Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Jumbo

You may remember me writing a long time ago about buying a pair of Crocs shortly after I arrived in Panama. Because of the rain and mud at the time, I thought it was a practical purchase. Of course, that doesn’t mean I didn’t immediately regret buying the things. Sorry Croc lovers, but they are ugly.

Things changed by the middle of December as we entered the dry season here in Panama. And I quickly realized that there was no need to be wearing the Crocs. So I started examining the footwear of the guys in my community. And soon, I came to find that the majority of them were wearing a type of sandals called Jumbo. I was hooked immediately.

Shortly there after, I went to buy my first pair at the local store. They were $2 bucks. And I was in love. I started wearing them all the time, after all they were comfortable AND cool.

The only hang up is they aren’t made of the finest things and break quite easily. Over the past 16 months, I’ve had to buy four pairs. But this last pair I bought has been good for over four months.

And it’s just not me that loves them. When my brother-in-law was coming to visit, I told my sister to not worry about bringing a pair of sandals for him. He’ll be getting a pair of Jumbos. She quickly fired back that he doesn’t wear sandals. I assured her that he would like the Jumbos.

So of course what happened when we arrived in my community? We went down to the store and he got himself a pair of Jumbos. He took them back to the States with him. And you can bet I will be too. Multiple pairs.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Mural

Almost every visitor to my house has had the same complaint- it is bare and boring. Trust me, I would like to spruce it up some, but between limited creativity and limited resources I just don’t have many options. So for well over a year, I had a pretty plain house.

That changed when my sisters and brother-in-law came to visit in February. As I mentioned previously, my brother-in-law is a very talented artist (check out the site, he has a ton of new stuff). That was step one in the equation. Step two was I had some leftover paint from the world map project I did, so there was that. And what do you get when you put the two together? Well, of course, an awesome mural.

The centerpiece of the mural is Dan’s take on the devil masks that are made in a nearby community. Also, there are many things that are prevalent in my community: fish, nets, ants (I have a ton of them!) and boats.

When I went to bed the night Dan painted this, he had nothing started. However, by the time I woke up the next morning, there it was, done. I was pretty blown away by it. And nearly every visitor to my house has been too, including some kids who have just stared at it for a while. However, my favorite was a neighbor who stopped by, liked it, and asked me when I could paint one at their house. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.