The Other end of the spectrum

So, I have made it through my first week in Panama as a non-missionary! I am realyl excited. My job is great. But I am realizing all the things I took for granted, and am learning a new side of Panama. In some ways, I am understanding more about the lives of the people I worked side by side with in the church. In other ways, I am learning about a whole new part of the population I have never even had contact with in Panama.

Berlitz teaches mostly classes to businesses who need to learn English. And beleive you me, these course are not cheap. Its comes to something like $1.35 a minute to take a class. We have a center that serves as a adminstrative base as well as a teaching center, but most of the classes that I teach are outside of the center, in the conference rooms of said business. Put two and two together and it doesn't take long to figure out that these are multi-million dollar companies, and they usually only often pay for their top executives to take English classes. So, imagine the kind of people I have as my students. Imagine more, the type of people we have as students who are paying the classes out of their own pockets. We are talking rich. It is the complete opposite end of the spectrum, since my students in the church were taking adtvantage of the course we offered for $5.

For example, I teach in the National Brewrey, and my students there are the directors of logisitics and human resources. I teach a class to the middle-management for Sanofi Aventis, the pharmeceticaul company that makes Allegra. And one of my students in the international director for Sales for Nission in Latin America.

It has been interesting. While I have been entering penthouses and apartments in the most exclusive part of town, and learning my way around the corporate and banking districts of downtown, I feel in some way I am learning more about the lives of my former students-people who depended on buses, cram into said busses like sardines, and then walk twenty or thrity minutes to get where you actually need to go. I have learned so much about the city, and was surprised today when I was walking around to my busstop. I looked a house, that was rather dilapitated, and thought, if I were in the states, this would be a horrible part of town, and I would be gripping my wallet whiteknuckledly, staring down at the ground and just praying to get through. But this is Panama, and this is normal. This is actually a better area of the city. And I walk around this area feeling safe.

The simple life is something that I thought I lead. But as I left the mission, I realized how much simplier my life was going to get. I like that. For now, I am enjoying it, I am working really hard, and looking forward to living simply and saving some money for when I have to go back to the overpriced, materialistic attitude of the States.

keep learning...