Immigration Day
We left at 6:15 AM for our 9 AM appointment. What should have been a 90 minute drive took just slightly longer…
We passed our destination at 7:55 and continued on toward PriceSmart (Panama’s Costco) because there’s no parking at immigration.
Unfortunately, we passed PriceSmart inadvertently and a series of u-turns cost us 15 minutes. When we finally got there, a bicycle Security Guard at PriceSmart wouldn’t let us park and walk out of the lot — even though PriceSmart isn’t open yet and we actually plan to do some shopping there when we’re done here. We had to go park at a nearby bank that has paid parking. Another 15 minutes lost.
We started walking toward the immigration office, maybe a half mile away, but Krista’s having a bad pain day so we flagged down a cab (first cab ride in Panama!) and FINALLY made it to the immigration office with only 10 minutes to spare.
That tall, thin guy in the background with the burgundy shirt and a vest is our attorney, Will. (Actually, his wife is the attorney and he’s basically her paralegal who does all the work on immigration cases.)
Being here, foreigners in a strange country, asking them to accept us and let us live here is a very odd experience. Neither of us, ever in our lives, expected to have this experience. It’s humbling and makes us both glad that we’ve always shown compassion for immigrants to the U.S.