Day 5 (12-15-2011)

The day began with another trip to FANLYC (The cancer treatment center for children).  It was another day spent doing whatever tasks the center required of us. As my classmates were assigned chores, I dodged hard labor in favor of interacting with the people.  One lady told me that her 17-year-old daughter was retrieving chemotherapy treatments from the center absolutely free (which I might add would be comparably very expensive in the United States). It is always heartwarming to know that there are places, donors, and volunteers working to improve the quality of life for those who can use it most.

Following FANLYC, we visited Albrook Mall (which can easily fit several University Malls within its boundaries). I spent most of the time comparing the prices of products in Panama with similar ones in the United States. Those products that originate in Panama are far less expensive than similar types that originate (meaning shipped from China) in the United States. For those brands sold at the mall that are also sold in United States (Guess, Pepe Jeans, Casio, Nike, Beverly Hills Polo Club, etc…), the prices were much higher than in the United States. Another interesting thing to note is that every brand had its own store versus department stores in the United States that bring them all to one place (Macys, Sears, Dillards, etc…)

After Albrook Mall, we returned to the USF Health office at the Ciudad del Saber to receive a brief overview of how Panama’s healthcare system works. Basically, everyone in Panama gets health care for free because it is funded by a social security system (paid for by those who can afford to pay into it). Those who are unhappy with the quality of the free healthcare can elect to pay for services at a private hospital. We spent a lot of time comparing Panama’s system to that of the United States’. I came to the conclusion that healthcare, in the United States, is accessible to everybody for the most part, but the costs associated with paying for services or the repayment of services serves as its own barrier. Panama’s system treats healthcare as a basic right for everybody, much like education or police protection. The United States may believe the same thing, but the Healthcare model doesn’t reflect that belief.

We concluded our day with a visit to Casco Viejo (Panama’s old City). There were buildings dated from the 1600s. Architecture never fascinated me much, but there is an interesting story behind one of the buildings that is directly connected to the United States. There is a bridge in the old city that has been around since the 1600s. When Panama was trying to convince the United States that Panama was an ideal location to build the canal, it used a picture of the bridge (check picture below) to show that earthquakes didn’t affect Panama. Panama surprisingly has no active volcanoes, is not hit by hurricanes, or is not affected by earthquakes.

-Kyle Castello