It has been a few months since I have blogged. I could say I have been busy, but busy is a state of mind, I like to think of myself as being active in life. The last few months have been extremely active, educational, challenging and has given us both an opportunity to grow.
We have enjoyed the rainy, the world turned green overnight and the thunder storms have been absolutely spectacular. From our terrace we pretty much have a light show every night and you will often find us hanging in the hammock and watching the mountains light up in the distance.
The last few months introduced new adventures, a new puppy, new friends and weekend trips to Contadora to watch the whales and explore new waters. The last few months has also disclosed some realities that found us extremely disappointed to say the least. We have since worked through this through lots of conversation and the realization that as an ex-pat in Panama one must establish a Life Boat.
We arrived here like many others full of adventure, excitement and ready to take on a new way of living. We come here with expectations and standards that have been ingrained in us since we were kids. We arrive here with a set of ethics and morals that we have since found out are unique to the ex-pat, trying to find their way here in Panama.
This blog is truly to educate and if I come across negative, this is not my intention. I have waited this long to blog as it has taken us this long to sort out our thoughts and feelings and to finally be able to separate our expectations from what really is. We have talked and interviewed expats and Panamanians in the last few months, we have bored people with our woes, but I think we have now found a way to live as we now have our Life Boat.
I am going to share with you a brief overview of some of our challenges over last few months:
§ We have been through 4 mechanics. The first mechanic who was to fix our radiator, stole our $200 and caused further mechanical issues, that cost us $400.
§ We were able to recover the $200 through our First Life Boat passenger, our friend Luis who is our Project Director. Luis spoke to the mechanics, educated them on good business practices and not taking advantage of the North American expats. We recovered our money through the Grandfather who put up the money for his Grandson.
§ Our jeep needed further work and we thus took our Jeep to a hightly recommended English speaking mechanic. To make a long story short, after 6 weeks our Jeep was not fixed and more damage was done to our car and they wanted over $1000 for their trouble.
§ We have learned that the hired help will not always call us when they are not going to show up. We have learned when it is raining 9 times out of 10 the hired help will not come to work.
§ We have learned that the language barrier will often be used as a reason to charge us more money after the work is done.
§ We have learned many Latin Americans do not like telling us things we don’t want to hear, so they will either lie or not tell us anything at all. As it so happens with our cleaning lady and our mechanic.
The question is, do we start playing the game or do we stomp our feet and demand North American standards in a 3rd world country. Do we demand equality between the Panamanians and the ex-pats, do we start making noise so that our issues are heard?
This all goes back to a quote or a philosophy I heard and actually have been trying to incorporate into my life: No expecations = No disappointments.
We moved here to escape our winters, We moved here to have a higher quality lower cost way of life. We moved here to seek adventure and to find a work life balance. We moved here to learn and seek new cultures. We moved here to get away from the North American rat race. We found all of it and more.
We are now looking at the last few months as a huge lesson in patience and as a huge lesson in expectations. Luis told us that to survive we need to build a network and network with recommendations from Panamanians like himself. With recommendations with years of testimonials behind them. I like calling it my Life Boat. Since we have come to except our last few months of challenges, we started building our Life Boat and life has become much easier.
Our cleaning lady has shown up 80% of the time and has only not called once. Our gardener is reliable and we were able to work with the language barrier. We have a new mechanic, who seems to be making some headway in getting our jeep back on the road.
Our veterinarian is fabulous. We had our dog spayed for $25. We had our cats teeth cleaned for $45.
I can enjoy the Pacific Ocean anytime I want, we can golf at anytime without a tee time. The surfing is fabulous and the weather is second to none.
We are now 10 months into our Central American life. It has been an adventure, we have learned so much about ourselves, about this country and we are building our Life Boat and sending out inviting those that want to help us on our journey Aqui en Panama.
Karyn
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