Thank you for writing this honest, open assessment of what it is like for your family there in Panama, @apanamamama. It makes perfect sense, faced with the challenges you cite, that the expat community around you is particularly close.
Especially nice that you are all gathering together to celebrate Thanksgiving. Is there anything close to a celebration of a similar nature among the native Panamanians? I ask, as the Canadians I used to supervise always wanted to be sure "we" (Americans) knew they also had a Thanksgiving holiday. Even though the origin of it was nothing like ours ...
Is it okay to request a listing of the countries from which these expats have emigrated? And maybe a ballpark idea of what % of the community is from each? If that is considered an invasion of privacy there, I understand.
Thanksgiving is something we look forward to every year. Panama has a few independence days, but nothing really like Thanksgiving. The closest might be Mother's Day in December when everyone goes over to Mama's house and all the stores are closed. Ha! We invite people of all nations to our celebration. It's a lot of fun and lots of great food.
We have people from Costa Rica, South Africa, Canada, US, Malta, Germany, and we know people from Romania. I'm sure there are other countries, but I can't think of them right now. The largest percentage are from the US and Canada, together probably making up 75% (or more) of the expat community. Depending on what the home country is going through, there may be an influx of expats leaving their country. Like a few years ago we had a lot coming in from South Africa and then a few years after that, it was a lot of people from Canada. We only know one lady from Malta. 😉 Quite a few Germans have settled in the area - our part of the country is known as Little Switzerland - high in the mountains with nice temperatures year round. We even have a growing group of Mennonites here now, but they're getting big enough that they have their own community.
Thank you for providing this additional bit of info about life there. We are still talking about what it might look like, for us to even begin to consider any "adventure" of a similar nature. "Driven" by my ongoing meetings with my friend in nearby Costa Rica ...
It's definitely a big step to not be taken lightly!