Virgin Atlantic airlines is an interesting bird to fly. Seriously, if you watch this ad from youtube, you’ll see exactly what we saw when we went through the security gate. As we were waiting in line, a whole entourage of Virgin Atlantic flight crew members passed us and were ushered into the front of the security line- everyone stared. Kids stared.

And so we got to the gate and once again, 20 minutes before we boarded the plane, the same kind of activity ensued, and it was a remarkable scene, as the crew passed us to enter the jetway™ bridge people made audible comments about the appearance of the stewardesses, mostly they were positive comments. Anyway it was quite interesting- we had sporty spice and a younger version of her as well and then a host of others who in total kind of looked like they were in a Robert Palmer video which of course I can’t watch in the Czech Republic…

The flight was alright- the pilot dropped us onto the Heathrow airport runway like he had a date with one of the sewardess, a seriously crappy landing. At 8:30am London time (That’s 3:30am Eastern) we hopped off our plane bloodshot eyed and ready for coffee, or a drink, or breakfast, no a snack, oh crap I couldn’t decide, I think I slept 3 hours and I was all messed in the head, don’t you love the global life. I think I recall Hasan Elahi telling me that he sort of gave up on “time” as a space of reality since he travels so much. I can see how that would be a natural progression of the “jet-set” academic lifestyle.

Layover: 6 hours… more to come. I gotta sleep. Todays photos are here though…

Jack Kerouac's On The Road, Reduced to 500 words

An Example of a piece I started working on..

I succesfully imported, or, rather, exported and then imported my other blog from my site to this new location with only one little glitch. It seems that if your entried have a tag or category set to () meaning nothing, that your import will fail. So- I searched online for the error I was getting and I immediately got the fix- delete the line that contained empty tags (or categories?) and try again. It worked. So now it appears that everything is up and running in this new location.

Now the hard part. I want to have this blog appear in my website as content on a page and I haven’t been able to figure out how to do that yet. I’ve been in the process of converting my site from html to php, but that too is a bit wonky. Things don’t look right in Dreamweaver so I have to rely on my server for updates to make sure everything is working properly. I know I must have erroneous code in there too, but one thing at a time, seriously. I keep an update of sites I’ve found useful so far on my delicious account now at delicious.com/ggunter

CRW_9890

Originally uploaded by g[wiz]

Needless to say, the U Texas students had a blast on their last 2 nights in Panama. They all did quite well on their projects and unlike many other college students, these kids pulled 16 hour days of hard work to help out some folks in need from Coclé to Centro Madrono for 10 days of what is usually a festival of 24 hour debauchery (spring break). I know they had their share of good times along the way, but they worked their butts off and I’m glad I got to work with some of them and hang out with the rest.

I’m glad I let Tom know I was coming to Panama a few months ago. I got to take care of my own project and take on some volunteer work with a promising new organization called Global Business Brigades. I’m packing up all my things right now and making my last post before I hop on a Copa flight to Orlando later this evening. I forgot how much I really loved Panama the last time I was here. Panama, from a gringo perspective (or mine anyways), is a mix of frustration when dealing with some of the local businesses and absolute joy when it comes to the kindness of the local community in the Casco that I feel very close to. Panama is an exercise in patience and a lesson in recognizing the things we value in life. I can’t wait to get home but I hate to leave. I can’t think of a better way to feel after a week and a half of working, playing, swimming, climbing, hiking, negotiating, eating, drinking and most of all, being. Thank Tom for the great opportunity and help with my own project as well. Peace.

For the tourist shop whose owner also has a fairly succesful t-shirt line, we are focusing in on some basic needs. Ricardo, one of two brothers owns a t-shirt line called Panama Collections. The designs are single color and very clean, and as far as I’m concerned, the only t-shirts worth buying in Panama. His design is basically the same as the classic Hawaiian t-shirt with the band of hibiscus across the chest, but with mola patterns instead. Like I said, very clean, very nice. We get the sign quote in the morning and we will have pricing on store fixtures tomorrow by noon. Our budget for the city group, (because we only have 5 students) is only $500, which even in Panama isn’t quite enough to do much with 2 clients. Because of this limited budget, we’re prioritizing the tourist shop sign over other things for them and supplies to make samples for the cobbler.

Oh and one more thing…So I’m supposed to go to Chorrillo in the morning to take photos with the police in tow and one of the members of the organization called Darma who is a supporter of the work our students are doing with an orphanage about 2 hours away from Panama City. After meeting the folks from Darma on Sunday afternoon I told Tom that I really wished I could do some more work with them (meaning Global Business Brigades) and he said, “well, I’m coming back Wednesday, so get your work done and come back to the orphanage with me”. So Wednesday I leave for the orphanage to take photographs there and then Friday we head to Costa Esmeralda which is East of us here in Panama City and only about a half hour from El Valle where the orphanage is. As a famous dude once said, “life moves pretty fast…”

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…

Philadelphia Airport

Originally uploaded by VortexF6

They have to fix my plane before thy will let me board it. Its funny how upset peole seem to get over these things. The airline official made it clear to us over the loudspeaker that the plane came in this way, implying I guess, that it isn’t their fault (it’s some other airports fault, duh). All of these amazingly well sculpted (by knife) snowbirds are semi-silently up in arms. When the destination is Miami, people get pissy.