Resort Work

I've been searching for a diesel generator for the resort.  A mechanic in town told me of one that was a first rate unit, in fine shape, with low hours at a good price.   Others have been buying propane generators.  There is a good reason for doing so.  As propane in twentyfive pound tanks is highly subsidized the fuel cost is far lower than for diesel generators. Diesel generators cost much less to run than gas generators. Low end gas and propane generators are really not intended for continuous duty, they are standby units that need to be replaced every few years even if only used to top off batteries on cloudy days or to equalize batteries.  This generator will probably use between a quart to half a gallon of diesel and hour.  At a cost of $4.50 a gallon that's $9 to $18 a day if run for eight hours.  On propane the cost would be less than $4 a day.  The downside is, the unit is likely to fail at the most inopportune time.  Maybe I'll put in a propane generator if the resort generates revenue.  Most likely my first priority would be to put in solar.

I'll need about two thousand watts to run the pool pump.  The current price of solar panels is about one dollar a watt.  I'll need about two thousand watts to run the refrigerators and freezers.  I should probably use a chest freezer as a refrigerator.  Cold air stays in chest freezers, it pours out the door on refrigerators.

The guy with the generator called.  I went off to his house to inspect then spent a couple of hours with the man.  A very interesting person, but I can't go into the details as I don't have the cash to pay for it yet as I can only withdraw $500 a day and some local who reads this might have cash in hand first.     Very high end diesel generator, well maintained, with low hours.

I got a call that a buddy was handed my new telephoto lens and a propane conversion kit for my home generator.  I went back to town and picked it up.   A very annoying person was in attendance, one whom I avoid.   This is a guy who owns no business, nor boat nor is ever in the company of women but is never short of ill words to say about everybody else's business, boat or women.  I got out of there as quickly as possible.

On Friday I met with a neighbor of the resort.  Per my instructions he tapped into the water supply for the school at the point the pipes cross the resort.  This water is being utilized in compliance with a former agreement for usage of the water in exchange for a right of way for the pipes.  No water is available in the daytime due to low pressure as a result of usage by the school and the community.  With the blessing of the community, the water to the community is shut off late at night and the full flow is diverted to the pool.  About 1,500 gallons a day are obtained this way, so the pool should be filled by mid next week.

In my hasty departure I had left an Android tablet in a boat bag.  I quickly returned to fetch it but the wait staff said it wasn't there.   I later was told that "Hurrricane", a whirling cocaine maelstrom had taken it for safekeeping.  I called him and he returned with it in his dinghy.  The boat bag was floating in a pool of water. This wasn't meant for long term submersion.  I opened the bag to find the unit dry.  I opened the case, the screen was cracked.  He had stepped on it. "I didn't know what was in the bag."  So you fucking stepped on it? Thanks for looking out for me.  You should have just left  it there.

Off to the beach for a barbecue.  "Who's this cutie?" "That's Port Dick's girlfriend from the states."  Here we go.  She said, "Why do you call him that?"  Another guy replied, "because he screwed every drunken slut in town while you were waiting for him in the states.  He was kicked out of Casa Verde for taking these sluts to the employee dorm room and banging them there while other employees were trying to sleep."   "I've heard some bad things about him, but he's really sweet."

Starry night, clear skies.

That's Ursa Minor, the little dipper, that's Polaris, the North Star. That's Crux, the Southern Cross."

"Which way are we going?"

Cute, but not too bright.

Boat - Finca

Ever on the quest for a more fuel efficient boat I took a friend's twenty foot panga for a test run.  I disconnected the fuel line from the built in tank and hooked it up to an external tank so I could accurately measure fuel consumption.  We met at the appointed hour, but it was raining and we sat and chatted while waiting for the weather to clear.  We took off to the finca and met with a neighbor, a resident of an extended family.  We boated over to the entrance to the finca and down through the shallow canal.  Up to the house we were greeted by agitated Africanized Honey Bees, "killer bees".  Here, Ricardo, spray them out.  I gave him $5 for some Arrivo, a popular insecticide.

In order to get this resort operative I need to get the pool in order. The first order of business is to fill it.  As we had drained the few remaining tanks that had not been stolen and the catchment systems were profoundly deficient a new plan of attack was in order to get this place open in a timely manner.  Along the hill adjacent to the property a long run of four in PVC snakes its way toward the school, it is buried and crosses the finca.  Ricardo agreed to fix a section that had been broken by horses and to attach a fitting for a hose which is to be run to the pool.  Although the water pressure is insufficient during the daytime to be useful, when the villagers are asleep significant water, about a thousand gallons a day, can be obtained.  Ok, sounds good. And fix the catchment gutters on that cabin up the hill.  I'll be back Saturday to inspect.

Back to town.  I met with a mechanic that knew of a Lister generator that might be for sale in Almirante.  Nope, the guy doesn't want to sell it.  What now?  He made another phone call.  A guy he knew had a Kuboto.  That's top quality stuff, yeah, I'd like to check it out.   I was given the phone number, left a text message and received a reply a couple of hours later.  I could check it out on Friday.

The boat?  Too small, sorry, Susan.

I meandered to a market and found some trousers that fit at a used clothing store.  That's easier than making a four hour trip to David.  Two pairs for $6.  I dropped them off downstairs at a tailor.  Turn them into cargo shorts by cutting off the bottom of the legs and adding some pockets.  Another $6.  That was easy.

I'd have gone home, but I didn't have enough gas to make a round trip.  The gas dock was closed as it had no electricity.  The electricity is oft out recently, nobody knows why. Ok, I had enough gas for the short hop back to town and ran into Samantha.  We hung out for a bit at one venue and then a second, which was brazenly serving lobster linguini despite the fact that they are out of season.  Yes, it was fresh lobster.  Off to the Southern anchorage to crash on somebody's boat.

Floating Doctors - Playa Verde

Friday

A visit ends and an adventure begins.  Zhena and Stani were dropped off at Bocas Marine Tours where they would continue their journey, travelling to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica.  A couple of warm embraces, a kiss and they were gone. 

 I killed an hour, then boated over to the RipTide, a large wooden shrimping boat from Key West that has been repurposed as a floating restaurant and bar to meet with the volunteers of the Floating Doctors.  This weekend's clinic was held in Playa Verde, a small community on the mainland on a peninsula in Chiriqui Grande. I had been invited to tag along as an observer and to assist in the transport of the volunteers working this clinic.

Shortly after ten, a water taxi and Dr. Ben LaBrot arrived by water and the volunteers by taxi.  The boats were loaded with medical equipment, drugs and backpacks with the volunteer's ???

Ben gassed up and we headed south south east toward Crawl Cay on our way to Playa Verde, a small Gnobe village on a peninsula on the mainland.  After a brief stop we ??? on the weather, deciding whether to take the direct route on the windward side of Isla Popa or burn some gas taking the slightly longer trip on the windward side.   We decided to take the direct route.  We headed out at a bearing of 300.  I trailed behind the water taxi and Ben's boat.  About four miles off shore my engine sputtered to a halt.  The gas here is atrocious.   I walked astern and twisted the drain on my water separator and the engine wound up, unfortunately in gear.  Skye quickly pulled it back to neutral and the engine died.  I drained the separator again and while attempting to reprime the engine Ben came back to check on us just as we got the engine going again.  

At full throttle we attempted to catch up with the water taxi that had not slowed down during our troubles, leaving Ben in our wake.   A few miles later I turned around to check on Ben to find that he was nowhere in sight.  We pulled out my binoculars and scanned the horizon but he was nowhere to be seen.  We drifted.  Now what?  No boats within radio range, cell phones out of range and the water taxi distant.

We managed to wave down the water taxi and get them to stop and return with us on a search.  Nearing Popa Paradise we were within a cell telephone coverage area and managed to raise Ben on the phone.  He too had experienced gas problems and was idling back to town for service.  He instructed us to carry on.

The seas were calm and a blue slate color that blended seamlessly with the drizzly skies.  We rounded a point and beached the boats on a blackish sandy beach.   Scores of villagers came to greet us.  As we were staying overnight they insisted on pulling my boat up onto the beach.  A log was procured and the heavy boat rolled up, with the stern above the high tide line.

The volunteers, prepared for providing their own sleeping accommodations quickly hung their camping hammocks from beams of a large ???.   My situation was a bit more problematic.  The only hammock I had was a large cotton hammock.  I removed some mooring lines from my boat and provided boundless amusement for a woman as I tied up and tested my hammock repeatedly.

The village was clean, with just a smattering of windblown litter.  Houses on stilts were scattered from the water front to the top of a hill and beyond.  Workers were finishing off a new school building, this one built with concrete framing, filling in the walls with adobe bricks that had been made by the matrons of the town.  The national government had provided training on how to make bricks.

I ascended to the top of the hill and gloried in a verdant view punctuated by large coconut palms that graced the shore, the water extending to the horizon.  More houses ???

Back down to the beach I ran into Tommy, who is rehabilitating the Southern Wind ???.  We walked along the shore to a bridge that spanned a narrow river.  A local offered to show us around.  We ascended a hill using steps that had been cut out of the red clay with machetes. Excited boys ages five to nine accompanied us.  The youths took great pleasure in reviewing snapshots we took.

We killed time until dinner.  Dinner was prepared in large aluminum pots over a stove constructed of a large wooden frame filled with sand.  Pots were placed on cement blocks and heated over a wood fire.  We had rice and beans complemented by lobster and conch.  Lobster is out of season.

We hung out the beach, gazed at the stars and swam in the phosphoresent water and retired 

early.

Saturday

Breakfast of fried flour ??? and coffee.  The coffee was prepared "cowboy style" with the ground coffee added to a pot of boiling water.  The water was heated in a large pot cooked over wood on an elevated sand filled frame.

The consulting area preparation was effected in earnest.  Desks were moved from the small wooden shack that served as a kindergarten room for 32 youths to the Palapa.  A couple of tables served to house the forty pounds of drugs that would be dispensed.  

Three large desks, simple structures of flat boards best described as small picnic benches with affixed seating, but only one sitting bench were placed with served the providers.   desks tables consulting under metal roofed concrete slab that formerly served as soccer field. Kid playing baseball throwing a ball up in the air and throwing with a stick.

Presently Dr. Ben arrived and draw a crowd.  His boat was pulled ashore and the clinic quickly began.  In contrast to the scores of people waiting for medical attention on Wednesday people there were but a few waiting at a time.  There was never a long line, but there was never an empty provider desk.  Ben consulted by himself.  Jen enlisted the aid of ??? ???'s of the Red Cross.

Skye was the receiving person, pulling prior records and completing a form based on a patient interview.  The patient was then seen by Ben, Jen or ??? a gastoenterologist.

Common ailments included stomach distress, most often likely caused by improper sanitation or bad water.  
I met a particularly interesting individual when he was asked to show us his calf which was severely damaged by a snake bite in Costa Rica.  Many Ngobe are seasonal workers at coffee plantations, picking coffee beans.  This gentleman was declared a deaf mute (not by a member of the Floating Doctors)  I said, "He's not deaf, he is hearing and understanding everything you say."  He looked at me, gave me a big grin and a thumbs up.  He understood my English.  Later he talked to me in Spanish.  After we went for a swim he walked down a hill and greeted us wearing a security guard outfit and a realistic plastic pistol in holster which he brandished at the Peace Corp worker.   Several of the health providers thought it was a real gun and that he was actually a security officer.

A kindergarten is in the process of being constructed.  This is unlike any school building I have seen in Panama.  Windows in Panamanian schools are cinder blocks with decorative openings that are small enough to afford security but allow air and light to pass.  The building as built of cement block and stuccoed over with concrete.

This building had well oversized concrete beams and cross beams and the walls were made of adobe bricks made by the same women who were cooking our meals.  The windows were aluminum framed glass sliding windows.  There were sufficient bricks piled in front of the building to finish off the wall.

I had often wondered why no one had taught the Ngobe to make adobe bricks.approached Jorge and asked him to work with me to ask the women if they would be interested in continuing to make bricks and sell them. They were enthusiastic.  Evan was concerned that the distribution of the money might cause dissent, but I suggested that they just tally up the amount produced per person and pay by the piece.  Later they were overheard to be discussing it and one of the ladies said that if they were going to sell them to the gringos, they would have to be of the highest quality.  Really all they had to do to improve the quality is increase the amount of dried grass to about 10% of the mixture.  One brick, not yet dried, that I picked up had but three strands of grass in it.

Information 

Welfare

Some of the women get 100 dollars every two months. 15 women get the benefits. They go get the money from no bukori. 

Education

Three buildings accommodate 97 students first to sixth grade. Three teachers one from Changuinola, one from Santiago Veraguas and one from Almirante live on site and visit their families on every three weeks.  

Two other teachers. One from San Martin Veraguas. Every 15 days she goes for one day. Other teacher is from Changuinola with married a member of the group. Her husband teaches kindergarten. 

At the school women cook for the kids 18 women rotate. They get food on weekdays when school is in session. School is out December 13 to last week of February. The school consumes 184 pounds of beans and 345 pounds of rice each month.

Crops

 Plant dachi yucca yanpi

The women plant and retrieve

Health

One person gets elected from the village to attend a seminar in David for a week to learn how to reach the kids and observe problems of health. If they detect that the kids are sick they are taken to the nearby settlement of Punte Sirin in a dugout canoe. Frequently the facility in Punte Serin is out of what is guessed to be the appropriate medicine. 

Bush Doctor

Many of the villagers prefer the bush doctor that lives in the village.  He is generally unable to determine the problem and provides a common herbal treatment for a wide variety of ailments that are often ineffective. 

Mortality

The number of children under age six varies between ten and twenty.  It is not uncommon for three or four deaths a year in this age group.   Three or four children. 10 or twenty children under school age. Try to tell them to bring to the hospital. Costs a lot of money to get to town. Give the kids coffee.

At the school women cook for the kids 18 women rotate. They get food on weekdays when school is in session. School is out December 13 to last week of February.

.

16 50 watt panels

Two years under construction.material was paid for but not delivered

Peace Corp

Evan halls from Rhode island and has worked with the Peace corp for ??? Months spending his time at Playa Verde. He lives in a two room hut that he rents for 20 a month. Built his own water catchment tank our of concrete. His best friend hereis Jorge.

He shits in a bucket with sawdust and composts it inn a bamboo frame.

Cowboy coffee. Fried flour.

Rain, Boating, Floating Doctors

I went to town to pick up my next guests, a couple of women from Bulgaria and to check on a diesel generator aboard a large boat which is to be stripped and sunk.  I managed to make it to town through a small window of opportunity between rains.  As I was chatting with my friend Walter I got a text message from the women telling me they were at my house, or so they thought.  Ayaah.

Back to my house.  Just out of town I put another five gallons of gas into the tank.  They, Zhenya (Jenni) and Stani were there, cooking up moussaka.  They finally finished cooking and we ate, me included, despite having just finished a hamburger in town.

Finally another break in the rain and my buddy Chris called, "Are you coming?"  "Working on it."  "C'mon girls, put some swimsuits on, we have things to do.  I have no idea how it took them half an hour to change and get ready to go out the door.

Off to the South Anchorage, we picked up Chris, over to another sailboat, picked up Marcus and off to Saigon.  We pulled along the wreck.  The plywood substrate to the deck was warped up and fully exposed. I hopped the rail and stepped through the floor.  Thereafter I only stepped on large things on the deck that distributed my weight across a greater area.   We made our way to the bow and dropped ourselves through a hatch.   This boat was a complete disaster.  The only thing left of any merit were some walls of finished 3/4" marine plywood in great condition.  Two Detroit Diesels would probably be sunk with the boat.  In the port sternmost was a wooden box that housed the Onan generator.  Gotta get some diesel fuel and a battery and see if it runs.

Dropped off Chris and Marcus and headed to the Cosmic Crab on Carenero to drop off an air hose and a regulator that I had borrowed and we had employed while working on Nothing Wong.  While there I received a phone call from an assistant of Dr. Ben LaBrot of  the Floating Doctors.  He wanted to meet with me.  So, I left the women there and boated over to Carenero.   I was invited to participate in a clinic on Cristobal and a three day clinic this weekend in Kusapin.   Awesome.

I was informed of the fact that the local hospital had managed to get these wonderful people from treating residents of Isla Colon, the most populous island in the archipeligo and the island on which Bocas Town is located.   I am not sure what their motivation is.  The lines are so long at the hospital that people wait all day, aren't seen, are turned away after ten hours and told to return.

Then we hit Old Bank where they got a flavor of something completely different than Bocas Town and headed home.

Frequently cited locations.