Without further ado (not adieu, according to the first link on my google search), here are some of the pics from Summer’s first photo shoot with her aunt Julie:
And a comparison between Laine and Summer, wearing the same outfit – 5 years apart. Laine is with my mom in 2010.
Summer – July 2015
Laine – 2010
Yep, it’s my favorite day of the month: New Empleada Day! Yes, I know we’re spoiled, and honestly, I do understand that we are very fortunate to have the luxury of having someone clean our house and cook for us once or twice a week for however long each empleada lasts…with maybe a month break between them. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s ridiculously cheap, and we are discouraged from paying the women more than $25/day or so. If we were to pay them more, we would be encouraging them to seek out “rich American” employers, thus making it hard for Panamanians to find empleadas who are willing to work for a reasonable rate. So we do as the Panamanians do.
Today, we have the pleasure of hosting Elena, a beautiful Venezuelan woman in her late 40s who has thus far been absolutely fabulous. And being Venezuelan, she has the added bonus of knowing how to make arepas…so guess what’s on the menu for tonight!?
This hiring process was ever so slightly different from the last few in that I received a resume from a man. I was amazed! Eric was completely floored and, I believe, rather against the idea of his working for us. I have to admit that I struggled with myself on this one…and I’m still struggling with it.
He is a 28 year old educated married man from Venezuela with a background in electrical engineering. I immediately told myself not to discount him simply because he was a man, even though it’s pretty unheard of to have a man for a maid. There’s not even a word for that, is there? Not a maid, but not a butler either. Interesting. So I looked at his experience. Clearly an educated guy. He had been with his previous jobs for longer than most of the women had been with theirs…most of the women had 3 or 6 month stints with any one job. However, he had no previous cleaning experience. On the other hand, he was obviously willing to do whatever he could to provide for himself and for his wife. Endearing and admirable.
But isn’t that what all these women are doing as well? I’m just not as predisposed to admiring it because it’s more expected of them?
I almost wanted to give him a chance just for the experimental value of it. I wanted to see how it would go….how he would do…how I would react…whether Eric would be able to handle it. I thought about how it would actually be upon his arrival at our house. He’d come in and I would be the one to show him around, as usual. That’s been my role, since I speak more Spanish and because Eric is always working in his office when the empleadas come.
There would be awkward things, of course…I’d have to show him where my underwear belongs so he could put it away after he washed it. Why is that not awkward for Eric when a woman does it? Somehow, for some reason, it would just be…strange…for a man to be here all day. For him to be in the house, silently cleaning while I go about my business – working, taking the dog out, going to the grocery store. I almost feel like it would be…somehow disrespectful for me to ignore him all day. Isn’t that strange? I’ve slowly grown ALMOST accustomed to doing it with the female empleadas, just because I know that’s how things are done around here. You’re not expected to entertain your housekeeper, to talk to her all day as she cleans. Sure, I’ll chat with her as she cooks if I’m in the room, ask about her family or where she’s from, see how her children are doing, or ask a question about how to say something in Spanish. But why is it that I feel like it would be so different if a man were in the house all day?
When it came down to it, Elena had experience as a caterer, and that sounded like a good thing for a housekeeper who will be cooking for us to have. Plus, it’s legal to be ageist here…for better or worse…and we’ve found that women with a few more years of experience under their belts tend to be harder workers and better cleaners. So, I gave her a chance first. Or rather, third, after two Panamanian women failed to respond when I offered them a trial day. (I try to help out the Panamanian population first when possible).
Who knows…maybe Elena won’t work out and we’ll end up giving that man a try. Either way, it gave me a lot to consider. I’d be interested to see what y’all think about the situation.
So you’ve heard me talk about our capoeira batizado that will take place in December. You may also remember me saying that I am expected to take part in an Afro-Brazilian dance as part of the show that we are putting on for the visitors who are coming to the batizado from Costa Rica, Miami, and Brazil. Well, we had our first practice last Saturday and it was every bit as…er…brilliant as you would imagine. I should probably make a video of my attempts to do these moves just because of how much joy it would bring to all of you to see the ridiculousness that is me trying to have any kind of African or Brazilian movement.
I understand the idea of the movements. The rhythm isn’t so much of a problem for me (and I’ll thank you kindly to keep any opinions to the contrary to yourselves). I understand rhythm. It’s the figuring out how to make strong movements while still staying loose enough that you don’t look like a robot, all the while doing this crazy rolling motion from your hips to your shoulders, demonstrating grace…but a strong grace!… in your arms, and oh yeah, put your head in the right place too. And make it look good. Like you’re not hating yourself with all you have while you’re doing it. 🙂 Yeah, I’m really hoping they’ll let me do maculele with the boys – a Brazilian dance involving jumping around with what I know of as rhythm sticks and smacking them together with other dancers’ rhythm sticks. Yes, it’s tiring, but gosh, I don’t have to act out of the part of a goddess while I do it. A little less pressure.
Some of the kids from the breakdancing group that practice in the same gazebo as we do took over percussion duties. They even know our songs (in Portuguese) by now!
Some of the ladies of CDO – Lourdes, Auri, Jessie, and Mahalia
Anyway, after my dancing/flailing debut, Eric and I tried out a new restaurant called Azahar. Beautiful atmosphere and potential for really great food. I just really failed at the ordering game. Eric, however, did a great job and ended up with some kind of beef tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese with a mushroom and spinach sauce. Amazing. Plus he had some prawn sliders. I went for a new style of corvina, and that was a mistake. Should’ve gone for the ceviche de corvina with mango sauce. Now I know. We still had a really fun date night and enjoyed exploring a new place together.
Eric’s face gets this way when it takes me more than 3 seconds to take a picture.
The next day, Sunday July 12, we decided to go on an adventure to Colón, a city on the Atlantic coast of Panamá. It’s about an hour drive almost right along the Canal. Colón is not a fantastic tourist city. It is very poor and rundown with an unemployment rate of about 40% and a higher poverty rate, according to wiki. However, it’s a big city, it’s not too far away, and how often do you get the chance to drive from sea to shining sea and back to the first sea again all in a day? Pretty cool.
We had lunch at a lebanese restaurant along the water, then found the big Jesus statue at one end of town. Unfortunately, Jesus was behind a construction wall and didn’t make for fantastic photos, plus Eric got a little concerned about our safety. Again, not exactly a place for tourists, unless you’re straight off a cruise ship and being held in the duty free area.
We took a detour before heading home to see the Gatún locks – the Panamá Canal locks on the Atlantic side. It’s actually a set of three locks because this set has to take ships down from the level of Gatún Lake to sea level. We got there 20 min before the visitors’ center closed, but it was worth a visit. Eric liked it because he got to climb into one of the locomotives that they use to pull ships through the Canal and to keep them centered so they don’t bump around.
This is also a lot smaller visitors’ center and much less touristy, so we were really close to the ships! I thought I had seen enough of the locks, but this was a different perspective. It didn’t hurt that we were there in time to see a HUGE panamax ship go through.
All in all, it was a fun outing. We tend to default to staying at home, but we also recognize that we always have a good time when we make the effort to go on an adventure. I’m very glad we made this one happen!
Eric has three business trips coming up – one next week, one a week or two after that, and a third in mid-August – so Addie and I will be spending a lot of time together. On the plus side, we are looking forward to having Matty come visit in a few weeks and then Dan and Sarah will visit at the end of August. Exciting!
