Local Businesses of Las Tablas

Hello Family and Friends!

We are Radu Palincas and Alma Insignares, and we are your Líder del Día for today! Our theme was both local and global businesses, and how they interact and compare to the US. To start off our day, we spent our time at La Paulina, a bakery local to Las Tablas! Anna, the owner of the small business, showed us around her establishment and shared some of her most popular dishes. These included Pan Frances (French bread), Pan de Huevo (a more sugary bread), “Más-me-llena” (“it fills me more”, a traditional Panamanian bread pudding dessert), Roscetti (a crispy bread chip in the shape of a circle), and finally a complimentary ice cream or milkshake.

Raul, one of the Glimpsers on our trip, shared that visiting the bakery was one of his favorite experiences in Las Tablas so far. He opened up about how he recently lost his uncle, who worked in a bakery, and that seeing the process and smelling the kitchen brought back happy memories. It surprised him that bread is made the same way all around the world, even from Chicago to Panama! I, myself (Alma), am the daughter of a small business owner, and seeing how the role differs by country was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Here, in Las Tablas, the small businesses all work together to lift each other up. For example, La Paulina provides their bread to restaurants nearby, and in return, they receive loyal customers who continue to spend their money at said bakery. Seeing how these businesses all work together, compared to the competitive market of the United States allowed me to reestablish the idea of the importance of teamwork and how working together will make a difference.

After we finished our tour at La Paulina we then split up into two main groups one for sewing, and one that had both gardening and painting. Alma led the sewing people and I (Radu) led the painting and gardening group. On our run for materials, we stopped by several hardware stores in order to get what we needed to start our CAP project tomorrow. The original plan was to go to a couple of hardware stores in order to get materials for gardening and then stop by the paint store in order to get the materials that the paint group needed in order to create a mural. Also being part of the painting group, I (Radu) suggested looking around just in case they had any paint at the first store, it turned out that they did have paint and it was significantly cheaper than the prices we got from the paint store. Whilst we got paint for our mural the gardening group got some shovels. After that first hardware store, we went to another hardware store in order to see if they had more materials that we could use. The gardening group didn’t end up getting much but the painting group found some paint brushes and tarps. Afterward, we went to the paint store in order to buy the remaining paint and materials we needed. After all this shopping the painting group was close to the budget and the gardening group hadn´t spent too much. This concluded the first round of material purchasing. Alma then went on to interview Maylin who was managing the funds for the paint group and Robbie who managed the funds for the gardening group. Maylin mentioned that trying to budget and keep the painting group within the agreed-upon sum was stressful, whilst Robby mentioned that it was frustrating not being able to get the necessary materials. We then went back to the hotel in order to drop off our supplies. Alma also interviewed Layla who was part of the sewing group, she mentioned that they were able to buy all the fabric and needles that they needed in order to create 10 bedsheets and later on 5. She also mentioned that she is very excited to be helping out the kids. Overall all of the groups seem to be excited to partake in such a wonderful community action project at Nutre Hogar. We then took some time in order to refill our water and go to the bathroom. The painting group had gotten all the necessary materials in order to start but the gardening group still needed some stuff in order to be prepared. We took some of the people from the gardening group out again in order to get the remaining stuff. The gardening group was able to get most of the things they needed but Robbie mentioned that they weren’t able to find a grass mower so they will have to improvise for tomorrow. We also learned afterwards that tomorrow was going to be very rainy so most of the gardening group was less excited. After all these adventures we came back to the hotel to resume the regular daily activities. Overall I think being Líder del Día was stressful for both me (Radu) and probably Alma too, In the end, I did find it to be somewhat interesting as I had to project a more assertive personality than I usually do.

Today, we had yet another new and fun experience… LAUNDRY! Finally, the Glimpsers are able to have some clean clothes. When talking to Ella, she shared that she was surprised by the fact that the cost of the laundry was based on a guesstimate. Stefan was charged 7, while Stanaia was only charged 4! Radu and I (Alma) each paid 5. Ella also mentioned how expensive the service had been and how she would not be willing to spend more than 30$ on laundry a month. She talked about the inconvenience of the act, mainly attributed to the fact it was a 5-minute walk to the laundromat. But, putting all that aside, she is looking forward to her clean clothes!

Ella also mentioned another key part of today… free time! She read 200 pages of her book between lunch and dinner, stating that it was a chance to mentally recharge before Day 1 of our Community Action Project. We ended our day quite mellow, with a self-reflection about how these businesses in Las Tablas compare to those of Chicago, then another nutritious dinner provided by Piamonte, and finally some card games (concluding a heated tournament of Spades – shoutout to Nyel and Xavier for bringing the W home!).