Panama Update #88
November 21, 2008
I am writing this update at 10:00 PM on Friday night. I didn't realize that I hadn't written anything since Wednesday. I think missing two days in a row would have been for the first time so I wanted to keep the streak going of either writing every day or every other day.
On Fridays I do not go into the school so I try to catch up on some shopping at one of the malls. We are still trying to find a standing reading lamp and have tried almost every place and so far have only found table lamps. I went to the Multi-Centro mall today where the Kosher Market is. Across the street is a store specializing in lamps but I found out they are all very expensive. The cheapest standing lamp they had was over $300. I am looking for one much cheaper and will continue to try looking at a couple of other stores. Next to the lamp store was a pet store and they had small green iguanas for sale for $12 each. I did not get one. They also had birds and rodents for sale. In the back of the store I saw 2 dogs for sale. The sign said they would cost $500 each. They must have been purebred and looked to me like some kind of Scottish Terrier. I also found a store near-by where they sell inflatable beds for about $15 each. I bought two of them for when we have visitors. Our first visitors from the states are scheduled to arrive around mid-January. At the Kosher Market I picked up some items that they only carry there such as Bragg's Liquid Aminos, tahini, high quality cheeses and Yogurt, and horseradish sauce. Many of the items are imported from Israel which makes it much different than the other stores. I also bought a laundry hamper and some blank CDs for Nikki. It is supposed to be the largest Kosher Grocery outside of Tel-Aviv.
Laura Bush was visiting Panama today and was scheduled to give a speech across the street from Nikki's office this evening. The Supreme Court and Legislative Offices are located there. Someone told me it is about UNICEF and that one of her daughters lived in Panama for a year and wrote a book about it. There are a lot of Central American non-profits headquartered here. We walked by the place, but she hadn't arrived yet. There was a lot of Panamanian music and dances being performed for the crowd while they were waiting. It was a fairly small crowd of maybe 100 people. It was outside, under a tent and visible to the street, but closed off to the general public.
