Today’s journey took us north towards the mountains and the Potrerillos area. Bus transportation was provided from the orphanage. Paint had been purchased by Myrl and we joined Myrl and Patrick, another Rotarian, at the Do It Center, a Central American equivalent of Lowes or Home Depot. I did find it a bit strange that Patrick was asking me how many brushes, rollers, and other supplies to purchase. Continuing with our themes of flexibility and faith we made our purchases and left David for the rural areas north of the city. Our bus driver, Elvis, and I tried to communicate with our limited knowledge of each other’s languages. I did learn his name and told him we were a baseball team from the Philadelphia area. He had an “aha” moment when he recognized my Phillies cap and we “talked” about Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz.
Soon after our arrival we saw locked gates and learned that the community did have some orphans but that the large majority of the approximately 60 boys were troubled youth ages 8-18. No problem, after a little time spent assessing our supplies and numbers we were put in the capable hands of one of the adult workers. We proceeded to paint and were told we had to stop after just half an hour of work for freshly squeezed pineapple juice and some very moist banana bread. Marques and Matt both were beaten in a game of ping pong by the resident king of the table. We got back to painting and then had to stop again for the hospitality of our hosts and enjoyed a delicious bean, rice, beef, and cole slaw lunch with more of that freshly squeezed pineapple juice. We eventually did paint two dormitory rooms green and half of the main entrance, showers, and bathrooms. The white upper half of the walls were completed and we will return later in the week to complete the lower half with a sky blue and whatever else they have planned for us. Remarkably there was little of the oil based paint that ended up on our clothes and bodies.
Throughout the painting we were watched by the boys and eventually the bolder occasionally “assisted” us. After cleanup we played the boys in soccer and they showed tremendous skills many of them playing in bare feet or in crocs. The soccer game was a wonderful opportunity to really connect with many of the boys and we also treasured the opportunity to run in the sun and warmth of Panama. During the game Jon said the only thing that would make this better was if it would start to rain. As few minutes later a few clouds rolled in and it started to pour. The rain felt so good and we continued to play in the rain without any hesitation. Unfortunately, the game was stopped 15 minutes later because the bus taking most of the workers form the home was returning to David and we needed to be on it. Soaking wet we boarded the bus with smiles on our faces looking forward to returning to see our new friends.
This team is a group of great travelers. They are trying many new dishes. We have and will continue to avoid McDonalds, Dominos, etc. Tonight we ate dinner at a restaurant about 6-8 blocks from the hotel ordering as always from the Spanish only menu. The fresh seafood is superb. Tomorrow we will continue with flexibility and faith. The tentative plans are to go the Chiriqui baseball stadium and participate in some form of baseball and the last we heard Carlos Ruiz may be at the stadium.
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