The Bike

From the first time I visited my community back last October, I have wanted to own a bike. With the terrain here completely flat, nearly everybody owns and uses it to scoot around. During that visit, I saw somebody riding around on an old ten speed road bike. I knew right away that is what I wanted. I told my counterpart, Sergio, that I would like to buy that type of bike. He told me he would be on the lookout for one.

Once I arrived at site, I quickly surmised that I wouldn’t be able to get a bike during my first three months living with Sergio and his family. There just wasn’t enough room for a bike. So I bided my time and walked around the community and down to the port. Sweating a lot along the way, too.

When I moved into my own place at the end of January, my anticipation rose once again. I reminded Sergio I was in the market for a bike and also spread the word to a couple other people. I would look around as well, but I told myself I needed to be patient. Days became weeks then months, and I was still without a bike. I was starting to give up my dream of the old ten speed road bike.

Then one day I was chatting with Sergio when he told me he saw a bike for sale in the next town up. We made loose plans (the only way to roll here in Panama) to go up there sometime over the next couple of days. A few days past and we finally were able to nail a time to go. As we walked up to the store, I saw four road bikes for sale. Having tempered my expectations going in, I immediately became giddy. Now it just came down to which one I would chose.

After looking them over, I fell head over heels for a semi beat up blue Schwin ten speed. Sure not all the gears worked, but that really doesn’t matter. With flat roads for miles, there isn’t a need to switch gears like I would need to in WV.

I strolled back into on my bike like a conquering hero. As I went by people they asked if the bike was mine. You betcha, amigo. Eventually everybody started to ask me the number one Panamanian question – How much does it cost? They love to ask this question about anything. I try to usually tap dance around it, but this time I turned it back on them. A trend soon developed, everybody guessed high. When I told them the actual price, almost everybody had the same reaction, “Jo! Barato” or “wow cheap”.

So with my bike in the fold, I have started to take rides on it to get some exercise. I tried to start running again, but right now it’s just too hot. The air flow from the bike makes for a much more comfortable exercising experience. On my first trip back up towards the next town, I was wearing my bike helmet. As you might imagine, that’s where the fun started. First, I passed a group a 20 something males hanging out. They really didn’t have much to say, mostly because they couldn’t contain their laughter at me. Next I rounded a corner and came upon a group of four. A woman saw me first and was so giddy she started to hit the guy that had his back to me so he could turn to see. That’s right - a gringo riding by with a bike helmet on. Christmas had come a little early this year.

I just took it all in stride thinking to myself – “Safety first. Safety first.” But, really, who am I kidding. I do ridiculous in the helmet. But at least I have my bike now.

The Eating Contest

A few weeks back, I went to an All Vounteers Conference (AVC) where it gathered all the Volunteers serving around Panama together for a couple days. The conference allowed for a couple things – sharing experiences, getting to know more people, and have a little fun.

That last one is what I’m going to talk about today. One of the highlights of the fun time was the “Campo Olympics”. What’s the Campo Olympics you ask? Well, it was a series of events that pitted each of the different groups of Volunteers. There were five different groups (58, 59, 60, 61, and 62). My group is Group 62 and our chosen colors were green.


Now the events were a mixture of contests that are commonplace in the country side (campo) of Panama. They included a three legged horse race, slingshot contest, chowing down some mysterious food, opening a can of tuna with a knife, skinning an orange with a knife, grita or yelling contest, a dance off, tug of war and finally a banana eating contest.

While the rest of the events were great fun, I’m going to focus on the banana eating contest because yours truly was the representative from my group. Now originally I was not planning to try this one out - I mean who wants to try to scarf down 10 bananas as fast as possible - but nobody stepped forward, so I said I would do it. I do have a history of being able to eat a pretty good amount of food, so why not?

So I was joined on stage with my four other opponents. The 10 bananas were laid out before us and we were charged with the task of unpeeling them and eating them as fast as we could. Giddy up. Or so I thought.

The whistle blew and I reached for my first banana. As I was unpeeling my first one like a nice slow stroll through the park, the person next to me was thrashing through his first two like it was his last meal on Earth. I quickly realized this wasn’t the gentlemen’s banana eating contest.


I picked up my pace, but had trouble trying to chew and digest them fast enough to keep up with my competition. Eventually, I was smoked. I finished 7 ½, before the top three had gobbled and mashed there way through their ten.

I was loser. There was no doubt. I had let the other members of my team down. It was a low moment for me.

Like everything else, I just have to pick myself up and hope to be ready for next year. That is if my group selects me next year.

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.

Election Day

This past Sunday marked a big day here in Panama – Election Day. One of the first weeks that I was here in the country, one of the political parties (can’t remember which) was having there primary that day. Since I was new to the country and really unaware of my surroundings, the event passed without me noticing much. This time, it was a totally different story.

For starters, my house is located right by the school, which was the place for voting. So you might say that I was in the ‘eye of the storm’. While this is true, I kept my distance from the events. Opting instead to only peak outside every once in a while to see the ongoing proceedings.

And there were quite a bit of happenings through the day. It all started around 7am when people started to funnel towards the center of the action. By 10am, it looked it there was going to be a day long party. People everywhere. Coolers and drinks. Some tarps for shade. Looking around it felt more like a Saturday September tailgate than Election Day.

The good spirits of the day took a turn around midday when the clouds started to darken. Eventually, they opened up and there was a steady rain. First time I’ve seen prolonged rain here since the beginning of December. Of course, it had to be a day when I did some laundry, but there are worse things in life, I suppose.

Eventually the rain let up around 5pm and the polls closed, but the people remained until around 10pm as the votes were being tallied. Around 11pm I called it a night, with all the excitement gone. Or at least I thought so.

At 1am, I was awakened by the sounds of horns honking. In a groggy state, I thought maybe it was an air drill raid leftover from the Noriega days. But I quickly came to senses when a few seconds later, fireworks started to go off. This all at 1am. I’m not lying. Eventually, the cars went further down the road and the sounds became fainter. I guessed Ricardo Martinelli was declared the winner in the race for president and I fell back to sleep.

The event marked a new era in Panama politics as this is the first time a person from Cambio Democrático party has been elected President. With some certain changes to the country coming, I’m just glad the late night horn honking and fireworks are here to stay. I need a little stability in my life.