welcome to my blog! thanks for all your support and i hope through this blog you can experience part of my trip to panama :)

Sunday, February 27, 2011

mini outreach & the weekend.

Embera Puru

boat ride to Embera Puru

pushing the canoe

truck ride home from mini outreach

me and Kamal in his little loin cloth!

Embera Tattoo

Embera Puru traditional music

The hut we slept in

For our mini outreach we spent 4 days at a tribe called Embera Puru. It was a great experience, and not too far from home. It was a 40 minute drive and a 30 minute canoe ride, since the river was a bit dry we had to get out and push the boat a couple times. The village is right on the edge of the river and all the houses are elevated. It is a very traditional style embera village with palm tree roofs and thin wood floors that are flexible. We stayed in the big hut which is also the kitchen. Each night we told bible stories and the last night some of us preformed a drama. On the second day we hiked to the upper village to tell stories and pray for the people there. On the way back we decided to ride the river home so about 10 of us floated down the river. It was nice when the water was deep but when the water was shallow we got bumped around a bit. At one point the current was so strong I put my hand down for a second and my ring slipped right off :( Other than the little bumps and bruises it was a nice ride down the river for about an hour. The last day we watched them preform for a tourist group that came, doing traditional dancing, tattoos and selling crafts. We all enjoyed living right on the river and swimming every day but when it was time to go home we were ready.

Karli's brother Nate just arrived from Seattle and is spending 13 days here so we've been busy showing him around. Yesterday we went to Casco Viejo and the Art Market then to the Amodore for dinner. After dinner we got ice cream and walked by the yacht club. We noticed that there was something loud going on on the roof so we decided to go see what was going on. When we got to the top we realized there was a massive exercise class going on so we joined in. Today we ventured to Norelia's family's house, she lives on a river about an hour away from the base. Her brothers took us to a waterfall which was beautiful! We had to trek through a mud filled river that sucked us in like sinking sand. Once we got to the waterfall we met some exchange students from Norway and Germany who are living in Panama city. After a crowded and rowdy bus ride we finally arrived at home tired and ready for sleep! What a wonderful week :)





love & miss you all
Kayla

8 comments:

  1. We think and pray for you often Kayla! Keep the blogs coming!!! Miss you and love you!! love, joe and heidi

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  2. wow that looks like something out of Survivor. Was it your anvil ring that you lost?

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  3. hey Kay,
    that sounds like you had a lot of fun and memorable times with the tribe, it's great that you're able to use the skills that you've been learning about in school.

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  4. it was totally awesome :) and yeah i lost my anvil ring :( but its ok i have another one at home.

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  5. What an adventure you are living, Kayla! We are praying for you!

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  6. Que tal Senorita? What a crazy expedition to the jungle...I've just re-read all your posts and God is so evidently at work in your life. How is your Spanish coming?

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  7. its coming along ok, i can understand some, and make incomplete sentences, but most people know somewhat im talking about

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