More pictures of our second week.

Cow across the street. We stopped to look at him, but he wasn't having it. He stared us down, so we kept on moving lol.

Tyler opening a green coconut for coconut water :)

Fresh Coconut!

Cherlie, she really likes Tyler haha.

Hirme, his native language is Ngabere. There is an RTO for that language a bus ride away, and we hope we can visit.

So much green, I can't wait to see more of the country side.

When someone isn't having us over for dinner, we eat beans and peas for almost every meal. (No Fridge, and its cheap)

Nati's Daughter, Noami

Helping Nati lay down part of the floor for an apartment above his house reserved for pioneer use. RBC skills came in handy!

First Impressions

Hi everybody!

Who knew locusts were so beautiful?

So sorry my promise of a new post was delayed. First, we we're having internet problems and now we are starting to get busy as we make plans with people, catching our "groove" in service here, and feeling comfortable enough to explore a little. Here is a little post of our first impressions of the country, the people, and everyday things. Hope you enjoy reading and we'll post again soon!:

So I asked Tyler what word summed up his first impression of Panama?

"Simpler."

I agree all the way. Things are very much simpler in so many ways. Most of the ways are good and we embrace them even if certain things will take some time to get used to. The sun rises around 6 every day, and starts to set around 6. That's about 12 hours of sunlight but we usually hit the hay around 11, so thats about 17 hours of activity, but we find that each  day here feels like a week! Most Panamanians starts their day early and work with their hands at whatever they find to do or out and about in town. You really can't help but to get up early here. The early sun, the chickens and car horns and people (atleast where we live now) will help you get up bright and early. Its so funny, when people have come to take us to the meeting or go out in service, they come about an hour early! I'm starting to like it though, because it's helping me see that if you do everything you need to do as early as you can, you have lots of time to do whatever your heart wishes later! And because things are simpler, people spend time with one another, say "Good Day" to everyone that passes, eat good meals cooked from scratch and are able to experience life in a different way than we do in America. There is so much more time for studying also!! 

This little guy is a pet that hangs out in a shop near a brother's house.

 The country is very blended as far as colors. There are so many different people that came to this country during the building of the Panama Canal that now lots of people have a little bit of everything in their ancestry. I think that's why everyday I see someone that looks like someone I've seen before. There are even many Asian people that are fully Panamanian, with the perfect Panamanian Spanish.

People here live simpler lives, most likely because of education and money. Many people are very poor, and those that are considered to have more don't have what the average american would consider as super nice although we visited an area where many locals are living far better than Tyler or I have.

Tyler did all of this (you can see him in the far-left)

Panama has so much beauty, and the people are hardworking and full of ingenuity and originality so its hard to see the country and the people in the state that a lot of the country is in. But it is the same way all over the world. America has been dealt "prosperity" but I think the model that modern America and "Westerners" sets as a culture (which has spread the world over) is not something I want to want aspire to. Simpler feels better.

Speaking of simple...we don't have a fridge, washer or dryer, full stove, air conditioner, or clean tap water. But we are living in the same town as people that have dirt floors, no walls, and partially open ceilings. How could you complain when you really think about it?

Another thing we like is that there is fruit everywhere!!!!! Everything that can grow here grows like crazy! In our yard we have corriander, coconut, star fruit, "nanci", noni, papaya, plantains, bananas and I feel like I'm forgetting some. We've seen tons of mangoes, almonds, "mamon", bread fruit, avocado, custard apple, cashew, lemons, oranges (which aren't naturally orange apparently), grapefruit, and lots more!

Huge Star fruit

Noni fruit

There are a lot of good things here, and one of those things is that most everyone will talk about God. They "love" God here. The name of Jehovah is even on many cars and buses. God is talked about everywhere, even in commercials. This makes preaching easy, and yet, I suspect hard. Just like in South Georgia, most everyone will listen out of the respect they have for the bible but they have their own religion. But those that long for a change in this world will have to chance to know Jehovah.
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All these awesome things being said, when we first arrived to our house, it was almost a freak out moment. Living in a very economically suppressed, rural area with bugs and critters and in a house that really isn't what an american would expect is hard. Its hard to see all the stray, skinny, diseased dogs. Its hard to not have clean water or to not know when your water is going to suddenly cut off. Or when the next power outage is. Its hard to be a thousand miles away from home and you can't really communicate to anyone the complete feelings of your heart. The sights, sounds, and smells can be overwhelming at times. BUT with all that being said, with time, we feel more comfortable, like this could be a home. What has really made us feel this way? Its the friends Jehovah has given us! The first couple of hours that we arrived to the city we live in was rough. Everything hit us. But we prayed and Jehovah heard us. We needed to feel that we had people near that would willingly help us and love us for what we wanted to do here. And Jehovah showed us that they were there! I don't have pictures of everyone yet, but I will add more in a future post.

This was taken on the first night in Puerto. Jehovah's answer to our prayers.

Nati, he and his wife Vanessa have been great friends

The Hall

Panoramic View

 

Kenny. We went to the beach with him and his wife and got caught in the rain so we ran all the way back. Before we left we saw the cloud and he said, "We have time to go and come back, I think" It was a lot of fun :)

Charlyn, very smart and a preaching machine!

Tyler's comment preparation, a sister next door brought him another cup of coffee while he was drinking the first cup. He was happy :)

Comida!

Ok, that will be tonight's post but I will make another post soon. There's so much to say, so I know I forgot a lot, but if you have any questions just comment and I'll answer them!

Goodnight!

Day 2

Hi Friends,

Its Day 2 but it feels like we have been here for months! We've still been traveling to our home destination. We will go there tomorrow by bus. Panama has an interesting and different culture but its also very similar to where we're from.

Our trip has gone pretty smoothly...except the start. It was about 9 hours before we needed to leave to the airport that I realized I left my passport in Statesboro...and we were 7 hours away in West Palm, Florida! Thankfully my grandmother brought it to Jacksonville so I could drive back in the nick of time, and thankfully Tyler's mom was able to find the passport!! But all thanks goes to Jehovah because we feel he's the one that really worked it out. I made it back to West Palm to meet Tyler (he had to stay behind and pick up the nonrefundable rental car we reserved in his name) at 7 which was just the right time to make it the 1 hr 30min trip to FLL airport and return our rental car on time. Then we checked in, went through TSA, and then waited another 2 hours for our plane to board. We made it to Panama and went through customs and security and got to our overnight place to stay with Brother and Sister Almengor at about 3:30. We slept for about 3 hours, then got up and went to town , had lunch, then bought bus tickets to where we are now, in a place called Bugaba. So we have been traveling for a while, and sleep deprivation is a real thing haha. But luckily last night we had about 7 hours of sleep.

 Also, another "bump" was that we left chargers for our cameras and tablets but we still have the chargers for our phones and computer which should be sufficient to take pictures and of course post to the blog. We didn't take too many pictures because we've been on the go and didn't want to draw attention to ourselves in certain places in Panama City because its very crowded, but we will take more in the upcoming day.

We have had 30 to 40 min conversations in Spanish with a brother we stayed with. Our Spanish is basic but we can get our thoughts across and understand pretty much 80% of what's being said. I am really surprised at how much we are able to say with the little we know. We hope that by the time we come back, we will be very comfortable with the language. But it does get tiring to translate what you hear in Spanish into English and then translate your English response into a Spanish response. But the more we did it, the easier it was.

Some pics of what we saw in Panama City, more explanation will come in a later post:

Tomorrow we go out in Service with an English couple from a Spanish congregation. Then we take the bus to Puerto Armuelles. We'll expound on our experiences so far later and post more pics sometime later this week. But here are some pictures we took of our 15 min walk back to Bro. Whittle's home from the town of Bugaba.

Tyler will post parts of his journal soon.

Have a great night.

-Bri'Ana

The Final Countdown!

So we have 13 more days before we leave. We have passports, shots, flight tickets, a place to rent, and many contacts. We are making plans with brothers now for visits to other areas and trying to sell some of our belongings that we don't need. Jehovah has really helped us with this goal. We are super excited, a little nervous, and very grateful that this has come to fruition. We're not wearing rose-tinted glasses though; both Tyler and I have a healthy dose of caution and a lot of prayer!

We'll take lots of pictures and share lots of experiences!

Talk to you soon,

-Bri'Ana

Facts About Panama

I wanted to share with our friends what we have learned about Panama so far from people who have lived there, our publications, and sources that give practical information about traveling here. We hope this will answer questions that ones have about the country and what we can expect, and this will also be an interesting post to look back on after our (hopeful) trip to see how much more we learned and will later add our own experiences here.

Introduction: 

Panama is a country that borders Costa Rica and Colombia, with both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans as neighbors.

According to the 2015 Yearbook, Panama has an approximate population of 3, 931,000 with 16,217 of those people being publishers of the good news, leaving the Publisher Ratio 1 to 242. 

There is a definite spiritual need in this country! There are brothers and sisters in groups and congregations of many different languages here, and it is no wonder! Panama is a cultural melting pot due to it's canal and major ports. 

Besides congregations in the native Spanish language, some groups, pre-groups, and congregations you will find here: Bileez Kriol(say it just as it is spelled and see if you can figure it out :) ), Ngäbere (a native indigenous language), ESL (which I have been told is very similar to ASL), English with waiting lists for bible studies!, and even Chinese is a field that needs lots of help here. There are people from ALL over the world hear, so even though these are the established groups with the most need, one would probably run into all sorts of spoken languages here. I even hear that there are residents from the Netherlands, who speak Dutch (my favorite language!)

*Update 5/27/15: English is still a need in some areas, but the biggest need is Spanish, in addition to the other languages listed.

With all this need, there is no doubt that the friends that move here to increase their share in the ministry have rich blessings and experiences that last a lifetime. 

Traveling to/Living in Panama:

You will need passport and shots: Updated routine shots, Hep A, Typhoid, and possibly Yellow Fever if visiting certain areas. We will receive all three and an updated Tetanus. 

Flights from Orlando and South Florida are very cheap through Spirit Airlines. Other airlines have flights to Panama City, Panama as well, but the tickets are more expensive. There are pros and cons to different airlines so be sure to understand how different ones you are considering operate and what your fees include. Also factor in baggage costs and what comfort level you need while flying.  

There is no currency exchange, you can use American Dollars.

Unlike some countries, Panama is relatively easy to enter if you are a foreign resident. The country has nice benefits for visitors, especially those that are retired (Pensionados). As of writing this, it is our understanding that there are no special forms and visas, only your passport is required and you receive a visitor visa stamp in your passport that allows you to stay in the country for 6 months. It would also be wise to print a bank statement showing you have 500 dollars in a bank account somewhere (to prove you aren't broke and can't get back to the US), and a return flight ticket because they may also check for these documents.

The cost of living in Panama is very low compared to America. We are told that rent can range from 100 in some areas to 500 in American neighborhoods.
Update 5/15: This was true, we found a place for 150 and heard of houses in other areas cheaper than that.

Unless you meet certain requirements and go through a special process, you cannot work in Panama if you are not a citizen. This requires brothers and sisters to work online or have the money they need to live for whatever length of time when they come. However, if you are an entrepreneur that will work in Panama and create jobs, that is possible and there is a legal process to go through just like here.

 If your stay will exceed 6 months, you will have to renew your visa as mentioned earlier. This often entails brothers visiting Costa Rica and preaching in that territory for a couple of days and then returning through the border to renew that entrance stamp. If you drive, your passport acts as a temporary license, and Panamanian law states that this type of license will expire after your first 3 months: so if you drive, you will renew your visa every 3 months. 

As far as Safety, from what we have read and heard on both government websites and from those living there, is not nearly as bad as some Central American countries. The crimes are mostly theft related, with much more crime occurring in cities and neighborhood notorious for this type of activity. Common sense that you would use visiting any other country applies here as well. 

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We look forward to seeing all these things for ourselves, but even if we don't get to visit, it is very encouraging to know that Jehovah is making the good news and its effects grow and spread all over the earth to reach anyone with a rightly disposed heart. I hope this has been informative and maybe clear up some things you've wondered about while listening to Tyler or I speak about our plans. We love you all dearly!

Talk to you soon!

-Bri'Ana

Every Good Gift

"Every good gift and every perfect present comes from above" -James 1:17

So this begins the first blog post of our hopeful future journeys.  Tyler and I have such a desire to do more for Jehovah. In short, we want to pioneer, have many bible studies, live simply, help where there is a great need, and do all that we can to do the work fully that Jehovah has assigned. 

We were planning on visiting a South American country for a while to help there. So, we were trying to save money to take care of all our needs during the expected trip, while, at the same time taking care of our regular bills. However, that is much easier said than done! We weren't too sure if this was the right direction for us at this time, so our focus switched once again to pursuing something in the US but the goal of traveling to another country with a need was still on our minds.

One day in Feb., I was out in service on a day I don't normally go out. The sisters I was out with wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast. While a sister was helping me put on a "blue square pin", I saw in the reflection of the car window a woman with fiery eyes rushing towards us. Oh no! She's gonna tell us to leave, I thought. But then woman asked, "Are you out in service?" She was a sister traveling for work to our town! That fire in her eyes was there because she had a great conversation with a man wanting to learn what the bible teaches and she wanted to find someone in his area to return to see him. Once we made arrangements for the man to be visited by Witnesses in his area, she told us that she lived in another country with her family where there is a great need. Could this be direction? 

I began asking all the questions I could as we walked into the restaurant. She said many things that morning that touched my heart and made it clear that this was direction!! I immediately told Tyler about it and he agreed. So guess what happened next: we had enough money that month to cover bills, both passports and plane tickets! So, that's where we are right now, hopefully it will all turn out and we can leave at the very end of May.  Plans can change but we hope with all our hearts this will be something finally tangible for us that will give us much needed encouragement and experience. I'm so excited and grateful for even the prospect of this "good gift".

I'll post an update when new things happen. See you soon!

-Bri'Ana