THANKS FOR TAKING THIS JOURNEY WITH US

Hope you enjoyed the blog over the course of the last year. I have tickets to return to Minneapolis on June 2, 2009 and Nikki will join me a couple of weeks later. I think I will realize what living down here has meant to me after I return to Minneapolis and have a chance to reflect a bit. I plan to write an essay over the summer about the whole experience, so send me an email if you want me to send you a copy in a couple of months.

Cuidate and Hasta Luego

Pictures from Panama 43 (HHDL and Nikki- See Panama Update #163)

Panama Update #164

Panama Update #164
May 10, 2009

We saw a sloth this afternoon while walking in the Quarry Heights area with Carmen and Santosh. It was on the side of the road and crawling back toward the forest. Carmen said it was a 3 toed sloth. I had seen one or two before when they were high up in the tree, but this one was on the ground. It cannot walk on all fours, only pull itself along on its belly using its front claws. We watched it for about a half an hour. Carmen said they only come down from the trees once a week to take a bowel movement. She thought this one was a young adult, as it was on the smallish size, like a combination of a monkey and raccoon. She said they can get real fat. They are slow all the time, but when they are on the ground they are very awkward and have trouble maneuvering and are completely unprotected from whatever predators are around. He (or she) crawled for the closest tree and found one that was very skinny. It looked like the tree would never support its weight, but it moves with such balance and agility once it gets off the ground, that when it got to the top of that tree it was able to lean over to get to another branch on a bigger tree. They are built for hanging in the trees. It moves so slowly so it can test its weight to see if the new branch will hold it. It kept one claw on one branch and did the splits while it slowly leaned over to the other tree. It was like watching a Tai Chi master. I had never seen anything move so slow, but so smooth and perfectly controlled.

Panama Update #163

Panama Update #163
Thursday, May 7, 2009

We arrived in the Newark, NJ airport at about 4:00 PM on Monday, May 4. We took a shared ride van to my cousin Sally's apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and we were the last ones dropped off so we didn't arrive until about 6:30 PM. That night we found a great organic grocery store and deli where we ate dinner and stocked up on vitamins for the last month in Panama.

On Tuesday we went with my cousin Sally and her husband Rob to meet HHDL. We arrived at the hotel by 9:30 AM. Security was very tight. We had to show ID and we were searched. We gathered in a room of 108 people and were given instructions. Groups were to stand together by family. Nikki met some of her cousins and uncle for the first time. We were a group of 9. There were about 4 people there who were personally in Tibet before 1950 and they were older, around 90 years old. The rest were descendants of people who had been to Tibet before 1950. Nikki's great uncle, Archibald Steele was there at the time and wrote a book about the experience based on articles for the Chicago Daily News. He was the first westerner to see future Dalai Lama at age 3 or 4. The Dalai Lama came in to the room and greeted us as he walked by. He touched my hand and shook the hand of Rob. He gave a 10 minute talk on how touched he was by all the people who were there. He also talked about the problems with China and their poor treatment of the Tibetans and said it is important that the true facts come out. Then each family group went up to speak to him for 1-2 minutes. He touched Nikki's face and gave her a big hug. A professional photographer was there and we plan to post the pictures when we can order them off the internet. We all thought it was a remarkably special experience to be in the joyful presence. I plan to write more about the experience in an essay form later on.

That afternoon we went to lunch at the 2nd St. Deli and then on to Brooklyn and Coney Island on Brighton Beach with Nikki's cousins. They had a van and took us along. That night we went to a Ethiopian Restaurant with Rob and Sally. We all wanted to continue talking about the incredible experience with HHDL that morning.

The next day (Wednesday) we visited an artist friend of Nikki's mom and she had us over for breakfast. She had a beautiful 3 story apartment and rooftop in Greenwich Village. After that we visited the Tibet House which has Tibetan art exhibits, gift store, meditation room, etc. The original Tibetan issued passport from 1939 from Nikki's uncle was on display.

We then found a nice vegetarian restaurant for lunch, walked by my former school that I attended in 1984, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and took a train from Penn Station to the airport. The train was only 20 minutes and cost $15 each, much quicker than the shuttle can we took on the way in.

Pictures from Panama 42 (Visit to NY- Daniel, Tibet House-1939 Tibet passport from A. Steele.,Nikki w/friend,ConeyIsland,withrelativesafterHHDLtalk

Panama Update #162

Panama Update #162
Saturday, May 2, 2009

This may be the last blog entry until returning from New York, but if I have computer access there I plan to make an entry or two. We are scheduled to leave Monday AM and arrive in Newark at about 4:00 PM. I have a shuttle scheduled to pick us up at the airport and take us to my cousin Sally's by about 6:30 PM. It will be a long day, but if everything goes as planned, the flight itself is only 5 hours, direct from Panama. On Tuesday we are scheduled for a short time with HHDL and then we are scheduled to leave NY at 4:00 PM on Wednesday. So we will have 2 nights there all together. Maybe we will squeeze in a visit to the MOMA or possible see a play. Nikki also wants to visit the Tibet House.

Today I am going out to the Albrook Mall to develop some pictures to bring to NY with us.

Nikki's mom, Carolyn, said Red is doing fine after his heart operation yesterday. He is scheduled to stay in the hospital about 5 days before going home.

Panama Update #161

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.