Undated. At the celebration of the revolution, the Kuna had very generously set up plastic chairs for all the gringos to sit in. The Kuna themselves either stood or sat on logs or on the ground. The chairs were arranged along the W side of one of the huts such that is gave us as much shade as possible in the early morning. As the day progressed, we moved our chairs back trying to stay in the shade. In the space behind us, young boys ran back and forth under the overhanging eves of the hut. At one point I was sitting comfortably back in my chair and I felt a little hand come out and touch my beard. When I turned, it quickly disappeared and several young boys were giggling. Eventually I figured out that they had never seen a white, curly beard before. Being American Indians, they have little, if any, facial hair and what hair they do have is coal black and straight. I told them it was OK to touch my beard. Hesitantly, first one and then another touched and stroked my beard. They were fascinated by its texture as well as its color. I, in turn, stroked their smooth faces and we all laughed. On the other side of us were four girls, probably all in their early teens. Although they all had long hair, three were in traditional dress with mola blouses and wrap around skirts. The fourth wore a Tigre basketball uniform top and cut off jean short shorts. One of them was nursing a baby and all four had young children! The baby had a terrible skin condition. Multiple sores over arms and legs. They looked perhaps fungal, but could also have been parasitic. His mother had what appeared to be scars from similar, now healed, lesions. None of the girls seemed to take any notice of the baby's condition and made no effort to avoid contact with the sores. I thought about trying to examine the baby closer, but realistically there was little I could offer either diagnostically or therapeutically. Later, while walking about the island after the festivities, I saw an adult applying some type of commercial ointment to a different baby with similar lesions so apparently they had their own remedy.

Sunday, 28 February, 2011. Water, water everywhere. We are now totally without water. I unwisely told Deb to go ahead and do laundry yesterday morning as Federico knew we wanted 140 gallons that day, so she effectively emptied the tanks doing laundry. I barely squeezed enough out to make coffee this morning and now the pumps run dry. Yesterday Federico had said he would get us water and, indeed, went up the river and returned with many filled jugs. None were for us, however and he promised, “Manana.” This morning I went in around 10:00 and was told (I think it is his wife) that he would have water for us @ 1:00. It is now 2:30 and I just went in again and was told that (I think it is the son) will go and get water “now.” Meanwhile, we still do not have our watermaker. Yesterday, Thomas told me that they had taken it in to the airport and it would be on the 11:00 Aeroperlas flight today. At about 11:30 a plane landed and I hurried out to the airstrip. It was an Air Panama flight and “No,” there was no package for me. Then I am told that Aeroperlas does not fly here (Corizon de Jesus) any more, only Air Panama. I call Thomas and explain the situation to him. He investigates and calls back. The watermaker is still sitting @ Aeroperlas offices in Panama City (why they accepted a package to a location they no longer fly to is a mystery.) He, Thomas, will personally go to the airport and transfer the package to Air Panama to be delivered on their 6:45 flight tomorrow. So we have no water or watermaker today. We are stuck waiting in the anchorage @ Corizon which is OK, but it is not like we were sitting by some beautiful palm covered isle with sandy beaches. 5:00 PM update. Thomas called from the airport to get the correct spelling of my name (our email is just signed “Mark & Deb” and somehow the office had tried to make that into one name!?). He then confirmed that they had accepted the package at Air Panama after opening it again to inspect it and it would be on the 6:00 AM flight tomorrow morning. Federico showed up with 140+ gallons of water in many 5 gallon jugs plus a 55 gallon barrel. We poured the jugs through a funnel into the tank and then used a bucket to bail the barrel into the tank until it was full. This time the water was $0.25/gal. but he had to go all the way up the river to get it as opposed to just turning on the hose as a tree had fallen and broken the pipe that brought water to the town so EVERYONE was going up river to get fresh water. It was really quite a sight with all the ulus going back and forth with a wide variety of containers for water. So, we have water. We have good reason to believe that our watermaker is fixed and will arrive tomorrow morning so hopefully we can get on with our busy schedule of swimming and relaxing!