Tough times never last, but tough people do!

It was the title of one of Dr. Robert Schuller’s (the original one) books, and it’s true!

It’s been a rough week in Boquete and in other sections of Panama as well, including the Gnobe Bugle comarca. If you drove into Valle Escondido this morning, or even yesterday, with the sun shining . . . it did indeed look like paradise. But even in paradise there are storms and disasters. It could be snow and ice, or tornados, hurricanes or tsunamis . . . we don’t happen to have those things in Boquete. What we do have at this time of year is rain, often lots of it. The winds blow from the North at this time and bring storm after storm off the Pacific and across Panama, so we get alot of rain in November. And tropical rain is often torrential and the predictable result is flooding and mudslides. All-in-all people have held up well.

My very good friends Brad and Jackie suffered the most and lost 90% of their million dollar home in Valle Escondido when the mountain wall collapsed on top of their house and sent a wall of dirt and mud through the part that remained standing. Their house keeper, Richard, was in Panama City, and Brad was in the States, and Jackie was home alone. He came outside to check out a wierd noise, looked up at the mountain, saw it start to move and ran . . . when he turned around the mountain was on top of his house. With the rest of the family gone, Jackie is left alone to cope with not only the loss but also the cleanup. I snapped this picture of the damage, not really paying attention to Jackie being in the picture, but when I look at it, the look on his face conveys it all.

But this is one tough China man! He’s generally pretty quiet, until you get to know him, and, at 37 is a lot older than he looks. He’s an ex-Taiwanese marine and a tough cookie, despite his slight looks. In his high school English class in Taiwan the teacher was arbitrarily giving students English names, and I think Jackie got stuck with something like Stewart (no offense to all the Stewarts out there!). He complained and the teacher let him pick his own name, so he choose Jackie Chan after the kung-fu movie star. His Chinese name is beautiful when he says it, but most Anglos can’t reproduce the tonal sounds of his name and it comes out sounding like chop suey, so, except officially, he’s Jackie Chan.

He’s faced this tragedy alone and day by day he has become more optimistic and positive in spite of the mud! He finds the humor in having spent weeks taking all the bad grass out of his back lawn and just when it was perfect . . . down came the mountain. He cleaned the gutters to be ready for the rains . . . then this. He’s gracious when neighbors ignore that his house is in ruins and complain about the mud run off ruining their grass. He worries about their problems, when he has humongous problems of his own. When I’m lamenting his loss, he is pointing out ways in which his glass is half full. Amazing guy, really, and I’m glad to have him as a friend.

It is amazing what a few people, very few, have been able to do it removing mud, pulling out a few trinkets that can be saved, and initiating the clean up. A lot has been done in a few days, but there is so much more to be done.

What has always amazed me, both professionally and personally, is how quickly and instantaneously life can change. But in the midst of tragedy . . . the tough times never last, but tough people do! What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.

Jackie is one tough guy.