A Visit With The Wounaan People Of Panama

Greetings from the Darien!

My wife and I have just returned to Panama City from a short, intense trip to meet with a tribal group from deep in the Eastern region of the country, near the end of the road. It has been an amazing time, with many new experiences. I also feel that it was a very important and successful visit.
On Wednesday, we traveled by van to a Wounaan community called Puerto Lara, which is the site of the big Congress of the Wounaan people. The Wounaan people are a distinct tribal group, one of five or six in Panama, whose territory stretches from Eastern Panama into neighboring Columbia. It's a remote area with lots of problems, including drug smuggling and a safe haven for FARC guerrillas from Columbia. There is illegal logging and deforestation on Wounaan lands, and a general sense of lawlessness.
On top of all that, the drinking water supply is being contaminated by cattle ranching, and there is quite a lot of disease from the pollution. I was asked through a friend to come to Panama and talk with the communities about their water supply and perhaps plan a program to help them improve it. It has been a very short trip, more a meet and greet, but I was very impressed by several things. First the seriousness of their pollution, and second the determination of the people to take charge themselves and to deal with the problem.
Every two years the Wounaan hold a general meeting or Congress in one of their communities and all members are invited to attend. This year their were nearly 600 attendees, from about 20 other communities. Also attending were various Panamanian government agencies, big aid organizations, the Peace Corps – and me. I felt a little overwhelmed in the presence of so many dignitaries.
It was a very open and democratic atmosphere, with both men and women speaking and expressing strong opinions. There were computers and projectors and microphones, just as any well organized business meeting.

As invited guests we were expected to sit in the front row with the other dignitaries. Much of the discussion however was help in the Wounaan language, Wounmeo, which made for difficulty following the arguments at times, but occasionally we would get translation help into Spanish.
It was mostly a very formal situation,with a head table of leaders and the audience sitting on benches in front, but the attendees had no qualms about ripping into the leaders about problems. There were at least three overlapping organizations present: the Ninth National Congress of the Wounaan People; the Foundation for the Development of the Wounaan communities and the National Association of the Wounaan. Each has its own agenda and programs, and its own leadership structure. The foundation has a President and cabinet and constitution, and the Association is made up of chiefs (caciques) of each town and several layers of regional chiefs and head chiefs.
We saw one really nice example of participatory democracy, with the election of a new head of the Foundation. The two candidates each stood on a chair and their supporters voting for them stood in a line behind them. The two lines stretched for blocks as each candidates supporters tried to coax voters from the other line to switch sides. All tribal members, men and women twelve years and over were eligible. Then the two lines were very accurately counted and monitored and the winner declared. No secret ballots or under the counter deals, every voter stood proudly in a line, nearly 700 of them.

All the different organizations have an impressive amount of formal structure with bylaws and procedures. This is large part due to the presence of several large international aid organizations who are providing training on governance and effective leadership. Their effort has been in part to make the Wounaan more effective in dealing with their own Panamanian government. Some of the aid organizations working there are the Rain Forest Foundation whose goal is environmental protection and Native Futures who are working to help secure native land rights. The Wounaan have been officially recognized as a tribal group by the government and granted by law certain rights and resources, but basically the laws have been ignored by the Panamanian Government. Public education and health services are underfunded for them, and there are numerous human rights violations.
All the attendees either stayed with families there or camped out in the fields. The water supply of Puerto Lara was overwhelmed by the large number of persons at the meeting so there was little available for washing or cooking. We had brought bottled water but most people had to make due with whatever water there was. I did some testing and found that the community water was slightly contaminated, but probably no worse than other water they were drinking. The Congress provided all the food for the participants, cooking large tubs of rice and potatoes and meat over open fires in a sort of cook shelter, with everyone lining up with their plates for meals. The weather was hot and humid, a big difference from the freezing weather we left in Portland.
After the meetings in the late afternoon, the Congress sponsored a big soccer tournament between the different communities, both men's and women’s youth teams . The games were hotly contested and the different towns took great pride in wins. Also in the evenings were cultural events with traditional dancing and singing contests. My videos of the dances came out a little dark but it was interesting to see the same women who during the day were so smartly dressed and so expressive about their opinions dancing at night in their colorful traditional costumes. The dancers were in a contest where they were judged for the correctness and expressiveness of their dance moves. Both old and young women danced and competed in a generally friendly atmosphere. Men sang and danced as well, some dressed in their traditional loin cloth.

On Saturday I gave a short presentation about our work on water testing and water purification. I had been told that they would politely listen to my presentation and then think about it for a while, and if they were interested they would let me know. I must have struck a nerve however because the immediately wanted to talk more about water programs. They have been having a lit of trouble with their water in their different communities being contaminated and seeking solutions. I met with the leaders of the meeting a little later and they wanted to know if I could stay a few more weeks. I said I had to return home, but could come back around April 1st, if they wished. This would give me time to prepare supplies and a program and for them to organize and plan what they wanted to do.
There will be a lot to do, but by using the energy and organization of he community I think it will be a very satisfying job.
I usually only post to this blog when I'm traveling. If you want to follow our current activities you can check out Agua Pura's website aguapuraparaelpueblo.org

Panama City, January 21, 2013

Greatings from Panama City! My wife Susan and I arrived last night on a flight from Houston. Traveling with us is our associate Dr. Mary Ann Westfall. It was through Mary Ann that we received an invitation to attend the 9th Congress of the Wounaan People here in Panama. Dr. Westfall is a medical doctor who has had long standing connections with the Wounaan. The Wounaan are one of several tribes that are trying to maintain their own tradional identity in the face of increasing pressure from modern Panama. Their issues include encroachment of cattle ranching and logging on their lands, also they are having increasing problems with contaminated drinking water. Today, Monday January 21, 2013, we visited several communities to where Wounaan people have migrated, near Panama City. As is always the case, they are at a disadvantage when it comes to jobs, housing, educational opportunities and government services. However, the Wounaan have banded together from necessity and created their own organizations to promote their interests. They have Wounaan lawyers who fight for property rights, Wounaan community centers where the people can get advice and services and residential facilities where families can stay when they have to come to the population centers for health or other reasons. Wounaan students can stay at educational boarding centers while they pursue secondary and higher educations. They have an active transcription program to write down the Wounaan language before it disappears, and to teach it to younger people who have lost it. Their goal is for youth to read and write in Wounaan. Those visits were very interesting and educational for us. The tribal communities have done a lot to help themselves, independent of the Panamanian government. The purpose of our visit is to meet with Wounaan community leaders and to discuss possible future programs that Agua Pura could undertake that would help them with their water problems. We traditionally give classes and workshops in accurate water testing, and also give demonstrations of simple methods that families can use to decontaminate their water. Susan often works with school children and families on hand washing and basic sanitation - the cheapest and most effective method of all to prevent disease! I am already testing water samples from two communities that had concerns. Tomorrow we will be visiting with some other Wounaan community leaders and discussing our programs, and also preparing to attend the Congress on Wednesday which will be held in a fairly remote community in Eastern Panama. We are taking our screen tent and camping gear. I believe there is electricity, but am not sure. We'll be there for 4 nights, and return to Panama City on Sunday afternoon. If I can, I'll try to post during the Congress, but if not then I give an update when we return. I'm posting a photo of myself and Dr. Westfall visiting with a Wounaan family she knew.