A 6 hour bus ride on a “coaster”, an overcrowded mini bus swerving to avoid potholes, followed by a nights stay, then a 30 minute van ride to the port, followed by a 4 hour boat ride in a wooden boat without a cover through the Pacific Ocean, and finally a three hour hike through the jungle! This journey brought me to the wonderful community of Villa Keresia, population ~80.
Last week each trainee had a site visit with a current volunteer to help get a better grasp on the life of a volunteer. I visited an awesome girl named Jessica that was very well liked by her Embera (indigenous group) people. Although I was only there for about two days and nights because of the long travel time to the Darien province, I had a well rounded experience. As Jessica and I were hiking back to her site she was reassuring me that she has only seen a hand full of snakes her whole time at site (one year). Right on cue we saw a snack stretched out on the path, this being after we saw a dead baby crocodile and a spider as big as my hand!
The Embera are a very welcoming, friendly, and interesting community. They were enjoyable to talk to even though the language barrier as well as an accent barrier. In the couple days I was in Villa Keresia I spent a lot of time going with Jessica to visit with the families and eating of lot of meals that consisted of deep fried dough, deep fried corn patties, deep fried plantains, and rice, not my usual diet!
While I was in the Darien I got the opportunity the get “painted” which is a tradition only done by this tribe and in that part of panama! The dye is similar to a henna Tatoo. It comes from a plant called jogua. They normally paint up their entire bodies for special occasions with different “tribal” patterns. The dye generally lasts 10 days, I am on day 7 and it has significantly faded and is gone from my face. I was also given a paruma, which is the traditionally skirt that all of the women wear. They are essentially brightly colored fabrics with bold prints that they wrap around and tuck in. I am wearing one in the picture.
This town just recently fixed all of they pit latrines, however, they have no potable water and drink straight from the river. The community says they want potable drinking water that runs to all the houses but have not taken any steps to help Jessica accomplish this. Jessica is the first volunteer in this site and it takes time to build trust and get a community to take action. I have no doubt she is on the right track and the community is starting to come together.
In just under two weeks I will be finding out my site placement of my own! Times buzzin by. On Saturday my whole group leaves for a technical week together at a current volunteer site were we will learn more hands on projects! I’ll fill you in on this experience when I return!
Erin Storck 