Lindsey
Newbold
This is the first time I have been back to
Panama since the time when I
lived here, from 2003 to 2006. It
has been wonderful getting back in touch with my friends and meeting new ones,
including several new babies! I
am living with a host family in the community
of Kuna Nega near
Panama City. Today
the weather is cloudy and relatively cool, and there is a huge cloud of black smoke coming
from the city garbage dump over the hill, where the police are burning
tons of confiscated marijuana. My
research involves making digital audio recordings
of
linguistic
elicitations and spontaneous conversations
in the Kuna language. I
have been making progress, but my biggest enemies
are the TVs
and radios which seem to be constantly left
on in every house. I have
found that my Kuna language abilities are not
quite what they used to be, but I am still able to converse,
and I am getting back into
practice. I am making
recordings every day, and also learning more about the current situation of Kuna bilingual
education.
About
the pictures, the one of San Sebastian is just
to give you an idea of Panama City; it shows
how the new skyscrapers are right next to
a little community that has been there for
years. The other pictures
are from Kuna Nega where I am actually working. The
woman in the
photo has been working with me on Kuna grammar.
Some
areas of Panama City are almost unrecognizable
to me. In the past few years, Panama
has undergone a huge real estate boom, and
there are multiple skyscrapers under construction
in several areas of the
city. The government is also busy
with a project to fill in part of the bay
to create more land near the center of
the city, and they will soon be starting
a wave of displacement and gentrification
by imposing a gigantic tax on people
who live near the project site--basically
half of the central city.
Since
you asked about the food . . . In Berkeley,
I eat vegetarian food, but in Panama,
I eat a lot of chicken and fish in the
homes of my host
families. For
a classic Panamanian restaurant, I would
recommend the Restaurante Boulevard Balboa,
a historic landmark which is actually
located a couple of blocks away from
Avenida Balboa, because
it has been displaced by new construction. The
quintessential Kuna recipe is Dulemasi, which
is a soup of plantains and whole fish in
a coconut-milk broth. You
can find it in any of the Kuna community
centers near the Plaza Cinco de Mayo (if
you can find the community centers!). However,
its true homeland is the comarca of
Kuna Yala, the Kuna reservation on the carribean
coast.
For
those who are interested in visiting
Kuna Yala and its beautiful beaches
and islands, a new transportation option
has recently opened up: the
Torrijos government has almost completed
the first real road connecting Kuna Yala
to the Interamerican highway, and it
is now possible to travel to the Carti
area of Kuna Yala by car, which is much
cheaper than flying. The
road has allowed several of my friends to
visit their families in Kuna Yala when
they would otherwise not have been able to,
however, we have yet to see all of the
effects that the huge increase in tourism
will have on Kuna communities. The
Kuna are generally welcoming to tourists,
and the best time to visit is around
February 25th, the anniversary of the
Kuna Revolution. I am planning
to travel to the comarca to visit friends
before I leave Panama, and I will be sure
to take some pictures!
