The Job

So lots of people have asked what it is exactly that I do. To make a baseball reference, I am the utility player. I fill in for others and do all the jobs that no else has time or the patience to do. It's an interesting position because I get to sit in the high level meeting and listen to the people narrate the story of what is happening. In these weekly and monthly meeting I am the one that takes the notes and writes the story. I write the minutes to make my company look good, and then the three bosses edit them to make us look even better.

The basics of the job is construction management for THE major ports company in Panama. It is owned by the largest ports managing company (based in Hong Kong) in the world. As the Panama Canal expansion takes place this port is moving more containers than ever before with only more work on the way. We are building a large transfer station (read Parking Lot) for containers. We have taken a large swamp and are in the process of turning it into a concrete slab. There has been quite a bit of noticeable difference made even in just the past 4 months of my employment.


Picture taken 11 July 08 (looking south) of the area that was dredged and then filled with sand. The river on the left side has been moved to run its present path. Note also the dock construction along the right side of the picture.



Picture taken 15 August 08 (looking north). Notice shipping containers at bottom of screen stacked six high. We are building more storage so that the entire sand area will have capacity to store shipping boxes. Eventually the dock will be extended an additional 500 meters along the east side of the canal to where it will make land fall. It is about 50 m wide.



Picture taken 30 September 08. I estimate the the sand area to be about 18-20 football fields.