Parent's Visit

Obviously I have failed to stick to my new years resolution of posting regularly. Honestly,  I don’t why its so difficult for me to do so regularly. But here I go again. Many people have asked me about my parent’s visit here and particularly wanted to see some photos, so I am dedicated this post to my wonderful parents. Kocham Was!!!

We started off day 1 by going to “Casco Viejo” the old part of the city. Its, right on the coast and although it is a bit worn down it is still full of beautiful architecture. My parents enjoyed this part of the city very much. Especially after they saw the real city. Let’s just say that coming from Chicago, it’s a little disappointing. So here are the photos of my parents being silly in Casco Viejo and enjoying the parks, the streets, the architecture, the restaurants, and even their first Panamanian license plate. 

In the afternoon we headed to the Panama Canal, dad’s request. It was my first time their as well and I must admit it was pretty interesting. They have a nice museum at the Mira Flores Locks Center, it does a nice job of explaining history, technology and really just about everything the canal affects, including the wildlife, down to the insects. Now thats my kind of museum! We then went out onto the balcony to see the enormous cargo ships pass by. It’s a slow process, but compared to traveling around an entire continent it’s definitely a lot more effective. 

In the following pictures you will see my dad continuing to act silly, like a boy on christmas morning, or christmas eve for some of us. 

That same day we also went out to eat on the cosway/causeway (same idea as the Florida Keys. It was gorgeous out there. We enjoyed a delicious dinner, and some dessert too. I can’t tell who enjoyed it more, me, being the dessert deprived peace corps volunteer that I am, or my parents on the first real vacation out of the USA and Poland. We wanted to walk around a bit after dinner, however the downpour caught us, good ol’ rainy season.

The following day we ventured out to an indigenous community. To be exact it was an Emberra community in which Brittany, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer lives in. A small community of about 100 people it really redefines the word community.  Apparently everything is done together there. On her first day there Brittany discovered that she would be bathing in the river, together with her host family, her naked host family. Now that’s what I call an Ice-breaker! There exists no such thing as refusing to participate in community events (Quite the opposite of my community in which diffusion of responsibility is an extremely common and unfortunate phenomenon).

The women of this community are often the leaders, and pretty fierce ones so I’m told. In the best kind of way of course.  It was interesting to hear from them about the different struggles that they have faced over the decades such as holding onto their land. They also shared their culture with us including their beautiful artisan work, their food and of course their traditional dances. My mom and I had a blast dancing with all the women and the cutest little girls in the world! Not my opinion. It’s a fact. Just look at the photos. In addition to the lack of clothing, I think my parents were most intrigued by their housing. The log staircase to my friends house was what got my dads jaw to drop. At first he couldn’t believe she lives like “that”. But then I think it grew on him. I for one loved it!

Finally we headed towards my community, about 3 hours outside of the Panama City. We first stopped off at the beach for a few minutes though so that my parents could see the ocean. We finally made it home. Home sweet home. We spent the last days here in my community where we when on hikes and visited all my families, saw some of the cool sites like the soap stone mine, fixed up my house and drank coconut water. My parents really loved my community, the mountains the nature and especially the people. It makes me happy to know that they now understand why I love this place as much as I do.