Today had a bit of a doggie theme. As we got close to the school we saw the teacher and three of the students out in front calling the dog’s name, who lives on the floor under the school. Somehow Addie got out of the gate and the entire school was out to find her. We went beyond the school and Madi with her eagle eyes saw Addie at a distance. Difficult to believe she was once a street dog since she almost got hit by a truck before our very eyes. Luckily the truck was kind enough to stop and wait until she moved. Such concessions don’t always happen, perhaps it helped that she was wearing a collar. Madi grabbed her by the collar, but we could not get her to walk with us. She simply rolled on her back and would not walk. Eventually I had to carry the dog all the way back to the school. In retrospect I should have put her in a tuk tuk.
We put Addie on the back porch because if you let her in the school she will pee on the floor and then the kids slip and slide in dog pee. Someone unknowingly released her and she was running all around the school. We are all frantically trying to catch her before she went on the floor, but she was fast. Now I could see the streetdog in her as she eluded capture. But it was crazy, all of us racing around the school trying to catch this dog as she ran into the closet, the bathroom, under tables and desks. It was insane. Eventually we did catch her, and school got back to normal.
It was pj day at the school, which made the walk to school interesting. I don’t think most schools have this day, so lots of people were staring at the girls as they walked to school. The other kids at school avoided the stares by changing when they got to school.
In Spanish class we talked about weddings. I described the wedding reception I saw on the weekend. Our teacher told us investing in weddings is unusual for the indigenous, so it must have been a ladino wedding.
Our teacher, because she is our neighbor, also told us about the ongoing argument about the little pathway in front of our house. The pathway is not very large, but it has a serious barbed wire fence dividing it in half. Many people would like to take the barbed wire fence down, but technically it divides the public path from a private path. Yesterday the people on the private side were upset that our teacher’s dogs sometime squeeze under the barbed wire and walk on their side of the fence. This is an amusing concern if you could see how many stray dogs there are here wandering around in double-digit packs. Yesterday there were some people from the private side of the path putting up more barbed wire on that fence. It irritates our teacher. It’s interesting what people will argue over.
After Spanish class I went to get a coffee. I saw Cali’s friend’s mom there. She was dropping off her laundry because her house all of a sudden doesn’t have water. Both of her neighbors have water, but she doesn’t. She is worried that it is an expensive issue that perhaps she can’t afford to fix. She is understandably very concerned. Right now one of her neighbors has run a hose over to her house, but they can’t shower or wash clothes. She was telling me about her life story, where she is from, all the different places she has lived. What a life! She also has a son who is 22 who runs tours from an Australian based company. She wants to move out of Pana because she is concerned about the town growing too much and it not being a good place to raise her daughter. She wants to move to Mexico, but doesn’t think she can find work there. Here she is well established as a tour guide but in Mexico she may not be able find work.
I have noticed since the last time I was in Pana that there are more retired people here. A few retired people I’ve talked to say their dollar goes so much further here. Increasingly, more people are choosing developing countries to retire in. This is not surprising. I’ve seen a couple of retired guys driving down Santander in golfcarts, it’s the oddest thing to see. Like they made a wrong turn at the 18th hole somewhere. Generally people here feel tourism has been down since the economic downturn, but that more retired people are making their way here and calling Pana home. To illustrate this point, while we were sitting there discussing this actual phenomenon, a retired couple who have just moved here from Chicago and a few minutes later another retired couple who have moved here from Texas stopped to say hi to me.
After my friend left, I stayed for a while longer to read my book. I watched the guy feed the dogs. There is an older man who comes to the same coffee shop every day, usually sits in the same chair, if it’s available. He’s the Pana dog whisperer. The stray dogs come into the cafe to see him. Some wait for him to arrive. Then the man goes out of the cafe and sits on the bench just outside the restaurant with a bowl of dog food and feeds them. The dogs come regularly to see him. Today there was a new stray who looks like she’s almost done, just all bones and nipples. He went outside to feed her, but she didn’t eat very much and then left, even though there was 2/3 of the food left. This is a difficult place to live if you love dogs. If my mom lived here, she would be feeding all the dogs, too.
I went to PanaPan to get a new pastry with chicken in it that Kier’s friends introduced to her on Sunday. I bought her a couple for lunches. She was sooo excited when I told her. Small pleasures.
Cali went straight from school to the family’s house to make more tortillas. Her interest goes in waves. When she is interested it helps her Spanish a great deal. Last time we lived here I had her going over regularly for a couple of hours each afternoon to visit the family. But after a while she would get tired of going. I remember one day I asked what she did there, and she told me they were playing with a dead mouse. That kinda creeped me out a bit. During our stay this time I’ve decided it works best if we arrange for her visits when she is eager to go, and not make them regular.
After school Kier and Madi did conditioning for trapeze. Aftere they got home Madi worked on a project about Mali all evening. She was saying how much she loves going to school here. She loves what they study in all subject areas. They started a new unit in math that she is catching on to quickly, so that also makes her happy. I can’t remember the last time all three girls were loving school, socially happy, at the same time. With three kids, usually one is unhappy about something. Right now everyone is happy at school…it’s like the Haley’s Comet of parenting. Yes, I’m savoring the moment since it may not happen again for another 75 years.
Kier made a great meal tonight. She loves to cook, says she’ll happily cook every night if I want her to. Sounds good to me. She actually has the time to do that here.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. My friend was back at school today. My first class was science and we are studying about the body, stomach stuff. Then we had math and learned how to say first, second, third, up to tenth in spanish. Then we had lunch and went outside. At recess we played wheelbarrow. I was holding my friends legs and she would walk with her hands. We had a race doing that, but only with ourselves. We won every time. After recess we had computer class. We talked about how to respect people on the computer. You ask the computer the question, it gives you the answer on how to respect people. Then we wrote the answers in our book. In case you don’t know, you respect people by saying, “Excuse me,” “How are you,” “Good morning.” Then after computer we had English. We learned the Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes song. Then the day was over. Today I didn’t go home, I went over the family’s house again. At the family’s house we made tortillas again. We ate tortillas in the tree, had an orange, swang in the swing until my mom came. After mom picked me up we went to PanaSuper, because it is almost next door. We had fritos and mom had a DietCoke which always makes her very happy. The man who is always sitting outside was there again. He always tried to talk to us, but my mom doesn’t understand his Spanish. Maybe he isn’t speaking Spanish. Mom bought me a new shirt that she saw in the grocery store and I love it! I had the most dirt on my body I’ve ever had on it in my whole life. Mom says I was dirtier than the ground. I went to bed late, way after the service started. We ate late. P.S. I love you all very much and daddy is coming soon.