Swimming in the river, The Hot Dog Creatures, and La Novia Puerca

Hello! Things are going well in David Panama. The last couple of days have been a family whirlwind of trips to Luis' father's side of the family in Boquete. It has been so much fun! On Christmas eve we went to celebrate in Boquete and ate some delicious homemade lasagna. Luis and I made lasagna which is one of our favorites. Only 6 hours total airtime to get to a place where many things are very different! Food is no exception. Although I love the food and it is fun to try new things, it is also fun, to share food that is more familiar. I think everyone misses their own traditional food a little bit when they go somewhere new. Everybody liked the lasagna. Lasagna is not unknown here, but it is a little bit exotic. We included lots of sauce, basil, brocolli, mushrooms, spinach, egg, garlic, and two types of cheese. On Christmas eve I sang Ave maria and The fire aria for Luis' family in his Aunt Ligia's living room. I had a very responsive audience. A little rum punch helped me loosen up. I think a lot of singers share this experience of being asked to sing something after they've just been relaxing maybe drinking and eating, talking, but they have not warmed up or prepared themselves mentally to sing. The truth is that usually these audiences are just so happy to hear the singing that it makes no difference to them.
Although I was initially stressed by the request I was glad that I sang. After I sang everybody wanted to be in a picture with me!
Christmas day was even more fun with everyone talking and kids running around, people eating and laughing. We went for a drive in two big cars up into the mountains to admire the view. It really was a dramatic sight. The clouds that floated up around the tops of the mountains prevented us from getting a view of the ocean, but the clouds themselves were beautiful. We passed some fancy houses, and some smaller houses, farms, and coffee fields. Some little kids in native dress playing beside a fence waved excitedly at us and smiled. The laundry bursting with colors hanging around the fence to dry. I asked Luis why the native women and girls are the only ones to wear the beautiful clothing, the colorful dresses that you can see in the pictures of Franco's family from the farm. Luis' Aunt Claudia told us that the reason the men wear regular pants and shirts when you see them walking around is because the native dress for men doesn't consist of more than a small piece of fabric!
I mentioned swimming with sardines in my last entry. Well, I have lived it now and it was wonderful. A few days ago Luis, his mother, and I were talking about things we were afraid of, such as swimming, snakes, or knives, and Luis mother asked me:
¨Are you afraid of sardines?¨ I pictured sardines tucked tightly in a can and remembered the few times I had eaten them and how I didn't like them very much, finding the flavor strong and the texture prickly, so I imagined that yes, I was a little bit afraid of them. But, Luis' mother explained that in the river we were going to swim in the day after Christmas there were small sardines and that some people were scared of them.
Well yesterday we went to the river! We went in a big group to the town of Gualaca and just outside the little town is a paradise. A beautiful river, slow and deep and clear. Mostly it is very deep and canyon like surrounded by sheets of grey/blue rock. The portion we swam in was shallow and a bit wider, the water cool, with the shallowest sections warmed by the dappled sunlight coming through the trees. On the bottom of the river where we swam were small lovely stones in different colors. All of them round and smoothed by the gentle current. If you listened carefully you could hear the rocks whispering as they clicked and clacked together in the current. Some of the stones were black, some grey, white, red, or multicolored. Some like eggs, some like little saucers decorated with veins of color or a confetti pattern.
Other families had come, and some had brought picnics like us and everyone was laughing and screaming and having a blast. Luis' Aunt Fortuna says that she has been coming to this same spot in the river for years. It is warm to swim all year round, but is best in summer when the water isn't too high and the current isn't dangerous. We brought four chickens and Angela made a delicious salad for me and I also brought a cheese sandwich. One of Luis' Aunts brought a delicious juice (chicha) with orange and raspadura. With ice it had a refreshing, dark sweet taste. We ate cake from Luis' Aunt Ada. I swam with 5 little girls between the ages of 7 and 12 all relatives or friends. It was so much fun and I felt included as one of the girls. I was watching the girls to make sure they were all safe, especially the youngest, named Karen who was very bold and wanted to swim in the deep parts with the bigger girls. Those kids swam so much. I am sure they slept really well last night! I counted the girls and said to them ¨There are 5 girls.¨ and one of the girls said ¨No! There are 6!¨ including me! haha! I had fun talking and swimming with them. It was so funny! They started to ask me very personal questions about how Luis and I met and if we were getting married and where the wedding would be. Karen imagined that the churches in Canada must be very big.
Just as we were finishing swimming I started to have a pain in my stomache, I don't know exactly what caused my stomache to be upset, but I feel better this morning.
Last night I met a new creature. I didn't know it but I had met this creature before. While taking a shower I had seen two small diamond shaped shells. I had no idea what they were, but when one of them attached itself to my toe I pushed it down the drain and forgot about it. Last night as we were getting ready for bed Luis said from the bathroom
¨Hey come here! There's an insect I want to introduce you to.¨ I respect insects as creatures, but I get freaked out by them so I was nervous as I entered the bathroom. There on the floor in front of the toilet was one of those diamonds I had seen before. Luis told me that there was a small worm that lived inside and that it poked its head and tail-end through both sides of its diamond shell. These creatures are very small and when you see one on the floor it is easy to mistake one for part of the pattern on the floor. As a kid Luis used to crack open their shells and examine the poor worm inside. (Haven't we all done things like this?) When the worm poked its head through I thought of a hot dog in a diamond shaped bun. mmm....I am glad I am a vegetarian!
Today is a beautiful day. The sun is shining and the breeze is blowing and sending all of Luis' mothers wind chimes into lovely windy music. The leaves are singing in the yard.
I have several things to take care of today and we are also going to have lunch with Luis' Uncle Miguel (The one Luis got his middle name ¨Miguel¨ from) and his lovely wife, Anais. Anais is a fellow stage artist and she is quite beautiful and very much a diva. She has long hair and an elegant style. She is an actress. They have a little girl named Diana, one of my river swimming friends. They also have a dog named Totoy. Luis and I walked him the other day. He is little, but he isn't a dog to mess around with. He actually bit Angela once. I will leave you with a teaser for next time! I need to get ready for the day but the next thing I want to write about is a story from Luis' father called ¨La Novia Puerca¨ (The Pig Girlfriend.)