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.