This week we had District Conference on Playon Chico Island. District Conference entails church members from several surrounding islands all gathering at once, in a family reunion / church meeting of sorts.
Most of the Kunas who attended all know each other, and many are family. Of course everything on the islands is thrown together at the last minute because there is not a lot of communication or planning. The result of that creates a variety of crazy experiences. To relate a few, here goes…
It is really important in this process to get firm commitments from members, because we needed to make boat arrangements, and get a firm price on what the boat was going to cost to get to the big church building on Playon Chico Island.
We needed to know how many adults, how many youth and so forth. Well, that was the easy part. We had a solid list of those coming, a fair price from a boat owner to take us all out there. Then, the morning we were supposed to embark on our voyage, the boat owner said, “Looks like we can’t go after all today. The Colombians came by last night and bought all the gas and coconuts (1000 coconuts) we would sell them, so we don’t have gas for the boat motors.”
So there we were, with District Conference starting soon, 24 people from our branches mostly ready to go, and no gas! Stress. To get all the way to Playon Chico from Irgandi we needed at least 8 gallons of gas (which they store in gas cans they fill up at a gas station in Panama City, and haul it out to Irgandi). It's not like there is a gas station anywhere remotely close to us.
Then, as we were talking to the boat owner, he remembered that another boat owner sometimes stores extra gas for emergencies. He went and talked to him and amazingly, he had 8 gallons of gas that we could use! So, we were off to Playon Chico!
In our group there were 15 adults (5 men, 10 women) and 9 teenage youth. It actually was hard to understand things at District Conference because almost all of it was in the Dule Gaya language and taught by the District President, who is a nice Kuna man. I don’t know what island he is from, but they all knew him. It was nice to see our San Blas Zone missionaries all there with the members from their branches.
I’m finding there are a lot of people in the San Blas Zone that have ties to Utah Valley. Sister Thomas went to Timpanogos and knows Max Young, my companion Elder Yapias and Elder Harding are from Provo and went to Provo High, Sister Stringham is from Orem and went to Mountain View.
Each of the branches in the San Blas Zone showed up with about 30-50 people. All together, there were hundreds there and it was a great meeting, as far as I could understand.
What would you tell youth in our ward about serving a mission? Make sure you get your protein in…ha ha. No, I would tell them no matter where you are called, be ready to not have a car, a bike, a smart phone, and maybe not even shoes like us. Ha Ha! Learn to love bugs and their role.
One day I woke up, got out of my hammock and there was a HUGE grasshopper in my hut. Healthy little fellow. No need to eat the little critter, we have plenty of food so I threw him outside.
What are you learning from Elder Yapias? Lots. How to be a leader. He is the Branch President now, and doing great.
How many youth handle sacrament prep and passing duties each week? 3-4 boys consistently bless the sacrament in Spanish, and 2-3 deacons pass it to all 30 people.
Any success in working with, or serving, or building trust with the Kuna chiefs (Silas) on Irgandi? Well, they still have their meetings at night. Normally we are not invited, but this week we actually were able to go to one of their meetings. Let’s just say it was super weird.
We go in there and they are all singing (well, moaning) in Dule Gaya, chanting, smoking, meditating, looking at their Nuchus (traditional carved wood dolls) and drinking Chicha Fuerte. I thought we could talk to the two Silas about the gospel, but it turns out they are less active members and didn't want to talk.
After a half hour, we decided we were making no progress, and they were really into their ceremony with no sign of stopping, so we left. They went on and on like this for a full hour! Super odd, and super traditional. I don’t get it, but they’re really into it.
Hunting and Gathering News
In hunting and gathering news, this week several men went out into deep waters to fish for bigger fish. For Kunas, fishing typically means using nets to catch groups of small fish or shrimp, but this was different. When they go fish for bigger fish, they just go out in their Cayucos and have a big spool of line or a spear. It’s all done by hand. No fishing rods. Just a line and your arm or spear.
Well, they did really well and brought about 100 pounds of fish back to the island so they could make Dule Masi (look it up) for the village. Essentially it is grilled fish, with a broth of coconut milk, plantains, lime, and cilantro. Once the catch arrived, all the Kuna women went out to the shore and got to work, ripping them open with their hands (no knives) and gutting them. Several of the fish looked like they were in the 8-12 pound range, others were bigger at 3-4 feet long. The Kuna women were very happy about the catch.
Finding New People to Teach
Teaching wise, we met another guy this week who we call “the Lamanite” because he never wears a shirt (nobody does actually), and he was headed into the mainland forest to hunt for four days. All he had was his machete, boots, his shells and his light. That’s it. Just living off the fat of the land.
We’re really interested in finding him because he said he wants to be baptized, but really loves Chicha Fuerte and smoking. We think we can help him stop all that, but we need to find him first. He is not the same guy we met last week who gave us the toucan beak.
Things are going well. Elder Yapias is a great companion. He is finished in 10 weeks, so we are going to push it hard so he can finish strong.
Much love,
Elder Doxey
Most of the Kunas who attended all know each other, and many are family. Of course everything on the islands is thrown together at the last minute because there is not a lot of communication or planning. The result of that creates a variety of crazy experiences. To relate a few, here goes…
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| Trail to our Ukupa Branch |
The Challenge of Getting to Playon Chico
We had done our part in getting the word out about our 2-hour District Conference to our Irgandi and Ukupa branches, and had 24 people committed to go.It is really important in this process to get firm commitments from members, because we needed to make boat arrangements, and get a firm price on what the boat was going to cost to get to the big church building on Playon Chico Island.
We needed to know how many adults, how many youth and so forth. Well, that was the easy part. We had a solid list of those coming, a fair price from a boat owner to take us all out there. Then, the morning we were supposed to embark on our voyage, the boat owner said, “Looks like we can’t go after all today. The Colombians came by last night and bought all the gas and coconuts (1000 coconuts) we would sell them, so we don’t have gas for the boat motors.”
 |
| Elder Doxey on Irgandi, near the branch building |
So there we were, with District Conference starting soon, 24 people from our branches mostly ready to go, and no gas! Stress. To get all the way to Playon Chico from Irgandi we needed at least 8 gallons of gas (which they store in gas cans they fill up at a gas station in Panama City, and haul it out to Irgandi). It's not like there is a gas station anywhere remotely close to us.
Then, as we were talking to the boat owner, he remembered that another boat owner sometimes stores extra gas for emergencies. He went and talked to him and amazingly, he had 8 gallons of gas that we could use! So, we were off to Playon Chico!
In our group there were 15 adults (5 men, 10 women) and 9 teenage youth. It actually was hard to understand things at District Conference because almost all of it was in the Dule Gaya language and taught by the District President, who is a nice Kuna man. I don’t know what island he is from, but they all knew him. It was nice to see our San Blas Zone missionaries all there with the members from their branches.
I’m finding there are a lot of people in the San Blas Zone that have ties to Utah Valley. Sister Thomas went to Timpanogos and knows Max Young, my companion Elder Yapias and Elder Harding are from Provo and went to Provo High, Sister Stringham is from Orem and went to Mountain View.
 |
| Elder Yapias & Elder Doxey |
Each of the branches in the San Blas Zone showed up with about 30-50 people. All together, there were hundreds there and it was a great meeting, as far as I could understand.
What would you tell youth in our ward about serving a mission? Make sure you get your protein in…ha ha. No, I would tell them no matter where you are called, be ready to not have a car, a bike, a smart phone, and maybe not even shoes like us. Ha Ha! Learn to love bugs and their role.
One day I woke up, got out of my hammock and there was a HUGE grasshopper in my hut. Healthy little fellow. No need to eat the little critter, we have plenty of food so I threw him outside.
 |
| Impressive! |
What are you learning from Elder Yapias? Lots. How to be a leader. He is the Branch President now, and doing great.
How many youth handle sacrament prep and passing duties each week? 3-4 boys consistently bless the sacrament in Spanish, and 2-3 deacons pass it to all 30 people.
 |
| Elders Doxey & Yapias, & a stroller that was a nice idea |
Any success in working with, or serving, or building trust with the Kuna chiefs (Silas) on Irgandi? Well, they still have their meetings at night. Normally we are not invited, but this week we actually were able to go to one of their meetings. Let’s just say it was super weird.
We go in there and they are all singing (well, moaning) in Dule Gaya, chanting, smoking, meditating, looking at their Nuchus (traditional carved wood dolls) and drinking Chicha Fuerte. I thought we could talk to the two Silas about the gospel, but it turns out they are less active members and didn't want to talk.
After a half hour, we decided we were making no progress, and they were really into their ceremony with no sign of stopping, so we left. They went on and on like this for a full hour! Super odd, and super traditional. I don’t get it, but they’re really into it.
Hunting and Gathering News
In hunting and gathering news, this week several men went out into deep waters to fish for bigger fish. For Kunas, fishing typically means using nets to catch groups of small fish or shrimp, but this was different. When they go fish for bigger fish, they just go out in their Cayucos and have a big spool of line or a spear. It’s all done by hand. No fishing rods. Just a line and your arm or spear.
 |
| Happy-ish Kuna women gutting fish hands only, plus one kid peeing off the bow of boat |
Well, they did really well and brought about 100 pounds of fish back to the island so they could make Dule Masi (look it up) for the village. Essentially it is grilled fish, with a broth of coconut milk, plantains, lime, and cilantro. Once the catch arrived, all the Kuna women went out to the shore and got to work, ripping them open with their hands (no knives) and gutting them. Several of the fish looked like they were in the 8-12 pound range, others were bigger at 3-4 feet long. The Kuna women were very happy about the catch.
Finding New People to Teach
Teaching wise, we met another guy this week who we call “the Lamanite” because he never wears a shirt (nobody does actually), and he was headed into the mainland forest to hunt for four days. All he had was his machete, boots, his shells and his light. That’s it. Just living off the fat of the land.
We’re really interested in finding him because he said he wants to be baptized, but really loves Chicha Fuerte and smoking. We think we can help him stop all that, but we need to find him first. He is not the same guy we met last week who gave us the toucan beak.
Things are going well. Elder Yapias is a great companion. He is finished in 10 weeks, so we are going to push it hard so he can finish strong.
Much love,
Elder Doxey
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