A long blog about ongoing issues, social welfare and more

Begin July, Kees came back to Panama for 10 days but now he is based in Lubango, Angola. We phone weekly and e-mail regularly (when he starts his Angola blog we shall insert a link here). In the meantime, here in Panama I struggle ahead.

The drawings for the building of the 4-room hotel/and our house have finally been signed by the architect and the engineers (one engineer had disappeared for a while so it took until the 13th of July and some frustration). Then it turned out that the page with the septic tank was not there… and so on the 21st I collected in Panama these pages as well. Now all drawings are in Santiago, because more people need to sign them for approval.

The department related to electricity is the first. They demanded also a map of the ground and documents to know where exactly along the road we will have the connection. Despite them only authorizing two models of a little house for the reader and connection did it turn out that this little house was missing on the drawings… Thereafter the fire brigade, they will sign when electricity has done so and when they check some more details related to water and safety...

I am curious to know whether anybody will make some remark because the land title on the tiny section where we will build is only for 2/3 titled in our name. Our lawyers have safeguarded us for the other 1/3 but since it is unusual… Our lawyers also revised the construction contract that was drafted by the builder to be. In our advantage as you can imagine, but we must still discuss it.

Then we need an approval from the ministry of health and the authority of the environment. The latter insist on an Environmental Impact Assessment for commercial projects.
Unfortunately for us, most of these projects are way bigger than ours and therefore the engineers that do the EIA tend to ask way too much, so negotiations are tough. But apparently it is also expensive because getting the EIA takes some 6 weeks of paper pushing…
On 1 August at 7h15 am in Santiago (meaning I take the bus at 6 am and get up even earlier…) I meet one candidate, and I hope to convince him that we are really a small project and that we are really nice for the environment and so…

So far so good, but we did not get many signatures yet because there were the “Fiestas Patronales” in Santiago and that means five days of party and drinking and no work (all offices closed). However, this week on Tuesday the 29th everybody had to get back in his/her office in Santiago. But to sit in your office close to your Boss and all colleagues with a hangover... better to get out into the field and do inspections. Another company had 5 different inspections that day! While I started that day waiting an hour or two in the municipality of Mariato for the license to construct a small kitchen annex to one of our ranchos (more in another blog), the gentlemen of the Social Welfare department paid an inspection visit to the farm. No direct problem expected as Justino is well registered (see some previous blog).

The gentlemen interviewed Chico, a builder, who just started preparing for the job of the kitchen and for pillars of a 3rd rancho. They are shrewd and do not present themselves until after the interview. They also asked loads of questions on the rubble of the house and asked when building was going to start – without asking who was going to build and assuming that Chico would be around for some time. They left an acta where it said I had to register him as our worker and pay his insurance, back up to march 2007 when he had mentioned he did a job on the ranchos… Chico mentioned also that months passed by that he did not work for us, and they wrote that too in the acta… I also got a note saying I had to appear on the 4th at 8 in Santiago with all proof of payment. However, that date I shall be in Panama city because the night before kees’ sister Marijke and her boyfriend Bas arrive. Chico felt bad about it and offered to come with me to Santiago directly the next day. Before we left I spent some time making a Spanish letter contesting the acta. Something to stamp to make sure I would not get a fine for not appearing on the 4th.

Despite the letter and the fact we both declared personally not to have the type of labour relation whereby we would have to pay for him it was just not good enough. They would like a declaration (change the heading) that would be signed by Chico and myself stating he works “obras definidas” and more they wish to hear ... and then that must be stamped and signed by the ministry of work. So yet again, in the evening I was making a Spanish declaration and I can go again to Santiago, with the declaration signed by Chico and myself to collect the various stamps (on the first)...

Last week I also visited the Social Welfare department on the regular twice a month visit (first week of the month one drops 3 copies of a sheet and a digital copy, and in the last week you go there to pay). That time I requested also the forms for Justino’s wife to obtain a card that allows her to benefit from the same health insurance as him. Justino then discovered I had copied his identity number wrong (the last 8 was in fact a 3). I knew already that his card had a wrong “patron” number because the people of Social Welfare had changed it after a month (they had first given me a Santiago code and since we are outside Santiago…). I asked then whether I had to retype the workers card and they said it was not necessary. However, now the identity number... that may be a problem…

Anyway, again I had cards to be typed in duplicate. In some previous blog you can read how we organized that last time. I did it now more electronically with a scan of the card, into word, some test printing on normal paper and then some tape to stick the cards exactly over the correctly printed filled in version where the scan in the computer was deleted again.
At the end of the evening I had one good card, two wrong ones and two empty ones left... There are nicer ways to spend an evening.