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Bob G

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    Bob Gregory
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    Live and/or work in Chiriqui
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    In Chiriqui

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  1. Some of the most popular El Matador products "They kill what needs killing." El Matador Mold Killer and Preventer -- for leather coats, shoes, caps, backs of rugs and carpets, backs of furniture, draperies, backs and bottoms of upholstered furniture, etc. One treatment, and mold does not return. Available in spray bottles (16 oz, and 24 oz, depending on availability) $7 and $10 NOTE: I now sell the 24 oz size in 32 ounce bottles because I can no longer get 24 ounce bottles. If you want a full 32 ounce bottle, the price is $13. El Matador Colloidal Silver, 10-15 PPM -- For internal or external use. Available in eight ounce bottles ($15), sixteen ounce bottles ($24) and quart bottles ($45) The USFDA will not allow medical claims about colloidal silver because it is untested, but they won't test it because it can't be patented. Go figure. Meanwhile, we know that it kills over 600 microorganisms---bacteria, viruses and fungi. Use for colds, flu, gastroenteritis (stomach flu), cuts, scrapes, fungal infections, etc. Two teaspoons daily will strengthen the immune system and prevent many infections. Useful for pets. El Matador Colloidal Silver, 40 - 60 PPM -- For external use and for treating book spines and selected other materials to kill and prevent mold and mildew. Available in eight ounce bottles ($20) and quart bottles ($60) or for delivery into your clean, suitable container. Sometimes this is a special order item. El Matador Ouch-Aid Colloidal Silver Gel --- Made with 40-60 PPM colloidal silver. For topical use on cuts, scrapes, insect bites and particularly burns, for which it is miraculous. Useful for pet cuts, scrapes, skin infections, etc. Available in 90 ml jars. ($10) El Matador Boron Supplement --- Prevents and treats arthritis and osteoporosis. Balances hormones for both men and women. Treats intestinal candida (yeast) infections. Treats pet yeast infections which are marked by skin eruptions and listless behavior. Quart bottle lasts two months for maintenance, one month for treatment. ($12) El Matador Pup Fresh --- Don't wash your dog too often. It's bad for the skin. Between baths, use El Matador Pup Fresh to keep a nice, pleasant odor and to repel ticks and fleas. NOTE: Not for cats. 24 ounce spray bottle (Lasts a long time) ($8) Nitenpyram Capsules --- Your dog or cat swallows a capsule, and fleas are dying within 30 minutes. FDA-approved. From vets or online, these cost $2 to $3 for each capsule. Available from El Matador for only $1 each. Most people buy ten or more, but it's your call. (These are for large animals. Snip in half for smaller dogs or for cats.) El Matador Ozone Treatment Service --- Kills mold, mold odors, cooking odors, cigarette smoke odors, etc. in your house, apartment or car. High output ozone generator for shock treatment. Typically three to six hours for treating residences, one to two hours for vehicles. Machine rents for $20 for 24 hours, during which you have time for house, car, casita, bodega, etc. Refundable $50 security deposit CONTACT Bob Gregory at usn11958@gmail.com for more information. Use a subject line of “El Matador.” I’ll send you a complete list of these and other products, plus guide sheets and manuals for using El Matador products. You may send me an email with questions or orders for products. Products can be picked up at my house in Alto Boquete, or I can deliver them on Tuesdays at the BCP Market. I usually have a selection of products in my car at the market on Tuesdays. Watch for me in my white tee shirt with the red El Matador logo. Bob Gregory E-mail: usn11958@gmail.com
  2. El Matador’s Mold and Odor Killer Service The name, El Matador means “the killer.” Every El Matador product is designed to kill something. It may be germs, mold, odors, arthritis, osteoporosis, candida infections, rust or other things. If you would like a list of El Matador products and some information, send an email to usn11958@gmail.com with the subject ”El Matador” This announcement is about a service to kill something and not about a product. Probably all of us have had the experience of noticing musty, moldy odors in the bathrooms, bedrooms, closets, storerooms, cabinets or other areas of our homes. Some homes and cars also have cigarette smoke odors, and others have dog or cat odors or strong kitchen odors. For any of these, and more, the answer is using El Matador Mold and Odor Killer Service. For preventing or killing mold on specific articles of clothing, shoes, furniture, area rugs, draperies, etc., it’s hard to beat El Matador Mold Killer in spray bottles. But for killing mold and its odors in whole rooms or whole houses, you need ozone that can permeate all the nooks and crannies of the house. There are some very nice (and rather expensive) ozone air freshening machines that can be kept in your home, running 24 hours per day. Back in the US I had one. But here we tend to leave windows and doors open most of the time, which allows the ozone to drift out of the house and not do its job. Also, you generally need a higher concentration of ozone to kill off mold infections. El Matador is offering for rent a commercial-grade ozone generator. It produces a lot of ozone to produce a “shock treatment” in your room, home or car. This is not the type of machine that you can just leave running in your home all the time. You need to place it in a central part of the area you wish to treat, open all closets, cabinets, drawers and cubby holes, close all the windows and outside doors, turn on ceiling fans or circulating fans and go away while the ozone is permeating your home. The time for mold treatment depends on the total area. It can also depend on the degree of mold growth you need to deal with. A rule of thumb is about thirty minutes to an hour for every 200 square feet or 20 square meters. The time for clearing cigarette smoke odors and other odors can usually be shorter, while heavier mold problems may take longer. Smaller cars need around one hour of treatment, while station wagons and SUV’s need around two hours. The ozone machine has a three-hour timer and a continuous “ON” switch. If you plan to go away while your home is treated for a number of hours, I can loan a timer for longer operation at no extra cost. After treatment, you need to allow thirty to forty minutes to air out the space. The Ozone is not dangerous, but breathing it at concentrated levels may irritate your nose or throat. Pets and house plants should be removed during treatment. The rental rate for the machine is $20.00 for 24 hours or fraction thereof. This allows plenty of time for a large house, plus a casita and a car or two. There is no extra charge if you need to borrow a timer. Both use normal 120 volt household electricity. There is a $50.00 refundable deposit, so payment at pickup is $70.00. If you find that you need to keep the machine for more than 24 hours, you can call me to say you need the extra time, and I can deduct the fee for the extra day from the deposit. The deposit or remaining balance is refunded at the time the machine is returned undamaged. . You may reserve the machine by calling me at 6745-2828 or, preferably, sending an email to usn11958@gmail.com. It can be picked up by arrangement at my house in Alto Boquete or on Tuesday mornings at the Tuesday Market with return to my house. Kill your odor problems with El Matador. Bob Gregory, the El Matador dude
  3. FINAL SHOT AT PICKING UP MED PLAN CARDS AT THE TUESDAY MARKET Again this Tuesday (February 6) I'll be at the market with Hospital Cooperativo Medical Discount Plan cards to deliver to people who recently renewed or enrolled in the plan. This will be the last distribution. Cards not picked up by that date (except some I am holding for people out of the country) will be left at the medical plan office in Hospital Cooperativo, where they can be picked up on any weekday during office hours. I'll be walking around at the Market with a sign around my neck that says "MED PLAN CARDS." IF YOU RENEWED YOUR PLAN, YOUR WALLET CARD IS STILL GOOD, BUT YOU WILL RECEIVE A NEW PAYMENT CARD THAT SHOWS YOU HAVE PAID FOR ANOTHER YEAR. I'll attend the meeting at 10:30 and make an announcement there about the cards. Most of the time before and after the meeting I'll try to hang out near the stairway to the parking lot. Please try to see me and pick up your cards. You need them, and I don't! Bob Gregory P.S. If yours is a new enrollment and not a renewal, it will be a good idea to make an initial appointment with a doctor of internal medicine to get acquainted, provide your medical history and establish a file. This way if you need urgent or emergency care later, there will already be some information on file. P.P.S. All future enrollments in the Hospital Cooperativo discount medical plan must be made at the hospital in the administrative office of the plan. In the near future a notice will be published with all details, along with directions to the hospital.
  4. I was contacted by Rodny Moreno regarding how to contact him. The number originally included in the news item above has been changed. Rodny now prefers that calls to him be on his personal phone. The Rodny Direct Helpline number will be provided after your enrollment is completed. Please read the entire notice again. Changed information is highlighted in yellow. The previous message has been removed. Bob =========================. If you are one of the 29 people who enrolled in the Hospital Cooperativo Medical Discount Plan in July or in October 2017, you paid for the plan through December 2018. You also made a donation to Alto al Crimen for the AAC bilingual emergency Hotline. The AAC Hotline service was discontinued at the end of December 2017, but Alto al Crimen has arranged for you to receive service from Rodny Direct (another hotline service) for the full year of 2018 for no charge. To enroll with Rodny Direct, you will need to go to the website http://www.rodnydirect.com/ and enroll in the service. If you need to contact Rodny with questions, you may call him at 6573-0141. After you have enrolled on the Rodny Direct web site you will be provided the Helpline number to used when calling for assistance. Rodny Moreno has been provided a list of all the people qualified for this year of service with his Emergency Helpline Service and will be able to verify that you are not subject to charge for the service. You will be covered for the full service, including police, fire and medical emergency calls, along with translation service for police stops and other occasions. Your visiting guests may also use the service while they're here. If you have a medical emergency and need to call for an ambulance, be sure to remind Rodny that you are a member of the Hospital Cooperativo medical plan. Thank you and all the generous donors who have contributed to Fundacion Alto al Crimen over the past years. And thanks to Rodny who worked for Alto al Crimen for about six years and to Franc Lugo who was our AAC Hotline operator for the past two plus years.
  5. Security at the old prison was tight. Both male and female visitors were patted down by guards of the same sex and had to remove their shoes for inspection. No cell phones,, guns, knives, cameras, etc. were allowed. Even key rings were checked for sharp items. All food and comfort items were inspected, including opening items like new, sealed jars of peanut butter and probing to the bottom of the jar with a fork. No fruits or canned items capable of being used to make alcohol were permitted. Yet there was home brew alcohol and a lot of cell phones Cell phones are smuggled in by crooked guards, and that could be how the firearms got in, though I doubt that there were many. There was a flourishing economy involving, toilet paper, personal care items, cell phones, cell phone chargers, etc. Wild Bill is one of the high rollers. I don't know, but it seems likely that the prison will still use a contractor for food service, and low bidders don't tend to concern themselves a lot with either quality or quantity
  6. I also meant to add some other comments and information. The new prison facility sounds like it will be a great improvement in many ways. The old one was just one major violation of human rights. I know of one cell there with dimensions of 22 feet by 22 feet which, until the tranfers began, held 57 prisoners who had no opportunity even to exit the cell for walking except possibly once per week if a visitor came. There was one toilet and one shower. By the way, the news stories said that 300 prisoners had been transferred at the time of the fire and 200 remained. However, the actual number of prisoners in the old prison was between 1,100 and 1,200.
  7. Keith: Your "too bad" comment about family complaints about the distance and cost involved for visiting the new prison is uninformed. Every week, family members cumulatively deliver hundreds of pounds of food, toothpaste, toilet tissue, clothing and other items not provided to prisoners by the prison. The quality and quantity of food provided by the company with the food service contract are abysmal. Without supplementation from things brought by friends or family members, prisoners are left in really bad circumstances.
  8. AAC/HOSPITAL COOPERATIVO MEDICAL DISCOUNT PLAN ONE DAY ENROLLMENT OPPORTUNITY Boquete Hospice and Health is hosting the Boquete Health Fair on Sunday, October 22, and Alto al Crimen is pleased to have been asked to participate. We want to be able to give you information, but even better is the fact that we have decided to open enrollment for the Alto al Crimen / Hospital Cooperativo discount medical plan for this Sunday ONLY. What would make better sense for a Health Fair? The next scheduled open enrollment season will be from mid-December to mid-January. For those not familiar with the plan, Hospital Cooperativo in David offers a membership medical discount plan with discounts ranging from 20% to 50% on hospital procedures, hospital rooms, pharmacy, medical doctors’ fees, other health professionals’ fees and emergency room fees. All of the discounts are greater than the Panamanian law requires for jubilados, and they all apply to any members, whether or not eligible for the jubilado discount. A full description of the plan will be available at the Alto al Crimen table at the Health Fair in the Arco Iris building in the Boquete fairgrounds (feria). We will also have English translations of the contract available for review and maps showing the location of the hospital. Cost for the plan is $150 per year for the first member of a household and $125 per year for others in the same household. However, enrollments this Sunday will be for 14 months so that memberships will be up for renewal in January 2019. Fees will be $175 for first member and $150 for other members in the same household. Payments may be made by cash, local checks or US checks. ID card issuance will be delayed about three to four weeks for US checks. The fees include cost of the plan and a modest donation the Alto al Crimen, allowing you to register for the AAC Bilingual Emergency Hotline. There is a separate contract for each person enrolled, and each requires a copy of the person’s cedula (preferred) or residency card or passport. Please bring copies with you, and, if possible, also bring exact change if you will be paying cash. We’ll try to have some limited change, and if necessary will be able to do photo scans of identification, but things will go faster and smoother if you come prepared. If you missed signing up for good medical care for very low prices back in January or July, this will be your chance to become a member without waiting longer. ‘See you at the Health Fair!
  9. I have about twenty medical plan cards remaining to be delivered. I'll be at the BCP Market tomorrow (Tuesday, February 7) morning wearing my red tee shirt and hoping you will look for me and pick up your cards. (Remember, you need your card more than I do!) I'll bring a chair and try to find a place to park and post a sign that says "MED PLAN CARDS." Last week I was near the Hospice and Health blood pressure table under the white tent. Put the wallet size card in your wallet and keep the payment card in your home with your passport and other such papers. You won't need it until renewal time. Doctors, the pharmacy and other places at the hospital where charges are incurred will have a list of all AAC-related members who have paid by the year so that you can receive your discounts. The Boquete expat community has made a welcome impact on Hospital Cooperativo. We have put nearly $11,000 into their plan, and, in return, we are set to receive nice discounts on our medical services there. To be off to a good start, it would be a good idea to make an appointment with a doctor of internal medicine for a "get acquainted" visit and maybe put some of your medical records and medicine information in your file. Then, when you have a medical problem you won't be looking for a doctor for the first time. I have received some inquiries from people who procrastinated about signing up or who were away in the US when the open enrollment season ended. We are working to have a volunteer who will manage another open enrollment period around mid-year. Details have not been worked out, but we will probably pro-rate half a year and add to the next full year, which would be $225 for 18 months ($187.50 for additional members of the same household). The idea is to minimize the administrative load by having the maximum number of renewals due in December-January every year. If for some reason you do not pick up your card(s) this week, Please contact me to arrange come to my house or meet me somewhere mutually convenient. My phone number is 6745-2828 (WhatsApp works). My email address is rhgusn@yandex.com Bob Gregory
  10. In the upper Volcancito area around three years ago there was a rash of burglaries and at least one home invasion (a semi-inside job on which if did a follow-up for Alto al Crimen). A home owner in the area saw two men poking around a neighbor's house and called the police. they happened to be in the area because of the other incidents. When they arrived they captured one man and gave chase on foot after the other one. He ran to the edge of a canyon, lost his footing and fell. He was impaled on a tree and killed. I do not definitely know that those two men were the same ones who robbed gringos, but there was a pretty good likelihood. Statistics and inferences are sometimes the only way to analyze some things. Does it seem logical to assume that there are over 1,200 people in the David prison and that NONE of them committed a crime against a gringo? Is anyone willing to believe that the police just selectively don't bother to solve crimes involving gringos? That would be the other available theory. And does anyone think for a minute that police here or most places are politically correct enough to omit racial features or skin color in their bulletins? Our gardener is a nice man I respect him. We dine at the table together and have conversations. He's a Ngobe and proud of it. He looks like a Ngobe Sometimes, when I tell other people about him,, I say that he's a Ngobe or Indian. Even in 2017 there is nothing wrong with that. It is the truth. The tenant I mentioned was Black. He rented four different places from me over the years because he knew that I was fair and not racially prejudiced. He was a Vietnam vet who still had a bullet in him that had never been removed. I knew the various kinds of work he did He was a lot of things.. And every day of his life, along with a lot of other characteristics, he was Black. Here, we go to "Chino stores". The Chinos are Panamanians, along with Hispanics, Whites, Indigenous peoples, and Blacks. The Chinos are generally smart and hard-working. But the local people and many gringos call them the Chinos. Why? It's not derogatory. It's because they ARE It is an aid to description and communication, and there is nothing wrong about acknowledging it.
  11. I can provide some inferential evidence. The prison at the end of Calle F Sur has over 1,200 prisoners, all of whom must have been jailed for something. Since a high percentage of crimes in Chiriqui are property crimes, it would be logical to assume that a large portion of those prisoners were convicted of (or are awaiting trial for) property crimes and that some proportional share of them would be for crimes against gringos. The population of the area is possibly close to 200,000, and gringos probably number under 5,000. Moreover, as much as gringos are sensitive to crimes against gringos, the numbers of those crimes are probably disproportionately small compared with those against the majority population.. For another look at the situation, I can say that my experience with property crimes and their being solved in the US is not a lot difference than the experiences people have here.. I owned a good bit of rental property in Nashville, Tennessee, a city with a large and fairly well organized police department. I managed several other units for a good friend. In over thirty years there were quite a few burglaries in the units, more in lower income areas, but "bastante" in all of them. In all of that time, not one burglar was caught by the police for those crimes. In one case, we knew who had done a B&E crime on a Sunday evening (but the police were not interested in knowing). My tenant and his brother knew approximately where the guy lived, went there the next day and announced an offer of $15 for information that allowed them to find him. About 10:00 PM on Monday I received a call, saying, "We got him. What do you want us to do with him?" They brought him to my house. He was quivering because those two Black guys had scared him senseless, though they had not harmed him. I had him empty his pockets. He had a public defender's business card and also the card of a parole officer. He said he could get my stuff back, but it was apparent that the money someone had paid him for that stuff haf already been sniffed up his nose. I called the police and asked that he be arrested, and the cop was reluctant. He told the cop that he could gt my stuff back, and the cop believed him! I insisted on his arrest, and the cop took him in. I went to night court and swore out a warrant. The cop testified against him since his offer to retrieve my stuff was a confession, and he went to the slammer for three years when his parole was revoked And THAT was the only burglar I know of in thirty years who was caught and convicted of a property crime on my property or that of my friend. So when I hear of the low apprehension and conviction rates here, I have a way of putting them into perspective. *******
  12. Alto al Crimen and Hospital Cooperativo Mark Partnership in Medical Discount Plan Tom Counter, vice president and acting treasurer of Alto al Crimen presents a check for more than $6,000 to Dr. Luis Wong, Director of Hospital Cooperativo. On January 5, 2017 Alto al Crimen delivered to Hospital Cooperativo the first batch of contracts from local expats who have joined the Plan Solidario medical discount plan offered by the hospital. Under the Alto al Crimen implementation of the plan, residents join and make a single payment for one year, saving them and the hospital the inconvenience of monthly payments. Each member will be issued a wallet identification card for the plan (carnet). When presented, the card entitles the member to a range of discounts from 25% to 50% for various medical services, materials and prescription medicines. Hospital Cooperativo is unique in all of Panama and has been providing low-cost cooperative medical care in David for about thirty years. AAC is pleased to be able to facilitate memberships in a good plan in partnership with this fine member of the medical community. An open season for enrollment in the plan will continue until January 17 when final enrollments will be available after the Alto al Crimen Tuesday Meeting report to the community at BCP.
  13. Several people have requested a list of doctors and licensed professionals at Hospital Cooperativo in David. This is the hospital whose low-cost medical discount plan is being made available on an annual basis by Alto al Crimen. A description of the plan and an English translation of the contract may be found in an Alto al Crimen post above in this topic thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DOCTORS AND LICENSED PROFESSIONALS AFFILIATED WITH HOSPITAL COOPERATIVO CARDIOLOGY Dr. Jose Rangel SURGERY Dr. Jose Isabel Gonzalez DERMATOLOGY Dr. Abel Espin Dra. Zulay Saldana PHYSICAL MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION Dr. Eric Cabrera PHYSICAL THERAPY Lic. Fabian Martinez GYNECOLOGY Dr. Manual Heredia Dr. Marcos Achurra Dra. Ana Lio Becerra INTERNAL MEDICINE Dr. Caesar De Gracia Dr. Amilcar Hurtado Dr. Carlos Shellhorm Dr. Ruben Castillo NUTRITIONIST Licda. Lilia Franco ORTHOPEDIST Dr. Esteban Munoz OTOLARYNGOLOGIST Dra. Alma Pedroza PEDIATRICIAN Dr. Antonio Jones Dr. Manuel Thomas PSYCHOLOGIST Lic. Lourdes Serrano Lic. Fatima Pitti Lic. Luis Vallester Lic. Yarmein Flauzil Lic. Eanny Nunex REUMATOLOGIST Dr. Cesar Fraize UROLOGIST Dr. Reinaldo Ross Dra. O'brien Calls may be made to Hospital Cooperativo at 775-6666. The hospital operator may refer you to another number. Prices are lower than at other hospitals, and the discount plan makes them even lower. Final sign-ups for this year will be after the Alto al Crimen report to the community at the January 17 Tuesday meeting at BCP.
  14. Alto al Crimen will have a table at the Tuesday Market on tomorrow, January 3 for people to sign up for the AAC--Hospital Cooperativo medical discount plan. If you have not yet read the original announcement sent via Boquete.ning.com, you can find it on this site and read it. This low cost plan is great for people who have no other medical coverage and a great supplement for people with high deductible insurance coverage. A .pdf version of the PowerPoint presentation made on December 13 can be found at this link: http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/4359-alto-al-crimen-medical-discount-plan-announcement/?do=findComment&comment=12309 The yearly fee for the plan is $150 (or $125 for additional members of the same household). This includes a donation for the AAC emergency call Hotline. To sign up, come to our table on Tuesday. Bring cash or your checkbook and, if possible, a copy of the cedula, Pensionado card or passport for each applicant. If for some reason you can't bring a copy, we'll figure out how to make a copy of your document. This will be the last sign-up day except for the final sign-up deadline on Tuesday, January 17 after the Alto al Crimen presentation about our organization and its services. We plan to have renewals and open season sign-ups for the medical discount plan once a year in late December--early January.
  15. "it would seem more supportive of your potential subscribers for you to provide a link to the PDF document rather than publicize your inability to navigate CL. If you need help, just ask " I plead guilty to having an inability to navigate Chiriqui Life. I was a programmer as early as 1963, have worked with PC's since 1982 and spend many hours every week navigating on the internet. But Chiriqui Life is, in my opinion, very difficult to navigate. The reason I didn't provide the link in my post was that I could not find it, even though I knew it was there and had even seen it once before. For Pederhaney: In our announcements I specifically included my personal email address for inquiries about the medical discount plan so that any inquiries would come directly to me. It worked for a lot of people, because I answered a lot of emails. I'm not sure why your messages on the web site were not forwarded to me but will look into it. Most people use the web site to register for AAC Hotline service, and the database manager deals with that area. The "Contact Us" link is usually used for providing changes and updates for the database. Though your messages should have been passed on, messages of that kind are not "rapid response" matters. The AAC Hotline has two different phone numbers that are monitored around the clock for emergency calls, and it is separate and distinct from administrative matters. I doubt that you would send us a message if you had an emergency.
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