Editor’s note: After a short hiatus, STN receives an update from our reporter abroad Anson Stewart, who is currently in Cape Town, South Africa. His school bus travels over the past three months have taken him through Costa Rica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Austria, Italy, Tunisia, Dubai, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Three months ago, I wrote about how blessed I felt that I had been staying out of harm’s way. In the intervening months, it seems that trouble is starting to follow a bit more closely in my footsteps.
Nicaragua
- As I was crossing the border into Costa Rica, a border dispute between the two countries flared up.
Panama
- In the week before I left, Panama experienced days of torrential rain.
- Debris and floodwater necessitated the closing of the Panama Canal due to meteorological reasons for the first time ever (the other notable closure was for the US Invasion in 1989). The father of a Panamanian friend I made works as a hydrologist for the Canal Authority, and he had to work outrageous hours.
- Landslides caused the closure of numerous key arteries throughout the country. At one point, floodwaters and landslides blocked the two highways linking Panama City and the country’s second most important city, Colón. One of the bridges across the Canal was closed indefinitely, and the Panamerican Highway into the Darien Province was closed.
- My friend Johanna had to be evacuated from the village in which she was doing agricultural work. You can see some of her pictures of the evacuation (i.e. traveling by boat along the Panamerican Highway) here on her blog.
- The day before I flew out of Panama, one of the runways at Tocumen International Airport buckled.
- If you’re interested in helping some of those affected by these floods, there’s information here.
Tunisia
- On the day I flew out of Tunis, a young fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire.
- As a result of the ensuing protests, within four weeks the government was dissolved. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled since before I was born, and whose smiling face covered posters all over Tunis as I explored the city, fled the country.
I liked marking the first quarter of my trip with a few quotations, and I’ll do the same now to mark the completion of my second quarter. These quotations can serve as a sort of sneak preview for upcoming posts.
- “A los arquitectos no les importa nada la ciudad | The city doesn’t mean anything to the architects” – lament by an architect in a meeting of a professional group of architects and urbanists
- “Panama Viejo, Multicentro, Multiplaza, Paitilla, Panama Viejo!” – shout by me hanging out the door of a bus, listing the bus’s route for potential riders
- “The big challenge for the world is cities in Africa” – statement by a retired World Bank transport expert
- “South-south collaboration” – description by the same transport expert of the assistance provided by Colombians to Tanzanians in the design of Dar es Salaam’s bus rapid transit system
- “You don’t expect anybody to bring a new daladala [minibus] here because the fare isn’t fair” – consultant for Tanzania’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Development
- “We must advise each other with my brain’s supreme committee” – subtitle translation for the Swahili in a movie shown on the Dar Express bus between Moshi and Dar es Salaam.
STN’s Stewart is a graduate of Swarthmore College and a recipient of a 2010 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a grant to study abroad. Stewart’s project is “School Bus Migrations: Recycling Transit in the Global South.” Follow his blog and see more photos from his journey.
