TheExpatJournals.com

It’s May 15, 2009.  My things have finally arrived from Panama.  I thought they would arrive in December 2007.

Somewhere along the line, I think I’ve become an absolute pro at packing.  Sure, I have moved quite a few times, a number only slightly less embarassing than the number we used to count in our 30’s that would make us sound like dirty old women to count in our late 40’s/50’s.  Why is it some 70 year old man making a fool out of himself is more socially acceptable than a  50 year old woman doing the same thing?  It goes back to Bill Maher’s point about how no young man wants to sleep with Lauren Bacall these days, but young women still drool over  Sean Connery.  So ladies, I guess it’s up to us to change that double standard…go Demi.

But I digress…my packing expertise.  First of all, these things sat in storage through 2 Panama rainy seasons, one of which produced the flood of the century…literally washing out bridges and buildings…and the storage facility used to become an island in a shallow river with the worst of the seasonally heavy rains anyway.  Unless you have lived in the tropics, you could never understand what ‘rainy season’ truly means.

This is a climate that will melt and destroy any photo touching glass. It will rust the mechanisms inside vaccum cleaners and coat any leather item with fuzzy, green mildew in very short order. I could not keep my cast iron skillets from developing a skin of mildew.  So today, as I open my boxes some 20 months or so after packing them, I am amazed that my cast iron skillets are black with not a hint of mildew.  I just opened a small wooden jewelry box that is lined with suede and has not a speck of mildew.  Yes, that is a miracle.  That box sitting in my room in Panama would have mildew in a matter of days.  Indeed if only I knew how to rid leather from it’s mildew smell even after the horrid substance has been long ago cleaned, I would be in better shape.  Perhaps a dry climate and the equatorial sun will be the perfect remedy to the Panama plague of mildew.

I had no idea of whether or not it would work, but what I did in hope of my things not being destroyed from being in storage was first to wrap most things in fabric.  This serves well during a move as your clothing/sheets/towels, etc are efficiently used as packing material and in that humidity, better to have a piece of fabric that can be washed or dry-cleaned absorb the humidity.  In some items, I placed artsorb, an expensive dessicant used by museums to preserve works of fine art during shipment.  I had also read how once-upon-a-time, museums used to place sponges around fine paintings while they were in storage.  I bought flat sponges about the size of a sheet of paper to use in some boxes.  Even while I lived in Panama and had some things in storage, I found the sponges to be effective protection.  The artsorb is amazing if you can find it.

Now, dating back to packing in NYC for the voyage to Panama, one statement I read when doing a bit of research on shipping things by sea really…errr…had an impact.  I have never forgotten that line: "Expect violent impact."  I believe the visual was an entire container being dropped onto the ground from perhaps 30 feet up.  Even last night as I watched the wood crushed on one large crate just moving it from the driveway into my door, that line came back to me.  I heard things inside that crate that left me with a fear of opening it.  This morning, I noticed my outside rug was full of tiny artsorb balls and felt a little bit better about the sound coming from inside.  I have not been able to open it yet because the screws and nails used in the construction came from Panama which means they are now little more than rusted metal unlike the screws in plastic boxes I brought from the states.

Another very helpful thing is to use solid, thick sturdy plastic packing boxes instead of carton boxes. I have unpacked my plastic boxes this morning and while thrilled, I am also shocked to find that my fragile black pottery from Colombia, my large crystal vase, Nana’s yellow vases, my 100+ year old bowls from upstate NY and so far, all fragile items have made it perfectly intact.  My thin silver pitcher doesn’t even have a dent.  So far, so good.  PS…as I was running out of imported sturdy plastic boxes in Panama when packing fragile items,  so I resorted to using 5 gallon paint buckets.  They worked great!

For my paintings, I had a fantastic, solid shipping crate made of wood in NYC.  I could not fit everything in there, so in Panama, I had another one made.  I thought I would never get it open and still don’t quite know how Aduana managed to get it open to inspect it.  I broke one hammer trying to pry a rusted nail loose, wood just snapped.  So I went out this afternoon and bought a metal hammer and a crow bar.  Metal hammer ended up bending, but I finally just went around the whole crate removing screws (by hand with my new and now somewhat ground down Stanley phillips head) and then used the crow bar.  Voila!  I’m finally in!

Inside, the wooden crate was packed with rugs, paintings and several clear plastic storage boxes along with the aforementioned paint buckets.  I haven’t opened my African Mask, but after 20 months, his rafia beard may be permanently crimped.

Anyway, it seems like an absolute miracle.  As I open box after box inside Wooden Crate #2; my fragile black Chambaware from Colombia…not a crack.  My large Tiffany crystal vase…perfect. Nana’s yellow vases…no problem. Aunt Mary’s ancient crockery tea pitcher…all good.  And so it continues.  I don’t know why I am so amazed nothing has any damage at all, but I am.

First, no mildew in spite of sitting so long in storage in Panama and ps…I know 2 of my oriental rugs were not completely dry when they were rolled up.  I was really concerned about the shape they might be in when they finally arrived.  My dog had developed separation anxiety after my time away due to a very, very lame dogsitter I actually paid.  The first 2 times I left the house upon my return, she went on a rampage.  One of those included finding and distributing a 5 pound bag of sugar throughout the house.

Now that’s not merely annoying…in Panama,  it’s a nightmare.  Panama is so full of ants that you cannot leave anything out lest they call in the army.  To digress for a moment, I love that I can leave a sugar bowl on the counter here and never worry about ants in it.  Up there, my yard was so riddled, the poor dog could not just lay around in the grass without getting eaten alive.  She could only lounge inside or on concrete outside.  And in Boquete, there was no such thing as a professional rug cleaning service.  Some suggested I take them to the carwash, but I ended up using the hose outside and scrubbing my rugs (hopefully) clean on the clotheline.  Of course, that was August and it rains every day in August, so the rugs simply would not dry inside or out.  Too much water in the air.  Miraculously, apart from being a bit dirty, they seem fine.  I’m leaving them all rolled up to go directly to a professional cleaner first thing Monday morning.  We have those here. Wool and Panama just do not mix.  Wool and Ecuador are perfect.

Alas, my most beloved TL Lange paintings are going to have to wait for tomorrow to once again see the light of day. Hasta manana.