First I want to share photos from our going-away party last week. Eric’s brother, Ray, and his wife, Jennifer, were incredibly welcoming to all of our friends and family as they shared their home with everyone for a big send-off party on January 3. Jennifer prepared an amazing spread that everyone enjoyed, there was a full bar, the last of the wine and beer from our wedding (7 months later!), and tons of friends and family who drove from all over to wish us well. Our sweet friends Jake and Brittany even drove all the way from Pittsboro (over an hour?!) after another party to be with us. It was all very special, and we felt very loved. Here are some photos from that night. I just regret that we didn’t get one of our hosts!
So back to our adventures in Panama. Yesterday we had planned to go to the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Panama – the Presbyterian Church of Panama – at 11:30 am for worship service. Let me set the scene first. You might imagine that there are not many Presbyterian churches in Panama, but what you might not imagine is that there are actually only TWO in the whole country. And this one happened to be diagonally across the street from our building. Amazing. They have a Facebook page, so I checked it out, trying to figure out how big of a church could fit inside this building with a shop advertising cement work, painters, etc. Here are some of the photos I found.
So we left our place with the necessary two minutes to walk over to the church, but when we arrived…it was completely empty. Why? Because Panama. (I don’t know if I’ve explained that response before, but whenever something doesn’t make sense and one of use asks why it is the way that it is, the answer is “Because Panama.”)
Turns out they had decided to meet at an apartment across town at 3 pm instead, and they offered to call me to give me directions. I facebooked them back, explaining that I got really nervous speaking Spanish on the phone, and since there are no addresses in Panama and directions are confusing anyway, maybe it’s better that they just facebook me back with directions. She quickly wrote back asking for my phone number. Perfect.
My phone immediately rang. I took a deep breath, and Eric started laughing at me. This very nice woman said hello, then started giving me the most convoluted directions ever. I asked her if she could please slow down a little, but she gave up on me and handed the phone to her husband, who I later found out was the pastor and the most difficult man to understand in all of Panama. As you might imagine, that didn’t go well either, although he didn’t give me much of a chance either. He ended up telling me he was going to call his English speaking friend and he would have that guy call me.
My phone rang again, and a nice guy with a South Carolina accent said “Hey, this is Michael Lee. I’m a missionary with MTW, and Pablo said you need directions.” Wonderful! Lo and behold, he couldn’t give me directions either. Why? Because Panama. After a couple of minutes, he decided that it was just easier to meet us at the metro station and walk with us to the apartment. When some of the streets have two names, some of them have signs and some don’t, none of the buildings have addresses, and only some of them have clearly marked names on the buildings.
Anyway, we got to the apartment and found out that the whole “church” that would be at the service would be the missionary couple (Michael and his wife Tricia), the two Panamanians I spoke to on the phone (the pastor, Pablo, and his wife, Elisabeth), and Eric and me. That’s it. From what I could gather, it’s a weird transition time for the church. It’s normally very small, as you could see from the photos, but there are also old missionaries going out and new ones coming in. Michael and Tricia only got to Panama on Wednesday, the day before we arrived. But the result was a nice experience for us. We had the opportunity to worship with these folks in a VERY intimate setting, the challenge of hearing a fast-speaking Panamanian pastor’s sermon, and the luxury of translators to ease any awkwardness that might otherwise have arisen. I still spoke mostly Spanish while I was there, even when the South Carolinians spoke English to Eric and/or me.
We ended up spending three hours with these two couples, mostly just chatting about the Lees’ past missionary experiences in Mexico and language school in Costa Rica, Pablo and Elisabeth’s experiences trying to grow the church, as well as general talk about Panamá and the Interior, as the part of the country outside “Panama City,” as we Gringos call it, is called. It was intellectually taxing, but a good experience overall. It was also good to add phone numbers to our contact lists.
That brings me to WhatsApp. Does anyone use this? This is a great way to text me for free while we’re here. Download the App, then add me as a contact in your regular contacts list on your phone with the phone number +507-6759-6620. I should pop up in WhatsApp. You can text me through that for free, rather than us having to pay to text internationally. Everyone down here uses it because texting is expensive here. Eric thinks it’s stupid and just uses Google Messenger or whatever, which is fine too, if you want to be like that.
Eric’s number is +507-6759-6633.
The night ended with a little chicken schwarma at a place right outside the metro. Lovely. And relaxing.
