Yesterday my neighbor Deb from Windsor, Ontario and I headed into Panama City. We took the bus in and then grabbed a taxi to a long stretch of land called The Causeway.

First we had a wonderful lunch – I had tilapia fish with a red sauce full of small shrimp and a hearty helping of vegetables. Deb had the chicken Caesar. Food here is much more reasonable and tasty than Costa Rica. It still isn’t anything like what I got in Guatemala or in Puerto Vallarta but it beats Costa Rican food hands down.

Then we walked for a good hour along The Causeway. You can see the ships that have just come through the Panama Canal on the one side and the ships waiting to go through it on the other. Apparently no ship waits longer than 24 hours to go through the canal. It is quite the operation and a multi-billion dollar revenue stream for Panama.

Next Deb and I headed to the largest mall in Central America. It truly is a shopper’s delight. Fabulous jeans for $10, a gorgeous dress for $7, tops for $4. It’s crazy, crazy and totally fun.

Today I went condo shopping as I am coming back here in June for a year. I saw some pretty beautiful places. Will be finalizing some sort of deal in the next few days – definitely by the end of the week. Feels good and I am excited.

I’ve been having the conversation with clients and friends this week. What are you doing that is fun in your life? If you have to think too hard, it’s time to do something fun. Tell me what you plan on doing as a way of commiting to a whole new way of being in your life. It’s definitely worth it!

Well after a very rainy, cloudy, dismal weekend the sun has returned. You can still feel the change in the air but at least I am waking up to blue sky every morning and there hasn’t been a drop of rain for the last few days.

Today I actually went to see a condo in a nearby town to potentially rent for a year. I want to return to Panama and explore the possibility of it being my base for travels. Panama is such a mixed bag. There is an infrastructure in place that makes North America look antiquated. Cell towers abound and every single person carries a cell phone. Internet is literally in the air. I am not endorsing the healthiness of it all but it is good for business.

On the other hand, there is a laissez-faire attitude that makes developing a really profitable business challenging. The man who wants to rent me the condo comes from Calgary. He tried running a Mexican-style restaurant but he couldn’t handle the employee mentality. He closed it down a month or so ago. He can’t believe the relief. Instead he is investing in real estate such as the condo I am looking at renting and is interested in long-term rentals.

There are so many opportunities here but I also gather you would need the patience of Job. Garbage abounds – one foreigner suggested that a business in garbage wouldn’t be such a bad idea! The concept of throwing a bag or can out the window is normal. I am beginning to think that it is only North Americans who have an aversion to litter.

It has been great to meet some fellow Canadians and today Deb from Windsor and I went into Coronado and had a fabulous fish dinner. There is a dirth of really good restaurants but the food is much better than we experienced in Costa Rica. I understand that Panama City has much more to offer and I may go do some more exploring this weekend.

I’ll let you know what I decide about the condo. It’s right on the beach, 9th floor, fabulous view except for a crane in the way which is for the building next door which has been sitting idle for years. Wonderful pool area and a great balcony for eating outside on. Lots going for it. Some disadvantages. But I honestly haven’t seen any place in any country that was perfect. Still looking. The photo here is home for now and other than feeling very isolated, it is quiet and comfortable. I’m sleeping through the night most nights and that is always a blessing!

Wow, what a week. I can’t believe that in the space of just 5 days I moved twice. But Tuesday I was out the door at 6:40, my suitcases loaded into the taxi and taken to Volcan. A bus to David was waiting and they loaded all 130 pounds of luggage into the bus and for $2.50 I was delivered right to the bus terminal in David 75 minutes later. Amazingly as I was precariously managing 2 heavy suitcases, a heavy personal bag, a computer bag and a bag of groceries, a bus driver came around the corner and announced a bus leaving for Panama City.

That was precisely the direction I needed to go in and he grabbed my suitcases and 5 minutes later we were pulling out of the terminal. Talk about it all flowing. My prayers to make this easy were definiitely answered. I got off on the highway 6 hours later and 5 minutes later was in a taxi to my new home. There they grabbed my bags out of the taxi and delivered them to my front door. All in all, I had to manage my suitcases less than 30 seconds in the entire journey. Total costs including 2 taxis and 2 buses – $17.50. Considering gasoline here is almost $4 a gallon, that amazes me.

The new home is more modern and my internet has been impeccable. So that is a huge sigh of relief. It is still small – about 700 square feet and the downside is that it is out in the middle of nowhere. I have to either walk a long ways, take a taxi or what they call “chivas” here which are personal vans that have been converted to pick people up. They don’t run very often so you find yourself waiting a long time to go anywhere. As I am the only one here without a car, I am sure that I can get a lift once in awhile to various place. Even with what is available locally, I can get to the closest decent size town for $1 taxi ride or 25 cents on the chiva. As Panama uses American currency it is really easy.

I had to get my hair cut and colored this week so that was a priority yesterday. I went into the biggest town around – Coronado and walked into a very modern looking salon. Two hours later I had been completely coiffed including some special treatment for my hair that including tip was $60. Hair upkeep is not cheap in any country but at least I haven’t had it fall out or end up with some strange color. Actually the cheapest salon appointment I have had in four years of travelling has been in Canada where my sister lives! That makes me laugh.

I will get some pictures up this week. It has been non-stop here with work, launching a new website, new programs and client work but I want to show you around. It’s a small gated community and so far of the 10 people I’ve met only two are NOT Canadian. Right from the Maritimes to Ontario to me from Vancouver, everybody escaping the winter.

Have a great weekend. Talk to you next week.

After a long journey on Friday, I arrived in my new home about 15 minutes outside of Volcan. I literally dumped my suitcases in the door and hopped back into the taxi to go back into Volcan for dinner and shopping. I hadn’t had much to eat since about 7:00 a.m. in the morning before I left San Carlos and I was famished!

I stopped in at a Chinese food restaurant for dinner. Panama by the way has a very large population of Chinese. As a matter of fact, as you enter Panama City there is a monument that looks like it belongs somewhere other than a Central American country that celebrates 150 years of Chinese presence in Panama. Most of the groceries stores I have been in here have been run by Chinese. It is very hard trying to understand Spanish with a Chinese accent and has taken some real practice which I have definitely not perfected.

Next I headed to the supermarket and got a taxi back to the house arriving at dusk. It was so cold! I haven’t been this cold since I left Canada and there is no fireplace, no heater and my warm clothes are very, very limited. I started unpacking but by about 8:00 I realized I had a case of food poisoning. So I spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom until that Chop Suey moved out of my body.

Saturday morning I woke up to blue sky and the realization that the pictures from the website had been somewhat deceptive as to how the house and property was positioned. I feel like I am in a hole here and I don’t like it. However, I decided to take advantage of the sun as it had been cloudy and pretty socked in when I arrived so I got on my bathing suit and laid out in the sun. By the time I was ready to start dealing with the situation at hand, there was no power, no internet and I discovered no water. The water comes into the house because of an electric water pump so no light – no water.

Welcome to Volcan!!! I went into town on the bus this time only to find out that the entire area was shut down. It all came back on by about 3:00 in the afternoon and I was back in business.

Unfortunately, the housing situation is not what I wanted and the internet is not strong enough here to meet my demands. I have tried for 30 minutes to try and upload a simple picture. This is not going to work – not with the video and client work I need to be able to accomplish in a day. So I got on the internet and started looking for a new home.

Thankfully I was blessed to find a fabulous place close by where I just left. Owned by a Canadian, it looks more like the standard that I am accustomed to and I now know my way around that area. I am going to try to do business here tomorrow and then am heading out first thing on Tuesday morning, if not sooner depending on how the day starts off tomorrow. I had good internet on Saturday afternoon so I know it’s possible. Fingers are crossed for tomorrow.

Will be in touch once I am settled back on the coast and have unthawed!

Tomorrow is the last day here in San Carlos. This is the place I have been renting this month. I have had the apartment on the left and then under the thatched roof is common space for the two apartments, although I have had it mostly to myself. There’s a place to eat and a fabulous hammock that I love.

However, Friday I am heading up north to a little village outside of David, the third largest city in Panama. Funnily enough, I stopped and spent the night in David when I came into Panama through Costa Rica at the beginning of the month. I didn’t think it looked big enough to be the third largest city. I must have missed a whole big section of it!

But after tomorrow, no more beach down the street but also no more noisy city park in front of me, a restaurant below me and buses screaming past my window. Noise has always been an interesting component for me. I’m the person who can hear someone turn a light switch on a floor above me. Noise bothers me that most people don’t even hear!

So needless to say, this month has been challenging. I have never lived on a city square and trust me, I won’t be doing it again. I have never lived above a restaurant and that is another no-no on my list now. However, I have to say, being able to run out the door and in 30 seconds be at a store to buy eggs for breakfast, beautiful roma tomatoes or a pineapple to go with breakfast has been wonderful. The convenience of being “right here” has its pluses that is for sure.

However, when I add up the positives and negatives, there is no doubt in my mind that I will choose quiet over noisy hands down. So I am looking forward to where I am headed. But I am thrilled that I had the opportunity to spend time in this part of the country. It has been a fabulous experience to get into Panama City twice now and to visit several of the towns both on the beaches and in the highlands.

I’ll be in touch next week from Paso Ancho. Just wait till you see what I have rented there!

My sister sent me this photo on the weekend of the icebergs on Lake Michigan. Absolutely gorgeous without a doubt. But it does look mighty cold.

On the other hand, yesterday, I visited a beautiful beach here in Panama about an hour out of Panama City. Amazingly deserted for a Sunday when most Panamanians do the beach thing. I also love hard-packed sand which is so easy to walk for miles on, beautiful water that was cool but definitely not cold and absolutely tranquil.

I think I have just found my most favorite Panamanian beach so far which says alot because after seeing so many beautiful beaches in Costa Rica last month, I knew it would be challenging to find something that would compete. However, it looks like I did! Punto Chame has come out the winner here in Panama.

Tammy Barry thinks she has the best job in the world and I can’t blame her. At Mercy Learning Center in Connecticut, moms study English as a second language, prepare to earn their high school equivalency degrees, and learn life skills essential to success in America. Meanwhile, their children spend the day in Mercy’s preschool programs.

But Tammy does much more than just read to kids and keep them out of mom’s hair for the day. She makes the books comes alive and teaches mothers the importance of reading to their children.

I love the philosophy at Mercy Learning Center: “If you educate the woman of the house, you’re going to educate the whole family.”

For the kids, the best part is when they each take home a brand-new copy of that week’s book. Every week they give away 40 to 45 books which Tammy acquires through creative and inventive means. Sometimes she purchases books using grant money from local organizations. Others are donated by individuals or through book drives at local schools. One friend throws an annual holiday tea party. Instead of hostess gifts, guests bring books (Tammy registers the titles at a local bookstore). And Tammy’s kids often request books in lieu of birthday presents.

The Center’s programs focus on empowering women, and providing dignity, economic self-sufficiency and hope to the most vulnerable members of society. By educating these women, Mercy Learning Center provides critical training to help functionally illiterate women improve their skills and earning potential, creating a more hopeful future for themselves and their children.

I love what they are doing and know the incredible impact this can only have on future generations. If you’d like to support this project just visit Mercy Learning Center and find out more!

Did you know that only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide? Were you aware that there are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter floating in every square mile of ocean?

When on the sailing trip recently to Belize, I was horrified to literally be in the middle of nowhere and on this tiny island, hundreds of pieces of plastic had washed ashore.

One area of excess plastic bags I had never thought of is dry cleaning bags. Probably because I try to live in shorts and t-shirts much of the time and everything needs to go into two suitcases, I never think of dry cleaning anymore. But apparently, they are a large environmental problem.

One woman came up with a solution and as a byproduct created a fabulous entrepreneurial venture. Although it took Jane Wyler 19 years of allowing the brilliant idea to sit on the shelf while she raised a family, she knew the timing was right for taking dry cleaning to a level of environmental friendliness.

They’re called the Clothesnik, a 100% cotton garment bag made specifically for those who love to dry clean but don’t want to add to the 1 billion plastic bags that get thrown away every year.

Designed with a drawstring at the bottom and zipper down the front, just bundle your dirty clothes in the Clothesnik to the dry cleaners or laundry, and they come back clean and ready to go hanging in the same bag. Just like a regular garment bag, but better.

Today, Jane’s company, Reuseniks, sells the Clothesnik all over the world. Her reusable bag has been purchased in large numbers by corporations, by dry cleaners, by top fashion boutiques and fashion designers and by individuals, perhaps like you, who don’t want to leave behind a plastic bag that can take 500 years to degrade.

Do you have any ideas about making a difference that you’ve put on the shelf for various reasons? Perhaps now is the time to take them off the shelf, dust them off and see if they evoke any passion in you? One small idea like this can make a huge difference in the world.

Iranian woman at a protest in Brussels

A global online community is making a massive impact. Last week they made sure that whales weren’t hunted legally and today they are attempting to save an Iranian woman from being stoned.

This organization caught my attention a few months ago and they are definitely one you want to notice. For every person who wants to see a better world but doesn’t know quite what to do, connect yourself with www.avaaz.org.

Avaaz means “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages. Their mission is to organize people around the world to help close the gap between the world we have and the world most people want.

In just 3 years, they have grown to 5.5 million members from every country on earth, becoming the largest global web movement in history.
They’ve caught the media’s attention but more importantly, I want them to catch yours.

Today I received an email that Avaaz is working desperately to save an Iranian woman’s life. Most of us cannot even imagine being stoned to death for adultery but it is happening everyday in certain parts of the world.

Can you help? Absolutely! Right now they need 50,000 signatures and I mean today!

Yesterday they saved her life. Tomorrow it could be too late. Please go to http://bit.ly/aMqsQb now and sign the petition.

I love what Avaaz is doing in the world and I think you will too!

Photograph: Thierry Roge/Reuters

Almost 20 years ago, Ann Cotton, visited Zimbabwe, Africa to find out why girl’s school enrollment in rural areas was so low. She discovered that the primary obstacle was poverty. Families couldn’t afford to buy books or pay school fees for all their children, so they had to choose who would receive an education. Girls were rarely chosen. The reason was simple: Boys had a better chance of getting a paid job after graduation.

So Ann wondered: Could an economic solution open school doors to girls? Could it lead to economic, social and cultural benefits for rural Africa?

She returned home to Cambridge, England, determined to find a way to help girls go to school in Zimbabwe. She recruited friends and family and sold baked goods to raise money and awareness about the lack of education for girls in Africa. At the end of her grassroots campaign, she supported 32 girls through school.

In 1993, Ann formally launched Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education. The girls supported by Camfed stayed in school and did well, demonstrating that girls’ education was valued by families when the costs were not longer a burden.

What have been the results of this woman committed to making a difference when it would have been so much easier to turn a blind eye?

Camfed’s model has now been replicated in 2,295 communities in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi and Tanzania.

In Tanzania, schools supported by Camfed through the Safety Net Fund showed a 37 percent reduction in drop-out rates between 2005 and 2007.

In Camfed partner high schools in Zambia, pregnancy rates fell by 9 percent between 2006 and 2008, compared to an increase of 38 percent in a control sample of schools.

Since 1993, they’ve improved the school environment for 1,065,710 children, provided scholarships for 42,184 girls to go to high school, trained 4,068 teacher mentors and helped 769 young women go to college.

Their microfinance program has helped 6,084 women start small businesses and 1,449 expand.

They’ve also trained 1,504 community health activists through Cama, the Camfed Association, which has 14,005 African members who advocate for change in rural Africa.

I am sure when Ann was baking cookies back in 1991 to raise money to send a few girls to school, she had NO idea of what the next 20 years would bring. Thankfully, she didn’t let the obstacle of a massive continent, a huge problem and a desperate need stand in her way of just taking the first small step.

I know that in looking at problems in various countries I have visited, I’ve thought, “what can I do to help?” Ann’s example is an amazing role model for all of us to just start. eradicate

Camfed needs your help and they have made it is so simple!

On Facebook Causes, more than 544,000 members have joined their cause “Educate Girls in Africa. Fight Poverty and HIV” and are helping promoting the benefits of girls’ education.

But two anonymous donors want them to do more and have issued a challenge: Reach 1 million supporters on Causes by the end of the year. To sweeten the deal, they will donate 50 cents for each new supporter that joins the Cause, up to $100,000.

So you can make a big difference now, in five seconds or less. Simply visit www.causes.com/camfed and join the cause. Then, share this message and ask your friends to join the cause and recruit their friends. You’ll not only be promoting the benefits of girls’ education in Africa, you’ll help Camfed raise enough money to send 4,000 girls to elementary school!

Will you do that today and make your difference? Please do!