Saturday, May 7, 2011

Skills and knowledge I've learned in Panama that will be useless upon re-entry

1. Cooking without dairy, refrigeration or meat.
2. Lawn mowing with a machete.
3. Bathing and washing my hair with fewer than two gallons of water.
4. Enjoyment of boiled green bananas and plantains.
5. Enough knowledge to get me half way to a medical specialty in tropical infectious diseases.
6. The life cycle of roundworm.
7. Drinking things which in the U.S. are solid foods, ie corn flakes frozen popsicles, oatmeal drinks.
8. Sleeping through crows, screaming children and church hymns sung between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
9. Basic masonry.
10. Advanced hair braiding.
11. Essential properties of gravity-flow water systems.
12. Conversational Ngobere.

2 comments:

  1. Beans, glorious beans! It is amazing what you manage to put together with what is shelf-stable or has-to-be-eaten-at-once.

    You will never be an Orange County Housewife. I hope that does not upset you.

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  2. #1 is not true: I know for a fact you go through a gallon equivalent of Klim every week.

    I also feel like #8 understates how god-awful those "hymns" are. I would liken them to a recording of a deaf cat thrown into a cactus patch, played back at one quarter speed.

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