… at least that’s what a non-sewing friend emailed me yesterday.

So, my Spanish is limited to the present tense, four verbs (I want, I have, I need, I like) and four adjectives (more, less, smaller, bigger). Today mom and I went to a Spanish-only church. I had to concentrate very, very hard to understand the service. One, because I don’t speak Spanish. And two, because the church is along the highway and has no windows and no doors which makes it really loud and distracting. Especially when you only understand 3% of what’s being said.

As some point, the speaker was talking about how some man named Pedro had fallen from the heavens to earth. I kept thinking, “who the heck is Pedro? What am I missing here? Is this the mission story? Seriously, who is this Pedro guy and what does he have to do with Christ?” Finally, I turned to my mom and said, “Who is this Pedro?” and she looked at me and said, “Peter. It’s Peter.” Oh. Right.

Same thing 30 minutes later with some cat named Pablo. Turns out that’s Paul. doh.

The teenagers met outside next to the church

After church we grabbed some more mangos to try out Marji’s salsa tomorrow. We also got lunch at another fonda at the bottom of the mountain.

They were smoking beef and sausage outside for grilling later.

They also had chicken tamales all prepped to be served.

I had sancoche for lunch. I asked mom what makes it sanchoche instead of just plain soup/sopa. After thinking for a minute, she said you add peas and that’s soup. But, root veggies (potato, carrot, yucca) make sancoche. And, they called it sancoche too back in Carriacou, Grenada, WI too (where she is from).

I also had corn empenadas stuffed with beef and mashed fried green plantains. These are not sweet like my Jamaican father makes. Rather, more like potatoes with lots of salt. I ate mine with ketchup and hot sauce. I eat everything with hot sauce.

My mom not trying to be today’s model.

Tamale unwrapped

While we were there, they were prepping for a big party tonight. They were making pork with a dry rub.

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Monday I’m driving to another town called Penome. I hear there is a cigar factory there (joyas de Panama) and I want to get a little gift for the cop. I also hear that they are the home of original Panama hat. Could not be more excited to see the hats being made. Of course, this is all just rumour and conjecture at this point. I asked several of the neighbors if they had been / how to get there and they were like, “You know you can get cigars in the mall, right?” Right….