So my friend Thomas is here in Panama City and has been here for 2 weeks. When I told Thomas I was coming to Panama, he said “perfect timing, why don’t you do some work with our students?”. So without any expectations, I hopped on a plane with only the promise of a place to rest my head at night along with the customary cold shower and ham and cheese sandwich, sans dressings (which I normally toast, ala grilled cheese, minus the butter).

I arrived on Friday night to Tom’s bronzed and gleaming face, smiling at me amongst a crowd of Panamanians whose heights barely reached his shoulders. “welcome to panama, Brah!” I gave him a hug and we hopped in his pickup to head into the city. Panama City has changed tremendously in the past 2 years. The skyline is peppered with ominously unlit skyscrapers, all unfinished as of yet, though actively being built. Growth here in Panama is moving at a staggering pace with population increasing 10% annually in the last 2 years with an estimate of at least 7.5% in the next 2. The travel infrastructure of Panama City is getting a complete overhaul, from roads to transportations systems. In the next year, from what I understand, the Diablo Rojos will no longer be running. The city has already instituted a mandate to require all taxis to be painted yellow (many today are simply consumer vehicles with taxi signs on them). The loss of the Diablo Rojo busses and the visual similitude of the taxis will be a marked change in Panama City (as if it needed one).

My goal on this project was to photograph structures in El Chorrillo, but it looks as though there are some other elements to the city that will disappear in the next 12 months, that I should photograph now, before they are gone. So I went from 1 project to 3 in a matter of seconds as Tom filled me in on the status of Panama City’s progress towards 1st world-dom. I’m very excited to be working with Tom and the Global Business Brigades on their small business improvement project right here in Casco Viejo. We’ll be working with a small merchant who sells tourist goods and who has designed a wonderful t-shirt series that he is trying to sell through other merchants. His shirt is the best I’ve seen in Panama City and it is reminiscent of the old crazy shirts designs- with the screen printing across the chest in a band. Classic Hawaiian style. The other merchant is a cobbler who is making shoes with a style variant of the Kuna Indians Mola patterns but with leather instead of cloth. I’ll update later today with photos…