I'm heading back to the jungle in a few days.

07-10-2024
 
I've ordered the next batch of masks from the usual craftswomen in the same villages, and I'll be going back to the women I know so well, but I'm also starting to work with new villages.
 
Why do I want to do this?
Obviously it's very motivating to seek out new talent and discover new ways of working. It's a very good reason, but it also means longer stays in the jungle, more fatigue, more expenses and more danger.
Nothing is simple, and getting from one village to another can take up to 8 hours by pirogue. It's tiring, dangerous and also very expensive, because petrol is brought in from Panama City, so it's very expensive, and engines for the pirogues are rare.
 
So why these new challenges for E&T.
Migrants
In recent years, the impenetrable Darien jungle has become a smuggling route.
 
Migrants are heading back to the USA, and to do so they have to cross what is known as the ‘green hell’, the Darien jungle.
 
For years I've seen men taking this route, but since 2020 I've been meeting whole families with young children, in particular many Haitians and especially Venezuelans.
Since Maduro came to power, more than 7.5 million Venezuelans have left the country.
 
Darien is the hardest and most dangerous part of the route up to the USA, but there is no other way through. It takes around a week's walk to cross what is known as the Green Hell. Many lose their lives, and those who survive tell of the horror they experienced.
 
In recent years, there has been an increase in violence, robbery, rape and murder.
 
The consequences
This phenomenon has a huge impact on the Embera community, with thousands of migrants arriving every day in these tiny communities, which generally have no more than 300 to 400 people.
 
The environmental impact is terrible, and so is the social impact, as the Embera abandon their usual activities to devote themselves to trading with the thousands of people who turn up on their land. They sell everything they can - phone cards, food, clothes. People in distress are also looted and robbed.
 
Crops are being abandoned, alcohol is appearing in the communities and with alcohol comes violence. 
 
Last month two men were murdered in one of the villages where I work, one of them the husband of a craftswoman.
 
As a result, the police closed down the village, the craftswomen could no longer move around freely or collect their materials, the village was sealed off and the police forbade me to enter. 
 
I continue to dream and to make you dream.
 
So I've decided to explore new paths and I'll soon be going to a new village... it's a two-day journey from Panama City to get there, first by 4X4, then in a small boat and finally by pirogue, as the narrow river only allows the passage of a small pirogue. It's a tough two-day journey to discover 4 hamlets with a maximum of 400 people.
 
But here, in this unspoilt natural setting, in the heart of the jungle, surrounded by the cries of the monkeys and the joyful songs of the birds, under the violent tropical storms of November, I promise to make you dream.
I'm going to discover new talents and new families, and it's going to be a real pleasure.
 
I know two people from this village, the grandson of a former shaman and a craftswoman who left her family to get married and whom I met in another village.
 
That was enough for me to decide to settle there. All the women are waiting for me and here we go again for new adventures!
 
If you'd like to find out more, contact me directly.