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| My dear friends Benildo and Ligorio |
Water system students get A+
I am so dang proud of these two guys – Benildo and Ligorio.
They pulled off the perfect water system disinfection with ZERO help from me. I
just watched and smiled and applauded. They made their own chlorine from salt
and water, alerted the villagers not to drink the water for a while, figured
the right dose, mixed and waited the requisite 30 minutes, then went house to
house flushing the high chlorine water through and out of the system. Best
technique and dedication I’ve ever seen.
These guys look like Mutt & Jeff, but they do a GREAT
job for their community. More than that, they have a good time doing it, as you
can see from the photo. As their teacher, it feels wonderful and rewarding to
see them do everything on their own – and do it well. Color me happy !!
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| Nobody and nothing gets through the barricades A VERY rude form of protest |
Headed for Embera Puru this morning and ran smack-dab into a
paro (protest strike). As is SOP in Latin countries, the preferred and accepted
form of political protest is to block a main highway. In this case – the
PanAmerican Highway. The ONLY route through Panama. All passengers and freight
stop. In my case, I just turned around and went about other tasks in Torti.
Most others, who were returning home or headed outbound, could not turn around.
They will wait until 5 or 6pm, when the protesters go home for the night. Miles
and miles of cars and trucks backed up. The buses turn around, but leave 90% of
the passengers by the road to wait, although I did notice a trail of passengers
who were walking through a muddy field to get around the protesters. No
shelter, bathrooms or restaurants in sight. This will not be pretty. Though,
I’ll bet that some enterprising locals will set up impromptu kitchens and bring
some cold drinks. Bathrooms aren’t really an issue here – lots of bushes. But,
if it rains hard……..
Moreover, I simply cannot grasp this form of protest. To me,
protesters should go to whatever agency or company they are protesting. They
should NOT inconvenience hundreds and hundreds of innocent travelers and
truckers. The odd part is that the government will usually grant some
concession to the protesters, so they know it will work, at least in part. Most ridiculous form of protest I can
imagine.
The next day, I heard that the Darien teachers who were
protesting did indeed get a 15% pay raise. Nice reward for messing up the day
for hundreds of innocent bystanders.
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| One of many WET fields |
In a Pickle
Remember how I posted about the rice planting gamble? Well,
to everyone’s surprise, the rains came early and hard. It rained 6 of the 7
days while I was away and the rice fields are mud pits. If the growers don’t
get a few days without rain to get out there and plant, they could lose the
crop or at least greatly delay it. They might send immigrant workers out to sow
by seed, but that is not preferred.
Only one grower took the gamble and planted early. I’ll bet
he is smiling a lot.
Two of the pups finally made the trip with Momma to the
Gringo’s house. Now that they know where the primo chow is, maybe they’ll visit
more often. They are colored and marked EXACTLY like Mom and Dad. Not
surprising since the parents are identical brother and sister. There are still
2 more surviving pups, but they stay safe and hidden and are smaller. Being
bold has its advantages.
Yet another shopping center
They are clearing good agricultural land to build ANOTHER shopping mall in Torti. I guess this is what it felt like in the US back in the day. There are already vacant retail spaces. The population must be growing like crazy here to support all the new retail venues. Or maybe someone just needs to wash some money…
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