January 1 to 21

On January 6, Three Kings Day, or Dia de los Reyes Magos, is celebrated as part of the Epiphany tradition. It’s the day where the Three Magi came and gave the Christ child presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Panamanians also celebrate Christmas, but presents are given for Kings Day as well.

CASA does a wonderful thing for a local school (handicapped kids and adults) where they put together 80 bags of “staples” and deliver them. This year it was done on January 11 on a Sunday so the working families could attend with the children. The bags are identical and are filled with dry rice, dried beans, a canned ham, sardines, lentils, spaghetti, pasta sauce, sugar, spices, flour, oil, toilet paper etc.

On January 8 after our regular CASA meeting a bunch of us stayed to help decorate crowns to be given out on Sunday. The next day 4 people did an assembly line to fill the bags. Sunday a few of us gathered where the bags were stored and filled our cars with the bags and caravanned to San Carlos.

 Louise showing the contents of the bags

 CASA members

 decorating the crowns

 

There was also another Panamanian holiday this month. Martyrs' Day is a Panamanian holiday which commemorates the January 9, 1964 riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. The riot started after a Panamanian flag was torn during conflict between Panamanian students and Canal Zone Police officers, over the right of the Panamanian flag to be flown alongside the U.S. flag. U.S. Army units became involved in suppressing the violence after Canal Zone police were overwhelmed, and after three days of fighting, about 21 Panamanians and four U.S. soldiers were killed. The incident is considered to be a significant factor in the U.S. decision to transfer control of the Canal Zone to Panama through the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

January 11 we met at the office of the Equestrian Club where the bags were waiting to be loaded into vehicles. About 6 cars of us caravanned to the San Carlos area to Maribel’s house where the event was held. We unloaded bags and some started putting air in balloons and putting them on sticks for the children. There was a great local band that played. Families started to arrive and we put crowns on them (and the adults). The strength of these families truly amazes me. We handed out balloons to those who wanted them. A few said “no, mucho miedo” (very afraid) so we just passed them up. Then ice cream arrived and they all got ice cream cones. Clyde took photos of all of the kids and they were printed and given to them. They seem to really love that. Betty was manning the printer and did a fine job. Then we started handing out plates of food. We were instructed to make sure all the kids got meals and then adults if there was enough. Many just covered them with foil to take home. There were Panamanian ladies piling the food on the plates. It’s not common to see inside a Panamanian’s home and it was a treat to be invited inside Maribel’s house since they were plating the food in the back yard and we had to walk through the house to get there. The plates were loaded with a huge cup of yellow rice, a small piece of chicken, an empanada, potato salad, grapes and a piece of cake. They were all so polite and smiled and said “gracias”. We replied “de nada”. Drinks were also passed out. After all was passed out, we got to have a plate of food as well. I felt guilty eating food that you know is very hard to come by for these people. The kids have various physical and or mental handicaps. Some walked in, some in wheelchairs and a few were carried in as they didn’t have wheelchairs. It really tugs at your heart strings. Terry and Joanne dressed as elves and danced with a few that wanted to. After everyone had eaten, they started to pass out the gift bags and each child got a wrapped present. Most took the gifts home to open. I was trying to picture children in the States, they probably would have torn right into the wrapped gifts. The water had run out in the jug that was set out and one little boy comes to me and asks in Spanish if he could please have a little water. We were out of cups and I went to the “gringo” cooler and got him a cold bottle of water.

 Terry, Louise & Joanne

 Maribel

 band played

 some of the bags

 Greg on balloon duty

 me distributing plates of food

 Betty printing the photos of the kids

 

I hope the families had as much fun as we did. It really was an amazing experience to participate in. Louise & Barry and Terry & Clyde of CASA really put in a lot of time and effort into this project.

Clyde took a lot of photos of the kids and has put a couple of presentations out on youtube of the event. These are the photos that were printed and given to the families:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl7M-Py_iHE&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c0yVev8028

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKlQVHeEQnM&feature=youtu.be

In the continuing saga of my quest to get malaria meds from Canada; since it’d been about 6 weeks I called again to see what can be done since I never received them. They don’t use tracking numbers. This time despite everything I was told in the past the person said I should have received it in 2 weeks. (not 4 to 6) She read back the address it was mailed to and it did not include the most important part that routes it here to Panama from Miami. It was included when we ordered the meds and was confirmed when they emailed for us to call and verify all the information was correct before they mailed them. So, somewhere after that it got left off the address. So, they gave me 2 options, they could refund our money or reship them once I emailed them our correct address. They made it clear it was our fault we didn’t give them the correct address. I said I have the original forms we emailed that proves we provided them the correct address and they said it didn’t matter there was no way they would expedite the shipment. (blamed it on customs in Canada). I was told by the first person that they couldn’t ship Greg’s and mine in the same package. This person said they were shipped together.

On a lark I emailed the MBE here to tell them about the packages that didn’t have the whole address on them and was there a way to track them down in Miami. They found them within 5 minutes of checking and put the correct info on them and they told me they should be here by the end of next week. They were in 2 shipments that arrived a few days apart. So hopefully I will get them in time and I won’t react to them.

Jan 16 we had a wonderful evening out with good friends Jennifer and Jim and Mary and Adam and we had dinner at a fantastic restaurant Los Camisones. Great food and great company. They had the most delightful flaming crepes for dessert. We will definitely go back there. Next time I will order something in a garlic sauce since every time a plate was delivered to another table it smelled heavenly.

 Los Camisones

Crepes Suzette

I did get the malaria meds and tested them for 2 days now. Nothing too weird happened while on them, so hopefully I won’t have problems taking them longer term. I’m just one of those people that react to waaaay more meds than I should. Not sure if the 2^nd shipment will show up.

There haven’t been a lot of birds in the woods this time of year, but we did finally see a very rare bird at the Malibu Pond in Gorgona. There have been 2 Whistling Herons spotted there and they normally only live in South America. We had gone several times and didn’t see them. Finally, we got to see them. Greg got a few shots which aren’t bad considering how far away we were. Yes, it's a dorky looking bird.....

 Whistling Heron

 

immature Wattled Jacana

 



 female Baltimore Oriole bathing in mud puddle in the road

pretty butterfly

We had looked for a White Pelican in the city at the mudflats behind the craft museum. A couple of other herons were spotted there that we have not seen before, but we saw neither on that trip.

 

We saw a cool snake in the woods. It’s a Brown Vine Snake and it really was hard to tell it from the roots and vines. It was really pencil thin, but around 4 feet long. The interesting thing about it was its’ ability to suspend themselves seemingly in midair. They can hold themselves straight up and stretch out horizontally. They aren’t harmful to humans, their venom only causes intense itching.   

 Brown Vine Snake

 

Here are a few birds on the beach

 

I’m pretty sure we will not have internet to keep up the blog on the Amazon River, so I will give you our proposed itinerary in my next post before we go and will update the blog and photos after we get back.