2015 - Arriving Back to Panama

For those of you who are visiting this blog for the first time, welcome! For those who followed it in the past, welcome back! This is a blog which I will be keeping over the next two months which will follow the life in Seminario Mayor San Pedro, Ciudad de Panama (St. Peter's Major Seminary, Panama City). I am here because I have been asked to help out the teaching staff here by taking on some of the courses. This year I will be teaching two courses in the seminary and will be involved in some other things along the way... but more of that later.

I arrived last night after a long journey. I left Limerick after the 8.30 mass and got the bus to Dublin on Saturday morning. I was going to spend the night in John's Lane because I would have to be in the airport for 4am. Everything was planned out: I would get up at 3; shower, dress, and finish packing; have breakfast; and get a taxi to the airport. However, things were not to be that simple.

Heading to bed at 10pm I realised that I had forgotten to bring with me part of my CPAP maching (for Sleep Apnoea) - this was not something I could take lightly or ignore. There was no way around this; I absolutely had to get the piece or else my whole trip would be very difficult. Unfortunately, the piece was in my room in Limerick. I had to phone Denis Ryan - ever helpful - and he said that he would meet me halfway.  And so it was... at 11.15pm I was at the hotel at exit 17 on the M7 and Denis screeched to a halt with the necessary in hand... Thank you Denis!!! Then it was back to Dublin where I arrived at half past midnight. After all the panic and excitement I wasn't tired so I just sat looking at TV until, at around 2.30am I gave up and got up and ready to travel.  Why does all this matter? Well, it just meant that I had no sleep at all before I travelled which made the journey very long indeed.

After a short flight to Amsterdam I had a 4 hour wait before the 11 hour flight directly to Panama City where I was met at the airport by the rector of the Seminary, Fr. Santiago Benitez. Then it was off to the Seminary itself and a chance to meet up with some of the people I had met last year before heading to bed - for 10 hours!

This morning I had my first lecture. I will have 8 hours lecturing a week. There will also be other things do be done. While it doesn't seem like a lot, I will have to spend a lot of the rest of the time preparing classes - I had spent 8 months preparing to teach a course on the Trinity when, just a month before I was due to come here, they changed their minds and asked me to teach Eschatology. This means that I have had a chance to prepare very little so time is likely to be very full over the next two months.

Which is why I will wrap up now... I have two hours of eschatology tomorrow so I have to get my thoughts together...