Panama Update #6
July 17, 2008
After finishing a Biofeedback session with my first client this morning, I met Nikki for lunch at the Smithsonian cafeteria. The colleague of Nikki’s and his fiancé that I had lunch with yesterday were there again today so Nikki and I joined them. I asked them if the plans to see Batman this weekend were still on and they said they had another idea. They said they were planning to rent a car for a night and go to Isla Grande, which is an island on the other side (Atlantic) from where we are. They said the snorkeling is great and it takes about 4 hours to drive there. The guidebook says it is a popular weekend get-away place for Panamanians and is a 10 minute/15 kilometer boat ride from a place called Portabello. We agreed to go with them without hesitation. I thought it would be a great escape from the dorm-room-cave we call home.
I am busy all day tomorrow with the other health conference and we will be at the resort over the weekend, so I devoted the afternoon to getting some errands done. Even though I have a basic knowledge of Spanish, I am finding that it is still tricky to get things done, especially anything beyond the basics. It can be tiring being in a new country and feeling like a child again, but I knew this going in and keep reminding myself to be patient. They say in the guidebook that you don’t need to know Spanish to get along here, but I don’t see how that is possible unless you are very good at sign language.
Since I could not get the washing machine in the dorm to work, I took a taxi and two large bags of laundry to a nearby strip mall. A Chinese woman who works there recognized the laundry bag and remembered Nikki, and called her the small Chicita. She told me, in Spanish, that I know more Spanish than my wife. I told her I was also just learning and she told me she has only been here from Beijing for a year so she is also still learning.
While I was waiting the 2 hours for the laundry to be done, I walked around the area a bit. A few blocks behind the mall is a nice outdoor swimming pool which you can use for lap swimming for $2.50. There were only a couple of people using the pool in the middle of the afternoon when I was there.
I still had time before the laundry so I went into a Chinese restaurant in the mall and ordered some tofu, vegetables (verdures), and white rice (arroz blanco). While eating I looked at the local newspaper called La Prensa (The Printing Press). The same newspaper company also prints a local version in English of the Miami Herald, which has national news from the US and local Panama City news in English.
The laundry cost 8 dollars, which seems high considering they only wash it and throw it in a dryer without ironing it. All the “wrinkle free” shirts and pants come out very wrinkled so my next task is to figure out how to get at least some of the wrinkles out given we don’t have an iron.
On my evening walk, at around 6:00 PM, just before dark, I walked by the Canal Administrator’s mansion and there was a big cocktail-type party going on in his back yard with about 50 cars in his parking lot.
