TheExpatJournals.com

It took two days of bureaucracy to finally get my Ecuador driver’s license. The main reason for me to do this was two-fold: A. A driver’s course is mandatory and cost $160 up until May 1 when it was rumored to shoot up to $900. B) My US license expires in July and I’m not so sure I’ll be back in time to get it renewed. So the double whammy added up to ‘just do it.’ And boy did I ever break it in! (more…)

I have had a couple of holiday traditions since moving to Panama. One has been to ‘play Santa Claus’ for about 1000 kids on 4 islands in San Blas. It is always treacherous and taxing to get there as the weight I take out mandates a trip by other than air. Last year, it was an overloaded canoe over the ocean in 15 foot swells for 7 hours after a bus ride from Hell. This year, we passed over the mountains near Chepo on a dirt road that grew progressively worse as we neared the Atlantic side until we were simply sliding down sideways to seemingly certain death. I repeat, mud is to driving in the tropics what snow and ice are in the US mountains. That was one of the 2 scariest drives of my life. Flying back and looking at that ribbon of a road
that runs along the very peak of the mountains, I knew that if I had seen the realty of the drop offs beside as we slid sideways down the steep grade that I would never have considered going up there to begin with. The old addage is true, ignorance is bliss. (more…)

Didn’t know I was going to stay that long, but one thing lead to another and quite honestly, I was loving it there so much, I didn’t want to leave. I wrote 22 pages of journals, but since you’re all so familiar with Panama, I can sum them up simply by speaking about a few stand outs. (more…)

This Christmas was easily the most incredible, most memorable ever. About the time Santa started bringing computers, my son began to understand where they came from, so I quit Christmas and we began what we call our anti-Christmas, trading what had become almost as work as moving for a new adventure each year to get as far away from the commercialized American Christmas as possible. Before this, gambling in Atlantic City on Christmas Day was sitting at the top of the success in terms of an anti-Christmas.
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So right now…if I don’t worry about eating supper…I have about 10 minutes. That’s my life since I’ve gone back to work. I want to go take a quick walk on the Paseo, something I never get to do anymore. But this intolerable work schedule is almost over…I hope! At least the east coast is once again on Panama Time which makes calling Atlanta, NYC, Philly, DC etc a bit less daunting. I know…you don’t know what I do, but does it really matter? I reach out to teachers in high schools all over the US every day. And unfortunately, they seem to all only be available at the same time! So lately, I’ve had the unfortunate task of reaching some 800 teachers in a couple of weeks all during the same lunch hour. That’s the real glamour of the music biz folks. Working on databases at night…are you bored yet? Then a Panamanian friend of mine said last week, “You’re working too hard, come to the beach house this weekend. You can swim, read, rest and we’ll pamper you. ”
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Well, some time ago I spoke of my political position, but only as it applied to my decision to leave the US. Thought now might be a good time to address religion, or my lack thereof. When I left NYC, at first, I couldn’t get over how friendly folks were in NC…strangers seemed always ready and willing to strike up a chat. I quickly realized they had an agenda once they found out I was new in town. “Come to our church!” After awhile, I got so tired of it that I came up with a handy response designed to get the response I wanted, “I haven’t been to church since April of 1975, thank God!” Seemed to always do the trick.

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