Bapa ben duck kway

...or to those who speak English...God bless you! I did not learn much Kuna, however, I did master that and 'gune, gune' which means 'chew it up' (we handed out worm pills to everyone, so I heard them tell the kids MANY times to chew it up). While I don't know how many times I heard someone say 'gune, gune', we do know that we saw over 700 people in 5 days of clinic! It was intense! But let me start at the beginning because it was quite a ride...

You may remember back to the day I packed all my items into a backpack and readied myself to head down to Panama for 10 days. Two days later I headed to church with my backpack to go to the 8:30 service, help pack up the bags during sunday school, teach the kids during the 10:45 service, grab something to eat, and head to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time, checked ourselves in, went through security and boarded the plane...and then we waited... As it turned out a major rainstorm moved in pretty much right when we started boarding the plane. The rainstorm had been going on for quite some time at the Atlanta airport, which was where our layover was located, and so our plane was told to wait until the Atlanta airport could accept our flight. As it turned out this was not just a moment. It was over 2 hours. By the time we got to Atlanta our plane to Panama City was long gone and so we headed on up to the International area in the airport, Angela and Pastor got in line, and the rest of us sat down...to wait...again. The woman behind the counter (once they got there) tried to get us on any plane she could, but in the end there was no way we were getting to Panama City one moment sooner than the exact time we would have been there, except one day later. Angela's sister lives in Atlanta and graciously offered to allow all 10 of us to stay in her house that night, and so after a quick bite to eat we headed down to meet her and her husband at the car rental spot, caught a shuttle to pick up our van, and were headed off to the suberbs of Atlanta. Angela and her sister made a quick stop to pick us up some things since our toiletries bags were packed nicely away in the bottom of an airplane somewhere, in addition to as many blow up air mattresses as they could find. Once we were all at the house, our wonderful hosts headed to bed (because they had to get up to go to work in the morning) and we sat down to pray before heading to bed as well.

I will go ahead and give you a heads up that there is a lot of praying ahead of us. I'm going to need to side track us a moment here - feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you want. In Revelation, John says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Based on everything going on in my life (and the lives of people around me) right now I need some victory and so I'm going to give some testimony to God's power. At every step of this trip God overcame our obstacles - and he invited us to join in that overcoming through our prayers. If I learned nothing else from this trip, I learned about prayer. We were given so much direction from our prayer time, in addition to support, comfort, unity, confidence, and peace, it was amazing. At our last meeting prior to leaving for Panama, Angela told me that what she really is hooked on from the mission trips is seeing God's power, and while we hadn't even yet stepped foot out of the US, I started that night to see what she meant. I really got a lot out of this trip, but in the end I got more out of this trip spiritually than I did physically. Yes, I truly enjoyed the experience and am grateful that I was able to experience it and help the world in the way that I did, but in the end what I gained most from this trip was a deeper relationship with God and a greater appreciation for who he is (not just what he does). It was an awesome experience!

So, back to prayer, Lenny felt that we should set up an all night prayer watch, and one person would take each hour to pray while everyone else could sleep. So pray and sleep we did. I had the 2-3am watch. Let me just say that I am glad I had gone to all night prayer vigils at church before, because otherwise I would have been a bit more intimidated by the thought of praying for an hour in the middle of the night. It may not seem possible, but it really did go rather quickly. And when you were sleeping it was comforting to know that someone was praying over you. And thus we passed our first night.

We woke up the next morning to Angela's adorable nephews running through the house, surprised I am sure that there were 10 new people for them to play with in the morning. After some pancakes, some zerberts, some hide and seek, and a van ride back to the airport, we resumed our trek towards Panama. This time we were much more sucessful and actually made our way out of the country, through customs, and to the hotel in Panama City relatively painlessly. We ate dinner at the hotel, and headed to bed to rest up before heading out to the islands the next day...however, there was one catch...during prayer that morning, three of us had felt we should continue the all night prayer, and the women decided to take the first night in Panama, so we set up our order, took our final normal showers (I didn't realize just what this meant yet), and 5 of us went to sleep. That night I think I had the 3-4am shift, and again it went rather quickly, I slept well during the other hours of the night, and before we knew it we were headed to the airport to fly out to the coast.

And then the trip got really interesting! (I know you thought we were going to actually be doing something by this point, but alas, more waiting) Now, my church has been going to Panama for I think 6 years, and to the Kuna Islands for 4 years. They know the general drill as far as what they need, who to talk to and the like. We had, however, prior to ever leaving the US been given a word that our trip was going to be attacked through travel. We had seen it already in the fact that we were an entire day late, and that since we had missed our charter flight to the coast instead of just re-booking us, they told us we needed to re-buy all our tickets the next day. We accepted it for what it was and kept on going with the flow. We had obviously prayed quite a lot over the whole travel situation, knowing that it was going to be a problem, and being that it was our major hurdle at present in just GETTING to the islands. So, somehow it didn't come as a total shock when we arrived at the airport and they said that the rules had changed and we needed a signature from the director of health to be allowed to take the medication to the Kuna Islands. And thus began our third day of waiting. First they needed the papers with what kinds of medication we had, then they needed the expiration dates for all the medication, then they needed Lenny and Angela's licenses (Lenny is an MD and Angela is a PA, which allows them to dispense medication), then they needed Pastor's minister license (this by the way had NEVER been needed in the past and Pastor had only put it in his bag when he went to get his insurance card because Lenny felt that we should all have our insurance cards on us just in case)...you get the picture. Eventually, they got the OK to go down to the minister of health office, Pastor, Lenny, Angela, and Brother Jerry (the pastor in Panama City who travelled with us and translated for us) headed across town to get that, literally were the last people in line before lunch, headed back to the airport, we all boarded the airplanes, and (comparitively speaking) in short order we were on the coast. The landing was interesting to say the least...not exactly what you normally see as far as a landing strip is concerned, but it does the trick.

It is at this point that we actually finally got our cameras out and so you can now start enjoying pictures along with the story :) However, before we continue, let me introduce you to the cast of characters you have heard me mention and will hear me mention in the future...

Tina and Jennifer (waiting) at the airport in Panama City. We did lots of waiting and praying in this airport. In the end, those doors there behind Tina and Jennifer led to our planes which took us to the Kuna Islands...well almost there anyway

Megan and Brother Jerry on the plane to the coast. On the flight we ate our quickly purchased lunches of rice, beans and plantains. Can I please talk about plantains for a moment? Why are they never as good in North America as they are in Central or South America? We must do something wrong. Due to some mis-communication on the timing of the second plane, Megan and I had literally just purchased 3 meals (1 fork of which ended up under the metal detector and not in one of our hands), which we split between the 5 of us, because, well we didn't know when we were going to eat again, so you go with what you got. I therefore used my plantains as a utensil for my rice and beans, and it was delicious! On a side note, my hands never got this close to my mouth again until we were back in Panama City and I had taken a 'normal' shower again :)

Chad and Lenny carrying bags to the boats. Yes, Lenny has a backpack on his front, back and is carrying two suitcases. Really, I did offer to carry one, but in the end the guys did carry most of them. To their credit they were each 50 pounds (the max a check-on can be, and let me tell you they were right on, we were using a scale at church to make sure we had as much as we could), and they tried to carry as many as they could as often as they could so we didn't have to. See, chivalry does still exist :)

Sam with one of the women and a mola she was sewing. These molas were incredible.

Pastor with one of the pastors on the islands

Angela with one of the men on the islands - ah, I LOVE this picture! Beyond the obvious height difference, this guy is especially hilarious to me because he came to the clinic about 5 times that day in a different shirt each time, I guess thinking we weren't going to recognize him. Once he finally realized that we were only going to give him one bag of tylenol no matter how many body parts he said hurt he settled for taking a picture with Angela. To be quite honest he seemed pretty excited about it.

And apparently Robert was so busy taking so many pictures that he didn't actually get in any of them! But, here is one of all of us and he is in the front (ha! you can't hide from us Robert!). In this picture you can also see Navas and Tina Novia (her name isn't really Tina Novia, but that is what we called her, so that is now her name) who live on the Kuna Islands and travelled around with us translating Spanish into Kuna and serving as our introductions to the Silas (leaders of each of the islands) and such.

Here by the way is the landing strip on the coast (you can see it through the plane windshield) - yes in a plane that size you can also see quite easily into the cockpit. And the infamous bags full of medicine - yep there were a lot of them - 20 bags full of meds, vitamins, glasses, toothbrushes, toiletries, and hammocks

Ok, so we have finally made it to the Pacific Ocean, now onto the actual islands themselves. Travel to the islands obviously involved boats. Now when I say the word boat, I am certain that you have a specific idea in your mind...let me go ahead and clear that image for you and instead give you this one...

Megan 'helping' Lenny put his lifevest on

yeah, it was not your run of the mill boat ride for sure. All the bags were packed into one boat, and all of use were packed onto the other (yes, I mean packed)

We were told that the trip would be an hour and a half, so we settled in for a long ride. Considering how hot it was the salt spray from the waves felt kinda good on your face and while you were about 3 inches from the water, the seas were pretty calm that day so it wasn't all that bad. I'm sure it helped that I'm not really as scared of the open ocean as many people. Plus, land wasn't all that far away, you could see it in the distance. So, we are enjoying the ride (well I was enjoying the ride), and about 45 minutes in we arrive at our destination. Oh, it just took less time than expected you say...no, it's just that Panamanians have no concept of time. It was a running joke (started by Jerry, who is from Panama so he is allowed) that everything is 20 minutes. When is the plane going to leave - oh, in about 20 minutes (that would be 2 hours). How long is the plane ride - oh, about 20 minutes (that was actually 20 minutes). Do we have time to go to the bathroom - sure, we won't start for about 20 minutes (that would be 2 minutes). So in essence, I stopped trying to figure out when we were going to do anything and just waited for it to happen. Because of the delay in getting to the islands we only spent one night on the first island. It was the smallest of the three we visited so it made sense. At each island we were planning to have a clinic during the day and then a service at night. Since we didn't get to the first island until almost dinner time we skipped the clinic for that day and planned instead to do a clinic the next day and travel that afternoon to the second island.

I think the first thing I noticed about the Kuna Islands were the kids. Granted, I am drawn to kids, so it seems logical, but, they were also the first thing we saw...and there are a LOT of them (comes with the territory when there is no birth control). When we pulled up to the dock it was full of kids. FULL of kids - we were in essence movie stars. Navas, Jerry, Pastor, and Lenny went to meet the Silas (in essence the person who determines what is and what is not allowed to happen on each island - Navas had spoken to each Silas before we arrived to make sure it was OK for us to come, but when you get there they go visit them to be welcomed). That gave us some time to look around, and gave me a moment to take in where I was.

Once we are officially welcomed, we can get to work, so, first things first - find where we are sleeping and set up the hammocks. Everyone else had been on a trip before and so brought their hammock. I gave $15 to Navas who went and bought me a hammock, Robert hung them all, and thus - our bedroom was born.


We had our first meal on the islands which consisted of rice and crab meat. The crab was awesome, however its deliciousness was only possible through a bit of fortitude. You see they had obviously caught us this delicious crab from the waters surrounding the island (only make sense). The problem was there is no sewer lines on the Kuna Islands, which makes you a little less sure of the health of the animals living in the water. But, when in Rome...you buck up, thank God that you have food to eat, and eat.

So, moving on. We held a service that night. It was an amazing experience! I had years and years of Spanish in high school, college, and grad school, and even lived in Ecuador for a month, but I hadn't spoken it in probably 6 or 7 years, so sitting in a worship service sung entirely in Spanish was a wild experience! And, just to spice it up, some songs were in Kuna, so if I was trying to translate them I would all the sudden realize I didn't recognize any of those words. It really was rather awesome to just sit and take it in even if you didn't know what they were saying. A church on a nearby island had come over and led the singing. In fact, with the exception of one night they came to every island we were on and led the singing - it was beautiful. By the end of the week we joked around because we did actually know most of the songs since there were only about 5 of them. The thing was, they were perfectly happy with just singing those 5 all night. They were happy just to be able to have someone lead them in singing. It was just the first of many humbling moments, when you realize just how incredibly blessed we are.

When Pastor did eventually preach it was a whole different experience as well. He preached, then Jerry would translate to Spanish, then Navas would translate to Kuna, and then Pastor would talk again. It was pretty cool to watch.

After service we headed back to our rooms and sat outside just taking in the fact that we were there. It was at this point when I had Spam for the first time...I don't know that I would ever want to eat it in the US, but man, was it delicious at 10pm on a hot night in the Kuna Islands! And then...I took my first 'shower'. I use that term loosely. You may note that I did not show you a picture of the aforementioned bathrooms. Well here it is...

The little hut had two sides. On the one side was a bathroom, on the other side was the shower. You notice the walkway? It is poles laid down beside each other. And it was across the poles...at night...in the dark...with only a headlamp to guide me...and in flip flops that I walked to find this...


A drum of water with a bucket in it. Cold, dirt water as we liked to call it. Megan led me through my first Kuna Island showering experience, handing me a towel and clothes over the door and giving me words of encouragement like 'just hold your breath and keep your mouth shut...and thank God for Hepatitis A shots'. In the end, I was cleaner (I think), cooler (for sure), and I didn't slip and fall in the water, so all in all it was a success.

When we got into our rooms the first night Tina asked me if I minded spiders. I told her I knew they were there, but I didn't really like them so I chose not to think about them (more fortitude for the moment). After we left the island she showed me this picture...yep that is the wall of our rooms. ugh!

The next morning we set up and started our first clinic. Being new to the clinic scene I went with the flow and tried to do the best that I could. There was just one problem - the translators didn't show up...you see the very confused look on my face in this picture? It's because I am attempting to understand this woman's symptoms in Spanish.
Once we got rolling it was good. Most of the things people said were the same (if you had no hospital and were going to get to see a doctor one time in a number of years you probably would have had all the same symptoms over the past umpteen years as well), and we did have people who translated from Kuna to Spanish, and they would speak the Spanish really slow for us. Megan and I were the triage - meaning, we got their name and age, and wrote down their symptoms. Unless it was just headache or body ache we passed them back to Angela (who did have a translator) and Lenny (who had Jerry walking back and forth between us and him so we could get some in depth descriptions of things that may need more than a 'how many days has that been happening' which was impressive that I could even get that out)
Angela and Lenny would then write the 'presecriptions' and send them to the pharmacy. If they had told Megan and I they just had headaches or body aches, we would write the prescription for tylenol and send them to the pharmacy. The pharmacy would then dispense all the meds and Tina Novia helped them translate the directions that we had pre-printed in Spanish into Kuna for the people who didn't speak Spanish.
I am not kidding you when I say that I was the hottest that I have ever been in my ENTIRE life towards the end of clinic. When we finally closed up shop we actually stood out in the sun because there was a tiny bit of breeze there and so it felt better than in the shade with nothing.

Being that is was a relatively small island we finished up clinic around lunch time. Had the most delicious lentils, rice and plantains that I've ever had (honestly, I ate two full plates and could have eaten more if I did think I would puke from my stomach being so full), and after about 20 minutes (in Panama time...i.e I stopped keeping track) we loaded onto the boat and headed to island number 2 - Naranja Grande.

This trip in the boat was a bit more challenging. You can't tell from our smiles...well actually you may be able to. Do these smiles say 'yes, our boat is taking on water so quickly that Pastor is actually bailing it out of the boat with a random broken bucket that we found'?


Well they should, because he did.
As soon as everyone was seated in the boat we saw the water shooting (I'm serious when I say shooting - as in steady stream that has height to it) into the boat. We yelled up to the front to let them know it was leaking - their answer...it is OK...no really, it's leaking...yes, it's OK...Jerry, can you translate, I don't think they understand...(Jerry translates)...yes, it's OK...and, well they were right...it was OK. There was a good 3-4 inches of water in the bottom of the boat when we got back out than there was when we got in, but we were at Naranja Grande. Oh, I love traveling outside the US - things are never boring!

First thing we noticed on Island #2 was again the kids...this time, however, it was not a matter of noticing kids because I am drawn to them, or just because there were a lot of them. You noticed the kids because they were staring at you...constantly...this was the wall outside our room (i.e. out room is through the holes they are looking)

this was the view from our side

You would think that one could not lay down and relax being watched like this, however, one would be wrong. Siestas in the hammocks was definitely one of my favorite things about the Kuna islands! Tiny fan blowing air on your face and it's time to nap!

...granted, it is less than ideal when you hear kids screaming the entire time because when they take breaks from watching you they are playing outside your room, but you know - you take what you can get!
We set up everything so that we could start clinic the next morning, held a service that night, took a shower and headed to bed. The shower on Naranja Grande didn't have the poles you had to worry about slipping on, and I had one bucket shower under my belt, so it went a bit smoother.

Another night of prayer, another day of clinic and lots of translation. The good thing was I was starting to think of words in Spanish that I had forgotten that I knew...always handy.

the line outside the clinic

lone translator to the rescue!

Lenny with a family

the pharmacy on Naranja Grande

me with Tina novia

Something else we brought with us in addition to meds, was reading glasses. It was amazing to see how excited they were to get the glasses, but again, it's just a reminder of what we take for granted. The suitcase full of dollar tree glasses really was priceless on that island.

a few of them we couldn't help but make fun of, I mean really, look at these glasses!

the women were probably the cutest - they put the glasses on and determined if they worked by threading their needle and starting to sew their molas - they also didn't realize you could take off the tag in the center that said the magnification number. Pastor said they saw a guy walking around the island with the tag still on it like it was a sun shade for his nose.

That night we had a MAJOR storm. You may be able to see the sideways rain in this picture.


It was craziness. While we were eating dinner they held tarps up over the holes in the walls so that we wouldn't get wet. It was unbearably sweet. We ate dinner, prayed, changed clothes and entertained ourselves until the rain stopped - it wasn't that hard with this group.

Eventually the rain did stop and we held service as planned. It's always helpful to have God on your side :) New day, same plan - pray, breakfast, clinic, lunch, and then we were off to island #3!

the kids carried our water and suitcases across the island - they were cracking us up


As always, there was waiting.



This time it was because there was a Sila from another area visiting the Sila on the island we were, so our group needed to wait to be greeted before we could unpack and set up. The visiting Sila was there to ask for aid because his entire village had burned down. I guess it doesn't take much when the huts are made from palm fronds and the houses are as close as they are. Thankfully we had extra medicine that we sent along with the Sila, as well as sending some clothes and towels that we didn't really need considering we had closets full of them at home.

you can tell they are silas because of their hat (well you can now that I've told you - I didn't realize that until someone explained it) - also the tie is pretty distinctive

Once the hammocks were again in their place and dinner was being made I was informed that it was time for a yearly tradition. It is apparently a necessity to at least once try on the traditional Kuna clothes, and thus you get me looking like this...

somehow I think that even this little kid pulled it off better than me :)

You get the general picture as far as what the days and nights were like. We had 2 more days and then headed back to Panama City and home. It truly was an incredible trip. There were sad moments...
adorable moments...

funny moments...


beautiful moments...
and plain old normal moments, that are only considered normal on the Kuna Islands...

but they were all moments that I hope to never forget. And when I found myself commenting on how nice the shower was on our last island because you could stand in the grass while you were cleaning yourself with cold, dirt water, I knew that I had been on the Kuna Islands for a bit too long. :)

oh, and did I mention it was hot?