Emberá-Wounaan Culture

The Emberá-Wounaan are known for carving coco-bolo, which is a type of wood that is used to make beautiful crafts. It is really hard to find coco-bolo close to the villages because it has all been cut down. Unfortunately I don’t have too many other pictures, but I have seen big carvings of iguanas, crocodiles, sword fish, etc. Here he is carving a masher to use in the kitchen and a cane.

Very well known throughout Panamá is the craft that the Emberá-Wounaan are known for is making canastas. These baskets are hand woven from a plant called chunga. It is dried out in the sun for the white color. The black color comes from cooking the chunga with coco-bolo. The yellow is derived from a plant, whereas the rest are from dyes. The women get together to make canastas and typically sell to tourists or vendors who come from Panamá.

The Colombians recently celebrated a quiceañera for a young girl in the village. The evening started with a traditional dance accompanied by chi bom-bom music. For the dance the women wore traditional beaded blouses and painted their bodies with jagua. The young girl was very drunk and carried by the women during the dance. After 30 minutes of dancing she was taken to her house.

Playing the shaker

Emberá-Wounaan are extremely warm and welcoming people as a whole. It doesn’t take much for an Emberá to start calling you djaba or a-che which mean ‘brother.’ The women aren’t particularly very shy either, and are quick to make friends. I was happy to have my friend Lynn come visit and be welcomed by the people in Playóna. Lynn borrowed a paruma from Lunia and was now in true Emberá style. She made friends with girls who are writing her letters and constantly asking me when she will come back.

Living in Playóna

The beginning of February marked moving into my own house.  There was a lot of back and forth in the community about building a new house or taking on an existing house and renovating it.  I pushed for moving into the existing house simply because it would mean cutting down less trees of the rainforest.  I moved into a house that was built for a teacher who is no longer working in the town.  The roof needs to be fixed and we are going to make the living room bigger. 

My djaba Bansi and I went into the jungle to cut penca leaves for the roof, which was a lot of fun, but really tough.  We walked around looking for the leaves, cutting them down with machetes, folding them up and walking a wrapped pile back to the village.  Some of the leaves are hard to reach and required Bansi to climb the trees to chop them down.  After Bansi climbed the tree, I stuck his machete on a large stick to hoist it up to him.  He cut and I organized the pile.  Walking out of the jungle with 20 penca leaves on your back is heavy. 

I also learned how to use a chainsaw.  Harder than it looks, but I'm practicing.

Can you find Bansi up in the tree?

Tieing penca leaves into a 'bulta', Emberá style

After having such a good time with my host families in December and January, I almost stayed with them for the rest of my service.  Although that would have been great, it would have detracted from my work and personal experience.  The more people I talk to and create relationships with, helps me in the Environmental Health work I’m trying to do.  Continuing to live with host families for 2 years would have isolated me from the community.  I’m always at their houses anyway - as they insist on continuing to feed me, I insist on eating.

Personally, life is simply more real in Alto Playón living alone. I cook, clean, do my dishes, and carry water from the river (I have a lot of respect for the women who carry 5 gallons of water (40 lbs.) on their head for 4 times a day everyday).  It’s unusual to not get gifted some platano, rice, or ñame from someone’s farm.  I’m on my own schedule as well.  I’m usually up at 5:30, bathe, meditate, cook breakfast, and start the day.  Having my own house makes me more of a community member and not just a guest.

There’s still a lot of work to do:  fixing the roof, building a latrine, working on the extension, rainwater catchment, and connecting to the aqueduct.  Life moves at a different pace in Playona, but it’s good to be living there.

My house during sunset.  We're opening it up

View from behind my house.  Chucunaque River in the background.