Panama Update #3
Monday, July 14, 2008
Nikki went early (about 5:30 AM) to do her field work on the canal, so I was left on my own for the first time. In the early morning, after a breakfast of oatmeal, I decided to climb to the top of Ancon Hill like we had done together yesterday. It is a nice way to get in a good aerobic exercise early in the day. I found the way up there again and saw a few other people out walking. About half way up the hill I saw one man with a butterfly net staring into the forest. I don’t know what he was looking for but he was concentrating so hard I did not want to interrupt him to ask. When I told Nikki about it later she thought he might be a scientist with the Smithsonian. There are several security checkpoints along the way but they just waved me through. If you look at them with a smile and say, “buenas dias” they seem to leave you alone. There are quite a few beautiful, large houses with big, manicured yards along the lower half of the hill with a view of the canal out their back window. I found out one of the houses belongs to the current head administrator of the canal. All the houses have big chain link fences with lots of big dogs. The canal administrator has security guards in front of his house. I noticed one bird today that has the head of a turkey but the body of a pheasant. I checked on a chart and it looks like a bird called Gallinazo Negro.
At the end of the hike, as you exit the Ancon Hill area, next to an office building of the blank, there is a large white office building which houses the Panama equivalent of the Supreme Court. There were protesters outside and a woman was giving a speech through a megaphone which I did not understand a word. I walked quickly through the crowd of protesters so I would not be confused with one of them. I heard sirens approaching but quickly left before finding out if they were there to round up the protesters.
Later in the morning I found my way to the Smithsonian headquarters and got in with a visitor’s pass. I went to the library to check my email. The head librarian is the one organizing the Yoga classes and he said they will probably start next week. He also found out from Nikki that I am a Biofeedback Practitioner and he got me signed up to give a Biofeedback demonstration in a booth at the blank Institute-wide Health Fair they are having this week. He said he is very interested in trying a session and I have updated the Biofeedback brochure with my Panama cell phone # and lower prices. I am scheduled to sit at a table and show people how it works from 1:00- 5:00 PM on Wednesday. They also want me to go to a another branch of the Smithsonian on Friday which is about an hour from here and do the same thing for their Health Fair.
In the afternoon back at the apartment I discovered that we have a copy of the phone book/yellow pages, so I discovered a lot of interesting things as far as the type of stores they have here. My plan for tomorrow is to take my first taxi ride alone and go to a near-by mall to buy a small radio and reading lamp since we don't have those in the room. There is also no TV in the room, but don't know yet if we will invest in that. The radio will give me something to listen to and is good for learning Spanish. I am finding that I am getting a lot of practice here with Spanish in simply doing the basic things like talking to a taxi-driver or someone who works in a store. Nikki also works with mostly Spanish speakers and they talk English to her since she is just beginning to learn the language. If I start a conversation with one of them in Spanish they are more than willing to speak with me until we reach a point where I can't express what I am trying to say and then we switch to English. There are several schools here for learning Spanish but for now I think it is enough to study and practice on my own. I brought several Spanish text books with me.
