On the Rez….or, Where There Are No Photos
The National Geographic map of the northeast coast of Panama shows clusters of tiny, pale fragments of land stretching from Punta San Blas to the Columbian border. Only one road, completed six years ago, leads in from the rest of the country to a dead end in the western edge; sometimes it closes as a result of the sort of Indian/non-Indian disputes that are familiar to those from the United States. Canotte Brooklyn Nets The rest is accessible only by boat or small plane. This is the autonomous, indigenous comarca of Guna Yala (the current most acceptable spelling, but still it is often Kuna Yala or San Blas), whose garrulously political people were one of the first to gain independent control in Latin America and who have parsed the social change equations intensely and uniquely. It is here that we have been sailing, back and forth and up and down again, since January. We have not seen a road or vehicle since we arrived.
Up a bit closer, the islands as we sail up present a similar public face.
Tightly packed thatched roof huts (5-15 year roofs, depending on which palm one uses), narrow or very narrow alleys every which way (high cane fences bound together with yellow baling twine), a cement public dock, the gathering house (large hut with wooden benches, the leader’s hammock), the chicha house (massive pots for the ritual alcoholic brew, used in puberty ceremonies), shady openings into dark stores where you can barely see sweetened condensed milk, tinned tuna, macaroni, tomato paste, et al), solar panels, Kuna flags, outhouses and pig pens over the water, cargo dugouts full of jugs and drums for hauling fresh water from the river. The many uninhabited islands have coconut palms that are some one in particulars to harvest, white beaches, coral barrier reefs, and black lava rocks.
Sand fleas bite; no sunbathing on the beach. The mainland is jungle ridges; there are no lights, no signs of logging or roads, just the jungle of the Darien peninsula.
In short, the Kuna fled the coastal mainland in the 1800s, pushed out by insects, snakes, disease, and fear of the Spanish, and pulled towards the islands by increased trade. They used them to live on, beginning to do more fishing and diving, but went each day by dugout canoe to the mainland to grow plantains, yucca, other roots, pineapple, papaya.
Latin prejudice (“those ugly gold nose rings, those unhygienic dresses and beads, the godless religion”) and police coercion (ripping out nose rings, beatings and jailings, forced social dances for women only to encourage intermarriage with Latinos) led to the 1925 independence revolution. From the classic nightly gathering of all eligible folks (no women or young men), where cases were adjudicated and decisions made about water use and land use and conjugal fights and collective work, there has evolved a spectrum of governance which remains in some ways decentralized and democratic and consensual. NIKE AIR MAX 2017 HEREN KOPEN adidas scarpe bianche Soldes Chaussures Nike
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Each island has three sahilas (chiefs), an arkar who interprets the sahila’s words, sualipet (policemen), but the number of each and of others as well as the specialization varies. The chants and stories and consensus formation that are part of meeting of the community congress traditionally defined the body politic. The society is classically matrilocal. On the edge of a colonial and then neocolonial society, they have developed a general Congress that meets twice yearly, picked up traditions like fines and flags, worked and sparred with missionaries, and grown in number. They principally sell coconuts as a cash crop, reverse applique molas that are part of women’s blouses, and commercial lobster. asics gel kinsei 4 mujer Others have developed a tiny service sector for sailors or tourists (but even at the most pricy, the huts are thatched and the sheets still dried in salt air). Half of the Kunas live and work off of the comarca, typically in Panama City or Colon.
Up a little closer,….at the wharf which is the entry to most villages…
A Columbian, affably eager to talk with other foreigners, gut swinging out over his grimy shorts, threshes with a long pole with a metal plate attached to the bottom and squashes hundreds of aluminum cans. The Kuna sell them for $0.25 a pound to the boats, which resell them in Columbia for $0.40 a pound to recyclers.
A Kuna woman, who handles the money in her family, supervises the offloading of cases of unknown soft drinks, counting slowly to herself, and addresses the captain when she is two bottles short. T.J. Yeldon – Alabama Crimson Tide mochilas kanken big Once settled, barefoot young men shoulder these as well as her sacks of rice to bring them home.
Boys in groups giggle and wave sticks and jig furiously for fish, jump in and out of dugouts, running around in their underwear or shorts. They start fishing around 5-6 years old and are independent by 7 or 8. Washington Wizards VCU Rams
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A 60 year old,70 ft wooden trading boat, double decks and painted gaily, is tied up. Traders lay their goods out on blankets…crackers, Pampers, Maria cookies, plastic dish ware, dictionaries, buckets, red or blue padded bras, really bad Chinese kids’ plastic toys, detergent. Off the boat, the crew peddle bottled gas, sacks of sugar and rice, cases of cooking oil, flats of eggs, frozen meat. SMU Mustangs Jerseys fjällräven kånken mini Others just hang indolently off the stern, perched by hammocks and two burner stoves, watching. TCU Horned Frogs
A smaller trader with an open cargo hold met bad weather and his load of bananas rotted before he arrived. Bobby Rainey asics gel nimbus 14 hombre Nike Air Max TN Homme We hang with the crew, bemused about the mess, and they assure us that Columbian drug traders leave coastal vessels alone. Joe Montana Notre Dame Jersey
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The few fruit that are salvageable are given away to make drinks of cacao and banana. air max 2017 bianco donna
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He is not sure what to do with the rest, so that he can fill the hold with coconuts to take back to Columbia. FREE RN
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It is very busy. It seems like it could be 1940, somewhere. We like hanging out at the dock a lot.
But getting a little closer…once into the village, we find that each seems completely different from the others, in spite of the rhythmic commonalities of women with a tenacious sense of presence sitting by twos and threes in their doors sewing molas in the afternoon, dugouts taking off for the river before dawn and sailing back in the early afternoon, the conch shell calls for notifications of meetings and doings, the graceful motions of the men fishing at dusk with hand lines, the faint whistle the Kuna make when they approach RC Louise to sell fish or molas. As different as Hood River and Beaverton and Eugene.
At one, Nargana, a stand out both for pushing for education in the 1900s and electing to leave many traditions behind, we nudge in through a tangle of plank docks, floating plastic garbage, and weeds, then balance on a grounded dugout to reach land. We chat about everything from the universal bursary that all students in Panama have received for the past 5 years (in one fell swoop of social policy buying school attendance, a feeder system to maintain middle class, population control, a bit of nationalism) to the relative merits of each water taxi to the needs of the disabled. The island had a water pipe which started at a source that is a several hour hike through jungle, but it broke a few years back; all water, all water, for the whole village comes by dugout… a 30 minute trip up the river, where it is laboriously ladled into containers, all day long.
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At night, because the citizens here do not elect to have community gatherings to attend in the evening, everybody is out sitting in chairs by their huts or strolling in the coolness, the air buzzing with sounds of kids playing. We are allowed to stay at night, unlike many islands which quiet down except for the long gatherings both political and ritual, and where we are generally not welcome in the evenings. There are people here who are overweight, which essentially is not seen anywhere else. Alcohol is sold in a store. This is the island that caters to sailors, so we go there to buy cabbage, onions, eggs, macaroni, eggplant, limes, and such when a boat has arrived; in a long stretch of bad weather there was no fresh food.
At another, Mamitupu, billed at the other end of the spectrum as “one of the most traditional” is a gorgeous river whose mouth narrows in the dry season to a sand bar. At first light dozens of dugouts are paddled over from the island.
The fincas are all slash and burn with rotations about every 5 years; the crops are all interplanted with absolutely no straight lines, a lush wonderland of fruit trees and root crops. The water pipe to the island follows the path.
By mid-morning the men bring back blue land crabs, coconuts, gourds for bowls, palm leaves, avocados, mangos, and sacks of pebbles (for flooring in the rainy season) and zig zag, laughing at the risk of tipping over, across the bar. Canotte nba swingman Yet it also here that here that we see the only private diesel generator, are hustled by a 14 year old girl to buy a tiny very green papaya which may never ripen for an exhorbitent price, are offered the cheesiest of tourist molas, see a sofa and matching chairs offloaded from the trading boat. Again, we talk all evening with a man about whether the culture is going to become a “Kuna museum” and how missionaries did not respect Kuna culture. new balance roma via nazionale Canotte NCAA
At Aligandi, there are perhaps a few hundred retired Kuna men who worked as cooks on an exclusive contract with the Americans in the canal zone. There is more money, by the looks of the buildings, although the unusual wood houses picked it up from the American base which was nearby. Nike Air Huarache Donna Supposedly there are rusting tractors in the hills from a failed attempt to persuade the Kunas that plowing rectangular fields made sense. There are padlocks on many gates, a first. Baskets ASICS Femme The island has a hospital built by Baptist missionaries who started with “appendectomies on a table in the dark” stuff and now run a feeding and preschool center for children. zalando new balance uomo saldi adidas yeezy boost The community health worker said the vaccination rates for children under 5 is very high. Nike KD Womens Shoes nike air max 90 mujer He said it had been many years since he could remember a case of measles. He offered up that Guna Yala is well-protected against any cases brought in by American or European tourists. Nike Air Max 2016 Dames Groen Drew Brees – Purdue Boilermakers
At Playa Chicon, there are the standard cell tower and airfield. Air Max 90 Donna Bianche
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Sometimes we can email or even go to a website via the Digicell phone network, but even using the phone can require some tricky maneuvers.
We hike with a man to the cemetery, polished mounds of red clay over the graves where the deceased are lowered in hammocks. 
Women burn cacao beans and place them in urns on the graves, which are sheltered by thatched roofs and sometimes blankets of plastic. The hunter’s grave has tiger skulls on it, and a selection of strung up jawbones with teeth. There is a hut where women who come to the graves make coffee over a fire and sit and stitch. A 4 month old died while we were there. Later at the man’s house at the edge of the island, we realize that during the rainy season the water is up to their ankles inside the big one room sleeping structure slung with hammocks.
And then people come by the RC Louise in dugouts. new balance 993 outlet Some buy vegetables in Colon, transport them to the peninsula, and then into a boat. Others bring molas. A “master mola maker and infamous transvestite” who recited many legends came by and I let Steve decide on the choice; I laughed later when I realized it had almost all black stitching which stuck out, which violates the most basic qualities of what makes a good mola. fjallraven kanken goedkoop Slipped by me with all that talk. Fisherman bring lobster and crab and octopus, both in and out of season, as well as fish, usually still flapping. 
People will ask for a cell phone charge, some water to drink, some sunscreen (an albino young man with large facial tumors), magazines.
We talk and talk and talk (mostly in Spanish, which most men speak, and only some women speak). 
We are welcome. We see a people who have parried deftly with cultural choices, who are constantly parsing technological choices. In extraordinary short time frames they have been presented with a torrential downpour of written language, Western medicine, recreational drugs, electricity, education, the internet, tinned food, piped water, commercial lobster markets, tourism, smaller families (not in that order). Kam Chancellor Seattle Seahawks Jersey At times it seems like they are in free fall, at other times they seem to be doing a remarkably good job of making it up as they go along. Observation, adjustment, selection, cravings.
The devil is always in the details of the intertidal zone of change. New Balance 990 męskie This week the road into Guna Yala was closed in a spit over licensing fees for drivers bringing different kinds of passengers and goods into the comarca. Cruisers get upset about an assortment of fees charged for entry and anchoring, often not in the predictable way they might be set out in, say, Switzerland. The Kunas themselves still need permission from the sahila to travel to far away islands or out of the comarca. If the Kunas do not have economic control over something, they may decide to simply outlaw it: scuba diving is illegal here. ULTRA BOOST 2017
No one really likes their photo taken, although it is accepted as part of the cost of a transaction.
I don’t routinely take my camera into the villages, although we have done village photo shoots and given families prints.
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There are some great photos by a French guide, who comments that rules are made to be broken, at www.sagapanama.com
I am often reminded of Ian Frazier’s words in “On the Rez”: “Another remark which non-Indians often make on the subject of Indians is ‘Why can’t they get with the program?’..Now, I think it’s better not to answer the question but to ask a question in return: What program, exactly, do you have in mind? We live in a craven time. I am not the first to point out that capitalism, having defeated Communism, now seems to be about to do the same to democracy. The market is doing splendidly, yet we are not, somehow.” Outsiders of all ilk have asked that question about Kuna Yala for centuries.
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Sometimes I look at the kids from different families, always out and about in the alleys, learning complex skills at young ages (girls start sewing at 6 years old), laughing and smiling and running…and wish my grandchildren had a bit of that.
One reef of the coast here is named Spokeshave, after the sharp metal cutting blade.
The mortality rate for vessels themselves in the San Blas in the last four months is about 3% (no lives lost). This is based on a guesstimate of 250 boats having passed through, and about 6-8 have ended up on reefs. From the point of view of captains, crew, sailors, the Kuna, and traders, this is a devastating event and engenders controversy about salvage rights as well as humiliation, disappointment, financial plans gone south, and a bunch of permanent hulks on the reef. Sadly, most sailors recognize that they broke their own rules “just once”, typically sailing at night and not recognizing that electronic charts are not accurate here. There is a lot of non-Indian talk about “the Kunas took everything”, though some sailors took large amounts of gear off in dinghies and at least one managed to pull the boat off. While we are certainly no experts on salvage rights, it seems that many places in the world one cannot expect to save too much when one’s boat is wrecked. Hey, those Cape Codders even used to light fires on beaches to lure passing ships into shore and pillage them. adidas zx 500 donna New Balance 577 męskie
Our sailing here is mostly day sailing, with winds under 25 kts, and we don’t roam too much when the semi-permanent low off of Columbia makes spitting seas. The challenge has been reef navigation, which mostly requires being alert, but which is made easier by the relatively contiguous structure of reefs. And having a shallow draft boat….
Most people use a guidebook by Eric Bauhaus for navigation, yet even a few of his way points, which are generally spot on, put one 20 ft from a reef.
Our fishing is mostly with an actual spinning rod, small sierra mackerel and tuna and jacks. Nike Air Max 2017 schoenen nike air max 2016 dames Maglia Damian Lillard Steve battled the breaking waves at the surf line of the outer reefs to harvest cayenne keyhole limpets and another shell of unknown name with a foot plate like a gold mandala.
In Hawaii the old men go out to harvest them for weddings and christenings, and die. One thought is that they are expendable, the other is that it lets them experience “the sharp edge” that they loved in their youth. He also spear fishes for red lionfish, cutting off the venomous fins while in the water; the meat is excellent. We snorkel when there is sun, often for 2-3 hours daily. For the first time I have started to learn the names of the fish, although I still cannot just reel off the words “scrawled filefish” or “smooth trunkfish” or “yellowline arrow crab”. Mostly, I have started to be able to see some of all that is there, although I appear to have a special filter which blocks out the nurse sharks that those swimming next to me see. We’ve also been sampling new roots. Brandon Belt Jersey 
We have had many guests, a first for us. Before they came, I delusionally thought it was a mere matter of having some more food aboard and teaching them how to use the head. adidas X homme Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 In fact, before and after is a strategic event related to water and power: we are going up a river to do washing, taking on water at an island, ordering food from Panama City, hanging around Nargana waiting for the Columbian traders to show up.
But mostly, I realize that every little thing about a boat–how to walk, where to hold on, how to wash dishes, how to wash oneself, how to be safe, et al–has to be taught. chaussures nike tn requin nike air max 1 Mike and Liz (see Bocas del Toro) won the “Most Patient in Bad Weather” award, Melinda the “I Take Orders Well and Will Be Your Kitchen Bitch” award, and Robin and Eddie the “We Just Love being Here” award, with special mention for “Rapid Adaptation by One Who is Paralyzed”. Air Jordan 12 (XII) Robin found the handholds and small spaces and ladders on a boat perfect. It has been a special treat to have them all.
The Summit of the Americas is being held in Panama City in April. Yesterday the Secret Service guys in shorts were all over so-called “BBQ island” in the Holandes Cayes. We are hopin’ that Barack and Raul get to go out there together and have a real straight talk…and a BBQ. We’d be happy to make it a cruiser style potluck and garbage burning party.
Steve’s daughter and her family are coming soon, and we are truly excited to show them around our world for a bit. Then we will be back to Shelter Bay to put the RC on the hard while we return to Oregon.
Tracy.
