I'm pretty sure that I mentioned before in this blog that we East Side PCVs
get together and kill things.
This time it was a goat. . .again. (It was DELICIOUS!)
Two of the East Siders had family from the States coming out to their sites
around the same time, so because I am in the travel hub, somehow it came to be
that my house hosted a goat roast. As in we killed and roasted a goat outside of
my house. (And by 'we' what I really mean is Mateo, Laura, Danielle and Rachel
because I did nothing, I just live in said house.)
Really I just wanted to mention this event in order to provide context for
an anecdote of how things work in Panama. We roasted a goat at my house. As
goat is being chopped and prepared, the construction workers that are building a
hotel behind my house (yea, that's a thing) decide that on this day, I really
need a table outside my house to wash my dishes (which I do). The conversation
went like this (directly translated):
Owner of hotel/store across the street: "You need a table outside your
window."
Aja: "Yea, I would like that, but where am I going to get the wood
from?"
O: "We have wood over here."
A: Ok, cool.
Translated into more direct language, the conversation looks like
this:
O: "You want me to build you a table?"
A: "I don't have any wood. Are you gonna give me wood, too?"
O: "Yea."
A: "It's a deal, then."
So then a couple of the construction workers hop across the fence and
hammer the thing just under my window. Another indirect conversation takes
place.
Worker: "I hammered a nail into your wall. It needs to be hammered from the
inside."
Aja: "Oh, ok, go ahead then."
W: "But my feet are dirty."
A: "It's okay, I'll clean it up later."
--Really it was like--
W: "I'm gonna walk all up on your lineoleum floor with my muddy feet cuz I
gotta hammer those nails in, just to let you know."
A: "Alright, thanks for letting me know. Hammer away."
And thus the table is given unto me, and henceforth it has been
written that I will give them goat at some point. That's fine. All the leftovers
are clearly staying at my house, and we had a lot of goat, so if all I have to
do is give some leftovers and I get a free table, that is what's up. Ahh, Panama
and your social traps. Old clueless Aja would not have realized what was going
on. Looka me and my social skills!!!!
I got rid of all extra goat this morning when I heated it up and sent it
across the fence in a pot along with some plastic plates, napkins and barbecue
sauce. In a matter of minutes, goat was gobbled up and pot and sauce were
returned unto me.
Pana-people, y'all are a trip sometimes!!! Gotta love it. AND gotta love
this table that just happened to my house.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Panama? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Panama in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez