El Templo

We spent our first week (or I did, whereas Nef had two) living at the Temple. El Templo. I learned about quite a few things while staying here. 

For one thing, the Temple is gorgeous. There’s the buildings that contain the bookstore, the sala, kitchens, office, bathrooms, the boy’s room… and other various rooms. More on that later. So, you walk up the drive past that building and past the parking spaces to the roundabout that’s coned off from vehicle use. Walk up the steps, and there you have the temple.

One of the breezeways in the Temple

The temple itself is this white orb-cone shape that’s open for all breezes to pass through. It branches out into 9 points, and also has 9 breezeway openings. If you go up one of the two staircases, you’ll also reach the balcony. But usually the balcony is closed off, and I’m not entirely sure why. It’s a great view.

El Templo a la noche

Speaking of views, the temple is my favorite at night. It’s lit up until about 9 or 10 pm, and since you’re up on a little mountain, it’s the main source of light around. Theres also a walkabout circling the temple with an extra leg looping out from the circle. And at night, you can see all the lights of Panama City from the walkabout. What a sight. You can also hear the sounds of Panama City, which is pretty crazy. One night, I heard a drumline practicing down in the city. I know nothing else about it except that I could most definitely recognize that it was drums.

The city at night

The city by day

The Temple is open 9-6 every day, with devotionals every Sunday at 10. The gardeners arrive at 7 every morning, and everyone else arrives sometime in the morning (usually). There are the certain few that are usually there by 9/10. And then there’s the youth.

Youth! Hooray youth! It’s so great that there’s a lot of youth here, though considering it’s the capital of the country and contains the Baha’i Temple for Central America, I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that there’s more high-school age youth than in Gainesville. Gainesville has a lot of college youth baha’is, but in terms of baha'is my age, permanently living in Gainesville, there aren’t many. Though of course, now I’m the age where people go off to college, but even including those who’ve gone off, there aren’t many Baha’is my age with a home base in Gainesville. Of those, age 13-20, I think we have maybe 7?

Here, I cannot keep track of them all. I think there’s about 20 that I’ve met. And I think I’ve met most of them, but I don’t really know. Most of them are guys. Not many of us girls. But that’s fine. It’s not like my cousins and trumpet sections haven’t been male-heavy. I’ve always got along well with guys. No need for a gender divide. Equality, yo.

We basically have a whole new family system here. Nef and I tell people that we’re hermanas. It’s funny enough considering we look nothing alike and have totally different names, but when people actually take us seriously and get confused, now that’s even funnier. We’ve adopted an additional set of parental figures, an uncle, an abuela, and the youth are our hermanos. We even have a family pet! There’s a bunny running wild. Every time it gets inside a building, it poops everywhere. The first night I came across it, it went right up to me. I was completely befuddled as to where it had come from, but hey, it just lives here.

While we were there, we stayed up in the “women’s apartment.” But often on weekends, some of the boys will stay the night at the temple. And they stay in a room with two sets of bunk beds (and a cot that they bring in). And for during the day, everyone hangs out in la sala. La sala is connected to the main kitchen (there’s 3), is right next to Abdiel’s office (the director), and has internet. Any time I Skype anybody, I’m somewhere around here.

So, for during the day. Most people come on the weekends I think, and the biggest day is Sunday because of the devotional. But there’s plenty of time where nothing is going on, so I’m not lacking Temple time, that’s for sure. But all and all, I really like being above the city at the Temple (whether I’m actually in the temple or not). It’s a great place to be. Come visit me and I’ll show you around!

See ya!