What can you write about babies diapers? Plenty if you live in Panama, either in the city or in the jungle. There was a particular way I was told to wash diapers
- rinse them out with soapy water
- lay them in the sun
- wash them again
- rinse them again
- any spotted diapers go back in the sun
- rinse again
- hang to dry
repeat every day. Or give them to be washed in the river by AnaJulia?
No
I washed my babies diapers always, though I did have to take them on horseback to wash them in a clean river when the aqueduct was broken so no good water in the pipes that day.
When my parents were visiting the aqueduct again was broken, my Mom and I took them to the river on foot this time. Not sure what my Mom thought of all this, but she was a good sport and had a story to tell back home.
I believe those are my husband’s clothes there. ***
When my parents came to visit the first time, they came to El Real on the tiny airplanes and were really good sports about everything because as luck would have it nothing worked while they were there. The aqueduct was broken so the water in the shower and bathrooms didn’t work and we had to bring up water to the 2nd floor for showers in tubs with totumas (gourds) to splash over ourselves to bathe. I always bathed in the afternoon when the water was warm. My father-in-law was in residence and he had men bring water up into another tank so it would flow from the shower head for them. We had a rodeo of sorts where my Dad helped emasculate cows and inject medicine into them while we watched sipping fresh coconut milk from a palm climbed by kids and opened by machete, everyone carries one no? Dad loved it 
We made tamales while my parents were there and my mother-in-law directed the activity. It meant we needed chickens and pork cooked, corn ground and cooked for the masa, 2 types of leaves for them to be wrapped in, inner and outer layers, no corn husks here, .pickles, onions, and tamales were made with each person’s favorite bit of meat or part of chicken, and marked with a string or colored bit of cloth to tell whose is whose. They are the best tamales I’ve ever tasted, have not tasted one better, but this production is not for the weak of heart, it takes all day to make and you need a team! It was a New Years event much anticipated by those lucky enough to get one.
*****Many of my Darien photos are here though the generosity of my friend Janet Fish.
TailGateArt- Tears and Laughter-Othon.com 