We are here!

We made it! We've been here in El Valle, Panama safe and sound for 4 weeks now and have already had so many wonderful experiences!  Obviously, we've had a lot on our plate settling in.  In the future we will try to provide updates shorter and more regularly to keep everyone posted on this incredible journey.  Here are some initial highlights of our transition.

Well, Nicole, Simeon, Canaan, and I embarked on our adventure.  We flew out of Dulles Monday, March 3rd on Copa Airlines.  After several last minute changes to our airline tickets because of yet another snow storm (495 was unplowed!), the Davis family, in classic style, rushed through the airport praying that the plane wouldn't leave without us.  We were the last ones to board and of course had two screaming kiddos and a bazillion bags, strollers, etc and of course the guitar.  After all that, we sat on the runway for 1.5hrs for deicing.  Joy.

In any case, praise God, and a special thanks to Lightening McQueen, we had a very smooth five hour direct flight.  The flight attendants (actually) liked Simeon and Canaan, and gave us TWO adjacent rows to sprawl out on the half-full flight.  Touchdown Panama City (PTY).  At around 11pm, our friends Chuck Holton and his 16 year old son Mason were kindly waiting to pick us up 'on the other side of the rope'.  However, right out of the gate, we encountered our first very interesting (i.e. insanely frustrating) moment. This story is worth telling:  

As we were shuffling through the long line at customs we finally made it up to the desk of an immigration lady who was checking our passports and documents.  This slouching, and clearly tired, coed decided to take special note of us.  Were we too smiley? Too American? Too attractive?  Who knows.  She wasn't satisfied with our explanation as to why we had not written an address of our exact destination within Panama.  We explained (in broken Spanish) that we were staying in El Valle at a friend's house, but didn't have his actual address.  Not good enough.  With the crowds of weary travelers groaning as they piled upstream, she just sat there and stared at us.  We smiled and stared back.  ....OK, let's stand here and text Chuck for his address.  Fortunately technology worked and he was able to respond.  

"WHAT?! There are no addresses in Panama!!"  

That didn't help, Chuck, give me something, we're just standing here staring at this lady.  

"OK, how about this: '5 calle de panadaria'" ...which literally means 5th house on the street with the bakery.  

Not good enough. The lady erupted (exclusively in very rapid spanish) that this was not a true address, then awkwardly continued to stare at us.  She refused to let us pass.  No melodic vocalizations or hand gestures, no batting of eyes, nor girthy interpretive dance worked.  There was nothing that we could say or do to change her mind.  She just stared at us as both of our children, sitting on a giant 3-wheeled 'imported' tandem stroller, began screaming out of sheer exhaustion.  The immigration officer gave no alternative.  Yes, she had decided in her mind that this was not a real address and she was not going to let us through.  What were we going to do?!  We're off the plane, but have not even made it INTO the airport-proper.  Are we just going to float here without identity off the grid?  Somehow exist in this void tangential of the space/time continuum?  At this moment we even have less identity than Edward Snowden, that guy who's fleeing U.S. capture seeking asylum in a Russian airport!  At least he's IN the airport!!!  ...Get it together, Davis, we still have our cunning to survive.  Not to mention the guiding hand of the Creator of the universe.  OK, no we weren't that worried.  In our defense, the fact is true.  There are no addresses in our town of El Valle, nor most of Panama.  So before my head started to rotate and Nicole consumed the immigration lady with blue flames shooting out of her eyes, she came up with a wise alternative. 

"Let's just leave!" Pretty original thought when you really think about it.  I mean we were Temple Grandin-esque cattle being directed down this pseudo-calming meander of lines where we all have to follow the rules and not get in trouble, and there my sweet bride just throws in a game changer. Boom.

So, following the directive of 'the neck that turns the head' I simply turned around with my family, walked back and got in another line.  To make sure Nicole's 'passion' didn't get us in any trouble, I told her to 'stare at the ground, not look back, and be that little bubbly southern belle that I married'.  Within minutes, another customs agent oblivious of the tumult that happened just a few desks away, called us to his desk and processed us immediately.  Wow.  Yes, that will go down in the annuls as our first official 'Panama Moment'.  This we have discovered is a cultural passion of many here, to say, 'no' without giving an alternative option.  Oh the joys of a new environment.  But you know, we'll take that quirk for the joy of sharing life with this beautiful people group.  We'll share more about the people here in another post.

Now on to the great blessing of this new venture, the Holtons.  The Holtons (Chuck, Connie, Kiernen, Mason, Nathan, Joey, and Amy) are our kind and wonderful friends who have lived in El Valle off-and-on for a few years now and have bent over backwards to make our transition a smooth one.  El Valle is somewhat of a destination spot for Panamanians and gringos alike.  The average population is 5,000-7,000, but during celebrations can ballon up to 30,000.  It is in the crater of an extinct volcano (the second largest in the world), and at an altitude of 2,900 ft is therefore significantly cooler with less humidity and more temperate than much of Panama.  There are dramatic mountains surrounding the entire 5 mile valley floor (El Valle translates "the valley", much like for your Chris Farley fans "el Nino" translates to ...."the Nino").  During June-December, though sun peeks out occasionally, it rains each day mostly with afternoon showers.  January-May is the dry, warm season, although every season is warm and beautiful here.  So we have been enjoying incredibly beautiful weather since we've been here.  The nights here are very breezy this time of year, so we sleep with our windows open with a constant 10-20 mph breeze, but sometimes 30-45 mph gusts of wind.  Despite the occasional barking dogs, neighbors up till all hours, and roosters crowing at 4am, the boys are sleeping amazingly.  The first week we arrived was actually the big week of Carnival, which is the big celebration week including the last week of their summer and also "Fat Tuesday" and Ash Wednesday, so there were  a ton of extra people vacationing in town.

Our house is a humble two-level concrete home with two bedrooms upstairs.  The downstairs has a small kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom.  The house is perfectly situated in a 'family compound' of three other single-level houses in a fenced in area behind ours.  We are the only gringos in the neighborhood, so it's kind of like, 'come see the gorillas that have just moved next door', but with EVERYONE in the culture being so kind and respectful, it is endearing.  Though we are on the 'panamanian side' of town,  we are the first group of houses off the main road, so everything is very accessible and safe.  It is AWESOME for Simeon because he can run in an out of the house as he chooses and just stays in the yard, saying 'hola' and 'buenas' (the local greeting) to folks passing by.  Panamanians are very respectful of the gates, so no one comes in unless they are formally invited.  That first day we met our wonderful landlords, Mario and Esther.  More about them later.

The home was 'not a gringo house' when we moved in.  Gringo, you know, like when you open the bathroom door it DOESN'T stop half way in, banging into the sink.  So, the entire first week was spent scurrying around purchasing items for the house to get it fully functioning.  And yes, we did swap out the door so that it swings open the right way.  Chuck and I made several trips to Coronado, the biggest town 'down the hill' about 45 minutes away to purchase a stove/oven, washer, and fridge.  Connie took Nicole all around to get stuff for the kitchen and bedrooms.  The house came with bunk beds in the kids' room (a very uncommonly kind gesture from our owners), a bed in our room, two chairs and a couch downstairs.  Chuck and Graham built shelves for our bedroom and the kitchen, did some repairs, and hooked up all the appliances.  Our dining room has a very fancy, expensive white-plastic card table with two plastic chairs:).  The Holtons were kind enough to feed us three square meals a day the entire first week until we got ourselves situated.  Thank you to them.

On our first Friday, we took Simeon to the open house at the local preschool down the street. They had an event to prepare for the first week of class which started the following Monday.  We arrived and there were 20 or so families in front of the one-room school house.  It has buried tires to play on in a fenced in yard (next to a bull pasture, at the base of one of the coolest mountains, La India Dormida "the sleeping Indian").  Someone had set up an inflatable pool, and somehow everyone knew to bring their kids in their swim suits.  Simeon was interested, but not willing to jump in there with them.  We ate some delicious chicken and rice they were selling for $1 a plate.  This school is not funded by the government, so the parents help out frequently to help fundraise and sell things to support the school.  We decided to send Simeon Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week, 7:30-11:30 in the morning.  It cost us a whopping $15 per month.  Yes, we did the math.  It costs $0.31 per hour to send him to pre-school. He is the only "fulo" (blondie) that goes to the school, so he blends right in.  Zero English speaking teachers, Zero English speaking kids.  Talk about throwing him in the deep end!  He did what every 2.5y/o does.  Cried for 10 min when his parents left him, then ran, colored, and played with all the kids for the next 4 hours.  Simeon is a champion in every language.

Everywhere we go people point at and comment about the fair haired boys.  Women just grab up Canaan as fast as they can, especially in church.  There were literally 7 women surrounding Canaan this past Sunday.  It's a sight to behold.  We have really enjoyed the small church community we have been going to and are looking forward to diving in more as time goes on.  We've already worshipped multiple times there.  Every service worship is in 3 different languages (Kuna being a tribal mountain tongue) at this only bi-lingual evangelical gathering in town.  It has a couple of American missionaries facilitating, but in a scenario (rare evangelical church in town) with so many different backgrounds represented, every one has to concede their picture of 'church' ultimately to the foundation of the gospel and to how the locals recieve and interpret it. So far, that has manifested itself in a simple, 'campy' feel, where the Bible is preached, testimonials are very raw, community is transparent and authentic, and people really care about, and for, one another. Much like it happened in the New Testament.  We love it. Nicole has already been pursuing a few lucky local girls to share life with. 

Since getting here we have had the most incredible fortune with our safe/humble home, kind landlords, and especially our dear friends, Chuck and Connie Holton. They have set us up to thrive here by loving us and helping us get our house in order, finding the best places to shop, childcare, etc.   There's plenty more to share in coming posts, but know we love and miss sharing life with (and worshiping with) our friends and family at home.  As of right now our internet is very LO-FI, but we muddle.  The good news is that we can receive incoming calls for free here!  So if you can find an acceptable international calling option we can talk for relatively cheap and would love to talk!

Our PanaGraham number (see what we did there?!) is (Five Zero Seven) 6457-9897. Yes, more digits than in the States. Remember you need to dial Zero-1-1 when calling out of country. Love y'all!!! Call any time! We are one hour behind during Daylight Savings Time. Because there's no need for that here, haha!!

More to come soon!

Bendiciones, 
Graham, Nicole, Simeon & Canaan

Thanks for your prayers.

Simeon and Daddy hiking through the jungle and up a local mountain.

Our little girthy niño

Nicole & Canaan cooking platanos (plaintains) a local norm. That little gas stove was $106!

Sim and Lightening braving the flight

My sweet bride and her progeny

our sweet diggs!

guy smiley