A normal day and an exciting evening (Friday)

Today was perfect for getting accustomed to Panama.  And how did we do this?

We went to the Mall.  El Dorado Mall to be exact.

There, we went to Rey for groceries and then came home to prepare for an exciting evening.

Elba picked us up and drove downtown to Restaurante las Tinajas.  There, we had a lovely meal, but the best part was not the food, as good as it was.  It was the dancing!

Folkloric dancing with women in polleras!  I have seen pictures but this was my first time seeing women dancing in them.  And they are GORGEOUS!  Each one is unique, being made by hand and embroidered profusely.  They can take an entire year to create!

Elba told us that an entire set - the blouse and skirt, mosquetas and tembleques they wear on their heads, shoes, special petticoats, and amazing gold jewelry - could easily cost $20,000 USD!  Wow!

The dancers showed dances from the provinces - and they were amazing.  They swirled and swayed and smiled.  Big smiles that can't be faked.  They were really enjoying it all.

Hola! Chica? (Friday)

(Friday's blog was written on Friday - but alas, a widespread outage of Internet service meant it could not be posted.  Nor could I watch a move or listen to music or anything else electronic.  So instead, I went to bed early.  Lovely!)

Today was a lovely day.  I had an early teleconference with Michael from Kenya who is planning to come to Panama next month for a vacay.  I'm hoping he can help my students with data analysis and with creating paper prototypes after the visits we'll be doing to improve the UTP website.  Then, I headed into work.  I had to be back home for a fabulous session in a virtual conference, "You in UX" put on by two of my favorite folks - Tracey Lovejoy and Gayna Williams.  The other sessions have been great too but this one, done by Donna Flynn, who I first worked with when she was at Microsoft and who is now at Steelcase.  It was inspirational.  She talked about being very intentional about her work and family life and had found ways to weave things together with her current post.  Donna is a great person, and it was wonderful to hear her so happy.

In between, I had a visit from Lydia.  She brought me the lovely hair ornament I've posted above.  It's a Tembleque, a head dress worn by women wearing the Pollera - the national dress of Panama for women on the Azuero Peninsula.  If only I had a bit more hair!  But I love it and am so touched by Lydia's generosity.