Getting things done

Posted on July 28, 2015

I slept in till 5:45am! I almost felt guilty for being so lazy.

There was the possibility that the starter would be repaired by today, so I took the 9:30am panga in to Bocas to check. Rico the parrot joined us on our ride. When I finally caught up with the mechanic, he told me that he wasn’t able to find new brushes for it in Changanola, and is now waiting for them to be brought from David – which is a bit farther away than Changanola. This means that tomorrow when we head into Bocas bright and early to get our shipment that has arrived from the mainland, I’ll need to practice my non existent ninja captaining skills and dock the boat with only a starboard engine.  No problem….I’ll pretend my handsome husband has my hands in his and is guiding me 🙂

While in Bocas I ran a bunch of errands, including going to the bank, the mail stop, the fruit stand and grocery store.  I even found a little store called Hawaii.

At one point I was walking on one of the back roads, and I saw an older, extremely obese man standing with several black garbage bags that were filled to the brim with empty cans.  He was trying to empty all the contents of one into a different bag, and somehow ended up with a couple hundred cans all over the road. I quickly put my bags down and gathered up all the cans while he held the bag open, and the entire time he was thanking me over and over again each time I dumped more cans in. When I was done he was all teary eyed and in broken English said ‘thank you senora, but why did you help me?’ I gave him a big hug and said, ‘because I love you.’ He buried his face in his hands and cried. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to help him.

I sat on a bench in the park for a while afterward, to enjoy the breeze and people watch – one of my favorite things I love doing with my Dad. A little girl sat singing at the top of her lungs as her mother worked close by selling beaded bracelets.

A group of school girls, all in uniform, sat in a circle giggling and whispering. Several men stood together and chatted loudly, laughing hard periodically, and a policeman stood talking with some young boys by his cruiser. (4 wheeler)   I love these Panamanian people.  They don’t have much concerning worldly goods, but they are happy, compassionate and humble.  What a great combination of characteristics, which we can all learn from.

Debbie called me when I was in town with an update on Steve. She was very teary with worry and sounded exhausted, but she’s ok. At first the doctor thought he had for sure had a stoke but after running tests, they found that Steve has an enlarged heart, and crazy high blood pressure. The doc said that when we saw him stumbling with stroke like symptoms, because we immediately lay him down, his blood pressure was able to lower enough to not go into a stroke, then when he walked from the golf cart to the water taxi and showed stroke like symptoms again, it’s because he was once again headed for a stroke but then we sat him in the water taxi and calmed him down and he didn’t end up having a stroke, but is on the verge. They want to keep him there tonight again to keep monitoring his blood pressure, and then hopefully send him back home here tomorrow.

Libby is missing her mom and dad but she’s doing fine. She receives lots of love and attention with us, and periodically sits on the starboard stern and looks down the dock to see if they are coming.

Danny’s hotel is in a great location in Paris, allowing him to explore the city and admire the beautiful sights.  I hope he doesn’t decide to stay!

I’m pretty tired tonight so I think I’ll get some sleep so I’m prepared for our early morning start into Bocas with Tanda Malaika, and the creatures are watching a Starwars movie. I am so grateful for this beautiful world, and the people in it with whom I am blessed to rub shoulders.