Gettin´ Learnt, Going to Jail, Back on the Streets

Some more random ongoings…

¨Panama ranks a dismal 129 out of 139 on quality of primary education despite ranking 26th overall on primary education enrollment rate (i.e. they go to school, but don’t learn anything!). Panama ranked 128th on overall quality of the education system, 129th on quality of math and science education, and 109th on quality of management schools,¨ according to the World Economic Council. This reality has become evident to me in all facets of everyday life here.

Oh… that explains it. My 15 year old apprentice, Eric, seems to be one of the smarter, more open-minded people I´ve encountered… maybe because he´s avoided Panama´s dismal education system since graduating from the 2^nd grade. What´s the good news? Well, despite my previous grumblings about ¨the system¨ back home (and not to justify its many faults), I am appreciating the good ole USA more than ever… and missing it awful bad.

It was 11:00pm and we´d done a late night at the Mission Clinics International office in Higueronal. I had 2 sacks of trash I had collected from my neighbors. We do this regularly because when they burn their trash, all the smoke from the smoldering plastic settled in the bottom where we live. I stopped, put on the hazards, opened the rear door, and tossed my neighbor´s trash into the undefined scatter on the side of the road. Reaching for the other bag, an oncoming car screeched to a halt… a flashlight blinded me. ¨What are you doing?¨ It was one of those dumb questions that made me realize that maybe I was doing something wrong. ¨Just tossing out my neighbors´ trash.¨ ¨What´s in the bag?¨

night or day… I´m not convinced about the safety or practicality of trash fires at our dump

can you spot the ¨no throwing out trash¨ sign?

So, long story short… It was the police. And I guess we do look a little out of place in our big, red, dirty, hoopty car. I think he thought he´d caught me disposing of a body or something, but after a little explaining and cross-checking Colleen´s and my story, they told us we could leave.

¨So wait,¨ I said, ¨Is it ok or not to throw out my and my neighbor´s trash here?¨ ¨No… but if you´re going to do it, set it on fire.¨ ¨Goodnight.¨ …and nobody went to jail.

Now, I´m trying to establish this road committee in Catrigandí so that we have a street instead of a 1.5 mile mudhole to our home this coming rainy season. The representative and legislator encouraged us in the formation of this committee to ¨protect our road from the wood cutters.¨ Of course, as soon as the big shot woodcutter came, and we tried to apply the rules we made, he brought the representative and legislator´s secretary and the police to defend the woodcutter. [Did I mention that the legal/justice system is ranked 109^th?] And what do uneducated, disenfranchised people do in such a situation? The majority tuck their tails and roll over… But not my neighbor, Justo. He´s awesome! Unfortunately, one community member and a gringo is not a particularly favorable showing. Still, the woodman has ceded considerable ground and donated a few $k in materials and labor to the cause. Last year, he just destroyed the road and left. In his defense, no one complained to him, so how would he know?. That´s typical here. So all this means more days in the sun for me, directing the equipment and laborers.

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