See You in Heaven

Last month, I was making my last visits to communities I had worked in this spring.  They asked when I was leaving my city and then the country, trying to figure out if I would be stopping by again.  I told them no, unfortunately I wouldn't be.  Knowing that I just worked with them briefly, if I visited Panama in the future, I probably wouldn't head there.  They said all of the normal "may God bless you"-s and then one man said, "well, I guess then I will see you in Heaven."  That seemed like an honest and reasonable statement so fifteen people followed suit and shook my hand, wished me success in my future endeavors and then said, "See you in Heaven."  It ended with a nice old Ngabe woman who took my hand and said something in Ngabere that we both knew I didn't understand.  So I politely smiled and chuckled.  She returned my smile and simply pointed at the sky.

It's not goodbye, just see you later.

Maybe a lot later.

(Hopefully a LOT later!)