Three men passed me on the beach. I was sitting in the shade when they returned back up the same way. I heard the shortest say, “sh_t.” I asked them if they were being bit by the sand fleas. It was that one word that made me ask if they were Americans. Here is their story.
In 1989 they left Panama with their mother to live with their stepfather. Two of the brothers were born in Bocas. The youngest was their father’s biological child, and he was born in Panama City. Their father was a veteran of the United State Military and worked in the Canal Zone and served in the military. He was living in California when he met their mother. She was a teacher. She worked for many years as an English teacher in Panama. She also worked in the interior, where she had to undergo hardships and live in difficult situations with her sons. When they she left Panama to marry their step father, they moved to Boston where she had some sisters. There she became a Spanish teacher. She was also certified in Special Education and mathematics. She eventually earned her master’s degree and worked as a vice-principal in Boston public schools. The oldest brother is retired military. He served for 15 years in the wars in Iraq. Their father, also a veteran supported his family as plumber. The second son has several businesses in Boston and the youngest is now working in Panama City as a supervisor of a call center. The brothers also are dismayed by the cost of food in a country where people earn between 1 and 4 dollars an hour. The youngest is paid three dollars and fifty cents as a supervisor of an American call center in Panama City. Beginning call center employees inside of the United States are paid at least 12.50 an hour. Their father was born in Almirante. His family owned the land where the high school currently stands. He didn’t like farm work, and that is why he moved away. They still own land in Bastimentos, and the brothers plan on visiting their small Finca tomorrow with their father. This was a poetic end to my stay in Bocas del Toro. I have learned so much from the many people who have shared their stories with me. I felt that the fact that this family had left Panama to live in the US is a loss of human capital from Panama. A loss of their mother’s teaching vocation and energy, and the loss of the potential of her three sons. The cost of systemic racism is poverty for the whole country, and the loss of human capital and energy. I was able to videotape all three men, and their story will make it into the video and letter plan on writing on Harold Hibbert’s behalf. I have at least 90 minutes of video and many pictures to use to make a convincing case for the need for sanitation infrastructure in Almirante. It is going to take a lot of work, and I am going to need the help of people who know more about technology than I do. I need to upgrade my computer, and I also need to find a good video editor program for this project.
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August 3, 2016
Tuesday I left work to wait for Harold Hibbert. I was confident he would meet me as planned. The purpose of our meeting was to tour the city of Almirante and take pictures of garbage and interview Harold about the consequences of the lack of sanitation infrastructure in Almirante. Harold has eight children, the oldest four are grown. His children work in the medical field, the military and in business throughout Panama. All of his children have completed University educations. Harold himself had two years of higher education in accounting. His youngest daughter is a junior at Almirante High School (quinto año). She accompanied us on our tour of the city. Harold has found working for others to be corrupt and frustrating. In response has his own small business. He bakes empanadas and sweet breads which he sells in local stores. Harold met me at the gate of the school with a small package of “naked buns.” At least that is what I thought they were called. Later, he clarified that they were cinnamon buns. I had one for breakfast this morning while I waited for the “lancha” in the early morning light. Harold took me by taxi to meet the secretary of the community group he is president of. She works for a transportation firm in Almirante. I was able to interview her, in English about her vision for the town. (Much of my interview of Harold was also conducted in English. The black population of Almirante speaks an easy to understand form of Caribbean English, similar to what you would hear in Jamaica.) She would like to see more activities for the young people, including sports such as baseball or soccer and track. She believes Almirante is a beautiful place and that with proper sanitation, water and electrical supply it could be a welcoming and thriving community for its inhabitants and for visitors. We walked around town while I videotaped Harold. He has been working his whole life to improve the conditions in his own home, and the conditions for the members of his community. The original water system was created for the housing the Chiquita Banana Company built for its employees. At that time Almirante was much smaller. As it grew the water system was no longer adequate. It only reached some neighborhoods and others had to have water trucked into them. The water is still dirty and it still is turned off twice a day by the company that owns it. Water is a private utility in Panama. Residents pay monthly bill without much recourse if the service is inadequate. I took several staged pictures of Harold’s daughter and Harold and I next to the garbage collected on the side of the road. He suggested I come back later in the week so I could see the results of a week of dumping by local residents. Currently there is no real system for garbage collection. People pay a local man to take the garbage away, but often it falls out of the truck on its way out of town. Harold would like to find support from outsiders, perhaps the US Embassy, to set up a recycling system in Almirante of plastics, paper and food. Currently people either bury their garbage, burn it or leave it on the side of the road. Harold would also like to obtain two dump trucks the city of Almirante could use to take the garbage to a designated dump outside of Almirante. We also took pictures of people preparing food next to open drains filled with garbage, sewage, and dog poop. Algae lays on top of motor oil and mosquito larvae. The ocean water that flows throughout the port city, much of it under the homes of its poorest residents, is so dark with filth that you couldn’t see through it with a flood light. I asked Harold about the film of oil on top of the water. There are small earthquakes in Almirante, and a decade ago a larger one. The oil tanks and other toxic waste left behind by Chiquita Banana surface when they are disturbed. Throughout Almirante are wooden shacks built on stilts above swamp water or tide water. The roofs are rusty metal and the walls lack window glass, instead they are ventilated by window openings without screen or protection from insects or animals. These homes were housing for Chiquita Banana employees which were sold for a symbolic price, perhaps 100 dollars to the employees when the company left Panama. There are still some bananas produced in Panama and shipped out of Almirante, but the industry has mostly died as a result of a fungus which attacks the export quality banana. Today while I ate my “naked bun” in the open air lunch room at the Almirante High School I had a peaceful view of the surrounding jungle. It truly is beautiful, with coconut trees, papaya, lush green bushes and banana. There is a neat trail leading into the mountains. It is what remains of the railroad which used to carry bananas to the port. |
Kelly TurnerI participated in Panama Teacher Match 2016, a program funded by the US Embassy in Panama and implemented by the non-profit organization, Partners of the Americas, based in Washington, D.C. The program supports the work of Panama Bilingüe, a national initiative enacted by the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, to improve English teaching nationwide though extensive teacher training. Archives
September 2016
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