June 2012 Porta Potty's, Telephone Poles,& Road Construction

Letter for June:

Our letter home this month is no less exciting than the ones preceding it.

We just finished with our CO visit 2 weeks ago. Bro Klein.

It is now the rainy season and frequently we have tremendous thunderstorms that come rolling through. The lightning strikes so close at times that the thunder is right on top of it. Those are the ones that make you jump !!!

For the week of our CO we had one of those every night that he was here. (Murphy's Law?) And the first night of his visit the lights went out. About 20 minutes into the meeting...We had the congregation Bible study with light and Bible highlights, and talk # 1 was given. In the middle of talk #2 it went dark.

Our meeting starts at 5 pm and so we still had a measure of light from outside. Here in Panama Kingdom Halls have an abundance of windows because most of the Halls have no air conditioning. So we could still see, although the sun sets here about 6:45every night.

In the next 10 minutes or so the brothers managed to get the emergency battery light off the wall and hold it over the sisters so they could finish their talk and also talk # 3.

Time for a song....no power......I have to say we did pretty good.

Now it's the CO's turn. Our brother holding the emergency light is still on stage and by now he thinks his arms are falling off, as he is holding it over his head so both the CO and at least the first row have a little light.

We pulled out our cell phones and they worked, and several had flashlights and they shared......and the meeting went on !!! I don't think we even missed a beat......

The CO was nearly finished and the lights came back on.....

Welcome to Panama.

And for the Sunday meeting we had a short visit from a special guest. For air circulation the doors of the Kingdom Hall are left open for all meetings. And in the middle of the CO 's talk a Hummingbird flew through the front door up to the speaker stand, hovered in front of the audience and checked us all out. Decided he didn't see anything worth staying for, and flew out the back door. All in the space of about 15 seconds.

The construction mess that is transforming Boquete into what will be a fair sized town within a few short years is making progress.

Due to the highway construction that never seems to stop we have had a little more practice "camping in". That is the best description I can give when you live in a house that has sporadic electric and NO WATER FOR 5 DAYS.

Look closely at the ground and you can see the water PVC line running to our neighbors house.  There is one of these lines running to each house in the town.  PVC is called the "national vine" here.

There is a concept they seemed to have missed here. It is called (in the states) a WATER MAIN.

For those of you who take your water for granted, let me explain how it works here.

We live approx a 1/2 mile (as the crow flies) from the highway. As with every construction crew they always tear things back up after you think they are done. So after laying the first layer of asphalt (that we had been driving on for several months ) they decided they had to work on the drainage system for the road so that during heavy rains it would not wash the road away. So here comes the big equipment for digging.

There is no such thing as a "water main". All the water that serves the hundreds of houses down the hill runs along the top of the ground along the highway in a 2 inch pipe. You can tell where it is because quite often it is leaking and you have fountains springing up from the roadside. From this main line all the houses T-in and run 1 inch water line to each of the houses. ON TOP OF THE GROUND.

Nothing is buried here. So each house runs it's own water line. Since ours is a 1/2 mile from the highway I suppose we too have a 1 inch line that feeds our house. So during the construction they cut our water line.

After 2 days we were getting worried that they had forgot us, after 3 days I stopped on the highway and asked one of the workers when they thought the water might come back on. After 4 days I canvassed the neighborhood and asked the neighbors if they had water......they all did.

At the end of the 4th day I considered calling the landlord and see if he would run down the problem.

On the 5th day I started pestering Jim in earnest. The land lord was out most of the day and could not be reached. And FINALLY at 5pm on the 5th day we got the water back.

What saved us a lot of buckets and carting was the rain everyday, torrential rain (normal here) that would fill our ditch in front of our little house. We would scoop water from the ditch to flush the toilet and add bleach to mop the floor.

Showers we took at the various houses of the friends.

Since the water loss, about 3 weeks ago now, we have made a move to a "new" house......20 feet away.....literally. We moved next door.

Why you ask?

The "new" house had a few improvements that we wanted.....We managed to get a few "upgrades", if you will.

The "new" house is exactly the same size as the old, same layout, same age etc. But the improvements include a "non" leaking roof (really true, it sprinkled in from the peak during blowing rain storms), a larger "side" yard for parking the car, a clothesline (we were hanging the laundry either inside on a line attached to the spare bedroom wall or the back fence), and a covered area for the washer so that we can still do a load of laundry when it's raining, instead of being forced to cover the machine with a tarp at all times to keep it dry.

I have also enough room to start a small garden.

In a few weeks it will be producing....

So in about 8 weeks or the end of Sept we should have Okra, zuchini, green peppers, winter squash and maybe some yellow squash. Will start tomatoes when I get home. Remember there is no "growing season" here. It's more like a "growing year".

One service day in David in the yard of one of the houses there I saw a green pepper "tree"....about 7 feet tall. It had apparently never been pruned and had a "trunk" about 2 inches thick and was in the process of producing an "ongoing" crop of peppers.

The David/Boquete Highway is about 75 % completed. That estimate may be either too high..... or.... too low.

Since they do not build things here in any orderly fashion it is hard to tell what is actually done. And they have you weaving back and forth between the finished side and the gravel side, around telephone poles and dogs and people and new holes....At some points the road is absolutely pristine and beautiful and at other points it is pot-holed, gravel, muddy with large rocks and work trucks and a bevy of workers, some of them actually working......They even have in a few places, (it appears random) installed elevated sidewalks over the highway. You climb a set of about 30 steps (this is not a wheelchair friendly country) up to the sidewalk and it takes you over the highway and you walk back down. It is common here in Panama.

But the best detour I have saved till last.........Below you will see pictures of a Blue Porta-Potty with its backside up against a telephone pole in the middle of the road. The same telephone pole that we detour around on a daily basis now has the added feature of an outhouse. If you notice the traffic is obediently detouring around this bright new road addition.

Why didn't they put it over on the side of the road? Maybe someone thought it would cut down on the breaks.

With a continual stream of traffic it should cut down on "breaks"

I think they stuck it in the busiest part of the highway !!

I also have to let you know that I missed the best picture of the decade........One of the workers had miscalculated the pavement edge and drove his one-man steam roller into a hole that was approx. 7 feet to 8 feet deep. When I detoured around this particular hole I noticed a yellow hardhat working its way up the inside of the hole. The hat was on top of a worker that had fallen in with his steam roller. The steam roller had landed up-side-down on its steel cage roof.

No one was hurt.

Do not try this at home.

And while I am telling you about construction I must tell you about the story that came via a pioneer couple from El Espino, near Panama City.

Around 1880 the United States started building the Panama Canal and maintaining a presence here in Panama. During the construction which lasted many years, a bridge was built that served the needs of the city and surrounding area. With the influx of US citizens and money and jobs Panama City out grew the one bridge and needed another one for all the traffic. So about 10 years ago they built the compliment bridge to handle the increasing traffic.

This last year they had to close the "new" bridge down completely after it started falling apart. But here in Panama they only do that sort of thing when it becomes impossible to use it anymore. Repairs wait till the last possible moment. So for a while the "new" bridge was still used although one lane had potholes and was in the process of washing away. And until the guard rail disappeared they just used the other side of the highway. The Guard rail finally did fall off, but until then there was one lane... and life went on....

I not making this up!! We got this story first hand from the pioneer couple that drove the road nearly every week !!!

Here's the best part.

The Access road to the bridge and the Bridge were built by separate companies. When they finally tracked down the contractor for the access road that had completely washed away, he claimed he was not responsible. His response was published in the Panama paper. He said he was not responsible because THE ONE YEAR WARRANTY ON THE ROAD HAD EXPIRED !!

We have added some new additions to our group. In only 6 weeks we have grown to a group of 5 elders, and 5 M.S.. and we have a whopping total of 28 publishers !!!! That does not include our constant stream of visitors. This last Sunday we had 37 for our meeting !!!

We are so thrilled!!

So here is the run down on the "newcomers".

There is Dave and Carla Kemkaran from Texas. They are in their 40's.

There is Adam and Brandy Bancroft with their 2 little girls, ages 6 &8. Adam is one of our elders. In their 30's.

We have added Erica and her husband John Abt (pronounced Abb). They are 72 and 80 respectively. They came most recently from Costa Rica.

And we have added Dixie Orr, age 72. She is a pioneer (from Seattle most recently, but originally from Ohio via New York)

Dixie also brought with her a room mate and temporary partner from Seattle.....Wanda. Age 79. We are tearing up the territory and having a blast.

We have temporarily lost Max and Darlene Koch. They have gone back to Texas to take care of a few things that need attention. They will be back.

Paul and Silvia Liston have gone back to Canada. They are planning to return sometime in December after their grandchild is born.

We are trying to make it a weekly habit to go to outlying territory and get it mapped. There is VAST potential here.

We are trying to map our territory. Now we are using a GPS mapping to get the curves and lengths right. Imagine, some of these maps have been hand drawn. Many of the maps were created about 5 to 10 years ago by a very diligent Spanish pioneer that did the best he could with what he had to work with. But in the years since the area has grown and subdivisions have been added and 100's of houses, not all Gringo, many Panamanians also, some of which speak English now. So there is much to be done.

Imagine getting to drive through paradise with a GPS? It's a lot of fun.

As we go we mark with GPS the houses and stray roads, some of which literally go nowhere, but a few of which go many many miles and have dozens of houses that have been added. So every road must be driven and explored.

THAT IS PIONEERING.

Many a day we wish we had a Jeep.

And there is always the extra thrill of ending up in stray coffee fields. Last week we found a Gringo House buried in one of those coffee fields at the end of a 1 mile, very rough driveway. Along the way we found free Plantains for the picking. They are considered weeds when growing in a coffee field. No one here cares.

So this week we have green plaintains ripening in my kitchen.

They are gradually turning yellow and make a nice addition to any meal.

We currently have between Dixie Wanda and myself about 6 or 7 studies. All started within the last 4 weeks.

I must close this letter at this point or I could go on and on. Too much to tell it all.

We are due to return to the States on Aug 1st, so it may not be possible to create another letter before then, but we will keep all of you posted.

I have plans to create a blog at some point so that all of our crazy pictures and all the cool ones can be posted and seen by all. Will keep you posted on that as well.

Our invite for someone to rent and stay in our house for 2 months was accepted by 2 sisters. One from Colorado and one from S. Carolina.

The Colorado sister is already here. The S. Carolina sister will arrive on July 25.

So they will take care of the house and the dog (our newest family member) for the 2 months that we are gone. Panamanians have a general fear of dogs as a rule and having a good guard dog for 2 single sisters seems like a good idea. She is very sweet but does bark at strangers, which is the point.

We have yet to deal with our storage unit in Pensacola that may have gotten flooded by torrential rains this past month......I'm am hoping for a good outcome. Either we manage to sell 60% of it, or it is flooded and moldy and we get insurance money for it.....either way we will do fine.

OK. All for now. Take care all,

Agape.

Gail and Jim Murphy