Didimo's old and new home

In between all the adventure stuff about river crossings, horses, etc. there is another topic that should not be forgotten here on this blog. The farm is not in a country or an area of milk and honey. There is poverty around. People don’t go to the movies after working the land or enjoy some other expensive past time activities. Life in rural Panama is quite different from the brightly lit areas of modern Panama City.

We are paying our neighbor Didimo to look after our horses and store our gear in his old house where he used to live for some 15 years. I’m not really sure when he actually this house, when he came to the Canitas region and about other details so please don’t understand the following as some kind of scientific study about Panamanian economics in rural area. I just want to show you how it looks like today, imagine a bit how it was in the past and potentially draw your own conclusions.

So here is the old house from the outside:

This is the entrance and terrace area which doubles as kitchen:

One of the rooms. As you can see most furniture looks like homemade.

This is one of the bedrooms. Notice the gaps between the boards the wall is made of. These boards are simply put on top of each other. That’s not the work of a carpenter but simply of someone who had some wood and needed a home. Everywhere in Panama there are snakes, scorpions and spiders. There are enough opportunities to come it for these creatures. Personally I would not feel comfortable living in such a place. How about you?

Another bedroom with some paint on the walls:

A better look at the sitting area and kitchen. You can see a sink at the right in the background.

This is where Didimo lives today. This is in Buenos Aires. There are several buildings on this lot. One is the house in the picture and then there is another house further in the background. I suppose this is where one of his sons lives. The others work in Panama City and live there. There are further a little stable and some storage shed on the property.

The patio on the backside of the house. There is a TV to the right. You can see three doors leading to bedroom, bath (shower) and kitchen.

Again this is not very scientific but I find it a bit astonishing how someone lives who has been in the area the better part of his adult life and owns a significant amount of land. So I’m starting to think about why things are the way they are. Of course seeing this makes me think as well about our project of cattle farming. Maybe there are some things we don’t know that make it difficult to be successful. Don’t know yet … Needs more research I think.

18 Sep 2009

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