Panama Update #161
April 30, 2009
It looks like I will be staying in Panama until June 2, the date Nikki is scheduled to leave. For a while it looked like I may go back early to help out in the school district, but now it looks like that won't happen. Because my leave does not offically end until June 15, according to Human Resources I cannot work for the district until that date. They are very frustrated at the school because they don't have anyone to fill in and there are a lot of burning issues about who is eligible for graduation this year, etc.
My last day at the school I worked at down here was on Tuesday. The school was let out early that day for some holiday or another and I went out to the Balboa Yacht Club with a few of the teachers as a way of saying good-bye. Because I was only part time at the school I didn't bond with the staff and students as much as would be usual when working full-time in a place. The Balboa Yacht club is a nice bar right near the entrance to the Causeway that overlooks the ocean. It is a popular hang-out for the English speaking crowd, but is the first time I had been there. The principal wrote me a very nice email thanking me for my contributions to the school this year and all the help I gave the teachers that I worked with. I wrote her an email thanking her for the opportunity to work there. The part-time schedule was a good fit for me.
Yesterday I went to a matinee movie called Almost 17. It is discount day at the Albrook Mall Theatre and tickets only cost $2.25 all day. It was a fun movie and was in English with Spanish subtitles.
There is a lot of talk down here about the Swine Flu. It has not come to Panama yet, but someone said there were two cases in Costa Rica so it is only a matter of a short time. Nikki and I go to New York in Monday for a couple of days and I hope we can get back into Panama after that because of all the screening they are doing at the airport.
