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.
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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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