QUEBRADAS LLANAS Cont...

This picture should have been last, as Indiana Jane cooked us up a serious reward here.
Seeing as I messed up, it's first. And yeah, her cake was good. Wifey was counting the calories on every climb just so she could eat some cake, as you can tell from her happy smile.
One of those things again. These four legged things keep creeping up. This one was free roaming as far as we could tell. Lots of them around, and although shy, they usually get over it and come nosying around.
This guy was chucking beans when the ladies came calling. He was busy though, what with the beans and all...
So Nadia decided to help out.
Friend thought that the switch was amusing.

It looks as if my saying that Ngäbere smiles being few and far between is a lie. It's not. This Ngäby smile is again very rare, as is their telling you their names.
It wasn't too long ago that sharing a name was common, as it is in our community. However, some malicious latinos found out that they could claim land as their own by simply claiming to be the landowner and knowing the proper name. A flood of latinos quickly took advantage, becoming instant friends of these shy people so they could get their proper first and last names. Once they got that, they went to the claims office and claimed the land had been sold to them, leaving the natives with nothing.
Today, it's very rare that a native will tell you their real name.
We're arguing logistics here, and dividing up the houses between us.
Alfonso is a great friend. Both him and his wife sacrificed a great career, and against all odds, came to volunteer here in Panama. As many know, he is of course unpaid and has used his own meager funds to be here.

We're hoping he and his wife can be here forever. Wife and I have tremendous respect and great love for the two, who always seem to have a huge smile on their face even when facing serious stress.
Who's the trapped one, the monkey or the boy?

Shy, and not shy...Most Ngäbere boys and girls start working early and never make it to school.
This bridge is actually pretty good. And the people in the back (out of view) are very happy to see us.
Although it looks as if they're waiting for me to lay an egg, it's not. But, I have no idea what we were all talking about. I'd like to say that it was something incredibly spiritual. Yeah, that's it.
Around Volcán Baru, we can actually see how clouds form.

This is a traditional ngäby home, likely owned by the woman in the picture. Note the cooking area in the back and the baby wrapped up and hanging in the hammock.Now, which way is the horizon? We made a trip back to Quebradas Llanas ("Broken Rims") a difficult to reach place. The trip itself is beautiful, and I had gone there twice before - once by mountain bike with friends and a second time on a borrowed ATV. This time we drove part way and hiked in the rest. About 30 kms were walked that day, but it was very rewarding.

The black circle marks the area we left our car in. We would still be walking 5 hours later before turning around.
This ngäby woman just works in this 'finca,' or farm. She would never be able to afford the equipment seen in the pic, and is living rent free in the house as long as her man works for the owner.
If you look VERY carefully, you'll be able to see two small shacks in the center of the photo roughly in the middle. Each house sits on its own little hill. That's part of our territory.
Here, the girls had a great time witnessing to the lonely man who lived there. Not sure he was paying much attention to what was being said :)
Lunch time.

All in all, a great day. We had a number of great conversations with very interested people who kept asking us to come back. We will, in two weeks.

It's all about the people (well, mostly...), cont...

Well, there are the flowers too, which are seen in the most unlikely of places.
Three little cuties vying for attention.
Sara is doing a return visit. She's been in the Ngäbere field for about six months and is doing very well with the language. To understand its complexity, it's good to keep in mind that the English language has 500 words. Spanish has about 550. Ngäbere has 900, 200 of which are verbs which can have completely different words depending on tense, somewhat similar to "I will go...am going...went," except much worse, :)

They came back with family for more pics...
These two girls were found after a 300 meter climb, where we both had studies.
Wife is studying with a few kids, whose mother is interested but very slow in comprehension. The kids were absolutely mesmerized as they followed her along for half an hour, but completely ignored me. Chris is a natural with kids.
The stunned look on my face is my shock at seeing those massive red flowers from yesterday's blog pic. Never saw anything like it, and I've been here two years. Neither did the owner, who says this is a first in panama. Sounds very other-worldly.
More pics of our hike. I could be here forever walking these hills...
...Except for this part.

We're always looking for new people to speak to, even though the ones we witness to still accept our message eagerly.

Yesterday and today we went out into a previously unworked territory, mapping it out by GPS, on our borrowed ATV. We figured we had this all worked out and would have a GPS verfied map in our hands in no time.
Ha.
Left the quad behind after 20 minutes on the second day. The 'roads' here are ROUGH.
Came across this massive stunner.
Friendly people everywhere.
Friendly rivers too, as my coordinator found out.
A Not at Home.
Luckily this river had a bridge.
Alfonso was happy too.
Gorgeous views throughout. Waaayyyy off in the distance, you can see the 'road' we left our ATV on.
Rest time, three hours in.
This may look like fun, but I was about ready to leave my borrowed ATV here permanently.
Summing it up, we had a great time and are prepping to return for a three day hike / camp expedition with our wives so we can penetrate deeper into the outback. Just as we turned around, the last guy told us ahead a few kms was a little town. Hmmmm....

Excursion to Sagüi

On our recent trip to Sagüi, we came to see how loving the indigenous people really are, which helps dispel the image of friday nights drunken bouts.
The road the pickup had to travel to get to our departure point into the bush took 3 hours off our hike, thankfully, and though we crossed 2 rivers in the pickup, the road was remarkably good.

Later we found out why. The local Alcaldia (town government), when building the road, had told the Ngäby Witnesses that their brothers would be using the road for assemblies, so could they please come and crush rocks for the next year to help out?
They did. For one year. For free.


Traditional ngäby home - one of many we saw along the way


Here we've set up camp at the site. Pics are somewhat out of order. Notice the wonderful group kitchen. Our ngäby brothers worked hard and silently all weekend to prep the site and keep the campground clean.

Old versus new...
The assembly site. It's powered with solar panels, as there is no electricity in the whole 'Comarca'.
A few of our happy ngäby sisters. Smiling and other facial expressions are difficult for the natives, as they rarely show emotions visibly. However, they will laugh hysterically before and after pictures are taken. Their smile here is a rarity.
6 got baptized, out of 200 publishers. 742 were present on the last day of the assembly.
Our hike to and from the assembly site.
We met this little girl doing her chores along the way. She was in a hurry.
No matter how hard I tried or how many funny faces I made, it was next to impossible to get these girls to smile for the camera.
Our luggage, delivered first class on our return trip.
This is our version of a traffic jam.
On the way there, I had to take the horse. Knowing nothing of these weird 4 legged things with attitude, I slowed everyone down.


This indigenous girl was enraptured with the swimming mask of one of our latino friends.

That little monkey took one look at Chris and made a beeline for her.

A little bevy of native beauties.
One of the families who had to travel loooong distances to get there. One old blind man traveled 2 days.

The final test lol. Some sisters cried.

Buses Comarca style.

Rivers were getting flooded on the return trip. They were at pickup bed level.
She doesn't seem phased.