After living in Panama for six months I wrote this list of lessons. Unfortunately I was not able to write it until now (or anything else) because things in Bajo Cerro Ñame have been busy! But alas, here is a short list of lessons.
Lesson 1: Bags on top of a bus can get wet. On my way to site for the first time alone I casually made a big mistake. While boarding a full bus I allowed the bus driver to put my bag on top of the bus. Normally this would be just fine but Panama was starting its wettest month and about halfway through the two hour bus ride a big black cloud appeared over our bus. Clothing, books, shoes, medical supplies; everything was soaked.
Lesson 2: Don’t run downhill in mud 100 pounds heavier. This is a slightly embarrassing lesson because I should have learned this a long time ago. Nevertheless, when frustration and exhaustion set in, sound decision making went out the window. After hiking toward site with two packs for two hours soaked to the core by relentless rain, I decided to run the last twenty minutes downhill to site. Not ten steps into that regrettable decision, I slipped and fell, my leg caught underneath my body (hyper-extending my knee) then slid a few feet downhill before catching myself. I climbed back up the hill, cursed my luck, then put my head down and stomped the rest of the way to site covered in mud and favoring my left knee.
Lesson 3: If water is clear, look before putting in hand. Following the capture of a large iguana, I helped my host brother wash it off in the river so my host mom could prepare it for dinner. While washing away my host brother leaped out of the river and yelled for me to do so also. I quickly did and then realized why: a fer-de lance snake was swimming in the water not five inched from my hand! My host dad promptly killed the snake and told us that we were lucky to not get bitten by Panamas most populous deadly snake.
Lesson 4: Distance and time are relative. This was an important lesson to learn. The translation of “muy cercita” is “very close.” After a few hikes in site, though, I learned that “very close” can mean an hour hike uphill and that arriving soaked in sweat and out of breath is the rule rather than the exception. Likewise, “ahora” translates as “now” but is most commonly used as “mas ahora” which confusingly translates as “more now” but transliterates as “later.”
Lesson 5: I attract mud and Ngäbes are machines. Not only do almost all fifty-year-olds out hike me, they also sweat less and perhaps most surprisingly, arrive completely clean. In the wet season I regularly arrive covered in mud from my knee down. What’s more? My hiking shoes cost seventy-five times more than their traction-less $2 plastic shoes.
Lesson 6: Don’t confuse “mierda” with “muerde.” After pretending to be a vampire with my seven and eight year old host sisters I went outside and proceeded to explain our role-playing game to my host mom. I thought it was a good opportunity to practice past tense. I tried to say “I bit Jessica” but I confused two closely-related words and accidentally said “I shat out Jessica.” Luckily my host family had no qualms about laughing about me and we had a great time reliving that moment in the future. And hey, I got my tenses right…
