true life planet

 On Friday morning, I took off for David. I had planned on waiting until saturday night-but, some things were getting on my nerves and making me edgy, so I took off a day early.

The ride to David this time around was much improved from the previous week, as they have been working on the roads for several days. (This should make future volunteers and visitors very happy!)

Once I got to David, I rushed over to the same little sad hotel I had stayed at the previous week. It was sad, but satisfactory-and I though it would be perfect for a night´s peace and quiet, a hot-ish shower, and some much needed privacy and alone time. When I arrived at the hotel front desk, I discovered they had no rooms. Now what?

I was pretty tired, feeling rundown, and the thought of walking from low budget hotel to low budget hotel for a few hours in 100 degree heat wasn´t doing wonders for my state of mind. I dragged my sorry self to two more hotels-and neither had a single room.

What next? I bit the bullet(financially speaking) and went to the best hotel in town. At 60 dollars a night-ouch!- I was expecting magnificence. And that´s exactly what I got.

When I saw the room, my mouth fell open-I had not had such luxury in months. I mean, let´s face it, outside of the low budget hotel I week after visiting the hospital, I hadn´t had an actual hot shower, with actual soap, in an actual shower stall, for over four months. I had not watched television, except for terrible pirated copies of Kung Fu movies with my family, and a few movies back in Guatemala, for over four months. I had not been alone, in an enormous, clean sheeted bed, without being fully clothed(either because of custom, lack of privacy, chiggers, fleas, or other biting insects) in months.  This hotel had air conditioning. It had a huge bottle of bottled water, and two actual glasses wrapped in paper. It had little toiletries(mouthwash?hair conditioner?shower cap? what is that?). It had six gloriously white, enormous, fluffy towels, just for me. It had enough room for a family of fifteen or so Ngobe to live quite comfortably. It had complete silence, with a view of a fantastic tropical garden. And, best of all, it had room service, and it had a delightful man who brought me whatever I wanted for a dollar tip.

So I spent the next 24 hours in complete luxury. I had no guilt-why, look at where I´ve been living, and how I´ve been living, for goodness sakes.

I watched hours of CNN, and caught up on world events.

I ordered room service-and ate an entire pepperoni pizza and a fruit salad.

I laid around not fully clothed, as where I currently live, I must respect the customs by basically being fully clothed all the time-even when I go swimming. There are the added problems of little privacy and also many biting insects, so add to this the issue of having to sleep fully clothed as well.

I took four showers, all piping hot, one of which was over an hour long. I actually shaved my legs and was shocked how different they looked afterwards!( I am somewhat embarrased to admit this, but it is true. That is what many months in the third world will do to you, when all you have is a cold bucket of water to bathe in. Showering, let alone shaving, has become something to get over with…therfore, I am afraid, shaving had fallen by the wayside!)

I drank loads and loads of bottled water-ah, the luxury of not having to hike down the hill, collect the water, and boil it! Ah, the luxury of drinking as much water as I wanted.

I looked in the mirror(what is that?) and agonized over my newfound wrinkles-and then spent a good hour actually moisturizing my face, something I normally do not do much.(Moisturizer seems to attract more dirt and bugs!)

I laid around on the enormous bed, which had a spectacular mattress, and watched Lara Croft, Tomb Raider, until I fell into a gloriously undisturbed sleep, until the next afternoon. Unlike at home in Soloy, where I am woken up at 4 am by people talking, playing the radio, cooking, and in general, living, this hotel room was a haven of tranquility. I never heard a single sound from outside the room, and I slept better than I have slept in weeks.

The next day when I woke up, I new it was time to bid adieu to my new friend(the hotel room).  I could really only afford one night in such a place, and anyway, I had promised my family I would return Saturday afternoon.

I made my way to the bus terminal, and took in the scene as I waited for the next 4 x4 to Soloy.

I really haven´t spent much time in David-and frankly, it´s not a city I really like. It´s hot, crowded, and dirty-and it´s design is a somewhat messy suburban sprawl, mixed with cracked sidewalks, trash, and so on. Even the ¨nicer¨parts of David aren´t that nice. It looks like exactly what it is-a stopover for people on the way to other more interesting parts of Panama.

However, it is the second most populated city in Panama, after Panama City. The population is incredibly varied-a real melting pot of many different groups of people.

Many people are on the heavy side, perhaps due to heredity, or perhaps due to a diet that seems to consist mostly of carbohydrates such as white rice-and lots of it. It is definitely not a health concious culture! People walk around eating icecream, candy,deep fried treats, snowcones with sugar syrup,drinking soda.

I had been waiting over two hours at the bus terminal when I realized I had a big problem. Two 4×4´s had already come and gone-and neither had a space for me. There were so many Ngobe waiting to get on one of the 4×4´s that I was wondering what to do-only 5 show up on Saturday, and there were well over 150 Ngobe waiting for the few that were left.

The reason that there were so many Ngobe waiting is that school, public school for children, started on Monday. they were all returning from working in the fincas just in time to get their children home for the first day of school.

I sat there waiting with all of the Ngobe-some of whom I knew, and some who became fast friends as we all waited-and contemplated the difficulty of their lives.

The all had all of their possessions in the world with them-including puppies, dogs,blankets, cooking pots, a little food, machetes, clothing, and of course, lots of children. All of these possesssions(except the kids!) were in large plastic bags, sort of a woven type of bag they normally use to transport maiz, but also used for other purposes as well. Yes, this includes animals-animals, including full size dogs, puppies, cats, kittens, chickens, and chicks were all in plastic bags. The animals were not given water-and rarely, a bit of ice cream, or a bit of cake-and they suffered terribly in the plastic bags in the heat on the hot sidewalk. Some animals, such as puppies, were carried by small children, and were passed out from the heat.

Babies, as well, had to bear the heat just as the adults and animals did. Several women had newborn or month old babies in their arms. Ngobe do not use anything in particular to help them carry their children-occassionally, a large net bag is used on the back, but I saw none of these today-and so the babies rested in the mothers arms. There was little shade, and the babies and mothers bore the full brunt of the heat. Mothers nurse publicly by opening a large slit in the front of their dress.

Small toddlers, red faced from the heat with sticky foreheads and dirty clothes, clung to their mothers skirts. Often the mother or father had no money for refreshment for the children-so they too, slept from the exhaustion of what was an obviuously very tiring long journey. On occassion refreshments were bought, especially to placate crying children, and these were always very sugary treats, such as little cup of ice cream or candy or perhaps a soda. I never saw anyone drink any water, in spite of waiting for more than six hours.

Finally, I managed to get onto a 4×4 that was being paid for by one very large group of Ngobe, all heading hope after having worked at the finca for 6 months. There was one spot in the front next to the driver, and I managed to squeeze in-and although it was very crowded, and not the most pleasant of journeys..I was relieved not to have to go find a hotel for yet another night(which might have proved impossible at this late hour.)

I didn´t get home until at least 8:30-and , remember, I had been waiting at the bus terminal since 12:30 that afternoon. When I arrived home, Arturo and my family came out, everyone happy to meet me. I am family, they told me. They need to have the family together, they said.

In spite of the challenges of living here, I felt ¨ at home¨, once I arrived at Catalina´s house. I have changed so much since being here with the beautiful people here..In many ways, I feel more affinity for them and their culture, than I do to the more prevalent, latino culture in David. Here, things are simple. People are not concerned with the same things-and when they are, it is not expressed in the same way.

I loved taking a night off-it was a well desrved break-but I´m happy to be home. I kind of missed the noise, the lack of privacy, Arturo popping into my room at any given moment, kids perched on my windowsill watching me reading a book, the pig snorting outside my bedroom window, Meiko the cat begging for the rest of my dinner, and so on.

It´s good to be home.

gg

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