Reporting from Rainy Panama

**This was written on Saturday. Everything has changed since then. I’ll write it up and post it soon with pictures. Stay tuned!

I’m reporting from Panama, where it’s raining. Nay, pouring. I’m here to speak at a conference next weekend. I figured I should come early to check out the country, since I’ve never been here. I thought, how can I fly from Europe and only spend four days in a hotel conference room?

I must say that while making these plans, looking at where to go in Panama, I was never really compelled to come early and spend extra time. I thought my disinterest was because I was also in the middle of planning to leave Portugal and was making arrangements for the rest of my 2008. I thought that I’d be happy later that I had gone ahead and made plans for Panama because once I got there I’d be glad I did.

Well. Currently in Panama there’s the kind of rain that keeps everyone indoors. (This happened in Portugal in May, too!) So it doesn’t really matter where you are. It rained so hard last week that the region where I was planning to hang out at the beach was flooded, creating landslides, killing people and requiring evacuation of thousands of people. The guy at the hotel I reserved assured me it wasn’t so bad. Come on! I’m not going there unless I plan to help with emergency relief efforts.

So. I’m in a motel that’s close to the airport I would have been flying to the islands from. There’s no wifi in the room, and I need that if I’m going to be holed up and working all week. I found a B&B nearby and will spend the rest of the week there until I go to the conference on Thursday.

This is actually a gift in disguise, I am sure, because I need to practice my four presentations. I am very, very, very bad at rehearsing (now you know my big dark speaker’s secret). I also have never used a slide show, so I need to practice working with that.

And, being self-employed, there’s always stuff to do. I can work on my newsletter, write blog posts, and handle other miscellany.

And then there’s plenty of art time!

I hope to meet some new friends and have some breaks in the deluge so I can explore a little. While it’s a bummer to have my trip dampened by the weather, in all truth I am here to work anyway.

Travel is the ultimate crash course in dealing with what’s in front of you. Not with the fantasy of it. So I’ll set aside images of beaches and rainforest treks. The plus side is I likely won’t need to buy sunscreen and insect repellent!

Comments

[Donna Druchunas]

I never rehearse presentations. I just speak off the cuff. I love speaking to slides because then you don't need an outline -- the pictures tell you what to say next (I usually just have photos in my slides, no words)... I also let people ask questions as we go, because that's more fun than holding them all until the end.

[Cynthia Morris]

Thanks, Donna. I'm like that too, but I'm also challenged to rehearse. So I want to do a combo of both - rehearse and then speak freely. I am looking forward to using slides for the first time.
Thanks for the support!