Mi Familia y Casa en Panama

Let me start out by saying that I absolutely love my family and living situation here in Boquete, it is pretty much perfect!  Elva is a 54 year old single mother who has raised two children on her own.  Patrice, her daughter, is 21 and lives at the house.  She goes to school in David and works in Boquete so she is not home very often.  Elva’s son, Franklin, lives in Jamaica with his family.  Also in the house is Elva’s mother, Grandma Yolanda.  Yolanda is a sweet heart; she sells lottery tickets in the town to help support the family, which by the way is illegal!

My House in Boquete is One of the Oldest in the Town

Elva, Yolanda, and Patrice are all very positive and supportive of me.  They only speak Spanish to me and it is unbelievable how well we can communicate after only a few days.  Patrice speaks some English so every so often she will speak English, but Elva doesn’t like this.  She says, “NO, solo en Espanol Patrice!”  Elva has taken a real interest in my Spanish learning and she spends a lot of time with me chatting and trying to teach me things.  Sometimes she asks me to teach her a couple English words too J

The Backyard

A lot of our chatting and learning is done over breakfast and dinner.  Elva is a great cook and is always asking me what I like so that she can buy it at the market.  Panamanian food is not so different than food at home, although the fruit is much tastier!  For breakfast sometimes we have an omelet with cheese, peppers, onions and tomatoes; sometimes we have yogurt and fruit; this morning we had a mango and pineapple smoothie (woman after my own heart) and raisin toast.  Dinner is the smallest meal for Panamanians; typically they have their large meal at lunch.  At dinner it’s usual for us to have rice with beans, salad (usually cucumber, tomatoes, vinegar), and a small amount of meat (lots of chicken).  Fish is very uncommon as it is very expensive here.  Last night we had spaghetti!

The Kitchen

Elva is very laid back and the whole living situation is pretty flexible.  She just asks me my plans and we eat and visit whenever.  My room has its own external door to the house so I can come and go through the lovely garden path as I please.  When I’m home I spend some time in my room and lots of time in the living room and kitchen with the family.  Elva and I watch TV and movies in Spanish; I can’t understand too much yet, but it helps to listen to the words. 

The house is one of the oldest in all of Boquete!  It is made of a combination of wood, cement, tin and cardboard.  The house has 3 rooms and is all open air; the door frames don’t reach the tin ceiling, there is air flow in between.  The windows are generally screen stapled to the wood.  The floors are cement, as is the shower in the backyard.  The house is very comfortable - I could be happy living here forever, with one minor adjustment, the shower water!  They have hot water which is a luxury in Boquete, however I guess ‘hot’ is all relative…I would rate it as very cold…not ice cold, but not even close to luke warm!    

The Shower