Friday, December 21, 2007

BOTANY CLASS

I think I may have too much time on my hands, because I find myself thinking of how some of the foods we commonly eat in Canada grow. I honestly have never asked or thought about how pineapples grow. I would just buy one, at the Superstore for $4.99, if they smelt and looked good. The other day, after a quick swim in a near by river, we met a pineapple farmer. Taking every opportunity to incorporate learning, I asked if we could see his pineapple fields. He lead the way. Below are some shots of the stages of pineapple growth.

The pineapple starts out as this beautiful flower


It can take months for the fruit to grow. Note how the strong pineapple leaves need to be to hold this heavy fruit up.

Almost ripe. See the new flower below starting to bloom.

Here I pay 79 cents for a huge pineapple. I guess delivery is what is so costly in Canada. I'm still wondering where the pineapples we eat in Canada come from? Can someone let me know?

Anyhow, class dismissed!

Linda

FELIZ NAVIDAD FROM PANAMA




Our annual Christmas pose.
Yes the kids have grown, but we are also bending down to fit into the frame!!

Christmas is just a few days away. Can you believe it? It is amazing to see everyone here in Panama get into the Christmas spirit. Christmas is HUGE here. Lots of front doors are covered in gold and red wrapping paper, many have Christmas trees outside on their porch, and most of homes have lights strung inside and out. In Boquete’s village square there are wooden cut outs of penguins skating and building snowmen. It’s more than interesting since most of the locals have never even seen snow.

One thing we’ve learned is that Panamanians know how to celebrate and enjoy finding any reason to party. People save all year to celebrate Christmas. The stores are decorated beautifully and are loaded with aisles and aisles of decorations and toys. It would be easy to spend lots of cash. One of the things that is so great about living here is that they wrap your Christmas purchases in the store, and for free. It’s actually expected. Now that is a great way to do Christmas shopping! Parked in the shopping centre parking lots are 4x4 trucks blaring "Boom Boom" music out the back with huge speakers. The music is so loud it sets off car alarms. Some stores will even serve you drinks to help you"get in the mood".

We have a beautiful tree in our living room, well the kids and I think it is beautiful. Paul would have preferred more lights. The other day Josh made on off handed comment. He looked under the tree and said, “You know, we really have enough presents under the tree this year.” (We had 4 at that time) If that is the only reason we came to Panama than it was worth it!! I hope my children never forget how blessed we are and how grateful we should be for all we have.




Paul and Josh debating how a tree should be decorated. Josh prefers "freestyle", Paul prefers "planned and symetrical". Josh won out!



Syd and Josh dancing while decorating our tree

Not having cold weather is a bit odd, and reminds me of our Christmas’ in Pasadena, California. But we will do some traditional things like attending our church’s service on Christmas Eve, open our gifts on Christmas Eve so the parents can sleep in, and read the Christmas story together.

I’ve got to tell you this story, a funny thing happened last Sunday when the Pastor of the church we attend was looking right at us, talking in Spanish, smiling and nodding. I guess I must have returned a nod. Little did I know that by nodding I was unknowingly agreeing to something. I only found out a few days later when I got stopped in a shop and was asked by the church music director whether we were singing in English, French or Dutch. “I beg your pardon?” I politely asked. Quickly, I cleared that up, “NO, we will be attending, not participating.” I guess we had agreed to sing as a family. I have got to get more familiar with Spanish! We plan to spend Christmas Eve with a group of families for potluck. On Christmas Day, I think we will head to the ocean for a picnic just like Paul and I did when we lived in California.

So, I send you all my love during this Christmas Season. I hope you all have a great time freezing your buns off and shoveling mounds of snow…no, really, have an incredible time with your family and friends. Know you will be in our thoughts.


Our family sending you our love this Christmas. This shot was taken in Starfish Beach on the island of Bocas Del Toro. Syd has a starfish and Josh has a coconut which he carried around with him all day. I think he thought he was on survivor!


Love Linda, Paul, Syd and Josh

Monday, December 17, 2007

LATINO TOOTH FAIRY

Rest assured children of the world, the tooth fairy deals in all currencies and countries. Syd lost her molar the other day and we wondered if we would get Canadian or American money, if she found us. Low and behold, the Canadian Company must have contacted their Latino counter parts. As well, the Tooth Fairy must have an excellent GPS sytem because she found us on our mountain in the middle of Panama. Amazing!!!


Linda

LICE AFTERNOON FOR A VISIT

I had to put this on our blog. I got a text message on my cell phone from my friend Jenni. Quote “Ellie has lice, she is covered!” Immediately I started to itch and went around and checked everyones head for the little creatures. We headed over to Jenni’s place and did a complete lice check, house clean, linen bleach of their house. Brave Ellie sat for 1 ½ hours as her dedicated Mother removed all the lice and eggs. It is amazing that I have never gotten lice with all my traveling to Africa and exposure at the Children's. Maybe I shouldn’t speak too soon. I should go, just thinking about it is making me itch!


Alayna, Jenni and Linda. A bunch of monkeys!

Friday, December 14, 2007

BLISSFULLY HAPPY

We have mentioned a few times about the Bliss Family. This family has become friends to me and my family. Besides having the coolest yard complete with a rope swing, dirt bike track, a great climbing tree and a trampoline, they have become very dear to us all. Have you ever met someone that you connected to immediately? I have been fortunate to have that happen a few times in my life. This has happened both to Paul and I with Steve and Jenni. Today, as morning coffee became lunch, (as often is the case at the Bliss house) the kids were having a blast on the trampoline with water and we think laundry soap. They came in soaking wet and smelling and looking ultra clean, not what normally occurs in their yard, clean that is.








From (L) to (R)


Josh (8), Alanya (11), Zion (6), Jayden (9) Ellie (4), and Syd (10)

Seeing my kids adapt to so many new things and finding friends here who they adore has been a gift to me as a mother.


As well, some of you have been asking about the bugs. Below is a cool picture of a bug Steve caught and took a picture of. The bug was deep orange, chocolate brown and beige. I could decorate a room around the colors of this bug!


Beautiful in a creepy sort of way!

Until I blog again, which may be sooner than later. I have been feeling creative today and Paul has bought me a new camera. Yeah! Thanks Honey! Your the best!

Until I blog again.

Linda

PRINCESS ON A MOUNTAIN

I haven’t blogged for a while. Two reasons for that, one, I dropped and broke our beautiful camera (boo hoo) and can’t get the images downloaded to our computer. What is a blog without pictures? A little boring if I have to say so myself. Secondly, life has settled down to a quiet routine here. The most excitement we have had was receiving some Christmas packages in the mail the other day. That was very exciting for us. We walked into our post office, showed them our name, "Dias?” No “Day” We have this conversation with Marisol, our postal lady, every time we go. I have our names written out in sharpie on a piece of paper now to ease along this process. Low and behold, not just 1 package of love, but 3 and a postcard from my parents. WOW!! We all hooted and high fived each other. It was just what we needed after a day of getting a flat tire fixed. Yesterday morning I woke up to a very flat tire on our car. Well, as you know, I am quite isolated on my mountain. Paul was away in Panama City for a few days, and I was alone. I have never changed a flat, yes I know, I am a bit of a princess. I usually call CAA or drive to my local Fountain Tire. Not the case in Boquete. I had a few options. One, stay on my mountain until Paul got home. Yes,I had enough food and water, but I don’t think so. I haven’t mellowed that much!! Two, call our friend Bruce who is very handy or three, call my landlord, Jerry. The third option was the winner. Jerry was kind enough to give me the 101 on tire changing. “You really should know how to do this Linda.” He said in his firmest voice. The guy is very soft spoken and sweet. I honestly don’t think I could have loosened the bolts myself. They are on extremely tight. Well, spare tire on, kids loaded into the car and down the hill I drive, slowly, avoiding every pothole. I am having images of the tire flying off over the huge cliff and me bumping my way down, sparks flying. I get to the garage and show them my nail in my tire. In my beautiful frespanglish (French, English and Spanish) I somehow get the point across that it needs to be repaired. 1 hour is all they need. The kids and I do our daily run; bakery, grocery store, school supplies, ice cream cone and the post office. By then I am sweaty, my hair looks like a lion, even worse then when in Africa, and I am covered with grease. Quite a looker! So receiving those parcels was just what we needed. We then rented Shriek 3 and headed over to the Bliss’ house for movie and supper.

Know I think of Calgary and all my friends often as seen below in a creative moment during "school" .

Can you find your name?

Well, just got a call, Paul is back from Panama City. Got to go and pick up my beloved.

Until I blog again.

Linda

Monday, December 10, 2007

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A...DAY

Last week I had one of the coolest experiences to date. Linda, Syd, Josh and I were hanging out with the Bliss family at their place. Steve asked me if I was up for a "guys" trip to the Ruiz coffee factory to meet up with Maria Ruiz to check out some experiments being done on the "3-Rock" stoves the native Indians use. I got the nod from Linda and said, "sure".

For hundreds of years their stoves have consisted of 3 large rocks, maybe 10-12 inches high, positioned in a basic triangle formation to be able to hold a cooking pot with a small fire in the middle. It works, but is quite inefficient (poor heat distribution) and quite unhealthy (excessive smoke inhalation). We met Maria at Cafe Ruiz (my favorite spot to load up on Java in Boquete) and then headed off to the coffee factory where many Indians have already left their homes in the mountains, as coffee picking season has begun, and are living in the modest campus barracks. January and February are the big coffee picking months. Most of the workers will make their entire annual income in these few months. A "good" family of pickers can earn up to $20 a day. This is considered quite a good day's income.

After we visited the community kitchen and new stove concepts, we were invited to a surprise tour of the operations. What an education! From the fields to roasting is an incredible 5 month process (Oct 31-Mar 30). Then they shut everything down for 7 months (Apr 1-Oct 30), and have a new crew take over who take every machine apart from top to bottom, make repairs, clean everything, then paint it all. And if they are fortunate, after working around the clock for 7 months, they are ready to go again when the coffee picking season arrives at the end of October. I had no idea all that goes into preparing my favorite drink. Paying $.50 a cup seems criminal.

Then on the way home, Maria asked if it was OK if we dropped in to visit an 86 year old missionary from Germany. I knew in my gut that it would be more than a quick visit. Steve and I both quickly said, "yes".

Charlotte Luebner arrived in Panama off a freighter just over 45 years ago to serve as a bible translator. She lived with the local Indians in the area and, after nearly 40 years, completed the only bible in the local Indian dialect. I was so humbled by her dedication and commitment to her calling. As a 42 yr old wondering what's next, I found myself at the feet of a woman who had devoted 40 years to learning a foreign language that has never been translated into written form and then translate the entire bible. Wow! Her gentle yet unwavering spirit moved me deeply. It was amazing sitting with such a saint in the faith. After hearing about some of her experiences, I asked her, after devoting her entire adult life to the scriptures, what did the scriptures mean to her now. She paused only briefly, and with her bible held closely by both arms, said, "it is a weapon for me". She has been experiencing some terrible pain in her ailing knees in the last couple months which is making it difficult to sleep at night and has limited her mobility. She said she is in a "waiting period" to hear what God has next for her (talk about putting my journey in perspective), and her health condition gets her down. So she has been reading Isa 53 to strengthen her spirit. As our time came to a close, I asked if I could have the honor of praying for her. I left so thankful I for the gift of being with her.

It was a great day.

Paul

Saturday, December 1, 2007

GETTING CAUGHT UP

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. We’ve had a few challenges with our internet connection at our place. It appears as though the issues have been resolved for the most part. And…let’s be honest…OK, let me be honest…I’ve been a little lazy with the blog. Its not you, its me. I promise I'll try harder. Forgive me. So finally, here’s a quick update on some of what’s been happening over the last couple weeks. Pics will follow.

WE'RE IN...STILL
Well, the fact that we re still in Panama means that we successfully acquired our visa extensions. Here’s how it works here. You enter the country, pay $5 per person for 30 day tourist cards/visas, then prior to the 30 day mark you apply for an extension of up to 60 days (which we did), and at the end of the 60 extension period, you’re required to leave the country for 72 hours and then rinse and repeat, and so on and so on.

So at this point, we’re planning our “required” 3 night-4 day trip to Costa Rica on Jan 4-7 as our 60 visa cards expire on Jan 9. Then it’s off to the Immigration Office again to apply for another 60 day extension, probably on or around Feb 1 and then we’ll be off to Bocas Del Toro, Panama on Feb 2 for 32 days.

THE GIFT OF NEW FRIENDS
We’ve been so excited to make some great connections over the last month. How they’ve come about is actually kind of cool as well. One morning, about 3 weeks ago, I drove down to our favorite coffee shop, CafĂ© Ruiz, to get a $.50 coffee before I went out hunting for a local travel agent to help us plan our “required” trip to Costa Rica. At the coffee shop I met a retired pastor and his wife from Arizona. I had actually emailed them about a week earlier in my hunt to find a church to attend. It took a few minutes before we realized who each other were. Long story short (LSS), they told me about the English church they are part of and two new families who just started attending and how they thought it might be a place to make some good connections for ourselves and the kids. We finished our coffees and conversation and I headed to a business area in Boquete looking for a travel agent. I parked my car, and with no idea where I was going I started walking, right past the front of an open office where I overheard a woman and older gentleman asking for directions to the airport in David. I could see there was a little confusion about how to get there, so I jumped in and drew them a map. LLS, the young woman, Sharon, was the wife/mother of one of the young families the retired pastor told me about. What are the odds? Boquete is small, but not that small. She was with her father-in-law, who was also a semi-retired pastor from the States. What are the odds of meeting two pastors back to back? We talked about our families, our kids, a bit about our journeys to Panama, and thought it would be great to get together. We exchanged telephone numbers and I continued my hunt to find a travel agent. LSS, a few days later we found ourselves at a potluck with four or five families, including Sharon (and her husband, Bruce), at the house of some new great friends, Steve and Jenni (the other family the retired pastor told me about). It was so great to connect with some fantastic people. They’ve all been a God-send for us. Since then we’ve been hanging out every once in a while. The kids all get along really well. And…it turns out a few of the guys are actually musician-songwriters and have been talking about putting some music together, and maybe a band, and they need a bass player. Uhhm, again, what are the odds?

SPANISH CHOIR
The Spanish church we’ve been attending has a Spanish children’s choir. Syd and Josh were invited to participate. So a couple weeks ago they just jumped in and did great. You should have seen Josh, arms at his side, chest out, shoulders back, chin up, mouth in the proper oval singing position with cheeks puckered, pounding out doh-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-doh and holding the final “doh” with authority and conviction. It was priceless.

HOME SCHOOLING “OLD SCHOOL”
The home schooling is going well, mostly due to my incredible wife, Linda. The kids usually take their time getting up and getting breakfast, then it’s into the school work for the day. Linda has the school day laid out, with a task list, assignments to be completed, etc. And we both help them along (I know what you’re thinking, let’s be honest, its mostly Linda isn’t it? OK, it’s mostly Linda. Like I said, she’s amazing). We decided to add a little literature component into the curriculum, the Bible. So I’ve been introducing them to the Bible. 66 books, Old and New Testaments….I began introducing them to the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible). So we talked about Moses, who is credited by most with being the author of the Torah. In the second session I introduced and explained the 10 commandments. Then we did a quick review. They recalled the first seven commandments, then I asked, “And the 8th commandment is (pause)? Do not…” And without missing a beat, Josh says, “go in there” (a classic Ace Ventura line). I was on the floor.

WORKING OUT THE KINKS
A couple weeks ago, after nearly 6 weeks of little to no working out, I decided to go in search of a gym here in Boquete. I found two. First, imagine an oversized garage, in modest “garage” state, free weight equipment that was probably made in the late 60's, including some of the classic light green powder filled plastic cylinders, and three cardio machines that look like “McDonald’s hamburgers” (e.g. a combination of leftovers from at least 100 other machines). The second, a modest but well kept renovated house with Bowflex machines (no free weights), with 5 or 6 decent cardio machines, a nice stretching area with mats and workout balls. LSS, I’m now a member there at a grand total price of $35 per month. They provide me with a certified trainer who prepares my workout schedules, prepares every machine before I use it, and wipes the machines down after I sweat all over it. Not bad for $35, eh?

THE CREEPS
So you may be wondering, are there any interesting critters in Panama? The short answer, yes. The longer answer, we’ve seen some, and heard about lots of others. Like the other night, Linda and I were in bed and felt like we we’re being watched. We turn on the light and Linda immediately said, “kill that thing”. It was a black spider, probably 4.5 inches from toe to toe, locked in the “freeze” position (like it was trying to trick us and subtly blend into the off white walls) about 18 inches above Linda’s pillow. I said a quick prayer and quickly ushered it into spider heaven. We’re still looking for the scorpions, tarantulas (some as big as a 8-12 inches wide), coral snakes, and little monkeys that we are told are on our property, all of which we “definitely will see” in January and February along with the occasional earthquake. Fun! We’ll keep you posted and hopefully get a few good pics for you to view.

AN EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFT
We just returned from five days at the Playa Blanca Resort on the Pacific coast with our good friends, the Schmulands. They’re heading to Canada for a white Christmas in a couple weeks, so we thought we’d get together with them to have an early Christmas, Panama style. It was great. We spent hours talking, eating, swimming, eating, sunbathing, eating, more talking, and of course more eating, playing in the rain, and well, more eating. Josh was in his glory at meal time. He would pace himself through his 3 and 4 courses each meal. It was awesome to behold. To mix things up a bit, we rented quads on a couple days and some sea-doos another day. We all had a blast. Well, actually, everyone else had a blast quading and seadooing while I stood and watched doing the “wise thing” by not aggravating my back any more than it was already. I know, boohoo. But it was fun watching Linda and Trent wipe out on the seadoo, and very cool witnessing Josh find a new love, quads.
Josh loving quading on his own, he only flipped twice!





Linda, Jody, Syd, Eatson and Emma waiting their turn to sea-doo on the Pacific






The Schmulands and the Days at Playa Blanca- Good times.



Sydney at Playa Blanca with a resident Tucan-so beautiful



THE POWER OF LAUNDRY

So after a couple months, how are things going? Good question. Things have changed a fair bit for us. When we left Canada in search of rest, we hoped for a slower pace and fewer things to worry about. I think we’ve found it. In fact, there are times when it probably gets a little too slow and laid back for our liking. This was crystallized for us the other day when we had to admit to ourselves that the linchpin of our schedule is….laundry. Yes, laundry. Each day finds its order only after we ask that critical question, is today a laundry day? First we ask, do we have enough laundry in the basket to do laundry? Second, is it sunny and windy enough to dry the clothes if we wash them (as there is no clothes dryer here at the house)? Third, do we have any other plans already in place? Actually that’s kind of a throw away question. We just felt we needed at least three questions to feel good about the decision making process. So after careful consideration of these questions, which we don’t even pretend to approach until after we’ve enjoyed our morning coffee, we pray, ask God for guidance (and the occasional fleece), then make a decision and hope we’ve chosen correctly. Yah, laundry, uhmm. Who would have thought laundry would play such a pivotal role in our lives?

Well, its getting late. Talk to you soon.

Paul