Life in Pedasi

Semana numero uno

I read this quote this morning on Facebook and felt it summed up our life...

“Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.” ― Elbert Hubbard

We all slept pretty well our first night in Panama City with the exception of Miciou whom meowed the entire night.  Not sure why I guess she was just letting us know that she had no idea where she was.  It reminded me of the days of having a newborn.  Does she have food?  Does she have water?  Does she know where the litter box is?  Does she need loving? Then we just ignored her and went back to sleep a little worried about the people in the room next door trying to sleep through a screaming cat.

Our new phones were working great, but I couldn't get the WiFi to work to save my life.  The transport service arrived 30 minutes early with two vehicles ready for us to pack up.  We dis-assembled the dog crates which made the dogs very happy.  Peg rode with Elodia's daughter with the dogs and Midnight and I rode with Elodia, her husband, sisiter and Miciou along with all of our bags.  We hit the road at 10:00 am sharp and made it to Pedasi a little after 3:00 with a couple of stops.  We both enjoyed the drive very much learning about the current politics and life in Panama in general.  Elodia helped me translate all of the settings on my phone until I found the language setting.  When we arrived in Pedasi I felt my way around to the rent house only to realize that Peg's vehicle was not behind us as I thought.  They were driving around the town completely lost.  Luckily our landlord Christine saw them and after a game of "who's on first" she was able to get their attention and get them to the house.  Christine had done a great job getting a fence installed across the front of house so the dogs and cats could freely roam.  It is awesome!

The new fence

The back yard

We unpacked and quickly settled into our new home finding a spot for everything.  Some interesting facts about Panamanian houses: no closets or cupboards, A/C only in the bedroom, hot water only in the shower heated by the shower head, no microwave, only a toaster oven, limited septic (if its yellow let it mellow), and no washer/dryer.  Christine had also added a hanging bar in the "master" and a new bed with a few little shelves which is fantastic.  We now have a guest room so feel free to book your flights!  You will be sleeping with two cats and no air conditioner however!  Our next door neighbors have a farm/zoo in their yard: chickens, a cow, deer, pigeons, and a parrot are what we can see through the fence.  The chickens come through the fence much to the dogs' delight.

We love the wood and stained concrete floors

Also the stained concrete counters

breakfast nook

Bathroom with wood sink

Do you see all of those dresses I will never wear

Back patio very comfortable

Washing machine

Using the pet crates to discourage the chickens

Now our phones won't make any calls out and the WiFi is still not working.  The nearest Claro store is in Las Tablas which is a 30 minute drive and we have no car.  Ugh.  Did I mention that all of the screens, messages and instructions are in Spanish.  One of the little things I never thought about.  I was able to use the hotspot on my phone to download the instruction manual for the Claro hotspot in English, but still couldn't get it to work.

We then made our first trip into town on foot to buy a few necessities and dinner.  It's a five minute walk to the little "Chino" which is what the little markets are called.  Think heavily stocked convenience store owned by Chinese people.  We picked up a pollo entero (whole chicken), arroz, basic vegies, vino, vodka, hielo, coffee, dog food, dish soap, temporary litter box, etc.  Just enough to get us through our first dinner and evening.  Thanks to Peg's saute pan and spices we threw together a delicious meal of arroz con pollo while sitting on the back patio enjoying the breeze for our first happy hour in our new home.  

We had a beautiful night's sleep and everyone seems to be settling in nicely.  We make another trip into town to the little Chino to see if someone can help us with our phones and WiFi and then to the big Chino (a ten minute walk) to get a few more supplies.  The young man behind the counter speaks a little English and we have looked up the words to ask him if he knows why nothing is working.  He turns on the phones and they both work perfectly.  He then turns on the WiFi and shows me that I have to push and hold the "connect" button to get it to connect.  How embarrassing! I would like to point out that it said nothing of that in the manual.  Oh well at least everything works now.  We have two cell phones and the WiFi hotspot all for less than $40 per month.  Now that's what we have been talking about.

We decide to rent a car on Monday so that we can drive into Chitre, a city about 45 minutes away to do a big grocery shop.  We head to the Super 99 and are able to find just about everything we need.  The meat counter is very intimidating as it is a butcher counter without anything labeled.  We just pointed a lot.  We can't find some of the Chinese ingredients Peg is used to nor can we find club soda anywhere.  There also is a serious lack of anything "light".  We try to buy as much local as possible to keep the cost down.  Overall a successful day.  We then took the dogs for their first trip to the beach.  So fun and beautiful.  We only saw four other people.

Coming soon.... Starting Spanish lessons and buying a car.

Oh and one last note.  For those of you that have our Skype phone number.... you just dial it from your phone just as a normal phone number.  It allows you to call us and us to call you without paying international fees.  If you have Skype, we can video chat that way, but you don't need the phone number you just have to add us as a contact.  Our Skype name is April Bairnhess.  Stay in touch.