Panama Day 1- Shivani

(Day 1) Today was very exciting and was a perfect start to the rest of the trip. If Day 1 is like this, I cannot wait to see how the rest of this stay will play out! Getting ready this morning was a bit of a comical experience. I have to put this; Lisa set out to give the Panamanian mosquitoes complexes! She put on sunscreen, followed by mosquito repellent, and finally sprays perfume. We had a great laugh at this. This happened as everyone was rushing to get ready because we thought we had 10 minutes until departure, when in actuality we were an hour ahead of time. This was kind of an embarrassing relief.

We then set out for our exploration of the Embara tribe. The bus ride there was an experience in itself. Looking out the window, you would see beautiful, indescribable mountainous views and look on the ground and see trash everywhere. Litter beyond belief. At one point there was a section on the side of the road that had spilled oilcans. I felt really sad because you could see the physical partition between the color of the dirt and the dirt soiled with oil.

We then come to the river where the canoes are waiting for us. And I was surprised to see the motor on the back of the canoe for the Embara people. The canoe ride was very enjoyable, but more so, was the hike up to the waterfall. I enjoyed this very much since it made me, a girl from the city, feel at one with nature. I wanted to spend the whole day there, at that point. THE WATERFALL WAS SUPER, AWESOME, FABULOUS, AMAZING, FANTASTIC and everything more!

From there we went to the area where they welcomed us. Coming off of the canoe, onto the land was really cool because the Embara people welcomed us with music played an older man and many younger kids. The music was the perfect touch to the experience that we were about to encounter. We continued into a large hut, where a guide from the tribe spoke about and showed us various aspects of their culture. Their lifestyle is admirable in many ways, and I can’t help but respect them. There has to be a certain amount of savvies to figure out that certain entities from nature can be used for dyes, and even to build those huts that take a certain amount of design and organization. The Embara people produce things with nature, which takes us heavy machinery and chemicals. This is by far impressive, to say the least.

Both with the Embara and leaving the Embara tribe brought me a sense of sadness. I think this is because of what the people gave off; I sensed some sadness in the Embara people. What was really cool was, the main Embara guy leading the band of musicians came up to me and gave me a hug goodbye by the canoe. And then we waved goodbye to the Embara kids and tribesman while the canoe backed into the river. I can’t say enough how much of a fun experience this was, and such a great way to begin our visit. Back at the hostile, we did reflections that I found very interesting since my fellow learners and I had many of the same thoughts.