Family Visit, Embera village

Our older daughter and her family were here in Panama from December 13 to 31st. We had a great time, but did not have time to blog. I'll do some catching up.

One of the best things we did was to take a trip

to see an Embera village of indigenous people. About 10% of Panama's 4 million people are indigenous. One quarter of these are Embera.

The indigenous people seem, in many ways, to have a better life than indigenous peoples in the US or Australia, two cultures we have had some exposure to. They are still caught between preserving their culture and joining the dominant culture. They seem to want to maintain their culture, which the tourism dollars helps them do, and begin to send children on to higher education. We heard of two advanced students who wanted to return to the village as teachers. The tribe is very family and child oriented.

The Embera use extensive, temporary tatooing. Tatooing a newborn from head to foot is a good luck omen. Here Lilly and Jayne are having their arms tatood.

Anne was our initial contact. Next to her is her Mother in Law and a Brother in Law who gave us a talk on the basics, and answered any questions. Anne met her husband while filming a movie at the tribal village.

Our trip to the village was about an hour in a dugout canoe, which had followed an hour car ride to the area near Colon. The traditional dugout canoe had an outboard motor. Otherwise, the hour ride would have taken a full day of paddling.

The children greeted our dugout canoe when we arrived. The men had a band playing for us.

The film which I have uploaded shows the men playing their traditional instruments and the women dancing a dance of healing.