Nema

A few months have passed since I left Panama. My memories of my experiences there, of Luis' family, of the colors, the people, and animals are still very much with me. For a while I was still dreaming of Luis' parent's house. I keep in touch once in a while with Alessandra on facebook and even spoke to her on the phone a few days ago. She's taking her English class while I am improving my Spanish. I am still basking in the glow of the time I shared with Alex, Joy, and Luis and his family and how magical it seemed to be able to spend those days together.
Strangely enough I find it difficult to write about my experiences since returning to North America. Although I see lots of interesting things going on and plenty of humor, in a way things seem more complex here.
I still remember relatively clearly a few of the stories from Panama that I never got to writing.
Luis' great aunt Nema who shares the same January birthday as Joy although she was born 60+ years earlier, lives in the house next to Luis' parents. Although I had been in Panama for weeks both the previous year and the current one, I had somehow failed to ever enter the house of Luis' Aunt Nema. Nema was one of the first family members I encountered in Panama and perhaps the reason I never made it into her home was because she was so often at Luis' house. It would be a rare day that passed in which Nema wouldn't stop by for a visit or at least press her face to the window overlooking the dining table from outside during meal times to exchange a few words and to check in on Luis' family before swinging the little metal gate that linked her yard to theirs and slowly steadily making her way back under the wide porch to her side door. I became accustomed to the sound of Nema sweeping in her back yard with her various chickens or the image of her in one of her light, loose sleeveless dresses carefully pinning her underthings out to dry or pinning up a men's shirt from one of the long term guest relatives who frequently took up residence in her enormous house.
Nema has lovely caramel colored skin which is still in great condition. It always glows a little bit. Rosalina told me that she is rather fond of fine perfumes and lotions. Perhaps that's part of her secret. She wears her hair cropped short. There's something sort of off center about her mischievous smile. A product of another time, Nema's sense of humor, full of teasing, took me some time to get used to.
Shortly before my scheduled trip back to the States, on a lazy hot afternoon, I made up my mind to go visit Nema. Rosalina agreed and we headed for Nema's wide roof patio with a brief overhead glance at the quickly darkening clouds. Nema looked pleased and a little bit surprised that we had come to visit her. Chairs were arranged in a circle and she invited us to sit down. After a little while it began to rain hard and Rosalina suggested we take a tour of the house. We first saw the spacious kitchen where I imagined Nema making her pulpy banana drinks and other special foods. The house was larger on the inside even than it appeared from outside. There were several lived in looking bedrooms, blankets cast aside as if someone had slept in them the night before, and finally a simple living room area with a few glamour shot style photos of family members and places to sit. We sat there a while wondering when the rain was going to stop, watching it drip and listening to it through the open doorway. There's something so comforting about rain, especially this hard kind. There is relief in the idea that you simply can't really go anywhere. You have to wait until this kind of rain finishes.

Two days left in David!

Hello! Well, there are only two days left in David now. Wednesday I leave with Luis´parents for Panama city. We´re staying the night there and then I will leave for my Boston flight and Jose and Rosalina for Spain! Pretty exciting. There are still several things that still need to be done in the next two days. I am hoping to go to Boquete to return a poetry book to Jose Luis tomorrow. Today Alessandra and I have some errands to do. I´d like to go back to Jackelita if I can to take some pictures of the iguanas.
Luis´family has been so generous and kind with me and Alex and Joy as well. I have learned a lot, improved my spanish, and had a lot of fun. Although I am excited to get back I am sad to leave. I am wishing the best for everybody here including Alessandra. She has her whole adult life ahead of her. I wonder what she will choose to study. We will keep in touch for sure.
It is hard to imagine the cold, but there´s still a good chunk of winter left up north! I will try and appreciate the heat and sunshine while I can. I´ll also try to eat a bunch of delicious fruit!
Have a great day!

The Supervisor

Good Morning from David. This morning Jose, Rosalina, Alessandra, and I went to the stadium to walk at 6 am. Actually Alessandra and I ran around 4 times and walked around 3. A couple of days ago she took the Jung Typology personality test in spanish on the internet and her result was ESTJ. She´s a supervisor, which makes sense. Immediately she stepped into her leadership role on the track.
"Now, we are going to start running." she said. "Breathe in and out through your nose. If you get tired you can breathe out once through your mouth. But, not much!"
A little bit later:
"Keep a steady pace. Don´t accelerate and don´t slow down! Go at the same speed."
A little bit later:
"Now, we are going to pass Rosalina. Keep a steady pace!"
A sleek dark skinned young man was running beautifully in front of us.
"You see him? He is an athlete." Alessandra said.
"Do you know him?" I asked.
"I did once. Not now." she answered. I saw her posture straighten almost imperceptibly as we neared the young man. Her focus increased. She looked straight ahead. I made a point of running steadily beside her so as not to embarrass her.
The sun rose so quickly. It didn´t seem gradual at all. One moment it seemed dark and we could see the stars. The next moment the sky was lit orange and pink, brightening a tree full Talingos singing and chattering obnoxiously.
Today is another quiet day. Jose and Rosalina are off somewhere both doing errands. Maybe Rosalina is at school this morning. I am not sure. They are still preparing for their trip to Spain. Yesterday Rosalina received the box with things from her cousin for the trip. Some wool sweaters, a large chic purse for Rosalina, a relatively light weight elegant men´s coat for Jose made of navy Italian wool (which he insists is too heavy and the "coat" (a men´s suit jacket) he bought the other day from the thrift store will be just fine) as well as a multitude of children´s clothing and toys (hand-me-downs from Rosalina´s cousin´s little grandaughter). Several of the kid´s clothes and shoes were given to Alessandra to share with her relatives. She also took a large well worn doll with a lavender dress, tired satiny shoes, blonde yarn pigtails, and blue eyes.
"What should we do with this doll?" Rosalina had asked.
Alessandra took the doll into her lap and folded it´s face into it´s cloth legs, hugging it to her body. There was a pretty set of four embroidered napkins in the suitcase, which Rosalina gave me to take back and use in our apartment. Some of the toys will also go to the baby next door.
During my first week here in Panama this visit, I became aquainted with the baby. The room I am staying in is close enough to the house next door that I can hear the baby crying with astonishing clarity. The baby often comes by to visit Alessandra and Angela for periods of time during the day. Alessandra is always happy to see her and will immediately hug her, kiss, and chatter in baby language to her. The 67 year old man next door is from India. Once in a while he´ll come by to drop off a spicy Indian dish for Jose and Rosalina to try. He lived in the US for a while going to University there. He´s married to a young Panamanian woman now and they have a baby. He doesn´t speak spanish. I often hear them "conversing" animatedly in a sort of english. It´s not that I aim to overhear, but I cannot help it due to the location of my bedroom. Once in a while I´ll hear her refer to him as "that gringo I married!"
One day Angela was busy when the baby came to visit. I was in my room when I heard a knock a the door. Angela came bustling in with the baby in her arms asking me to please just watch her for a few minutes, because she was terribly busy and stressed with her work.
I had told her yes of course. Suddenly I found myself alone with this baby. The baby and I passed an awkward couple of minutes.
"hmmm.....What to do next.... Babies like to play I think." I arranged the baby on the bed. The air conditioning felt good. Soon I had the baby surrounded with things I thought she might find interesting. Among them, a pink ribbon, a strange wind up blue monster I found on the table in the corner, a stuffed cow, and two dogs holding paws that sing Sonny and Cher´s "I got you babe." The baby was hard to impress. I believe best of all she liked the pink ribbon. The two dogs scared her.

Can´t you hear Gregorian Chant?

Perros Calientes

Oh yeah and check out the center picture in the group.
Perros Calientes......Hot dogs

The Fair in Boquete

Rosalina´s cousin Mariela came to visit for a couple of days last week. She came to go to the fair in Boquete with her daughter in law and new grandbaby Monique. She´s a very proud grandmother and Monique is a very happy baby who is not camera shy. At the coffee shop we went to before the fair a man from Washington with a nice camera took a picture of all of us. Afterwards Monique tried to take his camera! Doesn´t the picture below look like a Spanish or Italian painting of Madonna and child?

Baby Monique goes to the Fair in Boquete