January 30, 2012

January 30, 2012

well hello from panama!

so i´ll just start with how last week went.  so we ended up getting to panama at like 10 30 at night, and so we got through customs and whatnot and the mission president, president ward was outside waiting with his assistants.  so we say a quick hello and go to the assistant´s house for the night. ok, so it´s a tiny little house, i would say about the size of our provo house in total, just one floor though. so it´s small, but then we had literally over 20 elders in the house, so there was basically nowhere to sleep. mind you it´s like 11 now, so there´s no way to figure anything out. there were like 10 mattresses just sitting there, so i ended up just pulling one down and put it on top of everyone´s bags and slept there. and no one went to bed til like 12 30 so that was bad. but oh well, so that´s monday. 

tuesday was basically just an orientation thing. we went to president´s house and talked about mostly just how the mission works, things like we get a debit card with some of the money that we pay each month, and we´re supposed to live off 100 bucks on the first of the month, and then we get 70 more on the 15th. we also had to go do like immigration things that everyone does, so that was fun. and basically that was it for tuesday, just an orientation, make sure we´re good kind of thing.  so then again we had to sleep at that little house, but with about 10 more elders. so a ton of us just took the beds outside and slept outside, which was much better.

so it´s wednesday, and we get up and go the church in panama city where we´re gonna get assigned trainers and everyone else has transfers and whatnot. so we go there and we´re in this little room, and president is interviewing everyone, so we mostly just waited.  then everyone comes and we all go to the chapel where we get assigned. so they go through everyone one by one, all the new missionaries anyway. and so it gets to me and my trainer´s name is elder oliva. he´s from honduras, and doesn´t speak hardly any english. which is good and bad. it´s good cause i´m forced to learn spanish even faster, but hard cause i can´t really ask him questions. it´s definitely a challenge.  so anyway, we get assigned our areas and stuff as well, and i´m in buena vista? you can probably look up the city colon, and we´re about an hour´s busride away from colon, maybe 45 minutes from panama city. so we get to our house, and it´s way smaller than the other house. it´s got a tiny little front room, with just enough space for two desks, a half size fridge, and a sink. there´s a bedroom with two beds and a dresser. and then there´s a bathroom with a toilet and a shower. so let me start with the water situation. more or less, we don´t have water, or rather we only have water sometimes, and i don´t know why. randomly we just have water, and so we have to fill up a ton of water bottles cause we never know when the water will shut off. and so to shower, we have a giant 50 gallon tub filled with water, with a little plastic container to pour water on ourselves. i´ll need to figure out how to send pictures, i´ll try today and see, but it might need to be next week. so to finish up wednesday, we had a visit at 6 that we had to go to, and that was good i guess. obviously i didn´t do like anything cause i can´t say anything, but it was interesting.

so it´s thursday, and thursday was just a normal day. we did studies and whatnot in the morning, and then went out tracting. ok, so i think this area is like the biggest in panama, and there´s not really a ton of houses, but they´re spread out everywhere so we have to walk forever. and the homes are basically just cinderblock and either a dirt or cement floor with a currogated metal ceiling, so not very nice. and there´s no doors, so to see if anyone´s home you just stand outside and yell  buenas!  and the people will come out and you just start talking. it´s interesting. and friday and saturday went the same, so that´s basically how it goes, you scream at people to come out, and you talk to them, and sometimes they´ll let you share the message. but the people are really nice, probably just cause they are so poor so they have to be humble. but ok, so just yesterday we met two people that more or less said they hate gringos. i´m not able to understand everything, but i know the word gringos and can tell the tone of people, and afterward my companion just laughs at me, so it´s weird. i don´t get it. and one guy was like offended that we think the first vision happened to a "gringo" but oh well. it´s all good. it´s fun. i get stared at a lot, cause i really am the only white person for like a hundred miles, so it´s interesting.

so i´m having a pretty tough time with the food here. ok, so everyone feeds us, so it´s terrible. the members cook us lunch and dinner more or less every day, and you have to eat it all, so it´s not good. it´s mostly just white rice and chicken, which is ok i guess, but then they throw in weird stuff and to be honest, i don´t know what it is. so i do my very best, i try to drown everything in ketchup or hotsauce if i can, but i´ve had to hold my gag reflex a ton. so that´s another challenge to overcome i guess.

ok so i need to tell you about the transportation.  so we ride these things called "diablo rojo" which just means "red devil" and they really are from the devil. they blast this gross music, all the women here are dressed poorly,  but anyway i really just feel like crap on those buses. and everything is far away so we have to ride them for a long time, and it´s just not good. i try to recite stuff in spanish that i know or not think of anything or something, but it´s difficult for sure

with the spanish, i really don´t know if i´m ever gonna learn it. i know i´ve only been here a week, but it doesn´t feel like i´ve learned anything. i basically have to speak it all the time, cause i haven´t met anyone here that can speak good english, so my brain hurts just all the time. it´s horrible in lessons, cause everyone speaks super fast and half the time takes off letters of their words, so i can´t catch anything. my companion basically has to tell me when and what to talk about so it´s not good. i want to talk, and i want to help out in the lessons more, but i can´t. and the thing is i don´t think my comp really gets it. i don´t know, it´s just hard.

with the weather, it´s definitely hot, but it´s actually not as bad as i thought it would be. i´ve never seen it go above 85, which is still hot with the humidity, but i´m not dying. maybe it´s cause i just don´t care if i sweat cause everyone does, so i´m just not thinking about it. but yeah it´s not too bad. i haven´t seen it rain yet, so we´ll see how that goes i guess.

well, i think that´s basically it. sorry it´s kind of a negative letter haha, i hope they get better! but it´s been a bit of a rough transition. so my pday´s on monday obviously, so i´ll write then. oh and i forgot to bring the address, but i´ll be sure to bring it next week. anyway, gotta run, hope everyone´s doing good!

much love,

elder paskett