Feria de David, wedding of a friend & more!

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Hello everyone,

it has been a while! I was planned to write since last week but I got a cold last week which didn't allow me to write anything.

Feria Internacional de David
The "Feria Internacional de David" (David's International Fair) started on March 12th. It was the 54th annual fair held in the city of David and it lasts for 10 days. What's the fair all about? It's a big area surrounded by high walls, filled with stands where they sell food, drinks, handicrafts, clothes etc. etc...all kinds of (cultural) stuff. There is also a small theme park with different attractios and the well known open-air disco's are there too: Pub Herrerano (P.H) and X-Zone Sensation. I went to the fair 8 of the 10 days, visiting P.H but also walking around the place. It's a very popular event. Almost all residents of the city goes at least one day to the fair and there are also visitors from other parts of the country.
For the P.H I bought a V.I.P pass, which allows you to enter everyday. At the P.H I was hanging out with the people I know from Bágala, who are friends/neighbours of my friends from Bágala (which is a small town outside David where I also use to stay when I come to Chiriqui). Those are Fernando, Edgardo b, Yeri, Ania among others. And I was also hanging out with cousins of my friends from Bágala, Ana and Carlos. In the P.H you basically go with your own crew, your own group. You buy a bottle of whisky or rum with juice or soft drink to mix and the ice is free. And you stay with your crew, have fun, dance etc. of course if you meet someone interesting you'll leave the group for a while, but you come back for another drink, talk to them a bit and leave again. Ernesto had to work everyday at the Feria, as Pizza Hut had a stand there together with KFC. This meant that I always got huge discounts there. Eybis was also at the P.H one weekend and I hung around with her and her friends and her cousin, Eibar at the Feria. I also met with Giselle at the Feria. One day I invited her to the cinema. She said we should go at a movie starting around 19:00/19:15. At 18:50 when I was about to go to take taxi to the cinema, she calls and says that there is heavy rain falling in Concepción (where she lives, 30 min. out of David) and that we'd better do it another day. I was pissed of because I almost took a taxi and besides, she should have left Concepción at least at 18:30 to be in David on time. That's one of the thing I really hate in this country. You can't really make an appointment with people here, this kind of shit happens. The same problem I had with the doctor where I made my contactlenses...will tell this further below in the blog. But anyway, I didn't call Giselle anymore after that day and I'm not interested in calling her for now either. There are enough girls in David, like Adabelkis, one I met last Friday and I'll soon invite her to the cinema or something. Another thing I hate from here, which is apparently very normal, is for example: when someone has to come and pick you up at 8:00, you call at 8:15 to ask where they are. Then they'll say: "Hey, I'm on my way! I'm driving past the Rey supermarket now". But in fact, they just left the shower!!!
Anyway...during the Feria, Luis (Chino) came over from Panama City for a few days. We went once together to the Feria, but not to P.H since he's not 18 yet. Luis Antonio, the neighbour and good friend of him, also went with us.

Wedding of a friend
On March 16th, Gustavo and Yabelis got married. It was only a civil marriage, not through the church (yet). When Gustavo told me this through the phone I was surprised as I didn't expect it to happen yet. But they did it and I wish them all the best for the future! After the wedding they had a small party at home, where the parents and some friends gave a short speech and there was plenty of food. There weren't a lot of people, just a few friends and family that they invited. Other than their own marriage, on this date they also celebrated the 34th anniversary of Gustavo's parents and the birthday of Jorge, a good friend of Gustavo. Gustavo's mom asked me: So, when will we receive the invitation to your wedding in Curaçao"? I said that they're going to wait a long time for that to happen....about 6 or 7 years maybe, lol. I would like to marry one day, but I don't even want to think about doing that before my 30th.

Volcán and more...
I spent two days at Volcán, which is hometown of Rafael and Raul (cousins of my friends from Bágala). Volcán is a town with about 12.000 people in Chiriqui province. It lies on a higher elevation, don't know about how much, but at night it gets very cool there. Raul, together with his sister Raquel, girlfriend Veronica, and two other friends (Hector and Luigi) took me to the thermal pools one day. It was a long trip. We went on the bike. We had to load the load all the bikes on top of a bus which took us to the entrance of a dirt road. It was one and a half hours on bike to get there. It was tiring but nice, nice landscape and views. We had to cycled all the way back to Volcán though because it got dark and there were no busses anymore. This was quite hard. The next day we visited Rio Piedras, known as Macho Monte, which is a river flowing between two high walls of rocks. It a very nice place, the water is a bit cold but you'll get used to it once you get in. The water is very clean, crystal clear....I think you could drink from that water without problems because it's so clean. We went to the other side of where the high walls of rocks are and there is an amazing waterfall there. We jumped from the top of the waterfall into the water below. It's impossible to go with the camera there, so no pictures possible. A pity! Wish I had a waterproof camera. Yesterday we went to Boquete to do paintball. I went with the same group, except Raquel and Luigi weren't there but another friend of them. I wasn't very enthousiastic about going and after all I didn't like it much. I don't think I'll ever do paintball again.

I've been playing a lot of volleyball since the Feria finished. In David you can play on Tuesdays and Thursdays, in Bágala they play everyday. I never miss the ones in David, where the level is higher. In Bágala I go once or twice a week but when I'm going to stay in Bágala of course I'll be playing more often. I'm probably going to stay in Bágala this week or next week.
Right now I'm looking if it's possible for me to spend a few days in Nicaragua and/or Costa Rica. I have to check how much it's going to cost and make a budget. Eybis will speak to her family in Managua so they can attend me there for a few days, which would be great! Nicaragua is not expensive at all and there is a good possibility that I'll go for a few days. Costa Rica is more expensive but Totin, another cousin of my friends in Bágala, drives to San Jose every week to bring freight and I can go with him if I'd like. He's the one who took me to Managua, Nicaragua back in 2005.

I lost my right contactlens while playing volleyball. I jumped to attack and felt that the contactlens moved and it was gone! The new contactlenses I bought here in Panama last December, were much smaller than those I had before and I think that's the reason I lost it because the ones I had before never popped out like that. So before going again to the doctor, I decided to contact Holland and they gave me the size, strength etc. of my right contact lens I bought in May 2007. I went to the doctor and he said he had to contact Holland himself to specifically ask about something before he could sell me the new contactlens. So I gave him the e-mail adres and my details. He said he'd do it that same day or the day after. Seven days later I called because I didn't hear anything from the doctor. The lady says the doctor is not there yet but they'll call as soon as he arrives. They didn't call. The next day I called (last Thursday) and they said the doctor didn't show up yesterday and that he already ordered my new contactlens, the same size as the one he sold me before, because he couldn't use the information from Holland. I became angry and said that I didn't tell him the order anything because that lens is too small and that he was going to contact Holland first...and he can't just order something I didn't ask for. So I told the lady to let the doctor call me as soon as he arrives because this is very urgent. They didn't call. Friday, next day, I called and they passed me on to his secretary. When asking the secretary what time the doctor arrives so I can go there, she said that the docter won't come today but tomorrow Saturday. Then she asks if she can leave him a message. I said: "Yes, Elton is speaking and I need to speak to the doctor as soon as possible about my new contactlens. Then suddenly she says: The doctor is not in David, he's in Panama City and he returns on Monday. I just said: "Esta bien, chao" and hung up! So I don't know WTF is going on here, but I think the doctor didn't contact Holland at all and that's why the employees are lying all the time. If he did order the small contactlens again, I'm not going to pay for it because I didn't tell him to do so! And I think I won't call them again either, at this moment I'm not interested in buying a new lens there anymore. I'm just pissed off right now, I'll just walk with the left contact lens only...will try to buy a new one when I go back to Holland.

So far Panama has been great, can't complain! They treated me well here, at the Villareal's (Ernesto) I'm like a part of the family already. Right now I pay for the internet since they wanted to close it since december, but I said I'll keep paying it while I'm here. And beside the internet fee I give some more money and I help sometimes in the house. I'm just very grateful to be here and it's a nice experience and feeling that I can't describe. With about 6 weeks left to leave Panama, I must admit that I'm looking forward to go to Holland again, especially to see my sister and other families and friends. I couldn't see everyone during the week I spent in Holland last december so I hope to see them all this time. Now I'm still waiting for an answer from Curaçao for a job, which will be important for me to know what is going to happen in the coming months. Most probably I'll get a positive answer but if not, I won't care. I'll travel and work abroad for another year and try again 😊 so I don't really worry too much about it.

Panamanian stuff, words etc
Here I'll write some unique Panamanian words and expressions again. Probaly I've mentioned some already in my past blogs, but it doesn't matter:

chántin = house
Andas como el huevo = you're doing something stupid
pasiero/pasiera, fren, blod = friend
que es loque es = what's up, what are you up to
amiwis, cueco/cueca, pato, ñaño, ñorro = gay
vaina = a thing, something (no me gusta esa vaina = I don't like that thing)
guial = girl
yo voy pa'lante = I'm going, I'm leaving
guaro = rum
pinta = beer
libar, chupar, enpetrolar = excessive drinking of alcohol
shifear = to avoid (f.e: avoiding someone you don't want to hang out with)
arrankar (arranque) = going out
parquear (parkear) = "parking", but they use it when you go out with a group or someone and you stand or sit all together....you all "park" together.


* Choveca Burger (Frituras): it's a place near San Mateo Market in David, where they sell fried food for very cheap. Like: pieces of meat, yucca, empanadas (pies) etc. etc. The name "Choveca Burger" comes from the name of a fish called "choveca", which is a fresh water fish that can be found anywhere around here. So any one that goes fishing in a river will catch some choveca. In other words, it's a cheap fish that anyone, also poor people, can catch and eat. Because of the fact that the place is cheap (and cheaper than Mc Donald's which is next to it) and everyone can buy it, they call it Choveca Burger. Everyone knows what is Choveca Burger. When people go out, before going back home to go to Choveca Burger to eat. It's open every single day, until late in the night. It's nice to go there sometimes but not too often as the food is filled with fat and oil. But that's what Panamanians like: fried, oiled food!

* another very strange thing is that they call a guy a "puta" sometimes. For example: si si, yo conozco a ese puta, estabamos juntos en el colegio = yes yes, I know that guy, we were together in high school. It's not negative at all. If you use it for a girl then it's negative!


That's all for now. Take care all!!!

Elton

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Comments

[Jorge Aizpurua]

saludos desde Canada
nice blog Elton, I am from Panama, David, Chiriqui, and I know all of those towns. I used to work with at the cerveceria del baru when it was big and popular. I have a lot of friends all over chiriqui and I know some people in Bagala. I used to work in FEDACHI for a while and I know some of the people that used to work there too. cheers and keep it up. Nice pictures Jorge