Panama Blog 1

Before arriving in Panama I was not really sure what to expect. I knew that it was going to be different than living in America but I was not sure how. After we landed in Panama City and loaded onto the bus I looked around and did not see much of a city. I was like, oh wow it might be a little more rural than I thought! After driving for 30 minutes we reached Panama City Centro with huge skyscrapers with unique designs. Then my perception of Panama City changed. If I could guess my perception before seeing Panama Centro I would have not assumed it to be as developed as a major city in America.  We stayed in Clayton in modern dorm rooms with electricity, running water, and air conditioning. I was expecting an older type hotel with less of a modern feel.

    After driving for 4-5 hours to Chitre we reached our houses we were going to be staying at for the rest of the weeks. We unloaded our things into the houses of nurses that currently live in the city. After getting through the awkwardness of seeing their family photos, throwing out their food from the fridge, and sleeping in their beds, the girls of house three finally seemed to have settled in. After seeing the first place we stayed at I assumed there was going to be running water, electricity, and air conditioning. There were all of the above but from time to time our power has gone out for hours at a time. Luckily there is enough of a breeze to keep the houses cool and we had each other to keep ourselves busy.

            It is interesting to see the city of Chitre. Although it is not a small city, it is still underdeveloped compared to an American city like Tampa. I was expecting we were going to be in some sort of jungle city so being in this city was a nice surprise. Although I was not expecting everyone to speak English I was surprised that not that many people speak English. It was interesting to see that they use the American dollar as their main form of currency because I was not expecting that.