LA FINCA – PART 3

This is a beautiful country and there are many good people here. The climate is very nice, even in the rainy season; the food, the beer and the coffee are all excellent. But, the one over riding problem is that there is an enormous amount of poverty in Panama. You see it in the streets of Panama City, Colon, David and throughout the countryside. It is endemic. To be sure, there is wealth in Panama and there is a middle class. I am living with a middle class family. But that is all dwarfed by the overwhelming majority of people who live what appears to me to be a subsistence life.

The two vaqueros who work for Javier each earn $6.00 per day for a full days work. They are father and son. The younger of the two worked all day barefoot. He was in the corral in close quarters with the livestock in his bare feet. If he got stepped on by a 400 pound cow, I'm not sure when his workers compensation coverage would kick in. I will not describe their house and their living conditions. I don't think I need to. Javier needs a lot of brush cut at his finca and he asked the father how long it would take him to clear it. Thirty-five days was the answer. “Fine”, says Javier “I'll pay you for forty.” That's $240.00 for at least 35 days of hacking brush and tall grass with a machete. Any takers? When we took the two of them home that evening, the Senora of the casa brought out a small, round loaf of warm cornbread for Javier. It's a good idea to keep your husband's boss happy.