Weiner-cheese

I had to laugh when I saw this. David's lunch. I feel that it embodies him completely - wonderful, low-brow, nostalgic goodness (the 'weiner-cheese sandwich' his mom used to make him when he was a kid, that he now makes by frequent request for Simon - a sliced hotdog, bread and cheese, all toasted to melty goodness). And his love of the juicer and all things green and healthy. And the wonderful thing is that in David, there is no contradiction in this combo.

Sleeping beauties

:)

Virtual Theater

It's been impressive to watch all the kids' teachers come up with all sorts of learning tools, zoom circle times, and online activities to try to take the place of their normal meetings.

Virtual school,virtual girl scouts:

And now - virtual theater! In this time of isolation, these connections feel all the more powerful.

Gwen's Once on this Island cast. Performance now indefinitely postponed. But spirit still strong.

A girl and her dog

  

Poor Coco. The semi-willing recipient of so much adoration and love. Now, with all of us totally cooped up at home, this only intensifies. She does make for some very happy kids, though. And adults.  

Settling in

Now that the initial craziness has subsided, and my students have all decided whether to stay or go (just in my group they come from so many different countries! Each with a unique set of concerns/travel restrictions/home country challenges - just in my bat group, students from the US, Venezuela, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the Czech Republic...) - now that the initial panic and travel arrangements have been sorted out, and Panama's borders are closed and no travel decisions are possible anymore, I'm beginning to be able turn my attention to other things. I've been catching up on all the other work items that fell through the cracks during the initial corona-frenzy. Mostly it's been a lot of logistics, figuring out how to get police letters to still allow key personnel to continue to feed the live animals and water the large plots of experimental plants, for example. And of course trying to help the kids through their not yet super smooth school tasks, and minimize the general chaos of the household operations. But I am also slowly starting to attend to some long needed and really satisfying cleanup. Each new surface I unclutter feels like a small victory. A little order and calm in the midst of an uncertain time.

Moments of Calm

I had another blog post here that I accidentally deleted in a blur of trying to do too many things while being pulled in too many directions at once.... Ironically I think it was talking about moments of calm in the midst of all this storm. I was remembering the sloth tree I kept passing on my morning walks with Coco (sweet little sloth ball, upper left). When walks with Coco were still possible.

Now we have this sweet, resigned bundle. Who actually adapted to the new regime pretty well.

I feel like she's taking our lack of walks much better than I am. At first the government was extremely stringent on the only food and medicine policy (we're allowed to leave the house only to go to the grocery store or pharmacy and only during a 2-hour window specified by the last digit on our passports/national ID cards). They have been arresting people who do not comply, and fines are $50,000 to $100,000 (!). But with lots of backlash over the last days, they seem to be bending a little. Now you're allowed to walk your dog around the perimeter of your property during your 2-hour slot. Still not the lovely long walks by the river that Coco and I used to love. But maybe a middle ground is on the horizon.

Food

Food has rapidly become very stressful. We have limited our contact with the city, both by choice to minimize contact with the virus, but also by national decree - the grocery stores are only open limited hours with a maximum of 50 people inside at a time (the others packed into squished lines outside (!)), only a single shopper permitted per household, and no kids allowed. So suddenly what to make for dinner becomes a pretty charged debate. We have a triage approach to each meal, what must be eaten first, what will go bad quickest. We've found ourselves snapping at the kids for choosing the wrong snack. Just opening the fridge feels fraught and stressful. I think everyone is feeling this to some degree. In the midst of all of it, though, some wonderful initiatives have emerged. There are new whatsapp chats in our community to buy and deliver groceries for our older residents. Gregg and Yackse organized a weekly fruit and vegetable run to the large wholesale market for the whole town. Everyone is stepping up and helping each other out, which is really wonderful to see. And this same pattern, the repeated, spontaneous emergence of human goodness, seems to be happening around the world....

Socially distant lab meeting

Normally our lab meetings look like this - all of us squeezed into the couches in the bat lab, usually with someone bringing some home-baked sweets, everyone reaching in to share. Very lovely, very cozy, and just perfect for virus transmission.

On Monday, our first lab meeting since covid-19's arrival in Panama, we all look like this :)

 

And that was a few days ago. Now we have shifted completely to virtual meetings...

Graciela

Another new component of the virus's arrival - Graciela coming to live with us. When concerns started to escalate in Panama, we told Graciela not to risk the commute to Gamboa, better to stay home for the next weeks, at least until we knew better how this would unfold. Graciela has only been coming a few days a week these last years anyway, and although we love seeing her and the kids especially are really attached, now that they are older we get along well just on our own. But as the virus spread in the city with several cases right in her neighborhood, Graciela became really worried and asked if she could move in with us. The kids were escatic. And David and I have loved it too. It feels like the Panama family is all together :)

A new pattern to our days

A strange quiet slow new pattern to our days. Coco still wakes up super early - no corona vacation for her. She and I sneak out quietly while the rest of the house sleeps in. No alarms to wake everyone up. No school lunches to prepare. No school uniforms to put on. No scrambling to gather backpacks and rushing out the door.

 

Coco and I walk by the river. Often meeting up with her dog love, Bailey. When I return, the kids are emerging from bed. Breakfast is sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate. Usually depending on who is deciding (simple = parents; elaborate = kids; elaborate usually means huge amounts of clean up).

And then the first bout of classwork. So far this has fallen almost completely on David's shoulders. I hole up in a quiet corner of the house trying to triage what is left of different researchers' projects, lots of time on skype, zoom and whatsapp trying to help my group decide whether to leave or stay, sort out what options are still open to them, discuss how to salvage what's left of their research. Meanwhile David jumps into the digital classroom with the kids, trying to make sense of what the teachers have assigned that day, which is often kind of a mess - the teachers too are struggling to figure all this new territory out.

 

The afternoons usually involve lots of neighborhood kids all running around like crazy. Really hard to apply social distancing there, the kids have been totally pent up by then, so much energy to expend...

 

And then a cozy family dinner. And a TV show. David is introducing the kids to all his old favorite sitcoms, which surprisingly they seem to love (the IT Crowd is the favorite now). And then a late bedtime, with no pressure at all to get up early the next day. It feels strangely isolated and peaceful, a little cocoon, at least for now safe from the escalating alarm around us. 

9!

In the midst of all the corona-craziness, Simon had a birthday :). So grateful for the grandparent presents - with the country now on lockdown, all stores are closed and mail is slowed..... Luckily the grandparents were way more on top of things than we were - packages from Taisie and Grandpa John arrived well in advance. And made for an extremely happy 9 year old. Interestingly even before coroanvirus hit Panama, Simon was adamant he didn't want a party. He had an elaborate family day planned out instead, involving his favorite pizza restaurant in the city (which also serves nutella pizza for dessert), and playing frisbee and football and having a long picnic in the park. But now with restaurants AND parks closed nationwide we've put all that on hold. Per request we are celebrating with crepes, hojaldras and chocolate chip cookies. And apple crisp for his classmates when school opens again.

Our wonderful amazing nine year old - we love you Simon!!! Lighting his own candles =)

Corona-mania

In the span of just a few days, Panama went from zero cases of coronavirus to eight cases including one death to 36, and the number keeps going up. Within just a few days the government declared a state of emergency, closed all schools nationwide, and canceled all large scaled events. STRI shifted most employees to teleworking, closed registration to all new arrivals, and urged all international visitors to return home.

 

 

We're all still reeling, trying to figure out how to navigate this new situation. In some ways it's been really nice to all be at home together as a family.... David and Gwen spent a full day stocking up, the fridge and cupboards are now packed, I think we're set for a good long while. The kids are doing okay. They seem alternately delighted with the unexpected holiday, but also pretty scared about the whole thing. I think little by little we're getting used to the new pattern. Hopefully all the social isolation will have come in time - crossing our fingers that we all ride this out smoothly.

Green goodness

After so many years of discussing it, and giving each other the gift of buying one birthday after birthday, we finally actually purchased a vitamix! Still getting used to it. But it's already very clear - this is wonderful!!!

Dog Bliss

...

How could you refuse a request like this?

A message from the boys, sent to me by Daniel's mom, after Simon had biked Daniel home. (And yes, the answer was yes.....)

Capybara babies

On the Gamboa bridge. Adorable!!

Goodbyes

So sad to see Freya go back to Scotland! This time maybe harder than ever.

One Second Everyday - February 2020

Yeee! Here's Month #2. Still so much enjoying this app... :)