All Things Panamanian

I’m taking some of these out of our Peace Corps “newspaper” that the volunteers send out every couple months – but all of it pertains to the Panamanian PCV:


Gender Roles, Shmender Roles

These are some things I’ve noticed about being a woman here in Panama:
-I can wear clothes way too tight for me and wear shoes way too tall, as long as they are all color coordinated
-I can stand around and watch the men do all the work because it would be harmful for me to work up too much of a sweat (I’m going to admit this one is nice)
-I should drink beer out of a vasito (glass) with ice because drinking out of the bottle is too “masculine.” Sorry Panama, F that.
- Its weird that I know how to drive a standard transmission, or even how to drive a car for that matter.
-I shouldn’t ever go into a cantina or jardina (bars) alone or I will definitely earn myself the reputation of a prostitute
- I shouldn’t ever ride in the front seat of a taxi unless I want the driver to also think I have said reputation.

You know you are well integrated into Panamanian Society:

-when you own more pairs of machetes than you do shoes
-when it doesn’t matter what you’re eating, as long as you’re using a spoon (they NEVER use forks or knives, and will never understand why you would want to use anything else than a spoon – and they all their meat with their hands, no matter how messy)
-when you find yourself talking about the weather … by yourself … in spanish
-when you gritar (a type of call that all Panamanians know) in the shower. Or anytime alone for that matter.
-when you can drink a steaming hot cup of sugar with a side of coffee (they put a lot of sugar in their coffee) while sweating profusely after working all day in the sun, and enjoy it.
-Men: when you own a shirt with sequins/rhinestones on it. Women: when you own a shirt with a ridiculously racy English saying on it, only you actually DO know what it says.
- when you lend someone a nickel to get through the gate at Albrook (the bus terminal), you except it back
-when you listen to the lottery drawing regularly
-when you can pick your nose comfortable in front of an audience and not even think twice about it (this one is pretty nice too)
- when you’re dancing at a baile (dance) and you realize that the item poking you is a bottle of seco in his pocket (cheap ass, nasty vodka stuff that every man drinks)
-when you don’t even blink an eye as a giant cockroach runs out of your bookbag or think twice to check your rain boots for scorpions

... Just some observations :)