This Helmeted Hornbill is in Southeast Asia. It’s nothing to do with Panama but I saw it in a National Geographic article and thought it was interesting and gorgeous. There is a great video in the article which I can’t seem to share here, so go there to check it out.

Unfortunately these birds are endangered from overhunting because their casques, that hump part on their heads that are in demand for carving and ornaments.

I know Panama has so many interesting birds too but this one is so cool I wanted to share it. Not many people get to see one so thank you National Geographic!

I love Panama but it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. There are problems here too, as there are anywhere. One problem that is getting increasing attention is AIDS. According to USAIDS there were 21,000 people in Panama living with AIDS in 2016 (http://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/panama) Of these a bit over half of them are getting antiretroviral therapy.

According to this article HERE, there is worry that thousands of young people are becoming infected. It’s in Spanish but roughly translated, it says 17 people between the ages of 15 and 19 were found to be infected in 2016, and 1175 between the ages of 10 and 19 have been found since the first case was identified in 1984. Young people aren’t being careful about taking precautions, and if they get infected they don’t want to tell their families because of the stigma. Half of the infected kids are in the Ngabe Bugle Comarca, the area belonging to the indigenous people. In that part of the country, getting people to treatment can be very challenging because much of it is inaccessible much of the time.

This article from NPR (in English) is much more alarming. San Felix is a town close to the edge of the Comarca and many indigenous come for the clinic there. The doctor in the clinic said in 2010 he had 30 people being treated for AIDS. By the end of last year he had 550. This article also talks about the stigma, and the very challenging problems of getting people care in such a remote and inaccessible area. Even getting condoms to the Comarca is difficult.

This article from News Room Panama from three years ago, said it was estimated that 20,000 people were living with AIDS. Efforts were just beginning to take the disease more seriously, find infected people and get them treatment (which is free). But, since many of the infected are LGBT, there is a lot of stigma to overcome for this and for the disease in general, along with the challenges of treating people in remote locations.

AIDS is a horrible disease. Growing up in the music and arts world in New York, I know many people who died from it. If I hadn’t left the city in 1979 just before the disease starting spreading, who knows how it could have affected me too. As a nurse it caught up with me later in the Midwest as I started seeing infected patients. In Florida for a time, one of my jobs was to visit infected people and teach them how to inject a new medication that was having really promising results. Thankfully today, AIDS doesn’t have to be the death sentence it was in the past, but infected people have to be identified and treated, and everyone needs to be taught prevention.

For the first time an indigenous woman, Rosa Montezuma, has been chosen to represent Panama in the Miss Universe competition. This is significant because she grew up in the Comarca (indigenous territory) and life there is really tough, especially for girls and women.

A welcome home by her people after winning the crown.

Check out this Wikipedia article especially the second half that talks about daily life in the Comarca. They live by subsistence farming without running water or electricity, or many other things we consider necessities. Poverty and malnutrition are very real problems. Many places aren’t accessible for parts of the year, and transportation is by foot or horse. This makes access to health care and education almost impossible for many. They speak their native languages and many of the men and even more of the women don’t speak Spanish. Rosa, however, against these great odds went to school, then high school, and then to Panama City for a university education.

Read more about her story in her own words HERE.

Rosa Montezuma

When you grow up in a culture, in a way of life and that’s all you have experienced it’s hard to imagine becoming something different, and even harder to actually do it. This young woman deserves a whole lot of credit, as does her family who encouraged her. She wants to be an inspiration to others, especially the women and girls, that you can rise above your circumstances and change your life.

Tuesday morning, last week, we woke up to this –

That is our front gate

They are putting in sewer lines. Word is, this is part of a 2-3 year project to put sewer in the entire city,  build a treatment plant, and then hook up all the houses. I was also told that many of the power lines will also be put underground to make the city look nicer.

It’s been an interesting and fun week talking with the guys, watching them work, and watching their progress. I feel like we have been treated very well. People have been around twice to talk with residents and hand out information. Another guy came around after work started to answer any questions and give us the phone number to call for any problems or questions. There is a sign put out every night with all the pertinent and emergency phone numbers. At the end of the day the street is leveled out and smoothed so everyone can get in and out with their cars.

So, day 1, they did the section in front of our house.

There is a big trench in our street

After the pipe is placed, they start refilling the trench

The street was left like this, flat and smooth

They were very particular about the work. The bottom of the trench was perfectly flat and smooth, strings were run, things that looked like survey equipment were brought out, and only then did they put the pipe in the hole. They covered the dirt with plastic until they were ready to put it back in, and when they were done the dirt was put back and the road carefully smoothed over. They guy with the big backhoe machine is a real artist! It’s like the machine is an extension of his hands and it’s very cool to watch.

Day 2, Wednesday. They started on the next section of road, and dug side trenches to connect house hookups to the pipe laid yesterday.

Working on the connection to our house and the one next door to us

What is this?

The workers called me over to explain the hookup for our house and show me the pipe that was being connected. They left it with the capped off pipe at ground level, easy to find and available for later. I also found out that the cement disk is the bottom of a manhole that will be in front of our house.

The disk was expertly moved by the backhoe guy and placed in the hole

It’s in there, after much fussing to get it exactly right

Then they made this little wall

They again left the street flat and smooth except for the man hole. That had an orange fence around it, a sign and warning cone, and another sign farther up the street.

Work continued in a similar fashion for the rest of the week, digging for the next section of pipe, and for the connections to the houses. The man hole, however turned out to be quite a thing!

Day 3, Thursday, work continues on the base of the man hole.

The main part is brought down the street to the site

More cement is put in the base

More trench is dug, the pipe removed, then replaced, then removed and replaced again

Meanwhile, up the road that work continues

Day 4, Friday, work continues on the manhole. But, now there is banging in the hole all morning as they chip away at the cement. By now I’ve had a couple really nice conversations with the head engineer so we know each other. He said they had the wrong size main part. It was meant for the man hole at the end of the street. This one is smaller so they are having to make the base smaller. To further complicate things, this crew hasn’t done this before so they are learning as they go.

Day 5, Saturday. Yes, a 6 day work week is quite normal here. And, this is heavy work in the hot sun or whatever Mother Nature wants to give them.

The saga of the man hole continues, and does the chipping away.

The main part is lowered into the hole, then taken out again

Back into the hole

Nope, it’s out again

It’s in again

It’s out again and there is more chipping away at the base

Back in the hole… again

Yay!!! It’s in there to stay!

Those poor guys! I don’t know how many times they lifted that thing in and out of the hole. Hopefully it doesn’t go like this again because there are a lot more man hole locations marked on the streets in just our neighborhood alone.

This is probably enough of the story for the moment, and it was the end of the week for them. They again left the orange fence around the man hole and put up the signs and warnings, so it must not be ready to cover yet.

More later….

I’ve been sitting on this for a while, not sure if I want to post it. I try to keep complaining and negativity to a minimum but if this helps any of you avoid a bad situation, I’ll be glad I shared it.

There are reasons to avoid shopping at certain places, reasons to avoid supporting certain businesses. Walmart was at the forefront of this article. I have heard their employees aren’t paid well, and neither are their suppliers which allows them to keep prices low enough to squeeze out local businesses, and keeps their employees and suppliers barely surviving. But this?! I read this article a few days ago and I’m still angry.

I am reposting the article from the New York Times in its entirety here. Be very careful where and how you shop, and don’t use those self checkout lines! I don’t know how this is allowed to go on except the victims don’t tend to have the money to hire lawyers and fight back, and they feel powerless against a business that feels big enough to crush them.

They’re Falsely Accused of Shoplifting, but Retailers Demand Penalties

Walmart and other companies are using aggressive legal tactics to get the money back, demanding payments even when people haven’t been convicted of wrongdoing.

by Michael Corkery

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“This is an unpopular constituency,” said Christian Schreiber, a lawyer who filed a lawsuit in California state court against Home Depot over the practice. The suit resulted in a settlement for about 3,500 people who received demand letters from Palmer Reifler. “These are people accused of theft, so there is not a big interest in their rights.”

In Burlington, N.C., Anna Marie Martin said two police officers “threw” her on a couch, handcuffed her and took her to jail, according to a lawsuit she filed against Walmart. Her alleged crime: stealing a Bryan Adams CD and two others, totaling $25.62, then hitting a car in the Walmart parking lot and driving away.

Palmer Reifler sent her two letters demanding that she pay $150 within 20 days. “You may be held civilly liable” for as much as $1,000, the letters said.

Both letters were sent before the authorities determined that Ms. Martin had been “mistakenly charged” and dropped the criminal case, according to her suit. A Walmart employee had told the police that she was “80 percent sure” that Ms. Martin was the thief.

Many people have found a Panama Relocation Tour a good option for exploring Panama. I wrote about them a few months ago HERE. I recently got an email from them about some special rates for December. They are offering a nice 10% discount, but if you are thinking of doing a tour you need to sign up asap. The rate is good until September 15th or until the tour sells out. The tours before December are already sold out which tells you they are quite popular.

Use this link HERE to find more information on their website. I’m an affiliate so if you use my link it helps support my blogging efforts (but doesn’t affect your cost at all). Thanks!

I thought I’d pass this info along to all you good folks just in case 🙂  Just sign up normally and the discount will be automatically applied to your tour.

Many of us know the challenges of learning another language. For me, it’s Spanish because I live in a Spanish speaking country. But, many people here have learned, or are in the process of learning English. The country as a whole wants to be bilingual, I imagine because of all the international business here. English is required in school, and even my special ed teacher friend a year from retirement was required to take a 6 week English class.

English is difficult! There are so many thing that make no sense. Read this sentence out loud with all then”ough” words.  Though I coughed roughly and hiccoughed throughout the lecture, I still thought I could plough through the rest of it. Google “English makes no sense” and you’ll find many more examples of things that must be really hard for an English student.

This video which starts with the sentence example above made me laugh out loud!

I’m so glad English is my native language! Spanish, which does make sense, has been challenging enough but it’s been so worth it. My life here is richer and more interesting, and my most cherished friends here are Panamanian. They say learning a language is good for your brain too, so maybe I’ve decreased my chances of getting CRS (can’t remember sh…). 😁

On other subjects, yes we had an earthquake last night and some after shocks since. All is well and everyone is fine. I heard it took down some utility poles in Costa Rica and Puerta Jiminez was without power for a while, and that was the worst of it. We were in the car on the way to a gig and didn’t feel anything. The gig was amazing. We played for four hours to dancing gringos and enthusiastic Panamanians! I still don’t have my feet quite back on the ground.

I’ll leave you all with a photo of a beautiful little gold bug that visited me one day.

We live in David which is in Chiriqui province. I think Chiriqui is the most beautiful province but I’m sure I have bias because I’m so happy living here.

Chiriqui is in the southwestern part of Panama and borders Costa Rica to the west. We have Volcan Baru, an active (but thankfully sleeping) volcano and the highest point in the country, and we also have some beautiful and barely used beaches. Here is my friend Eduardo at Las Lajas where he appears to have the entire beach almost to himself, which is not unusual.

Panama is a relatively small country but even just in Chiriqui there are a lot of choices from mountain living at whatever elevation works for you (cool vs warm), to sand beaches or tropical islands. There is the bustling city of David, numerous smaller towns, or very rural living where you can barely see a neighbor.

David is the second biggest city and it is exploding with development. A few other places in Chiriqui in no particular order – Puerto Armuelles on the coast near the Costa Rica border, La Concepcion, a traditional feeling town serving many of the needs of the area farmers, Volcan on the west side of Baru, on the way to Cerro Punta and the highlands where most the the produce is grown for the whole country. On the east side of Baru is Boquete, which prompted this post.

Boquete is one of the best known places in the country. It has been heavily promoted by International Living and other publications, and is known for tourist activities and the large expat population. Lately though, the number of tourists and expats has been dropping. Unfortunately there have been a lot of problems with water, electricity, and the streets have been torn up for about two years. They are putting in water and sewer systems but work starts and stops, torn up streets aren’t repaired, and getting around town is a daily headache for the residents. It’s really too bad because the country wants to encourage tourists but this is only driving them away, and I have heard about many businesses that have folded and expats who have moved away. I have heard about these problems from a number of sources and experienced them myself, but the silver lining at the moment – it’s a buyers and renters market. I’m sure things will be put right eventually, so if you want to get a place and wait it out you can probably find a really good deal. And, there still is the amazing beauty of the area and a multitude of expat activities you can join like theater, photography group, hiking group, motorcycle riders, yoga, painting classes, bridge, to name just a few, and there are many restaurants and quite a few venues with live music.

That’s Boquete below

So, don’t give up on Boquete, and definitely remember that there is a lot more to Chiriqui than Boquete! Pretty much anything you want can be found here except snow and hurricanes but who wants those? 😀

There is a very nice house for sale not far from ours. It’s large, 5 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, and beautifully maintained. It has had many upgrades and the workmanship is excellent. The owner is selling because she is widowed and would like something smaller now and without all the memories.

The house is on the north edge of David and only minutes from El Torrenal shopping area to the south, and Via Boquete to the west. The neighbors are nice, there is no through traffic so it’s quiet, and there are wooded areas and a river nearby so it’s comfortable with a nice breeze. If you don’t want to drive, there is a bus that comes through the neighborhood every hour. Let me take you on a small picture tour of the property.

The front of the house from the street

The house is on a corner lot, and this is the side yard

This is another view of the front to the left of the door.

The entry door

Inside the entryway. There is a 1/2 bath here too.

The house is on a corner lot, and has a beautiful yard with many flowers in front, on the side, and in the back. My favorite part of the house is the terrace where you can relax and enjoy the flowers.

There is a bar just inside the terrace.

The comfortable, spacious terrace. It’s bigger than it looks in this picture, and the gates at the back can be opened fully so there is no barrier to the BBQ area.

The BBQ area just outside the terrace.

When you come into the house, the hallway to the left leads you to three of the bedrooms.

One bedroom

another bedroom

hallway bathroom

large master bedroom

walk in closet for the master bedroom

bathroom next to the walk in closet for the master bedroom. There is a tub/shower here.

The master bedroom has a very large closet and comfortable bathroom. I’m glad they are separated because in this hot, humid climate you don’t want humidity from the shower in your clothes. There is a ceiling fan in the closet and the circulating air will keep mold from growing.

If you go to the right from the entrance, first you will see a light, spacious living room and very nice kitchen.

The attractive living room looks out on to the side yard.

The kitchen has been upgraded with new counter tops and cabinets.

the laundry room, and the door beyond leads to another bedroom and bathroom. It can be used for live in help, or like now it houses the clothes dryer and storage area.

The 2 car garage is immaculate with tile floors and storage space for all your tools.

The other bedroom is also on this side of the house, and is being used as office space and exercise space.

The kitchen is beautifully done with pull out racks in the cabinets for easy storage. It’s light and attractive, and a nice size so everything is within easy reach without feeling cramped. The owner plans to take the refrigerator and microwave but everything else stays.

The house comes with air conditioning, hot water, an alarm system, and ceiling fans throughout. The furniture is not included but the owner is willing to arrange a separate sale of furniture if needed.

Asking price is $240,000. If you want to know more, contact the owner by email – Mirta  mirrob47@gmail.com  She is a lovely lady who speaks Spanish, English, German, French, and Italian. If you want a high quality house and this is in your price range, I recommend it for the location and neighborhood, as well as the light, spacious beauty of the house. Of course photos cannot do the house justice so if you are seriously interested contact Mirta to see it in person.

It’s natural that when you move to a different country, there will be things that seem weird. Maybe the language isn’t quite what you learned in your textbook, or the food has unfamiliar ingredients. There are birds and bugs you never saw before, and the locals  go about doing things in ways that make no sense.

But, now that I’ve been here almost six years, I’m find things more and more weird when I go back to the US. I’ve become accustomed to Panama and I’ve never lived in Seattle or northern California, the places I visit now to see family.

There are bike lanes everywhere, clearly marked. There are traffic lights everywhere too, and buttons to push to trigger the pedestrian crossing signals. If there are no signals and you look like you want to cross, any car that comes along will come to a complete stop. That always startles me! I wouldn’t mind bike lanes here, but drivers are generally considerate so riding with traffic and crossing streets on foot works out fine. I think we could use a lot more traffic lights though.

I also notice how neat and orderly everything is. It must look like a mess here in comparison. We have weeds by the road, potholes, dogs and chickens running loose, and sometimes larger animals. I’ve written about this not too long ago. It’s very much a “don’t sweat the small stuff “ feeling which may not look as pretty but I find easier to live with.

I play bass and often practice with YouTube videos. In the US there is an ad before almost every video. Sometimes you have to wait for the “skip this ad” thing to come up, or sometimes the ad is short and you just wait it out. I can never tell which it is without glasses, so I’m always missing a start of the song because I’m pulling off my glasses. *sigh* When you spend hours playing and replaying videos it adds up.

There are hundreds of channels on the TV, but very little that’s interesting to watch. And the ads, they are relentless! There are so many for prescription medications. Do people go to their doctors “I want that from the TV!” It must happen or they wouldn’t keep running the ads. I can’t compare US TV to Panama though because we don’t have ours hooked up here.

Shopping still feels easier in the US. I feel like I have everything I need here, but sometimes you have to hunt and things are found in places you wouldn’t expect. In the US every Safeway is pretty much the same, and every Target, Walmart, and CVS, and displays are always attractive and orderly. I notice it especially in the produce department. Everything looks perfect and there are little thunderstorms with sprayers to keep the produce moist. There is a huge variety of choices! Here we have carrots, and sometimes they are funny shaped or have other oddities even though they taste great. In the US, there are carrots, all perfect in bags, or individually, or would you like the little bitty ones for snacks, or a variety of orange, white, and purple ones, full size or snack size, organic or not? Would you like cow milk, skim, low fat, whole, or soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, pea milk? I’m not kidding, there was pea milk! I always see new products I’ve never known about before.

There is also on line shopping. You can buy anything you can imagine and in a couple days it will be at your door. Or, you can even get Amazon items hand delivered in a few hours. Here in Panama, shipping costs and takes time. It really makes you think before you order something which may not be such a bad thing.

Speaking of shopping, I did quite a bit for things to bring back, and for family dinners and odds and ends. I used a credit card and never once was I asked for a signature or ID. Here we are always asked to sign, and we often need to show ID. It felt weird in the US, like I could be anybody with anyone’s credit card and go shopping all day long.

I’m still always bothered by the sense of isolation though. I went walking most days and the only people who talked with me or even made eye contact were the homeless people. (There are a lot of homeless, a subject for another day). If I greeted someone the reaction usually told me that they thought I was strange and intrusive.  Unfortunately I think the political climate in the US now is only making this worse and we are less inclined to talk to “strangers”, especially if they look different from us.

And planes…. there always seem to be planes in the sky. Here in Chiriqui  a contrail is so unusual that one sparked a huge discussion on Facebook!

Either place though, life goes on and things get done. I just find it interesting to think back on what caught my attention this time.