Welcome to Panama

First week in Panama, and everything is, well, PERFECT!!  I love it here, the warmth, the humidity, the people, the city, the crowded (yet air-conditioned) buses, the other crowded, un-airconditioned, hole-in-the-floor, bachata-blasting buses (I have a feeling that my love of buses will wear off in a bit... don't worry), everything is great.  We got into Panama Friday evening, and literally immediately after stepping off the airplane walking through that square little tunnel the humidity hit me in the face.  Then I had my first full conversation in Spanish outside of the foreign language housing with the person who checks my passport... luckily I passed and was welcomed to Panama by two great members in the area, Gerrardo y Jose.  They pick up the returning missionaries from the airport a lot, so they were asked to come pick us up as well.  After picking us up, they took us to our apartment, which is in a pretty nice part of town. (We actually have our own washer and dryer in the apartment, something I've never even had in my college experience... and I get to have it in Panama? Spoiled!)  After unpacking, I fell asleep, exhausted, but I made sure to first turn on the air conditioning, and even then I woke up sweating!

(The first picture is of the view from our living room window towards the city.  On the other side of the city you can see the forest start.  We are on the edge of the only national park on the world that is within the bounds of a city's limits!! I'm hoping to go catch a sloth or something one of these days.)

The next morning McKay (my internship partner) and I acquainted ourselves with the neighborhood and met the office manager for the LDS Employment Services and Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) Center here in Panama (the employment and perpetual education fund programs are combining, so we don't really know what the office is supposed to be called, so I'll probably call it a lot of different things).  Her name is Rixela Landero de Cabrera, and I look forward to working with her.  We also met the missionary couple, Brother and Sister Checketts, who work here for the PEF.  They were a great help in telling us about the bus system (and not just because they were able to explain it to me in English).  Later that day I had probably my best experience in Panama in the first day when the little abuelita at the cash register asked for my ID when I used my credit card, and when she looked from me to my picture and back again she said in her broken English, "You is BEAUtiful."  Hehe, especially since McKay is quite dark skinned and dark haired (he looks Indian to me, but his dad is Samoan) I am getting a bit of my fill of celebrity here.  Everywhere we go I'm made so aware of being the only light-skinned, blonde haired person here, but don't worry, not everything thinks I'm as good looking as our cashier at the checkout, so my head won't get too big.

That Sunday we were able to find the church without any problems and I enjoyed getting to know some of the members there.  Monday was our first day of work, and we found out that we will need to take charge of working with the stakes to be able to organize the times that we will be teaching the employment workshop.  We also found out that we will need to learn and teach the self-employment workshop as well... I'm pretty intimidated about needing to teach people how to start their own businesses... I'm making sure to ask plenty of questions. We'll see what happens when the time comes to teach that workshop.  We also are working to organize an open-house of the employment center here to help ward leaders know what resources are available to the members, and our manager wants us to help with finding more volunteers for the center through the membership here in Panama.  With all of the projects going on we're staying pretty busy in the center.  We hope to start teaching our first workshop in the coming week or so.

Even though we've been super busy in the office, we've also had some good time to explore a bit of the city one day, and for our friends Gerardo and Jose to take us around to see the Panama Canal and a bit of the Amador Causeway.  The ingenuity behind the canal is mind-blowing.  The idea and execution seem so simple yet so complex all at the same time.

So far, one of my favorite experiences was when we stopped by at a small shop to get something to eat when we were exploring the city.  When the lady at the register paid me back she gave me a couple coins and some dollar bills (luckily they use the dollar here!).  I didn't look at the coins, assuming that they would cover the change I needed to get back, but when I counted the one dollar bills, there wasn't enough.  I explained that I didn't think I'd been given enough (trying to be as polite as possible, especially since I didn't want my
unpracticed Spanish to get in the way) but she kept insisting that I had been given enough.  She then showed me that they have a coin here that is worth a dollar.  Apologizing profusely, I told her how embarrassed I was, and explained I had only been in the city a couple days and wasn't familiar with everything yet, then I sat down.  She came over a couple times showing me the different coins they had there and explaining how much they were worth.  She said it was ok that I didn’t know everything and that she understood because she was from the Dominican Republic and had only been in Panama for four months.  We talked for a while and she told me about her family and how she was working here because pay was better than in the D.R., but she said it was hard to be living here alone with strangers.  Even though it was a small conversation that started because I was just ignorant, I really enjoyed that experience.

Wow! I just realized how much I wrote! Sorry!  I guess I can really talk when I put my mind to it (and have the time.)  I'll make sure to take more pictures and I'll write again... maybe next week, but no promises.