Perhaps you’d like to learn Spanish too?

You can download Rocket Language’s Spanish course here for $99.00. 

You can even sign up for six lessons for free. 

I’ve not used it, but it seems like it might be a good product if you want to learn Spanish via an Mp3 player while you drive.  You can order the hardcopy at nearly $300, so the digital download sounds like a better idea to me.

The best way I’ve been finding is immersion.  But many don’t have that option.  So a course you can download and begin at any hour is a great way to start. 

This will be our first Christmas in Panama.

It feels different to be in a place where there is no chance of snow and it’s 85 degrees outside.

It seems different to see snowmen in Christmas parades here, to see the garlands and polar bears, and hear “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” sung by carolers in front of the hotels that cater to American foreigners.

After nearly 40 years in the US with a chance of a white Christmas, this is an entirely new way of looking at Christmas for us.

Yesterday was the Christmas parade through town.

We watched some of it on TV.  Santa was not in a sleigh with reindeer, but in a powerboat, pulled by a truck.

The celebration was capped off by a huge fireworks display which we could observe out our window.

“Wow” is an understatement to the display.  We were amazed by the celebration.

Ministry Developments

This week, I leave for Nicaragua.  We’ll be gone for 10 days.  Follow the link to read more about the work and ministry.

In January, Brenda and I will be with church leaders at a conference on Child evangelism.  Brenda and I will both be doing workshops over a couple of days.  It is being advertised nationally, and will be held at a conference center in the interior of the country.  That will be in early January, just after the turn of the new year.  Continue to be in prayer for that time of ministry as well.

 

It’s another visit to immigration today.  To extend my tourist visa for a third time, long enough to get out to Nicaragua in December.

We have discovered that we need to retrieve two more documents from the United states in preparation for the residency process, and that will take a couple of months to secure.

The residency process is pretty easy, but having to retrieve these two documents make it another layer of red tape. 

So continue to pray for our residency process. 

We went back this morning and joined the line outside immigration today at 7:00am. The line was already approaching 60 people long.

When it opened at 7.30, most of us filed into the migration section (far back down the hall on the left) and got our number. The line there was simple and organized. Once all the numbers were gone, there seemed to no longer be any organization, just people waiting around and latecomers tyring to figure out what to do.

We got our number and began the long wait, about 2.5 hours for our number to be called.

The form we got yesterday was not the only form we were supposed to have. Apparently we were to REGISTER with immigration (a different set of requirements), and then ask for the extension (the set of requirements I had yesterday). That meant that I needed to have two more passport fotos, and another copy of my passport.

Since we expected that we’d be waiting a while for our number to be called, i went on an expedition to find a place that would make the fotos. After walking around several blocks in Calidonia this morning, i finally found a place to get the fotos: the little street vendor selling pastries across the street has a little side business making carnet photos. I found it only because i saw a flash, not because it was advertised on a sign.

While waiting, we saw several people making their first visit — and discovering that all the numbers for the day were gone. That was us yesterday.

Eventually, our number was called. I was registered with immigration in an easy interview process, basically demographic information for their computer. He took my complete copy of my passport and my carnet photos.

I was fingerprinted, and then told to go pay my $1.00 processing fee at the cashier’s box (another line). When i returned to present my receipt, my passport was returned to me and then I was directed to go to the line for the tourist extension.

Since i had given away my only copy of my passport, i had to go make a new one before visiting the desk for the prorroga. While getting the copy made, I was presented with yet a third list of requirements for the prorroga, some of which we didn’t have.

I sat down with a person who took all my copies of everything I had brought, and he just scanned it over. Didn’t seem important to him that I was missing a local utility bill. He stamped my application, asked me to bring him a copy of the application, and then told me to come back on Wednesday.

This whole zoo of a process took about 5 hours.

No complaints, just telling my story. It’s panama and I don’t expect excellent customer service.