Day 16 of Quarantine

Panama gets more Strict
​Each evening there is an update from the government and if you don't pay attention you could end up in trouble. The rules keep changing. Almost daily we get the numbers of people arrested for going outside and violating the lockdown rules. Most days it is close to 600 people a day which is 6 times the number of people that they are reporting are newly infected. So, Panama keeps adding more restrictions, which are really only followed by the rule abiding people to begin with and the people that keep breaking the rules continue to do so. 

New additions since my last post:

1. Men and women cannot go out to the grocery store or pharmacies on the same day. Women are restricted to Monday, Wednesday and Friday for their allotted 1 hour (plus driving time of 30 minutes before and after their 1 hour time slot.) Men get Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for their 1 hour assigned time. No one goes out on Sunday.

2. Yesterday they decided that people might try and gather for Easter celebrations, so they have banned everyone from leaving their houses on Saturday and Sunday this week. (This only impacts the men that had 1 hour on Saturday, because Sunday was already banned on the previous addition.)

3. No music this weekend, that would imply you were celebrating. The translation on this one was not very clear....

4. Masks must be worn when outside of your house.

5. New penalties added to drivers caught outside of their home not during their designated time: Vehicle will be towed and driver's license will be suspended for 3 months, plus the regular penalties....

Not quite sure how much more strict they plan on getting, but I think we are the only country that is now a "Dry" country during this pandemic. Alcoholic sales are still banned.

The little things make me laugh
As we comb through the sites to see what new rules are being added each day, the homeschool jokes still make me laugh. Thankfully, my son's school is getting more organized and is getting a handle on the virtual schooling. Between Google classroom and video conferencing classes, he has some sort of organized education right now. Unlike Europe and North America, our school year had just began when this all started. I think he was only on week 3 or so of the new school year when classes were cancelled. I am not sure how this will change the school year for them in the long run, since most of the public schools do not have the resources for virtual school....guess we will find out later.

Fruit on the Farm
As our dry season is starting to wind down, we are seeing more and more fruit ripening. We have 1 mature mango tree that is producing hundreds of mangoes. I keep cutting them up and freezing them for later, we cannot eat that many at one time! We also have a couple of pineapples, bananas and mulberries that getting close. This will be the first year for the mulberries, so we do not expect a lot...maybe enough for 1 pie.....crossing my fingers. 

A Little Work
There is no coffee sales or coffee tours allowed right now. No income coming in, no stores to buy equipment open...not alot going on right now.  We did finally get an exemption to pick up Roger and Melvin to bring them to the farm without fear of penalties. The country does want all farms to continue growing their crops and maintain the farms in the area.

Melvin and Roger seemed excited this week to take a day off of confinement to get some exercise in and get out of the house for a short time. 

Rick, Melvin and Roger went through half of the field mulching all the debris on the ground. Next week they plan on finishing the other half. This becomes harder to do if we don't get it done before the rains come again. I am not sure if Roger and Melvin were sore, but Rick was worn out after the day of mulching. It had been 2 weeks without any physical work like that.

Egg Decorating
The days all seem to run together right now. Most of the time I am not aware of what day it actually is anymore. We decided to color our eggs a little early this year. We set up a video chat with family in Oregon and decorated eggs together. With access to some brown eggs, food dye and markers we spent some time catching up with family and making masterpieces. :)

Animals
Our dogs are taking this down time hard. They miss all of the activity that usually happens here and have taken new delights now in antagonizing a new dog on the other side of the fence at my neighbor's house. When they are not allowed to do that, they have been moping in the house. Before the quarantine, they would escort guests and volunteers on hikes, follow coffee tours around (getting in a few bonus pets along the way) and watch/supervise all the work being done.

The cat seems to not notice that anything is different. She still wants her 10 minutes of attention and that is it. She continues to go outside, roll in the dirt, hunt grasshoppers or lizards.

I think the lizards are getting smarter and avoiding the front of the house where the cat keeps watch. Now they seem to follow Rick. :)