Last Panama Update (#18)

 August 23, 2020

hey there folks...hope all of you are well and safe, no matter where you are.....i am sorry it has taken me some time to get in touch, but life, as i am sure you understand, has been a bit crazy and busy....from leaving Panama with a week's notice, to moving in with my mom in the States and being here for the summer, to starting my new school in China on-line in the past two weeks, from my mom's basement......just crazy times.....but things are moving forward and i have received permission to head to china....but there are tons of hoops to jump through for this to actually happen...and flights are few and far between, as china has really restricted number of flights allowed to come in...from all over the world....so i could be here another 4-6 weeks....that is a best case scenario...but we'll see happens....i did decide that i should do one more update about my last year in Panama....as there were some cool things that happened along the way in the country......

my trip out of panama was fast and furious, as i needed to pack up my stuff, and store it, close accounts and things, sell my car and hop a humanitarian flight back to the states....and all of this pretty much happened in a week and a half....it was insane....the humanitarian flight from panama to houston was terrific...not crowded, excellent care and following of rules and this happened on june 12, the official last day of school....however, the flight from houston to newark was mind-blowing....as was the houston airport....panama's airport was literally empty...hand washing stations and hand sanitizer everywhere, no stores open....only food and water from a vending machine....it was freaky.....houston...was fine through international, all of that is shut down....but domestic to me, coming from a country that had been in a very strict lockdown for three months, was crazy....all flights were leaving from 2 terminals (not 5)....so it was crowded...there were probably 20 flights leaving that friday night from the same terminal as mine....everyone had a mask...but how you wore that mask or did not wear that mask was surprising...and then most surprising of all was that the flight was completely packed....every seat taken....and some folks just could not be bothered with wearing masks....the flight attendants were excellent....and the precautions taken by the airline, except for filling every seat, were great....but it was very disconcerting....so i quarantined myself when i got to where my mom lives in a hotel for ten days, because i felt if i was going to get covid, it would have been from that experience....luckily, when i took a covid test, it was negative....which meant i could move in with my mom....which is where i am currently....but i am keeping my distance from many folks, because if i test positive when i arrive in china, they can put me back on the plane and ship me back to the states....and i do not want that to happen....so forgive me if i have not really reached out here in the states to visit.....anyway....on with the last year in panama....which was filled with fun in-country trips and celebrations....at least until lock-down in march...it was the weirdest goodbye to a place, in that i could not say goodbye to people or my students in person....couldn't even do a drive-by wave, as i was only allowed out of my house for two hours on monday, wed, fri....from 7:30 - 9:30am....but enough about that...on with the pictures....

when i got back to panama last august, it was whale season....so just like last year, i decided with some friends to go on a whale watching trip one day of the weekend.....the trips always go on the pacific side and head to pearl islands....this is when we were arriving....beautiful water and warm to jump in and swim....and this year, not many jelly fish....woot!!!!

the whale spotting number and proximity was not as close this year as last...but still very impressive....this is actually a shot taken by one of my friends of one of the babies breaching....it was a great day and i am so glad i decided to do this again....

i also took the time to go to a flamenco show that happens in my neighborhood twice a week, that i had never attended....i got to see these folks play and dance twice before the shut down....amazing!!!! they are from spain and are masters of their craft...and the guitarist was quite possibly one of the best i had ever seen play live...and if you know anything about me, i have seen thousands of live shows...so that really is saying something....he was incredible....and this was just on a tiny stage at one of my local bars....

of course i took another trip to see the panama canal....both in the day and this one is a shot from my trip at night to the restaurant....not such good food, but an amazing view....the engineering behind this amazing set of locks, is just incredible....it was great to be able to take people who visited me to this place...as it really is impressive and i never got tired of seeing the ships go through....and my favorite parts are the mechanical mules that escort the ship all the way through the locks...sooooo cool!!!

as many of you know, i turned fifty last september...and my mom and a colleague of mine actually worked out a way to get flowers sent to me at school from my mom on my day....the balloon is from my very good friend, and it was a lovely surprise at school....some of the kids saw the balloon later, as i left it in my office, and they were shocked that i was 50!!!!! hahahahaha....good genes keep me looking young....

to celebrate my birthday, i rented a beach house and was allowed to invite 50 folks down to celebrate with me....this is looking back at the house....12 of us stayed for two nights and then on the saturday, 50 people came down to celebrate...it was a blast..

the walkway you saw in the picture above, went directly to the beach....and we had a pool....this is me headed to the beach when we first got there....panama city would be in the distance in the top right of the picture and if it had been clear enough, we would have been able to see it....

this is everyone who could make it down to celebrate....the cakes made by my friend sarah, were to die for...everyone had a lovely afternoon hanging, chatting, eating, playing in the pool and ocean...and it was only 90 minutes from the city....it was a terrific way to celebrate my birthday....

this is the crew that stayed with me for two nights....such a fun bunch of people....it is interesting to note that out of these folks, only four people are working for ISP this year....personnel and overseas schools are things that are constantly fluid....it is like having family all over the world ;)

november is panama month....three times in their history they took their country back in november....so it is a big celebration month....over at the city of knowledge the met, another international school, puts up flags to celebrate....i love this view....

november is also "movember".....and i was at a fundraiser for prostate cancer down in the old section of town called casco viejo...as you can see from this great shot, taken by my friend chris, it had just rained....as november is still the rainy season in panama....chris has an excellent eye for scenes such as this....

as part of the celebration, we always have faculty who dance in a performance, as well as kids...my friend and colleague luz always dances....and she is wearing a panamanian pollera from her outstanding performance....this is me with my science colleagues...with whom i missing working...

thanksgiving was actually excellent timing this year, as one of the panamanian holidays fell over thanksgiving....so we actually had thursday off...a rarity....so a bunch of us got together to have a traditional meal...some of the folks in the picture are not from the states, and this was actually their very first thanksgiving....a blast was had by all.....

and before we knew it, it was december.....panama, as i have said in the past, really does lights and festivities for the month of december quite well....the theme this year was "i am panama, i am christmas"....the lights were great, but due to budget cuts were a bit less around the city....but it was fun to celebrate the holiday panama style.....

also in decemeber, a few friends of mine and i rented a HUGE house for a weekend, up in the mountains surrounding panama city...we went to a spot called cerro azul - a gated mountain community...filled with enormous houses (noriega used to have one there), trails, waterfalls, streams and weirdness.....

this was the trail we decided to explore....and it kicked my butt...it stated it was an easy in and easy out trail to a set of waterfalls....it was completely vertical down and then back up....easy....NOT! and it rained, so it was slick and difficult to get back out once we made it to the bottom....but we did it....was it worth it??? i won't answer that...but the stream at the bottom was pretty.....

there was a lookout at the top of one of the hills....and if it wasn't so cloudy, behind me you would be able to see part of the panama canal....it was a nice overlook in a weird community....

this was the huge house the four of us stayed in....it was crazy, because it had beds....and two couches and a huge dining room table, but little else....we had no idea it did not have furniture or art or things to make living easy....but it was quirky and interesting and was ok for two nights....definitely would need to ask more questions next time....but many of the properties are for sale in this community...or they are filled with folks who do not want to be found....we met an interesting guy from florida who fit that description quite well....what an adventure.....

after the decemeber holiday, a new museum opened up, which focus on the "mola" of panama....the mola is a traditional textile that was/is part of women's clothing in the kuna tribe....mola in the traditional language means "shirt" or "clothing" and they are all hand made....

they did a wonderful job in this free museum of showing the history of how the textiles are made, the different styles historically and how they were designed to celebrate all aspects of life of the kuna....as a going away gift from a friend, i received a mola with my name in the center that she had made for me....so lovely! (thanks sue 😊)

i returned to panama a week early to do a dive trip to the national park of coiba, on the pacific side of the country....this national park is known to have large animals of the ocean come through in january and february and i was sooooooo lucky to be there at this time....this shot above is the sunset from the airbnb place i was staying at.....

i was soooo lucky because i got to dive and swim with whale sharks on three of my six dives.....on the last dive the whale shark wanted to stay around us and we dove with it for about 40 minutes, it decided it wanted to hang with us at the surface for even longer....they are HUGE, but vegetarian, filter feeders, so nothing to worry about....this was definitely a check off of my bucket list....i have not dove since january at this point and am really missing being underwater, but someday again i will get back in and under....til then...it is pretty cool that this was my last dive to remember.....

january was also spectacular because we finally were able to connect with the ISS and the two women aboard it - christina koch and jessica meir....both of whom worked in antarctica....and i actually worked with christina at the south pole and we were friends.....it was a plan set in motion from april of 2019...and it was incredible to have it actually all come together this past january...above are all of the kids who asked questions and ran the Q&A....

the PR the school launched with this was amazing...and these are billboards that were set up for this once in a lifetime experience.....it was incredible....plus, i was chosen about three days before the event to do the introduction of our school to the ISS...

above you can see me doing our check-in and start with mission control in houston and with the ISS...it was so awesome to see this happen and be apart of it....a memory of a lifetime...if you would like to watch the interview....it is available on youtube here, and starts around the 25 second mark- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=nNoPtqg8P_k&feature=emb_logo. each kid did an amazing job...and how cool is it to have your friend acknowledge you from space....i will never forget it....

at the end of january, we also took our 8th grade class on an overnight trip to one of panama's many islands....it was a team building and science focus and a great time was had by everyone....we even had a bonfire with s'mores, which was a first for many of our students.....

in february i made what was my last trip to el valle with some friends....this is a town that was built on an extinct volcano...it has hiking trails, beautiful views, places to go birding and some of my friends have a place there.....it was a lovely weekend get-away....

and the very last weekend in march that panama was "open" we took a trip to another resort on an island on the carribean side.....of course we stopped by "black jesus" in portbelo on the way....this black jesus was thrown into the ocean when panama was taken over by the spaniards....but it floated back in...it was thrown out a second time, and floated back in....at the third attempt to throw the statue in, the townspeople asked the spanairds to leave it in the town if it floated back a third time....it did float back and has been in portobelo ever since....

this is a shot from that trip of the last time we got to hang out with the four of us.....who knew such crazy times were ahead....at least we relaxed, had tasty food and got out of the city for a night before everything went into super strict lock down....

this was the sunset that night....we also spotted the ISS flying above as we were on the island that night, wondering what the future held in store for each of us as we knew things were about to get crazy....

and then lockdown happened...and panama's lockdown was much more severe than anywhere else for longer than anywhere else....it is actually still happening and this coming monday will be the first time they are lessening the rules....numbers have not been good there...but the economy is sooooo messed up now.....but after lockdown started, my life was filled with puzzles, walking in my parking garage, classes on line and sunsets from my balcony......

this was one of our crazy first assemblies with the whole middle school.....we did this only once and learned it was not the correct thing to be doing....march to the beginning of june was definitely filled with trial and error along the whole learning curve of how to teach and be successful on-line....i do not like teaching on-line, but have become much better at it...although, my students knew me before we started....this time around i have to build relationships and get to know my students all from on-line....so very weird and challenging.....we'll see how i do.....

i will say the sunsets from my balcony on many nights were incredible...as was the applauding and cheering for front line workers....but staying in a 2-bedroom apt for days on end, by myself, and not being allowed outside except for 6 hours a week, was very, very difficult.....

and unfortunately this was how i had to end my year....no face-to-face goodbyes with my students....many of who i had known and worked with for 2-3 years....very few face-to-face goodbyes with my colleagues....it was uber strange....this was my parting cheers to a bunch of folks who came to an on-line goodbye party.....just weird....and a very small feeling of closure....bleh.....

as i stated at the beginning of this update...i hopped a humanitarian flight out on june 12th....this is what the panama airport looked like on that day.....i am in my "mola" mask and blown away by the emptiness of the airport....it was never like that......

and here is a shot of me and mom after i arrived in PA and was staying in a hotel....she came to have lunch with distance and a mask.....it all ended well......and i still am in PA, waiting to get approved to head to china....

and so ends my contract and time in panama....and so begins my contract for china.....i am really hopeful that i get there in the next 4-6 weeks, as the school seems amazing and has gone out of its way to take care of me and keep me as an employee...many international schools have had to cut employees due to numbers of students dropping around the world....families are staying in home countries and businesses have learned that people can do a lot of work on-line.....so i am super appreciative that i still have a job and a school that wants me.....

i do hope you enjoyed my final installment of my time in panama...it really is a lovely and diverse place to visit....i loved the panama canal, the mountains, the rain forest and the beaches....i will miss people who are from panama and people who are not, and do hope that paths will cross again somewhere in the world....it was the right place for me to be for the past three years and i wish my students and friends all the best in this coming year....crazy times, crazy times.....

i also hope that i will be able to continue the blog from china and be able to take you traveling with me once again in the future....but who knows when that will happen....i will be in touch at some point and as always, feel free to contact me and ask questions or just say hi.....

finally, i hope each of you is safe and healthy and making good choices for yourself and those you love....enjoy the rest of you summer or winter...and i will catch y'all on the flip side....

peace out and have a fab day 😎