Murals and Teeth - April 11, 2023
Hello from Panama! You might wonder what murals and teeth have in common, and the answer is only that they have both been taking my time and attention. Murals are prettier, so they will provide the artwork for today's post. My teeth are not worthy of even digital film for blog posts.
March Madness in my life started with flossing my teeth and having a chip pop out on my left back tooth that went deep enough to expose the root. That was week one - no time to stop and find a dentist, I delayed action by switching chew-action to the right side. In week two, while biting down on a piece of French bread, I broke a right side chewing tooth in half, but the two halves stayed together as long as I didn't chew, so I didn't chew; it only hurt if I put pressure on it, or let the two halves separate. In week three, I received a referral to a dentist whose office speaks English, and then a forward left-side tooth chipped badly enough to start shredding the inside of my lips. Bummer! Now I had front, back, middle, left, and right - full coverage pain and discomfort.
Meanwhile, Miguel had been hoping to spruce up the place by having a quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, painted on the "bridge" over the babbling brook that passes through our yard and under the street to the next property. The bridge is actually public property, but Miguel was undaunted. Jorge, the owner of our property, knows a mural painter, Javier, who has done a variety of things around the properties. Jorge said that if the mural is for the public's enjoyment, and is something of common beauty (ex: not politically divisive), the city would be pleased to have the beauty and not the expense. So, Miguel worked with Javier, who lives in Caldera, a nearby town that is closer to the volcano, to develop a design; quetzals are well known in Boquete, as are mountains - but any mountains should look local, and not Guatemalan (ex: Guatemalan volcanos are active, Volcan Baru is extinct, so no smoke or lava, but cell towers are okay).
Here are some of Javier's artistic credentials around the property - he paints in a variety of styles.
Dental Tuesday 1: So, back to my teeth. I was able to see the dentist the same day I called, and looking at the problem teeth I could point at, she extracted the broken one, rather surprised that I sat there nicely and didn't scream. I did ask if she could just glue it back together instead of extracting it, but she didn't speak English well enough to be sure it was a joke, so I kept my mouth open after that, without another peep. That piece of fresh, soft, French bread did an exceptional job - split the tooth right down the center, through the root, into two pieces, with only the filling at the top to change the balance of the halves. She offered me the two pieces, but I didn't feel that the tooth fairy would be impressed enough to up the ante. The procedure, including 4 digital xrays, 5 injections of anesthetic, and squeegeling it out from between my too-close-together teeth, took 25 minutes and cost $50. The gap is fillable with a prosthetic or an implant, but not for a month after the swelling goes down. So, still no chewing, no hot or cold, and nothing sharp or crunchy.
It took me until Saturday to wake up enough to realize what pains were going away and which were sticking around. Even at that, the missing tooth left a tender gap that didn't like invaders, hot, cold, or pointy things like flakes or crunch. Liquids at room temperature, then. Booooooooring!
Dental Tuesday 2: The left forward chipped tooth chewing up my inner lip had chipped on two sides around an old filling. Poking around under my direction, looking at some jaw pain under an old crown, the dentist found another old filling that had eroded, exposed the root beneath, and needed a root canal, but next door to my pain. Are you getting a theme of old dental work failing? Apparently, there is a rebellion in my mouth where a lot of work done in Hawai'i between 1999 and 2001 decided to go at once. I am blaming hormones - again; avoid them. So, in week 2, the dentist rebuilt the forward left tooth with porcelain - she called it a filling. Then she did a root canal on the second to the back tooth and rebuilt the surface with porcelain. That adventure required 4 more digital xrays, took 35 minutes, cost $60, and after the first 3 injections of anesthetic, I lost count. That woman is fast!
Once again, it was Saturday before I could figure out what aches and pains were relieved and what was sticking around; how much of the extraction gap had healed, and what I could handle for food - which was not much.
Quetzal Mural Sunday: Javier came over on Sunday morning, laid out his paints, and set to work. Ameth's friends had been in town on a job during the week, and the masonry workers had applied concrete to smooth the surface so that the painting would be easier. Javier thought for about 7 minutes and set to work with a blue base, added some clouds and mountain shapes, and then started outlining the quetzal and adding the green and red shaping.
It only took Javier three hours to have that quetzal in flight, the mountains mapped out, and some patterns from Guatemalan indigenous clothing art added to the sides to frame the work; the patterns in clothing are similar enough to Panama's indigenous art patterns that viewers would not be likely to notice, but Miguel would know (Guatemala is only 800 miles away).
Dental Tuesday 3: That left rear tooth that I over-flossed a chip down to the root needed taking care of - I still had nowhere to chew except for my biting teeth. So, back to the dentist I go. She gave that tooth a good build-up with a temporary "filling" because my mouth (and my tummy) had been over-traumatized in three weeks' time, and digging into another root canal was asking too much. Temp filling, $25. If just taking the root out of exposure will do the trick, come back in a month, and a permanent built-up filling will be done. If not, then another root canal will be required. Meantime, don't chew too much on the temporary filling because it isn't that hard a substance, so chew to the right side with the mushy gap and stick to soft foods. But, by May, the other aches and pains will settle down because the party's over, or they will find their place in the sun and we can take action - I still have dental work from 1999 - 2001 that is old and can cry foul. PLUS, the implant for the gap in my right side chewing line-up should be able to be filled by then, and I could, in theory, chew up a storm - even crunchy stuff!
Great dental news: The temporary filling seems to be doing the trick - that root didn't like the exposure. I was able to eat solid food on Good Friday - I thought it was a good Friday, anyway! It was salmon soft and luscious, with smooshy beans and rice. Just what the dentist ordered! Real food.
AND a month off!
Mural Sunday 2: Jorge (Landlord) felt that the public deserved a more accessible mural to enjoy (and the town council might not object to the quetzal if there was a more visible counterpart across the street), so Javier returned the following Sunday morning to paint again. The request this time was to include a toucan, and so he did. This beauty took him another three hours, and many people stopped to admire the work underway. Luly (landlord) and I cleaned the area of wayward weeds and rocks and trimmed the plants to fit in with the tableau.
For the weekend, the Murals were blessed by rainbows and lots of passersby who stopped to admire the new public art and take photos. Miguel posted the rainbow photo below on the local Facebook group, and today is the Boquete Founder's Day, so it is getting a lot of attention.
The world is a bright and rainbow-y place; the murals are glorious and we can see them both from our front door. I am getting back into the swing of things. We are in the dry days toward the end of summer, and we're told to expect rainy afternoons by May. Hopefully, the dental work of May will be less than March's dental adventure, and my tummy will be happier; my goal is to stay in touch better. Meanwhile, the murals make us happy, and the neighborhood is happy, too, if the honks are any indication! Even the birds seem pleased.
Permanent Residency: Wednesday, we have an appointment to complete our permanent residency process. We get up early, go to David to our Lawyer's office and they will take us to the Immigration office for the formal proceedings. Very exciting, and right on schedule for what we were told. Next step is to get a
cedula, which is like a national ID, and then our driver's licenses, and buy a car. One step at a time. Once we get a car, we can get out and see parts of Panama that we have been hearing about, and get a better feel for all the aspects of our new home.
Invitation: If you want an excuse to visit Panama, consider this your invitation. You can stay with us and spend your money on tours, or we have great hotels to recommend in both Panama City and Boquete (the most expensive in Boquete is across the street at $120 a night). Remember that Boquete town is only a mile long, so you are never far away.
Come on down! It is the best of Seattle Springtime every day, and you won't believe the coffee - or the rainbows!
MaryBea y Miguel
How to find us:
Replies to blog postings via email: If you hit "reply" to this email and get a "no reply" address, use the x to knock it out, type in MaryBeaGallagher@gmail.com, and I will get your response. Quirky.
Email: Use our Gmail accounts for email - for some reason, my Comcast/Xfinity doesn't work consistently in Central America.
WhatsApp is the best route for texts and voice calls, but it is uncertain for video calls. We are officially in the Outback of Panama now, in a valley with mountains and extinct volcanos around, and the added interference of lightning and thunderstorms in the afternoons, so there are periods where transmissions will not get through. Find WhatsApp for your phone or computer at your favorite App Store.
Blog Post Subscription:
- Current: Everyone receiving this as an initial mailing was subscribed by me - so you are already signed up.
- Add: If anyone wants to get on the list for the future, you can send me their name and favored email address, and I will add them, or they can sign up through Subscribe buttons on this page: https://seattletopanama.digitalpress.blog/page/2/?ref=Seattle+to+Panama-newsletter
- Remove or change email address: Let me know if you want to be taken OFF the list or if you prefer I use a different email address.
- Otherwise: you will get all future posts as you have received this.
Past Blog Posts: Go to this site and poke around to find past posts, some as old as January 2022. https://seattletopanama.digitalpress.blog/page/2/