It was more special because a friend of mines niece was in the group- Marta told how they had put the lipstick on her and she immediately wiped it off and started to wipe it on her dress - she is the little gal
all in white. I also learned that the entire outfit is rented!!! I was shocked - it never crossed my mind that these wonderful dresses were rented. I am sure they are expensive they take a huge amount of material to make and the hand work for the decorations is extensive- but I never thought of renting!!!
On Wednesday I headed down to the Haven a spa and work out place. It is quite a long walk, even for me down here, and I stopped off at the Blue Door Studio to talk to my friend Del and ended up giving her a hand in preparation for a show for her jewelry. I told her where I was headed and she sid I should instead go to Milleys work out place the cost is about 1/3rd of the Haven and it is right down town. Well this seemed logical to me - less money less walking - it was a good deal. So I decided to use the bathroom there- one thing I have learned in Panama is to always use a bathroom that you know 1. is clean 2. actually has toilet paper and 3. you do not have to pay a quarter to use the room and get the paper. I walked in and thought there was a hunk of the polymer clay that she uses to make the jewelry and suddenly it MOVED. It was the biggest caterpillar I have ever seen plus it was the brightest shade of green. Del scooped it up with a dustpan as I seemed to remember reading about these and that they can sting you causing a lot of pain, We took it out and placed it on the railing and then looked for more but did not find any,
We let him go merrily on this way.
I left there and did walk to Milleys and did sign up for the gym membership. It costs $10 sign up fee and $25 a month that is $6 a week to use the gym as many times a week as you want. One of the reasons that I chose this gym ( and was going to choose the Haven) was they have what is called Vibration Therapy. This is a machine you stand on and it vibrates - well really in my case it jiggles me- it is a very strange feeling and it vibrates at different speeds. On Thursday I showed up for my first session. What they did not tell me on Wed. was that you had to do cardio for at least an hour first. So here I show up already to be "jiggled" and I am walking on the treadmill. 40 minutes then a 3 minute rest then another 20 minutes. Then I finally get to jiggle. I researched it on the internet and everything I read told of how it is good for not only weight loss ( and oh how I hope that part is true) but also for osteoporosis, for your joints, etc. I have now gone twice and enjoyed my jiggle time and will see how it goes. Plus on top of an hour on the treadmill I put in 2 more miles walking to and from the gym.
Friday was orphanage day and I was anxious to return to see if baby Abril was still there. It was strange we walked it and found it unusually quiet. I walked over the the preschool room and it was locked and most of the kids were running around outside. On a normal day with the sun shining it would be great but there was no supervision. The tia ( aid) was no where to be found. Those kids too young to be turned loose they were in their cribs. We just decided to play outside with the kids and I went looking for Abril and her mother. I will say I was relieved to find them both- I expect every day I go to find them gone. I know I should not be getting attached to the baby but it is so hard. I pulled up a rocking chair outside and then realized that something else was going on. One of the little boys Jose who is about 2 and severely handicapped had visitors. There were 2 Panamanians plus 4-5 other women. Papers were being signed and a lot of attention shown to Jose. A man walked by and I asked if he spoke English and luckily he did. He explained that the people were his grandparents and they were there to take him home. They had been coming for a couple of weeks to learn how to care for him and this was the day they could leave with him. I later learned that they have been trying for over a year and fighting with the courts who took him away from his mother who was unfit to care for him and they had finally got the court to agree.
About this time another volunteer who is there several days a week arrived and we got to talking about what was going on - she said she did not know but that it had been strange all week. The recently appointed director had not been at work all week. One of the 3 cooks was gone and another had asked her if she knew of a job cleaning houses as she was going to be needing it. Beds were missing as were cribs and the panels of the suspended ceiling were gone from the girls dormitory. No new children had been arriving and many were had been there were gone.
We are suspecting that the word has come down that the orphanage is going to be put back into the hands of the Rotary in David and that they are stripping many items from Trisker before that day happens. Who or what will be there next week is questionable.
Another thing that happened was also on the shaky ground - and this time it WAS shaky ground. I think it was on Sat. that we had an earthquake. The house shook for a few seconds and we both did the " did you feel that" thing. It was strange but another Panama experience. But then on Thursday night at 2:5 AM we both woke up to real shaking- and jingling of things moving around. I went right back to sleep with an oh well another one. I did not find out until the next day that it was center just south of David- a city about 35 miles from here and that it had registered as a 6.1. Everyone was talking about it the next day - saying it was one of the worst that they have felt here. I can only hope that this ends it. There was no real damage anywhere just a broken dishes etc that fell in areas around David. I have been straightening pictures all week though.
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