Embera community pays a visit to Balboa Academy

Embera and Wounaan community vists Balboa Academy

The artwork on their arms is drawn with the simmered juice of the crushed immature genip fruit. Besides being decorative, the pigment has insect repellent and anti-infectious properties.

A cultural exchange at the Balboa Academy
photos by Fernando Alvarez

On March 21 people from the Embera and Wounaan community of Ella Drua, which is on the Gatun River from Gatun Lake in Colon province, came to the Balboa Academy at the former Fort Clayton for a day of cultural exchange, with soccer games, arts and crafts, body painting, different foods and the distribution of backpacks with school supplies to the kids of Ella Drua.

The Ella Drua team, which beat both the students' and parents's teams from the Balboa Academy, puts the ball in the net

Young craftswomen who of necessity contribute more to their families' and community's economy than do their peers at the Balboa Academy

Hmmm --- how do you say "raspao" in Embera?

Young parents show off their newborn

Balboa kids learn that theirs is not the only culture

Soccer trophies, and recognition that USAID, which works on sustainable development
projects with the Ella Drua community, was a sponsor of this cultural exchange day

New school supplies

Did they get the face paint right?

The young men of Ella Drua