Chris Anderson - Earth Train Panama
Week 2

Cultural Notes from the Field

Our second week in Panama started off with a bang, although not the kind of bang I would have ever wanted.  The Monday morning light revealed that all of the Gringos were violently ill.  It struck mercilessly in the night, rendering me incapable of leaving the vicinity of a toilet for very long.  Nathan theorized that we were all still adjusting to the different microorganisms present in such an alien (to us) environment, with the bacteria in the water posing the largest threat.  The dreaded fury of Montezuma is far reaching indeed, and no longer confined to his previous empire.  Thankfully, his revenge is easily defeated with the application of two or three drops of chlorine per gallon of drinking water. 

On an unexpectedly related note, I am currently in the middle of the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.  In this book, Jared Diamond attempts to explain why human history has taken the course that it has.  For example, why was it Cortez who conquered the Aztecs with advanced technology rather than the opposite happening that is, Montezuma coming to Spain with better technology and wiping out the Spaniards?  So far it is apparent that it’s because certain cultures developed virulent diseases, steel, and powerful centralized governments (to name three of the important factors).  That still doesn’t answer the question, and actually, it just raises a new one: Why didn’t the other cultures develop those things?  The root answer to this question is food production.  Those cultures that developed strong agricultural traditions were able to allow a significant portion of their population to specialize in governing or creating technology.  Also, since they no longer had to move from place to place as they had all the food they needed, they founded large cities. In these cities, large numbers of people were able to live closely together.  It was the perfect environment for the spread of the new diseases. These diseases were acquired from the recently domesticated livestock.  Those who survived these epidemics developed substantial immunities to these diseases.  The next chapter details the reasons why food production started where it did.  I’m only about half way into the book, but I’m finding it fascinating and hard to put down.  

            After the initial excitement of Monday, the rest of this week was spent mostly in work around our upper campus of Centro Modrono.  Much of my time was spent hauling gravel from a stream below to create paths from the small hydroelectric plant and the buildings that hold the washing machine. Our campus of Centro Madrono is supplied entirely by hydropower. It was mostly monotonous and long work which left me with little time to read and explore more science.  

I have been learning about many other things, namely Spanish, the Embera, and surprisingly enough, jazz.  Working in such close proximity to the Panamanians gives me a huge opportunity to learn Spanish.  They all speak very little English and so in order to work with them it is important for me to learn Spanish.  Spanish and I, historically, have not gotten along very well.  It seems that finally, pocco a pocco apprendo.  Another thing that I have been learning about from my Panamanian counterparts is about the culture of the Embera peoples, one of the native Indians of Panama.  Most of the Panamanians are actually Embera and we were treated to a traditional song, sung in the Embera language, after dinner one night. I very much enjoyed the song.  In the spirit of sharing cultural traditions, I think that I would like to recite some Shakespeare on a future night to expose the Embera to some “gringo” culture.

The infusion of culture continued throughout the week, when the wife of Grammy Award winning jazz artist Perez Zarate, Patricia Zarate, paid us a visit.  I talked to her at length about living in Boston and we even played a game of chess together (it was a draw).  There’s a probability that she will be working with her husband and the Embera to evaluate how the Embera language might be used in their music to create new sounds.  

             After the general monotony of the second week of my adventure I am looking ahead to the coming weeks.  Armed with books detailing everything about ants, drawing, and the desire to be a naturalist, I am ready to develop and hone all of the skills and powers of observation. Expect (poorly drawn) pictures and diagrams in the next update.