PANAMA AND BEIRUT!

Here we are at the end of another fulfilling day.  Well, half the day was full!  The first half had us waking up after a more restful nights sleep and me being at the gym walking on a treadmill staring at a wall.  The pool was to my right through the window, but I could not turn my head right and walk at the same time.  So for close to an hour I talked to myself, practiced Spanish with the wall, and thought about how boring I used to think my walks in Bumpass, VA had been!  At least then, I could listen to the birds and woodpeckers and see smooshed snakes here and there on the road.  And I always loved bumping into my neighbors and chatting for a few minutes.  But after eating that caramel popcorn last night, I knew I needed to get on that moving belt.  

After lunch in the room (we shopped at Riba Smith's which is a grocery store chain here that carries a lot of expensive International foods, but we opt for the Panamanian brands), Ray had the idea to take a cab to the Marriott Hotel and Royal Casino.  This casino is across the street from our soon to be insurance broker that we had a two thirty appointment with today.  Another five dollar cab ride, and we each set out to play penny slots.  Ray won $230.  Again, he wins.  Oh, I know I cannot complain too much here.  I just wanted to win a little something.  Oh well, we cashed in the ticket and walked across the street to our appointment.  

We met Priscilla, and what a nice lady!  She is also a beautiful Panamanian that speaks excellent English.  As she explained it, when we take Spanish in the States in high school, how much Spanish do we really learn in class?  Unless we take four years and then an advanced class like my daughter did (plus have six weeks in Spain), we usually come out with the basics.  This is what the Panamanians get here.  Very little English.  This is why there really is not a lot of English spoken here in the stores, restaurants, and offices.  This is where I think those moving to Panama are misled greatly.  You really need to know the language or prepare to learn it here.  She, on the other hand, went to a private school in Panama learning English there and to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and then she married and moved to Indiana for twelve years.  So she has English down perfectly. We also learned her daughter went to Marymount College in Virginia.  We are meeting such pleasant and personable people here.  Two and a half hours later, and not needing a physical or blood test since we are going with a health insurance company that does not require one, we had health insurance coverage.  And renter's insurance.  And car insurance.  
To be honest and give the bottom line, when Ray was working, we paid $500/month for health insurance.  His company paid possibly more than that amount on top of our cost.  So we worked basically to have pretty good health insurance.   I never took coverage with my office, but there I think I remember I would have paid 60% of the premium.  And without Ray's job, he looked it up when we were researching Panama (pre-Obamacare, so we don’t know what savings we would get if we were not working), we would pay $1700/month.  And furthermore, our car insurance was $1800/year for two cars.  And our cell phone service was $180/month.
Here in Panama, we are paying $260 for health insurance a month.  It is known as worldwide global insurance.  When we go to a doctors appointment or have a prescription filled, we give them our card, and the cost goes towards our deductible.  But the costs of these will probably not reach the yearly deductible (we hope not to be that sick or have to visit the doctor often, but you have to be smart). And if we are hospitalized in Panama, with this plan, the deductible is waived.  And all is free.  We also have evacuation service.  If we are injured or very sick in Chame (or interior of the country not easily accessible to great services) and we want to or need to get to a Panama City hospital fast, we have helicopter coverage.  If we are very sick/terminal even (sorry, so morbid) and want to be back in the US with our daughter, we have evacuation coverage out of country.  Traveling and injured or sick?  Covered whereever we are.  This is all important to us.  We bought the policy that  we went into the office for which is “global and traveler's insurance" coverage.  Renters insurance is going to be $10/month.  If someone steals from us, there is coverage.  We have coverage up to $20000 of our  things.  And we got liability coverage if something happens to the house.  And finally, our car insurance is $700/ year.  So for just Ray's car in the States and to insure an older car, we were paying $1000/year.So there you have it.  With cell phones at a whopping $60/month (we were paying $188 in the States) and the above, our monthly bills so far are $1000 for rent and $390 a month for the insurances and cell phone. Quite pleased with the one stop shopping of insurance, we walked across the street to a restaurant called Beirut that I had wanted to try on our first visit here when with my sister.  A Lebanese restaurant that not only did people last night validate that it is a great place, but also the insurance broker told us the food is delicious!  We used our discount once again, and we were treated to a sampling of so. much. food.  Beef, lamb, chicken, naan bread, taboulleh, hummus, falafel, kabbeh, baba ganoosh (my fave!), shawarma, salad, rice and for dessert a spicy/sweet tea (if that makes sense) and a small roll of  baklava with cream inside.  

First courses

Then came the salad, meats and plain yummy goodness!

We rolled out of there, and once at the Marriott we were quoted ten dollars for the cab ride back.  The super nice owner of Beirut had told us it was too far to walk back, and not to let the cab drivers "see us for who we are" (gringos) and charge us more than five dollars.  So Ray stepped into the street and hailed a cab.  This driver told us "cuatro" (four).  He was so nice practicing Spanish with us on the way back.  He made the comment that he was trying to learn English, but "English is difficult".  I keep thinking my hearing aids will just start translating what everyone is saying to me.  I am now afraid to speak the language, because the person then wants to speak back!  Well, little by little I will "get it" and understand it.  For now, maybe they can just spell it out for me or write it all down!  

(www.2WannaBRetireesinPanama.blogspot.com is the previous blog.)