JULY 30th 2010 “An American in Panama”

I just returned from a nearly two week TDY (temporary duty) and received the briefing for my next deployment, which actually inspired the creation of this blog “Ministry at the Edge of the Earth”.  I am heading to Antarctica in a few months!  

But until then and this new and upcoming adventure, I will continue to share some of my former tours, TDYs, and stories.  

My first overseas tour, or deployment was many years ago, another time.  It was seventeen plus years ago, and I was a 2LT (second lieutenant).  I was sent to Panama, where I served for about six months.  This was before I became a chaplain, and back then I was a “line officer”.  My job for this tour was coordinating and leading trips and visits of VIPs, Generals, Governors and other “high vis” civilians.  

The first day I arrived to Panama, I was, as usual after traveling for many hours and through the night, dazed and exhausted.  A friend I knew who was already at the base where I was, met me and took me for a ride off base and through Panama City.  I was very excited to see a new country!

As soon as we exited the base, the first thing I saw written (spray painted) on the buildings was graffiti:  “Yanqi go home!”  

Well, that was a nice welcome!

It was in the early 1990s and it was another time.  Rubble of buildings and buildings with bullet holes still where everywhere from the aftermath of “Operation Just Cause”, the US invasion of Panama in 1989.  

This was a time before the Internet and before everyone had cell phones.     My only link to “home” was watching CNN on TV,  and a five to ten minute phone call home on Sundays.  

And as the months went by, a pain and longing for home was very much felt.  One weekend, after being there for four months, I went scuba diving with some friends in the Caribbean and we were sitting in the evening around a camp fire on the beach.  We all missed home (America) and began talking about things we missed about the United States.   

One girl said she missed malls.  (Panama did not have malls).  Another said she missed Denny’s.  (Back then Denny’s was the coffee place!)  And I thought about these things.  I was never a mall person, but strangely, I missed these things too!

It was challenging for me living in Panama, because I barely spoke any Spanish, and this was the first time I had ever lived outside the United States.  I had to get an apartment in the city as the base did not have the room to house me on base.  This was a blessing in a way, for I was forced to live in the culture totally.  And really learn some Spanish!

I was very embarrassed that I could not communicate with the people there in Spanish.  They tolerated me, (stupid American).  But I soon learned they were more than friendly if I told them I was trying to learn Spanish, and would they help me?  They were then delighted.  

I began to learn, reading the Spanish road signs, learning words and phrases, studying and struggling with the language and soon I began to hear the language!!  It felt like my ears where opening up!  I began to understand the gist of what I was hearing!  Of course, if I was really in a bind, most Panamanians spoke English.  

But it was lonely, for I would see the people with their friends, laughing and talking...in Spanish.  How I wished to join in and talk and laugh too, but I could not even talk to them, or understand them.

It was a realization of what the people in the US feel who are from another country, struggling with English.  I now knew what it felt like to be the outsider, the foreigner.

My apartment was in the heart and hustle and bustle of Panama City.  In Panama, the phones, electricity and water at times went off.  Yep, no water, no electricity, and sometimes the phone just went down.  Usually they would announce what sectors of the city would have no water when, so you could make arrangements.  When i knew I would have no water for a morning shower, I would wake up extra early, go to the base gym and shower there.  

But one evening, down went the phone, the electric power, and I had no water.  And I was not presentable.  I needed a shower, and I could not go out. I needed to do laundry, but had no water.  The phone was out, so I could not call anyone.  I wanted to read a book, but had no light.  And now, no air conditioning and was sweating like mad.  What to do?  

And so, I sat in my bed, reading a book by candlelight, drops of sweat hitting the book as I read it.  It was miserable.  Then I thought, ‘oh my gosh,  how many hundreds (thousands) of years did people live like this, and I am whining?‘  

I had a major education right then and there, sweating and reading by candlelight!!  

The military installation where I worked was right across from the giant Miraflores locks on the Panama Canal.  It was amazing to see everyday from outside my office window, the gigantic ships moving through the locks.  Some so large I wondered how they floated.  Cargo ships with conexes stacked upon stacks.  Giant “Love Boat” cruise ships, oil tankers, and more.  

Panama is very green and tropical, the air very humid and salty smelling.  There are two main seasons; wet season, and dry season.  In other words, one season that rained A LOT, and another season that rained a little less!

Being that it is so close to the equator, the days are usually 12 hours in length, and the sunrise / sunset does not change much.

This lack of change hit me one morning as I was preparing coffee in my kitchen, getting ready for work.  I had been there for about three months, and had an eastern window that the sun always blasted through every morning.  As the days and weeks went by I began to get this uneasy feeling.  Always that sun!  In the same spot!  Everyday!  At 6 am!    Suddenly an awareness hit me.  I was not used to things always staying the same, like the sunrise always being the same time being I was from a much more northern latitude where the slow change of time everyday, bit by bit I was  accustomed to!  Back home, three months time would have been a significant change, the sun would be rising at a different time.  But in Panama, 6 am, every day.  It did not change!

In my job, I coordinated the visits of large groups of people for 5 to 6 day visits.  I would usually book them at one of upscale hotels in the city.  

Now, going about doing this was completely different than in the USA.  How would you do this?  Pick up the phone, call the place, request the days, tell them the number of rooms, give them a credit card number and confirm and that would be it!  Right?   Wrong!

In the USA this would work.  But not in Panama.  I learned very quickly, (after they hung up on me half a dozen times!) that I had to ‘make an appointment’ to see the sales director, or better yet, the hotel manager.

And so I did.  Usually this “appointment” entailed meeting them for a nice lunch at the hotel, talking, getting to know one another, and then getting down to business.  Negotiating the prices, the extras, express check in with goodies and so forth.  All this took about three hours to do.

And every time I needed to book rooms, we would have a nice three hour lunch, talk and renegotiate everything.  

At first I thought this was incredibly inefficient.  What would take a 10 minute phone call in the USA took 3 hours in person to accomplish.

Until, after awhile, I began to get to know them, the hotel staff and them, me.  Pretty soon we knew each other by first names, I was asking about their families, their kids, and vice versa, etc.  This would rarely happen in the US!

I learned to appreciate the slower way of doing things there, as it was really about people and quality.

In the US it is about getting things done, and in a hurry.  Panamanians  are much more people oriented than American culture in general.

Panama had armed police officers and guards everywhere (like in front of stores, traffic stops and restaurants), usually armed with M-16s.  Rarely were there traffic lights at busy intersections, there were cops directing traffic.  

What you had to be careful of, especially if you were a foreigner and looked American (like I did), was not making eye contact with the police officers at traffic intersections.  Fortunately I was told the first week I arrived that the standard “bribe rate” was $5, and to keep a five dollar bill folded behind my driver’s license.  Should I be pulled over, I was to give the cop the $5, smile and say “buenos dias”.    It was standard operating procedure here.

And sure enough, on my very last day of being in Panama, as I was driving to the airport, on a big wide boulevard called Tomba Muerta. (Tomb of the Dead, nice name for the road to the airport, ay?) I mistakenly locked eyes with the traffic cop.  He motioned for me to pull over.

Uh, I thought!  He came up beside me and said “license por favor”.   And I gave him my license with the five dollar bill folded neatly behind it and said “Negotiate?”  And he said “Si”.  He handed me back my license, minus the five dollar bill, smiled and said “buenos dias!”  

I smiled, waived goodbye and was on my way to the airport, and home!