Birthdays and Accomplishments

Feliz 32! 

El Decano Nicolas with the cake

Doris as she presents

El Decano Nicholas, Doris and Karla after all was said and done

Things are a bit tense here in Panama City because the Construction Workers have gone (I believe) on strike and apparently, sometimes things get violent at times like this.  I had 2 friends send me messages about this though I wasn't able to get much more information.  It is still a concern and Elba said she'd call me if she hears of anything.

I could see the results of this because there were very few cabs on the street today.  I finally saw a cab and flagged it - though it had 2 women also in it.  It turned out that they were going very nearby so it was OK.  But I wouldn't have done that if cabs had been more plentiful.

The day at UTP began with sweets.  I had gotten a late start because I spilled on my last shirt and had to do laundry before I could head in.  The department gathered to have one more birthday party.  The cake was huge - and very tasty.  I joined the coro and it was great fun to sing again.  I really must learn the words to the second verse that they sing here.  

A friend from South Africa pinged me later to tell me that 32 in binary is 100000, so it's much more important than 30.  :-)

Shortly after lunch, at 1 pm, one of our students, Doris, was presenting her Masters work.  I'm very interested in what she did - which is good because I'm going to coach her as she writes an article on it in English.  Man, what a daunting task!

Thing was, I was supposed to be teaching at 1:30.  The class was all interested in Doris' work too though so we rescheduled for tomorrow - same time, same place.  I went back over, but by that time, she was in the midst of her presentation and I really didn't want to throw her by coming in mid-stream, so I waited outside until she was done.  There was a long pause, and then they called her back in to ask a bunch more question.  It took me back (WAY back)!  

But, no surprises here, she did a great job and passed her defense.  YAY DORIS!

I went back to the office and completed my rap.  Yay!  I also found someone who can beat box so we'll work on that tomorrow.  Then I plan to put together a slide with the text and slides with each of the "Lessons learned" too.  Plus (most importantly and significantly) I have to put together my Case Study slides.  I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do, but I have to do it.  Now.

Spanish, CHI, and a sad anniversary

A day without photos.

The birthday celebration of our department continued this morning with a breakfast for everyone in the hallway.  Panamanian desayuno (breakfast) fare is yummy but not exactly slimming.  And it sticks to the ribs (and elsewhere)  Even though I didn't take much, I felt full all day.  And still do.

I continued my plan to speak (mostly) in Spanish today.  It feels slightly easier to speak with each day and each conversation.  I still feel bad for those who have to listen to me as I try to find words, but I love the corrections and hope that soon I won't need quite so many.

So today, Geralis came by and went over some verbs with me - very helpful.  And I spoke with a number of people.

I came home rather early because Elba had to do some errands with her Mom, but that was great because it meant that I could work on my CHI presentations, rap, etc.  Still a way to go before next Thursday for my Case Study (slides partly done) and "Fireside chat" (rap mostly done, themes ID'd, slides partly decided upon)  And then there are the Workshop (speed dating planned - thanks Matt Kam!),  SIG (no activity on my part yet) and Women's Breakfast (story chosen = done)  But I pulled things together including all of the registration stuff (so glad I can find it!  Let's hear it for organization!) and checked the weather forecast (COLD! not even 60F while we're there) so I put in my long johns.  Yes, I have long johns here.  And sometimes it feels like I need them at school because they keep the offices so cold.

Plus I'm ready for class tomorrow - except that I HOPE I can at least TRY to give part of the class in Spanish.  This will depend a bit on whether Nicolas comes to observe.  Not sure my Spanish could take the pressure.  ;-)

In other news, today (April 22), our second daughter, Sarah Beth, would have been 27 had she lived.  Sadly, she had a genetic defect that was diagnosed 10 weeks before she was born.  Since it was the first time they had ever diagnosed it prenatally before, the doctors couldn't give us much guidance as to what to expect.  It is a recessive disease - Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease - and it is routinely diagnosed prenatally now, but then, we were on uncharted ground.  So we had to prepare ourselves and, more importantly, Anna Rachel who was almost 5 at the time, for the unknown - although a likely bad unknown no matter what.  In the end, she made the decisions about what to do for us because her lungs had not developed (due to the lack of amniotic fluid) and she simply could not survive, even on a respirator.  She had an old-fashioned death, dying in David's arms, surrounded by her family, including her big sister who was the only person she ever really looked at. It was a very hard and sad time.  We remember her always though.  Always.  Even in exotic and far-away places like Panama.  Perhaps especially here.

And it's very late now, so I must sign off.