MOLAS

I love molas, an art form from the indigenous Kuna Indians in Panama. I have collected quite a few... probably about 10 or 12 while living here in San José, and I was able to see Kuna women in Panama City, making and selling the molas. I had read in a guidebook that Kuna will let you take photos of them but only if you pay them $1 first. So I was prepared to pay for this photo!

The Kuna women wear the molas as a visual symbol of where they are at in life. I have learned a lot as I ask at booths that sell the artwork or from books and websites along the way in the last couple years. The common pattern of unending lines symbolizes the cycle of life and is a foundational part of their beliefs and designs. This woman wears the mola on her stomach, which is somewhat hidden by her puffy sleeves. The beads on her legs are also handmade and complex as they are made of a single strand of beads and wrapped around her legs to create the geometric patterns.

The Kuna women are under the table to stay out of the sun while working on molas. Each mola takes about 3 to 5 months to complete if they are done well. It's amazing to me how patient they are with the artwork... and then how cheap the artwork is for having taken them so long to complete.

Molas hanging for display.

And more molas... Amazing. I can't seem to learn enough about these!

Casco Viejo

We explored Casco Viejo for a few hours on my first adventure day in Panama City... after I had quickly recovered from the food poisoning the previous day.
Casco Viejo is the second oldest part of the city that the Spanish built after Panama Viejo was taken over and burned by conquestors in the 1600s. It is now a mixture of ruins and modern buildings and everything in between.

the white part in the sidewalk are cow bones.... i was a bit grossed out by that thought but apparently they weren't when they built it.

a close up of the cow bones.

the old separates the new.

vultures were easily spotted no matter where we were in the city... it was kind of a creepy feeling to know they were always watching you.

ruins of a monk convent from the 1600s... they have done a lot of work on it to keep it in decent shape.

balconies seemed to be on every building

the newer church near the main plaza

Any Idea What This Is?

So we discovered a new species or something on a hike to the beach... I hear Costa Rica and Panama are great places to study biology and all, but any ideas what this new creature might be?

Panama Adventure #1

Food poisoning.

Trish bought some strawberries yesterday for the bus trip and washed them and sealed them in a Ziploc. We ate some during the afternoon of our 17 hour bus ride, and then after going through Panama's border and customs lines, I ate some more strawberries around 9:30pm. By then, they had fermented a little bit but I didn't think too much of it, they just tasted a little funny. By 1am, I was best friends with a barf bag until we arrived in Panama City around 4am. Yuck. Not the way I imagined arriving in Panama.

So today's planned Canal trip and museum and shopping have been put off until tomorrow. I am recovering with lemonade, Coke, Gatorade, ramen, and toast, and a fever. We have 2 more days to explore the city, so hopefully I'll be a little bit stronger by tomorrow. Ewwwwwww.

Panamaaaaaaa Here We Come!!!

We leave this morning on the 11am bus for an almost 18-hour bus ride to Panama City. Want to join us? :) We will be in the city a couple days and then head to Bocas del Torro for a good few days at the beach working on our city-girl pale skin. We will return Saturday, April 3rd, with many stories and photos to share, I am sure. Until then!!

Ready to Laugh??

Have you ever had an experience that you just couldn't laugh about in the moment? Like it was so traumatic or embarassing or scary that there was absolutely no way you could enjoy it... yeah, I had one of those moments last fall.


I officially arrived at a place today where I could laugh about what happened. I saw these photos and bust out laughing...

What had happened was a night battle with mosquitoes... and they obviously won. Too bad the battleground was my face or I probably wouldn't have cared. In the second photo, you can see another bite on my cheek if you look carefully. I also had 2 or 3 bites in my eyebrows and on my forehead. In the last photo, you can see in the corner of my eye where the actual mosquito bite was... but my eye swelled up like that for 3 days! Of course it was in the middle of the week, so I went to school and taught with a swollen eye. My students would laugh at me... but I almost started crying because I was so self-conscious!

A few days ago, a student was complaining about how itchy and swollen a mosquito bite was on her hand. All I had to say was, ''At least it's not on your eye,'' and she started laughing.

Laugh away. Thank goodness I look normal now.

They Thought I Was Crazy...

In Bible study on Tuesday night, the whole group thought I was crazy when the teacher called on me to ask what a particular verse meant to me. Proverbs 23:7 to be exact. Here's what it looks like in the English:

''for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost.''

(translation needed?)

And here's the Spanish:

--que son como un pelo en la garganta.--
(translation: that are like a hair in the throat)

Alright, so I thought a second about what the hair-in-the-throat meant to me, and I decided to try the English version first. I explained that a man who is always thinking about the cost could be that way with his money and time, that he is conscious of how he spends his life. The teacher had a blank look on her face, so I decided to try the hair-in-the-throat route. I started over in explaining this time that a hair in your throat is annoying and that you have to get it out and that might take time. Again, the teacher had a blank look. Finally, I said in exasperation, ''I don't know what you want to hear!'' The whole group laughed at/with me.

I think I recovered gracefully, but it's hard not to let self-conscious thoughts creep in.

During the break 10 minutes later, I asked the couple sitting next to me what their Bible said for Proverbs 23:7. Here's what theirs said:

--pues como él piensa en su interior, asi es él--
(translation: how a man thinks on the inside is how he is.)

I was like, ''Where did that come from ''hair in the throat''? Then I studied my Bible more, to notice there was one of those little ª symbols telling me to look at the footnote. The footnote in my Bible was where it said what the couple's Bible said.... but what I still want to know is, how does a hair in the throat become how a man thinks?

So the couple tells the teacher that I wasn't just not understanding anything and everyone gathered around to verify that my Bible said hair-in-the-throat. One guy asked if my Bible is even legit! lol.

Yet again, learning language through confusion. What else could I ever want? :)