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| Waterfront park with Old Panama City in the background |
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| My hotel is surrounded by skyscrapers |
The trip
down to Panama was trouble free. Good connections and not full planes. On
arrival, I breezed through Immigration in the Diplomatic line, grabbed my bag
and passed Customs without inspection.
My driver
was chatty, which is always nice. They tend to chat lots more in Spanish. He
was surprised that the Panama Papers were such a big deal in the US, Everybody
here not only knows the banking score, most participate in it. Here’s the deal
: If someone asks you for a “special receipt, you write them one for double the
actual amount and you keep a 10% service charge. Or you say No and they go find
someone else. It’s taxi drivers, hardware stores, restaurants – anywhere a
business might write off the expense. All of the huge skyscrapers are half full
or less, but they keep building because that is the fastest way to pad BIG
expenses and wash the money.
He also
pointed out how dry and brown everything is here. El Nino has caused a much
longer than normal dry season. It hasn’t rained since last November and the
rains should have started in March. I am pleased to announce that the first
rain, albeit light, came this morning. I am taking full credit for it.
I had a nice
Indian dinner with some of the Panama PCVs last night. Two were short timers,
leaving in a few days and one was in for medical treatment of some disease that
is carried by a fly. It eats the eye and surrounding flesh, so not nice. But,
the PC MDs here get right on it. Treatment is a intravenous injection every day
for 10 days. Not common where I am going, thankfully. And it can only bite the
eye or inside the nose or mouth. Weird.
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| The old and the new |
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| High Rise Sunrise |
One of the
many things I’ve enjoyed overseas is interesting bread. Not so here –n at least
in the City. It’s plain Jane white bread, sliced and bagged. They say you have
to go to a pastry shop the get anything different. Yuck.
Electricity
here is nominal 100VAC, but apparently not all that reliable. In the middle of
the night, I heard the fan speeding up and slowing down. So, I got up and put
my multi-meter on it – varying between 97V and 108. Yikes. Soon after the
generator for the tall building next door kicked on. I guess they have stable
power now, but I get the noise. They say it should be stable on the grid “soon”.
OK, starting
orientation in an hour. More later.
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| The President of Panama lives on the top floors of this condo |
And so much
more there was. The Response Coordinator, Tess picked me up and whisked me to
the Peace Corps Office, which is located in the old Clayton US Army base. The
place is huge, but the PC just has offices in one of the buildings and fairly
modern, at that. We got my bank account set up – Yes, friends, you now know
someone with a Panamanian account. Then moved on the get mobile phone and
transit cards. Had lunch at the old Army commissary building (fish and calamari , with Guava juice). I got a peek at
my future home in Torti. Let’s just say it is to die for, in the best possible
way.
As Mickey D
says : I’m lovin it !!
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