Raul and the Carnivorous Plant

Every time I remember my Panamenan  friend Raul, a smile comes to my face. We were friends in graduate school, in Austin, where he was getting a master's degree in petroleum engineering. He had the best laugh, and always had me in stitches with his hilarious stories, especially the ones involving unfortunate dates. The last time I heard from him was many years ago, and he was smiling next to a pretty Panamenan wife, and two small children. From the surroundings of the picture and the elegant clothes, it looked like Raul had done very well for himself. I wonder how he is doing these days. He was such a fun friend, we never dated, and felt very comfortable with each other, it almost felt sometimes like dating would have been the logical next step. That never happened and was just fine with both of us. He invited me to come  and stay with his family who lived in Panama City, where his father was an architect. I spent a lovely time there and it was wonderful to be one of the family along side his parents, and younger brother and sister. It was the same summer I spent time in Costa Rica. Panama City was a very different experience, much more down to earth. Every one in Raul's family spoke fluent English and were socially casual and relaxed. My favorite foods were homemade ceviche, and I absolutely loved the fried plantains that were the equivalent in a meal as fried potatoes.I liked the combination of a very modern city with a very old historical part of Panama City. It was very interesting to see Cuna Indians in the old part of town, dressed in their bright and geometric patterned fabrics and designs. The countryside outside the city had an old Spanish flavor to it, that was nostalgic to me with the quiet villages and old churches and humbly dressed villagers. Time seemed like it had stood still there. The visit to the Panama canal was impressive. To be face to face with one of the engineering feats of the 20th century was exhilarating, especially finding out that some of the major challenges in the building of the canal were met by a Flemish engineer by the name of Goethals. I remember my time in Panama fondly, because of the ease of my friendship with Raul. He was a funny guy. He once asked me what my first name was in Flemish, as Trudi does indeed not sound Flemish. German maybe, or Austrian. I told him my first name was Geertrui. He tried to pronounce it, with little success. He gave up, saying: "Geertrui, that sounds like the name of a carnivorous plant!" He just roared, and I laughed too. To this day I cannot think of my name in Flemish, without remembering Raul's reaction to it. I had a nick name for him too. He once told me a very funny story involving a Dracula movie that was not scary , but funny, and he did the funniest imitation of the voice and character, that made him just laugh and laugh. So, I started calling him Dracula. It was a private joke, that was funny to us, but made every one wonder why he had that nickname with me. If I called him today and he answered the phone, and I said:"Dracula, is that you?" I can guarantee he would exclaim:" Geertrui! It's you, the carnivorous plant from Belgium!"