Survey of San Miguelito

Both of us visited the district of San Miguelito with their local Diputado (congressman). He wanted us to get an idea of his vast and electorally important district. Panama doesn't divide up their districts generally evenly as we do, they sometimes have huge districts like San Miguelito where they have seven representatives who all represent the same large area. We started in a middle-class neighborhood where they were holding an exercise class. We had several more stops and by the end we were trekking up muddy paths to meet people who live in tin shacks without electricity (ok, the manage to steal some from the electricity lines that run through their neighborhood), running water or sewers. It is strange to look out at prosperous Panama from these desperately poor areas.