settling in

Well, another two weeks have passed as I adjust to life in Panama.
I'm still sleeping in the windowless back room, and haven't yet had time to go out and buy a desk and chair so working from home involves this:

but I've bought an iron and ironing board, got the internet and cable TV hooked up and treated myself to a pair of skinny jeans and high heels so as to fit in more with the other women here.  My shopping bill is three times what I'd got used to, but then again I am including dried cranberries and wholemeal bread in my diet now, which were unavailable in Dakar.

I've discovered that the surprisingly cool weather (well, compared with what I was used to in West Africa) doesn't stop the humidity from rotting clothes, shoes and bags - this small rucksack had sat untouched in a cupboard for just two weeks when I got it out only to find this:

So I now have a de-humidifier in the apartment too.

To pay for all this I have had to get a salary payment by cheque, as I am still waiting to get an account of my own, which meant an outing last Saturday to cash it.  I located an accesible branch on the internet and went there with my cheque, to be faced by a locked door and a security guard with a revolver and bullet-proof vest.  I first had to persuade him that I needed to use that bank ("yes, it's a Credicorp cheque") then was sent to the back of the queue.  Once at the front he searched my bag and scanned me with his body scanner, then knocked on the door for a similarly attired guard inside to unlock the door and allow me in.  All this in a country which is supposed to be safe, but I suppose they have their eye on the drugs gangs slowly making their way south as they get driven out of Mexico.  & there was a gun shop not far from the bank.

The main obstacle to settling in, to everything I try to do, is the language.  This desk I need - well what is Spanish for desk?  & for "do you deliver?"  I went to one of the cable company's offices to pay my first bill, and having negotiated my way to join the right queue and pay the bill, I then in my stumbling learnt-a-bit-at-school-35-years-ago Spanish mentioned that the main TV didn't actually appear to have any channels available.  The lady said that it must have been set up incorrectly and that someone would come round to fix it.  "When?" I asked.  "When you get home" she replied, at which point I realised I'd probably misunderstood something she said earlier but with a queue of impatient people waiting behind me I nodded and accepted it.  Of course no-one turned up to fix it when I got home.

A few days later the real estate agent was round to check the inventory, so taking advantage of his English and kind nature, I asked if he would mind phoning the cable company to set up an appointment for me.  He told me they had English speakers, and started the call with his speaker phone option on.  Quickly they got to the "Por Ingles, opción 1", which he pressed before turning the phone around to me, but it was just as well he was there as the person manning the English option line spoke only Spanish...