Tanglemania

Here are some pics from the Zentangle art class I went to last week.  Can't wait to try out some new designs and develop some technique.

               https://plus.google.com/photos/117446987058933318707/

Amigos de Animales

I know I just posted yesterday, but wanted to share a few pics of todays event.  Amigos de Animales (check out their FB page) holds a spay and neuter clinic once a month and also do various surgeries as well treating for parasites and giving immunizations.  This is all by volunteer and donation and is a much needed service in this part of the world.  Vets come from all over and my job today gave me an opportunity to get to know some of the doctors while they were working.  The conditions are minimal, but the talent and expertise is immense. Not for the squeamish.  Pictured are Dr. Racquel, Dr. Cesar, and Dr. Kimberly.  Not shown are Drs. Ericka, Tello, Aron, and the amazing Dr. Dan.  Dr. Dan came over from Bocas del Toro and lives in a slum area among the indigenous people where he has a small clinic, but also goes into the field to provide much needed services to the area.  Check out this website for more info on Dr. Dan at http://floatingdoctors.com/
Dennis and I worked 1/2 a day and assisted with 115 animals.  I'm sure the number will double by the end of the day. Our pets leave blessed lives, but not all dogs and cats are so lucky.  TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY.

If you want to make God laugh....

Feeling a bit like this week has been a huge blur.  I had a dozen different projects I was hoping to get finished, but threw my back out last Sunday evening which changed everything.  I spent most of the last week either sitting on my faithful frozen pea package or my rice bag (thank you Donna Fay)  and massaging arnica oil onto my hot spots.  After limited success, I broke down and went to see Mark,  my massage angel here in Boquete for some acupuncture and work on my back and am now feeling almost human again.  Dennis managed to get most of the place painted while I supervised from the sofa.  No, I did not plan this.
Prior to sciatica hell, earlier on Sunday we had a wonderful German brunch and celebrated Dennis's 66th birthday where he was given a birthday bottle of German wine.  Made friends with a couple from Lake Chelan who were great company.  Dorothea is from Germany and has lived the most interesting life. Jack is American and is an orchardist. We wound up spending the whole afternoon with them showing them the area and then having dinner.  Looks like they are moving here sometime next year.
I didn't want to miss my spanish lessons on Wednesday, so Dennis was great about driving me to and from class, sitting on my pillow.  Quite a sight. I also found a free site for learning spanish called Duolingo which is very cool.  Between lessons, Rosetta Stone, and Duolingo, I am determined to converse in Spanish on a more regular basis.  Mi espanol esta' mucho mejor, pero todavia necesito mucha practica.
Thursday we had plans for driving to the border to find a roof rack for the car and we made the trip without too much fuss.  Our friends, Lesia and Jim joined us and we had a fun time tracking down what we needed.  After a bit of negotiating, we got a good price on our car rack and then headed over to the Jerusalem Mall, which is a string of shops, one after another, selling everything under the sun.  Everyone found something they just had to have and my score for the day was a soap dish for the bathroom, and some kitchen sink  strainers.  Dennis found bungee cords and a cordless flashlight.  Everything is a hunt.  Guys seem to like that sort of thing and it may have been the first time Dennis ever enjoyed shopping. Jim had a craving for Burger King so off we went.  I enjoyed the man selling papers who came in dancing and balancing newspapers on his head.  Eat your heart out Barnum and Bailey.  Of course, we made a pass at the duty free store for some Kalua and rum and filled up the trunk with our goodies and headed home.  By then, the afternoon rains descended upon us like angry hornets.
Still trying to get a load of gravel.  We've been by the pit twice, but gravel is brought in from David and as of this writing,  Monday might be our lucky day.  It would be nice to be able to get from the patio to the car without wading through puddles.  I am hopeful.

Met with the Newcomers dinner crowd on Friday and had a festive Peruvian meal of sea bass in a wonderful sauce.  So many interesting new flavors to experience.  Met several new people from South Carolina, Minnesota, and Arizona.
Music is in the air.  All the older kids have been practicing for the upcoming holidays and festivities in November.  Everyday I see the different schools with their marching bands going up and down the streets around where we live.  It's fun to hear the drums and guess where they are marching today.

Spent today at an art class on Zentangles, and had a blast.  I got some really nice pens and a sketch pad. The instructor/artist did an impressive job of guiding us through the process.   I can't wait to get my office/studio together.  I have so many ideas I can't wait to try out that I learned. Nice to get those creative juices flowing.  Check out youtube for information on Zentangles.  Easy and so meditative.  I was totally absorbed in creating designs.  A little miscommunication on my part (let's blame it on mercury in retrograde) but Dennis wasn't there to pick me up afterwards, so I went 'native' and walked over the bridge in the pouring rain.  Felt wonderful to be walking after a week of being laid up.  

Tomorrow is the last spay and neuter clinic for the year, and we are again volunteering to help.  They are expecting over a hundred dogs and about half as many cats.  Where do they all come from? There are so many opportunities to serve here, and this really speaks to my heart.  TODAY I CHOOSE TO LIVE WITH GRATITUDE.

And the thunder rolls

The sky here is ever changing.  Most mornings, the sun is out and the birds seem  take over the front yard with their busy schedule of looking for bugs and feeding on nectar. We have several star singers who light up the air with songs and various bird chit chat.  To date, I have identified several birds thanks to a book loan by my friend/chiropractor Bruce.  BTW I've posted a pic from his balcony where I get the most wonderfulful adjustment and rebalancing.  The drive to Volcancito takes me about 5 minutes and it's amazing how different the area is from where we are in Alto Boquete.  It's much drier here (dry being a relative term) and different vegetation.  We are more of a savannah, while Volcancito is a jungle paradise.  Plus sides to both and we are working on the landscaping here to bring in more greenery and visual aesthetics to our yard.  My first plant purchase was from a local Ngoble woman selling plants at the Tuesday market.  Not sure what it is or how big it grows, but tomorrow, it's going in and we'll see how it does in our soil.

We are still very busy with painting and have one room done at this point.  We spent yesterday in town checking out various stores and finally settled on a sofa and 2 chairs from Economico Precio.  Decided to have lunch at a little stand next door and pigged out on some chicken and rice with lentils and a small side beet salad.  We had a bit of fun and a nice break from the housework checking out Conway, our version of Target and Pricemart (Costco) and a side trip to Novey, which is kind of like Kmart and great for all those little items you can't find anywhere else.  Dennis was a trooper as shopping isn't his cup of tea.  Check out the pic of him patiently waiting in the garden dept. of Novey while I went through the checkout line.

Checked out  a yoga class at Curvas Bonitas on Monday and had a great time.  It was held outside n the back patio under a tin roof.  The roof was especially nice when  a light rain came upon us (wonder of wonders) Jer, the teacher, had a great vibe and was my first experience with a male yoga teacher.  Good energy. Om shanti!   

Spanish lessons have begun (at least for me) on Wednesdays and I am enjoying Evelyn (American)  and Henry (Panamanian) , my teachers.  It's such a relaxed group and gives me lots of practice with my accent and sentence construction.  We meet at Evelyn's house which is just down the road from me.  I was afraid my spanish was too basic for the intermediate class, but I held my own and think maybe they will not kick me out just yet.  

We sold a few items on Ning and met some really nice people to boot.  Terry and Liz are here helping to build dorms and houses for local Indian girls while they are attending school.  As is often the case, there is not the financial or emotional support at home, so they house the girls while they finish junior and senior high school.  There are some sad stories of how some of  the girls come to them, but Terry and Liz have such an uplifting and positive manner, it's hard to ignore the great work they are doing.  Dennis and I are hoping to become involved in some manner once our place is up and running and the little casita is habitable (as in rental and guest house for any visitors that may come our way)  The area that they are living in is called Porterillos and is about 15 minutes from where we live.  It's more rural and a bit out of the way, but spectacularly gorgeous and made for a wonderful fieldtrip for us as we learn the area.  A side benefit was Dennis got some direction on the best way to proceed with our roof.  He and Terry got to talk a bit of shop and Liz and I chatted about the families and children that live and work there.  We also met a very nice young man named Hermes (pronounced 'air-mez) who came to volunteer with them from Nicaragua.  

Tonight we're off to listen to a guitar concert at the library and then tomorrow, we'll tackle another room and whip it into shape for an office/retreat/art room.  Full throttle ahead.

As I close this post, the thunder is rumbling in the distance and the rain is about here.  Time to close a window or two and head inside.  CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM!

I feel the earth move under my feet.

While running an errand to get paint for the living room, we all felt the earth move with another pretty routine earthquake.  No one was very concerned, so business as usual.  What I found interesting was that the tremor was at exactly 11:11am, for those of you in the know.
Went on a great little hike Monday morning up to the hydrophonic farm run by a lovely gentleman named Rodrigo.  He lives in his massive greenhouse with 5 toucans and is very in tune with las plantas. Made my purchase of lechuga.  A little bibb and some romaine.  Muy delicioso, Nice to have a day to just enjoy the mountains and flowers along the way. There was a castle on a hill along the way which was very cool.  And it's for sale I hear.  Only 2 mil.  Found a place where they offer cooking lessons and made a mental note to follow up on that.  Time to learn some local cuisine I think.
Spent all of Wednesday with our lawyer, Eric.  Possibly one of the nicest people you could ever meet.  Bright, funny, warm, professional, and best of all...patient.  We all drove down to the immigration office where we spent 6 long hours applying for our pensionado.  This was after months of accumulating all the correct documents and having them apostollized  before setting foot in Panama.  The process, to the untrained eye, looks chaotic.  To the trained eye, according to Eric, a bit insane, but nevertheless, the way it's done.  So lawyers come with clients and submit paperwork.  Then lots of waiting time until you sign some papers and wait some more.  Everything must be notarized, so our lawyer would hop over next door where that service was provided.  More wait time.  Back to submit notarized papers 2 feet from where they were approved.  Now for pictures (after already submitting 6 passport size photos)  Then let's wait some more and go over passports again.  Off to the cashier for paying for step 1.  After this, we received our carnet (picture id card) but I think these had to be notarized as well, so back to the notary at least 3 different times.  Then everything had to be signed by a special principle, who managed to be out of the office for 2 hours while the line of waiting people got bigger and bigger.  Hooray!  He's back.  Papers are signed and we then go through the whole process again to get a multi entry visa so we can legally leave the country before the official cards are sent to us (did I mention our carnet was only temporary.  Passports are checked again (we have supplied complete copies of every page, but I guess these didn't count.  Time to visit the cashier again and at 3:34 we were finally done.  We had arrived at 8:30am when the office opened.  I am viewing this as a rite of passage.  I survived.  So this is my version of what happened, although I probably have it all wrong.  The end result is we are 1 step closer to being true jubilados and for that, I say thank you. The next day, I had a wonderful healing sessions with my new friend Bruce.  Learned a little about human design and matrix energetics, while overlooking the beautiful rainforest from his balcony.  Check out this moth who came to visitmy house the other day.  He measured at 3 1/2 ".  LIFE IS  ABOUT BALANCE. YIN AND YANG.  PRACTICE EQUANIMITY IN ALL THINGS. (even the immigration office)

I got the working man blues.

Is it really only week 2?  Maybe a bit more 3ish, but time has a new meaning here and even with a watch, it’s hard to tell.  Some things go quickly, like watching a cloud slide down the mountain in seconds, while waiting in line at the little market can take long enough to memorize an entire aisle of unfamiliar brands of foods I may or may not try.  There is a timing here that is very relaxed and unhurried, yet you wouldn’t know it from the erratic driving of local drivers.  

Our days have fallen into a rhythm of a little work each day and lots of time to digest the effects of said work.  The little casita had a leak, so we took all the ceiling sheetrock down to find where the water was coming in.  Dennis is trying to avoid a new roof, but we trekked into David anyway to visit the construction supply stores.  We have been regulars, like most of the other expats, at Do-It Center, but decided to go to a local store, Hofsa, frequented by the  local folks of the area. Better prices and more choices.  We checked on roofing and ceiling materials and will make a decision soon as to whether or not we can do this on our own.  Labor is inexpensive and Dennis needs a helper, as I am somewhat of a bust when it comes to the heavy lifting and climbing of very tall ladders.  We have lined up a guy named Hechol to help him if we go that way.  

Tearing all the sheetrock down left us with a pretty good size pile on the patio, along with branches we have trimmed around the place, so a phone call to Leopoldo got us a truck and workers (Dario and Ullyses)  to haul it away and, as a bonus, the workers hauled an old mattress and some over stuffed chairs away for donation to the Indios in the area.  Yipee!  Bye bye mess.

We have a gardener now.  His name is Alfonso, and looks to be around 70 years old.  He lives down the road from us with his younger wife and children.  He is very patient with our limited Spanish (he speaks no English at all) and we are so grateful for his knowledge and expertise of the plants in the area.  He worked for 6 hours and will come back this week sometime to finish some trimming.  Things grow very quickly in the tropics and I am hoping Alfonso will agree to become a regular around here.  I want to get a vegetable garden in and plant some bushes and build a great little herb tower I saw on Pinterest.  

Still no internet at the house, but we signed up to have it installed sometime this week.  The library has free internet, but it is sporadic at best, and we found a good alternative.  At Amigos, a local hangout, they have free wifi (muy rapido) and you can have a glass of wine to boot.  Way better than the library in my book (no pun intended) ***UPDATE:  Internet installed today.  Yay!  ( Although I will miss the wine with my wifi.)

We’re having a lot of fun finding new stores and each day is a treasure hunt to find what we need.  It’s amazing how little we really need.  

Today was the monthly flea market and we drove over to Porterillos to check it out.  Friends Jim and Leisa joined us and introduced us to more people who have moved into the area.  I didn’t find anything I needed, but met a fellow from Seattle who has just moved here with his wife.  He is a chiropractor and she is a yoga teacher.  (Choirs are singing halleluliah.) We chatted a bit, and lo and behold, he knows a surfer friend of ours from Santa Fe in Veraguas and we immediately had a wonderful connection.  We talked of a study/meditation group and finding some like minded folks interested in getting together.  I had put this out to the universe and she lovingly replied with perfect timing.  We gave Bruce a ride home, made a quick stop at the Canasta Basica, our neighborhood market, bought some eggs and coffee beans, and the friendship was sealed.  I AM OPEN TO NEW EXPERIENCES.

Making friends with the bajarenque

 Sitting here looking out the living room window as the bajarenque(fine mist)  gently blows in.  This happens just about every day and I love the feel of it on my skin.  Everything is so green this time of year.  It rains once or twice a day, clears up to gorgeous sunny weather, rinse and repeat.  A minute ago I could see the volcano.  Now I can barely see my fence in the front yard.

Dennis is in Panama City helping our friend pack up his belongings.  The plan was for Claude to move into the back house and help us with repairs.  But you know the saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans.”  Claude was offered a job he couldn’t refuse working in Ft. McMurry, Canada in the province of Alberta.  When you think of this place, think cold and then think colder.  Ice Road Trucker cold.  Claude leaves next week sometime, so his time with us was very short.  Looks like he will be gone for a year or more as a supervisor on a project which extracts oil from tarsand.

 So he sold us his car (that worked out great for us...a nice little Suzuki Grand Vitara, nicely broke in, and easy to get repaired if necessary.  Now for switching the title from Panama City to Chiriqui (our province) along with getting our passports stamped with a  driving privilege stamp and applying for Panamanian driver’s licences.  Thank goodness for Cowboy Dave, the local guy, who handles this kind of stuff so you don’t have to make endless trips to PC.

 He also unloaded a ton of stuff on us (tools, bedding, kitchen goodies)  I just shed my possessions and voila, incoming.  All very much appreciated though.

Dennis and Claude managed to get a lot accomplished in 3 days.  They worked on the water system, fixing pumps, flushing out sediment and algae and installing filters.  They also got the hot water heater working.  (Just a note...we have an on demand hot water heater about the size of a pkg. of twin sheets.  Amazing.)  After 3 days of freezing showers,  I was a happy camper with my new water heater.  Cleaned out gutters, scraped moss from the patio, steps, and walkway.  Sadly, the leaks in the little house are a bigger fix, and will require a new roof when the rainy season ends, somewhere around mid November I think.  We anticipated a few little hiccups, so this isn’t anything unexpected.  Seeing as Claude won’t be moving in, it’s on the back burner till November.  We are focusing our efforts on the main house, and everything looks great here.  Cleaned house yesterday, and set up my wonderful DoTerra diffuser, compliments of Deb, to offset the musty odor, from being closed up for so long. A nice little mix of Purify and Breathe. About the only thing to do here is fix an ugly spot in my closet and paint inside.  Larry, our very nice neighbor, already loaned us his ladder, which is a good thing, as the ceiling is at least 20 ft. at the highest point.  Very cool, but very very high.

Feeling pretty good about everything here. A few little “What the heck am I doing here?” moments, but then a quiet peace settles in and I smile. Meeting neighbors, finding my way around the Do-It Center, coffee, yoga and meditation in the morning, a little birdwatching and so my day begins. CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER.