What's been happening in Boquete?

We are now in the midst of Tourist Season..... and all I can think of  is the bumper sticker that was common in Colorado. "If it tourist season, why can't we shoot them?"
Ok, that was a bit negative......
The town of Boquete has increased by at least 1/3.  And by the end of the dry season, if this one follows the usual pattern, the town will increase by at least 1/2 or 3/4.
This is really good for the economy, and it makes for good street witnessing, and we also get a larger number of visitors coming to the hall from all over the world (last night we had at least 3 from Bermuda).
We have the Messer couple- from Tennessee
The Probasco's, from Vermont
And there will be many many more coming and going.  As the months progress I will try to compile a list of all our visitors. Currently we have 42 people with publisher cards here as part of the congregation.  Last night we had 57 in attendance (Dec 27th)
The picture below is one of our service groups for midweek.

. In all truthfulness we do not have groups like this everyday. This was exceptional, and I don't even remember the ocassion......

 But when you have 20 pioneers in a group of 42 publishers you do get some large groups for service.

No Blog would be complete without reporting on our climb up Volcan Baru, the highest peak in Panama.
12 of us started out, 8 made it all the way to the top.....
The best part is those of us that did not make it on this trip will go again.  It is a 19 km hike UP HILL ALL THE WAY.  At some points it was a gradual climb about as steep as a wheelchair ramp, and at these points it felt so good not to be doing a 10% gradient that it felt nearly like flat ground.  Those sections I nearly ran across !!

It was sunny and warm for at least the first 12 km.  At about 6 km from the top, as night was falling, it got quite chilly.  But as I was still climbing hard, all I needed was a hoody and some gloves for my hands.
Lawson, at about 4 km from the top said that a cloud went overhead..... or more accurately, the cloud surrounded him.... the temp dropped to 34*F with freezing sleet.
The sun sets between 6:30 and 7 pm every night, and this night it set at 6:45.
We opted to turn around and go back down the mountain, collect the 2 people left behind, and return home.
The mountain will be there another day.
We got a late start-- will not do THAT again-- and with all the difficulties of the climb the rest of the group ended up doing 11 hours of straight hiking.
I was quite happy to say that I made it 3/4 of the way up the mountain.  And yes, I will try again.
The pictures below are some of the gorgeous views seen by the 8 at the top.  And, Oh yes...... why would any sane person do this?  Well, this is one of the few places in the world where you can see BOTH oceans at the same time.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE !!! If you come to Boquete and plan to do this bring your equipment with you or make sure that you have supplies that you can buy or rent THE DAY BEFORE YOU LEAVE !!  Renting supplies is NOT always possible.
Our plan was to stay overnight.  We got a late start.
If you start together as a group, STAY TOGETHER AS A GROUP.  NO MATTER WHAT.
There was a serious accident on the mountain that day (not in our group, thank goodness) (more on that later)
For the average person I have created a list of the things that you will need for an overnight trip.  And unless you are superman or superwoman and can do 15 hours of hiking in one day......(7 to 11 up and 2 to 5 down)....... plan to stay the night.
The walking trail is also a four wheeler trail to the top.  It is really meant only for 4-wheelers, and we were told that in places even the riders of the 4-wheelers must get off and guide their carts over the rough ground because it is too rough to ride it out, the ruts to deep, and the road too bad.  The truck that helped us (high truck with 4 wheel drive) was forced to stop because the rocks were simply too big to go over.


Supplies:
tent
sleeping bag
extra coat and or sweater
extra socks
extra shirt
warm ups under your pants
a knife and hand-axe
10 bottles of water 20 oz. or larger per person. (you WILL want all that water)
energy bars (about 10)
food for 3 days (never assume that things will go without trouble- more on the accident that day)
energy drink (we took red bull)
walking sticks (I had 2 and appreciated their help up the steep parts)
hat and /or scarf (2 layers)
gloves
GOOD hiking boots
first aid kit that includes duct tape (the best band-aid for blisters ever invented)
cell phone that can be used if there are any emergencies. (there is not always phone reception on the mountain, but if you are traveling and something bad happens you will have the means to send someone to a reception area and call for help)
we also brought 100 feet of rope
toilet paper and clean-up bag for taking it with all out with you.

So why take all this stuff?
Our back pack weighed close to 40+ pounds......
On our way up the mountain there was a severe accident involving four 4-wheelers and a jeep.  Apparently the 4 wheelers were going UP the mountain at HIGH SPEED AND DEFINITELY NOT SAFETY CONSCIENCE..........and came to a sharp corner..... the jeep was coming down at a speed that we don't know.  The jeep swerved so that he wouldn't collide with one of the 4-wheelers and he lost control.  The jeep rolled over at least 4 times and landed upright with the 2 people in it, with at least 1 badly hurt.  They had to send in a helicopter to airlift the badly hurt one to the hospital.  Several hours later the four 4-wheelers and the jeep came past me on the trail carrying extra people, and I am assuming that at least one of them was also injured.
So, not to be morbid or anything....but just imagine if instead of a jeep and 4-wheelers in that accident it had been instead 4-wheelers and a person on foot?  The trail is very narrow in spots with nowhere to get off if a 4 wheeler or a jeep were to come down that trail.......

Always be prepared.

The Beauty of Panama

To all my readers:  I often spend so much time on this blog joking and telling events that make Panama seem strange and weird that I thought it time to show the beauty and serenity of this country.  Yes there are many strange things here from my perspective, and perhaps from the perspective of many from other parts of the world.  But focusing on that might eventually ruin the joy of being here.
This post is intended to show how much joy we receive from being here.  From seeing the beauty that is all around us, and appreciating that no matter how much we see, there will still be MORE to appreciate far far into the future.

So time flies when you are busy.  Very sorry I have not been update.
So here goes.
I will start with Aug and Sept.
Believe it or not, here in Panama they function like the United States in at least one respect.  When a dignitary is coming to town they put on their best face, work like mad dogs to dress the place up and try to pretend that "we always look this good, not just when you come to town".
The President came to town in the middle of August and around the end of July there were GANGS of workers all over the place.  More activity here than we have ever seen in the history of Boquete, or will likely see again !!!
I told you in the last post that they removed all the telephone poles, but that was only the start of many good things to come.....
In the last week of July into the first 2 weeks of August these bevy of workers filled in the highway medians with black dirt (dumped by truck and put in place a shovelful at a time), rolled out sod (more on that) and PLANTED FLOWERS !! Hydrangeas, Impatiens, and one more lovely flower (that changes color) as the flower ages it turns from rich blue to light blue to white.
(Pictures below). All of these are shade loving plants.....and they are planted in the middle of the Highway ??  So up till now (Dec) it is still partly cloudy.... but summer is coming so we will see how they do.  And of course in all this work there is no waterlines laid or sprinkler systems installed so that things will get water..... How will they do that?  By hand?  Don't know yet, but will try to keep up with that.  It is bound to be interesting.
So..... how do you lay out rolls of new grass?  I will never take this for granted again.... A truck comes along, places a roll of sod in the island/median where it is intended to be and the workers ROLL it out????......NOT HERE.
The grass rolls are placed by the truck and the workers CUT OFF SQUARES AND CARRY THEM TO THEIR NEW LOCATION !!.  They hand-fit the grass into all the medians here one square at a time.  Part of that "logic" (?) I can see since they placed the flowers in the medians first, smack down the center, and then brought the grass sod rolls in next.  Rolling out the grass would have crushed the new plants, so cutting and carrying the grass into place makes sense..... but it begs the question.....why put the plants in first?
Welcome to Panama......

Ahhh yes, and then the issue of sidewalks and cross walks....Below are some
 pictures that will explain what words can not.  Note the signs that are in every median..... Translated they mean don't walk on the flowers, Watch where you walk, .......
Look closely, the crosswalk goes right through the middle of the flower bed !!!
So in the order of events......
widen the highway, pave the new road, around the stray outhouse,
THEN remove the old streetlight/power poles,
then put in the medians to separate traffic (there were no medians for about a year),
Put in the new power and light poles up the middle of the new medians (but they don't actually function for several more months)
then bring in dirt and plant flowers up the middle with signs that say don't walk on the flowers.....
Next ..................put in lines in the road (that is ALL THE LINES- we drove without lines for nearly 1 1/2 years), including the lines that show crosswalks/crossings.
Next place the grass-rolls in the medians and cut and lay them by hand.
And lastly, and only in the last 2 months, put walking/stepping stones over the median where the crosswalks have already been for 6 months.
The President arrived to "grace" Boquete with his presence right after the grass was laid and trimmed.

My next post will cover cover Oct Nov and I will be posting it very shortly.....

ILLEGAL U-Turns and other ways to get in trouble in Panama.

So to update everyone with the most recent events......Poor Adam Bancroft got a traffic ticket for $75.00 for making a U-Turn on the Boquete Highway.  There was NOT a sign posted that said "do not make a u-turn here".  So he made one,.... and the police happened to be looking.
As it happens there are NO U-TURNS ALLOWED ANYWHERE IN PANAMA.   According to the police you can ONLY make U-Turns at the designated "Retorno" locations.  Here on the Boquete Highway (so far) there are only 2 such designated locations about 10 miles apart.....
Yes you read that right, 10 miles apart.....
So if you are on the wrong side of the highway and you don't want to go 10 miles to the Turn-a-round what do you do?  Make a right or left turn into one of the many breaks on the highway and go 50 to 100 feet up the street in whatever neighborhood you happen to be in, pick a driveway and turn around in it.
People do it all the time and no one pay them any attention at all.
So in Panama you can get a speeding ticket for $50, pass on a yellow line for around $50 (unless the cop is trying to get a bribe out of you.....that happens), and tickets for talking on your cell phone and driving (they like that one, that one is also illegal all over Panama), and a host of other things.
We were even involved in an accident where 2 boys on bicycles ran into US, ran into our car.  Both went to the Hospital, both survived (thank goodness) but both needed hospitalization, one of them for several months.  When the police showed up to assess the accident and it was proven that Jim was innocent we never even paid a single fee of any kind. Our insurance covered it......I guess.  As far as we know it never even went to Court.  Our insurance Lawyer NEVER called us back, even though we called him several times, and Jim has never had any repercussions from this event at all, over 1 1/2 years ago now......
Panama Law is totally different than in the states.  Police will try to bribe you if they are bent that way.  There is a new "branch" of Police here that apparently are an off-shoot of the national police.  Their Badges have CCC on them.  According to reports this is a branch that decided that the Police were corrupt (aren't they everywhere?) in Panama and they decided they could do better.  So they created there own force, and they get "fees" from the people they pull over......
They apparently are "self-supporting", what ever that means.....
And when using a crosswalk, at least in Alto Boquete, be careful  of the flowers they planted  IN THE MIDDLE OF  the crosswalk.  They were kind enough to post signs that say "don't tread on the plants", "Please don't walk on the Flowers", but the cross walk cuts right through the flower bed, dirt, grass etc.  Picture below
Also in the last few weeks there have been several "problems" with different Landlords in the area.  Finding places to rent that are reasonable is getting harder and harder.  And some of the owners are not keeping their word when it comes to the lease.  One here did not return the deposit due at the end of the lease period, but wanted to give household items in place of money.  If you are going to lease a house that requires a deposit, be sure to get it in writing that you get "money" back, not something else.
So without doubt things are still interesting here.  
We have just gotten home from our District Assembly in the El Espino Assembly Hall.  Pictures below show it is entirely open air with good roof cover.
Yes it was hot, but we got a nice break in that it stayed cloud covered for most of the assembly, and there was often a slow breeze going through.  It was not as bad as I had expected it to be..... so that was a huge relief.   Jim had a part on the Assembly this time, Lawson was part of the stage crew for the Drama.  Total attendance was 607 on Sunday.  That is huge for us (english) here in Panama.  Although I know that in the states that is about 1/2 of a circuit, here it is the sum total of a District.  I suppose we were missing perhaps 100 people that had already gone to assemblies in the states and did not go to El Espino, but still 600 is a good number for us here.
We stayed in a little town called San Carlos in a hotel right on the beach.  It was great.  We took our car this time.  It is only 480 km from Boquete to El Espino Assembly Hall.  That converts to just under 300 miles.  But the PanAmerican Hwy is SO BAD that it takes 6 hours approx. to make the trip. !!!!  There are sections of the road that are more PATCH than ROAD.  And miles of the road that are only 2 lanes and curvy.  No where to pass safely around buses and semi's etc.  And don't forget to look for the local people on bicycles that use the same road.  And the Local people trying to make a living along the same road by selling baby parrots and fruit and clothing, or whatever they have that will help them make ends meet.
And just in case you thought you might ever get bored and heaven forbid comfortable with all the rules and laws that are strange here, hold on to your seat.
The Panama government has decided to enforce some  of the laws that have existed for many years, but they have failed to enforce them until now.  In this case we are hearing that they are enforcing the "overnight stay".  A law has existed for many years that every 6 months you must spend at least 24 to 36 hours out of the country.  They typically do not enforce that.  But this last week a couple went for their 3 month passport stamp and they were a few days late.  The Panama Immigration made them stay overnight in Costa Rica and come back the next day.  They would not allow them into the country.  Most of these crazy things we hear about happen at the Paso Canoa Border Crossing.  They have the mentality that Armageddon is sure to start at that section of the country and by their diligence they can guard against the the forces of evil taking over the country of Panama. (That is likely a small exaggeration on my part, although you never know....)

Pioneer School, "Official Documents" & License Plates....

Panama Letter for August 2013

I have created a new Blog for our Panama Adventures. ALL OF THE LETTERS and new pictures and photos not sent before or seen by most of you, all is available on the Blog. For those of you with computer experience, perhaps you can help others that do not have such technical knowledge. The new blog has links on the side for each of the former letters that were written over the past year and a half.

Go to: 3murfs.blogspot.com

Look for : Murphy's Law and Other Panama Adventures.

This is a geologic oddity.  It is lava flow that hardened in to 5 and 6 sided "shafts" of stone.  This can only be seen a few places in the world.

This is really what the cliff looks like.  Untouched by humans.

And it is one of THE favorite "repel" rock climbing spots here in Boquete

Less than 1/2 mile down the same road is this cliff, easily over 200 feet high.  Still lava here, but it formed differently coming out of the ground....... This is a GIRL climbing this cliff !!  She's got guts !!

She had to come down and try from another approach.  This way was apparently too hard.  There is a spotter on the ground that you cannot see between the bushes and the cliff.

Time flies no matter where you serve.

Boquete English Congregation is hosting the pioneer school this year. A privilege and a responsibility. Today, (Aug 12), is the first day of school for nearly 50 students. So we are feeding the 50+- on Wednesdays, while the other congregations take a share the other 4 days of the week.

I don't think I have ever seen so many donuts in one location except at the bakery !!

Aside from donuts and the supply of good food going to the school they will also hopefully have coffee for the mornings by the end of this week.

The brothers got a good deal on enough coffee for 2 weeks and as a show of good will the proprietor also added for free a 70 cup coffee maker. But so far for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it has produced no coffee.

The first day it gave brown water. The water was not hot enough to brew the grounds. The second day they plugged the machine into a different outlet hoping that maybe that would solve the problem. The little bit of water that was being sprinkled over the grounds was useless. Last night with volt meter and tools in hand the brothers tried to see if they could fix the problem.... As it turns out the electric jmetal junction box in the wall of the kingdom hall has bare (un-insulated) wires inside that were shorting out. There was not enough power going to the coffee machine to run it at all. So as a temp. measure the wires have been taped and rejoined.

Today the coffee machine did not work at all.

Pioneer school without coffee. Difficult to contemplate, at least for me.

But perhaps I will get to go next year, coffee or no coffee, Jehovah willing.

Boquete, (the congregation/town), was also the host to its first, and second, Spanish District Assembly at the Gymnasio on the other side of Bajo Boquete. That also gives great hopes for us to have an English Assembly at some point in the future.

And for those of you that plan to come and also will own a car or other vehicle, here are just some of the highlights that you might expect.

Because we are cheap and did not want to pay the extra 100 dollars or so to have someone do it for us. In one of last years posts, probably around July of last year, we went to David to get our plates transferred from Veraguas Province to Chiriqui Province. We paid about $90 dollars to get our plates.

Possibly because our spanish was non-existant last year we did not understand that this was only good for one year and that we would need to do the same thing every year. We mistakenly thought that once you have plates....you have plates. NOT SO !!

So this year we find out that we have to go through the same hassle as last year.

As a consolation prize we found out that Pete and Buffy had to do it all over again this year too, because they did not know that it was only good for one year and that the title was a separate item. They are separate items that do not travel together. The title remains in the Provence of origin unless you pay extra to get it transferred. Pete and Buffy are both fluent in Spanish, and they are going through the same hassle as we are. So now maybe I don't feel quite so stupid.

In our efforts to get our new plate we had to get our “inspection” again. Check out the letter for July last year (on the Blog) to see what that is like......

And we had to go get our “proof of residence”. That is not the same as being “a resident, or pensionado”. There is no legal status with this, just a piece of paper that states that you live (in our case) in Alto Boquete. To prove that we brought along 6 months of cable bills.

Last year we went to Bajo Boquete for this piece of paper.

This year we were told that there is a new office in Alto Boquete that does that and we could not get it in Bajo anymore, but must go find the office in Alto.

So instructions to the new office are as follows: Go down the Boquete Highway until you see the Ivan Tienda (grocer). It is on the right side of the road, back off the road, directly across from the Ivan's.

We have just in the last 2 weeks remapped and re-censused this territory and side of the road. There were NO government offices there. But we will go look again. We asked at the Ivan's where this officina was? They tried to send us back to Bajo, no such thing up here in Alto they said........

Sure enough we found it, the next day...... at last. A little white casita with bars on the windows, a flag pole in the front yard holding a limp, and very wet flag and a piece of printer paper in the window that says, “Horarios de Operacion” (Hours of Operation) 9am to 3:30pm. No other signs.

We arrived at Lunch time (naturally) and there was no one about to ask, so we went back the next day.

Sure enough !! This IS a government office !!!

We explained to the girl at the desk what we needed. Yes, no problem. Come back tomorrow at 10am and we can pay 3 dollars then. She will have our “paper” ready.

10 am, sorry, not ready. Can you come back at 2pm? Ok. But we had no (legal) car and no ride and didn't feel up to trying to catch a taxi. So Monday morning we went again. (Remember we started this story on Tuesday and it is now the following Monday morning)

As we are waiting in line, there is one person ahead of us, I noticed that she (the office girl) was writing out a long letter of some kind. Pages and Pages of something that she is hand writing.....

Our turn.

She grabs a pen and fresh paper and begins to hand-write our “OFFICIAL” document of residency.

She has a computer on her desk, but NO PRINTER !!.

This is our "OFFICIAL" Document for proof that we live in Alto Boquete.  She really has very neat writing.  I wonder if that was part of the requirements for getting the job?

Every document that goes through her office is hand written. No matter how many pages long. She spends much of her day copying from the computer screen long legal documents needed for each person that comes into her office. And she is working alone. She has NO helper.

COMPLETELY AMAZING !!

We found out in our efforts this year that it is possible to get our plates sent to Dolega instead of David. Much closer for us mile wise.

So our next stop is the Government offices in Dolega. They have copy machines !! Yeah !! And shock of shocks we are in, done, and out in just over 30 minutes !!! The plates will arrive (supposedly) next Wednesday.

We have not started researching on what we have to do to get our “title” transferred, but it waits until we have the new plates in hand. Then you can start the steps for that. Maybe by next year we will have this down to a science.

Here are a few pictures of the 2 story KH completed last month in Bajo Boquete.  There is now a finished fence in front where you see the car.  There is NO parking space, but few of the friends have cars anyway.  Everyone walks.

For the handicapped there is a closed circuit tv room downstairs.  Providing for the handicapped is a new concept in Panama.

This is quite a set of stairs.  You have to be healthy to get up them !!

This is the main auditorium upstairs.  Next letter I will include some finished photos of the hall as it looks now.

On a spiritual note: A sister visiting here from a small Spanish group that has started in the town of Cuesta Piedra on one of the roads to Volcan (town of), reported that for Memorial they had 11 publishers and 119 present for observance of Christ's Death.

Jim has also been able to start a new study with a Spanish man named Abdiel. Our car group was trying to locate a call of mine that had moved and so we checked next door to see if the neighbor knew where he went. No. So Jim made the presentation to the neighbor with the Truth Tract.

His response was immediate. I have wanted to know about all these questions!! Yes I would love to study the bible, but can we do it next week? God must have sent you because he knew I needed you this week. My Brother just died. I am burying him this week.

We went back on the Monday arranged and had a fabulous study. He was relieved to know that his brother is only sleeping and that the dead do not suffer and that despite what the preacher had said only 7 days previous, there is NO HELL. After reading scriptures about how long man was meant to live, and John 11 about the hope of the resurrection we left him feeling much better. We have been able to call on him only one other time. He has been too busy to take time out of work, but we will not give up.

This is now the 21 of Aug...... We (Boquete Congregation) have been up to our necks and collective crock- pots, cooking for the pioneer school. We needed to provide mid-morning break food for Monday. Our day to feed the school this week was Tuesday (Aug20), and today (Wednesday)we got to go in service with the students in the school.. This is actually the 3^rd time for us to go in service with them. Last Tuesday we were all assigned so that each group of students had at least ONE LOCAL with them so that they wouldn't end up lost forever. Last Friday we kept those same groups and followed up on calls and endeavored to start studies. And today we kept (for the most part) the same groups and the “LOCAL” got to get all the calls that the car group started, including studies. So I have 3 new calls. We feed again this Friday and the Brothers have decided that we all need a much needed break and we will be ordering Pizza. Friday/Saturday everyone goes home to there various parts of the country.....Bocas del Toro, Almirante, Colon, David, Bugaba, Volcan, Changuinola, El Espino and many more. It has been a great 2 weeks, but very busy. 

Our current Elder Body.  Max on the far right has had to return to Texas.... We miss him a lot.

Oh yes, and lest I forget.... did we get our “Plate” for the car yet? No................of course not.

But the good news is the Dolega Office called me and told me that they needed 15 dollars more for the courier so that he/she could go to La Mesa to get the Plates.

How is this good news you ask?

Well, for starters, the whole conversation was in Spanish and I UNDERSTOOD THE WOMAN !!!!

Apparently I made her nervous though and she said, “Hold on a minute” and I heard her go through the office asking random people were they able to speak English. Who I ended up with I have no idea, but a random stranger proceeded to repeat what I had already understood. That was OK. So I told “random stranger”, thank you, I actually did understand the lady, but thank you very much. (Got to brag a little there). Got handed back to the Office Lady and I guess she assumed that no more was needed and never came back on the phone. So I listened for 2 or 3 minutes to “Spanish in the office”,..... and understood the majority !!! Yeah !!! (this all happened Monday this week)

We went down and payed our 15 and perhaps by Friday this week we will have our Plate. Anyone for a wager?

I can now tell the Spanish that I talk like a 2 year old.  I have lots of words but can't get them to come out.  They seem to get a big kick out of this. 

OK, so this post I am including as many pictures of scenery in our territory as I can.

Swimming hole in Caldera- Much hotter in this part of our territory, so the water REALLY feels good to get into.

This road is NOT all that unusual for our service day.

Waterfalls, rivers, etc. And will include some of our local “wildlife” to.

Green Grass Snake we found along the side of the road.  Very much alive.

We let him live because we don't think it's poisonous.  And NO, its not me holding the snake.........this time.

Unusual moth on our window.

Same moth.  It decided it liked my finger.  Awesome looking !!!

This guy earns his keep.  He eats any bug that moves !!!  Gecko.

And the Picture just below is of a giant Lizard Sunning himself on a rock in town.  I disturbed his nap, but he was quite patient with me while I did my photo shoot.

As usual those of you that receive this as a post, you may forward to anyone you wish but do not post to social networking sites.

Take care everyone, and we love to get notes from all of you so as to how YOU are doing too. Drop us a line.

Gail, Jim and Lawson.