Graham, Why Is The Clock In Freezer?

For the past 8 weeks we've been able to settle in to a new life with what many would consider to be optimal weather conditions.  The weather was so oddly consistent that I thought our wall clock/thermometer was broken on 79 degrees. It didn't change for four days (day or night).  So naturally, I did what any freak would do and stuck the clock in the freezer for a minute to see if it really worked.  Of course freaks forget about putting clocks in freezers and Nicole found it later, thus begging the question.  The normal weather here was sun, flowers blooming everywhere, the occasional afternoon drizzle.  One thing that was different to us was the breeze.  I should rather say, wind. We've kept all of the screen-less windows wide open 24 hours per day to let the breeze in.  Even with the lights on at night and the windows and door open, we would only be visited by the occasional moth or mosquito, but nothing of much consequence. It was hard to believe how few bugs actually came in and bothered us.  One thing that blew our minds was the wind.  During 'the dry season' most of the time there was a constant 10-20mph wind with very low humidity.  It was heaven for me, but Nicole would sometimes even get chilly at night.  Sometimes the wind would get serious and bring 30-50mph gusts.  We imported a heavy, king sized, down pillow from the states. The wind could easily blast through the window and would regularly blow it right off the bed.  

Saturday that all changed. The dry season is over.  It rained for REAL. I guess that's what they meant by the rainy season. Rain coming down in actual clumps of water. So heavy I was looking in vain for hail on the ground. I took the time to record what was easily 90 decibels of water slamming against the tin rooftops. The rainy season introduced me to another first.  Bug clouds.  I saw no less than 100,000 termites flying 12" apart from one another in a cloud towards and around our house. Weirdly they seemed to go around the house.  I still ran around slamming the windows to the room where Simeon was sleeping. The bugs weren't ominous, just abundant. Kind of looked like mayflies. The rain-soaked ground cues all insects to leave terra firma and take flight.  Our landlord, Mario said this is the norm all season. I have to believe there will be some respite. It was a cloud. Birds were sacrificing their bodies in the torrential rain for the winged-feast that was clumsily dangling in front of them.  Guess it's time for window.

On a related topic we had another Panama moment that very night:  We discovered a colony of 1" flying termites in the door and doorpost to Simeon and Canaan's room. We realized they were there when they all took flight yesterday evening (Canaan was already down). After Nicole's head stopped rotating, I got to work on exterminating, getting the door taken outside and the aftermath cleaned up. Nicole was still a little frazzled as a few dozen of the little flyers kept coming out of random holes. We cleaned the entire house. Ugh. To put everyone's mind at ease we put Canaan in our room and both of them were under mosquito nets.  This was also so Nicole could live with herself. What a night!

Walking bridge to a local swimming hole/waterfall.

Insert 'Temple of Doom' reenactment here. (sans alligators)

Follow up:  No bugs for two days and the windows are back open for the time being ;)

Triumphal Entries (part 2)

Continuing with the triumphal entries theme, My 38^th birthday (March 28^th) has been a metaphor for this entire Panama experience.  There is adventure around every corner. There’s waterfalls, mountain climbing, hot springs, exotic bird watching (even Toucan Sam lives here!!), plus jungle canopy tours, just to name a few.  But by far, the best part is the opportunity to move into such a cool culture and connect with amazing people who have a completely different worldview as us.  Who knew that the adventure of following Jesus would have our family moving to Panama, diving into the local community here and me jumping off a cliff into a remote waterfall?  

For some reason, the younger I get, the more physical harm I feel needs to be inflicted on my body, especially on my birthday.  Well, just getting to the remote waterfall was an adventure.  Only four-wheeled vehicles can get there.  After the asphalt road ends, It’s about an hour ride straight into the mountains.  When I say road ends, I mean it.  There are five stream crossings, and many of the hills you drive more closely resemble landslides than thoroughfares.  I'm talking actual boulders in the road.  Chuck was driving, and the trip got interesting very quickly when his brakes went out going down a hill.  Fortunately, his parking break and transmission were there to grind us to a halt until the brakes cooled off for the rest of the journey.  Yes, we voluntarily got back in the car and yes, I was white-knuckling the door handle. The amazing irony is that this remote area is considered by the locals to be more of the ‘suburbs’ of El Valle.  One mother of three regularly leaves her home at 5am and carries her infant child for over three hours to get to church by 8am. That chick is serious.

After a hike down we arrived at the falls.  There is no one around for miles.  Crystal clear water pounding down from one pool to another until it reaches the fifth and final waterfall and connected pool.  This is absolute paradise.  It is a slot canyon with vertical ascents on either side.  Conveniently, a multi-story rock bursts vertically out of the ground right above the fifth deep pool.  There I had my crisis of faith: cliff jumping.

See, it is not natural to voluntarily exit the integrity of a perfectly stable landmass with enough airtime for you to realize you are still falling …and you don’t want to be.  Come to think of it, in that utterly helpless moment just dangling out there in space you realize that you didn’t properly check the depth of the water you are falling into.  Sure, everybody says it’s fine. NO, IT IS NOT FINE! There’s also the all-important time it takes to scream like a 12 year old girl at a One Direction concert. This is clearly a defining moment.  One of those triumphal entries that you can look back on during a future trial in life and say to yourself in 2^nd person, “Davis, you jumped off a freaking cliff in Panama, you can do THIS!”  

Triumphal Entries (part1)

Happy Easter Week everyone! We will first begin this triumphal entry with the best one in history: The Davis family into Panama.   I kid.  Actually, Palm Sunday was mentioned very little yesterday at church.  This faith community is a major reason we felt led to move down here.  They have referred to themselves as an exploded Bible study.  That’s about how it happened.  The bible study started 3 years ago with two believers, David and Lisa Carter, who drove out 2 hours from ‘the City’ every weekend and began teaching English and the Bible with one local here in town.  Yesterday, there were more than 90 people who came to worship.  Like we’ve said before, it’s an authentic group of people from every walk of life that have one thing in common, the desire to follow Jesus.  There are a few gringos sprinkled in the church, but it’s mostly Kuna, one of the many indigenous tribes here in Panama, as well as local Panamanians.   I say Palm Sunday wasn’t mentioned much because this church hasn’t had enough time to get stuck in annual tradition.  Tradition has its merits, for sure, but it can also cause dust to accumulate on faith communities.  Everything here is absolutely fresh.  We were busy blazing through the book of Acts (Hechos).  In the Book of Acts, the simplicity of the early church trying to figure out what to do next is quite kindred to the path we are taking at our church.  The leadership is being very intentional about not asserting an American religious construct on this faith community.   The goal is simple: teach the Bible and let the Holy Spirit direct the congregation as to how we will live out Jesus’ teachings in our paradigm.  In other words, none of the gringos or more mature Panamanian Christians are asserting, “Well, we had a choir in our church, so YOU need to have one too!” or, “This is how you do the offering.” etc.  It’s beautifully fresh and easy.

Saturday, we celebrated Canaan’s triumphal entry to earth 5 months ago. (11/12/13)  He has been an absolute gem during this major life transition for our family.  Nicole love’s ogling at him. I like making him laugh, Simeon likes saddling him up and riding him like a flat pony, and he likes trying to roll over.  What we never expected is how integral he would be to our relationship with our landlords, Mario and Esther.  It’s hard to call them ‘landlords’ because they have fast become our friends.  Remember, they live within the same fenced in ‘compound’ as us.  So, similar to the U.S., if you wanted to avoid your apartment neighbors all the time, you could here as well.  Fortunately, the exact opposite has happened.  Our door is almost always propped open where Mario or Esther feel free enough to come over and share a laugh with us and the boys. They are both locals here, with all of their extended family in this town.  On multiple occasions, Esther has come over asking for Canaan, scooped him up in her arms and disappeared in her house for 30-45 minutes at a time.  It is truly the highest compliment to us, that they feel so comfortable with us to just walk away with our baby.  But even me being Mr. Congeniality, when this happened the first time, my paternal protection flag went up.  

Mario and Canaan

Mario giving Canaan a bottle

Connie Holton squeezing Canaan tight.

Here’s where Nicole showed once again why I married up.  After 30 minutes had passed with Canaan still gone behind the closed door of this new friend/stranger’s home, I thought she might want to poke her head in and go make contact or something. “Nope.” Nicole said, “This is an opportunity to show her that I trust her. She can keep him as long as she’d like.”  Well played, Nicole.  It worked.  Yup, with language still being a big barrier, we’re trying to take every opportunity to show them our open arms of friendship.  Just tonight, I broke out my imported guitar rig and jammed on the porch with their two oldest sons.  Just like a squishy-cute baby, Metallica ‘Fade To Black’ translates in any language.  

Simeon rockin' out with G and the Boyz

Did You Feel That?!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/04/02/panama-quake/7207921/

Hey all,  Thanks for your concern.  This is just a quick post to let everyone know we're just fine from the earthquake.  We are a 4 hr drive from the quake's epicenter in Chiriqui, the beautiful rolling hills of Panama.  

We were each sitting alone working online at our friend's home (they have better wifi) when the sway came.  It was so gentle that everyone there thought they were having an inner ear issue and felt 'woozy'.  The whole ordeal lasted about 15 seconds. We all jumped up saying, "did you feel that!?"  The only real confirmation that it wasn't in all of our heads was that the chandelier in the hall way was rocking back and forth.  One of the additional perks of El Valle, is that there are no fault lines (big quakes), hurricanes, nor tornados. In the end it was more of a celebration that we didn't miss the tremor than anything else.