On Thursday Pam and I set out for Volcan/Guadalupe. I thought she knew the way; she thought I knew the way. You see where this is going. After a couple of hours (trip should have taken about 1-1/2 hours), I started feeling like it was taking way too long. I told Pam, "I know Guadalupe is at the end of the highway, and Los Quetzales (our hotel), it just to the right." Well, we finally ended up at a dead end, but Los Quetzales was not to the right. Instead we came to what looked like a border town: lots of street vendors, ancient shops and lots of people milling about. And guess what? It WAS a border town. I stopped a man on the street and asked him where Guadalupe was. He looked at my second head, and said, "Guadalupe!! You have to go back to Volcan and turn left at the police station. Right up ahead here is Costa Rica!!" So, back to Volcan - only 45 minutes - no big deal - and an absolutely GORGEOUS drive. Pam has a great sense of humor, so neither one of us really cared. Guadalupe and Los Quetzales were as beautiful as I remembered.
Friday night Dan and I joined Pia, and we went to Mike's Global Grill for the Newcomer's get-together. The live music was great: mostly a group of Panamanians. I enjoyed watching the communication between the guitar players. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn we were with Santana himself. I was also suprised when, while listening to the band, a young family came in and sat down in front of us: the woman obviously Panamanian, and the husband a gringo from somewhere - mid 30s maybe. My mental story was a young guy who came to Panama, fell in love, and had started a family. When the band took a break, I was surprised to see this young guy stand up, take drumsticks out of his back pocket, turn his baseball cap around and sit down at the drums. He was great!! Love when that happens.
The service that night was quite marginal, but the company was great. I met a new couple: Terry and Manzar. Terry is from Denver. Manzar is originally from Pakistan and did his graduate work at UW Madison. They met on line and are planning on getting married in September back in Minnesota where they both worked and where gay marriage was just legalized. They just opened a new B&B here called Casa de Montana. We chatted a bit that night, realized we both knew Lorna, and then Manzar asked me to stop by the B&B the next day at 3, which is when Lorna and her husband, Joe, were stopping by. He wanted to give me "the tour" and talk about retreat possibilities for next year with him and Lorna. He's a psychotherapist as well. Their place is so very, very beautiful. I didn't take any pictures, but Lorna did. I asked her to send them to me, so I'm hoping to add them here soon. I meet with Lorna tomorrow. We already had that meeting set up before we realized we were both going to be at Terry and Manzar's, but we didn't take any time to talk then. I forwarded her some materials today, and we will talk tomorrow.
I received a number of emails today from Vivianne, the leader of the Blue Sky. She wants me to come early to the group on Tuesday, and I agreed to do that, but I really don't think that this is a group for me. I'll see what Lorna has to say when we meet tomorrow. I think Lorna and I will come up with something a bit more in line with what I'm thinking in regard to group discussions.
The service that night was quite marginal, but the company was great. I met a new couple: Terry and Manzar. Terry is from Denver. Manzar is originally from Pakistan and did his graduate work at UW Madison. They met on line and are planning on getting married in September back in Minnesota where they both worked and where gay marriage was just legalized. They just opened a new B&B here called Casa de Montana. We chatted a bit that night, realized we both knew Lorna, and then Manzar asked me to stop by the B&B the next day at 3, which is when Lorna and her husband, Joe, were stopping by. He wanted to give me "the tour" and talk about retreat possibilities for next year with him and Lorna. He's a psychotherapist as well. Their place is so very, very beautiful. I didn't take any pictures, but Lorna did. I asked her to send them to me, so I'm hoping to add them here soon. I meet with Lorna tomorrow. We already had that meeting set up before we realized we were both going to be at Terry and Manzar's, but we didn't take any time to talk then. I forwarded her some materials today, and we will talk tomorrow.
I received a number of emails today from Vivianne, the leader of the Blue Sky. She wants me to come early to the group on Tuesday, and I agreed to do that, but I really don't think that this is a group for me. I'll see what Lorna has to say when we meet tomorrow. I think Lorna and I will come up with something a bit more in line with what I'm thinking in regard to group discussions.