Yo Soy en Panama!

Hello everyone!

We are safely in Panama! After about 20 hours of travel, starting thursday afternoon, we arrived in Panama City Friday evening. It has been one crazy ride ever since leaving the airport and we appreciate your prayers now more than ever!

The flight itinerary to Panama had us scheduled for four different legs, so it was a lot of frantic searching and running to catch our connector flights.

Once we got to Panama, we were waiting for some of our other team members whose flights were delayed. Once we finally got going after that (about 3 hours later), we drove 45 minutes to the church we are staying in for the next couple months of our lives.

The church is called Gamboa Union Church. The region of Panama we are in is called Gamboa, and it was a mostly american military occupied region until 2000 when the Canal was handed over to the Panamanians. 

So on Saturday and Sunday, we were just getting all settled in and driving around seeing "the sights". Panama has about 3.5 million people in the whole country, with over 2 million living in Panama City. Most of the country is dense rainforest. 

On Saturday we met a couple from South Carolina, Matt and Misty. They now live in Panama. They have given up their careers back in the states to selflessly try and serve orphans in Panama. They operate a mission called HeartCry. Panama has over 50,000 orphans. There are only 10 foster homes in the whole country, and only 2 social workers! This is unbelievable. 

Over 86% of children in Panama are born outside of marriage. This leads to a high abandonment rate. Matt and Misty are working with the government to change their orphanage and foster care system. They have created a step by step legal reform, so Panama can make the changes they need. 

A major problem is adoption is not sought after at all. The people of Panama are very conscientious of the different tribal features within Panama. The wealthy will not adopt tribal children for fear of embarrassment. If they have a child with a Kuna tribesmans bone structure, people will think the child was born between the man and their maidservants. The culture is very class oriented and racist against the tribal people. It is hard for the indigenous people to do anything other than trying to make money through tourism. 

SO! We are very excited to be working with Matt and Misty in the orphanages and trying to get them the media they need to show how horrible conditions are. The Panamanian government doesnt want it to become a well known fact that they have an orphan problem, and they keep it pretty well under wraps. So well, in fact, that the actual citizens of Panama have no idea there is an orphan problem. So, photogenX is going to try to take this to the churches and spread awareness. 

On Sunday, the worst storm to hit Panama in over 5 years rolled in. We had torrential downpour and heavy winds. We got word at about mid afternoon that two tribes about an hour from the church we are staying at had some of their village destroyed in the storm. So, today (monday), we hiked through the jungle and took a boat down the river to the tribes. We helped them clear the rubble of the houses and building that collapsed, and we also cleared a bunch of trees that fell. It was amazing to see these people in their indigenous habitat and be able to serve them. There is so much to learn from their community, and how they interact as family. Tomorrow, we are meeting with some people who are trying to stop human trafficking in Panama. Hopefully, through this connection, photogenX can make some lasting impact in the trafficking sector of Panama. (Panama is the hub of human trafficking between the americas)

We miss you all, and will keep you updated as regularly as we can. I put one picture up, but I will put more up as we get time. Can't wait to see you all in late August and early September!

Love and blessings,

Ryan and Jeanette

p.s. thank you so much for your support up until now, and your continued support through our travels and mission....we need you now more than ever and we are so thankful for you!