Panama, where street hustlers are made

Panama is the place where street hustlers are made. At ever corner there is someone trying to sell you something, fruits, vegetables, candy, bootleg cds, movies, whatever. The strangest thing I have seen so far are people walking around selling the most random things like qtips and super glue. Like as if I were walking down the street and someone said hey I’m selling qtips and super glue,, ..Oh snaps that’s exactly what I need for my for my qtip house that I am making!!! Someone has to be buying it if every street vendor has them!! So I’ve decided that if anyone approaches me on the street I just keep walking or if they somehow stop me, I only speak to them in English. Every so often I run into this lady trying to sell me the most random stuff. The first time I saw her she said Hey my brother, Bocas or Colon. (Bocas and Colon are the places here where most of the black people live). In english I said.. neither I’m from the states.. Then she tried to sell me some used brown tap shoes. Where shot got tap shoes, I do not know but I’m pretty sure that I don’t need any. I said no then she said ok, give me a dollar. I just walked off. Two days later she saw me at a restaurant eating and she tried to sell me a pen. I again sad no, then she said give me a quarter. Two weeks later I just finished ordering food and I heard someone from across the room yelling Hey..Papi.. Papi.. Mi amor..buy this mirror..I know you speak Spanish, I heard you clearly speak it..Heeeeyy, Heeeeey. I just kept on eating as if I couldn’t understand trying to hold in my laugher. After a few minutes of her yelling the man behind me starting laughing for me. The most awkward one was when I went to go buy a phone card for my cell phone. I usually go to the same place to get them, actually it was the same place where a roach jumped out of my man bag. A lady that was walking by heard me speak to the vendor an immediately stopped me and asked what my name was. I was kinda confused why she went out of her way to meet me. I looked her up and down and she reminded me of a real estate agent. Her hair was recently done and she was dressed up nicely. I told her my name then she asked where I was from. As soon as she asked that I looked over her shoulder and saw the guy who just sold me the phone card shaking his head as mouthing NNOOOOOOOOOO. That’s when she asked me if I would like to acostar with her for 20 dollars. Then I said no thank you but ask they guy behind you, I think he might.

Right now it’s pretty active in parts of Panama. Recently there has been a law passed that will allow mining here in the west side of Panama. This will allow outside companies primarily foreign to come to Panama for copper and gold deposits which may be amongst the highest in the world. The environment will be destroyed and the indigenous people that live there will be drastically affected. It’s horrible what will happen to these people if they follow through with the mining. A friend of mine in Ecuador told me that in situations like this the poor people will be exploited while the rich who caused all of this will be sitting on an island drinking mai tais. It’s sad but true. So there has been protest all over, and people storming the streets with their signs yelling. These people are clearly pissed. The interAmericana highway has been blocked for days because of the protest, making traveling to Panama City a pain. I hope that hurry up and settle this because I need to get my mail in Panama City. One of my biggest goals here is to stay off the news, so Im going to keep myself here and stay far away from riots as possible.