Bob Marley Sunday

Bob Marley Sunday

What a week!! I have alluded to the ups and downs of life in Panama-- building a resort on a remote island, in these times, in a foreign (third world ) country, away from family and friends.  We keep making progress and then we get blind -sided by some new seemingly insurmountable challenge. For example, a powerful  local official refuses to give us Certificates of Occupancy (already paid for) for recently completed houses because we have not agreed  to his off- the- books demands (you could call it extortion, but here it is how things get done and how the “have- nots”  get SOMETHING).  We’re not talking small potatoes—his initial demand was for an insane amount of money (try 7 digits). Well, after months of negotiating we are now down to a manageable (or at least POSSIBLE) sum of ~ $28,000 in building materials. And the irony is that things like this happen on a regular basis. You know that saying, “If I had a nickel for every time,” well ….I would love to have a nickel for every time I have said, “You’ve got to be kidding- this is a joke, right?!”

Anyway, back to Bob Marley Sunday.  I guess we have been subconsciously fighting all of these seemingly random things that happen here on a regular basis and not taking time to care for ourselves and each other because there are so many demands on our time here. Earlier this week Steve and I reached a zenith of frustration and suddenly everything came tumbling down. We both at the same time hit a big thick hard wall or a very deep dark pit and it was scary. Over a few days we got through it but I have to say it was like getting caught in a riptide when the surf is up, and being tossed by wave after wave, struggling to catch your breath to the point where you are panicking- pretty frightening. Anyway, after a few really tough days we reached what I think of as a reconciliation with the reality here-- we bobbed to the surface, saw the sky above, filled our lungs with sweet air and touched sand underfoot. (Sorry- I now think in beach metaphors).   I think we know that together we can get through anything and… everything will be all right (thank you, Bob Marley).  I now add to my initial mantras, “No one got sick or died, so we can handle it.”

We also have reaffirmed that we really don’t need much to be happy and that getting back to a daily spiritual practice helps us a lot (another one of those “duh” moments).  One of Bonnie’s friends from Madison, Dylan, was killed in a car accident last weekend and we are sad with her. We are also reminded  to cultivate thankfulness as we head into November and are getting psyched about stuffing and pumpkin pie.  We are hopeful that we are really over the hump this time.  We’ll see—stay tuned and thanks for your interest and support.  Hope you have a good week in your own adventures ( yet another “duh”-- one need not travel far from home to live life as an adventure)!  Just a few pictures from the week…

This used to be a gravel parking area and now is
ready for playing ball and other horsing around in front of the hostel
(sod new on Friday).

Someone told me to get a picture of the beach this weekend as there is a huge swell coming in off the Caribbean from the hurricane going through, which often washes away a lot of the beach (don't worry- it always comes back).

I just decided to walk off the road into the jungle and snapped a photo.

Sunday on planet Bocas

Its' been a rough week. What did I learn in the last 7 days? Being in a foreign country as a tourist is different than living and working in a foreign country-- in fact sometimes you feel like you're on a different planet!

Duh. I know it sounds so obvious, but I regularly have experiences here that click into a new level of awareness of how different it is here. Segue back to the experiences with pest control here, but this time it's bugs, not bats…. We were working with a local pest control company to spray inside houses along the baseboards for ants, roaches and spiders, and also spray outside to prevent those same critters from procreating in the yard. We also sometimes have this company deal with specific infestations of pieces of furniture—could be some little  bugs, or worst case, termites. Well, I had had them previously treat specific pieces of furniture and that worked fine. However, this time I told them that there was a piece of outdoor wicker furniture at one house that I suspected had some termites in it and would they please check it and treat that piece of furniture. I had previously been charged about $25 for this service. Anyway, without my permission or knowledge, they treated that entire yard and under the house for termites. AND they also treated the two neighboring houses. They did not tell me until 2 weeks later when they presented us with a bill of $300 per house.  Well, as you can imagine, I was not happy, especially since the chair I had them check didn’t have termites, it had some wasps that make nests that mimic the appearance of termite trails. So we told them they had done that without our permission or knowledge, and with no evidence that they even did that work, and so we would not pay the bill for that. In the meantime we decided to try another pest control company and they have proved to be totally incompetent. Well, you guessed it—there are only 2 companies locally that do pest control. One of the guys in the office heard me bemoaning this situation. He has lived and worked  here for 2 years and said, “Look- this is what you need to do—you need to pay the bill for the termites and then have the first company back because at least they are competent. You have to pay that bill because essentially you have insulted them by refusing to pay it and they have lost face, and even though you are in the right, you will have to pay that bill if you ever hope to do business with them.”  This same guy said he is acquainted with the pest control company owner in Panama City and would be happy to contact them and work out a deal (subtext " and make a little on the side while doing so"). Sorry, as much as I am interested in the local way to do things, I am not going to give in on this one, at least for now. Little things like this happen regularly that ratchet up my awareness that things here are REALLY different and I can’t just change the rules—which leaves with me a certain level of anxiety that I am constantly dealing with. Pretty tough on a Swede who likes a certain amount of predictability and order to things.

After writing the above, I took a break. It’s Sunday, after all, and time for a little R & R. I went to the marina and beach to empty  trash in the bathrooms, as Saturday is a high traffic day plus yesterday there was a beach volleyball contest and beach party. I strolled along the beach and soon the sand and water started to work their magic. I walked the whole beach (Steve is working, otherwise he would be along) and then laid down for a few minutes with my hat over my eyes. When I started to feel hot, I stashed my camera under my hat and headed into the water. I suddenly remembered being in the lake at my grandparents’ cabin at Mil Lacs with my sisters (can't you see us--early 1960's, big front teeth in freckled faces, retro bathing suits?) and how we played and played all day in the water, making up dance performances, playing tippy dunky with our inner tubes, creating mud pies to serve our grandfather. Why not here, alone, at age 56? I  made a few moves in the water- doing hand stands and flipping over, yoga poses (much easier when buoyed in salt water!), pretending to be a mermaid, and then floated on my back and looked down at my toes or nothing in particular. After half an hour of this, who cares about the business of bugs?

Here are some pictures, and these remind me that many of the different things here are wonderful!

still life on beach-- breaking wave, washed up timber, and coconut

looking at Wild Cane Cay through some beach grape trees

Rufina and Antonio (from neighboring village) at the beach this morning

May you all find time to play this week!  Miss you very much!

 

slothful sunday

ooh-- what is that marking on his back?  is it a marking to call attention to the ladies? maybe this is a girl sloth-- I can't tell-- the color of the spot goes with the color around the eyes in the below picture

  what a cute face!

I was driving (in my golf cart) down to meet my work crew on Thursday morning and I encountered this sloth. I have seen quite a few sloths before, but this was the closest I had seen one- I could have reached out and touched, but had no desire to do so (they have very sharp defensive claws). He/she had just gotten off the road and was heading into some trees and had started his breakfast of leaves, buds and tender plant shoots. It's very hard to break down all that cellulose, so a sloth  stomach is large, comprising 3/4 of its body weight. The plants don't give them much energy and therefore they have a very slow metabolism and move in extremely   s l o w  m o t i o n. Notice the fur-- it is an ecosystem in itself, hosting many insects as well as moss and algae. The specialty of the sloth? Hanging from trees, which is why they have such long curved claws (about 2 inches long). They eat, sleep, and even give birth in trees. This is a 3 toed sloth, a relatively rare creature. On a nearby island, there are pygmie sloths, the only ones in the world. So, that is the word on sloths for now. 

Last weekend was a wonderful whirlwind - a quick four days in Minnesota and back to Panama on Tuesday. Thursday night was Scott (my nephew) and Heather's wedding rehearsal and Caribbean theme dinner afterward (I was appropriately attired right off the plane!)   Friday night was a lovely evening with my mom and sisters, then the wedding and reception on Saturday, Sunday afternoon in Madison visiting with Bonnie, and a quick trip to Rochester on Monday to see Tara and Addie. What fun Addie is! She is crawling up a storm and she does this thing where she pumps her leg muscles from a crosslegged sitting position, and moves her whole body in the air about 4 inches off of the floor. It seems to be her way of saying, "Isn't life wonderful! I am having a blast!" I hope Tim and Tara get a video of that-- some day she will say, "Oh no, why did you get THAT on film?"  Here a some pictures-- of Bonnie and two of Addie. 

I am having some challenges moving the pictures around to a more pleasing arrangement, so will leave them as is and hope you enjoy them. Have a good week everyone!

lazy Sunday

Such a nice lazy day-- slept in until 7am and stayed in bed until 8:30, reading the chronicle of a couple circumnavigating the globe, whose boat sank 1200 miles west of Panama after being attacked by a school of whales. They have been drifting  in their little life raft for almost 30 days, their food stores now exhausted, and have to catch fish to eat raw-- can't wait to get back and finish the book. Also, it's good for me-- makes me think any challenges here are small potatoes.

I made pancakes for breakfast today ( a nice change from peanut butter toast) and have been cleaning and doing miscellaneous chores with Steve this morning.  I enjoy  putting our house back in order-- it gives me a sense of rest and relaxation. My friends Janny and Lisa have been here since Wednesday ( from Minneapolis), moving furniture into 3 houses that were just completed, and "staging" them for rental. It is an exhausting, chaotic process that involves pulling furniture from shelves in 2 different warehouses, putting it in a truck (with crew of 4 guys) and moving it about 1/2 mile up the steep windy rocky road. Then you unload it, take it out of the boxes, clean it before taking it into the houseand lots of the furniture has to be assembled, etc. Anyway, it's quite a workout. It usually takes 6-7  truck loads per house.

I am SO glad they are here doing it, because otherwise it would be me trying to do it. No thanks!

I am excited to be coming home to Minnesota late this Thursday for Scott (my nephew) and Heather's wedding on Saturday. I will be home just a few days and back here on the project the following Wednesday morning. Here are some pictures from my week--- yesterday we spent some time looking at plants here and taking some pictures of things we might want to plant in our yard. Many of these plants are relatively easy to propogate, so we can just go into the jungle and take shoots off of plants we like and get them going that way.



beautiful flowering tree up by Kayukos restaurant



Lisa and I relaxing in our new pool after a hot tiring day.

Lewis and the famous white truck

another gorgeous flowering plant

two adorable little girls from neighboring rainforest

we just put in sod in along the sides of the new road in the lower nieghborhood-- left a lot of dirt on the pavers, but this is a sight for all of our sore eyes to have this milestone reached

All for today-- I hope you all have a wonderful week. I look forward to seeing my family this weekend!!