Traffic in Panama City

Traffic here is "interesting" and I am very glad Joel and I had our under grad studies in driving taken in Rio with a post graduation in Italy... we are then good to go, LOL!!

The Panamanians do have an extra love for their horns and according to my taste, they blow it slightly too much. They are so expert in doing it, that they manage to blow it mili-seconds prior to the light turning green, can you believe it?

They have buses going up and down everywhere, that although not for everyone, it's marvelous because it allows us, car drivers, a more "flowy" street, with less cars on. The buses here are the cutest thing ever, really typical of Central America and may be North of South America too. Joel and I have the impression they are all bought in the US from an "old school bus dealer", if there is such a thing, and then these old school buses gain a whole new look down here. Of course, VERY colorful, with ribbons flying everywhere. I'll post some pictures when I get some decent ones.

The taxis, some newer than others, work on a system that reminded me of my days in Washington DC, e.g.; people share taxi rides, in other words, you hop into a taxi and tell the driver you want to go to XYZ place. A few blocks down the road, a person is also flagging a taxi and so your taxi stops and asks where the person is going to. If the direction is the same, this other person hops in too and happy you go onwards. Each person pays US$ 1, really funny.

Parking is not a problem at all and for now, the malls have free parking.

... and yesterday, Panama City got 2 more official drivers, as my new car has arrived, obaaaa! No more rented car!! We are still driving on HK driver's license. Their conversion into Panamanian licenses, is on a to do list.

A bad morning

The 1st bad morning in Panama City we never forget, ha ha ha... and the story goes like this: we have a lawyer taking care of our work visa for Panama and for that, he, of course, needs one thousand five hundred and sixty four documents. But before I go any further, let me remind you that we left HK with the idea that we were going to Angola, where we were not opening any bank accounts, we were not buying any cars and we were not buying any property. The company there would be applying on our behalf for a work visa. However, the winds changed and we're now in Panama, where yes, we will have a bank account, yes, we will buy a car and yes, we are buying a flat, so... all of a sudden, we needed an avalanche of documents to be couriered from different institutions in HK, which were done with no problems and life was beautiful until yesterday morning.... ayahhh!!!

Before leaving HK, the company in Angola asked us to take a "No Criminal Records" document, issued by the HK Police because this would be one of the required documents for the visa in Angola and so we did. Well, as it happens in most countries, this police document is a common requirement for work visas and here in Panama it's no different. However, for some bureaucratic reason, it had to be authenticated, which sounded like something very doable.

Panama does not have a Chinese Embassy but instead it has a "China Office for Commercial Development" (we think its because Taiwan has an Embassy here so China did not bring its diplomacy into Panama) and this office is also responsible for doing consulate stuff. We called them in advance and asked if they also represented HK to which they said yes, so off goes Joel with both our "No Criminal Records" ORIGINAL documents issued by the HK Police into town.

About an hour later, Joel calls me totally fuming, totally smoking through his vents, totally completely furious... oh man... it has been a while since I last saw Joel so upset!!

The Chinese lady told him, looking straight into his face that although he is a HK permanent resident, she could not help him, BECAUSE HE IS NOT A CHINESE CITIZEN and walked away, leaving him talking to the air!

For our process of applying for a visa here in Panama it's not much of a problem, because we can get the same document from the Brazilian Police, but in our minds, it's not accurate as we have been out of Brazil for the past 12 years.

All these exciting things!

Now that most important things have been done and or arranged, it's time to start taking care of the "type B" to do list, which deals with things such as pin adapters for the electrical items coming in the containers, dog hotels, hair dressers, helpers (not quite understanding myself here. How come this was not top priority for that Saturday night when we arrived??) dermatologists, small home appliances and so forth. Like Alice says, going shopping for “all these exciting things”.

HK is a 220 voltage place and so is Angola, therefore we packed all our electrical things to go to Angola. However, Panama is 110 voltage (thank goodness, some of our things are double voltage) which means we have a whole bunch of things that are floating somewhere in the Atlantic on their way to Panama that will be totally useless for us once they get here. Joel and I were doing some space calculation the other day and came to the realization that we’ll need a biggish storage room for a short (so I hope) period, while we find a new destination to it all. That part of this move, I'm not looking forward to. Let's see how it'll flow.

The flat we got (in American English, it reads "the condo we got") comes with all the big appliances, so last Saturday we went shopping for all small appliances... so cool, it's like getting married all over again (oops, may be I better not go down that lane... have been there too many times already, LOL!). We came back loaded up with 110 voltage stuff, cool and fun. Also, as Joel is opening their office here in Panama, we went to Office Depot for office items. All good!

Yesterday I gave myself sometime off from this "moving/ get established mode" and left Carlota with Joel, got myself decently dressed and off I went for a calm and investigative stroll at one of the shopping malls nearby. You see, I am not at a point of doing cultural stuff yet. Can a brick layer spend 6 hours building and go straight from there to perform a surgery (please ignore the skills involved here in my example)? Probably not, because his hand would be very rough for such delicate thing as a surgery, right? So, that is how I feel at the moment… anything too cultural will not go in properly, as my head is at 500 k/h. I need to settle in completely before I start doing museums and ruins.

Anyway, going back to yesterday, as I was strolling along the mall, I walked by a cafe and heard 4 ladies, about my age, chatting in Portuguese. So I got all excited and addressed them in a hope they could give me more tips about living in Panama.... but my plan did not work... they were tourists!!

Got to go and take my gorgeous youngest princess for a walk… actually, before I go, let me once again say what a wonderful positive surprise this move to Panama has been, with no room for playing “Pollyanna” here. Of course it is not a perfect place, not at all perfect, but it seems that things that go wrong, go wrong smoothly or go wrong softly… for all we know, we could define Panama City as being a delicious mix of third world, with first world topped with a wonderful heavy dosage of Latinism. The other day, on my afternoon walk with Princess Carlota, out of the blue, I hear this “hola, que tal”? Of course it couldn’t be with me, I know nobody here, so I ignored and continued walking. The voice was back again and this time more emphatic. Then, I noticed I was the only person around, so decided to look for the voice and what do I find? A lady sitting on her chaise-longue on the 1^st floor balcony together with her small dog. She waved hello as if we were old friends and obviously both dogs barked hello at each other and us, the ladies, were just so proud of our four legged mates! Oh, I tell you, life here has all the ingredients for a good life, except for the void of the absence of you, dear friends & family.

What can I say?

View from our living room. These ships have just crossed the Canal.

The urban view from our kitchen

Ten days into settling in Panama City and what can I say but just that it has been "Love at first sight"?

Like I mentioned previously, we landed on a Saturday very late at night, had a "nothing" type of day on Sunday and then Monday came! We were up bright and early and off we went into the streets, shops, banks, dealers, veterinary, PO Boxes, properties and so forth to get our life into action as quickly as possible and with the help of this lovely and helpful people, the Panamanians and our realtor, we were very successful and oh man... are we very happy or what and I repeat: It has been "Love at First Sight".

Joel and I are so positively impressed at how sweet and kind these people are and I am not just talking about the people at car dealers or banks who HAVE to be nice to people, but instead, I am talking about people walking in and out of the elevator, general people on the streets who we ask some info for, people at the supermarket, at church... all good, amen to that!

Carlota got herself a cystitis so she has already taken 5 very painful injections... poor little thing.... on the other hand, if there were an ego meter, I am sure hers would be at its highest ever... EVERYBODY talks to her, amazingly delicious!! In the early hours of the mornings, when either Joel or I go down to take her for some pees and poos, we meet some 6 or 8 young kids who are waiting for their school bus. My friends, it's just so totally cute... as soon as they see Carlota coming out of the lift they say in Spanish things like: "Good morning Carlota" or "Carlota, how are you?" or "Carlota, did you sleep well?" and so on. So gorgeous! When we move flats, I'm sure Carlota will miss this welcoming committee she has here.

The other day I had a very memorable moment, those that reminds me how exciting it's to be a Latin person! One of these children, got into the elevator with me and in her best Latin passionate way of explaining things, she told me of the big debate that went on in the lobby after I passed with Carlota carrying a urine sample bottle (I was about to collect a sample of her urine to sent to the lab). Some of them thought that Carlota drinks her own urine and some other kids were sure she didn't, so apparently the debate went on and on for a long time, extending itself to the school bus. Now you tell me, are we not to be in love with this place??

Joel started with his new job this past Monday with a trip to Caracas (ouch, Chaves land) and is already back on full swing.

When I first heard of the invitation to come to Panama, all I could think of were their Noriega's days back in the 80's but after some research, learned that it is now history and that the Country has left that historical moment behind and that is very good!

Voila, Bridge of the Americas and the very entrance or exit to the Canal.

Also, it's kind of cool having left HK, located in one extreme of the Pacific Ocean and come to the very other extreme of that same Ocean, which here is "shoring" literally at our door. Also, it gives me a thrill to go over "the America's bridge"... the bridge that unifies 2 HUGE pieces of land... the North/ Central America through to South America... beautiful piece of engineering. Talking about beautiful pieces of engineering... yesterday we had lunch at a restaurant located at the very last bit of the isthmus, right by the entrance to the Panama Canal! Although I am not an engineer myself, but daughter, sister and wife of those, it gives me goose pimples on their behalf (not that they have asked me to) to observe this massive thing that is the Panama Canal. The original idea came from a French engineer in the 19th century. So in a rough translation into nowadays life, we can picture him in a happy hour with his colleagues drinking some French wine when he opened his mouth and said something like: "hey gentlemen, how about we slit open the bottom of Central America?" Can you just imagine the faces?? Anyway, the French didn't manage to finish their plan due mostly to tropical diseases that were abundant in those days and were decimating the workers. Today, the Canal not only has been at service for almost 100 years as it is being expanded!

Cheers to all the lost lives that were committed to its construction and cheers to this idea that was once a dream and is now a need!

We had a "shaking" welcome to Panama City

The three of us arrived here at the serviced flat we are temporarily renting, late on Saturday night and we were really exhausted. Our plan was to get in, take a shower and just melt in bed until late hours of Sunday morning and so it was. The rest of the Sunday, was for unpacking and a lot of "nothing". We really needed a "nothing" type of day, before we went full gear on "getting a life in Panama started".

So, after a good "nothing day", we went to bed at about 10 something PM, got cozy in bed, turned on the TV for some more nothing and then I started feeling the bed shaking quite a lot. I immediately thought it could be some trembling from heavy trucks that could be passing on the street, like it was in Luanda. However, immediately after that thought, I realised I was no longer in Luanda and that we were on the 15th floor, so... not possible to feel any heavy trucks.

At this point, I noticed the room's chandelier was dangling from right to left, as if a monkey was going from a branch of a tree to the next one ... oh my Lord, we were living an earthquake!!

Next morning I saw in the news that it had been a small one, a 5.9 in the Richter scale... I honestly have no desire at all to be in any other earthquake in my life, specially if it's stronger than that! What a weird sensation!

That is what I call a "shaking welcome"!

Panama City is now Home Sweet Home!

The leg from Frankfurt to Miami was also uneventful and the 9 hours passed quickly. There in MIA, we were told that we were to collect madam Carlota so that she could do her business and then return her to American Airlines, for our very last leg, MIA/ Panama City and so we did. She came out through the odd size luggage door, started barking as soon as she saw us (of course, why would she not show off?), we went through the agriculture officers, who checked her papers and voila, we were free to go and so we did.

A very kind staff man explained us where to go. It’s a designated outside dog’s corner the airport put together for owners to take their dogs to. It’s a neat white fenced area, with grass, coble stones and some dirt, really nice. She was able to wonder around without any leash, did her business, drank loads of water, had very little to eat, returned to her box and then… the comic nightmare started.

Still in Luanda, we were told that we could have a problem taking off from MIA with Carlota, due to intense heat. If temperature was above 75ºF (23.8C) , Carlota would not be allowed to embark. As I was getting out of the plane, in that split second when you leave the plane and have a quick feeling of the local temperature, I thought to myself, “ouch, we’ll have a problem because it’s freaking hot”, but decided to cross that bridge when time came to it.

So, after we returned to the building of the airport with Carlota, Joel and I walked towards AA’s counters to check her in and to get our own boarding passes too. When the AA lady saw Carlota, she asked if Carlota was to embark with us to Panama and Joel confirmed it. The lady then says,
- “Ok, let me check the temperature and see if he can go”.
After checking, the lady gets back and asks;
- “he is a boxer, right?
- Joel says: “yes, she is”
- and the lady then goes on to say: "I’m afraid she won’t be able to fly, because the temperature limit for boxers is a bit lower than for other dogs, because boxers have short noses, therefore their breathing is harder than long nose dogs.”

Oh no, that really couldn’t be happening, but although in our opinion it couldn’t be happening, it was happening and we needed to take action. Joel tried to argue saying that Carlota is a dog only used to high temperatures because she is from South Africa, moved to HK, also very hot, then moved to Luanda, extremely hot and “so madam, as you see, she is used to hot climates”. To this, the AA lady replies: “sure a well traveled dog, but no, we can’t take her!”

I then suggested us to check with Copa Airlines (the Panamanian sister company of Continental). The lady very kindly said that Copa had a flight 45 minutes after theirs and suggested us to check with Copa and so we went.

However, by now, we were starting to be slightly short of time only to realize what we already knew. Miami is an international hub, therefore Miami International Airport is very big. American Airlines is a big company on its own, therefore has a sort of its own little terminal at the airport. Copa is a much smaller company that represents an even much, much smaller country… so, of course, it’s located in the most extreme side of that huge airport.

Remember I said that we were slightly running out of time, right? So, when you are running out of time, what do you do? You run, right? But how do you run, when you are pushing a trolley, doing your best to balance a HUGE box (with more than it’s half sticking out on either side of the trolley) carrying a barking dog inside? As we were literally running with both trolleys (Carlota’s and the other one with both carry-on luggage) people would stop to see what was that barking all about and as soon as they saw a boxer inside they would express their love for either dogs, boxers or both and in most cases they expressed their love in that baby’s voice many of us (including myself) do when we talk to babies or puppies. That got Carlota even more excited, so besides the barking, she would also move left to right inside her box in high speed following the voice that was talking to her and of course… guess what happened? … the box would fall from the trolley… My friends, the picture was way beyond any comical scene Hollywood could produce and please add to that, a sweating and totally over traveled look Joel and I already had on us!

When we finally arrived at Copa counters, the staff welcomed us with huge smiles, as if they were happy to be the final chosen destination of the tornado that was coming along the hall.

We then explained our situation, they also said that it would not be very good for the dog to fly because bla bla bla and that they had to call Panama City to check whatever. That short part of the sentence the supervisor said "call Panama" was crucial for us. As I heard it, I immediately tried to put a “great, we now have a solution” type of face on, and said:
-“good idea, and please speak to Dr. Paz from the Quarantine sector. We’ve arranged with him and he is already waiting for the dog!”.
Honestly, I believe that the fact that we had a real name of an authority in the story gave us some support. A few minutes later he comes back with a smile on his face and Carlota was good to go. That meant buying a ticket for me and her. Joel would fly AA with our luggage. By now, it was already too late to re-direct our luggage to Copa.

However, if you remember, I told you that when we left AA’s counter, we were already short of time, right? Now, after all the running and talking, Joel was definitely totally completely out of time, running the risk of finding gates closed… poor man… he grabbed his carry-on and briefcase as if he was holding on to his life and just disappeared in that multitude of people and their trolleys. He was like a flash man running towards the other side of the airport. I kept a mobile and he kept the other one. As soon as he got the “yes, you can go” from AA, he called me and I purchased only my ticket with Copa and life was beautiful once again. Amen!

Arriving in Panama City, I was welcomed by my smiling husband and to prove that the world is getting to be as small as a pea… when we were chatting with Dr. Paz a few minutes later, we found out that he had done his Vet schooling in Rio de Janeiro and that one of his professors is the father of Joel’s good friend in Rio. Needless to say, that immediately after, we were childhood friends!

Now you tell me, how could a story that has a Dr. Paz (in English 'Dr. Peace') in it, not end up well?

Already in Frankfurt

We've made it! Must say that I was a bit on the extra prayer side of teh story, as we were on board of an Air Bus and thanks be to our good God, nothing happened and it was a very uneventful flight.

This time, here in Frankfurt, we are not able to see Carlota. I didn't quite understand why we could do it when we went to Angola and now we can't, but never mind, the animal center here in Frankfurt is well known for being a very good one. We've received a message that she is fine, walking about in the space given to her, so life is beautiful for her too or so I want to convince myself, ha ha ha.

No plans as of yet for what to do once my life is settled in Panama City. I feel sorry that we left Africa before I had a chance to go up to Mombassa, Kenya and visit the orphanage that Alice and David are so involved with. I know, the world has become a small pea, so I'll have a future chance (soon I hope).

Two months later...

'Here we're... Joel and I, sitting in the lounge at the airport in Luanda, heading to Panama City! My heart... yes, my heart, I surely know I have one... worked hard today and it's now 8:35 PM and the day is almost over, which is good.

Today was a day of mixed feelings and a couple of tears. Of course, I'm completely happy to be moving to Panama City, really happy, I mean VERY happy. At the same time, I have this "lump" in my throat about leaving Angola! My tears were shed for them, for this people who love their country dearly, who are so proud of it... but wow, what a very difficult time a foreigner can have here. Wow, I repeat, life here is very difficult.

During these two months, I had quite a few touching moments, but 3 of them were stronger than others. The other day, Junior, the driver, was talking to me about his old Angola, the one before the war and all of a sudden, he turns his head back and tells me "oh Senhora Odila, this place was beautiful before the war" and it was like a 1000W bulb was being lit. How proud he was of his place that has been completely devastated during the war. Indeed, this very confused life one has here in Luanda, is surely the very best they can offer at the moment, it clearly can not be any better, when you take all elements into consideration.

Some Angolans are very aware life here is far, far away from ideal... I remember when I went to the Agriculture Ministry to have a document for Carlota's departure issued. When I got there, I was welcomed by this big African lady, wearing her vibrant outfit and pointing me to the right person for me to talk to, Senhora Marina. I then sat in front of Senhora Marina and calmly explain what I was needing. She listened carefully all I had to say and with a gentle smile on her face, she said: "You know you have a problem in your left eye, don't you? What is it, stress from Angola?" Oh my Lord, please help me here was all I could think. Yes, of course it was stress from this life in Luanda, but how could I tell it to her? She was being so sweet... how could I tell her so? I decided to smile back at her, hold both her hands that were laying on the table and said: "no, not at all, I have only met sweet and kind people over here, like you"... and on I went talking about Carlota's paper.

Today, Joel, Carlota and I were starting our pre-check-in when the local official vet came along to check her papers. He then asked: "going for good" and Joel replied: "yes yes" and he continued: "had enough of Angola?" Difficult moments these were... there is no need to hurt these people they have been hurt enough, but on the other hand, yes it's a relief to be leaving this place. God bless them!!

We also had the chance to meet some people who have already become part of the big Braga family. From day one, when we had the chaotic arrival, they have made sure we had a family in Luanda for all times. Again, a big and warm thank you to you who made us feel like old time friends!

Panama here we come, with a whole lot of enthusiasm to be moving there and as for me, COMPLETELY excited to be near, next door to my college days goal, post graduation in Pre-Colombian History!

An immense thank you goes to mom, dad and Mrs. Braga, Alice and David, Darling girl friends spread all over the world and gorgeous HK friends for being there for us throughout these 2 months. You were perfect and seriously kept us moving and breathing! Love and hugs to you.