RIOTS

I have started to pack for my trip home to the US next week. I am a little concerned because demonstrations started last weekend in Colon province against selling government owned land to private companies in the Colon Free Trade Zone.  Panama was formerly practically a colony of the United States,  with military bases in every province.  Understandably they want to keep control of what they have now.

Now there are riots and looting in Panama City,  The bus terminal is closed since all entrances to city are blocked by demonstrators, so there are no buses to Panama City, leaving me with no way to get to the international airport.  Bridges over the Panama canal and in Bocas del Toro are shut down.  Malls are closed due to looting.  There was a picture on the TV news of one guy carrying off a full sized stove.

It is quiet in David, but I heard an announcement of a demonstration at a local mall.

Will I get home?  Or should I move to Valle Escondido?

CAFE RUIZ

This weekend i went to Boquete and took a tour of the Cafe Ruiz coffee plantation and processing plant.   All you ever wanted to know about coffee in four hours.  The guide was a local Indian who had started out picking the beans with his family.  He now speaks excellent English, has an Italian wife, and drives an SUV.

I stayed at Suenos del Rio Hotel this trip, overlooking the river

All coffee originated in Ethiopia, where the goat herders noticed the goats got pretty wild after eating the plant.  After detours to Kenya and Tanzania, it came to Costa Rica and then to Panama in the 1960's.  It was initially not considered a success due to low yields, but Panama coffee is now famous due to the flavors, depths, and aromatic qualities that can be found here, specifically in the highlands of the province of Chiriqui, where I live.  Starbucks has put us on the map.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of coffee growers here.  Cafe Ruiz has a few processing plants and takes beans from independent growers and cooperatives to process over 6 million pounds of coffee beans a year.  The outer husks are removed and the beans dried and sorted for size and quality.  I learned that the not so good beans are used for decaffeinated coffee, which was disappointing.   Also, the darker the roast, the less caffeine, which was opposite of what I thought.

Old coffee grinder

Starter plants sorted by variety

Beans taken off the bush have a sweetish taste

Drying area

Bagged for shipment

The taste test

Cafe Ruiz owns lots of land, but the home plantation is valued at $4 million.  The price of land is escalating in Boquete, and it is worth more if it is developed.  The owner is 92 years old.  His children work in the business, some of them in sales in America and Europe.  He will leave it up to them to decide if they want to continue the business after he is gone.

I bought some Geisha coffee beans grown locally.  This is the most expensive coffee in the world, going for $98 at the annual online coffee auction.  I was told that people came from Ethiopia to buy some beans to try to re-establish the coffee industry in that war torn country.  Life is a circle.

THE LAND OF BAD SKIN

The retirement websites tell you that medical care in Panama is as good as you can get in the United States at a much cheaper price.  It is cheaper, but good is a question mark.  Two hospitals in Panama are supposedly linked with US research hospitals like Johns Hopkins.  That means some of the doctors may be bilingual and US trained, but not necessarily the one you get in ER. 

In the US I worked as a quality control nurse.  Doctors got dinged if they didn't see the patients within 20 minutes of their appointment times.  In Panama, appointments are given as a range of time, like 2p.m to 6 p.m.  While I was in Panama I had three appointments with two different doctors.  The first one, a dermatologist, never had me waiting less than three hours.  The second one was not even available for the appointment, but had taken the week off.  I was rescheduled for the next Monday, and ended up waiting another three hours.  Lesson learned: take a good book and some water with you.

The doctors I saw spoke fair, not good, English, but we were able to make ourselves understood.   I can see this as an issue if there is something out of the ordinary going on that is hard to explain.

My skin developed a nasty rash on the left side of my face almost as soon as I got to Panama.  The dermatologist diagnosed it as allergic dermatitis and gave me steroid shots locally, antihistamine pills and two different creams ($75 senior price plus $35 for the appointment).  After a month and not much improvement in the rash, I saw him again.  He said to keep taking one of the creams till the tube was gone.  I questioned him about the insert that said (in Spanish) not to use the cream for more than ten days.  He said he had used it on a baby's bottom for six months with no problem.  With no alternative, I continued using the cream for the next two months.  The red rings went away, but the bumps continued.  The rash never really cleared up till I saw a dermatologist in Santa Monica the day after I flew in from the US.  One week on her creams (free samples, even) and my skin was fine.

I saw an internal medicine doctor at Chiriqui Hospital for a physical exam prior to taking a ship around the world (semesteratsea.org).  I had him fill out the examination form required by the University ("what do you want me to write?") and asked for routine meds for malaria, a typhoid booster shot, and medication for seasickness. 

He said they only prescribed doxycycline for malaria, which is what made me sick when I took it in Africa last year.  He called the infectious disease doctor at the county hospital and said he could give me daraprim if I went there the next day.  I remember taking daraprim when I went to Africa in the mid 1970's, but it is not even recommended by the CDC anymore due to widespread resistance to the drug.  In other words, it doesn't work. 

Typhoid shot?  No, they apparently don't give them in Panama.  They use doxycycline.  I repeat, this made me sick in Africa.

For seasickness he prescribed Vontrol.  I had never heard of this, so I looked it up on the internet.  It is for nausea and vertigo, but should only be used in a hospital situation under close supervision because it can cause hallucinations.  I can see myself acting crazy on the ship and nobody would have the slightest idea if something was wrong or that was my normal behavior.

In summary, three requests and the doctor struck out on all of them.  I did get my physical form signed, but ended up filling out most of it myself.  The only clinical thing he did was take my blood pressure.

I was able to send the form in by the deadline, but will have to see a travel doctor in the US.  Of course, this is not covered by my $636 a month insurance policy.

GRADUATION

On Saturday all the the high school students taking classes at the University went to an end of term party at the Adventist compound near Volcan.  It is a huge place with many buildings and sports fields which is a private school during the week.  We took over the huge covered patio that had bleachers on one side and had many activities and games for the kids, which they seemed to enjoy.  All the classes  had different colored T shirts and gave their groups names so they could compete against each other.  We had a parade with all the different groups and the banners they had made.  Many of the groups were my former students since I assisted with two groups each term over two terms.

The entrance to the Adventist school

Some of my fabulous students

...and more

...and more

...and more

...and more

The parade goes on for a quarter mile

My advanced students

Student groups had to make a flag out of newspaper and twigs (Survivor style) and fly it

Ball relay the hard way

Bees loved the cake so much we didn't get to eat it

Some volunteers served a nice lunch one of the families provided which included the usual rice, beans, and potato salad.  There was a gorgeous store bought cake with the Survivor logo on it.  More than half of the students who started the program in January had dropped out for various reasons, so "Survivor" was the theme of the day.  The brother of one of the teachers works on the TV program and she was able to get the logo, some T shirts and bandannas.  Unfortunately, the bees just loved the beautiful cake, and they ended up giving it to the people that worked there so the students didn't get bee stung.  One of the teachers did get a nasty bite and her whole hand swelled up.

So it is goodbye to my high school students, but now I can spend more time on my adult classes.

SANTA FE

Entrance to Hostal La Quia

This weekend almost all of the WorldTeach volunteers met in Santa Fe to meet the new cpuntry director, Amanda Colon, and to celebrate Anna Reusink's birthday.

Santa Fe is a small town up in the mountains between Santiago and Bocas del Toro.  It is an up and coming retirement haven and the land is much cheaper than in well established Boquete.  You can get a few acres with waterfalls and a tropical feel for little money (although prices are going up fast), but there is not much else there.  A curvy two lane road leads there, whereas in Boquete they are completing a four lane highway from David.  I had to take a bus three hours from David to Santiago, then transfer to another bus for 1 1/2 hours to get to Santa Fe.

We stayed at the Hotel La Quia.  It has one main building and several outbuildings with dormitory and private cottages.  I stayed in a room upstairs in the main building.  It did have a mosquito net, which seems rare here.  Malaria was conquered early in the 1900's so they could complete the Panama Canal.  There are still bugs though, because the walls are unchinked wood boards.  That serves as air conditioning.  I came a day before most of the group, and they took over the whole dormitory of eight beds.  The facility has been sold to an American University, who is turning it into a research center.  I am not sure what they will be researching, but it is a beautiful location.

 

 

My room.  You have to stand on the bed to attach the mosquito net to the ceiling

View from upstairs balcony

Santa Fe cemetery

The two Michaela's in front of the dormitory

For dinner we walked to the Blue Iguana to celebrate Anna's birthday.  It is run by an American couple from Texas and has decent American food.  We sat outside and were soon attacked by chitras (like sand flies).  Veraguas province is apparently noted for them.   You can't see them, but you certainly feel them biting.  I rarely use insect repellent because they aren't a problem in David or Boquete, but I could have used some here.  On Monday I went to an already scheduled doctor's  appointment to get something for the itching.  He had taken a week off, so I went to the pharmacy and got an anti itch pill and some Caladryl lotion.  I still ended up scratching in my sleep and by the time I saw the doctor the next Monday, my legs were full or sores.  I blame him for taking an unscheduled week off.

We met for dinner at the Blue Iguana.  We certainly look a lot scruffier than when we left Panama City

Happy Birthday to Anna!

MERY'S BIRTHDAY

Today we celebrated my host mom, Mery's, 64th birthday.  The two sons and their families came, as well as Juan's sister and her granddaughter and daughter.  I skipped the dinner but had a little cake and ice cream.

Mery and Juan Lara

Marisol is expecting in December

Juan's sister

Juan Alberto and family

Mery never lets me help clean up

VALLE ESCONDIDO

Church at Valle Escondido

On my trip to Boquete this weekend I visited Valle Escondido (hidden valley), which was established as a kind of survivalist stronghold.  It was founded in 1991 by an American nicknamed "John Galt," who was one of the main characters in Ayn Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged.  They have a river running through the valley but also springs for water and a hydroelectric plant to supply their own electricity.  People from many countries have bought homes or condos here for a safe haven in case the world falls apart.  The guards all speak English and carry guns.  I looked at homes and condos here with a realtor, who doubles as a pilot for a private air company and has pictures of famous people he has flown all over the world.  Some of the homes are mansions, and the condos range from small to huge.

They have a cute church, a hotel, golf course, tennis courts, a fitness center with a knockout pool, and trails.  The prices are similar to what I paid for a condo in the upscale area of Asheville, but the monthly fees are a less, even including electricity , cable, and water.  Asheville has more to do.  All in all, it didn't make me want to move there.

Hostal Refugio del Rio is just down the road.  Former vacation home of Noriega's secretary

Downtown Boquete

If the world truly starts to fall apart, I may change my mind.