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The official notice to US citizens regarding this topic that was sent out by the US Consulate in Panama City can be viewed at: http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/2225-message-for-us-citizens-department-of-treasury-designation-under-the-kingpin-act/

Additional postings related to the above topic can be found at: http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/2222-waked-up/#comment-6658

The American Citizen Services (ACS) Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Panama would like to inform U.S. citizens that, pursuant to the Kingpin Act, on May 05, 2016, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated eight individuals and 69 entities for their involvement in international narcotics trafficking-related activities. As a result of the OFAC action, U.S. persons, including all U.S. citizens, nationals and permanent resident aliens, regardless of where they are located, are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with these persons and entities. For further information, please see the Department of Treasury’s press release here. The names and identifying information of the eight foreign individuals and 69 entities can be found here. We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Panama enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at https://step.state.gov/step. STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. You can also download our free Smart Traveler App, available through iTunes and the Android market, to have travel information at your fingertips. Regularly monitor the State Department's website at http://travel.state.gov, where you can find current Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and the Worldwide Caution. --

No change in rules or policy. This forum (Idle Chatter and Personal Musings) has been exempted from day 1 re the rule about postings relating to life in Chiriqui. That ability to exempt is documented in the forum rules, but the forum description has to specify the exemption. This forum has been so specified. There are a few other forums with the exemption. Note that blogs in general are exempt. Thanks for refreshing this aspect of CL's rules.

Adding a postscript to the above posting, in Lesson 04 you will begin to understand where the term 'language transfer' comes from. It has to do with the transferability of words between languages. The trainer talks about words being similar between the Latin and the Germanic languages in general, and more specifically between Spanish (a Latin language) and English (a Germanic language). All of a sudden you have access to about a thousand Spanish words based on their 'language transfer' from English. Some people may find this approach to learning a language to be counterintuitive or non-instinctual. If it works for you, then great; if not, then try something else.

Phyllis McNaughton posted a blog entry about the importance of learning Spanish. She provided several resources, all free. CL member feedback about those resources was the trigger for creating an entirely new category of information on CL. Hence this, the first in a new series of educational resources that you may find beneficial in learning Spanish and moving you forward a bit toward multicultural integration. One of the resources is a website called "Language Transfer". Click here to visit the Language Transfer website. The Language Transfer website offers more language training than just Spanish, but obviously our interest in offering this information is because of the Spanish language resources. There are other online language training resources available for free. CL staff will review a couple more and if deemed appropriate we will provide hotlinks to them as well in future postings. The complete Spanish course that is offered by Language Transfer consists of 90 lessons. You may access those lessons via the Language Transfer website, or via YouTube or via SoundCloud. However, to make things easier for CL members, we are providing hotlinks to those 90 lessons (the YouTube version) here: Lesson 01 Lesson 02 Lesson 03 Lesson 04 Lesson 05 Lesson 06 Lesson 07 Lesson 08 Lesson 09 Lesson 10 Lesson 11 Lesson 12 Lesson 13 Lesson 14 Lesson 15 Lesson 16 Lesson 17 Lesson 18 Lesson 19 Lesson 20 Lesson 21 Lesson 22 Lesson 23 Lesson 24 Lesson 25 Lesson 26 Lesson 27 Lesson 28 Lesson 29 Lesson 30 Lesson 31 Lesson 32 Lesson 33 Lesson 34 Lesson 35 Lesson 36 Lesson 37 Lesson 38 Lesson 39 Lesson 40 Lesson 41 Lesson 42 Lesson 43 Lesson 44 Lesson 45 Lesson 46 Lesson 47 Lesson 48 Lesson 49 Lesson 50 Lesson 51 Lesson 52 Lesson 53 Lesson 54 Lesson 55 Lesson 56 Lesson 57 Lesson 58 Lesson 59 Lesson 60 Lesson 61 Lesson 62 Lesson 63 Lesson 64 Lesson 65 Lesson 66 Lesson 67 Lesson 68 Lesson 69 Lesson 70 Lesson 71 Lesson 72 Lesson 73 Lesson 74 Lesson 75 Lesson 76 Lesson 77 Lesson 78 Lesson 79 Lesson 80 Lesson 81 Lesson 82 Lesson 83 Lesson 84 Lesson 85 Lesson 86 Lesson 87 Lesson 88 Lesson 89 Lesson 90

Bonnie, Going a bit further, this blog owner asked in advance as to the acceptability of posting a link on CL to her personal blog. Because there is nothing to the contrary in our rules, my response was "sure, go ahead". She explained that she is a writer. Her approach to publishing her writings is somewhat different to the more typical poster, but then variety is the spice of life. And there is a very nice posting on her personal blog about Mort's passing. I can appreciate that there is no need to repeat what she has already written. Rather, she has done our readers a favor by expanding and linking related topics from different sources. The most significant thing for me in her blog postings (both CL and personal) is that Mort's passing was a huge loss to our community. We went to the services at the cemetery yesterday. Huge showing by our community. Our hearts go out to Barbara and family.

Bonnie, you are seeing everything that the blog owner has posted. It is only a title and a link to her personal website.

The U.S. Embassy in Panama is pleased to announce its new passport renewal by mail for the convenience of U.S. citizens residing in Panama. Beginning May 2, 2016, eligible adult U.S. citizens will be able to renew their passport without appearing in person at the Embassy. To qualify for the program, you may renew your passport by mail if your most recent U.S. passport: · Is undamaged and can be submitted with your application; · Was issued within the last 15 years; · Was issued with 10 year validity; · Was issued in your current name or, if you have changed your name, you can submit legal documentation such as a marriage certificate to prove this change; and · You are resident in Panama. Detailed information on the procedures for renewing your passport by mail, including payment and mailing instructions, can be found here. If you do not qualify for passport renewal by mail, or if you prefer to renew your passport in person at the U.S. Embassy, please follow the instructions here. We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Panama enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at https://step.state.gov/step. STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. You can also download our free Smart Traveler App, available through iTunes and the Android market, to have travel information at your fingertips. Regularly monitor the State Department's website at http://travel.state.gov, where you can find current Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and the Worldwide Caution. --

The U.S. Embassy in Panama is pleased to announce its new passport renewal by mail for the convenience of U.S. citizens residing in Panama. Beginning May 2, 2016, eligible adult U.S. citizens will be able to renew their passport without appearing in person at the Embassy. To qualify for the program, you may renew your passport by mail if your most recent U.S. passport: · Is undamaged and can be submitted with your application; · Was issued within the last 15 years; · Was issued with 10 year validity; · Was issued in your current name or, if you have changed your name, you can submit legal documentation such as a marriage certificate to prove this change; and · You are resident in Panama. Detailed information on the procedures for renewing your passport by mail, including payment and mailing instructions, can be found here. If you do not qualify for passport renewal by mail, or if you prefer to renew your passport in person at the U.S. Embassy, please follow the instructions here. We strongly recommend that U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Panama enroll in the Department of State's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at https://step.state.gov/step. STEP enrollment gives you the latest security updates, and makes it easier for the U.S. embassy or nearest U.S. consulate to contact you in an emergency. You can also download our free Smart Traveler App, available through iTunes and the Android market, to have travel information at your fingertips. Regularly monitor the State Department's website at http://travel.state.gov, where you can find current Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and the Worldwide Caution.

This is the first in a series of audio podcasts by Chiriqui.Life. The subject of this podcast is Rodny Direct, which is a 24/7/365 Emergency Helpline Service provided by Rodny Moreno in the Chiriqui Province of Panama. Mark Heyer is a volunteer assistant/advisor for Rodny Moreno, and is the person speaking on behalf of Rodny Direct. To listen to this audio podcast about Rodny Direct, click below on the white, right-pointing triangle (arrow) on top of an orange circular background. If you see two options below, we recommend using the "Listen in browser" option as opposed to the "Play on SoundCloud" option. This podcast is 21m 59s duration. The contact information and websites referred to in this podcast are: info@rodnydirect.com www.rodnydirect.com www.sleepwellpanama.com If you would like to provide feedback about this podcast, or discuss other matters related to this podcast series, please either reply to this posting, or send CL Staff a private message (@Moderator_02 is the correct display name to communicate with), or email to support@chiriqui.life. If you would like to share this podcast with family and friends, simply provide them the following URL, but remember that CL membership is required to view this content: http://www.chiriqui.life/topic/2111-chiriquilife-podcast-01-rodny-direct-emergency-helpline-service

Now I understand. Your comment has merit. Unfortunately those "off topic" postings are inside a blog. I do not have the ability to split off individual postings from inside a blog. I can do it only for forums. Now I am struggling with what to do. Your point is valid, but I have no solution. Hmmmm.... Let's just let this fade away into the sunset. Other suggestions? But you are correct, in our opinion the German restaurant is a great place. Maybe Marcelyn can start a topic for it the next time we patronize that restaurant.

Keith, I don't understand what you are doing here? Please clarify.

U.S. Embassy - Panama Consular Section IMPORTANT INFORMATION The American Citizens Services (ACS) and Federal Benefits Units (FBU) would like to remind all customers that they operate on an appointment-only system for all services except emergency ACS cases and adult passport renewals. American Citizen Services To schedule an appointment, or to obtain more information, please see the Embassy’s ACS page, which can be found here. For automated information, please call (507) 317-5030. To speak to an ACS representative please call (507) 317-5000 within the following hours: Monday-Thursday: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Friday: 10:30 am - 12:00 noon Federal Benefits To schedule an appointment, or to obtain more information, please send an email to Panama-FBU@state.gov. Please only send one e-mail regarding your issue. We aim to respond to your inquiries within 3 business days. Please note that the Federal Benefits Unit (FBU) of the U.S. Embassy in Panama cannot take or process claims for the Social Security Administration (SSA), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), or Veterans Affairs (VA), and those entities do not have staff in the FBU. We rely on receiving responses from these various U.S. Federal government agencies (SSA, OPM, VA and others) to answer most benefits related inquiries. For automated information, please call (507) 317-5030. To speak to an FBU representative please call (507) 317-5000 within the following hours: Monday-Thursday: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Friday: 10:30 am - 12:00 noon ************************************************************************* Embajada de los Estados Unidos - Panama Sección Consular INFORMACIÓN IMPORTANTE Los Servicios a Ciudadanos Americanos (ACS) y la Unidad de Beneficios Federales (FBU), desean recorder a todos sus clients que trabajan bajo un sistema de citas únicamente para todos los servicios, excepto para casos de emergencia de ciudadanos americanos y la renovación de pasaportes de adultos. Servicios a Ciudadanos Americanos Para programar una cita, o para obtener mayor información, favor ver la página de ACS de la Embajada, que puede encontrar aqui. Para información automatizada, favor llamar al (507) 317-5030. Para hablar con un representante de Servicios a Ciudadanos Americanos favor llamar al (507) 317-5000 dentro del siguiente horario: Lunes-Jueves: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Viernes: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Beneficios Federales Para programar una cita, o para obtener mayor información, favor enviar un correo electrónico a Panama-FBU@state.gov. Favor enviar solamente un correo electrónico en relación a su caso. Nuestra meta es responder sus consultas dentro de los siguientes 3 días hábiles. Favor tomar nota de que la Unidad de Beneficios Federales de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Panamá no puede aceptar o procesar reclamos de la Administración de Seguro Social (SSA), de la Oficina de Administración de Personal (OPM), o de Asuntos de Veteranos (VA), y de aquellas entidades que no tengan personal dentro de FBU. Dependemos de recibir las respuestas de estas entidades gubernamentales Federales de los Estados Unidos (SSA, OPM, VA y otras), para dar respuestas a la mayoría de sus consultados sobre beneficios. Para información automatizada, favor llamar al (507) 317-5030. Para hablar con un representante de FBU favor llamar al (507) 317-5000 dentro del siguiente horario: Lunes-Jueves: 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Viernes: 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Tickets for “THE PLAY THAT WENT WRONG” tomorrow 12th @Tuesday Market or Mailboxes Etc. Get yours …the hottest ticket in town! --

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Boquete Hospice and Health Foundation is back doing free blood pressures every Tuesday at the Market at BCP. Stop by and say hello, have your BP checked, have a chat, get to know us. We are here to serve the community, both Panamanian and expat. Come and find out about us. --

PriceSmart has responded to a request for Grey Poupon mustard. It is IN the store NOW! If you’ve never used it, it’s great in marinades which call for mustard; on sandwiches, and in salads, or any way you choose to enjoy mustard. Price for a 2-pack, 16 oz jars, is $6.99. PriceSmart indicated that they carried Grey Poupon before and it wasn’t a great seller, but they were willing to try it again, for only 3 months, and then it wouldn’t be in the store again for a long time. They advised me to stock up, so I did. I’m putting the word out there for anyone who has missed having it around in quantity and at a good price, so you can stock up too. I told them that the expat community who are most likely familiar with it, is very fluid and there is likely a somewhat different crowd this time than when they last had it in the store; so maybe there might be more interest this time around. Anyway, their responsiveness is much appreciated. While we enjoy Panama, it’s great that PriceSmart helps us feel like the “old country”—where ever that is for you—isn’t so far away! So, if you’re inclined, go stock up on your Grey Poupon! The link below is for anyone who wants to request an item, make a comment, a praise or a complaint. I was told that it is a monitored link and it would be directed to the right people. There is a web form to fill out, (a sample of which is shown below) or you can provide comments to the facebook page. There is a link to follow from that same webpage. https://shop.pricesmart.com/pa/en/contact-us/ Ilona Urban Blakeley ilona@freeeatlast.com "All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity." James Fenimore Cooper --

The Boquete Birders Group announces a Boquete Backyard Birdwalk for new comers, visitors and new birders. It is an easy walk of about 2-3 hours through the back streets of Boquete Village. Join us and learn about our local birds. Bring Binoculars if you have them. Boquete Backyard Birdwalk DATE Friday, April 15, 2016 LOCATION Plaza Los Establos (at the Gazebo) TIME 7:45 am (Ends about 11:00 am) Due to the popularity of this event, we are limiting the group size to 20 people. No dogs. Please RSVP by Thursday, April 14, 2016 For more information contact Sandra Cripe --

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