The Panamanian government cares for its indigenous people and protected forests.......

Like I’ve described in past posts, there is a multinational corporation in the area where I work and live which is in the process of damming the River Changuinola, about a 45 minute walk from Nudobti. Now please keep in mind that this project is something that is supported by the Panamanian government, although the area is a nationally protected rainforest and it’s construction will significantly effect the biodiversity of its ecosystem, damage the nearby watershed and displace thousands of indigenous people and effect thier unique culture. They have already begun displacing people and houses have begun being constructed in my community (only a house - minus a farm to cultivate food and income for the families...) for some of the effected people by the company. Unfortunately, the whole project is being administered in an incredibly unsustainable and culturally insensitive way. The people, being uneducated, living in some of the most extreme poverity in Panama and situated in inaccessable and remote villages dont quite realize the severity of the situation and are receiving a small amount of money for their farms and to turn their heads to the issue.

Check out this website, and read a little bit more about it:

http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/panama_biosphere/

Check out this website

A Peace Corps friend of mine had a visitor from the states last year who is a professional photographer. All of the amazing photos he took were taken in Nudobti (where I live) and Valle de Risco (neighboring town), including my host familiy´s house (where I lived for 6 months of my young life) and some friends of mine in the community. Check out his website and click on ¨Galleries¨¨and then ¨Panama¨:

http://www.andrewlamoreaux.com/

Don´t throw fish bones to the dog!

So, I have been collecting Ngäbe myths. Certain things have become such common, excepted knowledge that I too have began too embrace, until I have a moment of clarity and think, ¨Wait a second, that goes against any sort of logic according to my traditional Western upbringing.....¨

- When you cut your hair you are to put the clippings under a tall tree so that your hair will grow back quickly and long. In my town you see little piles of hair under trees all the time.

- When you eat something with bones, you are to through the bones in the fire (there is an open fire in the center of every house in town) instead of out the window or to the dogs because if you do, the person who hunted or caught that animal will never be able to kill another one of them again. The first time I threw fish bones to the dog, the family I was with literally kicked me out of the house.

Traditional ¨kra¨ - made from kiga

- When a girl gets her period for the first time, she is secluded in a room or area of the house by herself and no one talks to her for three days, except for one woman elder. The woman bathes the girl everyday and takes her to the jungle to show her how to harvest fiddlehead ferns (this food represents the feminine strength of Ngäbe women). During those days the girl sits and makes a bag out of kiga (a natural fiber).

Henry hauling bananas

- Women wait between 6 months to a year to name their kids. All the kids in my town of that age range are simply called ¨chi¨, which in ngäbere means both ¨small¨ and ¨child.¨

Melina and some chiquillos

- Traditionally, Ngäbes were polygamous and most men of my grandparents generation had more than one wife. There are at least three men in my town that still have two wives that all live in the same house together with their montaña of kids.

- Apparently, the powers of the pregnant woman are both bad and good. For instance, if you have a cut or a blister, the best cure is for a woman who is with child to message here saliva into the wound to cure it and prevent infection. However, say you are sick with something and a pregnant woman visits your house, under any other circumstance it is expected that vistors should be gifted food, but if you gift a pregnant woman food, your ailment will become worse.

- If you are sick, you must cook and eat separate from the rest of the family and some also say that no one can even watch you eat.

- Sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws that are related by marriage never talk to each other (this is another one thats becoming out dated). Now normally, the adult children of one solo matriarch all live in the same house with their partners and their children. I´ve been in certian houses where none of the sister and brother-in-laws have ever talked to one another and don´t even know each other´s names even though they live, cook, sleep and eat together under one roof that have no walls and thus no private rooms.

- Women of the older generation file their front teeth to be serrated like the edge of a bread knife. I have gotten a million different reasons why, but I think it may be an aesthetics thing. For some reason these women are the most sought after (well, I guess in the past because very few of the modern generation do it).


I think I may have a million more, which are slipping my mind, other than the usual ¨hexes¨or ¨curses¨ that they put of one another when someone falls ill. Apparently, according to one woman, someone has put a curse on me before. Who really knows.