Departing and Arriving

Our students have been wonderful in their love as we were leaving.  Each branch held an activity in our honor.  All week before our "surprise" party in Aguadulce I was wishing that we could find time and patience to do a slide show to honor them.  When we arrived, here it was!  The sister that is such a wonderful primary teacher had gotten pictures as we made cookies with her family and created it.

Sister Chevita did her own party for us in her home at our last lesson.  Even though she worked hard, she didn't  earn her piano, but she wasn't bitter.  She came with us and helped us clean and move in.  What a blessing.

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The last Sunday, we had an activity for the young girls in the branch.  They looked at our pictures, we ate, and we made cookies with Layne and Dorrie's last bag of m&m's. We had a great time.  

This is the banner our students created.  The M and N are interchanged in English and Spanish often (at least here in Panama) so we are Watsoms. No importa.

In Chitre, Vanessa and her Uncle danced for us.  Mayra, our friend and student and Relief Society President and her daughter made a wonderful program with quotes, and each student played.  Javi played the guitar and I got to sing with him our Help Me Teach With Inspiration.  Great fun and wonderful spirit.  Two of the more advanced students played a duet, even.

Our last pose in front of the church with Jorge Luis.  This family was one of the only 15 who attended church the Sunday following our farewell party.  Somehow the members don't attend church following an activity.  I don't know if it's economic or what.

Vanessa and her uncle danced the typical dance together for our farewell in Chitre.    Mayra and her daughter prepared a program with lovely quotes and each of our students played.  Javi invited me to sing with him (he is our only guitar student) and we did Help Me Teach With Inspiration.  Two of the more advanced students played a duet.  They served dinner and we felt LOVED!

We found this huge butterfly in the church.  Sister Chevita says they attack sugar cane in their larva stage.  I imagine they could do damage. 

Here you can see the real size.

A new fruit.  I can't even remember it's name.  It wasn't a favorite.

Here it is open.  It wasn't very sweet and had an avocado texture.  Maybe I should have tried it blended with ice, sugar, and milk, but I gave it to the neighbor.




Sister Savedra is struggling with cancer, so we tried to visit as often as we could.  They treated us to pipa, a small coconut that people drink the juice. 




Another take.


And another.  The meat has a slimy texture, and Rod slipped me his to help him out.  He often helps me out when I have too much rice.

We have a brook that runs UNDER our house.  It babbles wonderfully all day long.  We've turned the house into a studio apartment and are only using the oven upstairs for storage.  It will work fine. Our view is of trees and bananas and the bridge.  I'm going to enjoy that.  Our landlord asked us to compost!  Yeah!!

It is marvelous to go to church in a chapel again and feel part of a going concern.  I had never realized how hard people have to struggle to get a branch really going.  The members are talking of home teaching and there is a large youth group.  We met with the branch president, President Rodriguez, and his wife who helped us organize a list of more than 20 students .  Another branch has 5 who want to meet between seminary and school, so we'll have an early day Friday, but we don't have to travel far.
 
We also traveled to Volcan, about 45 minutes and met with the wife of the branch president and the missionaries.  The Young Women's president will help organize there, and we'll return Thursday.  I wanted to wash our clothes, but Rod was anxious to get things going, and he was right, of course.

Three of our Aguadulce students have called just to see how we are doing and two from Chitre and one from Penonome.  The members are AWESOME!  The gospel is true.  The Savior does love us.

Moving Parties, from cookies to black beans

Mayra is from Guatemala.  She has spent a lot of time with us and we've cooked a bit.  When we arrived she was cooking black beans, Guatemala style.  She taught Rod, and here they are.


She has a great way to cut cabbage.  Here it is.

As we are leaving families who have become dear to us, we are trying to spend a little time together.  The Diaz family invited us for lunch and to make snickerdoodles.

It was fun.  I wanted the children to have a chance to do, but their mom said they had to watch and learn.  Sad for me, but what do you do in another woman's kitchen with another woman's children.?

Their grandpa wanted me to take a photo of his truck which had made the trip from the U.S. to Panama.

I climbed in back with the kids.  I have great memories of pick-up rides when I was a child. (Some not so great as well).

Finally we get a smile from Abdelito.  Usually he tries to be cool.

Kevin, on the other hand, just has a great joy in life and loves to laugh.


Javi is the district Young Men's president.  He knew some guitar before, but he has learned a bit from me and now is enrolled with a real teacher.  His goal is to offer classes to the youth in his branch and to use he music in his family home evenings.  I taught him Help Me Teach With Inspiration, and he says it has become his new favorite hymn.  I loved sharing with him.

A young girl who spent time with us when we first came and then left for another life style called us the other day to ask us to come by.  She said things had been hard and she was interested in coming back.  We went by and offered to give her a ride to church on Sunday.  When we arrived she wasn't there or awake at least.  I took Damaris home after sacrament meeting and Rod suggested I stop by again.  She was there and willing to get dressed and come with me.  It took her awhile and I was doubting my inspiration, but when we walked into the church and all 5 of the young women came running to give her a hug, it was a wonderful sight.  As I was waiting for her the thought went through my mind from Elder Maxwell, that 'people come from an increasingly long distance to enjoy the gospel, and too often they are reaching to enter a lifeboat and those inside, instead of helping them in, hit them over the head with the oars'.  These young women were following the Savior.


New House pictures.  In case anyone is interested in viewing the new house, we're trying the video approach.  One more week here and our rent more than doubles and we start anew.

Today, two of our adult students (with whom we have worked very hard) told us that they would like us to take the pianos they've earned and use them with other youth in our new area.  The Harman fund is out of funds at present, so this will help us.  It was touching to have them offer. People are GOOD!!! --as is the Lord.  We're glad to be here in the ups and downs of missionary work.

Stomp rockets, Family Home Evening and sugar cane harvest

 Two grown men and a stomp rocket!  This stadium had a roof that we could stand under.  If I jumped high and came down hard with both feet, I could make the rocket hit the roof.  It's kind of fun to have a goal and reach it.

 Kevin Diaz is one of my favorite kids here.  He waits for us to come, comes out smiling to help us bring things in, and helps us into the car when we're done, then the family stands and waves us out of sight.  We were just celebrating being together.  Today Rod and I went to their house for dinner and to make snickerdoodles.  It was a fun day.  I didn't communicate well, because I brought fish for everyone and she'd already cooked a whole dinner.  Wow! how do I miss so much?

 We gave them a Family Home Evening manual and had  the first one to show them how.  This is the grandmother being the "Tree of life, from Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon.  Our stomp rocket turned into the iron rod. 

A new fruit.  This one is a cereza which I always thought was the word for cherries.  This fruit has the three seeds inside it and is pretty sour.
Here is a quote I'm using. "Don't weep because it is over, Rejoice because it happened."  "No lloren porque se ha terminado, Alégrense porque sucedió." (Guess who said it.  Answer at end of blog.)  It is my feelings upon leaving this area.  We all knew it wouldn't be forever, and I wouldn't want it to be because I miss my family, but it has been good, and we have people to love that we didn't know before.  I love the Savior.  He has truly blessed my life.

 I decided that since I had little else this week, this might be the week to share the sugar cane harvest.  Notice above, the ash that falls (for about 5 months) from burning the leaves on the cane fields.

 This field is across a 4 lane from us and was the best picture we got, but there would be big plumes of dark smoke frequently over about a 40 mile stretch of highway.  They sometimes irrigate so they use flat land for the sugar cane.

 These are two of the harvesters.  They seem to windrow and then use these to lift into field transports drawn by tractor.  We didn't see it, but it appears they often take the cane to loading yards for placing in trucks.  (We would see the field transports on the highways at time heading to common destinations.)  Sometimes trucks are directly loaded.


The video was taken of a crew gathering cane (missed by initial harvest) into piles for eventual loading onto trucks.  We had pulled off to the side of the 4 lane (pan-american highway), but they were working in the center on the drainage system, so had blocked off one of the lanes.  We are listening to conference, but you will note that we get advised to move on and not be a menace to other travelers.  We don't count this one as one of the 9 times we were stopped by traffic police for violations, as we were already stopped.  No tickets yet.

 We picked up a cane that fell off a truck 8-10 feet long and a bit sooty.   It is pretty stiff -- useful for sword fights (in dirty clothes).

 This was very disappointing -- not very sweet.

 Tough to bite into and unsatisfactory, maybe green it is better.

 Most trucks aren't loaded so carefully by hand, but this one looked like someone aligned each cane, placing to maximize space.

 Here are some empty field transports, looks like they are built locally, perhaps on the large farm.  We estimated that they must have been harvesting 20-40,000 acres for this one factory.

 Here is hand harvesting on the burned over field, that which was missed by the mechanized crew.  The machetes must be pretty sharp and the cane is tough.

This guy has been in the soot a bit much for me.

Here is a shot ready to grow again.  The first fields to be harvested were already 2-3 feet high when the last ones finished.

Answer:  Dr Seuss

Lizards and a concert

 I tried twice to move these two photos to the bottom of the blog but they wouldn't go.  Maybe it's because they might be top interest to some of the kids.  We were teaching in Penonome and an older brother called us over to see a "Teeny" iguana.  I didn't think it particularly tiny, but it was compared to the 3 foot one that ran across the road when I was driving.

Rod, always interested, put his thumb down.  You can see the size, but the iguana wasn't a bit afraid.  He licked the thumb twice -- and then BIT!!   I wish I'd had a video.  It was like the mouse in our apartment incident with Apryl.

This is our new house in Concepcion.  It is at least twice as big as we need if not more with two baths and 3 bedrooms.  Someone had walled up the closet.  We asked to have it restored.  Hope we don't find an awful reason for it to have been walled up.  It has glass sliding windows which I don't like nearly as well as the roller ones.  I'll have to buy drapes.

Everett had 2 of these sticks.  I don't know why I hadn't thought of lumi sticks before.  I'm going to get a set and carry them with us.  We had a lot of fun. 

Last night we went for our lesson with Leydis and Eric but with a twist.  They invited the ex branch president who doesn't come any more for a concert.  When I'd told him that the kids could play he seemed very pleased.  I made pumpkin bread (it failed again) and took lemonade (way too much lemon and it was bitter).  It turned out that our guest didn't come, but the kids played all their hymns (it took over an hour) as we sang together.  It was a wonderful evening.  This is their final bow.

The family together after the concert.

I took a family home from church and Rod was in the chapel teaching Elder del Angel.  Rod discovered a simple method to teach chords and they were having a grand time.  We're not allowed to teach missionaries, but we made a half hour exception.

We haven't connected again with Emma, so no news there.  Our Tuesday appointment with the family around the corner found the husband absent and the wife uninterested.  We had the guitar and sang a bit.  She took down the words to Count Your Blessings in shorthand.  That was fun to watch.  Then I taught her two guitar chords.  We left, and as we left we had to walk through tall grass.  We've made it a habit to stamp our feet after that, because we're so afraid of the chiggers (whose bites we now have again, so with good reason).  I started to stamp, and Rod said "Quit it.  She has read the bible and may know about 'shaking off the dust of your feet'.  I can't imagine ever doing that, but I need to make one more visit to make sure we didn't leave that impression.

On our trip to Concepcion we were stopped 4 times by police.  Two were just routine stops for drugs, the other two weren't.  One was for passing on a bridge.  The bridge was at the bottom of a hill and both sides had dotted yellow.  The bridge paint was so faded you couldn't tell, but apparently there is a rule that you can't pass on a bridge.  Another American who lives here and spoke fluent Spanish was stopped just in front of us for the same infraction.  He argued.  For a while we wondered if we wouldn't be better off without his help, but he eventually got us both off.

The second time was our first encounter with a corrupt policeman, but I didn't realize it until after the encounter.  He said something like "What are we going to have to do so that you don't get a ticket?"  By this time I was tired of it so I said quite forcefully,  "I'd like to know, too, because we are trying to be the most obedient possible and follow the laws.  If there are laws we need to know about I would appreciate it if you would teach us so we can obey."  By this time I suspect he was hearing his mother's voice in the back of his head, and he just waved us on through.  In retrospect I've tried to think what I would have done.  Our friend told us that it is illegal to ask or to pay bribes, so I don't know.

Sing-a-longs and the hand of the Lord

On Wednesday when we arrived at Lizardo Smith's for his lesson we were greeted with Hank Williams and "I can't help it if I'm still in love with you"!!   His grandfather, from the indigenous tribe of Kuna was visiting. He'd learned to like Country Western while working in the Canal Zone as a youth.   He planned to sing in the Baptist church on Sunday.  We discovered that he knew some of our hymns, and he played the harmonica, so we had a great time together.  You never know the treats in store for you while serving a mission,

Ximena, who was baptized hurriedly because she had a date for a Caesarian section in two weeks, surprised us all and had the baby a week early.  Here is Jesus in the hospital with Angel.  She is beautiful.  I hold her and pretend it's one of ours that I'm missing out on.

Thursday in Penonome it was late and we were leaving the church.  I decided I needed to use the restroom before our drive home.  I ran in and this is what I found.  I tried to get closer but he just swam backwards and disappeared from view.  His nose going out of sight is a fun memory.  I don't know how he got there.  The bishop in our home ward talked about rats in the toilet.  This was much more fun to find.  We've gotten a lot of mileage out of sharing it.

These "grasshoppers" were on the gwandu plants in the garden of one of our students.  Rod put the pen so you could see the size.  I'd hate to have them in my garden.

Clearer.

Ever since I came here I have been looking for Cherimoyas, or custard apples.  My mom has talked about them all my life.  When we were teaching last week, one of my student's moms gave me these two.  They weren't wonderful to me, unfortunately.  They are filled with hard black seeds and the texture was a bit grainy.  Rod says he likes his fruit easier.  Still, it was a fun experience.
Another woman gave us a fruit that smelled like passion fruit and had the same shape but a different skin.  The car smelled heavenly and I was so excited all the way home, but when I opened it, it wasn't passion fruit and wasn't even wonderful.

 

These buzzards were tearing up garbage outside our apartment.  I only managed to catch one of the three.  They are everywhere here in Panama.  

Last Tuesday I decided that I was definitely going to contact Emma.  While we were talking with family, she called me!  We agreed that the hand of the Lord is in our friendship.  We agreed that I'd come to her business about 5.  As we prepared to go, I decided I needed to prepare a small card to leave with her.  Rod had been talking about giving her the reference for the "Pearl of great price" in the New Testament.  I'd been holding off, but decided this was the time.  

We arrived, and while she was cutting my hair she told me that the last two weeks had been difficult.  Robbers had broken into her home and stolen all her jewelry.  I questioned if it had been very expensive, and she said, no, but nice.  Then she said "I have decided that I won't replace it. Now I am just going to search for the "Pearl of great price".  I gave her my card and we left.  We have an appointment today if she didn't have to go to Panama, so we'll see.  She is a lovely, Christ directed person.  It's a pleasure to know her.

Friday we had 3 cancellations, our last three, which allowed us to come home early from Las Tablas, 60 miles away.  I'd awakened one morning feeling that I needed to copy Elder Uchdorf's "Road to Damascus" talk and take it to a home around the corner where we'd seen a family together one day.  We decided to take the opportunity to visit and found, not the family we saw, but a couple about our age caring for a 92 year old mother (my mom's age).  We gave them a restoration pamphlet and the talk and visited a few minutes.  Then I asked if they liked to sing and offered to come back and sing with the grandma.  The wife wanted to do it right then, so we went home for the guitar and had a nice sing along.   Irma, the wife, said she had visited the church with her baby when he was small, but she currently attends the baptist church.  We took photos, and Rod made a return visit appointment for Tuesday.  I like this kind of missionary work too. The gospel is true.  The Savior must watch us and shake his head some days, though.

Cheeks to jowls, dirt piles, sweat and pumpkin bread

 We were leaving church with 5 in the car when we passed another family of three.  We decided we could all fit.  No one seemed to mind too much.  Our little blue car can transport 8. 

 When I took our newly baptized Sister Damaris home I noticed that she had a big pile of dirt on the other side of the road from her house.  She was trying to move it to her yard to make a garden.

 Sister Chevita went with us and the elders to move it.  We didn't nearly get it all done, but we had fun (the ones who really worked might question that) for a few hours.  She wants to make a garden.  I don't think my mom would approve of the dirt, even I didn't.  It's pretty rocky, but she's a farm girl and seems secure that it will work.  I like her pluck. (R: Most anything grows here)

 Damaris' 12 year old son didn't seem to mind helping although he wasn't enthusiastic. (R: Janell is larger and more forceful than he)

 I taught him how to carry a bucket like my brother, Gaven, and I used to carry the milk bucket.  It is easier, but, of course, not easy.  I'm not sure we did much good as compared to the wheelbarrow, but one of the elders said he thought it was worth it for Jose to help.  Since I agreed wholeheartedly, we kept it up.  As you can see, I didn't bring appropriate P day clothes.  I thought I'd need something light colored.  Everyone here wears jeans.

 You can see that Rod is beginning to sweat.  We actually put on sun screen because it was a sunny day, but after we got there we got cloud cover and a breeze.  In the words of Johnny Appleseed, "The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord..."

 If you look carefully, you can see that he only has one small patch on top of his arm that is dry now.  His pants and shirt are soaked.  It was a good thing that the elders had a 5 o'clock interview and we had an excuse to leave. By the way, cold showers and sunscreen don't mix very well.  (R: I hadn't realized before coming here that I sweat much more than normal people, hmmm.)

 Jesus is practicing to play at church.  His daughter decided to play as well.  His wife, baptized in a hurry because she had a C section scheduled for July 29, had their baby yesterday, July 23.  I always dreamed of that and never came even one day early.  Aryl was the only one who came on time.

 Occasionally Rod takes a break.  He was teaching Eric how to throw spiral.  The ball was dog chewed, but you could still see the spiral.

More mileage out of Dorrie and Layne's M&Ms.  A young man called and made a date to make the cookies and pumpkin bread after the baptism.  I scheduled for Saturday night.  When the guests arrived it was not the young man at all, but his entire family minus him.  We made the cookies and then pumpkin bread.  The cookies were better with baking powder than they had been with soda, but still not marvelous.  The pumpkin bread turned out not like bread at all, but a thick pudding.  I cut it up anyway because it was meant to be a treat for the baptism we had today at District conference and with a 6:15 date to start picking people up in the morning there was no time to make more.  On the bus on the way home, I asked Abdiel, the newly baptized member, if he'd like to try it.  If he liked it, we'd pass it around, if not, we'd skip.  He liked it, everyone ate, some asked for the recipe, and I have to believe once again that they have different taste in Panama (they seem to like cookies less sweet) and that hunger makes a good cook.

Yesterday Sister Chevita asked me if I'd go with her to take a few groceries to Damaris.  I suggested to Rod that after driving the seminary carpool he might like to rest here and we'd have a girls night out.  He quickly agreed and we took off.  On our return I looked ahead and saw a police roadblock and I had no license. Before I tell you the rest, I know how silly it was, so no one else needs to talk about it.  (R:  Mum's the word.  Even giggles are verboten.)  I decided to turn down a side road, so they wouldn't catch me.  It took about two seconds to have two police cars in pursuit.  Sister Chevita luckily had her ID, so she got out and talked to them.  They were very gentlemanly.  They were looking for drugs.  It didn't take long to convince them that we were two innocent (and one very foolish) little old ladies.  We're calling it our adventure, and I'm sure the members are enjoying it hugely.

The conference was wonderful.  One of my students, who is very talented musically taught the choir "Jesus, Name of Wondrous Love"
from the choirbook I couldn't resist buying her.  They also sang Faith in Every Footstep.  Pretty appropriate for July 24.  Three of our students played, and two directed.

Last week the President said that we wouldn't take a bus because there were no funds for it.  That would mean that we cancelled church here, but no one went to Chitre for the conference.  I was scandalized, especially because I wanted everyone to hear the music. (R: The church's music is true.)  I talked to a counselor and asked him if it would make a difference if we donated the $20 it would cost us to drive.  He said yes, and arranged it all.  We ended up with an old school bus (Rod called it a our angel (R: for a day) because the painted ones in Panama are called red devils) which had 12 seats.  We put 36 people in and away we went.

On the way home they were collecting money.  Benjamin looked at us (we thought) and requested $6.  We mentally blinked, but paid.  Then the lady behind us handed up her $6.  He said "Oh, no, it's all right.  The Watson's paid for you."  Rod's comment was "I really need to learn to speak Spanish."

Oriel Jordan was also ordained an elder in the is conference. (R: He has gotten active -- his sisters are active and now some of the nieces and a nephew have a date for the 30th.  I am suggesting that he consider a mission--he is 26 and feels a little like he let his leaders down.  We had to work pretty hard to make the connections -- took him out to the branch presidents one day and then get the District president to interview him between conference meetings, we were lacking the proper paperwork, but he was ordained after the conference as Abdiel was being baptised.  He was quite pleased to be an elder -- now to teach him what he can now do to help his family.)

There is a lot of work to be done to bless lives here.  I wonder at our moving sometimes, but I think we really are most effective with the youth and the music and we'll have more youth much closer together in Panama.  It's hard not to second guess decisions.  We've certainly come to love the people here.