One of my dreams was to visit the Panama Canal, it was a lifelong recurring dream which finally became a reality! And a nice one, especially having someone special with me – A native Panamanian Deaf professional artist Iris Aranda, who is with us to give DeafNation a best tour experience in Panama.

Iris is visiting her country and her family too, who lives there. Sorenson Communications is sponsoring her at DeafNation events this year, so it is a honor having Iris join us traveling most of Panama to find many interesting Deaf people and to see unique places. This is just the beginning of many surprises to come up in the next 10 days!

Coming to Panama, I was very interested in seeing the point where Central America meets South America, where the Panama Canal was. The canal is infused by a steady stream of business which impacts Panamanian economy. Looking at the Panama Canal, as a businessman myself, I viewed it as environmentally friendly because of the fact boats and ship conserve fuel, instead of being forced to travel all the way around South America, there is a canal for all ships to go through, providing a shortcut. “It saves business costs,” I thought.

Let’s take a brief look at the History of Panama: The Panama Canal is a man-made canal which joins the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. One of the biggest and most excruciately complex and difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it had an huge economical impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the longer route around the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the very southernmost tip of South America.

By the time the canal was completed, it was estimated that a total of 27,500 workmen died, and they were the French and American workers that did the entire project.

Seeing a place where men toiled with sweat to complete a gigantic project revealed to me on how it made the flow of trade easier, a burst to the economy. It was the best thing to ever happen for the world’s economies. It is also a key conduit for international maritime trade. The canal can accommodate any kind of boating vessel, from small private yachts up to large commercial vessels. The enormous project of building a canal was performed and completed by the United States in the early 1900s, with the canal finally opening in 1914.

When I walked into the canal in starting my assignments, I felt goosebumps all over my body over seeing all the mega ships, which were many, we even saw a sailboat cruising by. What made this even more spectacular, I walked on top of the chamber door and witnessed the water going down on the 3rd lock, while in the 2nd lock water was going up.

Seth Gerlis, DeafNation videographer took the risk walking with me on the dock, because if you lean toward the yellow bar, you can fall 150 feet down. Gerlis, like a steady DeafNation crew member followed me as I did my video report on it! The “donkeys” pull the ships through the locks. In the old days, real donkeys did pull many of the ships, but now the system runs by electric locomotives pulling ships, large or small, through the locks in the canal. The forward motion into and through the locks is actually provided by the ships engines, not the real “donkeys” anymore.

Dazzell Marshall of Panama Canal Authority was very impressed with us because he never saw an all-Deaf media doing a story on the Panama Canal before. Marshall expressed an interest in learning sign language, and also told Iris how amazed he was seeing Seth and I doing our media by being aggressive on all fronts doing a good feature on the Panama Canal for our DeafNation viewers. Marshall can’t wait for our video report to come out!

After the canal tour, we rushed to meet a man named Jose Guillermo at his home. Knowing that he was a Panama City police officer, we were surprised to find out he had been retired from the force 2 years already! Guillermo was on the Panama City police force for 25 years. It was surprising and puzzling to me given the fact as a Deaf man, he was hired as a fulltime police officer who was allowed to carry a handgun, he even drove his own police cruiser. He was drawn to the police force by good friends. Guillermo has endured gunfights with criminals to protect his colleagues. I’d want him on my side if it ever came to the point that his help would save my life.

Mentions Guillermo, “Another Deaf officer was shot dead, and that is the only other Deaf policeman I knew of. I hope there will be another Deaf police officer joining the force.” He indeed experienced all the bad things that happens in a crime-ridden neighborhood rampant with violence, yet he is stayed with the force until his retirement, escaping serious injury or death. I left with an impression that a Deaf person can be on any police force if given the chance to do so. Panamanian Deaf people can do anything, even become a police officer, if they try.

It was a perfect day to kick-off our Panama assignments! I am already sound asleep ready to wake to a very adventurous day two, come find out with us tomorrow!

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1. Stillness of Panama City
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3. Deaf School in Panama City
4. Run in with Deaf Tribe
5. Chirique Highlands: Coffee Farm & Mora Winery
6. Journey to the Paradise Kuna Yala
7. David in the Province of Chiriqui: 4 Deaf Siblings and their Sugar Cane Farm