Hola Familia!
Question: What’s new in your area?
Elder Doxey: Well, we make the hour hike out to Ukupa island this week to visit people, and hopefully to find new people to teach.
We had not been there for a long time, and there are no Elders there. Plus, we know EVERYONE in Irgandi, really well so it is important to not forget Ukupa.
While we were there, some of the village hunters were able to kill THREE wild boars! It was a lot of meat for everyone in the village. This time they shot them (with a really old rifle) rather than just start hacking at them with machetes like last time. I didn’t know they even had a rifle to hunt with. They chopped them up with machetes, and the whole village quickly got together to eat a nice meal. The Kunas eat THE WHOLE THING…literally every part except the intestines. There is no waste.
Question: How is missionary work going?
Elder Doxey: Pretty normal. I know I will be here in Irgandi for a total of 6-7 months. That’s 4.5 changes. I am the branch president now, and Elder Gutke is my counselor. We have a goal to teach/train Rafael (the 70 year old great member here) to be the branch president when I leave. It’s really tricky though, because it’s all he can do to hunt, gather, and provide. Plus, he is older and does not have a lot of experience leading. So, we are working on that.
It’s hard though because you realize that if it were not for Elder Gutke and I here right now, the whole branch would stop functioning. Finding people who can be church leaders is a challenge. We had Christian (16 year old priest—our highest authority a few months ago) but he will be in Panama City until March. Another challenge that is very real is that this lack of consistent, local leadership has been an issue for a long time. Consequently (as you’d imagine) there are problems with member lists (registros), record keeping and more. It’s all the “behind the scenes” issues that first fall through the cracks when you don’t have leaders.
Through the satellite, we do have a system called “MLS” that helps a lot, but what we are finding is that there are some church members who are listed in the system with three different names. Some of this is understandable because their Spanish is not good, and missionary’s Dule Gaya is not perfect. Sometimes they go by many different names anyway. Let’s just say we do a decent amount of work cleaning up records of people in Irgandi.
We are at a point where the 10 people who are not church members here on Irgandi are well known to us. It’s surprising how much all the Kuna move around to the 365 San Blas Islands (for farming purposes, people purposes, whatever) or in traveling to Panama City. This is why we're trying to focus on Ukupa more as well.
Question: Tell us more about the work you do in MLS, seeing that you don’t have leaders to do it, and you have to connect through the satellite.
Elder Doxey: We can use it anytime, even if it is not connected to the satellite. That MLS helps a lot. We just have to connect to the satellite to get it to update.
Question: When you talk to Pte. Garrett, does he ask about specific things on Irgandi?
Elder Doxey: Yes, especially now that I am the branch president here. It’s just more responsibility than being a regular missionary. You feel this responsibility too…it Elder Gutke and I don’t keep everything going, the Church would die here. We had 47 in Church last week, so the branch is doing alright…it’s just that most are all women and little children.
Question: Are you still teaching Seminary on Irgandi?
Elder Doxey: Not right now, but we will pick it up again in January.
Question: What goals do you have this week?
Elder Doxey: Set appointments that will result in us being invited back to teach further, learn 10 more Dule Gaya words per day, Exercise, and keep working on getting the records straight.
Question: Can you remind us how you are able to watch the Christ Child video, if nobody has Internet access, devices or outlets? Elder Doxey: Oh, we have a monitor here on the island. I think it is the only monitor here. We have all those videos on a USB thumb drive. We can carry around the monitor and just plug in the USB into the monitor. For electricity, we can either connect it to car batteries, or if a family has solar panels plus an “electricity storage unit” for it, we can get power to it that way.
Question: It looks like your food planning and buying went well in Panama City! You have a nice pile of food to last you for the next six months. Don’t let a rat chew into your big bags of rice! How do you keep the mice and rats out of it?
Elder Doxey: We don’t have rats in our hut Mom. I did see a cat slip into our hut through the bamboo walls, but never a rat. I did see a rat in our branch building (in the chapel). Ha Ha. Well, we actually try to keep anything a rat could chew through in a plastic bin with a lid on it.
Question: So, you were on Playon Chico for two weeks, and now you are back in Irgandi. Has anything changed?
Elder Doxey: Irgandi is like no other area, in our out of San Blas. We have a lot more time here. Because of the Sila Chief’s rule that everyone has to be in their huts by 6 pm (at sundown), we just study Dule Gaya more. It seems like it all adds up to us having two more days of language study than normal each week.
Question: What’s new in your area?
Elder Doxey: Well, we make the hour hike out to Ukupa island this week to visit people, and hopefully to find new people to teach.
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| Irgandi from the Air - Our Chapel has a Red Roof in the Top Right (Shutterstock) |
We had not been there for a long time, and there are no Elders there. Plus, we know EVERYONE in Irgandi, really well so it is important to not forget Ukupa.
 |
| Wild Boar Mola ... Wild Boars are Definitely Part of the Deal |
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| Wild Boar (San Blas, Google Images) |
Question: How is missionary work going?
Elder Doxey: Pretty normal. I know I will be here in Irgandi for a total of 6-7 months. That’s 4.5 changes. I am the branch president now, and Elder Gutke is my counselor. We have a goal to teach/train Rafael (the 70 year old great member here) to be the branch president when I leave. It’s really tricky though, because it’s all he can do to hunt, gather, and provide. Plus, he is older and does not have a lot of experience leading. So, we are working on that.
It’s hard though because you realize that if it were not for Elder Gutke and I here right now, the whole branch would stop functioning. Finding people who can be church leaders is a challenge. We had Christian (16 year old priest—our highest authority a few months ago) but he will be in Panama City until March. Another challenge that is very real is that this lack of consistent, local leadership has been an issue for a long time. Consequently (as you’d imagine) there are problems with member lists (registros), record keeping and more. It’s all the “behind the scenes” issues that first fall through the cracks when you don’t have leaders.
Through the satellite, we do have a system called “MLS” that helps a lot, but what we are finding is that there are some church members who are listed in the system with three different names. Some of this is understandable because their Spanish is not good, and missionary’s Dule Gaya is not perfect. Sometimes they go by many different names anyway. Let’s just say we do a decent amount of work cleaning up records of people in Irgandi.
 |
| MLS |
Question: Tell us more about the work you do in MLS, seeing that you don’t have leaders to do it, and you have to connect through the satellite.
Elder Doxey: We can use it anytime, even if it is not connected to the satellite. That MLS helps a lot. We just have to connect to the satellite to get it to update.
Question: When you talk to Pte. Garrett, does he ask about specific things on Irgandi?
Elder Doxey: Yes, especially now that I am the branch president here. It’s just more responsibility than being a regular missionary. You feel this responsibility too…it Elder Gutke and I don’t keep everything going, the Church would die here. We had 47 in Church last week, so the branch is doing alright…it’s just that most are all women and little children.
Question: Are you still teaching Seminary on Irgandi?
Elder Doxey: Not right now, but we will pick it up again in January.
Question: What goals do you have this week?
Elder Doxey: Set appointments that will result in us being invited back to teach further, learn 10 more Dule Gaya words per day, Exercise, and keep working on getting the records straight.
Question: Can you remind us how you are able to watch the Christ Child video, if nobody has Internet access, devices or outlets? Elder Doxey: Oh, we have a monitor here on the island. I think it is the only monitor here. We have all those videos on a USB thumb drive. We can carry around the monitor and just plug in the USB into the monitor. For electricity, we can either connect it to car batteries, or if a family has solar panels plus an “electricity storage unit” for it, we can get power to it that way.
Question: It looks like your food planning and buying went well in Panama City! You have a nice pile of food to last you for the next six months. Don’t let a rat chew into your big bags of rice! How do you keep the mice and rats out of it?
Elder Doxey: We don’t have rats in our hut Mom. I did see a cat slip into our hut through the bamboo walls, but never a rat. I did see a rat in our branch building (in the chapel). Ha Ha. Well, we actually try to keep anything a rat could chew through in a plastic bin with a lid on it.
 |
| Food for the Next 6 Months |
Question: So, you were on Playon Chico for two weeks, and now you are back in Irgandi. Has anything changed?
Elder Doxey: Irgandi is like no other area, in our out of San Blas. We have a lot more time here. Because of the Sila Chief’s rule that everyone has to be in their huts by 6 pm (at sundown), we just study Dule Gaya more. It seems like it all adds up to us having two more days of language study than normal each week.
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