Graduation, Rain, and Adventures at Albrook

What a great day!  Once again, the amazing Elba helped make it a very great day.  In the morning, I worked from home until Elba came around 11:30 to go to an area in Clayton - the part that used to be controlled by the Americans before the hand-over of the canal - called "Cuidad de Saber" or "City of Knowledge" for a meeting with a researcher at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Foundation of Panama.  She is doing work on Mobile Health for indigenous people in the case, the  Ngöbe-Buglé.  They live in extremely remote areas of the Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui, and Veraguas provinces in Western Panama.  She discussed a project where they had trained tribe members to be local health workers.  It sounds as though they have had great success with it so far.  The kinds of projects in South Africa, such as CellLife, were great examples too. It was really interesting spinning ideas with her.  I hope that she, Elba, and possibly I depending on timing (4 months really IS very little time!) can meet again and perhaps do some research together.

After that, Elba took me to the Albrook Mall in search of some short-sleeved blouses that cover my tat.  Unfortunately, tats are viewed quite negatively here in Panama so some of my strategies, such as using sleeveless tops with jackets over them, aren't going to work.  I need to be able to be in just the top - because most of the time it's just too hot to wear anything more than is absolutely necessary.  We walked all over the mall - partly because there are no maps of store locations anywhere in the mall!  We searched for tops but to no avail.  We did find a very small selection of beads at a local shop, but, aside from a few malachite beads, I didn't really indulge.  I'm going to have to have David and Sewellyn bring beads down.

Unfortunately, on the way to the mall, my necklace crimp failed.  Luckily I caught most of the beads (though I suspect there are still some on Elba's car)  But I was left without a necklace so I didn't look dressy enough for the evening's graduation celebrations that we were going to attend.  Bless Elba who waited while I fixed the crimp!

We went back to UTP after the repair.  There, because it was graduation night, people were getting dressed up.  The faculty was to march but not in academic robes (luckily given how hot it was).  We went over early - luckily because there was a huge downpour almost causing us to bail, but it all cleared up by the time of the ceremony, so we marched and participated in the ceremony.  However, with over 800 graduates, being called one at at time, it got very long.  Both Elba and I were exhausted so we left before the end.  It was still a very long day - but a fun one.

Outside the Computer Engineering Department

UTP!

Dean Nicolas Samaniego, kitted out for the graduation ceremony, and me