Ngobe dreams in the morning (Thursday)

Today, we began the day by heading back down to the University of Panama to meet with Elana, the Ngobe woman we met last night, and Fannie, a young organizational psychologist who we took home last night.  We had a fabulous brainstorming session, but Elana was pretty silent.  Finally, I told her that, regardless of what *we* think, the thing that matters most is what *she* thinks and what the *community* needs.  After all, this is supposed to be HUMAN-centered design, right?  And that means it's based on what PEOPLE need to solve problems.  (Sometimes I forget this in the heat of the excitement of spinning ideas and linkages and what if's!)  I said that I thought the first step would be for us to come and live in the community for a while as we understand what life is like for the Ngobe (at least that group of them), and identify collaboratively what the needs of the community really area.

She smiled.  A huge big brilliant smile.

Yup, human-centered design.  It works.  And it bridges across peoples.

Crossing Frontiers (or at least hearing about them) (Wednesday night)

After my class was over, I gathered my stuff and went down to the University of Panama with Lydia. There, Martha from the UN (who we met earlier on the trip with Lydia's students to San Felix last month) was giving a paper at a conference on issues at Frontiers.  The papers before her were (of course) in Spanish, but I got rather more than I though I would.

Martha brought a beautiful and eloquent Ngobe woman, Eleana, who presented as well.  I thought of my friend, Nic Bidwell, who includes indigenous people on her papers.  It was a very powerful statement of partnership.

Afterwards, we all congregated - many people interested in helping Ngobe people - especially women - to have a better life.  Lydia captured everyone's contact details and we set up a meeting for tomorrow.

It's an exciting prospect to (hopefully) be able to continue to do research with Lydia, Elba, and my other Panamanian colleagues.