God vs. Axel Rose

At the beginning of March, a bunch of hooligans from the Rotaract club of Chicago came down to do some service projects and get their Spanish on...they succeeded on both ends by hooking up with the local Rotaracters here in Panama.

Rotaract is basically the young 'uns version of the Rotary club - it employs the similar idea of camaraderie with a sharp focus on serving others with less resources. So, under a thinly veiled excuse of wanting to help out, the Chicago club ventured south in search of a respite from a cold winter. It was quite a sacrifice...

They actually accomplished a lot of work while soaking up every drop of culture anybody can in a week. I was pretty impressed with the quality and quantity of service projects the Panamanians lined up, and I tagged along when I could.

Although they visited orphanages, toured the country and did some manual labor, my favorite was the activities day at the juvenile correction center on the outskirts of town. Most of the kids we hung out with could tell you how long they'd been in lock down to the day and even the hour. Conversely, they knew exactly how long it would be before they got out. What surprised me was how the majority of them had been turned around by Scripture - the center seems to immerse them in Bible teachings -any one of them could rattle off a verse in their sleep.

We hosted some games and even played a little music. This one guy grabbed his guitar so I could teach him some Guns N Roses - I think I really made some headway with this kid. So you'd better watch out, God - you've got some competition in the correctional department, and his name is Axel Rose.



We also picked up some bats and played some softball - if there was a Juvy softball league, these guys would take it hands down - what a bunch of ringers!



It was a great week with both the Panamanian and Chicago Rotaract guys who really made me feel welcome. I was even invited to attend the club's 30th anniversary dinner, and of course, we were looking mighty dapper.



The local Panamanians proved to be great hosts, but showed the Chicago punks no mercy. It was a non-stop crash course in all that Panama can offer. I think the Chy-towners still might be recovering from their unforgettable week. Pero me importa una....