News and Pictures from Panama, January 17, 2009

Mike has some comments on his cooking adventure

“This Mystery is Great…”
We have been to the outer rim of sanity and peeked over the edge. This morning marks the fifth day of the exploration of bacon flavored spam. We launched into our week with a fairly prosaic presentation, fried eggs with fried spam on the side, rounded out with toast, jam, coffee, and orange juice. We chose the path less taken Wednesday morning with some “stay-with-you-all-day” spam omelettes. Yesterday the tropical sun rose over the enticing smell of breakfast spam burritos. This morning we boldly went where no man has gone before with “I-hope-this-doesn’t-stay-all-day” spam quesadillas without the cheese, we were out. It continues to amaze me of the multitude of sins that can be covered with Panamanian hot sauce! What’s next, spamcakes, rotisserie spam perhaps, or the perennial favorite, spam on a stick? Things could be worse… right? As you no doubt have heard the famous legend of the pizza run through the gauntlet of the intersection of certain death last Wednesday, you will be surprised by the accurate accounting of the “day after.” Some pizza was left over Wednesday night and sadly left out on the counter. Our unflappable Gringo Beacon, Jack Hairston, padded into the kitchen for an early breakfast. Apparently he wanted to rev up his metabolism in preparation for another onslaught of “spam surprise.” In the early morning gloom, he reached into the pizza box and begin to enjoy a piece of Panamanian combination pizza which had been aged to perfection. About half way through his slice of “if I can’t see it, it won’t hurt me” pizza, he suddenly felt the uncontrollable urge to brush off a host of “crawlies” from his arms. With lightening swift resources Jack switched on the kitchen light to discover that the pizza he was eating was covered with swarming ants! Jack reports that ants taste a little like chicken!! The team is anxiously awaiting Sheila Smith’s arrival this coming Tuesday to rescue them from the “spam purgatory” that their great chef Mike Crowley has led them into. Is it Tuesday yet??!!


Jack has some text to add to the blog today.

What’s New
Panama City, Panama, Friday, January 16, 2009

At breakfast today, after a week of working with Spanish-speaking readers, all four of us burst out laughing when we realized that we were speaking to each other like we speak to our readers—slowly and distinctly, with much arm-waving and gestures to illustrate each word. After we stopped laughing, I started to say something that had the word “little” and made a small square with my fingers before I realized what I was doing. [more laughter] I wound up sitting on my hands.

Last evening was the regular Bible study for the Christians that meet here at Walter’s house. Walter asked me to prepare a thought for discussion. I suggested to the group of fifteen or so that faith has three parts, and that there is no faith unless all three parts are present.
1. Truth For example, God exists.
2. Agreement I agree that God exists.
So far there is no effective faith. “Even the demons believe, and shudder.” (James 2)
3. Surrender Only after surrender will I obey God, and trust him to take care of me, especially when I am frightened by events.
Walter translated into Spanish, after which the discussion was spirited indeed among the Spanish-speaking members. Afterward, Walter said that I must come up with something equally good for next Thursday’s meeting. I fear I might have set the bar too high.
Jack Hairston