Wednesday, April 29, 2009

You Can’t Wrap Your Arms around a Memory

When I was thinking about what I was going to write about this week, I had decided I was going to a two part piece on the national election this coming Sunday. I mean it doesn’t get much bigger than an election.

But like most things in Panama, I was thrown a curveball. And the curveball ended up being bigger than the election. The fishing cooperative in my community received news on Monday that they would be awarded the money they had long been asking for.

The joyous news brings to a conclusion of a year of working to try to secure the funding. Led by promises and patience, the leaders of the cooperative hung tough and didn’t give up when that was such an easy option. For that, I’m extremely proud of them.

The size of the funding is pretty outstanding. Fishing equipment isn’t cheap. And there is a lot of work ahead in getting this project off the ground. I’m certain it will be a challenge, but, I hope, ultimately a fulfilling one.

Soon enough the pieces will fall into place. But before all that starts, I can’t shake the image of when we came out of the meeting with the news. The cooperative president – my counterpart Sergio – jumping around like a little kid who just got what he wanted on Christmas Day.

Normally, it would have been a great time for a photo, but I was without my camera. In this case, it didn’t matter. That picture is forever burned into my memory.

It’s something I’ll never forget.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Mango Tree

There are many nice benefits of living in a tropical climate. Topping that list is not having to deal with snow. Coming in second is being surrounded by things that are possible in a temperate climate. Like say a mango tree.

As I mentioned before, I have a mango tree behind my house. This is really a dream come true for me. I can still remember the first time my dad bought a mango home and told us before we ate it how great they were. He wasn’t lying. It was love at first taste. So that is what makes right now a special time of the year as this delicious fruit is in its prime season. Which is awesome. The only problem is my tree isn’t as productive as others in the community. There is one tree in particular that has so many mangoes that if it were at my tree I would probably die of mango overdose - which won’t be a bad way to go out when you think about it.

But that’s not to say my tree is a complete disappointment.


It’s just not as good as some others in my community and has been slower to turn the mangoes to ripe. As a result, during the last two weeks, I have been gifted quite a few tasty suckers by a wonderful family across the street. It has only heightened my desire for more.

One other problem with my tree is a lot of the mangoes aren’t easily accessible. The tree is pretty high up and the branches aren’t made for a person of my weight to go climbing up them. You know what this means? Exploiting child labor. However, in my case, I had quite a few youngsters that were interested in heading up the tree and pick off some of the ripe mangoes.

As you might imagine, I was a little scared by this proposition at first. But quickly I remembered a lot of these kids are experts at this sort of thing. So I signed on. Not aware of the Panamanian child labor laws, we quickly agreed to payment for the work in the form of mangoes. Sounded good to me. Them too.

So I took my leadership position under the tree and offered words of encouragement and caution. With ‘cuidado’ (meaning careful) being the most common phrase.


Everything went off without a hitch. The mangoes were picked and pooled together. After everybody safely made it out of the tree, I dispensed the mangoes accordingly. Everyone was happy.

Well, except you the reader in the States, who doesn’t have a mango tree in your yard.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Trip Home


As you might gather from the photo, this past week I went home for the first time for my sister’s wedding. It had been nearly eight months since I had left for Panama. A lot had changed over that time. There is a new president. The price of gas dropped by about a half*. The stock market tanked. Unemployment is at record highs. My friend Chris is a college graduate. Friends had bought houses and had new girlfriends. And so on.

(*As I was driving my sister’s car back to her house so I could catch my plane back, I noticed the car was low on gas. Used to $4 dollar a gallon gas, I was thinking it was going to be costly to fill up. Therefore, I set my spending limit at 25 bucks. Whatta nice brother, right? Well to my surprise, it only took 21 bucks to fill up. So, in the end, my sister got a full tank of gas.)

But it seemed the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. My brother-in-law was his normal quirky self. My old office remained a great place with great people. My mom still loved to wait on her son hand and foot. Morgantown was still a fun place at night and my buddy Boff still liked to drink. Most importantly, my family still knew how to have fun.

The family and fun were the best parts of the trip and it all came together at the wedding. It was a great event put together by some fantastic work. Everything fell into place. My sister looked beautiful in her wedding dress. My grandfather tore up the dance floor. And a great time was had by all.


The one downer of the trip was the cold weather. Shocking, since I have lived in 85 degree and sunny weather for the past four months. It culminated when I woke up to snow on Tuesday. Snow. In April. No thanks.

It was only fitting that with each stop back down south, I removed a layer of clothing. Now as I type in the cool evening wearing a basketball jersey, I can look back and laugh at the thought of snow.

In that regards, it’s good to be back ‘home’.