Day 5: Going to church

The branch president (leader or minister of the congregation) picked us up in his water taxi at 7am. The church is in Almirante, which is on the mainland. It was about a half hour boat ride. When the boats go, they go FAST. I mean REALLY FAST. Gas is very expensive and it costs the branch president about $20 each way to go to church. That is a lot of money for someone who makes about $8-$10 A DAY!
Church was at 9am so we were early. Church was in Spanish. We didn't really need to know Spanish in Bocas since most people could speak English. It was very hard to not be able to understand them at church.
After church, P and his family and E and us explored Almirante. We stopped at the store to get some food. Other people in the branch, including the branch president, stopped there too. We don't shop on the Sabbath so that was different. We ate on the sidewalk outside the store. The branch president told us he would leave at 2. We walked around the town a bit. It was a very quiet town. I was told there is a lot of drug usage in that town.
It is difficult to see poverty like this. Some of the houses are built over the water. They are little thatched roof huts and they are little more than shelter from the sun.
We made it back to the boat at 2. We saw the branch president locking up the church so we all got in the boat but then the branch president disappeared for an hour. We were getting very nervous since M, J, and I had a flight to Panama City at 4:30pm. A water taxi happened to pull up and E asked him if he could give us a ride. He was going to charge us a lot since it's far and expensive to get to Bocas but we got on that boat. Through the trees we saw the branch president so we got off that boat and back on to his boat. E explained that we were in a hurry to get back to Bocas so we could catch our flight.
Of course we had to get gas first. There was a little girl about 3 years old that carried a big gas can as big as her almost to be filled. A lot of the taxi drivers had their young children, about 3-5 years old, with them on the boat. A lot of the little girls that age don't wear pants and some don't wear shirts either.
We made it back just in time to pick up our bags from the hotel and we caught a taxi to the airport. We had plenty of time to sit and wait at the hot, un-airconditioned airport. J was tired of traveling all day so he was grumpy on the flight.
We made it to Panama City. Ricardo's brother, Roberto, picked us up from the airport. He spoke English, which was really VERY nice since E wasn't with us to translate. E went to David. Roberto took us to the Radisson hotel. It was very elegant. We ordered room service since J was pretty grumpy still. I had smoked salmon with fettuccine. The fettuccine was good but even I've made better salmon. M ordered a sandwich but they didn't cook the salmon on it. Ugh.