Tag Archives: New foods

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!

Friday night’s Capoeira presentation, Saturday date night

There was some kind of big commerce exposition at the convention center nearby at the end of last week, and the capoeira group – CDO Panama, short for Cordao de Ouro, cord of gold, I believe – performed there.  We got there right at 8 when it was supposed to start, but things were running late, so we had the pleasure of seeing acts from other countries.

We saw a little of this:

Chinese fashion show

Chinese fashion show

 

a little of this:

Dances from another part of Panamá

Dances from another part of Panamá

and also this guy, who was Eric’s favorite:

He was probably all of 10 years old, and his buddy, wearing the same costume of pajamas and a big dragon head, was probably 5.

He was probably all of 10 years old, and his buddy, wearing the same costume of pajamas and a big dragon head, was probably 5.

I happened to sit down next to the girlfriend of one of the guys in CDO, so I got to chat with her, Ana, a little.  Finally, the capoeira performance began.  I didn’t know how the photography was going to go since I couldn’t really just stand in front of everyone for the best view, there were huge speakers on the front of the stage blocking half of the good moves, it was dark, they were moving fast, and there was a huge lit-up screen behind them.  None of these are elements that I’ve ever known how to deal with before.  Luckily Eric coached me through all of this during the other acts, so I was decently prepared (compared to how I would’ve been otherwise) by the time they went on.

I ended up taking almost 400 photos of their maybe 8-12 minute performance!  Don’t worry, I’ve paired it down quite a bit for y’all.  Here are a few of my favorites.  The white girl flying through the air is Jessie, the one I said is from the DC area originally.  The guy with the braids/dreads (and doing the crazy handstand) is the leader of the group.  His nickname is Mono, or monkey (again, racial issues are different here), and he is engaged to the beautiful girl playing the drum and singing.  The other guy flying through the air is Juan Pablo, the boyfriend of Ana, the girl I was sitting with as we watched this.  In case you care about all of these relationships.  🙂  The one playing the tambourine is the one who I think is named Moíses and who was with me in the roda for my first time.

Incredible, huh?  I talked to a few of them afterwards and was greeted with hugs and besos.  All of them seemed glad that I had come and were excited that I had taken pictures.  Mono added me to their facebook group today, so I’ve posted a few of the photos for them.

So – changing gears – for Christmas I gave Eric a scrapbook type thing full of date ideas for us for 2015.  At the point when I made it, I wasn’t sure if we would be in Raleigh or in Panama b/c of CB, so it has ideas for both places.  Last night we tried out our first official date from the book.  We went to a restaurant called Market.  You can check it out here.  It pretty much caters to Americans, but it’s known for having really great steaks and hamburgers.  It is owned by this one restaurant group that has three restaurants in the area that are all supposed to be really good – kinda an Ashley Christensen kinda thing for you Raleighites (Raleighians?).

I had the corvina (typical Panamanian fish) and yuca and it was AMAZING.  Best food I’ve had in months.  Doesn’t it look delicious!?

A-MAZ-ING!

A-MAZ-ING!

Here are a few other pictures from our night out:

Note the UNC necklace. Didn’t really go, but I was going to wear it anyway. I even made really early dinner reservations so we could be home in time for the game (7:30 our time).
Each date from the book comes with a photo challenge. Eric hates this part. Luckily, he humored me…
I’m working on trying to use my camera with manual or aperture priority settings. Eric loves it.
All dressed up for the first time in weeks!

Of course after not being able to watch the three previous games of the ACC Tourney, the Heels wolfpacked all over themselves when I did get to watch.  I take full responsibility for the loss.  Ugh.  Notre Dame?  Really?  Better than some others, I guess, but jeez.  I still am learning to accept Miami and Virginia Tech into the ACC.  The Irish are too much.

This morning I interviewed a potential empleada and we really liked her.  She wants full time work, but we don’t need it, so we offered to let her start here knowing that she’d be looking for full time work elsewhere.  Since we have the windows open all the time, EVERYTHING is covered with dust and dirt.  It gets really gross really quickly.  Eric learned his lesson about walking around barefoot yesterday when his feet were black after about 30 minutes.  We couldn’t tell if his feet were making the floor dirtier or vice versa.  Gross.

We’ve also heard that during the rainy season, you have to leave your drawers and closets open so mold and fungus doesn’t grow on your clothes and especially in leather shoes.  Ah, the tropics!  It ain’t all glamor.

Spanish lessons, new fruit, fireworks, and Katy Perry

Well, I’ve been MIA for a week in part because I’ve had a fever and have been pretty much useless.  Sorry to leave you in suspense about CB.  His test came back the way we had hoped.  He has the better of the two types of lymphoma, so we may still have the opportunity to bring him down here.  We are going to let him have a few more treatments in the States, and in the meantime we have to decide exactly what path to take.  Full force chemo for the rest of his life is just not the way we want to go, as it’s pretty brutal.  We’ll be continuing to make decisions about how to best care for him in the coming weeks.  Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and for not sending sad emails.  I love you guys.

So, I was about 30 minutes into my first 4 hour Spanish lesson when I realized I probably had a fever, and let me tell you, 4 hours is a LONG time to sit on a couch and work on grammar.

I think I said last week that a woman was going to be coming to our apartment to teach our Spanish lessons every day for 6 hours/day.  4 for me, 2 for Eric, after he works a full workday.  The woman’s name is Marianela, and she is great.  Or at least she was that one day.  I was sick Tuesday-Thursday and her daughter had to go to the hospital on Friday, so I’ve only seen her the once.  We didn’t actually just do grammar drills the whole time.  We actually just talked for maybe the first three hours, but the emphasis was on past tense.  And in order to talk for three hours straight, you have to get to know someone pretty quickly…or rather, allow them to get to know you.  She started out asking me about my work, and being a lawyer, I easily went on about that for quite some time.  She asked about how Eric and I met, about how my life is different now that I’m married than it was when I was single, about my religious beliefs…she got a lot out of me.  And she talked too…joined in on the religion conversation, which was interesting, given that I wasn’t raised in an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Eric was up next, and he wasn’t feeling great either.  He sounded good though, whenever I walked through the room, and Marianela told me he was “muy lista” – very smart.  He also felt a lot better once he finished up, which is great b/c I was afraid he had a fever too.  We would’ve been in bad shape if both of us had been sick this week.

So…not many activities to report on, but here’s what I have.

I took a LONG walk last week sometime and walked right under El Tornillo – a big tower nicknamed “The Screw” because of its shape.  I mentioned it in an earlier post about our scouting trip down here last year.  It’s pretty incredible.

El Tornillo ("The Screw")

El Tornillo (“The Screw”)

We also tried a new fruit today – una granadilla.  A dragon flower.  Here’s what it looks like, inside and out.

A Dragon Flower

A Dragon Flower

The inside of a dragon flower

The inside of a dragon flower

Here goes nothing....

Here goes nothing….

And you can see by the photo at the very top of this post that he thought it wasn’t too bad.  The jelly stuff is really sweet, but the seeds are big and taste a little weird.  So far the Dragon fruit still wins.  Of course, the expensive one.

Random note on food:  Eric keeps getting these frozen meals like empanadas and stuff like that.  Riba Smith (the name of the grocery store) brand.  The directions always say to preheat the oven to 350 degrees…wait for it…Celsius.  What?  That’s not a thing!  We have a temperamental oven anyway, so we just put it in at 350 F and wait and wait and wait.

I feel like you’re all thinking we’re stupid about this and that it’s probably just a misprint and of course they mean fahrenheit.  But when all of them say it?  Someone should fix it.  The other issue is that they don’t tell you that they want you to defrost it first.  Tricky.  It ALWAYS says that in the US.  Apparently we’ve grown accustomed to being told everything.  The pizza we got the other day didn’t even tell us to remove the plastic covering before putting it in the oven.  We almost didn’t know what to do.  Heavens.  🙂

Maybe I’ve mentioned that we hear fireworks every few nights?   I’ve never seen them before though, and Eric said they were really small when he saw them.  The other night though, there was a really amazing fireworks show and we watched the whole thing right from our living room window.  This doesn’t show how amazing the fireworks were, but it at least (sorta) shows how close they were.

Fireworks from our living room window.

Fireworks from our living room window.

Now, since I brought up Fireworks and it’s Super Bowl Sunday, I have to comment on the halftime show.  Did you ask for this?  No.  But something has to be said, and quickly, because that was bizarre.

Okay, here’s how I see it.

  • The lion that Katy came in on?  SUPER cool.  Especially because I didn’t see the guys in black making his feet move for a minute, so I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  Awesome.
  • The fire outfit she was wearing and the crazy fake hair tight ponytail thing?  Awful.  Cinna would hate it.  Katniss would never(deen) be caught dead in it.  [If you get those references, I applaud you, although I admit the Everdeen part was a stretch.]
  • Chessboard thing that looked like it was moving up and down and tilting and all that?  Very cool.
  • Dancing surfboards, beachballs, singing sharks?  NO!  Katy.  No more acid trips while planning your shows.  I gotta say though, Katy and all of her backup dancer girls looked healthier than you usually see.  They were skinny, for sure, but looked like they might actually use their legs for supporting their body weight for more than just the catwalk.  Well done.
  • Shocked that Lenny Kravitz was willing to step in for about 5 seconds of “I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It,” but whatever.
  • Missy Elliott?!?!?!  Amaaazing!  Partially b/c I had no idea she was going to be a part of it.  But “Work it” was excellent.  It also happened to be a big part of the soundtrack of my freshman year of UNC, so maybe that’s nostalgia talking.
  • Shooting Star exit?  Really really really lame.

There you have it.

And…best part of the week?  My friend and our first visitor, Katie, will be here in the next couple of hours.  Our English speaking taxi driver friend is picking her up for us at the airport, and when I called to confirm that he was going to get her, he said that he and his wife were tracking her flight.  Very sweet.

I have a rant about water too, but I’ll save that for another day.  I know it’s killing you, but I really am going to leave you hanging on that one.

And HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY TO LAINE NELSON!!!!!!!  Our sweet niece is 5 today, and for a girl who can name NFL players as well as her Fantasy Football playing daddy, Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect day for her to turn 5.  We love you Lainer!