Darien Part 4: And Then They Painted Me

One of the aspects of my Darien visit that I was most looking forward to was getting to experience an indigenous culture so different than the one I live in.  I had heard tons of great things about the Embera and Wounaan people from other volunteers: that they're friendly, open people, the women still don parumas everyday, they feed you a lot of food, and that you can (especially on special occasions) get painted with jagua- a dark blue dye made from a small fruit.  Similar to henna, these faux tattoos last 1-2 weeks before fading away on their own.  Said to have both medicinal and bug repellant properties, jagua was originally used as a type of camouflage to aid with jungle hunts.  Today this tradition is used mostly on special occasions and holidays and can be quite intricate and beautiful.  

Since I didn't know if I'd have the chance to return to the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan, I was determined to get painted during my short visit.  Though I'm sure the guys were tired of my daily inquisitions of the who/when/how/how much of jagua, it finally paid off and I talked a sweet Emberá woman into painting me on my last day. 

The local women's group making tortillas for a fundraiser

Jagua paint

The jagua is painted on with small sticks, cloths, and/or fingers.  While at first the design doesn't appear to be very dark, it deepens into a deep navy overnight.  Since I don't have any tattoos- and especially not full sleeves or leg pieces, I wasn't used to the range of reactions I've gotten since getting painted.  I've seen everything from disgust to looks of being intimidated to outright impressed. While sometimes it's been a little trying to be so obviously judged on a superficial element in which the observer usually doesn't even understand, it's been both eyeopening and quite entertaining.  As your mom always told you, "Don't judge a book by it's cover."  :)

My sweet little Bocas neighbors modeling some of the handwoven masks I bought in the Darien.

If you want to learn more about the Emberá or see cool photos of life in the Darien, you should check out Nick's blog here.

Chocolate Grows on Trees and I got to Work with Them.

As part of our Pre-Service Training Program, each future volunteer is matched with a current volunteer in their sector and spends a week getting to know what life is like as a volunteer.  

For my volunteer visit, I got to go to a small indigenous village in Bocas del Toro, Panama.  The volunteer I was matched with works in improving cacao production and management among farmers in her town, but she also works with tons of other projects in education and agri-business. 

Elementary school boys using machetes to clear space for a school garden

Getting to her site was a little rough.  From Panama City we took a 7 hour bus ride to Davíd, where Peace Corps had a hotel room for us (Air conditioning!  Internet!  Running water!).  After a relaxing night there, we had another 3.5 hour bus ride before meeting the volunteer for a 40 minute super strenuous hike uphill to the village.   

The view from my volunteer's house

The people there are Ngobe-Bugle, an indiginous group that speaks both Spanish and their traditional language- Ngäbere.  It was really cool to hear them go back and forth in between the languages, and I'd love to learn Ngäbere if I were to get placed in an indigenous site!  

While I was there we worked on building a school garden and also helped a local cacao farmer take inventory of the trees in his finca.  Basic concepts like inventory and record keeping aren't always utilized among low-income farmers in Panama, so teaching them to implement these important tasks can make a huge difference.  For example, the farmer we worked with estimated that he had 600 cacao trees, but after counting them we realized that he only had about 350.  Without a proper inventory count, any budgeting and planning he does would be completely off.  

The local elementary school

Cacao Trees

Cacao pods and the fresh chocolate that her neighbors brought us 

Our advisor will be meeting with us over the next few weeks to process our visits and understand what we like and don't like so that she can place us in sites that we can be productive and happy in.  I'm really excited to see where I'll be spending the next two years, and after this visit I'll definitely be crossing my fingers for Bocas!