Tidbits from Panama

I've been having a frustrating time here in Boquete, without internet service much of the time due to some unknown problem. I don't have much time for a serious post right now, but maybe have a moment for a couple of little stories:

We stopped at a little Italian restaurant last night to check it out. I guess, more properly, it was a Panamanian restaurant, serving their version of Italian food. While we were standing at the front door checking out their menus, a bird flew into the open door, landed in an electric light fixture, and set itself on fire. The little place probably really could have used our dollars, but the smell of burning bird pretty much killed our appetite. I guess it killed the bird too.

My friends who joined me on this trip have decided to become shareholders in our Roca Milagro project. The male half of the couple is a rather fastidious, particular gentleman when it comes to construction methods and finishes, so I nearly fell over with shock when he mentioned to me that perhaps all that was important in a laid-back and beautiful place like this, was that the doors to your home closed properly so the family goat couldn't get into the house. He had seen a goat grazing in the yard next to the restaurant we had just left.

I think he likes Panama and everything he has seen here. So does his wife. She is already planning how she might put her lawyerly skills to work somehow, and how to decorate her home when it is built on our site eventually.

I think my friend has it about right. Sometimes we expect far too much from our lives and everything around us. Perhaps all that is really important is that the doors close properly so that the goat doesn't get in.

More posts when I am able . . .