A Surprising Trip

July 2013

For the past 10 months maestro Gabriel (the headmaster and one of the teachers at my school) had invited me to come to his house in Santiago (a provincial capital 3 hours from Piedras Gordas) for the weekend.  Each time he invited me I already had previous engagements for the weekend, or something else I preferred to do; so I kept turning him down.  To be perfectly honest I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of spending the weekend with him and his family.  Gabriel is a nice enough guy, but he comes off as a bit uptight and is not someone that I considered to be particularly fun.  He frequently goes on tirades against reggaeton music and popular Panamanian culture, and absolutely refuses to dance (which is unheard for Panamanians).   However, after months of pushing back the trip to Santiago I felt obliged to spend a weekend at his home with him and his family.  So when I finally had a free weekend, I told Gabriel and we organized a trip to Santiago.  I viewed of the trip as a work obligation more than an enjoyable way to spend a weekend.  The closer we got to the weekend the less excited I became, but kept telling myself the trip was just another part of my job.

I certainly misjudged my trip to Santiago. During my time there I saw a very different side of Gabriel, and gained a new appreciation of him as a person. 

On Friday afternoon after class I drove with Gabriel to his home in Santiago.  That night I met his wife and two sons (ages 11 and 16).  His wife, Yarelis, is about 10 years younger than Gabriel and full of youthful energy.  For over two hours she played her favorite reggaeton and salsa songs and taught me numerous dance moves.  Although Gabriel always refuses to dance he seemed to enjoy watching Yarelis whip me around. 

The next morning we woke up at 4:30 am to drive to Gabriel’s parents’ ranch 2 hours away.  Gabriel comes to the ranch almost every Saturday to care for the family cows and maintain the land.  His parents stay at the ranch each weekend, but Gabriel does most of the work on the farm now that his parents are in their 80s.  His father was an intriguing mix of being a gruff rancher, former school headmaster, and playful loving grandfather.  Gabriel’s mother was very sweet and made sure that I was always given a huge serving of whatever dish she was cooking at the time.   Gabriel was very proud to show off this part of his life and told me numerous times that many people who know “Gabriel the Teacher” don’t know “Gabriel the Rancher.”  On this particular day it was Gabriel’s job to catch and tie up the cows, so that we could inject them with a medicine that protects them from parasitic worms.  After injecting around 25 cows, Gabriel gave me a tour of the 60-acre ranch, and we went swimming in the river that flows through his property.

The following day it was Yarelis turn to take me to meet her family.  We drove to her parents’ community, Montijo, about an hour from Santiago (where a Peace Corps Volunteer from my group had previously lived).  Upon my arrival Yarelis father proudly took his grandsons and me to his farm to show off the corn crop, while Yarelis’ mother cooked lunch.  When we got back to the house we watched afternoon soccer matches and ate a huge lunch of pigs' feet soup, rice, lentils, salad, fried plantains, pork chops and fresh mango juice.  After lunch everyone spent 2 hours lying in hammocks recovering from their food hangovers.  In the evening Gabriel, Yarelis, their son’s and I went down to Port Montijo, where we ate fried fish and watched a live band play at Yarelis’s Sister’s waterfront restaurant and bar.  Yarelis' family went out of their way to make sure that I was full, happy, and laughing.

All and all I had an amazing weekend.  It was so nice to see a more relaxed side of Gabriel, meet his family, and see how a middle class Panamanian teacher lives outside of the community. The weekend together also improved our working relationship by strengthening our friendship and confidence in one another.  This experience reminded me of something I had known all along but had allowed myself to forget: To have amazing and unique experiences you have to be willing to push yourself out of your comfort zone and daily routines!