Panama, Chapter 1

I made it to Panama safely! Last night, after a half-an-hour drive from Tocumen International Airport, Marc, Cheryl, Becky (who all graciously came to pick me up) brought me back to the apartment. It is alot bigger than I was thinking it would be. I have two rooms to call my own. One is an actual bedroom, and the other is the office. The office is quickly becoming my favorite. It is perched in the corner of the apartment, and has windows on two of four walls, and not some misly prison barred, dorm sized windows. Full walled windows. It really is necesary, to let some of the breeze through! It is a cosy little room that is a place where I can kick back at my desk, look out the windows and let the cool breeze take some of worries away! Got my pictures of family and friends at hand, and of course a picture of the the Jim Found Club founders (thanks, Hungary!) The apartment, like I said, is more than I was expecting, nestled away in a gardeny back street that seems to be the main "church" area of the city. Out my window I can see the catholic church, behind our balcony is the local Union Chruch, across the street is a church of undistinguished denomination, and beneath my feet is a Baptist church. There are palm trees that line our drive, and trees and plants and green every where. Quite different from the brownish burnt yucca look of the Eastern Coloradan plains. We have a large (and I mean large) living room, kitchen, dining area, balcony, bathroom and then the two bedrooms and my office. Look for pictures to come in future blogs and albums as well!

Today was an exciting day! I got to go to two churches where I will be teaching classes. The first church we went to was Gloria Dei in Los Andes, about a 10 km drive from here. We had an English Bible Study that I watched and participated in. I got to meet Carlos, a student who is going to the University next year and wanted to learn English. He will most likely be one of my students when I start teaching classes in the next couple of weeks!

Then we went to lunch and shopping. I had Pio Pio (whose equivalent in Enlgish is "Chirp Chrip" as in what the baby chick does) for lunch, and it was pretty taste. I also bought a few items that were left behind, like an umbrella and a razor. I was surprised that things were fairly cheap here. The currency of choice is the American dollar, although it is called the Balboa, and I saw nice shirts in decent establishments for $1.99. Jeans are $8 tops, and I spent $3 for a fairly large umbrella!

Then, after a short siesta (not actually sure if they observe that in Panama, but I sure did!), we headed to Loma Cova, a church that is in a small village about 30 km from here. The village has a large population of Kuna Indains, one of Panama's indigenous people groups, and I got to see there colorful, traditional wear (pictures of the way!). The joke of the night was that since I knew Spanish I would start learning Kuna as my "language experience". We actually had to cross the Canal, over on the Bridge of the Americas, to get to Loma Cova. We atteneded their services. There were alot of people there, and the majority of them were kids. We played basketball for a while after church, and then piled back into the car. Driving here is really crazy, and will take as much time being babied as I can, letting the other missionaries drive, while I learn the streets and before I get enough courage to drive myself around, a reality that is looming on the horizon!

Traditional Kuna Wear

Oh yeah, there was fireworks tonight, and I like to think that it is Panama's way of wecloming me!

Fireworks over the Bridge of the Americas, which I have to cross to get to Loma Cova.

These next couple of weeks I wont be teaching, but rather, I will take some time to adjust to living in Panama. I think the biggest asjuement might be the climate, as it is so hot and humid here. It rained, and I mean poured, for like 45 minutes with stopping, and I was told that that was barely considered a "shower", and since October is the rainest month of the year here, I am sure to see actual "rain"! My room is air-conditioned, but the rest of the house is not. I have also been told that asjusting to the climate takes about a month, so I am preparing myself for that.

Oh yeah, one other interesting thing. We have a gecko in the kitchen. He eats the bugs and doesnt bite humans, so, he is an addition to our apartment. He is actually kind of cool. I was thinking of naming him, but didnt have any cool names. If you have some, leave them in your comments!

until later, keeping on plugging.