What we like about Panamá

Okay, I figured out the keyboard on this computer, so I´ll try to include the accent marks on this blog entry!The other night Matt and I were resting after dinner and decided to each make a list of our favorite things in Panamá (thus far).

Matt´s list:

• the lovely people
• rice and lentils, habañero sauce and fried chicken
• 4x4 trucks (Nissan and Toyota)
• hammocks
• zinc roofs
• oranges, bananas and plantains
• 10-cent packs of cookies
• riding in old school buses
• watching the Red Sox with our host brothers (ok, the fact that it´s easier to watch the Red Sox in Panama than it is in Upstate NY is a bit disturbing!)
• not seeing snakes
• using a "coa" (a narrow, flute spade) to dig with
• being outdoors all day
• listening to drumming practice outside the elementary school
• greeting people by saying, "Buenas"
• cabbge salad and potato and beet salad
• watching skyscrapers being built in Panama City
• cooking on a fogon (blocks or stones arranged around the fire)
• learning how to work with concrete and block
• seeing the Pacific from high in the mountains
• telling people about where we´re from

Lisa´s list:

• learning slang Panamian Spanish expressions
• learning Ngóbe (an indigenous language)
• crossing the Bridge of the Americas and seeing the canal and all of the containers
• walking up steep hills everyday (can we say, "buns of steel?")
• eating exotic fruit and trying to remember which fruit tree is which
• wearing dresses and skirts almost everyday
• waking up early and seeing the sunshine just about every day!
• taking a cold shower at night before bed (it´s the only time I´m cool)
• buying snacks at the little stores in town during our class breaks
• sleeping under a bug net (I feel so safe and I am--there are a lot of bugs in Panama!!!!)
• saying the word chancleta (sandal), over and over again
• talking about nutricion and health 24/7
• traveling to the cold part of Panama near the volcano...I do miss fall, but ah not that much...
• talking to my host Mom at night (she has 3 boys...I think she enjoys talking about girl stuff from time to time)
• coming home for lunch everyday and not knowing what we´ll be served (today it was an awesome chicken soup with squash, yucca, and rice on the side)
• being tan for the first time in about 10 years!