TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE: a friendship across the distance

I always imagined that in my 20´s my life would be similar to , living in a new country with many roommates, learning from each other, studying something that I was passionate about and earning enough money to travel the world. Instead the second decade of my life has been involved in political protests and lots of goodbyes.
Can you imagine changing hang outs for farewell parties? Watch your friends leave to another country or be one of those friends to whom they say goodbye? Leaving with a lot of good memories of your friends without knowing if you will see them again?

Welcome to our blog, a joint work of two friends who share stories and experiences from the distance!

I doubt that any person who has never been restricted by their basic rights can understand the emotion and importance of leaving a country under dictatorship.
How do you explain to someone who knows your history, your skills and professional achievements that you are now a nanny, a waitress... that you have to clean floors and tables and if there's a shortage in staff you must become an octopus so you can wash the dishes, be the bartender and cashier at the same time for only $ 2.68 an hour? I didn’t know how to explain it, so for a while I walked away from the friends I left behind and dedicated myself to establish myself in the place I chose as my new country, Panama.

Most of my friends now understand it because they have gone through similar situations in other countries. David is now in Chile and I don’t need to explain what it feels like to emigrate because he, like many, is part of a group of returnees, who had to leave the country that saw them born and make their parents' country their own as much as they can.

My story is a little different, since I was a child I was always curious about things that differ from my reality, discovering social classes, trying different foods, meeting forbidden places and knowing new people is the essence that moves me and I have had the fortune to have all of that from very early age.

I remember that when I was little I didn’t like my name because in my family I have always been called Tutu affectionately, and my first name was synonymous with immediate scolding; However today I feel more identified than ever because it represents the duality of what I am, a first-generation Latin descendant of Europeans