A trip to the Doctor

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

One of the most frequent questions I get from people in the US – What is the medical care like down there? My husband’s 92 year old mother is with us and she needed a little help (nothing serious, prescription refills, etc)

There are three hospitals in David, (actually four if you count Hospital Jose Domingo de Obaldia for obstetrics and children). There are Hospital Chiriqui and Mae Lewis, both private hospitals, and the Regional Hospital (or Social Security Hospital), the public, free hospital for Panamanians. We were given a lead on a good general doctor at Mae Lewis who speaks English, so off we went to make an appointment for Ma.

The way it seems to work is that doctors go to this hospital in the middle of the afternoon, and patients just show up around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and wait their turn. We were directed to the doctor’s secretary, who directed us to the doctor who greeted us immediately. We had to explain that Ma wanted to see her, and we were only there to make the appointment. We would bring Ma back the next day.

The next day arrives and off we go. The doctor isn’t there so the secretary calls her. She shows up shortly after and ushers Ma into her office. I did not go in, but what I heard later is that Ma got a total exam, and detailed discussion of her health at great length. She felt like she was not only taken care of, she was listened to, and treated with kindness and respect. The visit took at least an hour! The doctor had some concerns about her skin (Ma spent much of her life in the tropics before there was sunscreen) so she called a dermatologist she knows and respects. It was the end of the day but the dermatologist said he would wait, and we were to come over now. We were given a detailed map and directions on how to find the office, and the doctor’s cell phone in case we had any problems.

The dermatologist (who also speaks English) treated Ma with equal respect and kindness, explained what he thought would help, how to use it and where to get it. He spent maybe 15-20 minutes with her.

The cost of of the GP, the hour visit – $40. The dermatologist was $25.

I have been a nurse (RN) for 34 years in the US, first in hospitals and then in home health. I have rarely been a consumer because I cannot get insurance that I can afford. I have worked with countless patients who are consumers in our health care system, and have gone to appointments with patients. I have stories, as you can well imagine. Our health care system is losing ground, spending more money and proving less care, and drowning health care providers in more and more paperwork and red tape for less and less money.

*deep breath* OK, I will refrain from running on, and I won’t pull out my really big soap box. I just wanted to recount our experience with the health care system here. There are many stories, and I have heard of some that aren’t totally positive but in general, I think your chances of getting good care here are much better than in the US. And, the price is much more reasonable.

YMMV (your mileage may vary). This is only our story. Ma has also been to many doctors in the US, and she is very happy with the care she has had here so far.

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A Word A Week Photo Challenge: Glitter

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

from A Word A Week Challenge

When the “Glitter” challenge came up, I immediately thought of water, fountains and sunlight. These photos were actually taken a couple years ago when I lived in Florida. There was one particular fountain that I saw frequently with the sun shining on it, and it just looked like light and happiness and exuberance. One day I took the time to stop and take photos. I liked them enough to became more interested in photographing fountains, so eventually I had a fairly good collection of fountain photos. These are some of them, along with another from when I became interested in what was on my windshield in the morning.

Zemanta brought up a number of other posts from the Glitter challenge, so if you want to check out any other glittery photos, here’s some links.

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Blog of the Year Award

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

Thank you Kim @ Tranquil Dreams  for giving me this great award! Check out her blog! I follow it because there are always so many interesting posts there on a variety of subjects, and I am very honored that she likes my blog too.

I am nominating:
The (Urban Wildlife) Interface because there are some amazing photographs there.
Finding Myself in Panama because I like this guy, and want to encourage him as a new blogger. His life is linked with mine, and as his blog develops I’m sure it will also be linked with mine for a male perspective on the experience of moving to Panama.
WTF is Photography, another new blogger and photographer because I like how he says it like it is, and he makes me laugh and think. I’m very interested to see his progress in both blogging and photography.

This award is a pat on the back and show of support for your work. Accepting it and paying it forward is totally optional and entirely up to you!

If you do though, let me include the rules for accepting this award:
1 Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012′ Award
2 Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.
3 Please include a link back to this page and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)
4 Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them.
5 You can now also join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012′ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience.
6 As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars…

Blog of the Year Award 1 star jpeg

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New Year’s Eve in Panama

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

We spent New Year’s Eve in our street, and it was quite the street party! We also learned a lot about Panamanian New Year’s traditions. There were the expected fireworks all over the neighborhood, and we continue to be surprised and honored by the hospitality of our neighbors. Everyone invited us to join them and shared a holiday drink or treat.

The highlight was the muñeco! It’s a scarecrow sort of thing, clothes stuffed to look like a person but it was also stuffed with a lot of fireworks! Late in the evening they tied it up to the stop sign at the end of the street. Then, at midnight they set it on fire to symbolize all the negative things from last year going up in flames.

The muñeco tied to the stop sign
Joel and the muñeco. Everyone else was also getting their pictures taken with it both before and after it was tied to the stop sign.
The sign above the mañeco thanking it for taking all the bad things

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I’ve done bit of research to find out more about some other things I’ve seen. We saw bunches of wheat or rice for sale downtown. They are hung behind the door for prosperity. The bread we saw for sale everywhere must be the rosca de huevo (egg bread) that is served at holiday dinners. We saw our neighbor bring out a bowl of grapes at midnight to eat 12 grapes and make 12 wishes. We certainly have seen all the cleaning and fixing up going on everywhere in the neighborhood all last month. We haven’t seen anyone walking around with a suitcase or some of the other traditions I read about, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t also going on.

Holiday Traditions – here’s a link about Panamanian holiday traditions
muñeco – this link is about the muñeco in Peru, but it seems to be the same thing.

Here’s a taste of the New Years celebrations on our street.

A related article that Zemanta brought up

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David, Panama, on the last day of 2012

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Kris Cunningham

We went downtown today and walked around a bit. It was busy! Some streets were blocked off and vendors were set up on everywhere. If it’s this busy now, I wonder how it was before Christmas! It was really fun though, and I loved the energy and color of the city.

Amazing tree on the west side of the park
Hotel Iris in the background, fun place with a bar on the second floor overlooking the park
Wait, I’m supposed to holding the camera, not standing in front of it
What a beautiful day for walking around!
Unusual sculpture in the middle of the park
A street musician on the sidewalk
Walking in to the park
Selling produce on the street, and more packages of rolls
Southwest corner of the park. Picadilly is another active place. They have tons of stuff from clothes to furniture, and it’s always packed.
These were rings of dinner rolls, I believe, and everyone was selling them everywhere!
Walking along the south side of the park
There was a band playing
Southwest corner of the park. That guy has some very colorful and fun party hats. He tried to sell us one with a little solar powered propeller on the front!
Maybe a block from the park
This is probably two blocks southwest of Cervantes Park
Walking west, activity and people everywhere, music coming from the store behind us

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Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures

Posted on December 31, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

What an interesting assignment! It’s been quite a year here, with wrapping up our lives in Florida and moving to Panama.  Going through old pictures really showed me the road we have traveled. So, month by month… January 2012 – We visit Panama for the third time. The previous January, our first visit to Panama, we visited Panama City. Then, the previous June, we visited David and decided it was just right for us. This time we brought my husband’s 92 year old mother so she could see if she wanted to live in Panama also.

We drove around the beautiful countryside
We visited one of the gorgeous beaches
We stayed at a hostel, and couldn’t figure out why bananas left in our kitchen cubby tended to get holes in them.

February 2012 – We return to Florida and decide to move now, this year, instead of waiting until 2014 when I’ll be eligible for social security. Meanwhile though, life goes on in Florida. I am in a photography meetup group, so when I’m not working and doing other things, I look for interesting things to photograph.

I think this assignment was to take candid photos of people
My husband was working on some dirty and sweaty house project, and I saw the dappled sunlight, and thought it was a perfect photo op.
Birds and water also make me reach for my camera.

March 2012 – Bees make spring interesting with their swarming behavior. It was a good winter with no freeze so we will have mangoes this year.

I caught the bees in the act of swarming, which was a good photo op for the photography club’s topic of “fear”.
The swarm, after it settled in the front yard mango tree.
Earl, my friend who collects swarms. “Look, I’m so comfortable around bees that i can put my bare hand right on the front of the hive…. OWW!”

April 2012 – This month the photography club’s topic is “Outside my Back Door”. As you can see, work on the house is in progress, but there is a ton of stuff to do to get it in good condition so we can sell it. We also need to get to work on Ma’s place so it can be sold. Trips to her place take us over the Sunshine Skyway bridge which often provides good photo ops.

You do NOT want to look out our back door right now!
I bought this plant on ebay. It was supposed to be a dragon fruit. It never had fruit, but it made this amazing flower!
We were going across the Sunshine Skyway bridge at sunset and saw this amazing sky.

May 2012 -Preparations continue. I continue to work (at my job, though I’d rather be working on the house) so progress is slow. Spring is a beautiful time in Florida so my camera is busy.

Bald Eagles nesting. The adults are in the tree on either side of the nest.
The ponds are overrun with tadpoles!
Water lilies are blooming, and this one has attracted a pretty green bee.
This mango tree in the side yard almost froze two years ago, but this year it is doing very well and will give us more mangoes than we’ve ever had from it.
Plumeria in bloom – I wish I could capture the wonderful smell in the photo
One of my favorite water lilies, a beautiful coral pink color
This sky was so amazing my husband went up on the roof to snap this photo.
Water hyacinth, illegal in Fl because they are so invasive, but they sure have pretty flowers. My extras go only in the compost pile though.

June 2012 – a significant month. I turned 60. My birthday bash was a trip to Austin to visit my younger daughter. My older daughter, and my sister and her husband also joined us there. I wrapped up my last cases so I could stop work and concentrate on the house and moving preparations full time. It is starting to feel like we are really doing this, though our plans to wrap everything up by the end of June aren’t going to happen.

The birthday bash, and dinner out with everyone! The gal in red is my younger daughter, next to her is her husband, his mother, and his brother, At the end of the table is my older daughter. The silver head at the end of the table is my sister’s husband, and my sister is next to him with the phone in her hand, and next to her is her son, and hidden behind him is my husband. Quite the party, eh?!
A Neil Diamond concert. I have liked his music for ages, and I like the man too.
We get serious about yard cleanup. How much mulch can you fit in the back of a Prius? (19 bags!)

July 2012 – I feel like things are moving forward at a much faster pace now. We have finished with the new roof. The yard looks good. Interior painting is under way. Things are leaving the house. But, the end is not yet in sight. There is still so much more to do.

How much furniture can you get on one truck?
Our poor trash men!
Trips across the Sunshine Skyway continue since we are also getting Ma’s place ready to sell. This make for some wonderful sky viewing!

August 2012 – We are still at it. *sigh*. We are consoled by watching home prices steadily go up in our neighborhood, while inventory remains very low and well priced houses sell quickly.

We get a new front door. It looks amazing!
Plumerias continue to bloom and fill the yard with heavenly sweet smells.
Water lilies continue blooming Everything blooms in the summer in Florida!
I go out to photograph something in the pond and find a big surprise!
Aligator snapping turtle. Yikes! I have no idea how it got in our yard. It got a ride in the trash can to the creek a few blocks away.
I never get tired of beautiful skies.

September 2012 – We are still here. I am feeling like it’s never going to end. I cannot do another yard sale. How are we going to get all this stuff out of here, and the rest of the work done? The realtor comes over and we firm up plans to have the house on the market by the end of the month. “Season” in Florida is coming again, and the summer doldrums are over when people go north to cooler places. This is good for home sales. Prices continue to rise and inventory remains very low. We also have gotten Ma’s place about as ready as we can for now. She is sorting and packing too. A realtor is lined up for her place. I refuse to spend another winter in Florida! It is time to move on.  I keep working, keep moving forward. I play more tennis for my mental health. I amuse myself with my camera and look forward to reading my photography books and learning about everything this camera can do.

Waterlilies continue to bloom
I continue to be endlessly fascinated by water lilies and water
The plumeria continue to bloom and perfume the yard with their heavenly sweet smell
The bromiliads bloom again
My macro lens arrives, and of course I head directly to the ponds to try it out on the flowers
The colorful “pea vine” named because it makes edible pods that look like pea pods
Lets try the macro lens on the plumeria
Sometimes we get gorgeous rainbows
these little lizards are everywhere in FL
we can’t forget the interesting bugs
What is happening?? Why are they painting our house? Where are our shutters??! Don’t they realize we LIVE here, behind the shutters?!
The mango harvest continues
We found this beautiful sphinx moth in the garage and put it outside on a tree
We met some friends for a picnic by the water one evening so we could talk about Panama
The talk about Panama group. The gal on my left was my traveling companion when I came down in October.

October 2012 – This is IT. I have done everything I can do in Florida. I can’t stay any more. I have been packed for months. My stuff is cleared out. I am leaving. I find a $50 ticket from Ft Lauderdale to Panama City on the 10th, and click the “BUY” button. I pack one suitcase, one computer bag, and one carry on, and head off to a new life. I also start a blog.

The house is on the market
My luggage is by the front door.
The plane takes us to Panama City
Another bus takes us across the canal heading to David. It is rainy season in Panama.
I arrive at my friends house. Roxy (in front) is assigned me. If I worry about anything, I am to give it to her. She specializes in worrying and is happy to take on any and all worries. She took her job seriously and was always nearby.
The real estate manager I had been emailing with has the perfect house for me.
My friends mechanic has a good car for me

November 2012 – I return to the USA. The house sells fast, cash offer, and they want to close in a week! Fed Ex in Panama… well lets just say the “Express” part isn’t entirely accurate. If we wait for papers to get back and forth we would continue to pay expenses on the house so it’s cheaper for me to fly back to the US and get the closing done quickly. I’ll also be on hand to assist my husband and his mother on their trip down here.

I return to the old house that I never expected to see again. My former dog and his new mom come to see me. (he’s a wonderful dog and I am forever thankful to her for taking him, old and blind and diabetic as he is)
back to Panama City again
Over the canal again but this time in a plane
Flying over the beautiful green mountains of Panama towards David
I am no longer alone in the house!! ~happy dance~

December 2012 – We live in Panama. Really? Is it true? Did we actually make it? After all the years and months and weeks and days of planning and working towards this and trying to make it happen, is this really our home now?! Where do you live? Vivimos en Panamá! My husband starts a blog. I don’t need to add a lot more now because this blog is full of stories of our new life here. The picture at the top, this is our backyard in the morning light.

This is down the road from our house. I never get tired of looking at the mountains in the clouds.

This is down the road from our house. I never get tired of looking at the mountains in the clouds.

We live in David, a city that has everything we need and more. We live among the nicest, warmest, most loving people you could know. Third world country? It certainly doesn’t feel like it. Many things are much better than they were in the US. It will be very interesting to write “My 2013 in Pictures” a year from now!

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Panamanian Mango Trees

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

There are mango trees, and then there are mango trees!

I am familiar with mango trees. I had three in Florida, two of which survived a couple bad winters and were thriving when I left. Here in Panama there are mango trees everywhere, and many of them are very large and old. Today, I think I found the grandfather of all mango trees.

I’ve seen this tree from a distance many times, but I was so glad I took the time to go see it up close. We first went on our early afternoon bike ride, but the lighting wasn’t quite what I wanted. The sky was so bright and the tree was too dark among the other trees. I went back in the late afternoon about 30 minutes before sunset and that was better. The sky was low in the sky, I used a flash on the tree, and things balanced out a bit better. I included photos from both visits because there were a couple early day photos I liked anyway.

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Flowers at the Fruit Market!

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

Apologies to those of you who got my previous post. I wanted to see how the featured image looked,  and I hit publish instead of preview. Oops!  :o)heliconias1

We were in town today so we stopped at the farmer’s market on our way home. What a great surprise! One vendor had this huge bucket of spectacular heliconias for sale.  He’s my favorite vendor anyway because he has the best pineapples, but today there was no question of shopping anywhere else.heliconias2

Wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have my camera with me. It was home charging on my desk and I forgot to put it back in my purse. I broke my own very important rule, and you know that moment when you don’t have your camera, that is when you will see something.heliconias3

But, I have the flowers! The pink one I recognize as “Sexy Pink” because it is my very favorite. I tried unsuccessfully to grow it in Florida. I’m not sure what the other is but it is also gorgeous. These are the largest heliconias I have ever seen!heliconias4

What a treat. I love heliconias, and it was a wonderful surprise to find these gorgeous flowers!

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Fish Soup?

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

As you all know, I bought a lot of fish the other day. I wrote about our shopping excursion (CLICK HERE), and the types of fish we have tried so far (CLICK HERE).  These were whole fish complete with heads and tails. What was I going to do with all those heads and tails? We’re trying to live economically so I’m trying not to waste anything, and I feel it’s more respectful to the fish to use everything that can be used.

When we were at the fish seller, my neighbor commented on some of the large fish heads in the cooler, saying she could make a good soup out of that. Oh? Really? So, after a bit of research I decided to give it a try (what would we do without Google and the internet?!)

I discarded the robalo (aka snook) because I was afraid of what I’d read about the skin giving the fish a soapy flavor. (The picture above is actually a bit misleading because that is the snook, the only head that didn’t go in the soup.) I had read that the gills can make the soup bitter and should be removed, and learned how with a video HERE. That wasn’t too difficult. Now prepared, the heads and other parts (tails, and leftovers from filleting the snook) were put in the pot, covered with water, and boiled until the meat was falling off the bones (maybe 45 minutes?)

After the soup had cooled enough to handle I strained off the broth, took the meat off the bones, and returned it to the broth/soup. Then I added veggies – an onion, a green pepper, a potato, a couple carrots, salt, pepper, and some Cajun seasoning, and put the soup back on to cook until the veggies were soft.

It was SO good! I am very happy with this soup. There is a  lot more meat than you would think on fish heads.  I’m sure with more research and experimentation, I can come up with other varieties and flavors of fish soup but even if I make it just like this all the time, it will be very good.

So, if you can do this with fish, what about shrimp?  I read a lot of positive things about shrimp stock, and it’s supposed to be even better if you have the heads. So, the shrimp heads and shells were put in the pot to boil for maybe 45-60 minutes (I know, I need to pay better attention to details if I’m going to write about them, but think any reasonable time over 30 min is fine). When the whole house smelled like shrimp and I figured we had about all we were going to get from these, I let it cool enough to handle and strained the soup leaving only the broth.

The broth is a nice golden color and very flavorful, even with no seasonings! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it. I have both chicken soup and fish soup in the fridge, so I put this broth in the freezer for another time. This is a very unique and flavorful broth though, so it will be interesting to see the end result.

We’re having a very good time in the kitchen these days. How nice to have the time, and to have food that is almost entirely home cooked from scratch. How nice to have all these great fresh ingredients too!

I’m trying Zemanta on the recommendation of  a fellow blogger eof737, and it is suggesting some other links about fish soup.  I’ll add them to the end in case you also find the the info and recipes interesting.

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What are these Fish?

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Kris Cunningham

We went to Pedregal to buy fish (read about it HERE) I also wanted to include some information about the various fish, so I’ve put it in this separate post here. If any of you have further information, opinions, corrections, or anything else to add to what I’ve written, please let me know!

Pargo is snapper. That’s one of them at the top of this post. Right now they are in the freezer so I can’t report on how good they are, but I know I’ve liked snapper in the past.

Robalo is snook. There are snook in Florida but people catch them mainly for sport. They are not sold in stores for food. Our research told us that they are also called “soap fish” because of the taste if you do not remove the skin. I was very glad we did a bit of research! So, after I had carefully removed the scales, we got busy removing the skin. By this time we were left with a large, skinless fish so we figured it wasn’t much more to just fillet the fish. We fried the fillets in a bit of oil. I thought it was a good fish, white, tender, very mild flavor. My husband didn’t care for it as much, I think because the texture is softer than he prefers. So, given all the work it took to prepare this fish and the lukewarm reviews by my husband, we will cross this one off the list. But, for anyone else reading this I’d say try it before you decide. Many people like snook very much. If you are experienced with skinning and filleting fish, you will probably do better than we did.

Camaron is shrimp. These shrimp were excellent!! They came straight from the water so I had to clean and de-vein them. This took a little time but wasn’t at all difficult. Then I sauteed them in butter and garlic, and put them on a plate! My previous experience is frozen shrimp in the US. These shrimp had a milder flavor, much more tender texture, and I thought they were far better than any I had before.

Sierra is mackerel, specifically Spanish mackerel, I believe, judging by the pictures I found on line. This fish is a big winner with us! It has no scales so is easy to prepare. We had such a big fish that even after removing the head and tail it was more than we needed at once, so I cut it in two. Now, we had a large plump piece of fish. The easiest seemed to be to microwave it so I put it on a plate, covered it with a bit of plastic, and nuked it for about 8 minutes until it was done through in the thickest parts. I served it with some limon from the tree in the back yard, and some salt and pepper. It was delicious!! We were both totally happy and put this fish on the top of our list. It has a good flavor, meaty texture, and my husband said it’s as good as a steak (very high praise from a steak loving guy).

Lisa is mullet. My research quickly turned up an article from Sarasota, where I lived before here. (It’s HERE) I remember mullet wasn’t highly thought of back there, but apparently restaurants in the northeast think it’s very good. Sarasota is trying to make mullet more popular since there is a lot of it in the area, and often it is only caught for the roe and the male fish are just dumped overboard and wasted. We have 4 small fish in the freezer, and I’ll be interested to see what we think of them.

One more to add – the first time we went shopping we bought durado, which is mahi mahi. I think it was $2.50/lb. It was also excellent! After a bit of research and a couple tries, my favorite way to cook it is fried. It’s a big meaty fish and I like it a bit rare in the middle as that is more tender. I minced a fair amount of garlic, got the pan very hot, put in some oil and the garlic, and then the fish. I cooked the fish a few minutes on either side until it was seared on the outside but still tender in the middle. This one definitely stays on the list for both of us.

As we buy and try other fish, I will add to our fish information. So far, what I have learned – if the seller asks if you want the fish cleaned, say yes. My fish still had scales and while they aren’t hard to remove, it takes some time, and then it takes more time to clean up the scales that flew all over the kitchen.

Otherwise we are totally happy with the fish available here. If you all have some favorite recipes or cooking methods, please share! I am not experienced with cooking much fish so I’m happy to learn more.

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