Short Stories - Oct. 25, 2022 - Boquete Panama
I am short.
Let me count the ways:
- Stair-stepping: Panama doesn't have the same, or perhaps not as strict, standards for things like counter height and stair step height. I high-step up the stairs as though a member of La Reina's personal guard, and I descend as though La Reina's coronation will be at the base of the stairs, carefully, regally, to ensure the Valentino dress is adequately captured by the press corp. I really noticed the increased stair height at the Hotel El Oasis, with those 14 steps to the bedroom loft - I felt I should land both feet before braving the next step if I had anything in my hands. In our new house, the stair height is also higher than I am used to in the USA, but at the landings, it is more like 6 inches - a surprise after the 8-8.75 inch heights of the other steps. The stairs are beautiful, though, and worth taking your time to appreciate!
2. Kitchen counters: When cooking or doing the dishes, I feel like my shoulders are elevated to ear height. The undersides of my sleeves and my breasts have mopped the countertops before I have a chance to wipe the tiles with a sponge; I always leave the kitchen soggy (I am soggy, the kitchen is quite dry), and I really need to get long-sleeved aprons only for kitchen wear. I cannot reach the second shelf of upper cupboards - luckily, this kitchen has only two upper cabinets, and the amplest storage space is below the tall counters. My goal is to avoid step stools, as I prefer not to have things I am sure to trip over or fall off sitting around the house. We'll see how that goes! Miguel is on primary kitchen duty as he has a full 6 inches on my 5-foot height. Silver linings!
3. Closet Space: In the armoirs used as bedroom closets, there are upper and lower hanging bars - the lower are about armpit height and great for shirts. The upper bars are higher than I can reach, though I can touch them on tiptoe, extending my arm, with the end of a clothes hanger - just not the hanging hook of that clothes hanger, so I cannot hang anything on the upper rod. I find this amusing; it is not as though my height is unusual in Panama. The obvious solution to this is hanging cubbies, probably shipped from the USA, as I cannot find them here - but it makes me curious what others are doing, as these ceiling-height, thin armoirs are common. And since the humidity makes dressers and drawers impractical for keeping folded clothes long term, hanging clothes and shallow shelves are the standard answers.
4. Tile floors need mopping. Standard mops are too ungainly for me. I had to buy a mop with a telescoping handle because I am short, and the traditional mop was managing me rather than me managing the mop. With tile floors, dirt is way more noticeable than I expected. The obvious answer is to use dark tile (done!) and then make lots of rules: sweep a lot; don't let outdoor shoes in the house; clean the sticky places as soon as you find them, and get a pair of indoor, scrubbable Crocs or Birkenstocks, so your bare feet or socks don't show the dirt you pick up. The reality is that you still have to mop the floor often, so get a mop that is easy to manage and doesn't manage you, AND get a mop bucket and wringer that is easy to move around, fill, and empty, then get another height-appropriate mop and bucket for the upstairs.
5. Breakfast Bar and Bar Stools: I have always avoided high stools and chairs because they make me feel like a four-year-old that cannot touch the floor. Here, we have four tall chairs at an extra-tall breakfast bar counter, and for me, getting down from them is risky business that reminds me of splinters in my butt while sliding down the dark basement stairs in Ballard as a kid. I know I will not slide down the basement stairs here, and metal chairs are unlikely to give me splinters, but the fear feeling is the same. What did we do to resolve this scary short story? We have 5-gallon containers of bottled water delivered on Fridays, but putting them on the countertop meant I would be finding a stool to stand on to get water from the spout, so I pull one up to the bar on a chair, and I can reach the tap there! Another stool is the parking place for Miguel's favorite leather backpack, which accompanies us on walks to town, and if it rains, the pack needs a good drying out on a wrought-iron chair back. The other two stools act as afternoon drying racks for Miguel's workout belt and towel since the clothesline is not a good place in the afternoon rains. Ta-da! The scary story turned into a functional pass-through with easy clean-up should La Reina descend!
6. Clothes Lines: My high-heel muscles might get activated, and I might gain shoulder strength from hanging our clothes on the line because I am not tall enough to pin the clothes up easily. Indeed, my tippy-toe balancing on the grass will pay big dividends beyond the high-heel-wearing possibilities. Such a stretch! Do these count as yoga stretches or pilates?
All this in a country where I am not considered especially short!
Honohono Flower: A final note to show that I am not the only short story in Boquete:
This tiny ground cover is called a climbing dayflower or spreading dayflower; in Hawai'i, it is called the Honohono flower. Here it is considered a weed; a perennial in the tropics, it grows whether you want it to or not, and it will grow in partial sun, full sun, shade, in loam, clay, sandy soil, moderately or slightly acidic soil, and it is exceedingly hardy with resistance to almost all pests and diseases. The flower is 1/4 to 1/2 inches in diameter, and I watch for its beautiful shade of blue peaking out from the verdant green by the side of the road when I am walking because they are so close to the ground.
A beautiful Honohono short story to end the day!
Thank you for the lovely time!
MaryBea y Miguel
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