Irgandi, San Blas | Killing & Eating a Boar | Deepening Conversion

Note: This "letter" was a phone conversation with Elder Doxey. We took copious notes, (seeing that he had just arrived on Irgandi...and were amazed to even be communicating with him) and typed up his letter for him this week.
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Hi Family,

A double-wide cayuco

About this transfer to Irgandi, San Blas Zone…

Getting to Irgandi
First, it is amazing to think that Grandpa Call was the first Caucasian to stay the night with Chief Iguandipipi out here in 1953. Then Uncle Tom Call was here in 1989, and Ben Call just last year. It is literally amazing that I too am here teaching Kunas in San Blas. So there is that going on.

We were first asked to pack a woven white potato-like sack (like a white garbage sack size) with what we planned to take to the islands.

A good reminder on why to go backpacking pre-mission...everything needed has to to fit in here

We left our suitcases, shoes and anything that would not fit in that woven white sack at the mission home. We bought flip flops b/c we will be walking around beach conditions with pants cut off or rolled up nearly always.

3 hour drive on winding roads through thick jungle to get to Caribbean side of Panama

Getting out here was an eye opening experience for sure—not too different from the rest of Panama, but different enough. Many people fly out here because there are no roads to most of the areas in San Blas. But, we rode in a car for about three hours through the thickest jungle to the coast.

Our boat captain steadies the ship

Elder Navas was super, super tired

From there we got on a good sized boat (maybe a 17 footer with motors) and went out to Playon Chico (where Elder Call served for two months, laying cement and building some huts) to drop off some Elders and transfer to a smaller boat so we could go out to Ukupa island and Irgandi.

A cayuco in its mooring

A Playon Chico Island Elder ... grateful for the nice hut Elder Ben Call and comp built

My cousin Elder Ben Call certainly made his mark in building that hut

A breathtaking, seated latrine over the ocean on Playon Chico

When nature calls, teachers on Playon Chico get to go to the bathroom in an outhouse that sits over the ocean.  They basically took a school chair, cut a large hole in the seat and then put it over a platform that sticks out into the ocean. We can go in there if we want. Fortunately, nobody fishes there!

Our Area & Living Conditions
Elder Navas (who was a student at BYU from Costa Rica/Texas by the way) and I are over Ukupa and Irgandi areas. Ukupa island is much more established than Irgandi, but we live in Irgandi.

Irgandi, San Blas ... think Gilligan's Island

In these areas, the huts that people live in are very humble. They are made of sticks and palm frond roofs. Our house is way nice. Most Kunas with a hut this size have several families living in it.

Our hut ... "Home Sweet Home"

We sleep in hammocks, inside a net. Stick walls, lots of lashings to hold it together. Palm frond roof. We are very lucky to have a river nearby. That is where we get our water to boil and put in a filtered water bottle. There is no electricity but a car battery (no plugs) with wires that power a lightbulb, if we need it. I don’t need anything out here on Irgandi though.

We may not have plugs, but we do have power for light bulb if needed

The Kuna people are super, super peaceful. I can see why they do not want to go live in the mainland.

Kuna man upgrading his ride by making a new cayuco

They have everything they need here and are very happy. They live off of fish and animals they catch, and coconuts that they grow all around the island.

A nice haul for the day to feed the family

Here on Irgandi, if nature calls you just go in the ocean. You sit on the rocks and just go.  You wash off in the ocean. Muy fresco!

We eat a lot of fish (caught farther out of course), but we also have canned tuna, canned chicken, powerbars, and powdered milk that has 23 grams of protein. Our Zone Leader brings it to us I guess. I have only been here a week. Our kitchen is stocked!!

Our red butcher table and well-stocked kitchen

We have a little gas stove with a propane tank the Zone Leaders also brought out (we can’t be cutting down every tree in sight for firewood b/c they are needed to grow coconuts).

A nice little toad, enjoying the place.  We don't eat them.

We eat really, really well compared to Kuna out here. I almost feel bad we eat so well. I bought a new camera before coming out here BTW.  So, I posted about 200 pictures of the journey to San Blas to my Google account (which is amazing b/c the branch has to have some kind of satellite/wireless connection or I would not be talking to you--no powerlines or Internet lines coming into this place).

(SIDE NOTE: In recent history, it has not been possible to communicate this immediately from San Blas. Elder Doxey literally took these pictures and we were talking to him about them the next day.  I know this is normal in the world outside San Blas, but new for San Blas. Because of limited paper to write on, no stores, mail service, computers, email connectivity, etc. communication was challenging for years. The ability to speak to him is an absolute game changer!)

The Irgandi one room chapel / church ... VERY nice!

In the Irgandi branch, I just learned that somehow we have Internet access (probably powered by car batteries somehow?) I’m sure there are several reasons for this, but it does make you feel safer to be able to communicate with the outside world, especially if there is an emergency.

A healthy, happy perico

Missionary Work on Irgandi, San Blas
Missionary work wise, there are Elders on four islands out here. We have between 30 and 80 that may come to church off and on. Tons of less actives. I literally think there are nine people on the island who are not baptized, so our work here is going to be about deepening conversion.

Cute, happy Kuna kids

The main reason attendance at church is so sporadic is b/c people are just trying to survive.  They fish a lot, travel to other islands to get coconuts and bananas a lot (to sell to Colombians passing through).  They can pay with $$ or trade coconuts as a form of currency. People drink Chicha Fuerte (traditional corn fermented drink) a lot, do nothing a lot. One day we literally lost a whole day of work b/c everyone was drinking Chicha Fuerte and doing ritual dances with flute like things.

Not sure what's going on here, other than it's "traditional"

Most on Irgandi have known Elders for as long as they have been alive. We do a lot of service. To get people out to church, we ring a church bell that calls them into church. To increase attendance at church, we just need to ring the church bell longer and harder! It is literally a lot like Gilligan’s Island but nobody speaks Spanish.

Downtown Irgandi ... with a guy that has had a bit too much Chicha Fuerte

They do have a Branch President here, but my companion Elder Navas has been designated Branch President if the other Branch President doesn’t show up.

These traditional wood-carved dolls are sacred to Kunas ... very similar to the ones Grandpa Call was given in 1953

Irgandi is not technically an island; it is more of a peninsula, but it is completely isolated like the rest of the islands around it and feels like an island because it is so surrounded by the ocean. The only way to get there is by boat or cayuco (dug out tree made into a massive canoe).

Volleyball is a wonderful thing

Kunas Catch, Kill and Share a Wild Boar
While we were walking around one day, we saw a huge commotion on the beach with some fishermen who had pulled up their cayucos. Apparently they had cornered a wild boar and were super excited because it meant we would all soon be eating meat.

This guy was literally butchered up with a machete and kitchen knife, loaded up in the cayuco and ya!

They killed it, gutted it out right then and there (saving all the guts to eat later of course…including the head) and chopped it up with their knives. Then, they just dropped all the wild boar parts in their cayuco (boar head looking right up at me) and set out paddling back to Irgandi.

When they arrived on Irgandi, everyone was excited and they said they would cook it and feed everyone! So, they did just that. I guess you can’t refrigerate it (no refrigeration) so everyone needs to drop what they are doing and eat…right now.

Our boiled boar meat and bananas feast...needed a bit of lime as you can see

So at 3 pm that day, we all had a great meal. They boiled a lot of it with bananas and coconut oil to flavor it, (boar hair still on it and all) and “ya.” It actually was really good. It tasted like beef, and was best with tons of boiled bananas with it.

 After we ate, I walked around a bit and realized that these fishermen who caught the boar were very experienced in doing this – they had a whole clothesline of boar’s jawbones hanging out to dry. This was not their first rodeo. It’s really nice to know they are good hunters for this Kuna village. What a blessing!

The wild boar hunting Kunas literally "got game" and feed a lot of people

We have lots of time to think out here. Honestly, Elder Navas and I are thinking through how we can make the most difference. There is service, service and more service.

A Kuna language "primer" ... format for discussions, thanks to a past Elder who left it

Lots of teaching and trying to deepen conversion, especially about why attending sacrament meeting is so important, and of course learning Kuna language. A past missionary left several written discussions in Kuna, so that is super helpful.

Gotta go. Much love,

Elder Doxey