Recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives

This picture is in one of our students' homes.  There are 2 bishops, a counselor in a bishopric, and a counselor in the Stake Presidency.  I like to think that this mother held family home evening.  We have several of her grandchildren as students.   Strong families are needed in the church.

Here is the baby bird again.  I can hardly believe it, but Sister Polacio assured me that it is one and the same.

These next photos are of the road we have to travel to reach the Polacio's home.  We've been wondering since we came here in the dry season how it will be in the wet one.  So far, so good.  We haven't had to walk it in a rainstorm yet.

Exposed water pipes that people drive over.

A daunting prospect for our carrito.  A student taught us a new word last Friday, llamativo.  It means calling attention to oneself, or flashy. He told us our car is llamativo.  Rod has always said it appears to be saying "Rob me, rob me".

And here is my new hair cut that Rod said made me feel like a "new man".  I do love it when it is short.  Apologies to all who don't.  I just feel better.




Guanabana

Warning -- this part may require more than 13.6 seconds to read.


It may be going a bit too far to take our own advice:  (or not)


This week my spiritual lesson for the students is from Elder Christofferson's article on "Recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives".  The examples I have been using from our mission is that most of the time when we have to change appointment times for a student, we usually have to shuffle others (a big hassle), but it will often turn out for the best.  The other is that this week (on Sunday) we picked up three new students -- a bit pushing the envelope for making by end of July -- however, we didn't have a piano to share for them to practice with (no envelope to push).  The same day, a student called saying she didn't want to practice any more -- come take her piano.  [She was a student of the 9 month class put on by the stake here that just terminated.  It was a different approach, bring your piano to the stake center once a week for a class of (originally) ten students.  They actually had several of the students accomplish quite a bit, but it wouldn't serve most students because of having to travel weekly, basically learn most things on your own with little teacher help.]

So on Saturday after the last class (that of the three new students) Janell get this feeling that it would be nice to go to an activity in Concepcion -- there are times I wonder (grind my teeth) about relationship people!
We have been meeting with people (>60 hours of teaching appointments) all week, she just can't get enough.

So what happens -- just afterward, she gets a call from the Concepcion District Relief society president about an activity at 6pm -- well, actually we'll start at 6:30 en punto.  We were on the way home from Boquette (the mountain branch of the David Stake) and had caught the three new students who live part way up there on the way back, SOOOO if we just kept going when we hit the 4 lane, we could get there in time -- likely they will feed us -- always top of mind since we didn't eat lunch.  Sigh, senior companion relationship person gets 'her' way again.


OK, Grumblino and Relationship Person got there -- so what?
or Upshot of Hand of Lord:

Keli, our student that has been living with her aunt taking care of a 1 year old, is going back home to Panama (we thought in two weeks, actually tomorrow).  She and her cousin both earned their keyboards, but we didn't have one in hand to share just yet for both.  So we were trying to connect her with some keyboards in Panama that a young man has from a class that he finished there.  We had called him and he said if she would come to church at his ward (basically across the city from her parents house, so a long bus ride) he would let her have it and not turn it into the mission offices.  We texted her cousin with the info.  He was now quite interested in making the connection as in the phone conversation he got the feeling that she was a 'special' girl.   He is a music student and was concerned she wouldn't have a teacher in Panama city to help her.  H-mmmm.
Her parents are not members and we are concerned that she might get lost as she got baptized while living here in Concepcion.  The membership system doesn't allow records to be sent, they can only be requested.  We do hope that music will aid her as likely her ward needs a pianist.
Short story long -- she hadn't gotten the text-- so we made that connection.  She also thought bus fares were 25 cents, they are now government buses and are 5-10 times that.  So we helped her there.
Basically, we were able to make that connection (and provide her a simplified hymn book -- we had just one extra) and it only took guardian angel overtime and extra inspirations (I'm counting Orlando's 'special' feeling) to get it done.

For our benefit, Janell has been anxious to get a hair cut, but we only visit Concepcion, where a member cuts her hair, on Sundays -- sooo -- yes after the activity, we took her (Sister de Romero) and her granddaughter home so she could cut Janell's hair.  At least I was able to get in a comment about it making Janell looking like a new 'man'.  It is short, but Janell likes it.
And in true relationship person form, Janell worked with Irvin, a grandson and star student on some new hymns and a start for Fur Elise.  He has been kicked out of school (probably bored) and the music has been good for him.  We did get home just in time to talk to Blythe and Talia for about two times the length of Talia's attention span and then our BOM chapter and z-z-z-z-z.

Guardian Angels:  "All in a day's work -- high fives all around!"

Cool beans

 Gabriel Miranda and his brother, Carlos, have been worrying me because they like to memorize, not to read the music.  I expressed that fear to Gabriel last week at his lesson.  He said, "Hermana, give me a song, make it hard so I could never have heard it before, and I will learn it."  I selected "While of These Emblems", the second tune, that doesn't exist in the Spanish hymnal.  He began to work, and in less than a half hour he had learned about 5 new chords and had learned to play the melody.  Case closed!  He can learn more.  The best part was that he proved it to himself as well.  It was a wonderful night.

 Bishop Zarate showed Rod some of the things in his garden.  Although many mango trees didn't produce much fruit this year, this one has plenty at least on this branch.  This is a different variety.  Maybe we'll get to try it when it's ripe.

 This is black peppercorns before they are ready to harvest.

 Here they are ready to harvest.

 This variety of beans needs to be boiled three times and the water poured off before you can eat them.  Amazing to discover how to eat something like that.  Someone must have been hungry.

This fruit has beans inside.  They are medicinal and must be boiled and the water poured off.  The tree is rare, and our friends are trying to plant one.  It's pretty hard, so I don't think you could sword fight with it like with carrots.

Friday night we finished at 7:00.  I was SOO looking forward to a few hours reading a book.  I got a call from two of our students of Saturday afternoon saying that they were traveling to Panama City.  I decided to call the other two and make sure they would be there.  The first one said there was a Super Saturday for seminary in the morning, so we decided to see if we could schedule the other two here and save a 45 minute trip.  I called the seminary teacher, then the other student.  To make a VERY long story short, I arranged to meet them here, but they were to call me back and tell me what time.  I didn't receive a call, so Saturday morning I called again.  They hadn't connected and the one student had a cold and if we could come to her at her house alone she would receive us, otherwise, no.  The other boy was going to work and call us if he got home in time.  This branch isn't  doing so well.  Saturday, which seems like it might be the best day, is actually the worst.  So, after $5 in phone calls and no time to relax, I accomplished exactly zero.  Hurray for me.

If the truth be told, I hope the Lord was listening and knows I tried.  Missions are a lot about trying and what happens to the missionary as he/she tries to figure out how to love others better.   One of the surprising things is how often scheduling problems work out for the best -- this time, it seemed to be working, but didn't.

Moved and back connected (Thank Heaven for the Internet)

My prediction of early death for a baby bird fed bread and cream didn't materialize.  He's growing fine and getting feathers.

 This bird is an adult like the baby bird.  It can say "run" or "corre" in spanish, but it chose not to the day I was videoing.

 We found a new fruit stand in our area that I'm very pleased with.  I bought several dollars worth of produce and then the owner couldn't make change, so I told her she could give me grapefruit instead.  She filled a bag with horrid looking grapefruit, but they were delicious.  I found a sprouted seed in one, and look, it is a "Middle SEED".  Bad Rod joke.  It did look like a note [maybe not middle C], though, so it was fun to find.

One day when we were driving, this lizard ran across the road and up a wall.  The wall is made of full sized cinder-blocks, so you can see that he was pretty big.

We have decided that it was a blessing to be 'forced' to move. The assistants to the president came to our house on Sunday night with the other couple who moved into our house.  They put their things in the upstairs bedroom.  I had hired a sister to come help me clean and Rod had dismantled the bed, so we were ready.  Monday morning the elders came for breakfast at 7:00.  By 9:00 we were moved into our house here (everything was in) and we were only 5 minutes late for our teaching appointment.  Those elders were magic.

Water is a problem here.  We expect to have little or none during the day.  One morning Rod was taking his shower when the water went away.  He'd just soaped up.  I had filled a bowl earlier just in case, so I helpfully poured it over him.  What I didn't realize was that this water was several (SEVERAL) degrees colder than the water coming from the shower.  He had his eyes closed and it was quite a shock. Unplanned vengeance for his holding Myles up with the garden hose to get me in the shower when Myles was 4 or 5. Some things one doesn't forget.

It's hotter here, and we're upstairs with the metal roof, so it has been hard to sleep some nights.  Also we are in a "zona roja" or an area of the city that is considered dangerous.  Our neighbor told us that people break out the windows of cars when it is raining hard because with the noise of the rain on the roofs no one hears them. We're trusting the Lord to take care of us -- and we are more vigilant and take everything, including the radio out of the car.

 There are GREAT things about being here, like being able to come home for meals and when students cancel.  Before we just had to sit in a hot car, not our idea of fun. Our mornings are a bit less rushed because we don't have to drive half an hour to our appointments.  And it's very nice not to have to drive half an hour home on our 8:30 p.m. days.

We hosted young adults for a week end activity Thursday and Friday nights.  We were privileged to have Mihally, our favorite student from Chitre who introduced us to the chord method, come to stay with us.  We also got a family, as the activity was for marrieds as well.  There was a 3 or 4 year old little girl.  Her parents are musicians, so my guitar got played WELL for once, and we had fun with the piano as well.  We sang from Myles' songbook and I gave them one.

They paid a price in comfort, as they had to sleep on a tile floor with only our exercise mats, and Mihally had our two cushions in a corner.

Mihally was our connection (like Hansel and Gretel) to bread crumbs that led from her to Sister Brown of Saint George to Brother Theobald of Saint George.  He taught Janell the method we use -- which turns  the church music approach upside down.  Instead of teaching music and then learning to play, we start playing and with each hymn learn a bit more music.   Instead of 5 or 10% of the students sticking with it (which is where we were headed) we get close to 50% earning their keyboard (play 10 hymns ready for church and learn a new one on their own).  We are glad Mihally kept going and wanted to learn more so we could discover a better way.


Apartment
We grumble about the downsides of the apartment and had to learn a bit of obedience to come, but it is working out well and so don't listen to all the grumbling and there are real upsides.

[Rod] Speaking of washer person,  just before we moved my back starting acting up again.  This would be bad with our students to not be able to sit.  Therapy is to lie down or stand up.  So I was worried and realized it was probably from not shifting the heavy water rinse buckets properly - the prior wash day.   I explained in prayer my situation and that I would appreciate His help in resolving the inflammation as we needed to finish and help our students stay close to the Church (music is secondary, we think).  I felt a sensation go over my body, somewhat like washing clean.  At any rate, I could move freely and after a few days even the warning twitches have been greatly reduced.   Lovely blessing.

Also, this week one of our students asked me if I were an apostle.  I'm not sure if it was my dignified manner, comportment or ...  probably since she comes from a small branch, Boquete -- she doesn't know any other old people who wear ties and do church work.  Anyway, nice that I can be mistaken for an authority.



Sensitive plant
Do you like my new socks?  They are more visible than the plant's movement.


In this Easter season, we are especially grateful for the atonement of Christ.  I can't imagine living at peace with myself if I didn't know there was Christ's help to straighten out my mistakes.

Happy Easter

Moving on to the city of David

 Dajana is one of our Volcan students.  We never got a photo.  I included it because I didn't feel frumpy when I looked at it.  We were in the street the other day and Rod said "There's a woman wearing a skirt like yours".  I looked and he was right, and she looked decidedly frumpy.  And here I've been feeling just modest.  Oh well.

 We had the car too full with boxes, so Rod transported students in Boquete and David and I waited on the rocks.  It was a beautiful day, cloudy and with a bit of a wind and very pleasant.

 Our new kitchen.  The apartment looks like a stripped down model in the states.  Significantly nicer than what we have been living in.  Too bad it's in a "zona roja", red or danger zone.  We'll have to empty our car every night, and we're on the second floor.  We keep telling ourselves it's only for 4 months.

 It's too late to worry about picture order and we won't have internet for a while, so you get what you get.  This little girl was showing us her pet chicken who plays dead and wears a bib.  She was pretty proud of her.

 Here's the chicken with her bib again.

 Our living room.  We have no furniture for it except a table for our computer.  We really don't need more space.  The other wall is a green about the same intensity as the blue.  We don't spend much time in the apartment so it's all right.

 We have said goodbye to our hot shower.  This is our new one.  The wires above it are for hot water, but the landlord was quick to say they didn't work, and anyway, in David, the hottest city in Panama, who needs hot water.

 This little girl in Boquete made me think of Edyn's family and their hatching the chicks.  She was really enjoying it.  The chicken was enjoying it less.

  Here she is again.

 This sign makes me laugh.  I like the Se Vende Grama.  Really it's sod, but I still enjoy it.

I decided I wanted to remember mornings here.  It is so quiet and peaceful, until the rooster crows, which he does every few minutes from 5 on or so.  He usually goes until 10 or so at night as well.  He makes me laugh. 

Morning sounds in Bugaba

Next door to our new apartment in David we watched this man cutting down a tree limb.  Amazing.  It looked like he had a long way to go and then he hacked once or twice on the other side and it fell.  It wasn't kind to a bit of the roof, but it was amazing that it did so little damage.  These guys really know how to use a machete.

I turned around in the district conference and there was a kid with a squirrel in his shirt pocket.  I didn't get that, but I did get the squirrel.  I always love seeing animals. Pretty fun.

This move is an exercise in obedience.  We wouldn't have chosen it, but it may bless our lives.  As Elder Packer says "Obedience is nearly a spiritual cure-all".  I want to make the life of our mission president easier.  I like my job much better than what I see of his.  Still feeling that the gospel is true and it's a blessing to be part of the work.

Have a great week.

Students -- New and Old

One day in Puerto Armuelles at Maria's home, we met this couple.  They'd ridden up to visit Maria from David.  They expressed interest in our program and we told them we'd take them as students when we changed locations.  We met them at our sign up day and made an appointment.  When we got to their house we actually had 4 students and eventually 5.  A few weeks ago Ruth and Alejandro got married and she got baptized.  Last week we visited their ward and the younger brother, Carlos, played his first two hymns.  It's harder for the older ones.  We surely have a testimony that learning in your youth makes sense.  We love the spirit in their home.  They are smiling and enthusiastic.  This is the guy I told Audrey reminded me of her.

This is a wild rabbit that the Zarate family tamed as a baby.  He is part of the family but has been relegated to the back of the house since he bit the cord off the piano.  Luifred, our younger student, loves it when he escapes.

Their mom wanted to take a photo, so we took advantage.

Carlos plays well by ear.  He wanted to learn to read music and learn to play hymns.  We taught him some, but now he is off to the University, too far away to continue.  Rod offered to let him learn the theme song from Titanic.  He began to play it in its real form.  It was rather funny, as our simplified version doesn't sound too good by comparison.

Jo

Joanna is from Volcan.  Her adopted grandfather, David, sees that she can have music, bringing her to lessons on Friday nights (a 45 minute one way drive).  So far, the whole family has come.  David isn't really concerned that she isn't practicing really well (he thinks few kids do, and I certainly have to admit I was one of them), but he just wants her to have the joy of music.  He is a North American, very colorful, but I have huge admiration for him for simply making a difference in the life of one family.

We had a party for our students here in Bugaba on Friday night.  I have been giving a lesson to one student, David, but then I decided to use the same time and invite all of them.  10 came, and we had a nice time, playing Go Fish in English, and playing piano.  We shared the Flight of the Bumblebee from YouTube as well as some of the videos from the mission.  The girl on the left is Karyn.  This is the first time she has allowed us to photograph her.  It isn't my favorite.  I love to think of her concentrating on playing a hymn.  I pray we can have made a small difference in her hard life.

Juan was inactive when we came.  His mom has been super active in the past and has become active again as well.  He is still studying with us as he started late. They were fascinated with my purple weights.

Karyn, Harold, and Nicole.  Nicole also is still studying with us.  She is a recent convert who started early and quit out of fear that she would have to play in church.  She started again, and last week played in church.  Unfortunately there is no way we can be there when all of them play.  Rod is making a list of new songs added to send to music  coordinators in the wards, and he added 30 new songs this week.  We are progressing.  I LOVE THIS WORK. 

This is the kitchen, where we had 3 pianos set up.  Kids just came through and played throughout the night.

I offered to go visiting teaching.  I do so wish we could get that going here.  My companion and I haven't received an assignment after 2 months.  In all fairness the president has had a baby and is living with her mom because there is no electricity in the house.  She is also the wife of the branch president -- it would be nice if they learned to delegate -- but our suggesting hasn't helped.
At any rate, Janell went with the mom of Juan Carlos, a student.  She is a prior relief society president and took us about 20 miles out to visit a sister who had had a bunch of skin cancers burned off -- they looked terrible.  They have a pickup and come about 1-2 times a month.  Pretty good for being so far out.   Janell's companion was given some raw milk to take home.  We enjoyed the bottle.
They live out on a small farm, having sold off the larger one 25 years ago.  The final stretch of road was pretty rough.  They use rocks here instead of gravel, when it is not paved.  With our little Yaris, we would appreciate sorting out some of the larger boulders.  However, the Yaris does pretty well, as long as we don't high center.  Frequently, taxis here are Yaris or equivalent, so they can handle it.  The counselor in Aguadulce has a Yaris taxi with 550,000 kilometers on it.  He said the government requires the taxi to be retired when it goes over 1 million (625,000 miles).  I have been wondering, if we don't care for our cars carefully enough, but the taxi next door is getting an engine job, so maybe it is just that we aren't willing to put the time in for repairs.

The visit took quite a bit of time, they were grateful to see us, but it would be hard to keep busy if we were just home/visiting teaching and also hard to evaluate the effectiveness.  We are grateful for having the music program and for having discovered how to make it effective.  We are at the stage in David where we are starting to lose students that discover they have to practice, but currently we have over 60 hours of teaching appointments each week (and 7 hours driving time) with about 70 students and 45 keyboards lent out.

These oil palms were planted in rows.  They are not yet large enough to start harvesting, but one can grow lots of 'exotics' here.

Yesterday we traveled to Boquette.  It is up by the volcano and a bit cooler.  Our first appointment is at 9am with a family part way up.  While at that appointment, the branch president called and canceled his 11am appointment for himself, his wife and the two member boys that live close by.  He is moving to David, where he has found work.  We decided to swing by and then see a bit more of the town (further up the road than our appointments).  The branch president, Pedro, has been living in the house of his uncle from Canada -- who is in the process of moving down.  At any rate, we got there just as the uncle was leaving for David, so we could pick up the keyboard (the boys don't have electricity and weren't progressing, so 4 less students.  It was a very nice 'coincidence' to be able to make that connection simply.  We then went on and decided to stop at the church on the way through.  Turns out they had changed the time of seminary and it was about to let out, so we were able to teach both students that had attended.  Then a third student was in town and we connected to give her a ride home and teach her.  I slept in the hammock while Janell gave the lesson.  On the way, Janell chewed out the mother of the other student who had gone to David for the day without telling us (she didn't have money on her phone (text for $.15), but enough for the bus ticket).  So we were able to accomplish pretty much all that was possible for that day (with some help).  I'm looking forward to meeting our guardian angels and finding out what percentage of their hints we manage to take up on.  Basically, how frustrated they were with us and then thank them.  We have really been much more successful/coordinated that one could expect.
Gracias a Dios!

Cess pool, baby parrot and sleeper cabs

 I love it when students just take off.  Kenneth learned two hymns and played them in church inside of a month.  He loves it.  It was fun to watch the bishop's face when I told him Kenneth was ready to play.  Sometimes unlikely youth really take to it.

Ana enjoys the time we spend if she could just learn faster.  Kenneth is her brother, and it's hard for her not to compare.  She has a beautiful smile, and she shares a wonderful sunset with me each week as we work.  

 We passed this tree which looks like cotton.  The neighbors called it tree cotton.

 Here you can see the blossoms in various stages.


Here is a video of a baby parrot being fed.  The family expects to raise it for sale.

 Myles' family told me a story of a woman who loved birds.  One year her favorites died with a virus.  The next year she finally heard a pair singing.  She rode her bicycle all over, but found no others.  She prayed that her birds might return--and they did!  I've loved this statue ever since we first saw it, so I decided I'd snap a photo and add the German story.

 Here is the family of one of our students with their new cesspool.  The rocks are really pretty large and would be very heavy -- my guess 200 lbs or more.  This dad and a friend moved them by hand. They will cover it with concrete and it will become part of their driveway.  They don't seem to use drain fields much, which I thought were quite a bit better way to deal with the sewage.  Yes, she is one of our younger students.  It may be the dad wants her to play piano much more than she does.

 Here is something you won't see in the states.  It is a gravel hauler with a sleeper cab.  Normally, gravel is a low value commodity and won't get shipped very far.  So why a sleeper cab?  Because many of the trucks in the US are for long haul with sleeper cabs and it turns out Panama is a good market for used trucks.  Thus sleeper cab on a short haul outfit.

Well, Apryl asked for a mission picture for our plaque (I hope and assumed that she didn't mean the sticky deposit on teeth in which bacteria proliferate.)
We are reverse proud, so didn't get the wrinkles fixed.  But the hair did come out less gray than it actually is.

It catches some of the fun we share.  Rod was patient to get it taken.  It might be nice to do it soon before we get home if we're going to do it at all.  Poor Apryl who receives our TO DO list.  We appreciate the help of our family. We are blessed to be part of this work.

Walls (rock on rock): Will our work be as enduring?

 We had several students from Concepcion that didn't quite have enough songs learned to earn their pianos.  We said you have two months to earn them; we'll be back to test you.  Today, two of them got tested (one for the second time) and both passed.  High 5's from all sides.
Here I am doing math homework with Henry.  He earned his piano a couple of months ago and Janell was giving the test to Karyn at his house.  Anita has passed earlier (we get an early day home and Janell likes to fill them).  At any rate, I can still do equations with numbers to various powers.  Sister Garcia said I should come back once a week to help -- she would provide Popsicles.

Here we are at the home of the Boquette branch president.  He and his wife are students as well as two boys from the neighborhood.  I think he takes them to church each week as well.  Nice young men, but they were having trouble learning to direct.  Their house has no running water or electricity.  They smell of smoke, but not tobacco;)  They are having a little trouble learning the chords,  melodies and reading music, but are friendly and nice.
Last week when I gave the branch president his assignment for weekly practice, he said OK I will practice it this week.  I said, NO! EVERY DAY.  Oh...
Well, he did practice better, so he and his wife are now doing fine.  Playing their first hymn both hands.

 On our way up into the mountains (towards Volcan Baru -- highest point in Panama).  We have a number of fields with rocks all over them -- on the other side Volcan, there are fields of rocks also, but also deep fertile soil fields.
We talked to a rancher and he said the walls were there since he was born -- 73 years ago.  It is hard to show the effort that must have gone into them.  Rocks, of course, are heavy and they are just placed in the wall, no mortar.  Lot of work just so the cows can eat and not go wandering.

 Some big rocks would seem harder to move.

There are also piles of rocks in the middle of the field -- different method needed to clear the land.