More people are killed by falling coconuts than by lightning.
Currently I watch where I walk for centipedes, tarantulas, midges, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rocks, roots, x-back snakes and never drying potholes. Now I have to look up too?
For any ‘doubting thomas’ who envisioned this tropical life as a vacation assignment, should live here for even a day. You can stop and make a pb&j sandwich for Carson, but if you look a way the ants will carry it off. You have a well but it needs to be pumped for water. They just got a shower head installed by their landlord, but previously it was ladled water from a bucket. Sewage is septic but some of that gets into the riverlets and then into the ocean. All trash is fair game for critters and must be dealt with immediately.
Electricity is fickle but we do have air conditioning units in the 2 bedrooms. Washing is a challenge as the local laundermat has two machines in the open under a tin roof and today the dryers weren’t working. No internet but that’s a mixed blessing. There is a beautiful ocean to look at with stifling heat. So it takes a lot of planning to bring your food in from afar and store it away from bugs and mold, cook and clean up immediately, get your clothes laundered, not track in muck, check for bugs, stay cool, raise two kids, and now plan and carry out your ministry here in Panama to a populace that waxes and wanes with the tourist season and are indifferent because they need that much energy each day just to live. It’s not my version of Paradise.
post script: The other morning Jonathan was disgusted to find a colony of ants in his raisin bran but food is precious. So he threw his bowl full in a hot skillet to kill them off and proceeded to eat his toasted cereal and the added protein. yum
Both our parents took cruises through the Panama Canal when they retired and had saved up. It was and is still high on the list of must-sees in the world. 
When my two boys were little, we frequented Lake Avenue Park in Huntington Beach. One particular afternoon when Steve had them both giggling and thoroughly enjoying themselves, an elderly man came up and approached us. He took just a moment and said with all sincerity(and maybe a little sadness in his eyes): “Treasure these moments, for they go by all too quickly Before you know, they will be all grown up”, and with that we watched him smile and travel on. It resonated with us both and many times when we have time for the pure abandonment of “play,” we reflect on that small incident.
And Steve plays tag until Carson falls on the ground with laughter (same with Abby and Daniel back at home). 
Steve and I left home on Oct.11, 2013 to head out again to Orlando (for work) and Daytona ( to see my dad) and then to Panama to await the birth of our grandaughter, Soleil Naomi Wilt. The princess took her sweet time as she was 9 days late, but appeared on the scene at 20″ and 8lbs 12 oz. We are watching big brother, Carson, while mom and dad have a couple days at the hospital to rest up for real life.
That comes after we spend 10 days in a missionary compound where it is busy and we have been sequestered (my meaning=holed up) in two bedrooms. Our bedroom is about 8′ x 12′ with 4 bunk beds lining the walls with just enuff space to walk down the middle. Mind you, that and a bathroom is it! We make our meals in the communal kitchen and retreat to the bedroom. The bunks do not allow for sitting without hitting ones head. It feels like you’re getting in a drawer to go to sleep. But it’s clean and free and it is what it is.