To the bank

Jaguarman (Lyn's boyfriend) returned from his turtle egg project in Costa Rica yesterday, so Lyn and I met him at the closest bar in town. When we were ready to go home, I asked the first taxi how much and when he said $15 I gave him a very hard time in front of his friends and girlfriend. The fare is normally $4, but of course when you're a gringo, they think they can get more. We got home (with a different taxi) and went to the tree house to look at the stars. It was such a nice, clear night. Jaguarman is making fish soup for Lyn and I right now which he says is good after a night of drinking.

For the first time during my stay in Panama, I went the bank to put money IN instead of taking it out...Yeah!!! Things are coming along and all of the fears of possible obstacles I carried with me to this country have been fading away.

My partner Steve lost his wallet a few days ago and I ran into him at the grocery store as he was retracing his steps. He was with his girlfriend's sister who had just received a call from an anonymous person saying they had dropped off the wallet at the store (Steve just happened to have the sister's number on a piece of paper in the wallet). We asked all of the employees at the store if they had received the wallet, and the manager was much less than helpful. I flagged down the police (for the first time ever) and one of them accompanied Steve into the store. The wallet still did not show up, so they made a police report. Later, Steve called the number he had received the anonymous call from and someone answered saying they "forgot" to turn the wallet in like they said they were going to do, but they would meet Steve that night to give it to him. They never showed up. Steve went to the police again and traced the number from the anonymous caller to a store by the park. He went with the police, and asked the 15 y/o girl at the counter if she knew anything. When she said no, he called the number in his phone and the store phone rang. The police began to question the girl and she began to cry saying she knew nothing. Steve told her the money was not important, it's the driver's license that wanted. For him (and me) no driver license = no way to do our work here. They didn't get anything, so he called the owner of the store and said he was pressing charges unless the store agreed to compensate him for the wallet, and his friend's time she spent translating through the whole fiasco. The owner agreed under the condition that Steve press charges against the 15 y/o girl which will probably put her into juvenile detention. Steve is not the kind of guy who would want any kind of trouble, but under all of the bizarre circumstances of everything that happened, he felt he had to take action.

I found out there are oranges, lemons, bananas, and papaya on the coffee farm. The workers here cleared some garden space for us and we will be planting seeds very soon. Not a bad life at all :)