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| Construction near a station. Green screens are safety nets for workers |
Panama Metro construction
The first line of the Panama Metro subway, which I get to
ride anytime I’m in the City, proved so successful that a second line was
started about a year ago. Line 2 is totally above ground and elevated and MUCH
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| Finished column with top support |
Construction is completely modular. First a 10 ft diameter
hole is drilled in the ground for each support pylon by an enormous moveable
drill rig. That is filled to ground level and a round pylon, with a massive
amount of
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| Finished track section |
It’s been quite a treat for me to watch the process unfold.
Another Interesting Bus Person
One of the things that improves the 4 hour bus ride into the
City are the people I meet. I really enjoy talking with the locals and get a
lot of otherwise unavailable insight that way. Today, my partner across the
aisle was Jorge Batato, grandson of a slave brought in from Antigua to work on
the Canal. His father also worked on the Canal, as did he for 40 years. His wife was housekeeper for
the family of one of the Canal executives. Talk about family tradition.
He just retired 2 years ago from his job as Captain of one
of the dredging barges, worked his way up from deck hand. He has a Canal
pension and Social Security, so I’m guessing he’s sitting pretty. He also owns
his home in one of the residential communities that the Americans started for
workers to encourage home ownership (exporting the American Dream) and even
gave mortgages, which would not have been available otherwise. His only
complaint about the American ownership was that blacks were paid less than
whites for the same job. This practice stopped when Panama was given control of
the Canal in 1999. Hard to fathom an American outfit discriminating like that
in the 90’s. But now he worries about his pension, due to corruption in the
Panamanian company.
He also witnessed the US invasion (Operation Just Cause) up
close and personal. He was at his parent’s apartment, when it was hit with US
missiles. He said it was crazy - there was no reason to destroy an apartment
building of relatively poor people. HE said the soldiers were “ very mean” and
treated them badly , offering little medical help.
He made no bones about his anger at the US regarding El
Presidente Trump. He chewed me out pretty good “How could you be so stupid?”.
His fear (and the fear I hear from others) is that Trump will hurt the world
economy and maybe start a war and possibly use nuclear weapons. I had little to
offer in defense, except “I didn’t vote for him”.
The only thing that saved my hide was telling him about
Peace Corps and the water & sanitation work I’m doing. He liked that and
gave me his address (about 3km from the Peace Corps office) and phone number so
I can have dinner some time. His wife makes a killer ceviche, I’m told.
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| Whip Scorpion |
I just found these two roaming the cottage. I assume they
are prodigy of the larger resident found last year. Lest you think they’re
spiders, that mystery was solved last year when I discovered they are actually “Whip
Scorpions” nontoxic to humans, but
voracious insect eaters.
So, between these guys, the geckos, bats and froggie – who needs
an exterminator? They do all my bug control for free.
The local radio, TV and road side billboards and banner are
all blaring the message “Beiber is Coming”, “BEIBER is COMING”. Like it was the
Second Coming of Jesus or something. On the bus today, two teenage girls were
screaming “Justin Beiber, Ah Dios Mio” when we passed a billboard.
I thought the kid was dead and buried by now. Just not so.
I’ve never seen the attraction. Or any discernable talent. Unless singing by
autotune passes for talent these days. I’m guessing it’s all about the hype.
And I’ll give his PR staff credit they
know how to build a mountain of hype.
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