So imagine my shock when I come to learn that in Panama you CAN’T even raise your voice a smidgen. If you do, it’s considered A SIN!!!
I’m a very passionate person, so when I’m excited or angry, my voice goes up. Doesn’t mean I’m yelling, because trust me, you DON’T want to hear me when I yell LOL
Here’s 2 examples of what happened to me that blew me away, confused me & made me think “these people are NUTS!!!”
- The first time it happened I was speaking to a lawyer on the phone who had already given me the inclination that he changes his tune at the drop of a hat.First he told me I had a good case, then he tells me I don’t have a good case (this went on a few times until I was ready to scream. He tried to blame me for his mistake (remember this is very common here, they don’t take responsibility for their actions, so they blame everyone else for their mistakes.)
I was sooo stressed & upset, my voice went up & that’s when he says, “DON’T talk to me like that, you aren’t my MOTHER!”
I’m like WHAT???? LOL, who said I was your mother?
I’m usually not at a loss for words, but this came OUT OF THE BLUE & wasn’t relevant at all to anything that had been said.
Later on I figured out that his mother probably raises her voice at him.
Wow, so if I raise my voice, now I’m that person’s mother.
MAKES SENSE TO ME…. NOT!
- A couple of days later when my landlady is trying to kick me out of the house onto the streets 4 days before New Year’s Eve, as I’m sitting with her & trying to make her see/hear reason (Ummm, I learned that’s next to near impossible to do with a Panamanian, & this woman is an intern studying to be an eye surgeon, so it doesn’t seem to matter if they are educated or not, they are supposedly all like this.), I become frustrated with her, so of course since I’m not a robot & proud of it, my voice goes up slightly. Not as much as it had with the lawyer.The next thing I know, she’s tell me, “DON’T disrespect ME!!!”
???? LOL
I’m thinking to myself… Lady, I stopped respecting you back when it became obvious you didn’t want to help change anything that was wrong with your house, you expected ME to pay for everything, you wouldn’t even change the date on the lease to when I moved in NOT when I got the key, so you pretty much don’t give a SHIT, you just want money & to gouge me.
I also lost respect for you when you started threatening me.
Me raising my voice means nothing, the respect went out the window LONG before that!
Of course my only defense was to say, “I’m NOT disrespecting you.” I felt like a child when I said that.
I found out later on via Marie, that they are emotionless. They don’t run hot or cold, there’s no emotion at all. CREEPY!
I found this odd since I thought Latinos were hot blooded, but I can say based on my experience, they aren’t in Panama.
Another thing that makes no sense is they DON’T like it when you raise your voice or yell, BUT they have no problem with DEAFENING loud music & dogs barking day in & day out so you are deaf.
Logic means nothing in Panama.
So I was in one of the Cable & Wireless offices yesterday picking up the $20 Cable & Wireless tried to steal from me as I won my case, I was relaying to the girl who is very nice by the way, what happened when I was told by 2 different locations AND on the phone by a sales rep, that I could get Internet access in El Carizel, only to find out that I couldn’t. I started detailing how I wasted a full day of my time & lost about $60 due to paying for my driver. And how the girl at the Cable & Wireless location in La Chorrera lied to me & said I had a black record on my credit record so I couldn’t get service. Who the hell even knew I had a credit report in Panama??? LOL
Because I was soooo shocked & I hadn’t even been here a year so how could there be a black mark on my credit, we ran to Albrook to ASEP (I think that’s the right name), only to find out the photocopy of my passport wasn’t acceptable, they needed the original, so we had to drive ALL the way back to Arraijan to get that & then ALL the way back to Albrook. Since it was late in the day, we had to rush to make it on time.
Needless to say, the simple request to get Internet service from Cable & Wireless turned into a nightmare from hell which is unfortunately NORMAL here in Panama. Nothing is ever easy, they make everything sooo difficult & of course the constant lying doesn’t help at all.
Turns out in the end I had no black mark, the girl was probably just angry at me because I was a Gringa & so she decided to play games & lie. You see this would be grounds for firing in any other country, but in Panama & some other Latin American countries, this abuse is all normal & no one ever gets reprimanded.
That’s why if you are planing on opening a company here in Panama & you actually believe in honest, hard work & your staff following your instructions, well…
So back to yesterday, I was telling this girl the story & so in all likelihood my voice was animated (dahhh) & she said, “Oh don’t get angry now Michelle.”
I’m like what, I’m not getting angry, I’m just telling you a story???? LOL Man you can’t even tell a story & get animated without the Panamanians thinking you are going to start WW III.