My First Visit

This past weekend I mixed things up a bit. I made my first trip to another site from a volunteer in my group. Well, actually volunteers. I went to see authors of the fantastic Panablog – Jay and Julia.

The two of them live in the next province over from me – Veraguas – but it might as well be a world away. After living in a completely flat area for the past seven months, it was a bit of a shock to my system when we pulled out from the bus terminal and immediately ascended up a road that was so steep at time that I didn’t think we had the juice to make it. Reaching the top, you descend down in the valley on a road that makes 19 to Grafton look like a beginner’s course for a driver. Welcome to the other side of the world, Dylan.


Reaching the community, we walked around some and met some people from the community. Jay and I shot some hoops while Julia started on dinner. And what a delightful dinner it turned out to be. I’m not sure how Julia was able to pull it off, as they don’t have a refrigerator (no electricity at their site) and it is not the easiest place in the world to be hauling groceries into. She pulled it off, though. Topping it off with a dessert of apple crisp that immediately ascended to the top of my personal charts. So all those who have made apple crisp for me in the past, the bar has now been raised. Good luck trying to top it.

Later that night, we watched the Larry Sanders Show on their computer, which is powered by a car battery setup that confused the crap out of me. Jay said it took them a couple times to perfect the setup, but now it’s working pretty well. I just nodded my head. Sadly, an electrician, I’m not.

The next day we awoke and hiked back up the mountain to make calls for Mother’s Day. The funny part is we had to call three different time zones (Eastern, Central and Pacific), but we all got to wish our mom’s a Happy Mother’s Day.


The rest of the day was a nice relaxing Sunday. I would be remised if I didn’t mention that I won two of the three games of Quiddler that we played. We watched Frost-Nixon that night and we all disappointed by it. I think Jay even swore off Ron Howard movies for good.

I headed back to my site on Monday morning – thanking my friends for the fine weekend. I hope to do it again someday. I just hope they get better at Quiddler.