Panama Update #86
November 17, 2008
We are settled into the new apartment now and getting back into a routine. I have been going to work from about 9-12:30 PM. The school is quite a distance away (about 10-15 miles) but it is very easy to find a taxi and the trip goes fast because there is no traffic in that direction since it is away from downtown. It is in an outlying area that used to be a US Army base. I cross the Puenta de las Americas every day on the way and get to see the Pacific entrance to the Canal and all the big ships waiting in line. At the school I am tutoring 5th-7th graders who are having problems in English and math. It has been many years since I have been in Middle School but I am getting used to it again. I definitely prefer the older high school students or adults at this point in my career.
In the afternoon today I went to the large outdoor fruit and vegetable market and picked up 2 large papayas, 3 avocados, 6 oranges, broccoli, 6 bananas, red leaf lettuce, and hot peppers. All that cost about $6, which in a regular supermarket would cost about 4 times as much.
Yesterday we went to someones house that Nikki works with for a birthday celebration for their one year old daughter. There were mostly families there with kids, some Panamanian and some American. They had a lot of good food like olive and bean dips, chips, lasagne, and sweets. The kids also took turns at busting open a pinata. We talked to several Americans there who came to work at the International School of Panama, which is one of the schools I was thinking about working at before I came here. I was offered a math job there but it would have been a long distance commute (about an hour each way) and I just wasn't interested in that kind of lifestyle. We would also have had to buy a car, which so far we have been able to get by without one.
After nearly two weeks, the bug bites I got on the field expedition with Nikki have almost disappeared. I am surprised it took so long but I had so many and maybe had an allergic reaction. Someone suggested that I rub alcohol on them and that really helped a lot and relieved the itching. The temperature here continues to be a constant 85/85 (temp/hum), but I can tell it is slowly starting to rain less and in the afternoons there is a nice breeze. They say in a couple of weeks we will be in dry season, where the humidity drops a lot and there is a nice breeze, but still very hot.
