This last week we had some incredible weather with the short lived San Juan Summer where the skies are blue and the rain stays away sometimes for days. After driving to David to drop off my daughter who was returning to Miami, I was struck with the differences here in Chiriqui since I first visited 6 years ago. A new highway, a new airport, an ever expanding city of David and a new international school.
I arrived at the new International Airport in David within 45 minutes and that was with the on going completion of the new highway from Boquete. The airport will be expanded and completed later this year and we are all looking forward to the direct flights from the US with Copa and Continental that will be using this new facility soon.
Once the new highway is completed later this year, it may take as long to navigate through David as it will be to get there with all the new construction going on in the City. Things are definitely booming here in Chiriqui.
While I was returning to Boquete, I got a call on the (hands free) cell phone from one of the administrators at the Academia Internacional Boquete (AIB), Boquete’s new international school. We were discussing their plans for this year and the new school that they want to build here in Boquete.
Private education is increasing its participation in Panama’s educational system year after year; it currently covers 15% of primary and secondary education. If the free public education system does not meet consumers needs, they will look for better options, even if they have to pay more and more for it. There is no parent not willing to give their all so that their children have the best possible education.
Scheduled to complete it’s third successful year since its founding, Academia Internacional Boquete (AIB) looks forward to a yet greater educational achievements within a year. But even in a larger, more significant sense, the current planned and soon to be executed expansion of the school, will not only allow AIB’s founders the opportunity to fill a vital social need for Boquete’s immediate and growing surrounding communities, but also provide transformational, first class education to a region of the country that is poised for a future of dynamic suburban growth.
The ambitious goals of the new school are crowned by the primary goal of becoming the first Green school in Panama, capable of creating a new environmentally and socially progressive paradigm for learning in Latin America.
AIB was created to be a bilingual educational institution that provides is students with a comprehensive development that enables them to cope with the constantly changing conditions and nature of their immediate, regional and world environments. In its third year, the school’s current modestly sized facilities in the heart of Boquete provide this quality oriented education to a student body of 160 registered students, representing 26 nationalities.
AIB is an Eco-friendly school, focused on instilling in its students a durable and meaningful relationship with the values of nature and an understanding of the importance of the sustainability of ecosystems. AIB’s recycling program is among the best and most productive in Boquete. Regular field trips are themed with ecologic relevance and self sustainability in mind.
With its proximity to mountains and rivers, AIB students can readily interact with nature. The region of Boquete and of its surrounding communities offers young couples the perfect opportunity to raise a family and cultivate new roots. More on AIB.
WELCOME TO A NEW AGE FOR BOQUETE
As I have told several developers who have projects and are faced with the challenges of a new world economy, AIB presents the best opportunity for Boquete to enter a new age, one where younger couples with children can live as well as retirees and expats who continue to come here from around the world. Community is also about schools and education is the foundation for our future generation. With the new school opening, I predict that there also will be a lot of people looking to leave David, move up here and commute to work, which will be a much shorter trip with the new highway.
I look forward to seeing Boquete enter its next stage of growth and I predict that it will surpass the first one.
More pictures from Father’s day at AIB (courtesy of Mike Moore). You can see that there is much pride in the eyes of both the parents as well as the children.
