Hello friends of the Guna Indians…Please see the note from my dear friend Prudence Grissom below. Prudencia lived amongst the Guna off and on for 20+ years. She knows more about the Guna people and their culture than just about anyone out there. She also had a vast mola collection until her gallery was completely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. (She’s a former NPS ranger, btw.)

Prudencia has been down on her luck for much of the past several years but she still managed to scrape together some $$ to purchase scissors, needles, thread, and cloth so the Guna women (and a handful of men) can resume making their treasured molas. My husband (RPCV Costa Rica) and I are traveling to Panama on May 17-21 and we offered to hand carry the supplies down to a friend of Prudencia’s who is from the Guna village that was decimated by the fire.

But it’s going to cost about $100 to have the box shipped to my house in Silver Spring, MD (from Louisiana) and another $150 to pay for the arduous journey to/from the Darién by Prudencia’s [Guna] friend. Plus, there are only enough supplies for about half of the 350 Guna women who lost everything so we’d like to figure out a way to buy them more, if possible. Any support would be very much appreciated. (I *hate*asking people for $$ but Panama and the Guna hold a special place in my heart.)

Many thanks in advance for your consideration.

Ethan Taylor (Oajaca, Panama ‘93-‘95)

From Prudencia:

On March 3, the remote Guna village of Wala went up in flames and 1,800 of the 2,000 people were left homeless & everything was destroyed. Wala, is far away from the tourists & there's not even cell service. It's close to the border with the Darien & quite a trek to get there! The indigenous people of Wala live very differently than the people of Panama City or in the US. They sleep in hammocks & live off of subsistence farming & fishing. And, the Guna women make molas that they wear. I was contacted the day after the fire & while there was the Red Coss & other agencies who brought in emergency aid, they asked if I could bring them scissors, needles, thread & cloth, so they could make molas once again. There are 350 Guna women who make molas & I have purchased enough sewing supplies for about half of them. I planned for each woman to get a pair of small sewing scissors, 5 needles most size 12. 4 or 5 spools of colored thread & 5 pieces of fabric in size 18"x 21" in different colors all of which are put into a plastic bag. It's a start!