Panama: Beyond the Classroom

Today was an exciting and adventurous expedition. Some of the bad things that happened would include getting an upset stomach from drinking a homemade melon flavored drink this morning and cutting myself while trying to swim by the water fall we visited. Now that the two bad things have been taken care of I will elaborate on everything that I love about our trip so far. I love being able to see the city and the country side while traveling to see the indigenous tribe. Being able to see the landscape was truly amazing. On the downside there was quite a bit of trash, there was a lot of hurt animals and I saw a lot of slashing and burning. This makes me contemplate some of the projects that future classes could work on when they visit. The Embera people were extremely nice and welcoming of us. I thought it was absolutely wonderful that they made food for us. Not only was it traditional, but it was absolutely delicious. One thing that bothered me was when they were doing their traditional dance. Some of the women seemed sort of depressed to be doing and like they may not have been doing it because they wanted to. This bothered me because it almost seems as if their culture and traditional ways are being turned into a tourist attraction. I think it is one thing for a group of people to share your culture with you because they want to, it is however an entirely different case when they act as if they are being forced to perform for your own pleasure. That was my only dissapointment of our trip. Other than that I found the scenery to be breathtaking and the experience unlike anything I have ever done.