't have to buy soap...there was no location for soap! All you have is tap water, and no towels or dryers to get your hands dry. So everyone comes out of the bathroom drying their hands on their clothes. So you kind of just realize everyone has dirty hands. 

We used hand sanitizer. :)

So back on the bus everyone just sits back in the seats they had before and we continued on to David. Another hour or so we came to the boarder between the Veraguas province and the Chiriqui province (where David and Volcan are located). Here is a large checkpoint where the National Police stop everyone and check your legal documents. Show me your papers! (That one is for you dad). The officer just goes from the back of the bus to the front and everyone shows their identification, Panamanian or Passport/Visa.

When we got to the bus station in David,we got off the bus not knowing where to go for the bus to Volcan. But there was a guy with a dolly that was trying to talk with Michelle and at first we just ignored him. I did hear him say "Boquete?" So I turned around and said no Volcan. At that he jumped into action, getting our bags from under the bus and loading them on his dolly. He then quickly took us over to where the bus going to Volcan was located. We tipped him all of the small bills and change that we had (about $3.50) and he seemed fine with that. I was actually very glad for his help because it was on the other side of the terminal and the actual bus we needed was labeled Cerro Punta and not Volcan.

A Toe in the Shallows, then a plunge into the Deep End

The Shallow End

We knew we were going to have to; meet up with a brother we didn't know, in a town we had never been to, in a country where we don't speak the language. Our misadventure with the pay phone had shown us we needed a better way to call people if need be. So we asked if we could go to town with a brother to get a pre-paid cell phone. They arranged for us to go to town with a couple of brothers because one was needing to go to the doctor for a minute to get some medicine. We found out the brother driving was also the one that would take us to the bus stop the next day. We also discovered that he doesn't speak English, even less than our Spanish.

Somehow we got across what we wanted and Michelle was able to express about how much we wanted to spend. Once the brother was done at the doctor we went to a store to get the cell phone. The brother who was the driver (the one to take us to the bus later) got out with us and went inside. This was the 1st Panamanian store we had been to since arriving in Panama. It reminded me of a hardware/electronics/pawn shop store. There were lots of old used cell phones and electronics, tools, bike parts and almost anything else you can think of to sell. The brother took us to the spot where the pre-paid cells were at (all new phones) and once we pointed out what we wanted he set it all up for us.

I will also say that I have never had my credit card, driver's license, and signature more closely examined than I did at this store. But now we had a cell phone, all in Spanish!

The Deep End

The next day we packed up all 4 of our suitcases (5 if you count my laptop backpack). We had managed to cram all of our possessions in 4 bags since we no longer had to worry about weight limits, even getting the 5th bag into a larger suitcase.

The Brother met us at 7:30 so we could get to the bus stop for the 8:00 bus. Once we were at the stop we went in to pay for the tickets for the Express Bus from Panama City to David. But, we heard whistling and looked over to see a man standing next to the Express Bus waving for us to come over. Seeing that we were just standing there he came over grabbed one of our bags and headed for the bus. So we snagged the rest of our luggage and chased after him. He was putting tags on our luggage and handing me a copy as he threw them into the compartment in the bottom of the bus.

We tried to ask in our poor Spanish where to get tickets but he just kept motioning for us to get on the bus. We just kind of stood there for a minute looking at the brother. He asked the helper (each bus has a driver and a helper) a question and then pointed to the bus. So we said our goodbye to the brother and boarded the bus. There were no seats together on the bus so we had to sit next to other people. Michelle sat in front of me and I sat in the last row right in front of the bathroom in the back of the bus.

So now we are alone, heading deeper into the country. We haven't paid for the bus, we don't know when to pay for the bus or what is going on. About the only thing that we knew for sure was that it was going to David and would be there in about 5-6 hours.

Panama Bethel Branch - Part 3

24 June - 26 June 2010

Open Air Assembly Hall

Within the Panamanian Branch facilities sits the main assembly hall for the country of Panama. The entire English congregations and groups come here for the District Convention. Everyone who speaks English, even Missionaries and Need Greaters in the Spanish Congregations go to the English District Convention. Everyone says there is nothing else like that District Convention.

The entire Assembly Hall is open air, there are some vents or flaps that move and help direct air into the Hall. You can see them at the top of the first picture. This in conjunction with the open sides keeps a nearly constant breeze blowing through the seating area. This helps to keep everyone cool during the sessions. 

The Assembly Hall has seating capacity for somewhere around 2000 people. The seats are stadium style seats. And for the sisters, there appeared to be lots of restrooms available. When we were inside of the seating area it was very comfortable, with the breeze it was actually more comfortable than a lot of the stadiums used in the US. The last District Convention we were at in the States was sweltering.

To the sides were the Offices, book rooms, and changing area for the baptism candidates. The baptism pool was located in this area. The entire complex was so clean and just amazing to be in. We are hoping that after our scouting trip ends in August, everything will have gone well and we will be back in time for the English Convention in September. 

Panama Bethel Branch - Part 2

24 June - 26 June 2010

Our Room - Casa 400 Room 402

Our Room was in one of the houses that was actually just outside of the original Branch property. But the back side of the houses share a fence with the Branch so they bought them for extra rooms for guests. We still entered and left from the main gate into Bethel. Each house had 3 rooms number 1-3. The number 1 room had its own bathroom the rooms 2 and 3 shared a common bathroom and all 3 rooms shared the kitchen. On the 24th and 25th no one was in room 3 so we didn't have anyone sharing the bathroom with us. That was great for us because we had enough trouble getting ready in time for morning worship and breakfast with just the two of us needing the bathroom.

In the rooms on the bed were towels for us to use during our stay. Our personal towels were made into little animals. There were also three towels with labels set on them that said "I am for" drying the sink, the shower, to keep the floor dry. It was very impressive all the instructions you receive for how to care for your room, the bathroom and the kitchen. You clean everything immediately after you are done with it, and in the entire time I never saw one bug inside the buildings there.

The kitchen was simple but very cute and had everything that you needed. It was also nice because the branch has its own water treatment plant so there was no need to be cautious about the water there. Unlike the rest of the country where a lot of the water is treated but you still have to be careful.

There were two brothers sharing room 1 (the largest room in the house) who both work in the translation departments. One brother works with the Panamanian Sign Language translation team and the other works with the Ngobe translation team. On our last night in the house we had a new roommate. A Special Pioneer sister who was very fluent in English (most of the people at the branch had limited or no English) because she had been assigned to the English field in the past. There had been such a need in Spanish thou, so she was reassigned to Spanish. So she was so glad to see so many Need Greaters coming to Panama to help take care of the English field.

The Sister on the right is the Special Pioneer. The Brother in the middle is her spiritual son, he works at the branch in the kitchen as a server. He has just been accepted to Ministerial Training School and is learning English. The Brother on the left is one of our roommates, the one translating Ngobe. He didn't speak English. We all had a lot of fun sharing stories and experiences, with the sister doing a lot of translating back and forth for us all.

The Branch Buildings

On our tour we were able to look in at the different departments, go to the different buildings and really get a feel for what it was like there. Unfortunately, it was so enthralling that we didn't get very many pictures of the offices or departments but we have several of the buildings and exterior of the Branch.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Residence Building. If you click on them to see the bigger pictures, in one you will be able to see a brother up on the ledge cleaning the windows. The other picture shows the basketball court with some of the mountains in the background.

And these are just a couple of pictures showing some of the landscaping and other parts of the branch. In our next post we will show you the open air assembly hall at the branch and share some more information. Then we will start the posts about the interior of the country.