Monthly Archives: May 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIC!!!

Today is Eric’s birthday!  I just wanted to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am for him and for how well he loves me.  I love you!

We’re working today, but have plans to go to a new (to us) restaurant tonight called Maito.  It’s been on our list for a while since it’s listed as a date night in the book of dates that I made for him for Christmas, so I’m excited to try it out.

By my side in the hospital in February…day and night.
Is that Jason Statham in my car?!
Best day of my life!
With my best friend’s baby girl, Louise.
With his buddy.
Last family photo

Frozen Eric, my party and capoeira videos!

Eric left for Raleigh and then for Myrtle Beach with all of his guy friends last Wednesday.  He told me that on their first day at the beach, all the guys were wearing shorts and tshirts…but my Panamanian husband was more comfortable in jeans and a fleece jacket!  What have I done to him?!  Cracked me up.  It sounds like they had a great time together, and I am so thrilled that Eric had that time with his best friends.

He also stayed with his parents for a couple of nights and had the chance to see our nephew, Tyler, and our niece, Rylee.  Unfortunately, they weren’t too excited to see him:

 

UNCLE ERIC!!!!

UNCLE ERIC!!!!

Actually, they were super excited, as you can see.  Tyler, who has tended to be a little shy with us at times, threw all caution to the wind upon seeing Eric and gave him a huge hug.  Rylee, always my girl, first asked where I was before bothering to give her poor sweet uncle a hug.  Forever tactful, that one.  Gosh, I love them both!  My heart was so happy when I saw this picture.

So what was I to do while Eric was off visiting our friends and family, going to the beach, driving our truck, seeing so many people that I’ve been missing for months?  Sit around the house working as usual and spend the evenings watching Netflix and feeling sorry for myself?

Nope.  I threw a big party.  🙂

On Saturday, I invited the capoeira group over to our pool at 2 pm.  The first folks eventually arrived around 4, right as it started to sprinkle a little.  We decided to wait it out by the pool though, and luckily the rain passed quickly.

Árabe (Antonio) y Mono (David)

Árabe (Antonio) y Mono (David)

My sweet and beautiful Swiss neighbor Stella came down to join us for a while, which was great because we’ve been hoping to get together for a long time.  She fit right in…as much as a tall blonde can, anyways…and chatted with us for a few hours.

When it got dark, it started to get cold.  Yes, of course Panamá cold isn’t NC cold, but still.  That’s when people decided it was time to get in the pool.  And it wasn’t just a few people that wanted to swim.  These folks, though no longer 15 years old, decided that EVERYONE was going to get into the freezing cold pool whether they liked it or not.  I chose to get in on my own rather than to be thrown in, but I couldn’t last more than a few minutes.  I ended up wrapped up in a towel with someone’s scarf around my neck, shivering and occasionally standing under a nearby light to keep warm.

One of the highlights of the evening was playing a game where we did imitations of each other and guessed who we were.  It’s so funny how distinct some of the personalities in this group are…a lot of them are very easy to imitate.

Around 1 am some of the guys came back with wings for everyone and I threw a frozen pizza in the oven.  Around 3, one of the guys started demonstrating his self-defense techniques, first with the poor tiny 18 year old guy as his victim, then later with some of the bigger guys.  That was about the time when I was ready for things to end.  I wanted sleep.

At 4, I called it.  I told them they were welcome to come up to the apartment and hang out but that I was going to bed!  Two of the girls stayed the night in the guest room and the guys went out to grab one more drink.  Apparently they stayed out until 6 or so!  And these are not college aged guys!  We’re talking 30-40 year olds!  It’s amazing.

The next morning, one of the girls left before I woke up.  She sent me a sweet text thanking me for everything and saying that she didn’t want to disturb me and she’d talk to me later.  The other girl…I should say woman b/c we’re not that young anymore, but it sounds weird to me…like I had some older lady in my house…she’s 40, but sadly that’s not so far off from my age anymore!  Anyway, she stayed.  And stayed.  I offered her breakfast and she accepted.  Her sister called and she talked to her until her phone died.  Then she plugged her phone in and called her sister back.

I, meanwhile, fell back asleep on the couch, kinda hoping she’d get the idea that the party was over.  When I woke up, I quietly snuck around the apartment trying to see if she was gone.  When I looked in the guest room…all I saw was her butt sticking out of the covers!  She had gone back to bed!  I texted Eric and asked him to google “how to get a Venezuelan out of the house.”

Luckily, my plan to bang around in the kitchen until she woke up worked.  Or at least it woke her up.  She took her time getting a shower, then finally left…at 1 pm.  23 hours after I had invited people to my house.

I knew that it was important to give an end time for a party here if you wanted people to leave at a certain time, but I didn’t realize just how far some folks would push it!  Amazing.  Cultural lesson learned.

Anyway, I wanted to share with y’all the video from the day we did the capoeira class and roda with all the kids last month.  I’m the gringa, in case you have trouble finding me.  🙂  Click here for the video, or if I’m doing this wrong, you can copy and paste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ZNW4VFyGo

I also discovered that the presentation from months ago that I took photos of is on youtube, in case anyone is interested in seeing how amazing some of my new friends are.  You can see that video here.

Last notes:  My Aunt Angela and cousin Ashley are coming in from Georgia on Saturday!!!  Can’t wait!

Also, Eric’s birthday is May 22…just a few more days!

Just call me Claire Underwood

I’m officially the US Ambassador to the UN.

Eric keeps trying to tell me that’s not quite an accurate description, but I think the problem is just that his Spanish is not quite up to par.  I am Claire Underwood (only the kind who can’t be fired by her husband), and that’s all there is to it.  Allow me to explain.

You may remember in this post long ago, I explained that I would be working for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean in Panama (ROPAN) in their Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention Group on the Criminal Justice and Prison Reform team.  That sorta fell apart when they found out that I was still contracting with my firm in Raleigh because they don’t allow interns to have other jobs as well.  So I was told to wait until I got here, then to get in touch with the head of the Criminal Justice and Prison Reform team again, we’ll call her Paola, to see if we could work out a consulting gig on the side.

On Friday, after a year and a half of emailing with Paola, skyping with her, filling out their application and being denied because of my work with NCPLS, getting sick for a month and not being able to work, then not having time to work because of all the Spanish lessons, I finally met her in person at her office.  She actually exists, actually works for the UN, and actually wants me to work with them.  I’m completely amazed.

The woman spoke rapid-fire Spanish, and I did my best to keep up, take notes, respond with the appropriate facial expressions, and explain what I could offer to her due to my 4+ years of working with prisoners in the US.  She gave me several options of projects to work on and free reign to choose where I felt my experience would be best used.  I asked if I could visit a prison at some point, and she told me there would definitely be opportunities for that.  I’m thrilled.  Don’t worry, Mom.  I’ll let you know after I’m back rather than before I go so you won’t have time to lose sleep over it.  🙂

At this point, I’m reading up on the extensive Federal law they have that governs the prison system – something we don’t have in the US – as well as their diagnostic reports on the state of the prisons in Panamá.  One of the suggestions Paola had as a project for me was to write a handbook for inmates to let them know how to expect.  I think this would be a terrifically useful tool, judging from how much my own clients constantly crave information in whatever form they can get it, I have no idea how to do it in a way that would be both helpful to the prisoners (i.e., conditions are really terrible and there’s a lot of corruption) and something that the authorities would allow us to distribute.  I have a lot of learning to do.  This is a big part of the reason that I’m anxious to get into a prison to see what it’s really like.  I also have no idea what the climate is like between the prisons and the UN, so I don’t know how far we can push things.

At this point, it’s all very exciting.

Aside from that, just a few things to report.  Poor Eric had a fever and was in bed for a few days last week, starting on Wednesday, I believe.  He never gets sick, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this bad.  He was a pretty sad guy for a while there.  Luckily his fever broke after about 2.5 days, and he slowly got back to normal.

On Sunday, we went to my friend Auri’s house for homemade arepas.  (Dustin, I’m sorry to have to explain how amazing they were.  Better than Guasaca.)  Auri is from Venezuela, and we have at least two other Venezuelans in the capoeira group.  She made a ton of food and we all ate until we couldn’t move.  It was amazing.

Mono, Auri, Lourdes, George

Mono, Auri, Lourdes, George

I think Eric was having one of his "y'all are talking way too fast for me to get any of this" moments. Happens to me all the time in this group.

I think Eric was having one of his “y’all are talking way too fast for me to get any of this” moments. Happens to me all the time in this group.

Auri, our chef for the day, is on the left in black and white.

Auri, our chef for the day, is on the left in black and white.

Mono, Lourdes, George. This group has NEVER been so quiet as when we started eating the arepas.

Mono, Lourdes, George. This group has NEVER been so quiet as when we started eating the arepas.

On his third arepa...

On his third arepa…

Lourdes stole the ham right off George's arepa when he wasn't looking.

Lourdes stole the ham right off George’s arepa when he wasn’t looking.

I just love these folks.

I just love these folks.

No one wanted to move after eating all that food!

No one wanted to move after eating all that food!

Also, a belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, especially to my Mom and to my sister.  I was sad I couldn’t be there to celebrate with them, especially because this was the day that my niece learned what brunch is and how incredible an eating event it can be with my family.  Luckily, Mother’s Day in Panamá isn’t until December 8th, so we’ll just have to celebrate again!