Week 1: Panama City (posted by Wade)

Hello, friends and family.

Our plan for this blog is to do at least one post a week, with each member of the family rotating the posting duties each time. I'm up first.

We have begun our year abroad with three full days in Panama City, an ideal place to settle into the rhythms of daily life and prepare for our five weeks in Colombia.

Here are some highlights of our short stay in Panama City:

First, visiting the canal is fantastic. Eliza especially said that she enjoyed learning about the canal's engineering and reflecting on the wonders of global commerce. All three girls recommend the canal museum in Casco Viejo. The museum does a deep dive into the political tensions that resulted in the construction and maintenance of the canal.

Second, in my opinion Casco Viejo has touristy charm but a walk up Central Avenue during the day is much more interesting. On Central Avenue you get to see the bustling street life of Panama City, street vendors, schoolkids, indigenous women wearing traditional clothes, etc. This was my favorite part of riding the subway to and from our AirBnB each day.

Third, the Cinta Costera causeway is a great way to see Panama City's underrated but spectacular skyline.

Fourth, we have begun our routine of homeschooling. Megan is handling math-teaching duties, while I am teaching reading and writing via history lessons about each place that we visit.

See above for our first Math and History lessons. My plan is to begin each new country with a deep dive into the data: size (square miles), population, GDP/capita, human development index, the freedom index, the Gini coefficient, and homicide rates. We then compare the data to the country's with which we have more familiarity, namely the United States and Tanzania. The Morris girls seemed interested, but they may have been just humoring their dad.