Day 6: Monday 21 January - Panama City, D-Day minus one!

Day 6: Panama City

Apologies again - I'm just sharing my Facebook post. I really struggled this morning due to lack of sleep and tomorrow is a big day, so I'm turning in early for a change (midnight). Will update this to a full blog with student reflections when I get the chance.

"The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning..." View from our hotel window.

We started with Mass in another beautiful old church, Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Merced, where we were joined by pilgrims from Brisbane and Wollongong. The 6 priests and I were waiting in the sacristy when 5 minutes before Mass we got a message that the bishop who was supposed to celebrate couldn’t make it. 

Fr Greg asked Fr Francis to preside and me to do the homily! I normally take at least 5 hours prep time, and I literally had 5 minutes. The Gospel was about not fasting when the bridegroom is with you and I used this as an opportunity to talk about happiness vs joy - that happiness comes from external things but that joy comes from within and is based on the knowledge that we are loved completely and unconditionally. Michelle Chahine told me afterwards to stop wasting my time preparing for homilies as this was the best she’d heard from me. I replied that anything good came from the Holy Spirit and the rest was me!

From there we went to the visitors centre at Miraflores Lock at the Panama Canal. Opened in 1914 a triumph of human ingenuity. A clever system of dams and locks raises or lowers massive container ships 26 meters as they travel between the Pacific to the Atlantic. 

After watching a ship pass through a spontaneous celebration was started by some Mexican pilgrims - needless to say we all joined in. We had a nice Italian lunch by the waterfront near the famous Panama sign. On the way home we had the best bus singalong I’ve experienced in a long time, with the students belting out classics like Man in the Mirror, Wonderwall and Country Roads! A music practice for the Australian gathering tomorrow (I’m playing bass) and a swim finished off the afternoon. 

We headed to the local mall - Multiplaza - for dinner using out WYD meal tickets for the first time. I had sushi with banana, cheese and avocado, something I’ve never come across before! My small group was joined at dinner by Juan from Columbia and José from Venezuela, both volunteers at WYD. Their English was a little better than my Spanish and we scraped by in Spanglish and sign language. 

Back at the hotel it was Skye’s turn to lead a singalong at the piano. We finished off the night with a dance practice for Come Alive from The Greatest Showman that we will be using at Catechesis. Praying, walking, eating, riding, watching, worshiping, celebrating, reflecting, playing, sharing, singing and dancing - another full day. 😄 Funny to think that after all we’ve been through, tomorrow is when the WYD celebrations actually begin!

Reflections from students:

Skye

“We went to see the ships moving through the canal. After the ship had moved through the pilgrims started talking to each other, exchanging souvenirs and singing. The singing created a fun environment, even though they were singing in Spanish we were all dancing and smiling and joining in. We talked to people from Argentina and Columbia who could speak a little English. We were disappointed that we had nothing to trade with them as they had left it all on the bus.

The Church we had Mass at was really pretty with the golden background. It is interesting that even though it was in a really run-down area they have such a beautiful church, they really make church a priority.”

Ian

I liked Mass this morning, your homily stood out – you were talking about joy and how not to mix up new wine with old wine skins. I really found that meaning.

At Mireflores we were watching the ships go through the lock. Then Nicaragua started singing and everybody joined in. They were chanting in Spanish “Esta es la juventud del Papa!” (we are the children of the pope). Then the Mexican pilgrims brought out their guitar and drums and a big circle formed of people singing the WYD Theme song in Spanish. I was really annoyed that I didn’t have any gifts to exchange – pilgrims were swopping souvenirs with each other but I’d left my on the bus.

The Panama Canal is a huge feat of human ingenuity is amazing how we can use physics to our advantage – such as the use of gravity to raise and lower the ships. The physics that went into the construction and engineering was amazing.”

Jaeden

“I enjoyed serving at Mass in the morning, it was special to serve in such a beautiful church overseas. I’ve always wanted to altar serve but have never got around to it. One of the seminarians, Hieu, asked me. I told him I hadn’t done it before but he said just to follow him. It was special to be a part of the Mass. I liked your homily that nothing that happens at World Youth Day is a coincidence, to watch out for the presence of the Spirit, and that we are living by God’s grace and everything here is providence, a gift from God. I’ve had encounters with quite a few people in unexpected places at exactly the right time for me. Every seems to be happening for a reason, there is a meaning behind everything.

It was good to see the locks. They are good for the country and the world. But what stood out the most was how the pilgrims from all over started to sing songs and engage with each other. 

I tried some local “sushi” for dinner – if you can call it that… it had banana on the top and cheese and avocado inside! It was a weird mixture but I still ate it and it was ok. It was also warmer than usual!"

Notes on the Panama Canal:

35-45 ships pass through the canal each day. Over a million ships have gone through since 1914. The Spanish made roads to cross Panama - 250 years of Spanish reign. In 1850 the US built the first transcontinental railway. Spanish explorer, Balboa, was first European to cross Panama and see Pacific. The Spanish used to carry gold across Panama. In 1880 France started construction of a canal. However, this was doomed to failure and 20 years later the French abandoned the task. In 1903 Panama declared independence and signed treaty with USA to build the canal. The US kept control of the canal, land on both sides of it and had a military presence on that land. There were riots in 1964 against US ownership, and some Panamanian citizens were killed by the US military. In 1977 a treaty was signed between the US and Panama that in 1999 control would return to Panama. Panama seems to have really capitalised on regaining the lock and moving forward in a positive way as a nation, investing in infrastructure and development.

In 500 years since Panama was founded, the roads, railway and canal are all at the same part of the Isthmus which at 80 km long is the shortest path across. It took $387 million dollars and 10 years of construction to open in 1914, a huge amount of money at that time. In 1962 the canal started operating 24 hours - smaller ships go at night. For every ship through the canal the Captain must hand over command to a Panama pilot to guide them through

Panamax (5,000 containers capacity) and NeoPanama (18,000containers) were too big to fit through the original locks. New locks opened in 2016. It cost $5.2 billion to expand the canal in 2007. Car carriers go through the canal, the largest ones carry 8,500 cars. Ships pay per container. Last year one NeoPanamax ship paid $1.2 million to cross the canal. The "vessel" that paid the least was in 1928 when a US citizen swam the Panama Canal in 10 days - 8 km a day! He weighed 148 pounds so he paid 36 cents! He has two records - both the cheapest and the longest time crossing. It take a ship about 12 hours.

Locks raise and lower ships by two sets of 8, 8 and 10 meters raising/lowering by 26 meters. There are dams which are used to control the water pressure. Water is moved by gravity. 2,000,000,000 litres are used per ship. It's all fresh water from the dams. Ships are currently going north - from the Pacific to the Atlantic.