Road Trip

Pottery in La Pintada, Panama roadside stand

I love a good road trip. For me, no road trip is a bad road trip. I started from home at 4:30am and caught the Coaster to just outside the City, as close to the airport as possible, to avoid the ridiculous $30 fare from City center. I arrived at the airport only to find that the flight I was meeting was delayed over an hour. . It gave me a chance to check out the huge new airport terminal that is under construction. The terminal, new Metro line and a long overdue monster bridge over the Canal near Colon are the 3 big public works projects at the moment. After a while, the rest of the Global Brigades crew showed up and the volunteers from Penn State Medical College arrived, along with 3 big carts of medical supplies and equipment.

Med student volunteers tour a rural clinic in La Pintada

The drive to the beachfront resort of San Carlos was over the Centennial Bridge at Gamboa, which I had not enjoyed before – a longer route to cross the Canal, but far less traffic and a great view of both sets of Canal locks. As luck would have it, one of the new mega post-Panamax container ships was in the huge locks right below us. I swear, they almost look bigger from the air. Then, it was a winding drive through dense jungle, before re-joining the PanAmerican Hwy. I got to play tour guide, pointing out the local trees and sights and had some interesting chats with these first-year med students.

Piedra Gorda is home to the first Spanish mission in Cocle province

On the western side of the Canal, the PanAm is a 4 or 6 lane super highway, with billboards touting the classy resort properties, Rolexes,  BMWs and legal services for off-shore accounts. It hardly seems like this could be a country in need of assistance. Or, as I call Panama – the most over-developed developing country in the world. The truth is that very near the towering luxury beach front condos are lots of little villages without good water or sanitation facilities.

Don Geraldo is the perfect and innovative host

We stayed at a retreat center with a view of the beach. Unfortunately, a private golf course with concertina wire atop its fences prevented actually walking there or swimming. But, the volunteers were in good spirits and the food was good. I treated them to a pre-dinner lecture on various sanitation options and history. Not exactly the best aperitif, but it didn’t seem to diminish their appetites one bit. I got stuck in a bunk room, with 5 other men – 4 of whom snored – which was something I’ve not endured in a while. I slept surprisingly well.

Geraldos composting toilet uses the urine
stored in the 5 gal bucket as fertilizer and pesticide

The med students were the most motivated and punctual of any of the volunteer groups I’ve worked with and we departed 5 minutes EARLY. We drove further out the PanAm to Penonome and then to the clinic in La Pintada, where they were slightly aghast at the lack of medical diagnostic equipment. The staff have to rely more on human observation, which was maybe a lesson to these aspiring MDs and PAs. I was able to show them mangoes, bananas, cashews, coffee trees and Noni up close and personal, which none had seen before. La Pintado, as the name implies, is home to a large group of ceramic artists. They may not rival John Leas Hidalgo artists, but they are good and prolific.

Geraldos innovative improved cook stove and oven

We then headed to Piedra Gorda (home to the oldest Spanish mission in Cocle province) to visit Don Geraldo at his organic farm, besides his extensive coffee, mango, cabbage, onion, avocado and banana nursery and plantings, he has a worm farm, large improved cook stove and oven and a composting toilet, nearly identical to the Brigades design. His innovation that most caught my eye was a mens’ urinal, which was a bottle top and hose, leading to the urine drain line. He actually uses his collected urine as a foliar fertilizer and insecticide (mixed with baking soda) and I learned some tips on proper use (which mostly involves dilution), which I’ll pass along.

My primary purpose on the trip, besides being interpreter, tour guide and teacher to the volunteers, was a lunch meeting with Don Geraldo and two other sanitation gurus. All four of us are passionate about sanitation work and the discussion was spirited, sharing our collective experience. The result was perhaps a novel concept of merging some design features of a latrine kit I saw in Roldan, Peru near Will Jenson’s site of Quilmana and the urine diverting seat  that is used in composting toilets. The concept is to have a unit that is light enough to easily be moved (about 200 lbs), which brings the cost down dramatically and negates the need to build on site and to clean out the compost, while still delivering the nearly odorless quality of a dry bano. Brigades wants Cecilio and I to build a prototype, which I’m excited to do.

The rest of the week, the med students will be hosting multiple free clinics in the area. They came loaded with supplies, portable EKG, x-ray, microscopes and ultra-sound equipment. So, I jumped ship in Penonome and caught one of the big luxury cruiser buses back to the City and then a Coaster home. Tired and well satisfied.