Of course, after almost three years of mexican food deprivation, there are finally some good Mexican restuarants in Panama. You can't understand my excitement, unless you know how much I love mexican Food. But to sum it up, I love it.
But why all the sudden (and when I am leaving the country, none the less) are there huge amounts of new Mexican restuarants. Did mexicans just realize that a corner of the globe was deprived of their delicacies and decided to, in a joint effort, please the tastebuds of Panamanians young and old? What is happening that so many Mexicans are leaving Mexico? What impact will this apparent exodus have on other countries?
(And here I make a long parenthetical thought about all the countries besides the United States that HISPANIC people immigrate to, becuase undoubtedly there is someone thinking that I am bitching about how "mexicans" are ruining our society. Not so. Living in Latin America, I have learned alot. First, just becuase they speak Spanish does not mean they are Mexicans: imagine someone calling you Australian becuase you speak English. No, they are Guatemalan, or Costa Rican or Puerto Rican. Second, lets take a little walk down memory lane, or Latin American History, and it wont take too long too figure out how much we have really screwed up many societies in Latin America, and how much land we have taken away from hispanic countries, both in the name of imperalistic zeal disguised as love for country. So, Kharma's a bitch, I guess.)
And what does this mean for policies on immigration that will evnetually lead to the construction of walls and the embitterment of already sore cultural relations. While I agree that something needs to be done to monitor immigration, we must not forget that we are a nation of immigrants, and to stop being the "beacon" of hope that many individuals see our country as would be to give up one of the greatest tenants of American thought. Does this mean building walls? I don't think so. It does mean educating workers on the damages of paying people illegally, making the process of getting stable, long term work easier for immigrants who come to really have a better life, ask for equal requirements for all those who enter to the United States, and to get over our misperceptions about "other people" living in our country.
So what do the new Mexican restaurants mean? I am sure at some level, someone is worried about the influx of immigrants, but really, I am just excited to eat a really good burrito.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Panamanian Holy Week
So, in honor of my last Holy week in Panama (I think "my last.......in Panama may make frequent appearances on my blog between now and May), I wanted to make a tribute to some of the cultural "rules" that govern Panamanian Holy Week. Living in a catholic country makes a difference one would assume, but living in a cosmopolitan city takes away some of the pomp and circumstance of superstitions: traditions that still live on strong in the countryside are merely "optional" in the city. However, regardless of where you hail from, here are a few things you arent supposed to do during Holy Week here in Panama.
Parents tell their children that during Holy Week (especially Good Friday) that they shouldn't:
1. Wash their hair. You might turn into a mermaid.
2. Swim. You might turn into a fish.
3. Climb a tree. You might turn into a monkey.
As a good citizen, you shouldn't:
1. Play loud music. Silence is the best way to meditate on Christ's passion.
2. Laugh outloud. Joy is not to be tolerated until Sunday Morning.
3. Do any kind of strenuous work. Convienent that Friday is a national holiday, becuase you are supposed to just sit in your house.
4. Eat Meat. It goes to the whole "make a sacrifice for lent" so the agricultural sector is sacrificed as meat is packaged and shipped off as the traditional sacrifice.
5. Start a fire. Whether you are an arsonist or just want to light your stove, too bad. NO FIRE during Holy Week. This one, I am still working on the explanation.
While I dont claim that this list be exhuastive, it is all the things I have learned about living through a "Veirnes Santo" and Holy week in general. How I learned all this, I might add, was not through typical, day to day conversation. Oh no. There was the mad neighbor yelling that I was playing music that I learned rule 1(funny that she was yelling when the rule calls for silence. Humm). It was a co-worker who was trying so hard not to laugh at jokes that taught me number 2. Rule 4 came today when I went to a restuarant to buy lunch, two minutes before they closed, and the only option left was MEAT, becuase clearly, who is going to buy meat today?
So while I joke, I can see why these traditions are important. As Ruben Dario wrote in his poem criticizing Roosevelt and the Imperialistic United States in General: "And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!" Where spirituality is still an important value, these traditions make sense. And while some people might have lost track of what the traditions mean, while others apply them to an extreme (I doubt my children will turn to monkeys, but it would be an easy way to get my children to behave for at least one week of the year), and I am sure that my lutehran friends would launch into some speech about guilt being played up as a penitence, it is nice to see that religious traditions still have some importance.
Happy Easter!
Parents tell their children that during Holy Week (especially Good Friday) that they shouldn't:
1. Wash their hair. You might turn into a mermaid.
2. Swim. You might turn into a fish.
3. Climb a tree. You might turn into a monkey.
As a good citizen, you shouldn't:
1. Play loud music. Silence is the best way to meditate on Christ's passion.
2. Laugh outloud. Joy is not to be tolerated until Sunday Morning.
3. Do any kind of strenuous work. Convienent that Friday is a national holiday, becuase you are supposed to just sit in your house.
4. Eat Meat. It goes to the whole "make a sacrifice for lent" so the agricultural sector is sacrificed as meat is packaged and shipped off as the traditional sacrifice.
5. Start a fire. Whether you are an arsonist or just want to light your stove, too bad. NO FIRE during Holy Week. This one, I am still working on the explanation.
While I dont claim that this list be exhuastive, it is all the things I have learned about living through a "Veirnes Santo" and Holy week in general. How I learned all this, I might add, was not through typical, day to day conversation. Oh no. There was the mad neighbor yelling that I was playing music that I learned rule 1(funny that she was yelling when the rule calls for silence. Humm). It was a co-worker who was trying so hard not to laugh at jokes that taught me number 2. Rule 4 came today when I went to a restuarant to buy lunch, two minutes before they closed, and the only option left was MEAT, becuase clearly, who is going to buy meat today?
So while I joke, I can see why these traditions are important. As Ruben Dario wrote in his poem criticizing Roosevelt and the Imperialistic United States in General: "And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!" Where spirituality is still an important value, these traditions make sense. And while some people might have lost track of what the traditions mean, while others apply them to an extreme (I doubt my children will turn to monkeys, but it would be an easy way to get my children to behave for at least one week of the year), and I am sure that my lutehran friends would launch into some speech about guilt being played up as a penitence, it is nice to see that religious traditions still have some importance.
Happy Easter!
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Future Direction
Finally, I can say for sure that I have been accepted to the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, to study my masters degree in Spanish! YEAH! For the past weeks, it has been a back forth game of future possibilities, with a number of different options on the horizon. There was looking into teaching jobs in Colorado, Texas, Nebraska and New York. Then there was the panic of looking into other graduate schools if UNL didnt work out. A whole mumble jumble of different choices that was all waiting on this one decision. Now, my future is pretty clear, and after a few weeks with my life only figured out up until May 16th, it feels nice.
Needless to say there are plenty of detials that still lurk: how I am going to get regestered, met my advisor, from a distance of 1459 miles? Where am I going to live? How am I going to pay for all this? Will I received a TA position (God, please!)? So, I guess the waiting just continues.
I have gotten good at this waiting, and now that I at least can see something I will be doing beyond the end of May, I dont mind waiting for these little details to get worked out: I can't wait to start taking care of them and making sure they get worked out!
And one thing I have also been waiting to do and will get the chance to do tonight: officialy give my notice of resignation.
Needless to say there are plenty of detials that still lurk: how I am going to get regestered, met my advisor, from a distance of 1459 miles? Where am I going to live? How am I going to pay for all this? Will I received a TA position (God, please!)? So, I guess the waiting just continues.
I have gotten good at this waiting, and now that I at least can see something I will be doing beyond the end of May, I dont mind waiting for these little details to get worked out: I can't wait to start taking care of them and making sure they get worked out!
And one thing I have also been waiting to do and will get the chance to do tonight: officialy give my notice of resignation.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Looming Finality
Well, there it is. The ending of something that I thought would be still a long ways off. I have bought a one-way ticket to the states. May 16th looms on the horizon as the end of my time in Panama. I guess I always had in the back of my mind that there would come a time when going back would be the right thing, but saying that that day is May 16th, in almost two months, puts a very certain finality to it all.
Things I am looking forward to: A good restuarant scene, not having to conscientiously think about talking and socializing, cultural resources that are a pain to try to locate, Chipotle and Cold Stone, organized traffic and public transportation, seeing family and having friends in the same time zone, the oppurtunities that I will have as I start a new part of my life.
Things I am NOT looking forward to: consumerism, loud, overweight Americans, slutty women, white trash, materialism out the but, Wal-Mart, the attitude of "I deserve this" and "I need that", close mindedness, culutral insensativity, and lack of global experience and general global knowledge.
I know that it is time to go back, and that really, I am not living in Panama. While I love it here, and I have learned so much and grown so much, I feel like its just existence. That still doesnt make it easy to head back. And I guess it is just the first time that I realized that I am an adult. Wow. Culture shock and growing up. All in one fell swoop. I am going to my parents house as a vacation, not as a final destination. I will be looking for apartments. I have done all that before here in Panama, but it just feels so much more adult now. I guess I just equated the states with my "pre-independence" stage, that being an adult was a natural thing becuase I was so far from my family. Now, with the prospects of living close to my family again, I guess its wierd to think about them and not think of them as my life-support. Wierd.
And thinking about re-adjusting is hard as well. Its like I will be transplanted back to everything that I thought I was and finding out that there are major differences. I have been gone for almost three years. While the positive side of me thinks that I will have three years of slang, music, and general celebrity trash to catch up on when I get back, I cant help but think three years of my life will go unknown to those I love, and they simply cant just "be cuaght up" on everything that has happened and in what ways I have changed. I am anxious for dealing with that more than anything else. I will need some help with that.
I will keep writing, to try to keep everything I experience in my last months here in Panama. Who knows, in the future it will be the only record of everything I dont want to forget!
Things I am looking forward to: A good restuarant scene, not having to conscientiously think about talking and socializing, cultural resources that are a pain to try to locate, Chipotle and Cold Stone, organized traffic and public transportation, seeing family and having friends in the same time zone, the oppurtunities that I will have as I start a new part of my life.
Things I am NOT looking forward to: consumerism, loud, overweight Americans, slutty women, white trash, materialism out the but, Wal-Mart, the attitude of "I deserve this" and "I need that", close mindedness, culutral insensativity, and lack of global experience and general global knowledge.
I know that it is time to go back, and that really, I am not living in Panama. While I love it here, and I have learned so much and grown so much, I feel like its just existence. That still doesnt make it easy to head back. And I guess it is just the first time that I realized that I am an adult. Wow. Culture shock and growing up. All in one fell swoop. I am going to my parents house as a vacation, not as a final destination. I will be looking for apartments. I have done all that before here in Panama, but it just feels so much more adult now. I guess I just equated the states with my "pre-independence" stage, that being an adult was a natural thing becuase I was so far from my family. Now, with the prospects of living close to my family again, I guess its wierd to think about them and not think of them as my life-support. Wierd.
And thinking about re-adjusting is hard as well. Its like I will be transplanted back to everything that I thought I was and finding out that there are major differences. I have been gone for almost three years. While the positive side of me thinks that I will have three years of slang, music, and general celebrity trash to catch up on when I get back, I cant help but think three years of my life will go unknown to those I love, and they simply cant just "be cuaght up" on everything that has happened and in what ways I have changed. I am anxious for dealing with that more than anything else. I will need some help with that.
I will keep writing, to try to keep everything I experience in my last months here in Panama. Who knows, in the future it will be the only record of everything I dont want to forget!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
A Great Weekend
How can I even begin to describe the excellent that I had! Two of my friends from the states who came to Panama with a volunteer group their the mission decided that it was time to visit the tropics again! Tom and Miles worked their magin among the children in Loma Cova when they came down to help with the construction of the new home and Sunday School building the church was building. Miles impressed the kids with his Rock and Roll music, and Tom was great with the kids who wanted him to endlessly push them on the swings! The kids also had an impact on Tom and Miles, who sponsers some of the kids scholarships to go to school. Tom wanted to meet the children he sponsers, and so a trip was arranged and I got to put my Tourist guide skills to use! It was only the best for Tom and Miles, (not that they demanded it) but that I wanted them to see the other side of Panama, the Panama outside of the mission and church world that they already knew. Heres a run of what we did!
Friday night we met up and went to dinner at the best Italian restaurant in the city, Pomodoros! It was excellent, I had my usually Gnocci a la Gorgonzola, and it was heaven. A few hours, some sangria glasses, and dinner and dessert later, we left for a little cruise on the Via Veneto, where one of the cities biggest casinos is located. After a little time out and about, we headed back to the hotel, which was a convienent three blocks from my house.
Saturday was a day full of adventure. Having already done some tourism within the city while they were here with the group, we decided to head out of the city and hit some "off the beaten path" tourist sites. We traveled about 2 hours outside of the city to my favorite relaxation destination, El Valle. If you haven't heard me endless rant about this place, I will spare you. Just take my word, one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. We visited the waterfall that is in this city located inside a volcano crater, ate lunch, did some shopping at the local farmer's and artisan's market, and just took in the fresh air that you never get in the city.
It was on the way to El Valle that we had our most memorable moment. Driving through the canal zone, one kind of just gets absorbed into the jungle, the tranquility and the serenity of it all. This happened to me, as I zoned out while Miles while driving: Miles was just simply going with the flow of traffic, yet our car was pulled over for speeding when a police man drove past. A little worried, we pulled over. I translated and we were "speeding". And hind sight being perfect, I realized that he wouldnt know exactly how fast we were going because he was driving in the opposite direction when he saw us (not the best conditions for estimating someone's speed). But he asked for the drivers lisence and the contract. In a moment of forgetfulness, Tom couldnt find the contract. We were to be taken inmeadiately to the police station. Our day was shot, I thought.
The policeman was to escort us to the station, and so we slowly drove after him. About 100 meters done the road, the cop pulled over again. Geez, what what were doing this time, ran through my head. He came to talk again, and basically asked us if we wanted to pay him instead. At first, I will admit, I was confused, and honestly dont think I understood his spanish (it was after all, the first experience in Spanish of being asked to pay a bribe), but when he started to tak about "DISCRETION", I figured it out really quick. He didnt want problems, he didnt want any recognition (he keep his name badge neatly out of site). In the prospect of spending the whole morning filling out papers or being able to continue our wonderful day, we opted to pay the fee to the cop, postively thinking that he wasnt corrupt, he just had a child's birthday party to pay for. And not that honesty is really able to describe a police officer who is corrupt enough to stop three gringos, rung them through the ringer and then take some money, at least he was paid off with the $50 we would have paid for the ticket. What a story!
So, Sunday we spent a little time together, went to lunch and made sure that Tom and MIles got off safely! It was so good to see them and to spend some time with them! I am glad that they got to see a part of Panama outside of the mission, a part of Panama that I really love and that I really feel has become my life! And how many people can say that they have paid off a Panamanian cop?
Keep traveling:
Friday night we met up and went to dinner at the best Italian restaurant in the city, Pomodoros! It was excellent, I had my usually Gnocci a la Gorgonzola, and it was heaven. A few hours, some sangria glasses, and dinner and dessert later, we left for a little cruise on the Via Veneto, where one of the cities biggest casinos is located. After a little time out and about, we headed back to the hotel, which was a convienent three blocks from my house.
Saturday was a day full of adventure. Having already done some tourism within the city while they were here with the group, we decided to head out of the city and hit some "off the beaten path" tourist sites. We traveled about 2 hours outside of the city to my favorite relaxation destination, El Valle. If you haven't heard me endless rant about this place, I will spare you. Just take my word, one of the most beautiful places that I have ever visited. We visited the waterfall that is in this city located inside a volcano crater, ate lunch, did some shopping at the local farmer's and artisan's market, and just took in the fresh air that you never get in the city.
It was on the way to El Valle that we had our most memorable moment. Driving through the canal zone, one kind of just gets absorbed into the jungle, the tranquility and the serenity of it all. This happened to me, as I zoned out while Miles while driving: Miles was just simply going with the flow of traffic, yet our car was pulled over for speeding when a police man drove past. A little worried, we pulled over. I translated and we were "speeding". And hind sight being perfect, I realized that he wouldnt know exactly how fast we were going because he was driving in the opposite direction when he saw us (not the best conditions for estimating someone's speed). But he asked for the drivers lisence and the contract. In a moment of forgetfulness, Tom couldnt find the contract. We were to be taken inmeadiately to the police station. Our day was shot, I thought.
The policeman was to escort us to the station, and so we slowly drove after him. About 100 meters done the road, the cop pulled over again. Geez, what what were doing this time, ran through my head. He came to talk again, and basically asked us if we wanted to pay him instead. At first, I will admit, I was confused, and honestly dont think I understood his spanish (it was after all, the first experience in Spanish of being asked to pay a bribe), but when he started to tak about "DISCRETION", I figured it out really quick. He didnt want problems, he didnt want any recognition (he keep his name badge neatly out of site). In the prospect of spending the whole morning filling out papers or being able to continue our wonderful day, we opted to pay the fee to the cop, postively thinking that he wasnt corrupt, he just had a child's birthday party to pay for. And not that honesty is really able to describe a police officer who is corrupt enough to stop three gringos, rung them through the ringer and then take some money, at least he was paid off with the $50 we would have paid for the ticket. What a story!
So, Sunday we spent a little time together, went to lunch and made sure that Tom and MIles got off safely! It was so good to see them and to spend some time with them! I am glad that they got to see a part of Panama outside of the mission, a part of Panama that I really love and that I really feel has become my life! And how many people can say that they have paid off a Panamanian cop?
Keep traveling:
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