Stories from Panama

I love to use my blog to write memories of crazy things that I have witnessed during my Peace Corps experience. Therefore, this entry will be filled with stories from the past 6 months. Enjoy!

Getting the Cat Fixed

Reese

In America, it is very common for the owner of a cat to have them spayed or neutered. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing a male cat with testicles or a pregnant female cat while I was growing up. In Panama, it costs $45 to have your female cat spayed. Shoot, that’s totally worth it in my opinion after having gone through two litters in only 4 months. However, what I did not factor into the price was the cost of hauling my cat on a boat for two hours, a bus for two hours, staying in a house with another female cat, and then doing the bus and the boat again to come back to the community. Lord have mercy.

So I started this trip with high hopes. I was advised to put the cat in a sack rather than a box. That was definitely bad advice, which I realized as I was getting on the boat. In other words, TOO LATE. The cat clawed through the little holes I had cut and began sticking her head through the enlarged hole. Well next thing you know there are large holes all throughout the bag and it might as well be ripped to shreds.

The boat that arrives to pick us up is packed and the only seat is in the very front in between two kids and tons of luggage. This wouldn’t have been the end of the world, except for the fact that the boat driver decided to go way too fast in the rough ocean sending the boat crashing down after it crested each wave. Mother f*****. No, it’s fine, I don’t need this back bone or my tail bone either. Miraculously the cat clung on for dear life in my lap and didn’t try to escape too often.

After a miserable 2 hours, we arrive on the mainland. I immediately hail a taxi to be taken to the bus station. It’s only a 10 minute ride, but the cat had never been in a car before so I was worried she was going to freak out. What I didn’t take into account was the fact that we got into a nicer and newer cab and my cat was shedding white hairs onto his black cloth interior like she had just been shaved bald. Well, once the cat hair was significantly covering the back seat and floating through the wind-blown air to the front seat, the taxi driver called it quits. He stopped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere half-way to the bus station and told me to just get out. I tried to pay but he said just go and then sped off.

About 5 minutes later, an old truck taxi pulls up and we get in. I kind of hide the cat on the floor, hoping the taxi driver won’t notice. Thankfully, he didn’t care too much and the cat didn’t shed as much hair being on the floor board.

From the bus station we hailed a coaster bus full of people headed to the city. I had an aisle seat right by the door so everyone who entered saw me holding my stressed kitty cat. She behaved pretty well on the bus actually.

We arrive in the city and I hail a cab and ask to be taken to a vet. He takes me quite a ways away from the city center but it looks like a pretty legit vet. I walk up and a lady greets me outside. The “waiting area” is outside on a covered porch. The vet building appears to be a renovated house. She brings me a cat carrier to guard my cat better. Then she tells me that the doctor isn’t here and she doesn’t know exactly when he will return. She doesn’t know what it will cost to have her spayed. And why didn’t I call earlier to schedule an appointment? Alright, throw me a bone here. I woke up before the butt crack of dawn, traveled from super far with a loco cat, and I haven’t eaten all day. We eventually get on the same terms and she calls the doctor and tells him to hurry back so he can do this surgery for me today. I leave my poor kitty in her care and pray that she makes it back to me safely.

Later that night at about 8pm, I walk back to the house where I’m staying after running errands all day long. I follow a white commercial van to the house and realize that it’s a vet van when we both stop at the house at the same time. OMG! What amazing timing. He gives me my kitty and I give him the cash and we part. Not sketchy at all, no. 

I was so happy to have her back and to know that she was ok! But she was not quite so excited to see me. She was squalling from fright being in a new place. The female cat that inhibited the house was also not at all happy to meet her. Luckily there was a dog crate at the house so I put her in that to keep her and the house cat from fighting. Well that didn’t really work because they still hissed and fought. So then I put the crate in a bedroom and shut the door. That helped keep them from fighting.

But when it came time to sleep, my kitty began squalling again from fright of the unknown place. It’s one thing to bother the owner’s sleep (me), but unfortunately 4 other people inhabited the house as well. I can’t let her disrupt all of us all night long. So at about 2am, I took her out of her crate and we sat outside on the front porch to calm her down. I tied her up to a post and she calmed down after the first hour. I went inside and slept for maybe an hour until she started making a racket again. Then I went back out to her and stayed until the sun rose.

The trip back home was much easier than the trip to the city. While we were waiting for the boat, I didn’t know what to do with the cat. I felt bad tying her up to a post and leaving her on the dock, possibly to fall off and drown herself. So I let her wonder around the back of a packaged food merchant with the rope still around her neck, just in case she tried to run away. The guy who owns this store is great and trusts me so the cat and I just roamed around for about an hour. Curiosity didn’t kill my cat this time, but she was into every nook and cranny. Curiosity should have killed her.

When we got back to the community, everyone was asking about our trip. Mainly, how much did the surgery cost? Only $45. WHAT?! Good God you are crazy for paying that much money for nothing!

Ok, maybe they didn’t come out and say that, but I know it’s what they were thinking. They don’t understand the benefit that I see in getting my female cat fixed. And they never will because they still tease me 6 months later. 

Eating Habits

If someone tries to tell you that your eating habits will not change when you move to a new country, they are a liar. I thought I would be able to keep up with my healthy diet, but that immediately went downhill the moment I was served fried plantains for breakfast 4 days in a row. Oh and lunch was a huge bowl full of white rice and fried chicken. And I think dinner was rice and beans. 

When I moved into my own house, I tried desperately to get back to my old habits. There is only so much you can do when living with host families, but now I had the ball in my hands. I ate lots of oatmeal and canned vegetables and tuna and homemade tortillas for about 2 months. And then I realized that I was completely broke every month from spending so much money on this "healthy imported" food. I started bringing less and less home from the big city as the months pasted...

And now here I am a year after moving into my own house. The only thing I bring in from the big city is what my mama ships me from the states (mainly dried fruit, nuts, granola). I don't waste a single dime on whole wheat pasta and canned peas. I eat oatmeal with raisins, rice and beans, starchy vegetables from the finca like yucca and others similar to potatoes, and some fresh fish and chicken every now and then. Oh yeah, and I like to fry up plantains, green bananas, and bread. 

Now when I try to eat regular American food like pizza or pretzels or ice cream it hurts my stomach. But I still feel relatively healthy. I weigh the same and look the same. So what if I'm substituting leafy greens for green bananas? They're free for heaven's sake!

I've actually added a few really good delicacies to my diet. Some might object to eating a few of these, but look I didn't actually kill the thing. And it would have been thrown away if I didn't eat it. So onto the good stuff. I have a friend that loves to hunt in the finca (farm in the jungle). He goes with his dogs and always manages to catch some interesting prey. Usually he brings home birds and squirrels (which they cook and feed to the dogs primarily) but one day he brought home an iguana! It was similar to chicken and it was really good. I also ate wild rabbit that he caught. The other oddity is sea turtle. It's quite popular out here. I've only had it twice and I must say that it tastes really good, like cow meat. 

But a few things that I can't bring myself to chow down on is chicken feet, chicken neck, and sardines. Not quite a campo girl just yet...