Alto Playon

For the next 2 years, I will be living and working in the community of Alto Playon.  It community is located in the Comarca Embera-Wounaan, Cemaco in the Darien region of Panama.  To get to my site from Panama City, you take a Darien bus for about 6 hours to the entrada at Punuloso.  You would then take a ride share on a road for about 35 minutes which leads to Puerto Limon.  From there you, can take a boat ride down the Chucunaque River in a jamba (Embera for boat) down the river for about 20 minutes to Alto Playon.  Mind the howler monkeys growling at you to the right.

'Comarca' holds the same meaning as Native American reserve as in the United States.  The Embera-Wounaan are two indigenous groups of people, who share the same culture but distinct languages.  While Alto Playon is mainly Embera, there are some Wounaan who live here.  Embera-Wounaan people are known as "Chocoes."  This is because they are originally from the Chocoe River in Colombia, and have always lived in the jungle between Panama and Colombia.  If you went to an Embera village in Colombia, you would find the lifestyle to be the same.  The Embera-Wounaan are river people, and I quickly found that there is no difference between being wet and dry here.  

To the men falls the responsibility of farming the lands for rice, platano, yucca, name, otoi (all tubular), corn, cacao, avocado, borhongoi (a fruit), to name a few.  The jungle also provides them with wild game to be hunted.  The men will take off in a large jamba with rifles and machetes to go looking for game.  They often come back with gato solo (wild cat), bidoe (wild pig), zamo & zocorro (wild birds), armadillo, and iguanas :(.  Finally, there is plenty of fresh fish in the river that are caught by spreading out large nets in the river.  Donsella is the best because it barely has any bone.  

The women in the village mostly tend to household activities.  Every morning they are the first to be up and fetch water from the river or rain barrels.  They start cooking breakfast, which undoubtedly will contain rice - something you eat 3 times a day here.  The day will then continue with an assortment of activities:  washing clothes, husking rice, feeding the animals, washing dishes, taking care of kids, and working on a canasta (a craft of hand made plates and vases).  Some women to accompany the men to the farm, and can lift pounds of harvested goods like you've never seen before.

There is a primary school in the town which has 3 teachers and a principle.  The students go to class from about 8 to 1.  Primary schools is the equivalent of 1st through 6th grade here in Panama.  All the kids wear uniforms of white collar shirts and blue slacks or skirts.  They play and have fun all the time.  They are usually jumping in the river, or rowing a jamba, throwing rocks at birds, looking for fish in the nets, or playing marbles.  Playing with the kids is great, because you are a 12 year old again - where its fun to laugh things off.  I find that playing with the kids teaches me more about the adults and their traits.

I apologize for the lack of pictures but I don't have a connection that will upload them!